Tatas' Land Rover only Indian-owned brand in world's top 100

October 12, 2014

London, Oct 12: Tata group's Land Rover has forayed into an elite club of world's 100 most valuable brands as the only Indian-owned entity, while iconic Apple has retained its top slot with nearly USD 119 billion valuation.

Land RoverLand Rover, an iconic British car brand owned by Indian conglomerate Tatas, has been ranked 91st with a brand value of USD 4.47 billion and is one of the five new entrants on this annual list compiled by leading brand consultancy Interbrand.

Apple -- maker of iPhone mobiles, Mac computers, iPad tablets and iPod music players among others -- is followed by Google on the second position (USD 107 billion). These are the only two with brand values in excess of USD 100 billion.

While Land Rover is the only Indian-owned entity on the list, there are at least six other brands ranked among top 100 that are part of the entities run by Indian-origin CEOs.

These include Satya Nadella-led Microsoft (5th with brand value of USD 61 billion), Indra Nooyi-led Pepsi (24th; USD 19 billion), Shantanu Narayen-led Adobe (77th; USD 5.3 billion) and Ajay Banga-led MasterCard (88th; USD 4.7 billion).

Ivan Menezes-led British drinks giant Diageo, which also owns majority stake in India's largest alcoholic beverage manufacturer United Spirits, also has two portfolio brands -- Smirnoff (34th; USD 13 billion) and Johnnie Walker (86th; USD 4.8 billion) -- on the top 100 list.

Land Rover has been ranked higher than many big global brands like FedEx, Huawei, Heineken, Pizza Hut, BOSS, Nokia, Gap and Nintendo.

"Exemplifying British engineering and expertise in the SUV category, the iconic British brand (owned by TATA of India) has invested heavily in product creation, facility, and infrastructure," Interbrand said.

The leading brand consultancy further noted that "with 115 awards across its car range (led by Range Rover with 55 awards), Land Rover is finally getting the recognition it deserves and has improved its J D Power scores significantly."

"With the customer at the heart of the company, a clear focus and significant investment in improving design and quality, and demonstrating world-class technology and innovation, Land Rover is fully equipped to experience accelerating success in the forthcoming Age of You," Interbrand added.

Among top-ten, Apple and Google are followed by Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, GE, Samsung, Toyota, McDonald's and Mercedes Benz.

Apple's brand value increased 21 per cent year-on-year, while for Google it was 15 per cent and for Coca Cola it was 3 per cent.

To be included in Best Global Brands, a brand must be truly global, having successfully transcended geographic and cultural boundaries, Interbrand said.

It must have a significant presence in Asia, Europe, and North America, as well as broad geographic coverage in emerging markets.

Moreover, the brand must have a public profile and awareness across the world's major economies.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued notice to some Bollywood celebrities named in a complaint against the promoter of a company for allegedly blackmailing and sexually assaulting a number of girls on the pretext of giving them a career in modelling.

Taking cognizance of the complaint filed by social activist Yogita Bhayana of People Against Rape in India (PARI), the NCW scheduled a virtual hearing presided by its chairperson on August 6.

The complaint against Sunny Verma, promoter of a company named IMG Ventures with its headquarter in Chandigarh, alleged that he has been blackmailing and sexually assaulting a number of girls on the pretext of giving them career in modelling.

PARI's Yogita Bhayana wrote a complaint letter to NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma.

"Through his company, he (Sunny Verma) invites the girls on the pretext of organising a Miss Asia contest with a claim that the contest will launch them as models. To make it look genuine, his company has also been taking an entry fee of Rs 2,950. Once the girls apply, they are alluded by the female accomplices of Sunny Verma to submit their nude pictures in order to get the better ranking in the contest," the complaint letter said on July 31.

It alleged that Verma, after receiving the pictures and sometimes even before, used to get in touch with the girls and ask for completely nude pictures and videos.

The complaint letter said that Verma also used to allude as well as threaten the girls to submit to his sexual desires if they were interested in modelling as a career or wish to win the contest.

"Once he established a physical relationship with the girls, he used to blackmail them for regular sexual favours. Many girls from across the country have suffered a sexual and mental assault from Sunny and his accomplices," said the complaint citing several letters, texts and audio clips from several girls as proof of this modus operandi of Sunny Verma and his company.

The complaint also said that Sunny Verma has been previously also arrested on charges of sexual assault.

"We would demand that NCW should investigate the case to its depth and get the guilty punished so that any other person should not dare to exploit these kinds of innocent girls on any pretext. It will be a message to people like Sunny Verma and all associated Bollywood stars. Looking forward to strict action from NCW against sexual offenders like Sunny Verma & others," the complaint said.

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Agencies
July 4,2020

Twitter has joined efforts to do away with racially loaded terms such as master, slave and blacklist from its coding language in the wake of the death of African-American George Floyd and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests.

The project started even before the current movement for racial justice escalated following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody in May.

The use of terms such as "master" and "slave" in programming language originated decades ago. While "master" is used to refer to the primary version of a code, "slave" refers to the replicas. Similarly, the term "Blacklist" is used to refer to items which are meant to be automatically denied.

The efforts to change these terms in favour of more inclusive language at Twitter were initiated by Regynald Augustin and Kevin Oliver and the microblogging platform is now backing their efforts.

"Inclusive language plays a critical role in fostering an environment where everyone belongs. At Twitter, the language we have been using in our code does not reflect our values as a company or represent the people we serve. We want to change that. #WordsMatter," Twitter's engineering team said in a post on Thursday.

As per the recommendations from the team, the term "whitelist" could be replaced by "allowlist" and "blacklist" by "denylist".

Similarly, "master/slave" could be replaced by "leader/follower", "primary/replica" or "primary/standby".

Twitter, however, is not the first to start a project to bring inclusivity in programming language.

According to a report in CNET, the team behind the Drupal online publishing software started using "primary/replica" in place of "master/slave" as early as in 2014.

The use of the terms "master/slave" was also dropped by developers of the Python programming language in 2018.

Now similar efforts are underway at Microsoft's Github and LinkedIn divisions as well, said the report.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Washington D.C: One of the greatest spectacles of modern art is still thriving in the Australian outback as confirmed by satellite imagery of NASA. The Marree Man is a massive geoglyph depicting an aboriginal hunter, that spans over 2.6 miles in the Southern Australian region.

Discovered by a pilot in 1998, its origin still remains a mystery even to this date.

The Marree Man was given a new lease of life in 2016 when a group of people from the neighboring town of Marree plowed its lines to avert its fading due to erosion.

After NASA shared the image of the art-work that was taken in June, the efforts of the good samaritans turned out to be a total success, reported CNN Travel.

The restoration team believes that the refurbished Marree Man would last longer than its original version.

According to NASA, "They [the team] created wind grooves, designed to trap water and encourage the growth of vegetation. They hope that eventually, the man will turn green."

In a previous article, CNN reported that an entrepreneur by the name of Dick Smith took upon himself to unravel the geoglyph's mystery in 2016. His team combed through all the available evidence but couldn't find anything conclusive.

In 2018 he even offered a 5,000 Australian dollar reward for anyone who knows the identity of its creator.

Nobody turned up with an answer but it was speculated that unknown artist lives in Alice Springs or even might be an American.

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