South India’s largest mall is Mantri mall in Bangalore

With 215-plus retail units, 30 escalators, 18 lifts and a built-up area of a whopping 1.3 million square feet, the much-awaited Mantri Mall (now formally named Mantri Square) in Bangalore is getting ready to open next month.

One of the many key features of Mantri Square is its portfolio of 14 anchors and mini-anchors. These include a 70,400 sq.ft Spar hypermarket, a 6-screen Inox (including Inox’s first ever Aura 70-seater VIP auditorium), a 44,000 square feet Lifestyle, a 43,000 square feet Shoppers Stop, a 33,100 square feet Pantaloons, a 23,000 square feet Amoeba FEC (with a 12-lane bowling alley), a 22,000 square feet Home Centre, an 18,000 square feet Reliance Trends, a 15,800 square feet Reliance Living, a 15,600 square feet Marks & Spencer, a 13,000 square feet Reliance Digital, a 12,800 square feet international retailer (name not disclosed), a 11,000 square feet Reliance Timeout, and a 9,800 square feet Showoff store.

The retail trading area of this mall is 60 per cent larger than Spencer Plaza Chennai (currently the largest mall in South India), more than two and a half times that of Forum Mall at Koramangala (currently Bangalore’s largest mall) and about 12 per cent more than Ambience Mall in Gurgaon.

Apart from the 14 anchors and mini-anchors, Mantri Mall also has as many as 10 superstores (outlets with a carpet area of 4,000 to 8,000 square feet), including Prestige – The Man Store, Mom & Me, Crazy Concepts, Oviesse, Office Depot, Reliance Footprint, Kalanjali Sarees, Reliance Jewels, Neeru’s Elite and Reebok Performance Store.

For food lovers, there will be 34 F&B outlets in this mall, including India’s first Taco Bell from Yum Brands Inc. and Bangalore’s first The Great Kabab Factory, the award-winning North Indian restaurant from Carlson Restaurants Worldwide.

The shopping centre's planning consultant and sole leasing agents Asipac has got new leases for more than 6,00,000 square feet in the last 8-9 months. The property is currently 97 per cent leased.

Apart from tenants such as Metro, Mochi, Adidas, Nike, William Penn, Archies among others, Asipac has strategically targeted strong local retailers, including several well established high street names from Bangalore, including Showoff, Prestige – The Man Store, Favourite Shop, Vijaylakshmi Silks & Sarees, Davanam Jewellers, Shiv Sagar, Lal’s, Fazal’s, Kushal’s Fashion Jewellery, Sanskruti and Gangotree, as well as strong ethnicwear retailers from Hyderabad, including Kalanjali and Neerus.

Mantri Square also has a number of firsts to its credit. Apart from Taco Bell, Great Kabab Factory and Aura, it will also boast of Bangalore’s first OVS, Hush Puppies, Howards Storage World, Crocs, Celio, Marvel, Manyavar, Early Learning Centre, Esbeda, Alcott, Presto, Sunglass Hut, Addons, Holii, Boggi Milano, Toyopia, Bagzone, The Eyewear Store, Tie Rack London, Tissot, Rado, Editions, Addons, Hi Chai, Men & Boys and Ayesha stores. Also, 26 of the tenants will be doing business for the first time in a mall.

In addition to clothes, footwear and lifestyle accessories, Mantri Square will offer a wide range of ETIT (electronics, telecommunications and information technology) products under one roof in India with 11 ETIT stores, the widest range of sarees under one roof with eight stores, furniture & home accessories, bicycles, toys, prescription eyewear, maternity & newborn products, Indian sweets, real and fashion jewellery, luggage, wines & liquors, haircuts, pharmaceuticals, health & nutrition products, handicrafts, foreign exchange, photo processing, men’s tailoring, ladies tailoring, air and bus ticketing, financial services, personalised awards & trophies, express printing and even a multi-brand car gallery.

Asipac is projecting footfalls of 44,000 average daily visitors in 2010, going up to 72,000 average daily visitors when the Swastik Metro Station opens adjoining the mall in 2012.

Sachin's Special Innings in Gwalior

By a coincidence, Virender Sehwag was playing his 221st match, exactly half of SR Tendulkar's 442 matches. Their combined total is 663 matches. SR Tendulkar was playing his 431st innings in this game. The record for most innings played in One-day games is 432 and is credited to ST Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka.


The three figure partnership of 194 runs between SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik in this game represent the 292nd occasion of Indian batsmen posting a three figure partnership in one day games. It also represents the 62nd occasion of Indian batsmen posting a three figure partnership for the second wicket in one day games. The three figure partnership of 194 runs between SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik in this game represents the 93rd occasion of SR Tendulkar being a partner in a three figure partnership in One-day games.


SR Tendulkar registered his 46th One-day hundred in this game. This was his fourth hundred against South Africa. The other three hundreds are - 122 at Vadodara on 17.03.00, 114 at Mumbai on 14.12.96 and 101 at Jo'burg on 05.10.01. SR Tendulkar's 200 not out in this game represent his highest score against South Africa.


194 runs partnership between SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik in this game represents the ground record for the highest three figure partnership at Gwalior. The previous best was 190 runs partnership between SR Tendulkar and VVS Laxman against Australia on 26.10.03 194 runs partnership between SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik in this game represents the 12th three figure partnership at Gwalior.


With 25 boundary fours in this innings of 200 not out, SR Tendulkar has now the record of most boundary fours in an innings. He wrested the record of 24 boundary fours of ST Jayasuriya in his knock of 157 against Netherlands at Amstelveen on 04.07.06 which was the previous record of most boundary fours in an innings.


SR Tendulkar with his score on 195 not out in this innings became the highest scorer in One-day games when he went past the scores of 194 not out by CK Coventry of Zimbabwe against Bangladesh at Bulawayo on 16.08.09 and 194 by Saeed Anwar of Pakistan vs India at Chennai on 21.05.97, SR Tendulkar's score of 200 not out in this innings became the highest scorer on Indian soil going past 194 by Saeed Anwar of Pakistan against India at Chennai on 21.05.97. SR Tendulkar became the first batsman in the history of One-day games to score 200 runs when he scored 200 not out in this game. It was an improvement over his 186 not out against New Zealand at Hyderabad.


SR Tendulkar now owns the record for most 150 plus scores in One-day games. His 200 not out in this game was his fifth score of 150 plus runs. He wrested the record from ST Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka who has scored four scores of 150 plus runs. Tendulkar's five scores of 150 plus runs are - 200 not out vs South Africa at Gwalior on 24.02.10, 186 not out vs 175 vs Australia at Hyderabad on 05.11.09, 163 retd hurt vs New Zealand at Christchurch on 08.03.09 and 152 vs Namibia at Pietermaritzburg on 23.02.03.


This game witnessed two three figure partnerships in India's innings. SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik added 194 runs for the second wicket and SR Tendulkar and MS Dhoni added 101 runs in an unfinished stand for the fourth wicket - providing the 106th occasion of a team posting two or more three figure partnerships in its innings.


This game witnessed two three figure partnerships in India's innings. SR Tendulkar and KRD Karthik added 194 runs for the second wicket and SR Tendulkar and MS Dhoni added 101 runs in an unfinished stand for the fourth wicket - providing the 23rd occasion of India posting two three figure partnerships in its innings.

Top Ten highest individual scorers in ODI

India's SACHIN TENDULKAR became the first batsman to score a double century in one-day internationals. He achieved the feat in the second one-dayer against South Africa. Let's have a look at the top 10 highest run-getters in ODIs.

CHARLES COVENTRY of Zimbabwe holds the second spot for scoring 194 not out against Bangladesh on 16 August, 2009.

SAEED ANWAR of Pakistan holds the third spot for scoring 194 runs against India on 21 May, 1997.

VIV RICHARDS of West Indies holds the fourth spot for scoring 189 not out against England on 31 May 1984.

SANATH JAYASURIYA of Sri Lanka holds the fifth spot for scoring 189 runs against India on 29 October, 2000.

GARY KIRSTEN of South Africa holds the sixth spot for scoring 188 not out against U.A.E. on 16 February, 1996.

SACHIN TENDULKAR also holds the seventh spot for scoring 186 not out against New Zealand on 8 November, 1999.

MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI of India holds the eighth spot for scoring 183 not out against Sri Lanka on 31 October, 2005.

SOURAV GANGULY of India holds the ninth spot for scoring 183 runs against Sri Lanka on 26 May, 1999.

MATTHEW HAYDEN of Australia holds the tenth spot for scoring 181 not out against New Zealand on 20 February, 2007.

NASA finds creaters filled with ice on moon

Water on the Moon This image of the lunar south pole – snapped by the LRO late last year – identifies several craters including Cabeus A, in which water was discovered last year. Similar craters on the lunar north pole are harboring hundreds of millions of tons of water, and these southern craters could be as well. NASA

Last year’s “moon bombing” proved that water ice exists beneath the lunar south pole, but new findings from a NASA instrument aboard an Indian orbiter have determined that tons of water iceis hiding on the lunar surface in permanently shadowed craters at the north pole as well. Researchers estimate 600 million metric tons of water ice could be hiding there, an amount that could potentially sustain a manned moon base.

NASA’s Mini-SAR radar instrument has been studying the moon from India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter since October 2008. Since then it has worked in conjunction with other instruments to find hard evidence for water on the moon, but up to this point researchers found only isolated evidence of water and water vapor; the finding of 600 million tons of water ice lurking in lunar shadows proves not only that surface water exists in abundance on our rocky satellite, but suggests that water creation, migration and retention are taking place there.

Those 600 million tons may just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg as well. Water was detected in a south pole crater by NASA’s LCROSS mission last year, and much more water ice may be found in neighboring craters there.

For future research, the implications of vast deposits of surface water ice on the moon are vast. NASA scientists have said in the past that if plentiful ice deposits exist on the moon, they could be melted down for drinking water, separated into oxygen and hydrogen to provide rocket fuel and drinking water, and perhaps even be used to help power a moon base's fuel cells.

Of course, the latest federal budget nixed Constellation, which aimed to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020, and the finding of lunar ice isn’t likely to rearrange NASA’s priorities now. But while NASA director Charles Bolden told legislators recently that Mars is America’s next great space ambition, he left open the possibility that the moon might serve as a means to that end. Having an abundant supply of water waiting for us on the moon might just tip the scales in that direction.

Skinput turns your arm into a touchscreen!

No more fumbling with your mobile phone's or i-Pod's tiny touchpads -- you can now have a keypad on your forearm, just by combining acoustic sensors and a mini -projector, say scientists.

An international team has come up with such a system, called 'Skinput', which has the ability to detect the ultralow -frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with a finger, and microchip-sized projectors now found in some cellphones, the 'New Scientist' reported. According to the scientists, the system beams a menu or keyboard onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector housed in an armband. An acoustic detector, in the armband, then calculates which part of the display to be activated. But how does the system know which icon, button or finger the user tapped? Well, for this, the scientists have identified various locations on the forearm and hand that produce characteristic acoustic patterns when tapped. The acoustic detector in the armband contains five piezoelectric cantilevers, each weighted to respond to certain bands of sound frequencies. Different combinations of sensors are activated to differing degrees depending on where the arm is tapped, say the scientists. Twenty volunteers tested the system and most found it easy to navigate through icons on the forearm and tap fingers to actuate commands. The subjects were able to deftly scroll through menus whether they moved up and down or flicked across their arm, according to the team. "Skinput works very well for a series of gestures, even when the body is in motion," Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University, who led the team, was quoted as saying. The new gadget has evoked a mixed response. Pranav Mistry of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has warned that users will have to position the armband very precisely so the projection always appears in the right place. Nevertheless, Skinput looks a promising idea, said Michael Liebschner, the Director of the Bio-Innovations Lab at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "This sounds a very feasible approach to using the body as an input device." Harrison, along with with Dan Morris and Desney Tan at Microsoft's research laboratory in Redmond, will present their work at Computer-Human Interaction meet in Atlanta in April.