'CWG success will fuel India's Olympics bid'

Aug 12, 2010

Melbourne: Seemingly unimpressed by tardy preparations for the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, Australia's Olympic chief John Coates on Thursday said India will have to prepare in a better way if it aspires to host Olympic Games in future.

Coates said the Games are being viewed as a step towards securing subcontinent's first Olympic event but infrastructure problems and continuing security problems could damage India's possible bid.

"In the Olympic world, we would certainly prefer that venues are all finished one year before, that you're able to have test events to test the venues, to test the organisation.

"We did have some similar experiences with Athens (Olympics in 2004) and I'm sure the Games will happen, but certainly I wouldn't like to be involved in something with construction happening so close to the event," Coates was quoted as saying by the AAP.

Delay in the completion of the venues and corruption scandals have marred the build-up to the October 3-14 mega-event.

Three members of the Games Organising Committee have already been either sacked or suspended in the wake of alleged corruption during the launch of the Queen's Baton Relay in London last year.

"In many ways, you're in the hands of organising committees, you're in the hands of governments, you get to a stage where you have to trust them, you have to back them," he said.

India ranks fourth among nip-and-tuck nations New Delhi, August 12, 2010

New Delhi, August 12, 2010
India ranks fourth in the list of the countries with the maximum number of people going for surgical and non-surgical procedures to enhance their features, according to a global survey. The survey, conducted by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, included the top 25 countries representing 75 per cent of all procedures performed by board-certified plastic surgeons in 2009.

“There has been a shift in the perception of beauty with time. In a competitive world, people want to look younger and fresher and they are opting for procedures that will take away years from their face,” said Sanjay Parashar, a cosmetologist.

“Mummy makeovers” for new mothers, facial rejuvenation, tummy tucks, high definition liposuction, breast augmentation and contouring are among the most popular procedures, he said.

India saw 683,160 surgical procedures in 2009 and 211,540 non-surgical procedures, accounting for 5.2 per cent of the procedures performed in these 25 countries.

The US led the list followed by China and Brazil. The top 10 include Mexico at fifth place followed by Japan, South Korea, Germany, Turkey and Spain.

Continent-wise, Asia ranked first with 5,704,277 procedures, followed by North America with 4,155,955 and Europe with 3,538,319.

“We are seeing a lot of people from the US and the West opting for surgeries in India. This may be because apart from being cheaper, we have very good infrastructure and are good at communicating in English, compared to say countries like China,” said Dr Parashar.

Commonwealth Games OC justifies deal with Fast Track

Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, August 12, 2010

Stung by the CAG's interim report which has found discrepancies in some deals, the CWG Organising Committee today defended its broadcasting rights deal with Fast Track despite a high commission paid to them, saying the UK company had doubled the revenue target. The Comptroller and Auditor General Track was preferred over Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) despite a high comission and thus OC lost on revenue generation.SMAM had offered its services for 12.5 percent while OC gave 15 percent to Fast Track.
OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot said it was a well thought out decision to award the deal to Fast Track as they did not want to give too many contracts to SMAM, which already had bagged the sponsorship contract.

"Fast Track is a well known company in this field and we have to ensure that company which has the experience is given the job. They had done it in Melbourne and other Commonwealth Games. It was a very wise (decision) that we did not put all the eggs in one basket," Bhanot said.

"Fast Track has almost doubled the revenue we targetted. I think it's fully justified and a proper procedure was followed and it was a decision taken by the Board that not to give both the contract to one firm despite the fact that they were charging less.

"But now the end result is that we have achieved double the target... we have earned more," he said.

The OC had recently scrapped its sponsorship deal with SMSM on grounds of 'non-performance', a claim that has been refuted by the Australian firm, which said the charges against it are "imaginary".

The CAG report, it is learnt, has also alleged that high profile officials such CWG chief Mike Fennel and CEO Mike Hoper were involved in various discrepancies.

Hooper refused to comment on the developement.

"I have not seen the CAG report myself. I have seen only media reports. I will ask OC to get us a copy of the CAG report. Will comment only after seeing it," Hooper said.

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