Three2Tango

Virgin Racing signs IT deal with UST Global

Vivek — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:04:13 +0000

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Racing Formula One team,one of the many new teams for the 2010-11 season has signed a new 3 year deal with UST Global, a major IT service provider in India. The deal is a big one especially for UST as the deal translates into revenues amounting upto 10 million dollars for the IT service firm, but more than the revenue part, it will help improve the brand image of the company.Indian tennis ace Leander Peas’ Leander Sport Pvt Ltd, has led the transaction.

Under the deal, UST Global will offer technology support to the Virgin racing team.UST Global will be developing a Race management tool for the 2010 season,which will give the race engineers a 360 trackside view of each Grand Prix.Under the deal, Virgin Racing will have the UST Global logo on their cars and on the drivers’ suits. So with the popularity of the Formula one and if Virgin Racing can pull together some upsets in the races, UST’s brand image will be on the rise soon. Congrats to UST Global on the new deal.

Karun Chandhok gets HRT seat

Dileep — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:09:57 +0000

Karun Chandhok took the last seat in the 2010 Formula1 grid, and becomes the second Indian to compete in Formula1. He partners Bruno Senna, at HRT(Hispania Racing Team), formerly known as Campos Meta. Chandhok had competed in GP2 in 2009, and finished the season in 18th, having collected 10 points. Though that record isn’t highly impressive, Chandhok will have the entire contingent of Indian F1 fans cheering him on, once the five red lights go off at Bahrain. The prospect of having an Indian driver, behind the wheel of a team owned by an Indian, for the prospective Indian Grand Prix in 2011 is exciting indeed. As per Bruno Senna, Karun’s team mate and nephew of F1 legend Ayrton Senna, HRT are atleast a second faster that Lotus and Virgin. If his words are to be believed, Chandhok might not be there just to make up the numbers.

Karun had good results in Asian national championships against weaker opposition but has only won a few races since moving into higher racing formulae.The popular Indian driver, only the second native of his country to get into F1, drove alongside Senna at iSport in 2008 and was out-scored by his team mate. That may well be the case at HRT this year but the performance of the untried car is a greater concern in the immediate future. However, the two rookies get along really well, as was evident during their time with iSport. However, if he gets outperformed by Senna, his career would go along the lines of his predecessor Narain Karthikeyan, who faded away after just a year in Formula 1 in which he was in the shadow of his team mate Tiago Monteiro at Jordan. Come what may, Indian F1 fans have got something extra to cheer about in 2010. However, it would take much, much longer to hear the ‘Jana Gana Mana’ at the end of a race weekend. Let’s hope somebody amongst the subscribers to this blog will do our country proud in the years to come.

A Few Chess Terms

Lloyd — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:46:21 +0000

Pinning: Is a very common tactic in chess.It is a situation leading to a dilemma for the opponent so that moving a piece will make a more valuable piece vulnerable. “To Pin” refers to the restriction of the opponent so that free movement of his piece is not possible.Pieces which can move infinitely along horizontal, vertical or diagonal can pin other pieces. A king cannot be pinned,as soon as the king is pinned it will become a check and King should be moved.Bishops, Rooks & Queens can pin opponents pieces whereas a King, Knight, and Pawn can’t make a pin. A Relative pin is a situation where the pinned piece is shielding a piece other than a king but relatively of higher value. An Absolute pin means the pinned piece is shielding a king, so the movement of the pinned piece becomes illegal, as it will result in a check to the king(If movement of a piece leads to check then its illegal move).In the picture the black knight is pinned by a White queen and it is an absolute pin.

Skewering: Is something that almost opposite to pinning. Here the more valuable piece is on attack and thus forcing the opponent to move that piece which in turn will lead to the capture of a relatively less valuable piece.Here also absolute and relative is present.The picture shows an absolute skewer, as the black king is on check it should be moved which will result in losing the queen.

Stalemate:
Is a situation leading to a draw.It happens when its a player’s turn to move and he doesnot have any valid move and his King is not in a check.Usually this happens when there are less number of pieces on the board.Some pieces will be blocked by opponents, some will be on absolute pin.

Fork:
A tactical move which will bring a profit in terms of opponent’s pieces. Fork is a situation when a piece attacks two or more pieces of the opponent simultaneously, thus resulting in a material gain.Any piece can create a fork, Knights are famous in forking moves, while bishops, rooks, queen, pawn and even king can create a fork. A Royal fork means the king and queen are forked which will eventually result in loosing queen in most cases. A Grand fork happens when the fork is made of King, Queen and one or both Rooks.

Of Larger Fuel Tanks, Longer Wheelbase, and Narrower Front Tyres!

Dileep — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:01:54 +0000

There are hardly 15 days to go for the 2010 Formula 1 season kick-off in Bahrain. Almost all the teams have launched their 2010 challengers, and tested them in the official test sessions at Valencia and Jerez. The 2010 season sees some rule changes, though not as radical as what we had seen for the 2009 season. The biggest difference would be the banning of refuelling, which poses designers with the problem of accomodating a larger fuel tank. Another change is that the front tyres are made narrower, in comparison to last year. This is done to address the imbalance of front and rear grip that resulted from the reintroduction of slicks last year.

Longer Wheelbase
Cars are believed to be at least 15 cm longer than in ‘09. The longer wheelbase is actually necessitated due to the demands of accomodating a larger fuel tank. However, a longer car woluld be lazier through the corners, and therefore, this is where the designers ingenuity could come into play. Moving the driver cockpit slightly forward, and building shorter gearboxes could be two ways of making more space for the fuel tank. Among the cars launched, some have looked longer than the rest. It would be interesting to see how they all perform on track.

Larger Fuel Tank
With the banning on refuelling for this season, the capacity of the fuel tank needs to be almost doubled. It is believed that a fully fuelled car and a near-empty one wuld weigh different by at least 200kg. This would lead to change in ride heights(and the centre of gravity) as the race goes on. A heavier car also tends to be more brutal on it’s tyres and brakes. It is believed that drivers like Jenson Button and Micheal Schumacher who know how to nurse their car through the race stand to win big this year, in comparison to the Hamiltons and the Alonsos wo go hard at their machinery. Also, it is believed that some engines are more fuel-efficient compared to the others, and that could affect race performances more this year. The Mercedes engine is widely regarded to be the best at the moment; however the Renault engine is supposedly the most fuel-efficient.

Narrow Front Tyres
When slicks were reintroduced last season, it led to a sudden increase in the mechanical grip. However, the tyre sizes remained to be the same as that for previous seasons, since all the design work had gone forward with the previous dimensions. However, this had led to much greater grip at the front, causing the rear end of the car to be ‘loose’. Last season, designers had to come up with things to address this grip imbalance. But, for 2010 FIA has reduced the front tyre width. This would increase straight line speed by reducing drag. Also, a higher volume air can funnel between the tyres (space between the tyres has increased by 50mm in total), which will improve the efficiency of vanes and bargeboards in this region. However, this comes at the cost of lower front grip, which affects cornering speed. The net effect will be to give the car more of an understeer feeling.

For the 2010 season, DDD or the double decker diffuser is legal(although they would be banned from the next season), and all the teams have invested big in this area. Also, none of the teams would be having KERS this season and so there would be no ‘magic button passes’ this time round. Along with all these technical changes, we have 4 (possibly 5, if Villeneuve gets to race) world champions in the grid. With introduction of some new teams, Toro Rosso and Force India would no longer be the back markers and they are expecteed to fight in the mid-field. The wide range of fuel loads everybody are testing with, it is impossible to judge the pace. Only the Bahrain race weekend can give us answers about the pecking order for the season. Let’s wait and watch, as it’s racing time again.

80th International Motor Show:Geneva 2010

Lloyd — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:51:06 +0000

The 80th international motor show is running at Geneva right now,started off on 4th of this month and will continue till 14th.This is an annual event, where almost manufacturers from 30 countries show their concepts and new borns. The motor show started of in 1905 still running successfully.Super cars and concept cars are the usual show stoppers in this motor show.This year it has around 250 manufacturers from different parts of the globe.More torque and technology is what is being shown now, new break throughs and findings are displayed, the show always is a platform for the finest automakers in world to compete, and a chance of public appreciation as well. A visitor at the show comments that the sedan era is gone, premium auto makers like BMW,Audi,Mercedez are all researching for new models and you can see this difference in the new concept cars displayed in the Salon.

Hot news from the show include Porsche 2nd generation Cayenne,Honda’s 3R-C concept-single seater battery powered electric vehicle,Lexus CT 200H, another highlight is BMW active Hybrid 5 Concept-Gasoline:Electric hybrid with 6 cylinder & 8 speed automatic transmission. List continues with Volkswagen,Opel, Benz F800 etc.

One more news for F1 lovers Mercedes uncovered their new F1 safety car, their formula 1 drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher was there for the ceremony.

See the official website for more news and pictures…More

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Income Tax Revisions in Budget 2010

Sam — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:27:18 +0000

The union budget is expected to be very consumer friendly, economists say its quite unexpected, the news of reiterated income tax slabs.There is a drastic difference with the previous slabs.Check Old tax slabs.Experts and govt says it need more money with the consumer.While presenting the budget to the house, finance minister said India had dodged the financial crisis successfully and revision of the income tax plans will surely help a major percentage of the tax payers. The government would allow a deduction of up to Rs 20,000 for investments in long-term infrastructure bonds. The deduction would be in addition to Rs 100,000 allowed under Section 80C of India’s Income Tax Act.So a total of Rs 1,20,000 is exempted from tax.

Income Slab	Tax %
1.6 Lakhs – 5 Lakhs	10%
5 Lakhs – 8 Lakhs	20%
8 Lakhs & Above	30%

The budget news made the mumbai stock rally 400 points up initially but later it came down, but overall sensex closed around 175 points higher than the previous day.

FIAT’s Success Story in India:Linea,Grand Punto

Lloyd — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:19:50 +0000

Failure is always a light to success. For instance FIAT motors in India, they started off in Indian market with their UNO, which failed to strike a chord with the customer. Hence UNO was no big success in India compared to the Brazil where it was big success. The fact is FIAT market study was not proper or they read the Indian customer wrong. They launched in India with the caption “Reliable & Sturdy”, but Indian buyers where looking for something elegant and prestigious. UNO orginally is a power house, a wonderfull engine that delivers high power, but improper advertising and marketing strategy failed it.This story happened 13 years back, in 1997. Fiat had its presence in India even in 50’s but through a company named Premier Automobiles.But they started themselves in 1997 with UNO.But things where not smooth with UNO, they managed to sell just 617 cars that year.But See how things changed in the past few years.FIAT strike back with new models like Palio,Linea,Punto etc which are very common in Indian roads now.They successfully changed the impression of Indian customer.
Now FIAT joined hands with TATA motors for their sales and services benefitting TATA’s wide service outlets and dealership network. This is supposed to reduce the complaints on poor customer service, because its easy to find a TATA dealership anywhere in India,simultaneously exploiting TATA’s name in Indian hearts. Slowly FIAT is grabbing some market share, in its second act it seems the Italian giant had done some serious market study. Once you look at their new models and pricing you will understand the level of effort they have put to grab the Indian customer.The Fiat Linea launched in early 2009 laid a successful milestone in Fiat’s attempt to win Indian hearts.In the past six to seven months, Linea has managed to sell around 6500 plus units despite a weak market, against the expert opinions like an expensive sedan like Linea won’t fit in Indian markets. With the launch of Linea and its success what the company is trying to prove is they are not the same old FIAT, we have changed, look at us we have a premium sedan in our stables, and take a look at our new hatchback “Punto“. Maruti may have 50% market share in India but we are nowhere behind, fight us to maintain the demand.

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Battle Board:How to read a chess game??

Lloyd — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:09:44 +0000

A professional approach to the battle boards needs proper understanding of the various aspects of the game.In a very formal game its compulsory that we should mark the moves and this is called notating the moves. There are a number of chess notations, of which algebraic notation is the one very commonly used.Eventhough there are other notations like reversible algebraic, figurine algebraic, smith, descriptive etc FIDE, the international chess federation is currently promoting the algebraic notation only.Now the need of noting down is to record a game of chess, as its very dynamic recording the game will help you replay your game, and reuse your strategies and tactics. A replay will help you improve your game. An algebraic notation avoids the starting position of the piece, and uses a certain designated english alphabets for each of the pieces.The picture below describes it well, an exception is pawn, which has no special notation. If a move is shown without any of those capital alphabets then its pawn’s move.

A sample game notation with a few moves

White	Black
e4	e5
0-0	d5
e x d5	d x c1=Q
B x c6+	d4++

The table shows very a battle board game in which only a few moves are shown just to elaborate on the various notations. “e4″ means white pawn at e2 moves to e4. “e5″ means black pawn at e7 moves to e5. The move written as 0-0 is a special move “Castling King side”. If the King castles on the queenside it would be written as 0-0-0. The noted as “d5″ means the black pawn at d7 moves to d5.“exd5″ is another special move denoting a piece capture, here it is a white pawn capturing a black piece located at d5.“dxc1=Q” is yet another special notation denoting a black pawn(d2) captures a piece at c1 and the pawn gets transformed into a Queen.“Bxc6+” means white bishop captures a piece at c6, and the plus sign means the movement resulted in a “check” to the black king. “d4++” indicates the movement of a black pawn to d4 square and the “++” sign indicates that white lose the game, the d4 movement resulted in a checkmate.

Chess Legend:BORIS SPASSKY

Lloyd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:15:30 +0000

Boris Vasilievich Spassky, the Soviet chess grandmaster and tenth World Chess Champion who held the title from 1969-72 was born in January 30, 1937.Spassky was born in Leningrad, and learned chess at the age of five when he was on an evacution train from his birth place.His international debut was on 1953 at the age of 16.From that day the growth of the 16 year old was tremendous. He was USSR champion twice, 1961 & 1973 and many other significant titles. The Spassky – Fischer match in 1972 is considered as the “Match of the Century“.The match brought in many controversies and was a big hype. Whole world was curious about the match, a US grand master playing a Russian grand master in the peak of Cold War. Spassky’s 3 year reign ended with that match as he lost to Bobby Fischer. The match was a big mess, many people agree with that statement.There was whole lot of pre-match demands from Fischer like money, playing conditions etc. Most of which were granted by Spassky.With all these hype and tensions Spassky didn’t lose a single match in the first 5 and won 3 out of the first five.But Fischer was in execellent form and won the title.

Evenif he lost to Fischer the world honoured him for his sportsmen spirit.He marked a difference in the chess world even in the post Fischer era.Regarding his contributions to modern chess, Spassky opening theory are still famous, risky yet amoung favourites.Eg:-King’s Gambit and a revised Marshall Attack for black and variations in Ruy Lopez.Spassky is considered among all time Legends of Chess with all his contributions to the modern Chess and his brilliant games against Tigran Petrosian (World Championship match 1969),Bent Larsen (USSR vs Rest of the World 1970) and ofcourse Fischer is also in the list.

Luxury Sedans in India & Stable Economy growth of market

Lloyd — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:45:03 +0000

A few decades ago the only luxurious car Indian roads were familiar with was Mercedes Benz, at that time Benz was the only symbol of elegance and pride.Now the scenario had changed.According recent market surveys, India is one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world.And that is why auto makers around the globe are targeting Indian roads.And that is the reason other motor giants like Volvo,BMW,Audi entered our markets.These people even started making cars that suits Indian roads. Now most of these giants have their factories in India which reduces the import taxes and production cost. So the silent implication of the sentence above is there are enough and more sales in India.This comes at a time when the major car manufacturers of the country are concentrating in low profile and fuel efficient cars and the once traditional markets, the US and Europe, for bigger and luxury cars, are fast moving towards small, fuel efficient and eco-friendly vehicles.
A simple example is BMW India, which sold 60 plus units of its X6 model in 2009, and overall of 3000 plus which exceeded the set target for the year 2009.All these are premium sedan models with price range of 45Lakh INR-50LakhsINR.

Since the competition is tight every manufacturer became conscious about there cars.They started watching a prospective Indian customer and tried to understand what he looks in a luxury sedan car.See a few car specifications and comparisons of competing luxury sedans in India.You can see each auto maker will be concentrating on different aspects and the differences in models are very subtle.

Make/Model	Engine Spec	Dimensions(LHW)in MM	Mileage(City/Highway)	Top Speed,Accelaration	Max Power	Gearbox	Fuel Capacity	Price(INR)
Mercedes Benz/E280	2997CC,V6,24 Valve	4854 x 1483 x 1822	7Kmpl/11Kmpl	148mph,0-100 in 8.5Sec	227BHP @ 6300rpm	Automatic,7 Gear	80 litres,21 Gallons	43.5 Lakh
AUDI/A6 3.2FSI	3123CC,V6,24 Valve	4927 x 1459 x 1855	6.4Kmpl/12.6Kmpl	155mph,0-100 in 8.2Sec	259BHP@ 6500rpm	Automatic,6 Gear	80 litres,21 Gallons	46.5 Lakh
BMW/5-series 530i	2996CC,24 Valve	4843 x 1491 x 1846	7.4 Kmpl/10.6Kmpl	155mph,0-100 in 7.6Sec	258BHP @ 6500rpm	Automatic,6 Gear	70 litres, 18 Gallons	45.2 Lakh

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