The Ex-MD of Indian’s largest automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki is certainly living life in the fast lane these days. After steering the Japanese manufacturer to extreme heights, he had retired after his term came to an end. Even then, he has taken up a new initiative to stick to this field by getting into Automobile service hubs in India on a large scale.

Jagdish Khattar, now armed with funds from Premji Invest and IFCI Venture Funds, the former chief of Maruti Udyog, is planning to open 100 “multi-brand auto solution hub” in three years. This is a very ambitious move even under times of recession, but we think that Khattar has more than sufficient knowledge to excel in this undertaking.

His plan begins with the first twelve outlets of the entrepreneurial venture – Carnation Auto India Ltd – which are already under implementation. “The first set of these will come up in Kochi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Amritsar, and two in Noida,” Khattar told The Times of India. “Our first outlet would be opened before March,” he said.

Carnation is a third party multi brand car service provider. It will sell tyres, batteries, car detailing, insurance and other four-wheeler related items, apart from servicing cars. Each unit of Carnation will have 20 to 40 work bays, with each bay capable of handling three to four cars a day.

As Europe is battling to reduce CO2 emissions, supercars like the Bugatti Veyron could run head-on into trouble! New laws which will come into effect in 2014, demand rolling resistance of tires to be under 10.5kg per tonne. This means cars which have ultra-wide high performance tires are likely banned from plying roads from 2014 onwards.

Mercedes Benz has delivered 500,000 C-Class models (5 Lakh) from the current 204 Series to customers around the world since the vehicle’s international launch in March 2007.Mercedes Benz C-Class is the segment leader globally since the beginning of this year, and In India, things aren’t very different.

Ford, keen to be back to the top has released its new plan to get there and has submitted its restructuring scheme to the US Congress. The new plans commit it to launching new hybrid and electric vehicles by 2012 if its gets financial support from the government.Ford would want to make an electric vehicle on the lines of the Volt and the Dodge EV.

The dossier - released ahead of a critical meeting between the Big Three and the US government later this evening - also states that CEO Alan Mulally will work for just $1 next year.That’s a big sacrifice by any standard.

I present you with the first batch of pictures on the cyclone ‘Nisha’ that struck Chennai. The city was under rains for the majority part from the 21st night (last friday) for over a week till date. The rains have still not ended, but the severity has reduced. I leave you with some pictures. If you have any more pls send it to us so that we can share what we have gone through. pls send them to designersf@yahoo.co.in with “Chennai Flood Pictures ” in the subject.

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