Head band with Music maniacs at Festino
Club Party with Vj Ranvijay, and MTV roadies ,DJ Vik(Ministry of sound DJ) DJ Space and DJ Amm (opening DJs)
Start Time: Saturday, October 10 at 6:00pm
End Time: Saturday, *October 10 at 12:00pm*

Saturday 10th October 2009 Sunset Party at Belgaum Club promises a ROCKING TIME between 6 pm till 12 pm.

VJ Ranvijay of MTV roadies with DJ Vik (Ministry of Sound Delhi) will raise a storm with their music and entertainment, setting the tempo for a great evening with mind blowing sound from Germany and digital controlled lights and lasers for the first time ever in Belgaum.

Awesome arrangements have been made to make blast

So don’t forget to have a head bang with the music maniacs on October 10 at Belgaum Club 6 pm onwards.

Here’s your chance to win free passes to the event.

Play the Contest

Terms & conditions:

1. Winners will be announced on 8^th October 2009 and winners will be selected on random. The decision of FESTINO organizers will be final and no arbitration would be entertained. No cash claim or exchange can be made in lieu of the prize. Prizes must be accepted as awarded and are non-assignable and non-transferable.

2. In all 3 winners will be chosen randomly whose all answers are correct. Each winner will get one pass on which only ONE person would be allowed inside the event hall. No other charges will be borne by the organizers.

3. Winners will have to get the code they get in their winning email and they will have to also give out their Secret code they entered while participating. If the Secret code does not tally the prizes will not be given. Secret code has to match with the one entered by the person while filling the form.

4. AllAboutBelgaum.com by no means can be held responsible for any matter concerned with the prizes or the event. AllAboutBelgaum.com does not have any pecuniary interest in the event or with the organizers.

5. AllAboutBelgaum.com is doing this online promotion only as an online media partner and has nothing to do with the event or the bands or the event on a whole.

6. The persons submitting their answers online will be assumed that they have read the terms and conditions.

7. AllAboutBelgaum.com shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever that may be suffered or any personal injury that may be suffered as a result of participating in the contest or using the prize.

8. Each participant who submits his entry, consents to the information being entered into the database and right to use by AllAboutBelgaum.com and its affiliates, in any media for future promotional, marketing and publicity purposes without any further reference or payment or compensation to the entrant.

9. These terms and conditions may be amended without prior notice.

Dr.Vinayak Patil a dental surgeon has made Belgaum proud by getting the prestigious Harry W.F Dressel, Jr” Award of Clinical Excellence In General Dentistry and Concept of total patient care.

Dr.Vinayak Patil is a Belgaumite and he did his schooling from St Paul’s high school. He then completed his pre university course in science from GSS and did his dental studies from KLE Dental College.

In October 2000 he went to Australia for a couple of months to Adelaide Dental School (Australia) to attend the Dental bridging course. But he was not satisfied with this and he wanted to specialize. He further continued specialty training doing (FDS) fellowship In Oral and Maxillofacial from Royal College of surgeons England .Worked in Oral & Maxillofacial unit in London.

During his tenure in London Dr.Vinayak developed tremendous skills in Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, treating terminally ill Oral cancer patients, maxillofacial trauma, Oral and Maxillofacial reconstructive surgery and maxillofacial deformity surgeries.

After he wasn’t satisfied either and then he decided to specialize in Oral reconstruction with Dental Implants and related prosthesis, hence he applied in programs in USA, and got admitted at University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School on scholarship bases on my credentials, references and previous training from England.

During further training in USA, developed advanced skills in Dental Implantology, Cosmetic Dentistry and in advanced general dentistry.

During the specilaisation was awarded by the University Dean as the best clinician. Was awarded “The Harry W.F Dressel, Jr” Award of Clinical Excellence In General Dentistry and Concept of total patient care. After the masters was done, was offered Associate director post for residency program at University of Maryland and was also recommended for GPR program Director post at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He decided to work in Private Practice, and presently working at the Fairfax County in Northern Virginia.

When this blog asked him about his future plans he evidently said, “I will be coming back to India and open up practice there with state of Art Dental practice offering high International standards and changing the way dentistry is offered in India.”

When asked how his parents felt about his achievement, modestly says “ask them, I must have made them proud for sure”.

Tushar Patil is a young dynamic CEO of BTP InfoServe Pvt. Ltd. He did hisBachelor of Engineering in Industrial and Production Engineering from Gogte Institute of Technology and his Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, USA.

As CEO, Tushar Patil is responsible for the vision, strategy and leadership that drive BTPI. After completing masters from Kansas University, he worked in the US for 3 years at Alpha Soft Services. During this tenure, he gained access to various service segments in the US including healthcare, insurance and finance. His experience also helped him identify the non-core business segments there and plan to outsource the same to BTPI. He has the task at BTPI to help business segments concentrate on their core strengths and to bridge the link that correlates clients’ expectations v/s BTPI deliverables.

Way back in 2002 Tushar started BTP InfoServe Pvt. Ltd. (BTPI) in Belgaum, which specializes in American medical insurance claims processing. This field is listed as one of the fastest job creators in USA. BTP InfoServe Pvt. Ltd is the only company in entire North Karnataka & Goa that specializes in this area.
BTPI from Belgaum manages the payment flow of medical claims efficiently from insurance companies to various service providers.

With an Approx 0.4 million dollars in turnover and over 50 employees BTPI aims higher turnover in the current year. Today all the sectors are reeling under recession like Automobile, banking, Industries but healthcare is one such sector which has NO Recession.

Tushar Patil speaks out to Team AAB:

1. My first question why Belgaum for your BPO?

Tushar Patil --> Belgaum is ideally located between Bangalore and Mumbai and has perfect blend of rural and urban population. The quality of education is excellent. Plus the lower costs of land/infrastructure/living/manpower and also for the abundant talent available in and around Belgaum. The weather is pretty much like Bangalore and is logistically located with 2 airports (Hubli and Kolhapur) within 90 kms distance.

2. Could we have your outlook on the IT & BPO industry in Belgaum?

Tushar Patil --> As I said the abundant manpower available in and around Belgaum is a major advantage we have. There is many Medical Transcription company’s based in Belgaum and there is enough scope to accommodate other sectors related to BPO. Bigger cities has had enough IT and BPO growth. The cost of doing business in bigger cities is horrendous compared to the cost of the same BPO job which can be done from Belgaum or Hubli. With a little push from the Government we can get things moving at a much faster pace.

3. What kind of shifts do you see coming from the recession? If any.

Tushar Patil --> Well customers are definitely guarded about the pricing and the service providers are looking for an innovative modernization strategy to achieve lower running costs. Companies whose leaders look ahead for opportunities that will follow post recession will have a competitive advantage when it’s over.

4. Is it going to be too different from what we are seeing now in terms of kind of outsourcing deals?

Tushar Patil --> Customers will be looking for more range of solutions from the same vendor. Also there is delay in signing new deals so it’s more of a WAIT and WATCH situation.

5. Are we also going to see any changes in the kind of skills you will seek in potential employees?

Tushar Patil --> Not much when it comes to ITeS industry.

6. What kind of order pipeline do you have for the coming few months?

Tushar Patil --> We have 2-3 large clients in pipeline.

7. What is your competitive edge in the industry in which you operate?

Tushar Patil --> 6 plus years experience in US healthcare industry

· One of the early entrants in this sector

· It’s an untapped industry in India

· Highly trained manpower

8. How do you see the healthcare segment growing?

Tushar Patil --> The US healthcare is a 2.5 trillion dollar industry and is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade. The Obama government might just present an exciting growth opportunity for the Indian IT service providers. The US spends 16% (one of the highest in the world) of its GDP on Healthcare and still 40 million individuals are uninsured. So the government plan aims for universal coverage for every US citizen. There will be significant influx of “the newly insured” into the health system as well as tremendous pressure on insurers and healthcare providers to reduce the costs. So the ITeS industry has something exciting coming all the way.

9. But has the healthcare vertical been fully immune to the slowdown?

Tushar Patil --> As far as our business is concerned, yes. We have been signing clients every quarter. But off course the US has been reeling under recession and has never seen this kind of unemployment. This leads to less consumption of healthcare products and hence less volume.

10. Is it easy to start up a BPO in Belgaum? Your experiences

Tushar Patil --> When we started in 2003 it was nightmare for us. The biggest problem we faced was internet. All our work is online so we need to be connected to the internet 24 hours. The downtime was almost 40% can you imagine that. We used to run to the DOT office at least 10 times a day. We lost couple of clients just for this reason. But now it is much easier to start a BPO shop in Belgaum. We have choice of multiple ISP which was not there in 2003.

11. What are your thoughts on the human resource talent in and around Belgaum?

Tushar Patil --> Frankly speaking there is still a dearth of skilled manpower in this belt. Schools and colleges must create awareness regarding BPO as a career and must introduce in its syllabus. Right now I don’t see anything happening and also computers must be mandatory in all institutions. We still get graduates who are computer illiterates. There is enough potential in Belgaum but we need to do more in raising the bar higher.

12. Your future plans?

Tushar Patil --> Right now our primary focus will continue to be Healthcare because that is our forte. We want to ramp up our capacity to at least 300 people from the present 70 in the next 4-5 years.

13. Your thoughts on the ITBelgaum initiative?

Tushar Patil --> It’s an excellent vehicle for the local entrepreneurs to build a platform which can be used to strengthen the image of Belgaum and to get Belgaum on the Global IT map. There are lots of interesting things coming up through this group which will help the future budding entrepreneurs. All the members are whole heartedly working towards a common goal.

14. How do you foresee Belgaum’s future for the IT and BPO?

Tushar Patil --> Infrastructure wise we are still lacking basic facilities and also air connectivity is a BIG issue which most of the clients look for. If these things are taken care then we can definitely see a bright future for Belgaum. Hopefully the ITBELGAUM group can make some difference!!!!!

15. Your thoughts on this website and its usability?

Tushar Patil --> It’s an excellent databank to get news about Belgaum. Hats off to you who single handedly took this initiative and also promoted the ITBelgaum group through this site. I wish you all the best for all your future endeavors.

Thanks to Aziz for these pictures.

This particular photo of the St.Mary’s church is again distinct, as all earlier images were taken from the side whereas this one is from the front.

All the old pics like these are treasures.

The Belgaum Dasara also has some magnificent history behind it. It may not be grand as the Mysore Dasara but in its own style its different and one of its kind.

The Simollanghan (crossing the border) is done at the Vidya Niketan grounds near St.Xaviers school. People from all lifestyles from young to old gather there for a yearly fair where the leaves of Aapti tree are looted on the pretext of it symbolizing Gold.

The Patil does the Puja and then the various Palkhi’s of the Gods come there like the Venkatramna temple, Maruti Temple, Jotiba temple and the Aapte tree leaves are looted and then exchanged with each other as gold.

The Camp Dasara has a different look. K T Pujari and sons started this utsav in 1901. There are 5 Devi chariots that are taken out in a procession which also end at the same grounds above. Marriama Devi of K T Pujari & sons, Muthu Mariamma from Madras BHT area, Kunti devi from fish market, Mariama from old Telugu colony. These 5 are supposed to be sisters.

See Photo album

Story behind exchanging Aapti Tree leaves as “sone” (Gold)

Kautsa, the young son of Devdatt, a Brahmin, was living in the city of Paithan. After completing education from Rishi Varatantu, he insisted on his guru accepting Guru Dakshina (present).

However, Guru said, “Kautsa, to give ‘dakshina’ in return for learning wisdom is not proper Graduation of the disciple makes the guru happy, and this is the real Guru Dakshina."

Kautsa was not satisfied. He still felt it was his duty to give his guru something. Finally, the guru said, "Alright, if you insist on giving me dakshina, so give me 140 million gold coins, 10 million for each of the 14 sciences I have taught you."

Kautsa went to king Raghu. Raghuraja was an ancestor of Lord Rama, famous for his generosity. However, just at that time he had emptied all his coffers on the Brahmins, after performing the Vishvajit sacrifice. He asked Kautsa to give him three days' time. Raghuraja immediately left to get the gold coins from Indra. Indra summoned Kuber, the god of wealth. Indra told Kuber, "Make a rain of gold coins fall on the "Shanu" and "Aapati" trees round Raghuraja's city of Ayodhya."

The rain of gold coins began to fall. King Raghu gave all the coins to Kautsa, and Kautsa hastened to offer the coins to Varatantu Rishi. Guru had asked only 140 millions, so he gave the rest back to Kautsa. Kautsa was not interested in money. In those days honor was considered more valuable than wealth. He asked the king to take the remaining gold coins back but the king refused to take them back as kings do not take back the daan (gift).

Finally, Kautsa distributed the gold coins to the people of Ayodhya on the day of Ashwin shukla dashami. In remembrance of this event, the custom is kept of looting the leaves of the "Aapati" trees, and people present each other these leaves as "sone" (gold).

Simollanghan – crossing the border - War Season

In ancient times kings used the feast of Dasara to cross the frontier and fight against their neighboring kingdoms. This border crossing is known as "simollanghan". Thus, Dasara also marks the beginning of the war season.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police force is in the advance stage for procuring land in Belgaum.

In August this year at the chief ministers’ conference on internal security in New Delhi, BSY had pressed for an ITBP centre in Belgaum.

The premier force guarding the Sino-Indian border -ITBP- is on a land buying spree to accommodate its personnel in the plains after they spend about three years in the grueling heights of the Himalayas.

Source: Zeenews

Traffic police of city suddenly realized that there is law which prohibits others from seating in the seats reserved for ladies and senior citizen in a city bus. Normally the front seats are reserved for ladies and senior citizens.

Till now this law was never enforced but today once of a sudden this law was

enforced and the people seating in those reserved seats were fined Rs.100 on the spot at Bogarves. Most of the fined were college students.

No doubt the police are doing a good job after a long time, but fining at once seems to be too harsh one student said. The best part is how many more days this drive will be enforced needs to be seen.