A quaint village in Guntur transforms into a bustling commercial locality

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Nature
Walkers on a morning stroll at the walking track in Koretipadu in Guntur. / Photo: T Vijaya Kumar / The Hindu
Walkers on a morning stroll at the walking track in Koretipadu in Guntur. / Photo: T Vijaya Kumar / The Hindu

An earthen smell lingers around as one makes his way through the narrow lanes of Koretipadu.

The elderly ambling and spending better part of evenings around the village square and at the temple is an unusual sight in a town whose skyline is changing by the day as years are rolling by.

This quaint place is stepped in the history. It derived its name from the household name of one of the greatest poets in Telugu, Tikkana.

Daruvuri Veeraiah, who has written about authentic history of Guntur district in his book ‘Gunturu Mandala Sarvasvam,’’ says Kottaravu, household name of Tikkana, gradually changed to Kottaru and later to Koretipadu.

The book also mentions that Koretipadu had existed even before Guntur. The boundaries of the village extend from present JKC College to Pandaripuram. The area has now been divided into many residential colonies for facilitating development works.

The times are fast changing, and the quaint village has transformed itself into a bustling residential and commercial locality with a cluster of apartments and high-rise buildings dotting the skyline.

A sprawling walking track nestled among a row of trees is the most favoured destination here. The track abuts a water tank and measures 850 metres.

The track springs to life in the early hours with people, young and old, making their way to the park. For many, a walk around the tank surrounded by trees is a refreshing start to the day.

“We have 340 life members in the association. Our walkers’ association is encouraging people to walk and be healthy and also to contribute to society. We are affiliated to 42 associations in India and Singapore and are proud to say that our association ranks among the best performing associations,’’ Chelikani Seetharamaiah, president of Koretipadu Walkers Association told The Hindu on Sunday. Apart from the park, there is little to cheer about the locality.

In spite of being one of the most populated areas, the locality does not have a Rytu Bazaar.

It did have a market centre, but was pulled down long back.

The locality does not have a Municipal Health Centre and the facilities at the municipal schools are deplorable.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by P. Samuel Jonathan / Guntur – June 17th, 2013

Furniture World opens outlets in Bangalore

Business & Economy

Bangalore :

Furniture World, a Hyderabad-based furniture retailer, has forayed into Bangalore by opening four stores.

The company has partnered electronic retailer Pai Electronics for entering Bangalore market.

Sunil, Director of Furniture World, said: “To begin with, we are now ready with outlets at Banerghetta Road, JP Nagar, Rajaji Nagar and Dickenson Road.”

Rajkumar Pai, Managing Director, Pai Electronics, added: “We have a joint plan to serve many more cities in Karnataka. Shortly, we will soon be opening a store each in Mangalore and Hubli. Working on a plan to open a store in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.”

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by Anil Urs   anil.u@thehindu.co.in / October 12th, 2013

Hyderabad celebrates Navratri with dandiya and garba dance

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

With Navratri almost about to come to an end, the pretty ladies were seen heading over to a garba hotspot in the city. 

Dressed in their brightest, best looking attires, these women were seen having the time of their lives, swaying to the dandiya beats. Later, these lasses were seen bonding with their friends and relatives over yummy Gujarati delicacies.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / TNN / October 12th, 2013

ACCI seeks steps for Vijayawada airport expansion

Business & Economy

The Andhra Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has urged the Krishna district administration to initiate the process of acquiring land for expansion and modernisation of the Vijayawada airport.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, ACCI president M. Muralikrishna pointed to the fact that the Department of Infrastructure and Investment had given approval for acquisition of 491.92 acres in Buddhavaram, Kesarapalli and Ajjampudi villages for the purpose. “Now that the way is clear, we hope the district administration will act immediately without any further loss of time and hand over the land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI),” said Mr. Muralikrishna.

The ACCI president also recalled the chamber’s oft-repeated plea to grant international airport status to the Vijayawada airport, as it serves the needs of at least seven districts. There was a substantial NRI population (around 4 lakh) hailing from this area and mostly living or working in the US and some of them in European or Gulf nations. Provision of full-fledged facilities would result in growth in the passenger traffic, both domestic and overseas, he said. Vijayawada was strategically located and a modern and developed airport was a long-felt need of the people here. The need assumed greater significance in view of the impending bifurcation of the State and the subsequent necessity to create airport infrastructure of international quality, he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – October 12th, 2013

LV Prasad Eye Institute to spread awareness on glaucoma

Science & Technology

Hyderabad :   

Almost 50 per cent of the newly diagnosed glaucoma patients today have been to an eye specialist in the last six months when they should have been examined at least five years ago.

This was revealed by the L V Prasad Eye Institute, which has taken up a campaign to spread awareness on glaucoma and the need for early detection.

More than 11.2 million Indians are estimated to be suffering from the disease, known to be the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. “We are trying to emphasise on the need for people for people to undergo a comprehensive eye examination including gonioscopy. What is alarming is that 90 per cent of glaucoma in the community is undetected, mostly because of lack of awareness,” the institute said.

Primarily, the institute has identified that people could be suffering from glaucoma, as the disease causes very late onset of symptoms

“Early diagnosis can reduce progression of the disease and prevent blindness. All it takes to prevent such a situation is regular comprehensive eye check-up,” it added.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Economy / by The Hindu Bureau / Hyderabad – March 08th, 2013

Hyderabad’s Siril is Asian youth champ

Records, All, Sports
A. S. S. Siril Verma in action
A. S. S. Siril Verma in action

The 14-year-old is a product of the Gopichand Academy, where he enrolled when he was only eight

Fourteen-year-old Alluri Sri Sai Siril Verma crowned himself with glory, winning the Boys (under-15) singles title at the Asian Youth Badminton Championship in Indonesia on Sunday.

This Class 10 student of Glendale Academy left for the East Asian c0ountry, promising his parents a title this time around – his third appearance at the championship.

“I have been waiting for this for quite some time and am really delighted to win this,” says Siril, who joined Gopichand Academy when he was just eight years of age.

“Honestly, he looked raw but I could see the spark in his eyes and an urge to make it big,” recalls coach Gopichand. Within a year of training, Siril won the National under-10 singles title.

Only recently, Siril won the sub-junior title in the tournament held to scout talent during the IBL.

Only a few days before he left for Indonesia, Siril, partnering Ravinder Singh, won the doubles bronze in the PSPB championship in Delhi.

“I was confident this time around. The long wait has finally ended,” Siril told his parents immediately after his triumph on Sunday.

Like many others, Siril’s parents too shifted base closer to the Gopichand Academy to back their child’s interest in the sport.

“We have decided that the destiny of my son is in badminton and very pleased that it is in the safe hands of Gopi,” says the proud father.

“Any title at the international level is bound to lift your confidence level and I will work really hard and repose the faith Gopi anna has in me,” says Siril.

A delighted mother, Suseela, recalls how she came to know what badminton is all about after a look at Gopi’s photograph in 2001.

“Obviously, I could not even dream of my own son training under him and winning an Asian title today,” she says, controlling her emotions.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – October 13th, 2013

HyperCity opens second store in Hyderabad

Business & Economy

HyperCity Retail, a part of the K Raheja Corp Group has opened its second store in Hyderabad. It’s a part of its strategy of opening smaller sized store, the new store is spread over 50,000 square foot but offers finest range of products across categories such as apparels, personal care, small appliances et al. The second store is located in Manjeera Trinity Mall, a shopping destination in the busy Kukatpally area near the IT hub of Hyderabad.

During the first quarter HyperCity’s losses had widened to Rs 24.72 crores from Rs 21.35 crores a year ago due to a write-off of Rs 3.3 crore for the closure of a store in Ludhiana. Sales grew to Rs 228.33 crores from Rs 204.75 crores in the same quarter a year ago. Tweaking HyperCity’s format to make it turn profitable, the retailer had then decided to launch a new compact HyperCity format of 30,000 square foot in Bangalore, during the quarter. Further it had planned to resize three stores in Cyberabad, Vashi and Thane.

Apart from tweaking the store size, the company has tried to re-build its image as a value player. Hypercity has now increased contribution of apparels to 15 percent from 10 percent, while eliminating low value SKUs (stock keeping units). Along with change in image and prduct mix, the company is also offering hyper deals through aggressive marketing to attarct footfalls.

source: http://www.fashionunited.in / Fashion United / Home / Tuesday – October 15th, 2013

T-identity draws more to Bathukamma fest

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

BathukammaFestivalHF18oct2013

Warangal:

The Bathukamma festival this year saw the largest ever participation of women, children and teens in the city, which is being attributed to the heightened sense of Telangana’s unique cultural identity among the people of the region in the wake of the decision to grant the region separate statehood.

Never before have such congregations been reported at Padmakshi gundam (lake) and Siddeshwara gundam, where an estimated 50,000 conical shaped floral arrangements were immersed by women during the Bathukamma festival. The same was true for 15-20 other Bathukamma immersion points in the city.

Such was the overwhelming participation from women that the district cultural council gave away 25 additional awards to the makers of the best conical floral arrangements besi-des the top three prizes.

Ex-mayor of Warangal Municipal Corporation and district culture council convenor and DPRO, K. Venkataramana, awarded the prizes to 25 different organisations.

“The participation in Bathukamma fest went up by 20 per cent  this year,” said Venkataramana, who has been monitoring the turnout in the city for several years.

Cultural activists such as Dr A. Nageshwara Rao, retired librarian, and Potlapally Veerabhadra Rao, district convenor of Samachara Eikya Vedika, attributed the increased participation this year to the assertion of Telangana region’s cultural identity.

However, Dasyam Vijay Bhaskar, state convenor of Telangana Jagruthi, the cultural arm of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, gave the latter much of the credit for popularising the festival.

Bhaskar said that the  cultural organisation had successfully managed to pierce the veil of embarrassment that educated women felt in associating themselves with the festival openly.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Prabeer Sikdar / October 14th, 2013

Hyderabad’s YNew wants to take refurbished gadgets business national

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

YnewsHF18oct2013

With the increasing costs of acquiring new smartphones and other devices, many entrepreneurs are seeing an opportunity in the refurbished gadgets business. But while most of these new ventures have been online, Hyderabad-based Dasaradh Ram Nutakki has his hopes set on an offline model. With the first YNew store in Hyderabad, Nutakki thinks he is at the start of what will be a very successful franchise model.

While the first store set up under the Sloyd banner is six months old, Nutakki says there will be nine such stores by the end of this year – four in Hyderabad and five in Bangalore. “The idea is to have 50 stores across India by 2016,” says Nutakki, who likes to call his a made-for-franchise model. “I want to blend the concept of start-ups and franchising to do something different. Every YNew franchisee will be a start-up and we will create the ecosystem to make them profitable,” he added in a telephone interaction from Hyderabad.Nutakki likes to call YNew a “re-commerce business model”.

Dasaradh Ram Nutakki
Dasaradh Ram Nutakki

“If someone has a phone or a laptop to sell, he or she can hand over the product to us. We put the device through a 360-degree test after which we assign a price. The product is then put up on the display shelf. The seller is paid only if the product is bought by someone,” he says. Since the second-hand phone market is full of stolen devices, Nutakki has thought of a unique way to stop unscrupulous elements from using his shop. “We pay the seller only through a bank transaction and that puts off most criminals. Plus, EMIE numbers of the phones are checked on the stolen mobile registry and kept on for 48 hours before sale,” he adds.

Since April, the only YNew shop has seen 600 footfalls a month and sold goods worth Rs 15 lakh. “About half of these are smartphones, 40 per cent are computers and the rest televisions,” he says.  YNew charges a nominal transaction and service charge for all sales, ranging from five per cent for anything above Rs 20,000 to 12 per cent for devices priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. The company does not deal in phones cheaper than Rs 5,000 and also has reservations about certain brands. Plus, customers within a 4km range have the option of availing repair services. Nutakki’s Sloyd group wants to create a franchise conglomerate by slowly venturing into other sectors where such models will work. “In the US there are at least 300 sectors that have franchise models. We have just a fraction of that number here,” he says, adding that he has started taking franchisee applications. “I do not want to stereotype the kind of people who can apply. Frankly, anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit can adopt this,” he adds. The big opportunity, according to Nutakki, is the fact that smartphones have the highest replace and upgrade frequency. “The automobile sector has already institutionalised this model. But in gadgets it has to be a local model as the logistical costs can be too much,” he says.

source: http://www.businesstoday.intoday.in / Business Today / Home> Biz Wrap> Corporate> Story / by Nandagopal Rajan / October 15th, 2013

Hyderabad students wow audience with their performances

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

The glamourous and talented students of St Peter’s Engineering College came up withbrilliant performances at the auditions of Clean and Clear Hyderabad Times Fresh Face contest 2013, to leave the judges, actor Navdeep and Radio Mirchi RJ Bhargavi , impressed and the audience craving for more. Participants danced, sang, strummed the guitar, delivered dialogues and even painted live!

Show stealers: The tempo of the afternoon picked up when Sneha danced to the popular Mallika Sherawat  track, Mayya Mayya, followed by Sri Nandini, who rocked the dance floor with her energetic moves to Radha. Meanwhile, K Sri Kiran not only danced to, but also sang the current favourite, Lungi Dance! Mani Kumar’s comic dance act on Pawan Kalyan’s hit Telugu track, stole the show and made the crowd go berserk. Even the judges were seen laughing and enjoying his performance.

And the winners are: A Hanushree walked away with top honours for her dhamakedar moves to Chikni Chameli , while Harshitha K, who danced to Prianka Chopra’s latest hit Pinky and SRK’s 1 2 3 4 Get On The Dance Floor was declared the first runner-up, while Tina Mangwani’s vocal rendition bagged her the second runner-up spot. Among the boys, Vishal Sharma bagged the first spot with his dance performance, while Jasper Paul and John Cyrus who strummed the guitar were declared first and second runners-up respectively.

If you too want to participate, register on itimes.com/freshface. The radio partner for this event is Radio Mirchi.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / Ocotber 09th, 2013