THRISSUR: The Birla Group would set up a multi-crore integrated Information Technology and Electronics Project at Mavoor in Kerala's Kozhikode district. This project would come up at the site of the closed Gwalior Rayons factory.

State Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem told reporters here that 50 per cent of the 300-acre sprawling site at Mavoor would be used for industrial and manufacturing activities.

The minister was here to inaugurate the second phase of the expansion scheme of state-owned Steel and Industrial Forgings Ltd at nearby Athani. The expansion programme was being implemented with an investment of Rs 10.38 crore, he said. PTI

A 30-year-old woman was arrested in Sabarimala on Sunday when she attempted to gatecrash into the Sabarimala hill shrine, defying the ban on the entry of women under the 10-50 age group, in the temple

The woman, later identified as Shelvi from Puducherry, managed to reach the front yard of the shrine by climbing the 18 holy steps before the police noticed her.

Shelvi, who was part of a pilgrims' group from Puducherry, was detained by the women police at Pampa. She was taken into custody for violating the ban on entry of women between 10 and 50 years, into the temple.

After questioning Shelvi, police said she was initially dissuaded by them from going up the hill at the foothills. But she managed to evade the security and reached the shrine, where she was first spotted by a news photographer, who immediately alerted the police.

The ban on women of age group 10-50 entering Sabarimala temple made headlines recently when Kannada film actress Jaymala claimed that she had visited the temple about 21 years back, sparking a raging controversy. While the state police investigated the incident, Jaymala's claim triggered a debate on the question of whether the ban on women should be challenged or not.
 

The "Grand Kerala Shopping Festival" is proposed to be conducted from December 1, 2007 to January 15, 2008. The festival is envisaged as an annual event and will become full fledged within a period of five years. This aims for a major impact in the trade and commerce sector, which has tremendous potential, and to make Kerala a prominent international trade centre. During the festival, the retail shops, trade centres, shopping malls etc will be offering attractive packages to encourage customers and attract more tourists to visit Kerala. The festival will also interlink with the state's high quality mercantile, tourism brand value and human resources strengths, which is inherent to Kerala. The endeavour is focused at making the state a commercial trade hub and attracting more business opportunities to the state.

IIM- Kozhikode organized its Annual IT Management Summit AIMS 2007 focused on the theme 'The New Frontiers of Technology: Consumer Internet, Wireless and Mobile' on November 17 and 18.
The keynote speaker on the occasion, Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO, BharatMatrimony.com talked about the Indian online industry and his brainchild Bharatmatrimony.com. He also highlighted the growth potential of the industry and possible future challenges in the same.  

During his talk on the theme, Mr. Ananth Krishnan, VP and CTO of TCS, emphasized on 'Consumer internet, wireless and mobility implications for the enterprise' and discussed the opportunities that pervasive mobility presents and the factors that hinder it from becoming a reality. Mr. Romal Shetty who heads KPMG's Telecom division addressed the audience on the telecom industry in India. He spoke on how the industry in India thrives purely on huge numbers and hence can afford to offer services at a lower rate to its customers. In his prediction for telecom industry he said, "One can expect more billion dollar companies to emerge from India in the near future."  

The summit also saw a workshop on careers in ERP by Mr. Sanjai K., Director, ERP, SAP Labs. Mr. Pashupathy Gopalan, Vice President, Cypress Semiconductors, who conducted a workshop on Strategic Marketing spoke about how the semiconductor industry is the key driver of innovation in the electronics industry and the importance of and difficulty in predicting future trends in an industry as dynamic as this. Mr. Sandeep Shrivastav, Director of Search at Yahoo! India, talked about the challenges and emerging trends of transactional and non-transactional online services. In his address he highlighted the importance of understanding the users' behavior, intent, location and profile in an increasingly dynamic environment.  

Mr. Lil Mohan the MD of the WiMax Divison at Intel, in his talk, encouraged entrepreneurship and learnings from his own experiences as an entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley.   Mr. Alok Mittal, Executive Director, Canaan Partners interacted with the students on the topic of innovation. He also spoke about issues concerning talent management and entrepreneurship.  

The panel discussion on 'A Nation Online: How the internet is changing our everyday lives,' featured the CEO of Bharat Matrimony, Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, the Co-Promoter and COO of Naukri.com, Mr. Hitesh Oberoi and Mr. Manoj Gupta, VP of Nexus India Capital Partners, a venture capital firm.