IPL - Facts & Figures

IPL is back with a bang on its own soul and fever is on high time. Last time's neglected teams (Mumbai, Kolkatta) are leading in IPL 3. So this is a game - where there is no strategy, no strong team, no weak team, no big players, no small players, it's all about - "Jiska balla jis din chala uski nikal padi".

But IPL is the ultimate source of full entertainment (Cricket + Bollywood + Glamour). I am really missing it here in Hyderabad. I remember, a group of 6 roommates had a lot of fun in IPL 1 when we enjoyed a live match; these time also we were planning to go. But bunch of thanks to T-guys. "Jai Telangana!!!"

Since last couple of days, I had lot of doubts around profit sharing in IPL matches, how these big buyers get profit. Last night I had some level of research and found few articles and that clicked me to write a blog.

The original concept was from ICL but then BCCI modified it and added some ingredients and made a spicy and delicious food. In 2007, IPL had an auction for 8 teams.

A contract figure for 10 years was something like this.

I was very surprized by looking at this figure how exactly they will earn money out of it. But this is 10 year contract fee to buy franchise. And they don't need to pay this amount at beginning. Every year, they have pay 10% to BCCI.

Here in the profit sharing between BCCI and different teams for Broadcasting revenue, IPL Sponsorship Revenue and Ticket Revenue.

Apart from this, 87.5 % all merchandise revenue, 100% Individual Team Sponsorship revenue, 100% Hospitality Revenue are other source of income.

Here is the balance-sheet of IPL 2. (Figures below in Rs. Crore)

As far as BCCI is concerned, their main source of income is TV rights for 10 years. Before IPL2, it was Rs. 4200 Crore but post IPL2, contract was renegotiated to Rs. 8200 Crore. Sony will pay Rs 670 crore per year for first four years and Rs. 1,100 crore per year for next five years. Before renegotiation of contract, it was Rs. 280 crore/year for first five years and Rs 540 crore for next five years.

As far as Sony is concerned, IPL Advertisement tariff was Rs 4 lakh to 5 lakh / 10 seconds in 2009. (It was Rs 2 lakh to 3 lakh / 10 seconds in 2008).

Waiting for balance-sheet of IPL 3 :-)

Aman ki Asha or Nirasha

On the eve of 1st Jan, 2010, a leading news paper in India (Times of India) and leading news paper in Pakistan (Jang Group) came together and launched a new concept "Aman ki Asha". I remember, 1st Jan's TOI had not any headline on the first page, and instead the big bold letter was showing "Love Pakistan". and then they explained this new concept. At first glance it was looking very weird but the narration was very nice and convincing. On that day, they came up with all kind of statistics, how much % of people in India and Pakistan want peace, how much % of people in India and Pakistan want to stop terrorism and all that. All the figure and graph were showing the green signal and seemed to create an impression that India and Pakistan are just either side of a coin. Sounds good !!!

Since 1st Jan, TOI has dedicated 1/2 pages specifically for Aman ki Asha by posting interviews of big stars, making a publicity of musical events being conducted in several cities by involving indo-pak singers/musicians, posting some historical news and many more. A concept is really good, innovative, convincing, very well executed so far. But my only question is - does it really work?

When all this is happening - different controversies are coming up.

1. On 22nd Jan, Pak PM Mr. Gilani said that "Cant' guarantee peace to India".. he added further... "Pakistan itself is facing Mumbai-like attacks almost on every other day and when we cannot protect our own citizens, how can we guarantee that there won't be any more terrorist hits in India".
2. In IPL 3 auction, all pakistan players have been ignored which created another controversy. And when SRK and Aamir quoted their statements in support of Pakistani players, Shiv Sena today declared them as "2 Idiots".
3. Since long, in Maharashtra, MNS is targeting on North Indians.
4. In Delhi, "If you don't speak Hindi, you are not Indian"
5. Since last couple of months, protesters in AP are demanding a separate state 'Telangana'. And when Manmohan government blinked, very next day, proposals for whopping 9 states have been emerged.

So the point is, we have enough problems within the country itself. We stay in India but we are not Indian from inside. "My State" and "My Caste" are the main root causes which create a big dent on Unity. How long we fight with each other under one roof? Why are we repeating the same mistake which we did a century ago? First of all we need to be a good Indian and then only we can be a good neighbour. This is equally applicable to each Pakistani as well. Once we get a feeling of 'United India', then becoming a good neighbour would be very easy.

According to me, 'Aman ki Asha' should divert their intention and try to make "One United India" first. Each single Indian should feel that the whole country is for every Indian, no matter which state he belongs to, no matter which caste he belongs to, no matter which language he speaks. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara could have been a good step but it was tainted with Bollywoodism.

So what do you think friends? Waiting for your replies.

Fir Mile Sur - More of a disappointment

Last time, it was, 15th August, 1988 and DoorDarshan launched a second anthem of India "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" which was almost on the lip of every Indian. I have grown up by listening this beautiful song frequently and I used to sing the full song in all the languages. And I know this was the case with all of us.

On the eve of 26th January, 2010, almost after 22 years, Times of India and Vodaphone-Essar came together and launched a new version (Fir Mile Sur) on Zoom. I heard the news just a week ago and I was excited about it.

Today I watched (not enjoyed) the full song !!! It was more of a disappointment.

First let me spread the highlight on original version.

• The original song was created in Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad and promoted by Doordarshan.
• It was composed by Ashok Patki and written by Piyush Pandey.
• It was sung in 14 different Indian languages, cast by 14 Movie/TV actors, 4 Singers/Musicians, 9 Sportsmen, 7 others from different fields.
• Total duration was around 6 minutes.

A glimpse on New version

• A new version includes 22 Superstars, 18 renowned musicians, 13 artists/singers and 15 other icons.
• They shot in 13 different cities of India and total it took 2 months.
• Video is created by Kailash Surendranath who also directed the original one 2 decades ago.
• Amitabh Bachhan is the only one who has been part of both the versions.
• 1st version was including Prakash Padukone and 2nd version is including his daughter Dipika Padukone.
• Total duration is around 16 minutes.

I started watching almost half a way while having a morning tea and a newspaper in my hand. And after few minutes, I caught 1st half by changing the channels. Few things I like, few not; It is not upto the expectation. Firstly, as a general sense, people always remember and praise 1st version. When they get the second version, they immediately start comparing it with the first one and adjourn the court by giving the final verdict saying its not like the 1st one. This generally happens. I may be one of them but still let me make my Disappointment-bag empty here; on the blog.

-Ve

1. It was more of a bollywood song.
• Shahid was singing as he was in Kismat Konnection (Bakhuda Tumhi ho...)
• SRK; as usual; was waving his hand in the air as he was in Kal Ho na Ho
• Aamir was sort of Ram Shankar Nikunbh of Taare Zameen Par.
• Sallu was there in Baniyan and flaunting his body.
• Dipika is flaunting her legs.

What the heck??? Are these guys promoting secularism of India or promoting themselves? I couldn't understand.

2. Why didn't they include any Cricketer? Indians are most influenced by Cricket, followed by Movies. So at least they should have included Sachin & Dhoni.

3. How come they missed “Taj Mahal”? Come’on…modernization of the song should not be allowed by removing Taj Mahal from original copy.

4. Of course, a modified version is coming in 2010; so it should be for Gen Next. But taking all the big Bollywood stars and ask them to perform in their own way is not the modernization of such a beautiful second anthem.

5. How about including Ambani, Tata, Birla, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Vajpayee, some famous child stars (Darsheel Safary, Tanay Chheda, Shriya) and of course most importantly “Aam Aadmi”?

6. If the whole song would have been composed by A.R.Rehman, it could have been far far better. (Remember Vande Mataram?).

+Ve

1. The song starts with beautiful tune given by A.R.Rehman and then Big B expresses himself in his own voice.

2. Priyanka is promoting Girl Education

3. The best part of this new version is – They included “deaf and dumb” children acting “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”. This is something eye-catching in this new version

I may be wrong at some points, but again it is just an individual perception. Feel free to post the comments and give your views.

ORKUT History

I almost forgot that I was writing blogs few months ago. Few of my friends asked me "no new entry on your blog ???" and that clicked me - "Oh man.. I almost stopped contributing on blogspot". So now Nisarg has woken up....

After having a heavy lunch today, I just opened Orkut and I saw Orkut's 6th Birthday logo on its home page. So instead of logging into Orkut, I started doing research on okrut - How orkut came into market and how a baby orkut grew up.

1. Orkut was launched on January 22, 2004 by Google as independent project of Orkut Büyükkökten (Don’t know how to pronounce his LastName).
2. 
   This guy is a Turkish software engineer, obtained Ph.D. (Computer Science) from Standford University and started working in Google in 2002. He developed Orkut as a 20% independent project while working at Google.
3. While previously working for Affinity Engines, he had developed a similar system, InCircle, intended for use by university alumni groups. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Büyükkökten and Google has launced orkut which is based on inCircle code. The allegation is based on the presence of 9 identical bugs in orkut that was also existing in InCircle
4. At first year, United States had the largest user base. By word of mouth various Brazilians began adopting and inviting more friends. Soon after, Brazil surpassed U.S. in number of users and Orkut started becoming heavily popular in Brazil. As on January 1^st 2010, below is the statistics.
5. 
6. Orkut was very popular in Iran, but the website is blocked by the government. As they say, this is due to national security issues, as orkut users have the ability to spread messages rapidly, but the government says it's due to Islamic ethical issues about dating and match making. To get around this block, sites such as "orkutproxy.xom" (now defunct) were made for Iranian users. Followed by Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain have also taken an action to ban Orkut.
7. Similar kind of actions have been taken in India as well. On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India. This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content. The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community has now been
8. Prior to the 60th Independence Day of India, Orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized Orkut logo. The word Orkut was written in the Devanagiri script and was colored in the Indian national colours. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the Orkut India Product Manager, Manu Rekhi
9. According to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be a mode of communication for these kind of drug abuses. The Cyber police in India have entered into an agreement with Orkut to have a facility to catch and prosecute those misusing Orkut since complaints are rising
10. By March of 2008 the number of Orkut communities had reached more than 47 million (I don’t know how trustworthy this news is)

While doing all these research, I came to know a very funny story published on some “aaltu-faaltu” site. Worth reading it J

A guy lost his girlfriend in a train accident, but the girl's name nowhere appeared in the dead list. This guy grew up and became IT technical architect in his late 20's, achievement in itself!!

He hired developers from the whole globe and planned to make a software where he could search for his girlfriend through the web. Things went as planned and he found her, after losing millions of dollars and 3 long years!!

It was time to shut down the search operation, when the CEO of Google had a word with this guy n took over this application. This Software made a whopping 1 billion dollars profit in its first year, which we today know as ORKUT JJJ