LimeRoad.com Ropes in Neha Dhupia as Style Director

LimeRoad.com, India’s first social shopping platform, today announced the fashion savvy, fiercely independent and ultra-chic style icon Neha Dhupia is coming on board as Limeroad Style Director.

Neha, the twitter face of the Wills India Fashion Week (Mar 2014), has been a part of the LimeRoad Style Council since 2013 and now joins the core team to play a pivotal role as Style Director of India’s leading social shopping platform, building a strong community of women who love to play with products and style.

The community of Scrapbookers have become trail-blazers in India having posted 250,000+ unique style-led scrapbook looks.  Women from across the country, 138 cities across 22 states are loving, creating and sharing looks, together with celeb bloggers such as Miss Malini. Gorgeous looks streaming on mobile screens, getting renewed every 30 seconds- this is the virtual shopping mall with endless mannequins, recreating the joy of window shopping.

The excitement and addictiveness of the LimeRoad community is palpable.  Says Naushin , a student in Aligarh “LimeRoad is my escape out of my small town. I never knew what is a Romper, before I started scrapbooking. I think now I am as much trend-aware as any other girl in the metro cities.”

As the LimeRoad Style Director, Neha Dhupia will  be responsible for sharing her own strong sense of style, and anchoring LimeRoad’s growing scrapbooking community into a space where fresh styles and trends come together to make product discovery for users an absolutely delight.

Suchi Mukherjee, Founder& CEO, LimeRoad, comments: “We love people with strong points of view and the hunger and drive to make big things happen.  That's what we look for in every team member.  Neha embodies just that spirit and we are very delighted to have her play a much bigger role in developing our community.  Our mission is to build the most delightful lifestyle discovery platform in India, and Neha will be working with us to make that happen.”

Neha Dhupia in her new role as a business woman said, “I always wanted to build something of my own and LimeRoad is my idea of a breakthrough company. Exclusive products shown through beautiful user generated scrapbooks streaming live on mobile, is one of a kind concept in India.  I want every girl/woman across the country to find a platform to express their own personal style and nothing around me allows them to do just that quite like LimeRoad. This new role gives me the opportunity to interact with the community on a more personal level and encourage them to express the creator in them.”

Philips Mobile Launches 4 New Smartphones in India

Philips Mobile, has announced its foray into the Indian mobile market with its new range of smartphones W6610, W3500, S308 and also a feature phone E130 targeting at business professionals, technology enthusiasts and durability segment. CEC sees a huge opportunity in the Indian smartphone market and aggressively aiming to provide innovative and stylish phones to the wide segment of consumers, where patterns and preferences are constantly evolving. The products are priced between Rs 1, 960 - Rs 35,000.

The company is looking to create maximum value for partners and consumers by providing best in class products and after sales services. Philips mobile phones are designed with best-in-class battery performance, advanced yet user-friendly features and an elegant form factor, so customers can stay connected with what matters most - always.

While opportunities exist in the top metros, CEC sees volumes coming from Tier II, III & IV towns as well, and is putting in place a strong distribution network to address these markets and ensure their products are available to customers across the country.

W6610

Featuring a best-in-class 5300mAh built-in battery, the Philips Xenium W6610 enables you to explore each day with amazing power. Talk for as long as you want. Do the stuff you love on the web at any time. The W6610 is a phone for truly continuous connection. In addition to an epic talk time of up to 33hours* and web browsing time of up to 16 hours* made possible by its 5300mAh battery, the Philips Xenium W6610 comes with an ingenious Power-saving switch. Even better, its fast-charging feature injects a jolt of energy to your phone when you need it most. Thanks to the W6610’s multi-faceted power management solution, you can deep dive into many mobile adventures and get to all the things you want. The Philips Xenium W6610’s 1.3GHz quad core processor delivers speed and exceptional power for multitasking. For those who love to live life in stunning graphics, photos and videos, the W6610’s huge 5” qHD IPS display delivers panoramic views in vivid colors.

W3500

Step up the game with the new Philips W3500. This smartphone equips you with a 1.3GHz quad core processor, a 5.0” FWVGA TFT touch screen, Android 4.2 and dual mode network coverage for heightened mobile experiences. The Philips W3500’s 1.3GHz quad core processor delivers speed and power for the most demanding multitasking environments. Whether you are surfing the internet, downloading a photo album, streaming a high definition video or enjoying a graphic-rich online game, the Philips W3500 ramps up your user experience. A built-in 5 megapixel camera helps you capture life at its best. To sync content across a few Wi-Fi-enabled devices, simply activate WLAN connectivity and set up a personal mobile hotspot on your W3500.

S308

The right touch in the right place is how you make a style statement. Cast your eye over the Philips S308, the newest addition to the Philips mobile family and its beautiful curved design steals your attention right away. But more than that, the Philips S Series’ unique ergonomics means it feels as gorgeous as it looks. Along with its 4” touch screen, a powerful processor and Android 4.2, the S308 promises an outstanding smartphone experience. The S308 aims at targeting the stylish phone consumer with a variety of colors. The phone supports dual sim options and a 5 megapixel camera and memory cards up to 32 GB.

E130

Connect the easy way. Count on the Philips E130 to put work and social life in one place. With its dual SIM standby feature, you can now organize work and family contacts on two separate numbers without carrying two phones around. Better still, switching between two tariffs plans to get the best deals is as easy as ABC. Calls and texts can be sent from both phone numbers at the same time on the E130, making it super convenient to arrange contacts in two groups for easy access or switch Sims for another to maximize air time and reap promotional offers. When you are snowed under with work, the Philips E130’s MP3 and FM Radio features deliver instant access to great tunes and DJ chatters. Its Bluetooth connectivity and 3.5mm audio jack are perfect for enjoying loud music without disturbing others. This phone also doubles as your torch when there is need for torchlight. The Philips E130 supports MicroSD cards of up to 32GB capacity*.

On the occasion of the launch, SS Bassi, Country Manager, SAARC Sangfei said, “We are glad to enter the Indian market with the latest models of Philips mobiles that are designed to suit the requirements of Indian consumers. India is at the forefront of global technology and is a growing market. With the launch of Philips mobile in India, we aim to offer best-in-class mobile experience at an affordable price. Philips Mobile are positioned at the cutting edge to meet and exceed the demands of the future by leveraging Philip’ s 123years of success and innovation with developing award-winning products and offering superior service.”

Pricing

•W3500 - Currently available at Rs. 16, 195

•W6610 - Currently available at Rs. 20, 650

•S308 - Currently available at Rs. 8,290

•E130 - Currently available at Rs. 1,960

Availability

Philips Mobile will partner with Redington as their distribution partner to market their products across all markets in India.

Parimala Hariprasad joins PASS As Delivery Director

PASS Technologies (“PASS”), one of Europe's leading on-demand software testing services providers has appointed Parimala Hariprasad as Delivery Director. She will be operating out of PASS Bangalore delivery center. The move is to bolster the growth impetus seen by the company in the APAC region.

Parimala is a Software Testing Professional with more than a decade of leadership and testing experience. She has proven expertise in test delivery excellence, test coaching and building scalable organizations. In her previous role, she single handedly set-up a start-up testing division which provided professional testing services to a large number of start-up firms across the globe. She was also instrumental in setting up an Academy, the first of its kind “Kung Fu School of Testing”. The academy produced some of the industry acclaimed top quality test professionals.

On the occasion of her appointment, Parimala said “It is an honor to be a part of PASS management team. I look forward to applying my expertise and significantly contributing to the growth of the company”.

Prior to joining PASS Technologies, Parimala was associated with Moolya Software Testing Private Limited, a Bangalore based Testing Services Provider. At Moolya, she was a core member of the leadership team and played a pivotal role in inception and growth of the firm. During her tenure, the company achieved tremendous growth in the international market. She has also worked with Oracle, McAfee and Consona (erstwhile SupportSoft), serving global clients from different industry domains including CRM, Security and Healthcare. This included some of the largest e-commerce firms in India, international media houses and large retail groups in UK.

Parimala is a published author with many testing magazines like Testing Planet, Testing Circus, TechWell, Stickyminds and Better Software. She has also contributed a sidebar on Distributed Testing Teams in an upcoming agile testing book (to be published soon). She often speaks at software testing conferences and participates actively in conferences on software development, design, UX, storytelling and writing.

Mayank Mittal, Director and Country Head, PASS India said “I am excited to welcome Parimala on board. She brings with her a great depth of knowledge and her experience of over a decade in the field of testing will surely be a great value-add to the PASS India team”

SUSE Studio Passes 2.4m Builds & Half a Million Users

SUSE Studio, the image creation tool for Linux, has reached more than 512,000 users of its hosted online version, with more than 2.4 million appliances built by enterprise users, independent software vendors (ISV) and technology providers. In addition, the SUSE Gallery has seen more than 27,000 releases pass through it, and it currently houses nearly 12,000 software appliances.

SUSE Studio is available in online or onsite versions, and it allows customers to create, deploy and maintain physical, virtual or cloud-based application images or appliances based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

“More than a half million users and 2.4 million builds is a terrific barometer of SUSE Studio's success at helping customers and partners quickly and efficiently develop and manage portable and cloud-based applications,” said Sabine Soellheim, solution and product marketing manager for SUSE. “SUSE Studio users cut complexity and costs by automating routine, labor-intensive tasks. The ability to deploy the operating system, middleware and application components as a pre-installed, pre-configured unit reduces time, costs and maintenance for software applications deployed in a user's environment.”

With a few clicks in the browser-based SUSE Studio, developers and system administrators can create and test a SUSE Linux Enterprise-based application image and deploy it to a hard drive, a USB flash, a live DVD, a virtual server (VMware/VirtualBox/Xen/KWM/Hyper-V/OVF) and even an OpenStack cloud such as SUSE Cloud or other clouds like Amazon EC2 or Microsoft Azure. Users can migrate software applications among various IT environments, including mainframes. The ability to leverage a new or existing application in different environments dramatically improves the efficiency of deploying and maintaining applications.

3G services From Idea Now Available in Punjab

Committed to providing affordable and seamless mobile data services across India, Idea Cellular, the country’s 3^rd largest and fastest growing mobile operator, announced the launch of 3G services in Punjab today. Idea’s national 3G footprint now covers 28 Indian states, with its own network set up across 13 large states, and through Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) agreements in the rest of the country. 

Idea’s 3G network in Punjab will offer an experience ‘Like Never Before’ to customers who have waited anxiously for the state’s oldest, and most preferred mobile operator, to launch 3G services. Starting from - the Capital city of Chandigarh; to the progressive, agricultural belts of Nawanshahr, Jagraon, Malerkotla and Nabha; to the industrial hub of Ludhiana – Idea’s 3G network will grow to cover 170 towns across the state with 1800 3G cell sites by the end of FY15.

Speaking at the launch event, P Lakshminarayana, Chief Operating Officer - Corporate, Idea Cellular said, “Having witnessed consistent growth over the last 5 years, Idea is now well poised for the next wave of mobile broadband revolution, and has been investing in spectrum acquisition, network expansion, enhancing sales and service delivery channels, to proliferate mobile data services across the country. Our recent spectrum win in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band has now given us the ability to further expand our 3G network, and launch 4G services in key revenue markets including Punjab, at an appropriate juncture.”

Idea is one of the leading mobile operators and the fastest growing in Punjab with a revenue market share of 21.3% as on Q3 FY14. With a network footprint of 4,553 sites, Idea offers 2G coverage across 227 towns and 12,103 villages in Punjab. The company is now investing in setting up a robust 3G network in the state and has the ability to launch 4G services, as well, in future. This will make Idea the only operator to offer all three mobility technologies - GSM, 3G and 4G – in Punjab, in the next few years. 

Talking about Idea’s 3G offerings, Sudhir Pradhan, Chief Operating Officer – Punjab, J&K and HP, Idea Cellular said, “Idea is the only pan-India GSM operator to offer 3G services in Punjab and we assure our customers of a 3G experience ‘Like Never Before’. Idea’s 3G services will offer enhanced user experience to subscribers, allowing them to stream audio and video files at high speed, enjoy social networking, and watch movies, mobile TV and play HD Games. With a wide range of 3G data usage plans and Idea-branded 3G devices at attractive prices and affordable EMIs, Idea customers can now conveniently switch from 2G to 3G in Punjab.“

Idea’s robust distribution channel comprising of over 800 distributors, 60,000 retailers and more than 100 Idea showrooms, including special 3G Experience Zones, will enable customers to avail and enjoy 3G  services ‘like never before’.

Idea’s 3G tariff plans in Punjab have been designed to suit all pockets. From packs priced at Rs. 19 for 80MB data valid for 2 days, to Rs. 56 for 200MB for 7 days, and Rs. 98 for 300MB valid for 28 days, it also has unlimited 3G plans starting from Rs. 645 for uninterrupted data services for heavy data consumers. Idea will also be introducing a range of affordable 3G devices like high speed 3G NetSetter, Idea Netsmart Wi-fi Dongles, and Idea Smartphones in the Punjab market.

2 New Apps From The Beer Café for Beer Enthusiasts

The Beer Café recently launched an eponymous mobile app available on the Google Play Store and the App store (iOS). The app developed by SnapLion has brilliant features wherein you can browse through menus, photos, upcoming events & weekly promotions. The user interface is clean and simple with graphics that tempt you to head on over for a chilled mug. The app also includes a playlist wherein you can choose to download or buy the featured songs. There are special offers for loyal customers as well. You may also order “Beer on Wheels” directly from the app with just so much as lifting your finger! 

Says Rahul Singh, founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe "We wanted to tap into technology to reach out to our customers directly, keeping them up to date with all our events and promotions. The official app gives patrons an easy access to information as well as exclusive offers at The Beer Café. We also have a loyalty program, the idea of which is to increase repeat visits."

The Beer Café also launched another cool and exciting jukebox app with Hopp- Mylo. Just scan the QR code and you can now control the jukebox at The Beer Café location you are visiting. You can choose 3 songs on each visit/per hour from their featured playlist.

"With the Hopp app we want to engage our customers by allowing them to play their favourites or dedicate a tune. It's great beer paired with great music- The perfect combination! Hopp is jukebox re-invented that queues every song request. We have popular rock and commercial songs playing at the outlets and the playlist gets updated every 15 days.", adds Rahul Singh.

The Beer Café is India’s first PYOB (Pour your own beer) chain, the only café in India with a range of 50 different varieties of Beer from across 17 countries in the world. With 10 outlets “pouring” and 21 more locations planned for this year, The Beer Café is poised to become the largest, fastest and most profitable alcobeverage service brand in India.

The Beer Cafe app is available for download on the Google and App Stores. It carries details about all the outlets.

Wonderla Topline Grows at 12% in FY 2014; Recommends 15% Dividend

Wonderla Holidays Limited, which had a spectacular debut on the bourses earlier this month has declared its financial results for the full year ended March 31, 2014 at the Board Meeting held in Bangalore today. The company has reported operating income of Rs 15362.58 lakhs as on March 31, 2014 which is an increase of 11.44% compared to Rs 13785.05 lakhs earned on March 31, 2013.

The total turnover has grown by 11.94% to Rs 15600.60 lakhs in FY ’14 as against Rs 13936.90 lakhs on March 31, 2013. The Profit after Tax (PAT) has grown 18.76% to Rs 3989.20 lakhs  from Rs 3358.93 lakhs a year ago. The company has also recorded an impressive EBIDTA growth of 13.48% at Rs 7274.29 lakhs last year compared Rs 6410.27 lakhs  registered on March 31, 2013

Commenting on the company’s performance, Arun Chittilappilly, Managing Director, Wonderla Holidays Limited said, “We are happy to report robust growth in an overall challenging business environment. We recently had a good debut on the bourses and once again would like to thank all our stakeholders and investors. We will continue to innovate and take amusement park entertainment to greater heights in India.”The Board of Directors of the Company at their meeting held on May 28, 2014, inter alia, have recommended a final dividend of Rs. 1.50 per share (15%) for the year ended March 31, 2014 subject to the approval of shareholders in ensuing Annual General Meeting.

The company recorded a total footfall of 22.92 lakhs  as on March 31, 2014  compared to the total footfall of 23.40 lakhs for the year ending March 31, 2013.