A day after Lalit Modi announced that IPL have dropped all the controversial qualifiers, Kochi’s chance to an IPL team have grown a lot. Currently people who are interested to bid for Kochi are

• Ashok Piramal Group
• Jaypee Group
• Rosy Blue India Pvt. Ltd
• Anchor Electricals
• Muthoot Pappachan Group
• Mohanlal & Priyadarshan

Experts say with these developments, Kochi is going to be one of the top bid teams. Another city that is predicted to win is Ahmedabad with Adani Enterprises, Sahara Group and ICICI bidding for the city. Adani group and Sahara is all set to “show them the money”. Days till March 21st (last day of submitting bids) will be very tensed and only when they open the bids the same day will our anxiety be put to rest. Till than we can just hope for the best because as of now Kochi could not have a better chance. We have our fingers crossed. GO KOCHI!!

Cochin’s IPL-Team dream is just not ready to die. Thanks to the stiff qualification criteria,Mohanlal-Priyadarshan and company who was set to bid for Kochi dropped out of the race. But Lalit Modi’s efforts to sell the 2 teams went belly up thanks to very strict qualifiers.

The decision was made only after 3 companies submitted bids while 10 companies bought tender documents. These unopened tenders were returned to the bidders. The revised Invitation To Tender (IIT) will be made available on March 9th and the bids will be open on March 21 in Chennai. The 2 qualifiers that companies had a problem with was

• The company should demonstrate a net worth of nearly Rs. 5000 crores.
• The company that wins the auction needs to pay $100 million as advance guarantee.

According to the revised rules the Rs. 5000 crores net worth clause has been removed and winners need to pay only $10 million as advance guarantee.

The Muthoot Papachan group (who was reportedly backing Mohanlal and Priyadarshan) initially had backed out from the race and now will be studying the new terms and will let the board decide if they will take part in the auction. So Kochi’s IPL dream is not over and there is hope.

(Wonder what made Lalit change his mind.. )

A lot of our hopes for a Kochi IPL team rested on Mohanlal’s and Priyadarshan’s shoulders. And that dont look too good. Well, its looking bad as the duo have backed out of the auction. They backed out after IPL changed the conditions and asked for Rs. 5000 crores as security deposit instead of the initial Rs. 300 crores. This did not go down well not only the filmy duo but also with the investors who was backing them. The status of the billionaire sheik from Abu Dhabi is not confirmed.

Experts predict that Ahmedabad will be picked up by the Adani group and either Nagpur or Pune by Videocon. Screw them all.  If Kochivibe makes billions and trillions of dollars we promise to get Kochi a ‘Kochivibe’ team!

The buzz of Kochi having its own Indian Premier League team has been around for quite sometime. Here is more information on the bidding process. The cities that have been offered as the home location for the franchises are Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Vizag, Rajkot, Cuttack, Baroda, Cochin, Indore and Gwalior. The auction is scheduled to happen on March 9th 2010.

• This time the process of bidding for teams is extremely difficult unlike in 2008. Among the most contentious clauses is the requirement for the bidder to privide a bank guarantee equivalent to 100 per cent of the money that the winning bidder offers for the 10-year contract within seven days of winning the bid. Where as in 2008, the initial franchisees of the eight IPL teams had to provide only 10 per cent of their bids as bank guarantee.
• Bidders also need to have a net worth of $1 billion as a pre-requisite and offer a pre-bid bank guarantee of $100 million. In the 2008 auctions, prospective bidders paid a pre-bid deposit of Rs 20 crore.
• The minimum bid price has been fixed at a staggering $225 million (Rs 1,042 crore), compared to the base price of $50 million (over Rs 230 crore) when the first auctions were held in 2008.

Here is an interesting fact. A list of India’s 10 most affluent cities was recently published. Following is the list

1. New Delhi – Has IPL Team (Delhi Daredevils)
2. Bangalore – Has IPL Team (Royal Challengers)
3. Mumbai – Has IPL Team (Mumbai Indians)
4. Chennai – Has IPL Team (Chennai Super Kings)
5. Hyderabad – Has IPL Team (Deccan Chargers)
6. Kolkata – Has IPL Team (Kolkata Knight Riders)
7. Kochi – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
8. Pune – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
9. Jaipur – Has IPL Team (Rajasthan Royals)
10. Ahmedabad – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010

7 out of the 10 most affluent cities in the list, have an IPL team. All 6 cities above Kochi has an IPL team. All 3 cities that dont have an IPL team are on offer as a home location for the auction on March 9th.

Mohanlal and Priyadarshan has shown interest in bidding. Also Muthoot Pappachan Group is said to have making efforts for a Kochi team by partnering with Mohanlal and Priyadarshan. Also there are reports that Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan is interested in picking up a team. Sheiks and Malayalees has been sharing a very good bond from the past couple of decades . Keeping that in mind, we hope he bids for Kochi too . There are reports that YusufAli MA, M.D of EMKE group and person behind LULU group (who is also building India’s biggest mall in Kochi) is keen on a Kochi team. As per some reports Salman Khan is keen on bidding for an IPL team and is interested either in Kochi or Nagpur.

Making this entry on Kochivibe has made us dizzy. Especially the Rupees and Dollars part . We hope that Kochi is one of the 2 lucky cities to get an IPL team. We are amused to see “Dharmsalsa” as one of the cities up for grabs. That just DONT sound like one of the cities that would have an IPL team (sorry Dharmsalians). Kochi would make a better team anyday! .  Fingers crossed for March 9th.!

Mercedes has displayed all their latest cars in the arsenal at Kochi with the theme Pure Fascination.

Their latest lineup that is now on display in the showroom at Maradu consists of

• S-Class (S350 CDI L)
• E-Class (E350 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY & E 250 CDI BLueEFFICENCY)
• 2010 M-Class (Sports Edition)
• Monster SUV the GL-Class.

Mercedes aims at interacting with the customers and media with such an exercise is to interact with customers and media. We at Kochivibe are just disappointed that Mercedes AMG SLS that was recently unveiled in India is not on display. Now that was a car worth a test drive!

Cochin is now at the center of cruise activity in India. In the current financial year nearly 40 cruise ships stopped over for a day or two for a date with the Queen of The Arabian Sea. By the end of this financial year Kochi would have received 47 cruise ships. That would be the highest Kochi has seen!

(Kochi bidding adieu to the Queen Mary 2, worlds biggest cruise ship)

The good news is that for the year 2010-11 already 35 ships have confirmed a stop over. Authorities hope to hit the magic number 50 for 2010-11.

The Albertian Institute of Management(AIM), a unit of the St Albert’s College, Ernakulam, organised an international business conference on Wednesday. Archdiocese of Verapoly administrator Joseph Karikkassery inaugurated the conference and released the newsletter `Reflections‘. AIM director George Sleeba welcomed the gathering and AIM manager Clement Valluvassery delivered the presidential address.

He released the conference volume and the 11th edition of the book titled ‘International Marketing‘. CSEZ development commissioner C J Mathew, who delivered the keynote address, made special reference to Kochi as a growing hub of international trade.South Indian Bank executive director Abraham Thariyan, in his special address attributed the global financial meltdown to ‘lack of discipline among financial institutions across the world’

Car enthusiasts.! May I have your attention please! General Motors has launched the Chevrolet Beat in Kochi. This 79 BHP hatchback is the new car from the 300 series after Chevrolet Cruz. Delivery has begun in Kochi for this stylist segment B car concept car.

Here are some details about Chevrolet Beat.

Name: Beat
Model: LT

Car Body Type: Hatchback
Segment: B Segment
Fuel Consumption: Highway 18.00 kmpl.
Fuel Consumption: City 15.00 kmpl.
Warranty: 3 years/100000 km
Displacement: 1199cc, 4 Cylinder, 16V DOHC
Engine Type : Petrol
Maximum Power: 79 Bhp @ 6200 rpm
Maximum Torque: 108 Nm @ 4400 rpm

The one thing that Kochi was proud was for the Kochi – Colombo cruise. But here is some bad news. Louis cruises has decided to stop all operations from Kochi just 6 weeks after launch because of the very high operating costs. According to the company while Colombo charged $5000  as port charges for 5 hours Kochi charged $25000. Apart from the exorbitant operational charges, Kochi port lacked basic features such as passport readers. These lack of minimum ammenities led to passengers waiting in queues for upto 3 hours to get a clearance. Louis Cruise has promised to come back to Kochi after October if things improve.

Volkswagen rolled out with its famous Beetle in Cochin on Thursday. It is one of its most famous models that has ever rolled out of a Volkswagen factory. The Beetle is an Iconic car that has been in the Volkswagen stable for ages.
The New Beetle sports a powerful 2.0L I4 petrol engine that generates 115Bhp. The engine is set out with a 6-speed automatic transmission and will give you an average of 13.5 km/l and also complies with the stringent Euro IV emission norms. It will come in as a two door four seat hatch and will be imported from Volkswagen Mexico factory. Advanced occupant safety is one of the key features of the New Beetle which comes equipped with 4 airbags, Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stabilization Programme (ESP) and engine immobilizers. It is equipped with a 6 CD changer, power steering for better drivability, body coloured exterior mirror housings, tailgate handle and heat insulating tinted glass. The large 15” alloy wheels, ensconced in their flared arches, give it a higher and more commanding stance.The lights, refined lines, fresh color palette and new fabric seat covers are few details that are additions to the new Beetle. The Beetle is bound to set you back by around 23-25 Lakhs so get ready to break those piggy banks!