A load of crap from an idle brain

The world’s fastest growing telecom market, India is getting too hot and competitive for the biggest player Bharti Airtel to handle.  After its aborted attempt to buy South Africa’s MTN which fell through due to regulatory issues, Bharti is now looking in the neighbourhood for an acquisition.

In a shift of strategy, Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator, is close to acquiring a 70% stake in Bangladesh’s fourth largest mobile operator, Warid Telecom, for close to $900 million.

The deal, likely to be sealed mid-January, comes three months after Bharti failed to secure a deal with South Africa’s MTN to become the world’s fourth largest mobile firm by subscribers.

Post-deal, management control of Warid Telecom would pass on to Bharti and Bangladeshi media reports say Bharti has submitted an investment plan of $300 million.

Bharti’s costly acquisition plan is an indication of how the stakes have risen in the telecom sector in the sub-continent; the offer is almost three times the $350 million DoCoMo paid in 2008 to buy a 30% stake in Aktel or TM International, the third ranked operator in Bangladesh.

Rest of the article here

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With India playing only 2 test matches in the next 11 months, the ranking might not hold if South Africa manage to beat England and take the crown.  Still, its a golden letter day in the history of cricket in India.  For the first time ever, the Indian cricket team takes the crown of being the Number 1 test team in the world.  Its a long day coming from the earlier decades when India was regularly beaten by rivals.  Today they travel well and have won tests in Australia, South Africa, won series in New Zealand, West ?Indies, Pakistan, England.

Few things unite India like cricket, and on December 6, 2009, millions of Indians were united in celebration as their team ascended to the top of the ICC Test rankings.

Fittingly, the victory that made it possible was marked by standout performances from the men who have played a crucial role in India’s ascent. Virender Sehwag has scored more runs than any other Indian batsman over the last 25 Tests – played over a two-year period beginning November 2007. His innings of 293 – played at a pace that left the bowlers ample time to finish the demolition job – proved pivotal as India fulfilled its destined tryst with the top slot.

Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan have been India’s highest wicket-takers during this period. Both picked up six wickets apiece for the match, with Zaheer coming up with a five-wicket haul to polish off the tail on Sunday morning and take India to a comfortable win by an innings and 24 runs.

Full news here

Pictures source: Cricinfo

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Playing around with the look of my blog.  That’s what you do when you have nothing better to do.  

Deccan Chargers crashed out of the T20 Champions Trophy and i hardly watched even a single match of the tournament.  Ended up wondering why the hell are they playing.  Read some news that the TRPs of the T20 Champions Trophy are worse than the other Champions Trophy played recently in South Africa.

With so many Champions Trophies in a single sport, no wonder the people are disinterested.  Read Pritish Nandy’s tweet where he predicted that cricket is on a decline as a sport as money has corrupted it.  But then, the self professed God of cricket, Lalit Modi has some other plans.  He plans to have 2 IPLs in a year, 3 Champs leagues, 4 world cups and if possible a few more matches here and there.   Not that i care.  Fortunately for me, once i left India, i left the craze for cricket behind too.  Earlier used to subscribe to sports channels to watch them.  Now, even with tons of websites doing free streaming of all TV channels, i still dont bother watching them.

With Diwali around, 3 big movies are releasing in Hindi.  I might finally drag my sorry ass to some multiplex and watch one of them.  Which one of them is something that will depend on my mood at that particular moment.

Mr & Mrs Khanna surely wont be the one i will spend my money on.  Who in the right frame of mind wants to see 2 constipated faces (Salman and Sohail) on the screen after having paid so much money?

Picture source:  Icanhascheezeburger

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The Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament starts off at Bangalore today with a clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and Cape Cobras (South Africa) at 2000 IST.

I dont think i need to mention where my loyalties lie.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.

The trophy that the below mentioned teams are playing for; along with the prize money of US$ 2.5 million.

The teams are:

India -  Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils
Australia – New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers
South Africa – Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles
New Zealand – Otago Volts
Sri Lanka – Wayamba
west Indies – Trinidad & Tobago
England – Sussex, Somerset County Cricket Club.

For comprehensive information about the tournament, go to their official website at clt20.com

All above pictures source: clt20

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Time changes, people change, economies change and the powers wielded by countries change.  There was a time when Britain ruled half the world, today its nowhere.  There was a time when the US was the undisputed economic champion, today that aura is on the wane.

Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries).  Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout?  The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.

After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.

G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Read the full article here

The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

The G-20 comprises of

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union

A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned

“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”

Above picture source: Astrocrush

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