Go Force India

Well, stumbling on the web I found this article on the uglier side of the race this week, the Montreal GP in Canada. Though not normally talked about, forced sex trade and human trafficking is a big part of major international sporting events, such as the World Cup, Olympics and F1 Gp’s. Such events up the demands for young female prostitutes. The same is true for the Canadian Grand Prix as partying race fans roar into the city on their annual pilgrimage. But many of the sex workers who are used to fill the commercial void are unwilling participants, human rights activists point out.

Sharon DiFruscia, who’s part of a Montreal coalition against human trafficking, said most of the women are exploited as sex slaves.

“Not only in Montreal, but for large sporting events, it’s a well-known fact that many women are brought in to the city,” said DiFruscia, adding it’s difficult to estimate just how many.

“Some of these women are from other countries, but some of them are from our own country.”

A U.S. report on global issues released on Wednesday shows Canada looks good on paper as far as human trafficking is concerned, but Canada still has a long way to go to stamp it out.

“The bad news is we’ve not been able to turn our tough talk on human trafficking into action,” UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin told The Canadian Press.

“We know that human trafficking is continuing to flourish in Canada and that it’s one of the most serious crimes in our country and a fundamental abuse of human rights.”

Canada does comply with the “minimum standards” but the report criticizes the country for “lacking punch.”

“Over the last year, Canada increased victim protection and prevention efforts, but demonstrated limited progress on law-enforcement efforts against trafficking offenders,” the document says…

As per the report, Canada has lagged when it comes to rounding up sex tourists, who travel abroad abusing children.
sex tourism drives human trafficking around the world.

Canada, meanwhile, has convicted only one person in the last decade on sex-tourism charges, he said.

“We’ve really fallen behind globally in preventing our child-sex offenders from exploiting children in impoverished countries overseas,” said Perrin, the founder of The Future Group, a non-governmental organization dedicated to ending human trafficking.
He added,
“We’re not bashing the Grand Prix, it’s just to make sure people are aware when there are big sporting events in a city that this happens,” said DiFruscia, the co-ordinator of the social action office of the Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal.

Read the full article here at the canadianpress.

Technorati Tags: f1, montreal gp, sex trade, prostitution women, money, child abuse

As had been announced in March, Jaguar & Land Rover operations have been sold over to Tata Motors by Ford Motor Co officially on June 2nd. Ford said in March that it intended to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata for $2.3 billion. (That’s far less than what Ford paid for the brands. Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion in 1989 and Land Rover for $2.75 billion in 2000.) Tata Motors which had been looking for a way to broaden its global automotive presence had leaped up on the offer. Now, all the red tape pertaining to the sale has been completed and Jaguar & Land Rover brands are finally owned by Tata Motors. The automaker is controlled by Tata Group, a privately held Indian industrial conglomerate with 98 operating companies in industries such as heavy trucks, energy, chemicals, communications and engineering. It remains to be seen in the near and not so distant future what Tata does with the brands and how it turns out, for now, nothing major has been announced.

Technorati Tags: cars, mercedes, auto, India, india auto, cng, fuel, economics, luxury, petrol

One of the most iconic and luxury brands, Mercedes-Benz has decided to bring in a car in to India which runs on the cheapest Auto fuel in the world, compressed natural gas (CNG). Now, this makes the CNG-compliant benz cars more fuel efficient than India’s cheapest cars Maruti 800 which run on petrol. Get this, the new CNG variant of the Merc runs over 20 KM on a KG of CNG against it petrol brethren which guzzle at least a litre for every 12 KM’s. And the good news doesn’t end there if you consider that CNG comes at half the price - Rs 19 (US 0.5$) against Rs 45.52 (just a tad more than 1US$).

Well, Mercedes is making its intentions clear with this, as energy crisis grips the world and speculations mount about hefty fuel price hikes, CNG has taken center stage in Mercedes’s India plans at least if not for the world.

“We have some cars running on CNG in India. It’s a successful technology and has been developed over the years. We are also trying the bio-diesel option on the E Class saloon here. If these extensive trials are successful, we shall introduce these cars in India too,” said a Daimler India senior executive.

—Source—> Economic Times Article.

1. BMW Formula1:

   BMW Formula-1 car to use hybrid technology from next year

   BMW AG has announced that they are working on developing hybrid technology to enhance the capabilities of their Formula-1 car.

   This technology is currently planned for integration in their car to be used in the next Formula-1 season.

   The company said that as per the rules of the F-1 governing body, they are going to rely on hybrid technologies to boost the performance of their car.

   The rules allow the teams to boost the power of their cars using fuel saving technologies, including hybrid.

   Mario Theissen, director of motor sport at BMW said in his statement: “From 2009 BMW will use hybrid technology in Formula One.”

   — Source –> Business Techwhack

2. BMW Automotives:After Fiat, BMW is planning to source its auto components in India. As part of the German luxury car makers massive expansion plans in India, it is currently aiming at high level of auto component sourcing in India. BMW also plans to source engineering services and IT technologies in future for development of its cars worldwide.

   According to Herbert Deiss, BMW Board Member, International Parts Sourcing, “India is an important market for us and we recognise its engineering talent. We already source some components for bikes and auto parts for some of our cars and bikes from India. Considering the increasing capabilities of Indian vendors to provide quality spares, we plan to source more parts and services from the country.”

   — Source –> Car Trade India

1. Jaguar XF Sport: Looks like the the now Indian owned Jaguar Motors has a very bright future ahead of it and the Tata’s might well benefit from it, the timing for the takeover of Jaguar couldn’t have been better because Jaguar had just launched it’s new XF sport series. The XF cars are not only stunning to look at but they are also stunning to drive and rumor has it that the XF series car might just be launched here in India. The rumor is un-confirmed but the fact that the XF’s are great machines is not. You may not be an auto buff and you may not have the money to buy a Jag, but the Jag XF’s sure are worth considering.
2. BMW M3 Series launched in India: Meanwhile, it just may not matter weather the XF series is launched here in India or not, because if you are luxury car freak with an insatiable appetite for performance as well, look no further, the BMW M3 series is here in India. The M3 cars were officially launched in January 08. BMW M3 will be sold as CBU (complete built unit), in limited numbers, and has been priced around Rs 74 lakh!!(whew).So, if you want a car with stunning looks, smooth performance and unbridled fun, BMW M3 is just the thing for you!

Well, it was a case of what might have been for Vijay Mallya’s Force India this week in the Monaco Grand Prix; if it were not for Kimi crashing in to Adrian Sutil’s car when just 7 minutes remained for the chequered flag to be waved, Sutil would have got himself and his team a stunning 4th place finish. Naturally, Vijay Mallya musn’t have been too amused about this and an interview was posted on the Force India’s official website about the Monaco GP :-

Q: You must have gone through every kind of emotion during the Monaco GP. Looking back, how do you feel about it now?
Vijay Mallya, Force India-Ferrari (Chairman and Managing Director): We were obviously shattered. We were so looking forward to a spectacular result, which was not to be. It has however done two things, and we need to take away the positives. First that Adrian Sutil has a lot of ability and talent, and we’re glad and proud to have him in our team. Some people started questioning my decision to keep him when he didn’t finish a few races at the start of the season, but I think he has more than redeemed himself. Secondly I think our strategy and our whole team came together. The race strategy was right, the set-up was right, and to see a Force India car running fourth in Monaco was a great pleasure while it lasted. We were seven minutes from home. It was unfortunate, but I guess that’s what racing is all about. I can’t say that I’m not feeling sad, because I am, but we’ll get over it, and we’ll take away a lot of positives.

Q: It was already good when he made it to the points in eighth, so when he got up to fourth you must have been ecstatic.
VM: Absolutely! Our strategy was one stop, we filled ourselves up with fuel. I told both drivers to stay out of trouble on lap one. We have normally started very well and had incidents on the first lap, so I said stay right out of trouble, take your time, you’re going to go for a one-stop strategy, bring both cars home. We knew that we were good in the wet, Adrian has demonstrated that before as well, and everything worked to perfection until that fateful moment!

Q: What went through your mind when Adrian had to retire?
VM: We were well clear of Räikkönen until the safety car came out, and then we knew that he was going to attack us, so we warned Adrian on the radio that you have Räikkönen right behind you on your tail. And of course we didn’t want him to get pressured and do anything stupid, because if he wasn’t fourth he would have still finished fifth and that in itself would have been a huge accomplishment. But you know what happened, Kimi just rear ended him. It wasn’t as if it was an overtaking manoeuvre, something drastic must have happened, because you wouldn’t expect a World Champion to run into somebody. It was sad for us, that moment was a very emotional moment.

Q: Were you almost in tears when it happened?
VM: I was, and so were many of us actually! I’ve had quite a lot of SMS messages and phone calls from supporters in India, all of whom are I think highly emotional. But such things happen in racing, that’s what I’ve been telling everyone. F1 wouldn’t be F1 if it wasn’t as unpredictable as it is.

Q: You hosted two big parties on the Indian Empress, and you had a memorable race. Overall was Monaco a great weekend for you personally, for the team and for Kingfisher?
VM: It was a great weekend for us, and what better than to have demonstrated the improvement in this team as we did.

Q: Canada is next, another race that often features rain and safety cars. Do you see it as another good opportunity to score points?
VM: We don’t want to base our earning points on exceptional circumstances. The team’s got to be good and competitive, and that’s what we’re driving for, and everyone’s doing their best to make that happen. I just hope that some of these efforts get rewarded soon.