On Saturday 14^th November, Hattargi-Belgaum will see the formal launch of a 300-acre aerospace SEZ. CM B S Yedurappa will formally inaugurate this SEZ. This is not the sort of SEZ that the government announces and nobody ever hears anything about it for a long time. This is one where land has been allotted, and work has begun, including an aircraft surface treatment facility set up by Quest Global, the promoters of the SEZ, and Magellan Aerospace. A sheet metal manufacturing facility and a precision machining facility for aircraft too are operational. On Saturday, more partnerships in aerospace design and manufacturing will be announced.

Aravind Melligeri, who co-founded Quest in the US in 1997 with a long time classmate, Ajit Prabhu, says that the idea of the SEZ was to offer an aerospace customer everything – from design to manufacture of components and systems – in one place. Quest, which has 1,000 employees in India and which has dedicated facilities here for GE, Rolls Royce and EADS, is designing and building the rig to test the Airbus 350’s nose landing gear.

Belgaum was selected because of its lower costs of land/infrastructure/labor/living, and also because of the availability of abundant talent for manufacturing and engineering in and around Belgaum - there are more than 2000 foundries and machine shops in a 1000 km radius of the vicinity, along with 60+ engineering, diploma and ITI institutes). The weather in Belgaum is pretty much like Bangalore's (probably better). And Belgaum is excellently located logistically, with 3 airports (Belgaum, Hubli, and Kolhapur) in a 90 minute driving range, on the NH4 Golden Quadrilateral highway network of India, equidistant from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and an overnight journey from the Mumbai port. They expect 2 more ports to become accessible for our operations in the next few years (Goa and Karwar). For all these reasons, Belgaum was selected for SEZ location.

Source: TOI
Note: Everywhere it is said QUEST SEZ Belgaum, but its exact location is Hattargi near Sankeshwar on the NH4.

Mr. B.N. Kalyani is an Ex-student of King George School- Belgaum, Roll No. 789 and studied during the period 1958 to 1964.

Baba N. Kalyani is Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Forge Ltd., India’s largest manufacturer and exporter of automotive components to global industry. Mr. Kalyani is a Mechanical Engineer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston from where he graduated in 1972. The U.S. $1.5 billion group of companies that Mr. Kalyani heads is engaged in manufacture of automotive components, especially steels and specialty chemicals.

Bharat Forge Ltd. is a global company with manufacturing facilities in India, Germany and USA. The company is aspiring for global leadership in its business. It supplies critical automotive engine and chassis components to virtually every global automotive manufacturer in the world. Mr. Kalyani has spearheaded Bharat Forge’s strategies that have resulted in it becoming one of India’s first global automotive component manufacturing companies.

Another person, who makes us proud that his roots are connected to Belgaum.

Vikas Dhairyashil Bansode (29) director of a business process outsourcing (BPO) unit was arrested alleged involvement in stealing medical history data of a UK-based company and selling it to another company. The police also booked two suspects in this regard and one suspect is from Belgaum.

The other two suspects have been identified as Kunal Abhay Gargatti of Belgaum and Jayesh Bhagchandani. All the three have been booked under several sections of the Information Technology Act.

The investigations have revealed that Gargatti and Bhagchandani had requested Bansode to sell the data for the use of a charitable company.

Source: TOI

The mega show depicting the life of Sri Krishna is all getting ready and here is the making of the event. A huge stage is being built now on CPEd ground. The event is organized by Raj Media group and Goa-based Shri Vijayadurga Saunskrutik Mandal.

About 103 local artists will get a chance to act in the play and the screening for the same began from today.

The ticket sale has begun and the show will be from 20^th November to 25^thNovember. Daily 7000 spectators can witness this extravagance show. The initial response for the tickets ahs been good and also very good response has come in from rural areas.

The tickets have been priced from Rs.150 to 500 and are available at various locations.

RPD cross to Patwardhan layout road of 50 feet will be widened to 80 feet and the said new road will be built under the aegis of the special grant of Rs.100 crores. Rs.2.83 crores has been allocated for this road development.

Recently MLA Abhay Patil and corporation commissioner inspected the said road and also markings were done.

MLA said that the road widening will be undertaken only after the local residents are taken into confidence.

On the other hand the local corporator is unaware of this development and says he was not told of the inspection. The worst part of the whole story is MLAis trying to take his credit of this development but the bottom line for the locals is that Rs.2.83 crores can be only used for road development and cannot be used as compensation for the residents and shop owners who will loose their land and building. Due to this the locals are not in favor of this.

If you see the said road is a major link to Vadgaon and at RPD cross there is a lot of congestion and major problem will arise here only as there are shops and in the widening all the shops will need to be removed. Once we approach the road further the problem is lesser as there is ground on one side till Gomtesh Vidyapeeth.

Development is needed but development should be done in a manner which will be fair to all. Development is always at a cost and the cost needs to be taken into consideration. The earlier attempts of the corporation for road widening have not got a great response as the compensation policy is not implemented in the way the local residents like. You could here as well see that some residents might approach the courts as it has been done in other areas.

Recession! A word certainly everyone knows and is the talk of the town. It meant jobs were lost, people got laid off from top companies, salaries were trimmed etc.

Since its inception last year, one of the companies that has withered the storm and has surprised everyone is Redhat, the vendor which is behind the profitable Redhat Linux Operating System.

“Over the three months to the end of August, Red Hat made net profits of $28.9m (£17.8m), up 36.9% year-on-year, while sales also ticked up a healthy 12%, hitting $183.6m.” Source

and

“Meanwhile, sales bounced up 11% over the same period to $174m” Source

This clearly indicates Open Source Technologies are in demand and companies are more so in the lookout for experts and professionals in this field.

Seeing this increasing demand for Open Source professionals, eth1 Network Solutions has launched an exclusive hands-on training state-of-the-art lab in Belgaum.

eth1 Network Solutions provides variety of technical and advanced professional courses on Open Source subjects such as PHP, MySQL, Ruby on Rails, Linux, Server Management, Python, Perl, Ethical Hacking, Wireless Networks and Security Hands-on practical training is provided along with course material such as Books, DVD (Operating System etc) and further mentorship is provided even after the course duration has completed.

With an experience of managing and securing 400+ servers and certifications from Redhat and Oreilly School of Technology( Institute of Illinois ) , Web Applications, in the industry and in using Linux and Free Open SourceSoftware and technologies the students/engineers are taught on best practices/do’s and don’ts ‘s plus real world scenarios as in an Enterprise.

eth1 Network Solutions also promotes and provides mentorship for students wanting to do projects in the Open Source/Free Open Source Software/Linux domain.

For details contact:
eth1 Network Solutions
Radhakrishna Complex, 1st Floor (Above Pai Medicals)
Belgaum 590001.

Mobile: +91 98866 37820 Office: 0831 4205679

Noted advocate and play artist Daulat Mutkekar passed away yesterday after a heart attack he was 72.

He was attending the Konkan Marathi Sahitya Sammelan and had just finished his speech when he felt uneasy and Dr.Phadnis attended him and later he was taken to Dr.Kore hospital where he breathed his last at 7 pm.

His funeral will be held today.

After 15 days of tug of war between pre poll aligned Congress parties at last today Ashok Chavan will take oath and form the government. The people of Maharashtra must have been in a mind of fix as to why it took so long for pre poll aligned parties to form a government. Better late than never.

But, now what about Karnataka; where a Natak is being played starring our CM BSY and Reddy brothers and all others are on the side line. The natak is being produced by the BJP in technical collaboration with Reddy’s. Most of the Natak has been played outside state like Hyderabad, Goa and Indore where the Reddy camp is camping and our CM is busy shuttling between Bangalore and Delhi. And today in the afternoon BSY claims that the Natak will end and the crisis is over which has been settled by the central leadership. But the Reddy’s aren’t ready to go with this, they still say they are not happy with BSY and won’t cooperate with him.

For these past 10-15 days expect what work must have been done at the Vidhan Soudha. All our problems are waiting to be addressed but the biggest question to all who will answer.

The political crisis is taking a toll on flood relief work in Belgaum, where about 70,000 houses collapsed during the recent deluge. Work on rehabilitating the villagers has gone off track as all top BJP leaders in the district, which produced 11 MLAs and three MPs for the party, are engrossed in the ongoing political tussle.

At least six MLAs and two MPs have openly come out in support of Chief Minister BSY while five legislators are backing the Reddy brothers. Of the four ministers, Laxman Savadi, Basavaraj Bommai and Umesh Katti want Mr Yeddyurappa to continue as CM, while public administration minister Balachandra Jarkiholi, remains with the Reddy camp in Hyderabad. The Belgaum and Chikkodi MPs and Rajya Sabha MP Prabhakar Kore are trying to drum up support for the CM. MLA’s are not answering their phones and in this time of crisis has distanced legislators from voters at a time when they are needed here.

Suresh Angadi has proposed the name of Member of Parliament Ananth Kumar for the post of Chief Minister, dismissing Jagdish Shettar’s claim. What will be the end of this natak is not known as the script is being re worked and some final touches to the climax are being given. This natak seems to be a daily soap like the ones of Balaji telefilms(here also its starts with ‘K’ Karnataka). Everyday something is happening and the climax is getting bigger and bigger.

As viewers we are all bored of this and now have to decide on what to see and what not? Cannot we decide what we want to see; after all it’s the tax payer’s money that is funding the Natak.

What will happen keep glued to the ‘Kar-Nataka’.

Atul Chaturvedi Source: Bangalore Mirror

MLIRC sends notice to District authorities to know how the college has come up with out their NOC.

300 students are hanging on a line of fire as the MLIRC has sent a letter to the district authorities to look into the matter urgently as the college is situated near the firing range.

Suresh Angadi the sitting BJP MP from Belgaum just started the Suresh Angadi Education Foundations new educational institute, the Angadi Institute of Technology and Management AITM, allegedly in the danger zone of weapon firing ranges of MLIRC on Savagaon Road. This has adversely affected the training of army personnel. Suresh Angadi is the sitting BJP MP from Belgaum.

The college started functioning recently. The students and teachers have reacted in dismay as the MLIRC of the Indian Army served separate notices to the deputy commissioner and Belgaum Urban Development Authority asking for a clarification at the earliest on September 1.

In the notice issued to the deputy commissioner by the MLIR, Colonel R K Mishra, observes that the college complex of AITM has been constructed in Survey No 72/73 which lies in the danger zone of the Baghdad-Asmara field firing ranges. Further, he states that as per the Karnataka Gazette Notification dated 10th Feb 1981, the area in question has been notified as a firing range. He further states that “It is not understood as to how construction has been allowed without obtaining a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the local military authorities, keeping in view the safety of students and civilians moving in and around the college complex.”

He also says that they have stopped the firing of weapons lest any untoward incident takes place. But the let up in the firing is taking a toll on the training of Army personnel. Col R K Mishra has requested the deputy commissioner to issue a clarification at the earliest so that he can intimate the same to higher military authorities.

However, MP Suresh Angadi has turned down all the allegations made by MLIRC officials.
Angadi said it was his land and he has constructed the college and said that the firing range has been shifted to Mau but he was unaware of any notices been sent by the MLIRC.