Dudh Sagar Falls is dazzling
10:23 AM Posted by ukmad
Dudh Sagar Falls attracts everyone who travels by train to Goa lies amidst the Briganza Ghat (as locally known) in the belt of Western Ghats in the state of Goa bordering Karnataka.
Thanks to the wonderful rainfall in this area that the Water falls is again ready with its mesmerizing beauty to attract a large number of tourists from North-Karnataka, Goa & Maharashtra as well.
Dudh Sagar Falls is located adjacent to the Railway Track laid by Indian Railways on Goa-Londa route as soon as one enters the State of Goa after crossing Castle Rock, the last railway Station in Karnataka. Dudh Sagar (Sea of Milk) as it is known is believed to have derived its name from an incident where a princess who covered herself by throwing milk in order to hide herself.
As per sources; Dudh Sagar fall boosts of an awesome height of 310 Meters, is the 5th highest waterfall in India and Ranks 227th in the world. The waterfall forms couple of pools which adds to the scenic beauty amidst the Green Jungles of Western Ghats. But Swimming is highly risky in these ponds.
How to reach there :
(As interacted with tourists on Belgaum Railway Station & Londa Junction)
The Best time to visit Dudh Sagar Falls is during Rainy season & if one if adventurous of Trekking and a nature lover Dudh Sagar is a place one can never Miss. But carrying own Lunch and Snacks is highly recommendable as there is not even a Tea stall to cater the needs of tourists.
Express trains ply to & fro everyday from Londa Junction everyday but at odd hours & only on Sundays there runs a convenient train from Belgaum in the morning and in return there is only a single convenient Express Train in the Evening. For more details one may approach the Railway Enquiry Counter at Railway Stations of Hubli, Londa, Belgaum, or even Castle Rock.
KPL Belgaum team sold for 3.81 crores
10:18 AM Posted by ukmad
The auction for the Karnataka Premier League cricket tournament saw eight teams of the state fetching prices in crores.
Belgaum team bid was won by Subash Publishers and Sangeeth Electronics Company for Rs 3.81 crore, both Bangalore based companies.
The player auction will be held on August 14 and the KSCA is finalizing the list of the top 48 players — six per each zonal team — who will be part of the player-pool besides a second rung of 72 cricketers.
The KPL tournament will be held in Bangalore from September 12 to 27 with Mysore also hosting four matches. Other winners: Bangalore Rural: Melmont Constructions, Rs. 5.55 crore;Mysore: Girish Auto, 3.25 crore; Shimoga: Jayaprakash Hegde, 3.25 crore; Mangalore: Fiza Developers, 4.23 crore; Hubli-Dharwad: Shiv Shankarappa, 3.77 crore; Gulbarga: Vivid Creations and Nandish Reddy Group, 3.5 crore. Bangalore Urban - Brigade Group 7.2 crores.
Source: The Hindu
St.Pauls takes on Marathi Vidya Niketan tomorrow in finals
10:08 AM Posted by ukmad
The Royston memorial gold cup 2009 will be played between favorites St.Pauls and Marathi Vidya Niketan tomorrow i.e. 7th at 3.30pm.
Royston semis today
10:37 AM Posted by ukmad
In ongoing Royston memorial gold cup here at the St.Pauls hostel ground St.Pauls will take on Islamiya at 4 pm in the second semi final and St.Xaviers will play against Marathi Vidyaniketan at 3 pm.
Money is his friend and friends are his assets Arun Agarwal Fund manager SBI MF Young Guns
10:27 AM Posted by ukmad
Arun started managing the SBI Arbitrage fund de facto from October 2006 to date and the magnum index fund from February 2008 to date. He worked in UTI Mutual Fund for 8 yrs in internal audit then debt dealing and then joined in SBI Mutual Fund as head of dealing and fund manager for Arbitrage fund and index fund. Arun is very simple person who is down to earth and always witty and naughty. To him life is simple and he likes to take it as it comes. He was very famous amongst his friends in college as the wittiest person and at the same time intelligent as well. He participated in the youth festivals and won laurels for his college. Mutual Funds managed by Arun Agarwal Absolute returns (in %) as on Jul 24, 2009 Scheme Name NAV Assets 3mth 6mth 1yr 2yr 3yr Assets MC 39.055 31.7 65.4 5.5 -5.6 37.8 21.91 25 / 28 12.322 1.0 2.0 6.5 14.8 -- 478.61 22 / 20 Some excerpts of his interview Firstly, you should understand what a fund is. It is pool of money put in by various investors for some common purpose and as per the objective of the fund. The person who looks after the investment part (i.e. the assets in which the Money is to be invested) is a fund manager. 2. Arbitrage Funds have outperformed other equity-oriented funds. More importantly, they have given positive returns. Is it a good time to invest in arbitrage funds? Arbitrage funds are market neutral funds that are meant for every buy transactions there is a sell transaction in the futures market of the same quantity. It plays on the spread between the cash and futures market, hence in a bearish market or flat market, it tends to outperform the equity mutual funds. 3. Since Arbitrage Funds give returns in line with debt funds, how much should an investor allocate (as a percentage) to arbitrage funds vis-a-vis his/her fixed income portfolio? As the Arbitrage fund returns, are similar to debt funds but being tax efficient a person can allocate say 15-25% of the debt mutual fund portfolio to Arbitrage funds but should also take care that the Arbitrage market is not a big market, hence is lot of money starts chasing the Arbitrage funds, the returns will be hampered. 4. What are the distinct benefits that SBI Arbitrage Opportunities Fund offers to its investors? The prime benefit of any Arbitrage funds is that they invest 65% of their money in equities hence the return of Arbitrage funds are tax free if kept for more than a year as per the current tax regulation. 5. What should Investors keep in mind while investing in Arbitrage fund? Any advise that you would like to give to investors. They should not expect extraordinary returns from Arbitrage funds the returns would be equal to your liquid fund returns. 6. Is it good to go in for SIP for an Arbitrage Fund? Can compare fund to fixed deposit kind of investments hence sip may not be such a great idea as compared to equity funds. 7. Any, suggestions to investors in general for making mutual fund investments? Mutual funds are highly tax efficient instruments to invest money, further money is handled by professional people at a miniscule fee, so persons with idle funds should always park their money with mutual funds, debt or equity depends on the risk taking ability of the person. 8. Narrate some interesting incident good or bad during your career till date? There are lot of incidents but difficult to put them in black and white. 9. Your thoughts on the upcoming talent in Belgaum & how one can groom oneself being here. I have not come much to Belgaum in last 10 yrs hence I may not be able to comment on the same objectively, but based on my experience when I was in Belgaum and compared to people around I feel Belgaum has a lot of honesty, sincerity and politeness in the people of Belgaum. 10. What is the best thing about Belgaum you miss? The best things I miss about Belgaum is its quite environment and great food especially the idly of Ajanta café and sol kadi being sold at pan shops. 11. Best place you like in Belgaum? Hotel: Ajanta Park: Mahadev mandir, well: congress well at Tilakwadi. 12. What are your hobbies or what keeps you happy when not working? To be very honest whenever I have time I watch TV or go for movies in the weekend hence as such do not peruse any hobby as such. 13. What do you think about this website? One of the finest website to know everything about Belgaum. Friends Speak: Arun (Lalya as we call him) a true tribute to friendship. I know him for 20 years now. One great thing he does not expect anything from anyone neither does he have the fuss to try and show that we cares too much et al. As a friend, no hangups no goody goody talks; Clear straight talk. We shared and loved the Sheetal alipak & Ras, the Sol kadi, the pav bhaji, bhel the pan masala and have course Deshmukh road. While we know each other for 20 years, it was the first 7/8 years we were together at Belgaum. Nevertheless, it all feels like yesterday.
A medium built person, with specs on his eyes, and a great vision to achieve something in life he is Arun Agarwal how now is the Fund manger of India’s top Mutual Fund SBI Mutual Fund. He is Fund manager of SBI MF Arbitrage fund and index fund. So many people who are reading might have invested in these funds but who even cares to read who the fund manager is when always there is the ad, “read offer documents properly before investing”. To become a fund manager is not an effortless job. He has loads and loads of money, which he needs to handle and see at the same time that investors get dividend and the NAV has growth. We could invest in one stock and go in loss but here a fund manager has to repeatedly look at the portfolio and change day in day out according to the market trend. The SBI Arbitrage fund has a fund size of Rs.610 crores and the SBI Index fund is of Rs.20 Crores. 
Arun Agarwal did his schooling from St.Marys high school and passed out in 1989, he then Joined Gogte College of commerce for his bachelor’s in Commerce. His goal in life was set; he had to become a Chartered Accountant. He did is internship for CA at A S Dixit & Co. Belgaum and passed the exam to become a CA in Jan 1998 at the first attempt. 
(Rs./unit)
(Rs. cr.)
Rank**
Anand (Vice President & Branch Manager HSBC)
MLA Trimurti keep Dil connected will work for development of Belgaum
4:23 PM Posted by ukmad
Belgaum Cloth Merchants Association had called a special meeting on Tuesday morning to put forth the various difficulties faced by them to the 3 MLA’s of Belgaum. All the three MLA’s Mr.Feroz Sait of North, Sanjay Patil of Rural and Abhay Patil of South were present and all spoke about working together towards the development of Belgaum with no partisan lines in middle. Congress spokesperson Anil Potdar was also present on the occasion.
Belgaum cloth market is about 100 years old and people from surrounding 200 kms come to Belgaum for shopping. Recently the flow of consumers to the city has decreased. Parking is a major cause of concern of the merchants because of which inflow has decreased.
- Mr.Feroz Sait
Feroz Sait MLA Belgaum North said that, parking in the city is a major hindrance and he to avoids coming into the city due to it. He added that master plan should be done. Feroz Sait laid down a new plan for beautification of the Ramdev Galli to Shaniwar Khoot. Nothing concrete was disclosed but he stressed that if the association came up with a plan he was ready to execute it. He also promised to deploy the MLA funds in the business areas of the city. All work under the 650 crore JNNRUM project will be done under consultation with local people he added. Efforts will be made for the execution of the long pending Belgaum Dharwad rail link he said. Flights from Sambra had been closed only as there was no sufficient traffic and the same would commence once there is good potential. In reply to question, he said that he would ask the traffic authorities to see that a 1 meter box is marked in front of all shops which will make it easy for consumers to enter the shop.
- Mr.Sanjay Patil
Sanjay Patil MLA for Rural said that Party lines will not interfere in the development of the city and all the 3 MLAs will collectively deploy the various funds and schemes. We all now should get away from this Marathi Kannada bias and work for the betterment of the city. There are no industries around Belgaum and the Rail and air links are not so good. He asked the merchants not be a frog in the well and come out and diversify into other fields as well.
Anil Potdar from the Congress told the gathering that traffic was the biggest problem and the main cause of this problem is the 70% odd increase of traffic, which makes use of Belgaum as a transit way from Kolhapur to Goa. He suggested a fly over to be built from Hotel Shankam to Peeranwadi, which will solve this problem once for all. The ring road will need Rs.800 odd crores but here the problem was not compensation but acquisition of land he said. A textile park must be built he said. Sulab Souchyalya (toilet blocks) will be built in the main city area he added. He said if master plan is to be undertaken spot compensation should be given.
Abhay Patil MLA South agreed to the BCMA’s demand for a separate land for developing a textile market, which will house 100+ textile shops. The MLA said he is ready to show the association 3 plots that can be given for this purpose. Belgaum is a “Sudharlele Khede” (a developed village) and stated that in the past 50 years nothing has happened here for the development due to the border row. Rs. 1 crore have been allocated for parking related issues and parking facilities will be provided near Deshmukh road on the side roads, he said in reply to a question. Regarding the issues of trade license and harassment from various other govt. offices, he said he would speak to them about the same in the week and get the mater resolved. Talks have already begun with Infosys and Toyota to ask them to establish them in Belgaum.
The meeting was held at Hotel Adarsh Palace and numerous cloth merchants were present at the meet. The Belgaum Cloth Merchants Association is a body of 180 members.
Photos: Team AAB
Shri Pantmaharaj Balekundri paduka abhishek video
10:15 AM Posted by ukmad
Shri Pantmaharaj Balekundri paduka abhishek at Shri Pant Math, Shri Kshetra Balekundri
Abhisheks are done at 6 am and 10 am. Any devotee is allowed to do the Abhishek.
Shops robbed again why scores of robberies
7:44 AM Posted by ukmad
In the past few months, the number of housebreaks and shop robberies reported has increased more than two folds.
Just see this as a trailer; on Sunday 2 shops near millennium gardens were robbed for about Rs.50 thousand. On Monday the Universal store at Kadolkar galli was looted for again the similar amount.
Almost everyday these incidents are happening in town and citizens are now worried as to what is the police doing in this matter and why is that suddenly such incidents are on a rise. I do not have the complete list of robberies as of now but the number in the recent past is alarming.
See Deshmukh road alone, three shops were looted a few days back, which included Purohit sweet shop, a few days later the Nokia showroom at the beginning of Shukurwar peth was robbed for. Police station is less than 150 meters from the spot but still the robbers are free doing their job.
Private security agencies have a very good business ins this time and to add a black spot to them as well, allegedly a security guard himself looted in a college recently.
In all the citizens need to be more vigil and protect their own property.
Royston quarterfinals today
7:43 AM Posted by ukmad
The quarterfinals of the prestigious Royston memorial football tournament will be played today.
St.Pauls will take on Nalanda School at 3pm
Heritage Park and zoo to be developed soon at Belgaum Western Ghats Task Force
8:33 PM Posted by ukmad
Ananth Hegde Ashishar chairman of Western Ghats Task Force today told media persons that the heritage park at Vaccine Institute will be taken up shortly and funds released for the same will be utilized in a proper manner at the earliest. He also said to expedite the process of establishment a Zoo near the city and to be named after Rani Channamma.
MES trying to breathe life into border issue
1:22 PM Posted by ukmad
A besieged MES over the past few years is trying back to win the hearts of the people in Belgaum and other areas. MES launched a campaign across Maharashtra to intensify its movement for the merger of Marathi speaking areas of Karnataka with Maharashtra. Leaders are having a Janajagruti Abhiyan in Chandgad, Satara and Pune before heading for Mumbai. The Abhiyan which started from Shivaji Garden Shahpur will end at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on August Kranti Day.
MES is on tenterhooks to gain the support of the people of Maharashtra in exerting pressure on the Centre to declare Belgaum a Union Territory until the boundary dispute is settled in the Supreme Court. Several MES leaders like Kiran Thakur, Vijay More, Shivaji Sunthkar, T.K. Patil and V.B. Chougale, who are participating in the campaign, said they would meet Maharashtra leaders in Mumbai to revive the struggle.
It appears to have planned the Maharashtra campaign as a last ditch effort to revive its fortunes.
Source: Deccan Chronicle
1878 GOVERNMENT GARDEN and BANDSTAND at Belgaum
11:26 AM Posted by ukmad
This is another masterpiece for all to cherish. Sahir Kittur has got this image of a postcard and its states’ ”
From first glance it looks to be the QUEENS GARDEN in camp where there was a band stand in the centre of the park. This blog’s History Editor Bramhanand Chipre also says this looks very similar to the Queens garden.
Where do you think this was?
Thanks Sahir Kittur.
Students cum Entrepreneurs under graduates running a IT company successfully dotCORD IT Solutions
1:13 PM Posted by ukmad
7th semester student duo of Sandeep Hegde and Manoj Nair both away from their home town who came here to pursue their engineering have landed themselves in a position they would not have expected. The duo started thedotCORD IT Solutions private limited an IT company while still studying.
dotCORD is a company founded by a group of students of Gogte Institute of Technology(GIT), Belgaum with a professional tint to their pursue of knowledge. They pioneer in providing superior and world standard web based solutions for small to large corporate companies; offshore and local. They seize each new opportunity and leverage it to the enhancement of overall development procedures. They fully appreciate the fact that in a highly competitive biz world a well designed web site can act as a strong and effective marketing tool for your company. Working closely with your ideas and necessities coupled with technical expertise can turn a simple web design from a mere presentation to powerful business equipment.
Their vision is based on the Internet wave. The ability to transmit information at a ZERO cost opens up possibilities that never existed before. Individuals and Entities worldwide must adopt and adapt to a new way of doing business, learn new lessons, evolve their processes and leverage on the advantages and opportunities presented by a connected globe, in order to increase efficiency, remain competitive, and enhance quality of life.
It is their goal to build unique software, applications and services that leverage the internet and assist individuals and entities to communicate, collaborate and stay in touch.
The duo has now taken the responsibility of designing the IT Belgaum site which is a part of this blog’s initiative for collective IT growth in Belgaum.
They have a full plan for the future laid down. In the coming month a new website for Belgaumites will be launched known as Belgaumpages where each one and anyone could get in touch with his friends, blog, share etc. They don’t stop here; they have future plans ready which would be sites on a global scale and web marketing as well.
Some excerpts of the interview with Sandeep Hegde, MD dotCORD IT Solutions private limited-
Manoj and me got together to work on a project during the 2nd year of our engineering (2007 July). It was for a competition hosted by IBM. Getting into project, we soon discovered that we had to use only IBM products to develop the software. We understood that it was more of business intent from "Big Blue" and dropped out of the project. Then we started to build a website for a domain name I had registered in order to tryout some stuff online. Meanwhile we worked for IEEE GIT website design competition. Manas being the next roll number to Manoj assisted us in graphic design work. Everyone appreciated our design and the level of professionalism we showed in developing it. This made us think, why we don’t start our own company! And we never looked back again :)
Why this name dotCORD?
Once we decided to start a company next question was off course the company name. We wanted something unique, suitable for IT field, brand able in long run and a .com domain name availability for registration. We were trying to get a name for around two months. None of our friends also could suggest a good name which has unregistered domain name. Finally I and Manoj were trying to find a company name with dot and dotCORD was the outcome. We registered the domain name on 14th December 2007. On 11th February 2009 we were incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 (No. 1 of 1956), Government of India as dotCORD IT SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED with the help of our C.A., Mr.Shivangi.
dot - Symbolizes internet, technology, global
cord - Binding dot
Your parents reaction on starting company -
Sandeep - My parents have been very supportive always. Once we handled few projects and were firm with establishment of company I told my parents about the stuff in detail. Although they do not know the technical aspects, they have been supportive in company matter also as usual. Dad has been giving me suggestions and tells me do's and don'ts etc. This kind of support from parents has always been helping me to focus on my goals and achieve it :)
Manoj- My parents had doubts about me getting into such a job during my education. But ever since we got the company registered, they have been extremely supportive and constantly keep asking about any developments that take place. They also give me tips on what to do in certain situations as and when I encounter them. Surprisingly, even my mom likes this idea very much (thanks to the astrologers she consulted). :)
The fact that we have not demanded anything extra in monetary terms from our parents even during the registration process, gives us more self-confidence and a sense of independence
How was the response from the college and staff?
College and staff have been supporting us right from the initial stages. We have got a very friendly and supportive environment in GIT. We could approach any staff and they are always there to guide us. Prof. Santosh Saraf who was the judge for the first website we did (IEE GIT) is with us till date as our mentor. Being the coordinator of IT Incubation Center of the College he suggested starting our office there. Our Pricipal Dr.D.H.Rao and Management have been very supporting in setting up our office. We have got many projects through the reference of staff, students and alumni of our college.
You are in the 7th sem now how do u manage work and studies?
Well engineering is not that difficult. I'm a bit allergic to books and clear the 3 hours exam with 3 hours study while Manoj does have an aggregate of 70% +. We have been instructed by college to work at office only after college hours. We attend college regularly with others and work for the company in our free time which would have gone waste otherwise.
Who were the co founders with you?
Manoj and I are the co-founders of dotCORD. Then Manas joined us followed by Chinmay. We do have many internees who work part time for the company.
Some good/bad experience while on work
Everything was a new experience to us. Being technical students we jumped into something that requires management. However good we are at work, we need to convince people that we can do it. Initially we did not have a portfolio and also the fact that we are still students made many doubt if we could deliver in time and up to their expectations. Yet, some people trusted us with the job. We would like to thank all our clients for this trust they share in doing business with us.
According to me, we have not undergone anything such as a bad experience. Due to our limited exposure to outer world we did face some hurdles. We had to face problems with the market survey for product pricings. We faced problems with collection of payment as well. Some companies outsourced their work to us but cancelled the project without any payment. We faced problems in setting up our bank account as well. Thanks to the support provided by Axis Bank, our problems with a bank account ended there. We are lucky enough that someone or the other helped us when we were facing problems.
What are your future plans?
Till now we have followed a path that revealed itself to us, and which brought us here. But we now know that we require to lay our own paths in order to move forward and make DOTCORD a true success story. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive plan for our growth, especially extending our client base to more locations within the country as well as abroad; with Belgaum remaining the center of our operations. At this point in time, we cannot afford to think of a situation where we may have to disintegrate after our engineering course. We will give it all we've got in keeping abreast with the market demands and satisfying our customers.
Best thing you like about Belgaum?
The best thing I like about Belgaum is its collaborative nature. The people of Belgaum are very friendly and supportive. It is a cool and calm city. The quality of education is very high here. It does not have pollution and traffic problems like larger cities but we do have all the facilities which are available in any metropolitan city. Our company has a lot of scope parallel to the growth of Belgaum.
What are your thoughts on the initiative taken by AllAboutBelgaum for the IT development?
We were already aware of the earlier version of AllAboutBelgaum, that is, Belgaumblog. My instinct said me that this blog is going to grow one day which is quite evident with the transformation into AllAboutBelgaum and the number of Facebook fans. :) We know that team of AAB is quite capable of living up to any initiative. The recent initiative of bringing together IT companies in Belgaum is another such example. We extend our complete support to AllAboutBelgaum for all future undertakings. All the best to the team of AAB!!!
Here are some of the sites developed by them:
- http://alumni.git.edu
- http://www.sdmchonavar.org
- http://www.cogentedu.com
- http://www.timeenglish.in
- http://www.eefabelgaum.com
- http://www.parijatha.co.in
- http://www.hedabuilders.com
- http://www.knowmepersonally.com
- http://www.anantterdal.com
- http://www.ashokayoga.com
- http://www.pingsense.com
- http://www.designfeatured.com
- http://www.belgaumpages.com
Hescom resumes Power play for 2 hours
10:22 AM Posted by ukmad
After the acute power shortage in May and June when there was less water in the hydro power plants, now even after all the hydro power plants are full to capacity the state is facing a power shortage and hence a 2 hours power cuts in urban areas & 10 hours in rural areas is being implemented from today.
The new time table for the load shedding has been announced.
Belgaum city will face power cuts in two time slots of 9 am to 10 am and 7 pm to 8pm.
Industrial areas will face power cuts 7am to 8am and 6pm to 7pm.
KRV demands road widening
10:19 AM Posted by ukmad
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The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike staged a demonstration in front of the Belgaum City Corporation on Friday demanding commercially important roads in the city be widened.
Rajeev Topannavar, submitted a memorandum to the commissioner demanding that he take up work to widen the Old Pune-Bangalore Road from the RTO Circle to the Sait Petrol Bunk. Congestion of traffic and road jams had become a routine affair on this road. The corporation should start work to widen the road up to 120 ft, which would give relief to the citizens.
KRV also demanded that two other roads — the stretch from Sait Petrol Bunk to Amba Bhavan Hotel (Patil Galli) near the Belgaum Railway Station and the stretch from Pangul Galli to Sheetal Hotel —, which were commercially important roads and connect major centres in the city, should also be widened.
