Andhranews

Singapore, Sept. 17: Developing nations led by India and Brazil on Sunday virtually lost their campaign to stall the moves of enhanced powers to China and three others at the International Monetary Fund, with its managing director R.D. Rato claiming “consensus” on the controversial proposal a day before the conclusion of voting.

The decisions at the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of World Bank-IMF showed there was a “consensus” on the increase in voting powers for China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico, Mr Rato told reporters after the meeting.

“Although there are views on both sides about the voting that is taking place, the decision that was taken at the committee on Sunday showed that there is a consensus (on the ad-hoc increase in quota) ... The communique that is issued at the end of the committee meeting is an unanimous statement,” Mr Rato, who addressed a press conference along with the committee chairman and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, said.

Earlier in the day, finance minister P. Chidambaram had made a strong plea against the “flawed formula” to restructure voting rights of the member countries, saying the world body should instead adopt “comprehensive reforms to move towards adequate, equitable and appropriate representations for the developing countries.”

To a pointed query that India, Brazil, Argentina and Egypt have issued a joint statement opposing the move, Mr Rato said, “I understand there are different positions... Some countries are expressing reservations about reforms.” “But with all of them expressing their backing to the first ad-hoc increase of the various under-represented economies, I think there is a consensus of the measures that are being voted right now,” he said.

These reforms, which have been agreed upon, should also enhance the participation and voice of low-income countries in the IMF, Mr Brown said, adding “This will be the biggest reform to the governance of the IMF for 60 years.”If the measure goes through on Monday, the four countries including China would have increased voting rights in the IMF governing body to which India has been a member right from its inception in 1945.

India, Brazil and several other developing countries, who are opposing the move, have together less than 15 per cent of votes in the IMF governing body whereas 85 per cent votes in the 184-member body are required for carrying out the reforms. The communique said the committee stressed the importance of the IMF quota and enhancing the voice of low-income countries. The executive board has submitted a two-year programme of quota and voice reforms in a draft resolution of the board of governors.

Singapore, Sept. 17: India on Sunday said that strong fundamentals have helped the domestic economy to negotiate effectively recent stock market volatility and pressure on prices, enabling the investment boom to continue for the third year in a row. “We are committed to continuing the process of fiscal consolidation in 2006-07 and thereafter,” finance minister P. Chidambaram said, exuding confidence that high economic growth of eight per cent achieved during the last three years would be sustained.

Portraying a rosy picture of the economy for the world community at the meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF-World Bank, he said inflationary pressures by and large have been contained in India by appropriate monetary and fiscal policies and ensuring adequate supply of essential commodities.

While committing to fiscal consolidation by meeting the deficit targets, Mr Chidambaram said, “The investment boom is continuing for a third year in a row. Strong fundamentals have helped the economy negotiate effectively the recent stock market volatility, and underlying investment sentiments in the financial markets continue to remain positive.” Mr Chidambaram said the price line has been more or less contained so far despite sky-rocketing of global oil prices, emphasising that business confidence and corporate performance continued to be favourable.

After crossing the five per cent mark, the wholesale prices-based inflation declined to 4.78 per cent for the week ended September 2 in India. Despite the surge in the oil import bill, the external current account situation is manageable, underpinned by robust exports and invisible receipts and capital flows, he said. He also said the foreign exchange market remained orderly, exhibiting two-way movement.

Mr Chidambaram said India is committed to reining in fiscal deficit within the targeted level during 2006-07, despite it touching more than 58 per cent of the budgeted level in the first four months of this financial year.

Aurangabad, Sept. 17: Wockhardt on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in Aurangabad.

The SEZ will be spread over 107 hectares of land leased by MIDC at Shendra. The Wockhardt group, which has a market capitalisation of over $1 billion, will establish a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing and research facility at the SEZ. It will provide employment to an estimated 2,000 people.

“This SEZ will provide the base for a new thrust in international markets that will drive Wockhardt’s growth in the coming years,” Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala said. “It will make Aurangabad a major hub for pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.” Mr Khorakiwala complimented the State government for its support and fast clearance of the first major pharmaceutical and biotechnology SEZ.

New Delhi, Sept. 17: The real estate sector of the Indian economy is set for a boom time ahead. A key growth driver for the sector will be the increasing demand in office space, primarily fuelled by the IT and ITeS, says a recent study on the Indian real estate sector.
A study by Ernst & Young and industry chamber Ficci points out that the real estate sector will emerge as a preferred investment destination of global firms and that there will be significant changes in the trends of this sector.

This includes enlargement of project size, movement of construction activities from metros to smaller cities, shift from regional developers to national level developers and the emergence of a “real estate capital market”. These trend changes are expected in the next three to five years.

Pointing out the expected boom in demand for commercial space, the Ficci-E&Y study notes that in the commercial office segment, the demand for office space is set to expand significantly in the next few years. The demand will primarily be driven by the IT and ITeS industry, which according to the E&Y’s optimistic estimates, would require an additional office space of more than 367 million sq. ft. up to the year 2012-13.

The study goes on to explain that even in a unlikely scenario of dismal performance by IT and ITeS industry, the Indian IT and ITeS will require approximately 256 million sq. ft of commercial office space by 2012-13.

Vineet Nayar is president of HCL Technologies, responsible for HCL’s software and infrastructure business. Mr Nayar started his career with HCL in 1985 as a senior management trainee. He has an engineering degree, and an MBA from XLRI.

Excerpts from an interview with K.S. Anandan:

What are the changes happening at HCL Technologies?
Every decade, business organisations worldwide fundamentally shift in a different way than they were in. For instance, take the automobile industry: All automobiles were manufactured in the US. They are now manufactured everywhere else. Every decade something or other changes in the industry — demand changes or supply changes or new innovative company coming into the market place, changes the existing business rules. Unless business organisations anticipate these changes and come out with new business models they will not survive. This is the easy part.

The difficult part is that an industry like ours — the services industry — takes a lot of time to change, because many people are involved in it. The Indian IT industry was a $2 billion industry in 1999. It is going to be a $100 billion industry by 2010 from the present $40 billion. We are talking about over 40 per cent growth. That is good news. But have you heard of any industry which has not changed its characteristics fundamentally in a decade?

The point I am making here is that in every decade innovation happened. The old industry will always say innovation is not relevant. But corporations which are ready to change or new emerging companies will always be ready for complete transformation. It’s time for the Indian IT industry to change. If we want to make these changes we have to start the process today.

How do you plan to make this transformation in HCL Technologies?
There are four principles on which the Indian IT industry stands. We deliver quality software. But others are doing the same thing. So quality has become a commodity. Secondly, the Indian industry has paid for efforts — paid for the number of hours worked. Historically, people were paid for results. But, our industry is paid for efforts. Thirdly, the customer is saying that you are impacting my cost. Fine. Now these companies are asking vendors to make a positive impact on their revenue and profitability. All these companies are demanding different value propositions. Fourthly, our present business model is based on adding more and more people and increasing revenue. I know India has a lot of people. There is a limit for this — there is limit for this type of value addition. I believe by 2010 all these factors will become irrelevant. The IT industry will evolve around some other factors. We are preparing for such a transformation. The transformation journey that HCL is embarking on evolves around the new thinking.

Could you please elaborate on that?
We have created a Blue Ocean strategy. The concept of Blue Ocean is to create uncontested market space. Create new ideas. Create a new way of thinking. The red ocean is that everybody has a ‘me-too’ service and it has become a commodity. Everybody is fighting for the same pie. Then, there is a blood bath. So entrepreneurs of tomorrow should focus on the Blue Ocean. A few years ago, BPO was not there. Small entrepreneurs created BPO and the larger companies came in later. So we have to transform fast enough to enter into the uncontested market space.

Five years ago we entered into the remote infrastructure management service. Today it is generating over 11 per cent of revenue and growing at 100 per cent a year. It’s an example of the Blue Ocean strategy. We, at HCL, are transforming radically. Volume is not our goal. We are focusing on value. Our target is to create 50 per cent of our revenue from the new business — uncontested market place — by 2010.

What are the emerging areas you are working on or planning to enter into?
One area is conceptual manufacturing. For instance, a company wishes milk could be distributed in uniquely designed bottles. We can offer the concept and design and manufacture and give it to them. Give your idea to us; we will do all for you. Secondly, we are entering an area of enterprise transformation service. In fact, we have launched this division a week ago. We will go to the customers and offer to cut down their cost. Tell them; don’t pay us anything for doing this. But, pay a percentage of saving to us. We will continue to pioneer new business models to increase our share in emerging opportunities.

As a group, HCL has a strong presence in the hardware and software space. Do you have any plan to come out with software products?
All the product companies are our customers. We cannot be their competitors. We have a very strong ethical policy that we will never ever compete with our customers. That is the reason we have no product. Still we can come up with products. That’s part of our Vision 2020. By that time we will have some IPs.

What is your immediate and long-term growth strategy?
Our immediate growth strategy is to focus on the existing areas. Secondly, identify the areas where we want to be lead. Thirdly, completely dominante in the areas we operate in.

Could you tell us what is happening in the automotive and aeronautics verticals?
We adopted a strategy to focus on life science, avionics and automotive. This is the way of creating Blue Ocean.

Hilton Metal Forging Ltd plans to raise Rs 38.15 crores via an IPO, while, an additional sum of Rs 10 crores shall be raised through a term loan from State Bank of Hyderabad, according to the draft prospectus of the company. The loan amount constitutes 20.77 per cent of the total project cost. The company has mooted expansion of its existing capacity from 11,100 MTA to 24,900 MTA by installing additional plant and machinery in order to augment the existing manufacturing facilities.

The company’s target customers are primarily original equipment manufacturers and they contract their sales on direct sales basis, both in the domestic and international markets. It has already established strong relationship with the leading automobile manufacturers and OEMs in India and abroad. The company is one of the two Indian forging companies that have US approval for 0.6 per cent import duty as against anti-dumping duty of 160 per cent imposed on other units. This has opened a very big market for the company

Everonn Systems to tap the market:
Everonn Systems Ltd, a fully integrated knowledge management, education and learning solutions company, has proposed to raise capital of Rs 50 crore through an IPO. The funds will be utilised to meet capital expenditure to be incurred for institutional education and infrastructure services business and for virtual and tech-enabled learning solutions business.

Apart from this, the proceeds will be utilised for mergers and acquisitions, investment in subsidiary, brand building, overseas initiatives and for the working capital requirements for expansion business in its areas of focus. The company has decided to compulsorily allot at least 50 per cent of the net issue to the public, to qualified institutional investors, on a proportionate basis, of which 5 per cent would be reserved for MFs.

Hungama launches gaming site: Entertainment portal and content developer Hungama has launched www.gaminghungama.com, a free multi-user online gaming portal. Hungama is targeting at achieving a registered user base of 1 million in the first year.

SAIL wins awards at metal expo: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) won in two categories at the 6th International Expo & Conference on minerals, metals, metallurgy and materials at New Delhi.

DCB hires Kak to handle credit risk: Private sector bank Development Credit Bank Ltd has appointed Susheel Kak as its chief credit and risk officer. Mr Kak brings in around 30 years of corporate and commercial banking experience.

Himanshu Singh heads Travelocity: Himanshu Singh has joined Travelocity India as managing director. Travelocity is a travel website that along with ot-her websites in its network booked nearly $7.4 billion worldwide in 2005. Based in Mumbai, Mr Singh will lead the India team, supported by subsidiary Zuji’s team in Singapore.

Badwal to run telecom business for Emerson:Emerson Network Power has appointed Ravi Badwal as vice-president of its telecom business. Mr Badwal will be responsible for driving the growth of the telecom vertical within Emerson by leveraging the business potential in the sector.

Mphasis appoints Patel as COO: IT services and BPO solutions company Mphasis, has appointed Deepak Patel as COO. Mr Patel has twenty years of experience in the IT sector and his career spans roles as diverse as infrastructure outsourced operations, consulting services and alliance management.

Pinapala is new CEO of Virinchi Technologies: Virinchi Technologies Ltd, a software products and services company, has appointed Anil Kumar Pinapala as its new CEO. Mr Pinapala succeeds Viswanath Kompella who will continue as chairman and MD of Virinchi. Anil, who was the senior V-P, business development, of the company, was named as the executive director of Virinchi earlier this month.

Singapore, Sept. 17: Voicing its “deep disappointment” to gro-wing protectionist sentiment, the IMF asked the key players in WTO to urgently work towards early resumption of the stalled Doha trade talks to complete negotiations by December as scheduled.

Finance ministers participating in the fund’s policy making body — International Monetary and Financial Committee — asked the leadership of major trading nations to work toward an ambitious successful outcome by the end of this year. The efforts should be based on a commitment to a comprehensive package on agriculture, industrial products and services to which “we said all countries will need to contribute,” the finance ministers said.

Does the following scenario sound familiar? As part of an ambitious growth plan, a company invests heavily in recruiting managers and executives. And on paper, at least, they look like a very talented bunch. Yet their performance has not matched expectations. Important initiatives are stalled because the new hires aren’t really plugged into the network.

And grumbling in the ranks indicates that some of the new managers and executives haven’t engaged their direct reports. This is no fictional scenario. It was precisely the situation faced in 2003 by Capital One in the aftermath of an aggressive hiring period.

To help new and promoted leaders get off to a strong start, Capital One’s training and development team came up with a novel three-stage onboarding process called the New Leader Assimilation Program (NLAP), with the goal of enabling new leaders to begin generating business results within their first 90 days on the job.

GETTING THE LAY OF THE LAND

After a candidate accepts a job offer or promotion, the HR department assigns an internal coach to interview a broad range of the candidate’s “stakeholders,” including not only her boss but her soon-to-be employees, peers and customers. The coach asks interviewees what they see as the key challenges associated with the candidate’s new role, the job’s goals and performance expectations, the history of how the role has evolved and the political dynamics the new leader will likely encounter. With help from the hiring manager, the coach synthesises the interviewees’ input in a detailed report called “The Customised New Leader Transition Guide.”

MEETING THE TEAM

During the first week on the job, each new leader participates in a half-day meeting with his employees, facilitated by an HR manager. With the new leader out of the room, employees fill flipcharts with questions — both professional (“What are your goals for our team?”) and personal (“Where did you go to college?”) — that they want him to answer.
The employees then leave the room, and the facilitator invites the executive back in and walks him through the list of questions, noting the high-priority ones, such as those relating to strategy and cultural norms. Finally, the employees return, and their new boss answers all the questions.

CHECKING IN

Six months into the job, the new leader undergoes a 360-degree review with the goal of highlighting where she can make further progress in realising goals and furthering expectations. Working with her boss and an HR representative, the leader identifies ongoing developmental goals and the resources (such as coaching) needed to meet them.
For example, during the early stages of the onboarding process, a newly hired senior vice-president for one of Capital One’s key lines of business had identified some critical leadership traits to embody.

In the six-month 360-degree review, the individual’s manager, direct reports, peers and key internal customers were invited to comment on his all-around effectiveness as well as his progress on exhibiting the specific leadership behaviours he had targeted.

The 360-degree review provided several significant lessons. Most constituents said they were quite pleased with how quickly he had gotten up to speed on the main aspects of his job. But they also said that they wanted him to focus next on crafting a bold, forward-reaching strategy for their business. The executive gained a clear understanding of what he was doing right, where some adjustments in style were needed and what was expected of him in the next year.

Companies doing business in the developing world have to contend with the staggering human and financial costs of HIV infection — and most would agree that conventional approaches to controlling the epidemic aren’t working. In our experience in the labour-intensive mining industries of Russia, South Africa and Botswana, we’ve seen infection rates among workers exceeding 90 per cent in extreme cases and productivity losses as high as 30 per cent.

Efforts to prevent the spread of HIV infection have been only modestly effective, and so treatment is vitally important. But antiretroviral therapies and their associated health maintenance programs are extremely expensive. In our work with the largest mining companies in the world, we’ve found few that can afford to fund the total lifetime cost of treating workers — which can range from $400,000 to $900,000 per person.

Indeed, the root constraint for companies trying to manage HIV, we believe, is not the inadequacy of therapies or education, but cost. Therefore, we have approached the epidemic purely as a financial problem rather than a medical one. In pilot programmes in Russian and Botswanan mines, we have lowered costs, reduced absenteeism, increased treatment and improved productivity by applying the principles of capital-asset portfolio modelling to treatment programmes and then creating contracts that allow companies to trade away (or insure against) the remaining financial costs of HIV on their business.

In step one, we created financial models of thousands of possible HIV management programs, each with different permutations of the elements constituting a complete program, from medications and treatment delivery to health facilities and ongoing wellness plans. Each such programme is a possible treatment portfolio. Thus, portfolio A might consist of importing 2,000 capsules of drug A from India at a fixed contract price; importing 1,000 capsules of drug B from Belgium at market price; building five HIV/AIDS clinics owned and managed by the mining company; employing all nurses from company X; and giving each patient one of each pill once a day.

Treatment portfolio B might be similar but require building fewer clinics while outsourcing for the remainder. Portfolio C might consist of outsourcing all treatment to managed health care company Y for a total fee of $10 million — and so on.

Mumbai, Sept. 17: Dena Bank on Saturday said that it would raise Rs 250-300 crores next month through the upper Tier-II route to meet its capital requirements. “We have received our board’s approval for raising Rs 675 crores in this fiscal, out of which Rs 250-300 crores is likely to be raised some time next month,” said Mr P.L. Gairola, chairman and managing director, Dena Bank. The bank on Saturday also tied up with the UAE Exchange Centre LLC, the largest exchange house in the emirates, for a rupee-drawing arrangement.

Using this facility, NRIs in the Gulf can remit funds to India by sending rupee drafts drawn on UAE Exchange Centre to 200 designated branches of Dena Bank in India. There are about four million Indians in the Gulf and they remit an average $5 billion to India each year. According to Mr Gairola, the bank expects a growth of 20 per cent in its NRI business through the tieup. The bank currently has NRI deposits of Rs 120 crores. Also, the bank has set a recovery target of Rs 350 crores for its non-performing assets.

New Delhi, Sept. 17: The Cabinet secretary is expected to chair a meeting of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS) on Monday to discuss bids for Coal Bed Methane blocks, the awarding of which was deferred by the government in the face of allegations of last minute changes in the evaluation norms.

The government is understood to have suggested that the the Cabinet secretary should head the committee which includes secretaries of finance, mines, coal and petroleum following a request by the petroleum ministry. This would be the first meeting of the ECS following a decision by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs late last month to defer awarding of the contracts of the 10 CBM blocks. Earlier a meeting of the ECS, to be chaired by the petroleum secretary, was scheduled to be held on September 7, but the same was deferred due to non-availability of the coal secretary.

The CCEA had referred the issue of evaluation back to ECS saying that technical evaluation be done by the full committee. The earlier bid evaluation was done by a ECS comprising a secretary and two joint secretaries. The development followed allegations by the Anil Ambani Group that the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had made changes in the bid parameters after the bids were closed, a charge denied by the petroleum ministry. The group had been awarded four blocks but it alleged that it would have got two more had the changes not been made.

With high volatility surfacing again, markets had a roller coaster ride last week. After a very weak opening at the beginning of the week, markets recouped all their losses towards the end and after nearly four months the BSE Sensex managed to close above the 12K level at 12,009.

However, market breadth was weak on most of the days indicating a lack of conviction over the rally. With a clutch of positives like falling crude prices, strong IIP numbers and IMF forecast of 8 per cent GDP growth already factored in, the recent run up expectations are high on how Q2 results will pan out. Disappointments in Q2 results will trigger selling in the short-term, warn savvy market players. Chartists predict a trading band of 11840-12240 for the Sensex and 3430-3580 for the Nifty this week. \

Strong weekly supports for the Sensex exist at 11,840 & 11,670 and for the Nifty are at 3,430 and 3,380. On the upside resistance is expected at 12,070 and 12,160 for the Sensex and 3,490 and 3,520 for the Nifty.

F&O SEGMENT

Volumes in the derivative segment have shown steady improvement indicating that speculators are back at work. The flat closing of Nifty futures last week is not reflective of the wild swings it had intra week. Sentiment indicators like implied volatility, PCR and open interest indicate cautious optimism with an upward bias. Buy out of the money Nifty call option of 3500 strike for surprising returns.

Among the stock futures buying is suggested in RIL, SBI, ACC, Zee Tele, Reliance Capital, Century Tex, Dr Reddy’s, Hindalco and GA Cement with a stop loss at Rs 1,065, Rs 910, Rs 912, Rs 303, Rs 508, Rs 478, Rs 722, Rs 162 and Rs 110. Pick up side counters like CESC, Patni Computers, MRPL, Chambal Fert, Tata Chem, HDFC Bank, Bharat Forge and BEL with a stop loss at Rs 280, Rs 382, Rs 42, Rs 34, Rs 216, Rs 851, Rs 330 and Rs 1,100. Punters initiating positions in futures should be fleet footed to book profit or loss quickly. Banking stocks are exhibiting good strength.

Further gains are indicated in PSU bank counters. PNB, OBC, BoI and BoB are good bets. Technology and auto counters may pause before making a fresh move. Media stocks are set for further gains on heightened interest. Stay invested in refinery counters HPCL, BPCL and IOC.

SATTA GUPCHUP

* Poly Medicure, a low-profile medical disposables company, is expected to report excellent results due to a surge in demand and expansion of the hospital sector. Reports of a tie-up with Apollo and inorganic expansion are doing the rounds. Buy for steady medium-term gains.

* Q2 results of Andhra Petrochemicals are reportedly very good due to a big rise in the company’s product prices. Sources indicate maiden dividend and expansion plans. Belonging to the Andhra Sugars group, the asset rich petrochemical company is also reportedly being eyed by some big industry majors. A surge in volumes clearly spells buying by savvy players ahead of results.

* Select counters like Wanbury, KCP and Austin Engg are witnessing renewed buying interest. Wanbury formed with the merger of Pearl Organics and Wander is one of the largest manufacturers of Metformin in the world. The company has reportedly received US FDA approval for one of its plants. Buy on declines for the long-term. KCP Ltd is reportedly diversifying into the hospitality sector to unlock value of its realty assets. Buy on declines. Low profile bearing manufacturer Austin Engg is tipped for short-term gains. n Auto ancillary and hospitality stocks are attracting strong buying on expectations of good earnings and industry prospects. Hotel Leela, Taj GVK and Royal Orchid are good picks for steady medium-term returns. Buying is suggested in

C. Kutumba Rao is a Hyderabad-based stock market analyst. The views expressed and the recommendations made are those of the author. Readers are strongly recommended to consult their financial advisors before making any financial investments. This newspaper is not liable for investment decisions made on the basis of recommendations in these columns.

The digital music and MP3 player markets appears to be getting a little crowded. First, there was Apple with its iPod. Then came a whole bunch of other consumer electronics companies which launch me-too personal digital music and MP3 players. Then, SanDisk, a non-volatile memory technology provider, jumped into the MP3 space with its Sansa line of players.

And last week, Microsoft Corp., not usually known for its hardware, unveiled details of its MP3 player, the Zune. According to Microsoft, the Zune, which will begin shipping before Christmas, the device will include a 30 gigabyte hard disk and a the-inch colour display. Now comes news that Creative Technology, a former partner of Microsoft, has locked and loaded its push into digital music players.

Last week, Cretive released the Zen Vision W video, photo and music player, and said it was tying up with Amazon.com and the online retailer’s Unbox movie and video store, which would compete with Microsoft’s Zune online store. Amazon launched Unbox this week. According to TechWeb, Creative’s Zen line of portable players run on Micr-osoft Windows Media, and can play any tune sold with the operating system’s copyright protection technology.

“Apple Computer uses its own digital rights management code in songs sold on the iTunes store. The tunes are not supported by Windows Media,” it says. The Zen Vision W comes in two models, one with 30GBs of storage, which can carry up to 120 hours of video, and the other 60GBs. Creative says the Zen Vision W has a 4.3- inch colour screen, which is a third large than the three-inch screen planned for the Zune.

“The latter, however, lets users transfer music and pictures between Zune devices wirelessly, a feature not in the Vision W, or Apple’s market-leading iPod player. The Zen Vision W connects to a PC through a USB port for downloading content, and includes a built-in microphone for recording,” TechWeb said.

Gates’ taste

What does the world’s richest man, William Henry Gates III, want to watch on IPTV. Microsoft is a leading developer of IPTV software. According to Shari Barrett, director of media services at Microsoft TV, who sent Mr Gates an email to find out his choice of viewing on IPTV, Mr Gates replied: “Old Richard Feynman lectures, MIT research on AIDS, and Dora the Explorer” for his daughter. “I’ll never miss a good golf tournament,” Mr Gates was quoted as saying by Ms Barrett.