Ace woman shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after she clinched the Indonesian Open title with a stunning victory over higher ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.

Saina clinched her maiden Super Series title beating Wang 12-21 21-18 21-9 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller that lasted 49 minutes. Her triumph on Sunday is the best ever performance by any Indian woman and at par with All England Championship titles won by Prakash Padukone and her current coach Pullela Gopichand.

In the thrilling final, world number eight Saina came from behind to outsmart world number three Wang and avenge her last week’s Singapore Open Super Series loss to the same rival.

Saina took time to get into the groove as she struggled to gauge the gameplan of Wang in the first game. Wang opened a 4-9 lead and rode on her smashes and better net play o pocket the first game as Saina was left to do the catchup act.

But the Indian ace rallied her way back in the second game. Saina levelled the score at 5-5 and then moved together with her Chinese rival till 17-17 before surging ahead to pocket the second game 21-18.

News source here.  Image source here.

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For a country whose Presidents were known to keep slaves while in office till Abraham Lincoln abolished this practise, its indeed a great day.  Let’s keep our prejudices apart and hail the man who with his sheer determination has come where he has today.

Its not going to be an easy ride for Obama. And he has repeatedly indicated the same in all his speeches.  At least we can be happy that a warmonger is not in power in the US.  Hope Obama over the next 4 years of his tenure will repair the image of US that has been battered courtesy George Bush.  Hope he will crack down on rogue nations (Pakistan) who like to use terrorism as a tool to destabilise the neighbourhood.

Obama has promised to close down Guantanmo Bay, but not indicated what he will do with all the prisoners there.  There are already indications that the prisoners will be moved into some other facilities.  A 16 month target to get out of Iraq is also in place.  Hopefully he will flood Afghanistan with more troops so that Pakistan and its rogue army that is in the forefront of supporting terror in the world and the Taliban will be put in place.

Fixing the economy is a priority for the Obama administration.  Hopefully the trillions that they are planning to flood the markets will kickstart the economy and  push the world forward.

My only wish: To see an Indian Prime Minister or a President with a 6 pack ab someday.  Meanwhile we seem to have a 81 year old (LK Advani) dying waiting to replace a 78 year old (Manmohan Singh) as the Prime Minister.  Did anyone say that we have the world’s largest pool of young people?

Above cartoon source: Twenty22

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• August 2004 – Tata Motors signs a deal to buy the commercial vehicle unit of South Korea’s Daewoo Group for $102 million.

• June 2005 – Tata Steel Ltd buys Singapore’s lone steel miller, NatSteel Ltd, for $286 million.

• July 2005 – Tata Coffee buys US-based Eight O’Clock Coffee Co for $220 million from Gryphon Investors.

• August 2006 – Telecom firm Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd buys US-based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd for $239 million and completes the $130 million purchase of Tyco International’s global undersea fibre optic cable network unit.

• January 2007 – Tata Tea buys 30 per cent of US enhanced water firm Energy Brands Inc for $677 million. It sells the stake less than a year later to Coca-Cola for $1.2 billion.

• March 2007 – Tata Steel acquires Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group for $13 billion, India’s biggest overseas takeover yet.

• January 2008 – Tata Power buys stakes in Indonesian PT Bumi Resources Tbk’s two coal mines for $1.3 billion.

• February 2008 – Tata Chemicals buys US soda-ash producer General Chemical Industrial Products Inc for $1.01 billion.

Above information courtesy: Economic Times

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Merger and acquisitions are set to become one of the most important trends of 2007 for India Inc, with the total deal value crossing 50-billion dollar mark with one more month still to go. According to data compiled by international consultancy major Grant Thornton, India Inc recorded M&A deals worth 940 million dollars in November, taking the total for first 11 months of 2007 to 50.79 billion dollars.

A total of 58 M&A deals were announced in November against 51 deals amounting to 610 million dollar in the previous month, according to Grant Thornton.

Rest of the article here.

Coffee chain Gloria Jean’s enters India

International coffee chain Gloria Jean’s is looking to make India a manufacturing and sourcing hub. It is setting up its second global coffee roasting and blending unit here. According to sources, Gloria Jean’s has finalised on a couple of locations and will tie up with Indian farmers to procure Arabica beans, which will be blended with imported coffee beans from Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The US-based coffee chain, which has more than half of its 770 outlets in Australia, announced on Monday that it was entering India through a tie-up with Citymax India, the hospitality and restaurant arm of Dubai-based Landmark Retail. Citymax will invest around Rs 50 crore for opening 100 stores over the next four years.

Rest of the article here.

India no.2 in AT Kearney FDI confidence index

China and India continue to rank first and second in the 2007 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, a regular survey of global executives conducted by management consulting firm AT Kearney.

China leads the Index rankings for the fifth consecutive year and ranks first among Asian investors, 34% of whom plan to invest there over the next three years. Where as India retains second place in the Index, a position it has held since displacing the United States in 2005.

Rest of the article here.

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