A report of the Confederation of Indian Industries about the Indian the consumers differ here from other part of the world

The confederation of Indian Industries(CII) along with the Boston Consulting Group(BCG) have recently presented a report which 

examines in detail the shape and size of consumption expenditure in India, and its expected evolution over the next decade. While India’s robust consumption growth presents attractive opportunities for companies, its unique diversity and variety makes it challenging to capture these opportunities. Towards that end, this report presents a framework and approach on how to de–average the opportunity to better segment consumers and effectively understand their buying preferences.

It takes an in–depth look at how these consumer segments shop for key categories of food and groceries, consumer durables and apparel. This has been achieved through an extensive on–the–ground consumer research covering a broad cross–section of over 12,500 consumers across segments in India. This report highlights key trends — both in stated consumer preferences, as well as in the actual execution of the purchase decision — and the resulting implications for companies that sell to consumers in India.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, seeking to play a proactive role in India’s development process. The organisation works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and c

onsultative processes. The confederation is headquartered in New Delhi.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm with 77 offices in 42 countries. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world.It is one of only three companies to appear in the top 15 of Fortune's "Best Companies to Work For" report for seven consecutive years. In the 2011 and 2012 lists, BCG is listed as the second best company to work for, and is the only top-tier consulting firm to appear in the top 100. BCG is also the only firm to have been listed every year in Consulting Magazine's "Best Firms to Work For" list, since the magazine's inception in 2001.

Link to the actual pdf version of the report:-http://bit.ly/PXDba3

INTERNET FREEDOM in India:a report

A report by a USA based NGO called freedom house which is dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world. They release report on the freedom in various context i.e. freedom in the world, freedom on the net and freedom of the press of the respective country.They recently issued their report of the current year regarding freedom in India.

Here is an experct from that report:-

Despite the Partly Free rating, India was ranked 20^th worldwide, ahead of most Asian countries.

pdf version of the report

The Freedom on the Internet report scored countries on a point scale of 0 to 100 to quantify the freedom enjoyed on online and digital media. Lower scores between 0-30 signified most freedom, 31-60 implied partial freedom while 61-100 implied lack of freedom on the internet. Points were given on the basis of how the government of a country imposed obstacles to internet access, limited or filtered online content or violated user rights by surveillance or other forms of harassment.

The score of 39 attributed to India was driven by 13 points in Obstacles to Access, 9 points on Limits on Content and 17 points for Violation of User Rights. The deterioration from a slightly better score of 36 in 2011 was being driven by a nominal uptick in all the 3 categories.

With more than 100 million people in India finding their way online, India has the 3^rd highest online audience in the whole world after US and China.

link to the pdf version of the report:-http://bit.ly/QOnDox

Internet connection in India among the worst in the world

Akamai technologies Inc a company which manages Internet content delivery system, publishes a quartely report of the state of internet connection. this quarter's report revealed an awful information about the internet connection speed of India. But apart from slow internet connection speed there was one very interesting information to be sought after in India, it was about the voice traffic in the cellular Networks, in this reign India was one of the best countries in the world to have the highest voice traffic in the cellular traffic.


Summary of the report:-

The report reveals that despite 3G rollout in India in 2011, the overall state of internet connections in India continues to be poor with average speed of just 0.9mbps. This puts India at 114th position in the list prepared by Akamai on the basis of average internet speed in quarter 4, 2011.

In India all 3G connections are sold with a promise of an internet connection with a speed of at least several mbps. But it seems the reality is different. And with the growth in wired internet connections lagging behind, the average internet speed in the country remains poor.

In comparison, China is 86th on the list with the average speed of 1.5mbps. Brazil has an average speed of 1.8mbps. For Asia-Pacific, Akamai said "India remained the only surveyed country within the region that has an average connection speed below 1mbps".

The report says that South Korea has world's best internet infrastructure with average speed of over 17mbps.

For India, the Akamai report reveals the speed has gone up by 13% in the last one year. But at the same time, the country has just 8.4% internet connections with speed of over 2mbps. In comparison, over 20% internet connections in china offer actual speed of over 2mbps.

The number of internet connections that have less than 256kbps speed is even more alarming. Akamai report states that nearly 27% connections in India have less than 256kbps speed. Only four other countries in the world - Libya, Nigeria, Nepal and Iran - fare worse than India on this parameter.

Incidentally, many internet service providers (ISPs) in India continue to define a connection with a minimum speed of 256kbps as broadband connection. The number is abysmally low and web activists and users argue that at a time when services like YouTube are part of life on the web, the minimum speed should be improved.

After consulting with various ISPs, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had raised the minimum internet speed to 512kbps from January 1, 2011. But ISPs in India continue to sell connections with a minimum speed of 256kbps as broadband internet. Also most of the ISPs sell the broadband plans where only a limited amount of data can be downloaded at higher speed. Once the limit is reached, which in many cases is as low as 3GB per month, the speed is reduced to 256kbps.

In its report Akamai also listed 100 cities with fastest internet connections in the world. None of the Indian cities are on the list.

Copy of the report issued by Akamai:-http://bit.ly/R2EXGH

Domino's India website attacked, 37k accounts revealed!

The website of domino's India website link(click here) was hacked by a Turkish group called TurkishAjan.The message posted by the group can be seen here.

Screenshot of domino's India website

The website is operational and a user can place an order.The hacker's got access to over 37,000 accounts on the website has revealed the account information in plain text.

The Indian cyber security has been once again into limelight by this incident.The information includes names, contact numbers, email addresses, residential addresses and passwords in plain text.The attack was carried out by using popular SQL injection method and remote file inclusion. SQL injection attacks take advantage of the lack of filtering of user-input text, allowing attackers to trick the website’s database into revealing information through SQL commands supplied from input areas. Remote file inclusion is a type of attack that allows hackers to upload malicious scripts to be executed at the web server; again, improper input field validation makes a site vulnerable.

The logo of TurkishAjan hacker group.

Earlier this year famous hacker group Anonymous attacked Indian websites.

Nokia's dart in the Dark: Eyeing emerging markets,is it gonna prevail

Nokia missing target? 

Nokia the world's Largest mobile phone vendor since 13 year's is in a smudge due to it's losing market in the smartphone area and other issues. Still Nokia is judged to be stable and has garnered enough faith in it's past customers that it has the chances to bouncing back and gain a considerable amount of market share.

Falling charts, Nokia needs a magic to turn around the figures.

The emerging markets are still dominated by basic phone user's rather than smartphone user's and Nokia is still a leader in the basic phones used in the emerging countries today, but the days are limited as the latest android data shows that of 1million daily android activation on various devices, more than 50% of the activation is done from emerging markets like India,Brazil,etc.

The smartphone market is seeing a lot of companies launching new high-end handsets day-in and day-out, to stay ahead Nokia also released two new phones in it's Lumia series 920 and 820 based on Windows phone operating system.

Nokia and Microsoft. Is a new miracle round the corner.

Nokia along-with Microsoft is targeting a large number of user but the experts are a little skeptical about any huge changes due to a massive android user-base, further user's are also interested in tasting the Android pie.

Nokia recently released it's Quarter 2 2012 interim report which shows further decline in handset sale.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2Q12 Units	2Q12 Market Share (%)	2Q11 Units	2Q11 Market Share (%)
Samsung	90,432.1	21.6	69,827.6	16.3
Nokia	83,420.1	19.9	97,869.3	22.8
Apple	28,935.0	6.9	19,628.8	4.6
ZTE	17,936.4	4.3	13,070.2	3.0
LG Electronics	14,345.4	3.4	24,420.8	5.7
Huawei Device	10,894.2	2.6	9,026.1	2.1
TCL Communications	9,355.7	2.2	7,938.9	1.9
HTC	9,301.2	2.2	11,016.1	2.6
Motorola	9,163.2	2.2	10,221.4	2.4
Research In Motion	7,991.2	1.9	12,652.3	3.0
Others	137,233.4	32.8	152,989.70	35.7
Total	419,007.90	100.0	428,661.15	100.0

Source: Gartner (August 2012)


Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q12 (Thousands of Units)

perating System	2Q12  Units	2Q12 Market Share (%)	2Q11  Units	2Q11 Market Share (%)
Android	98,529.3	64.1	46,775.9	43.4
iOS	28,935.0	18.8	19,628.8	18.2
Symbian	9,071.5	5.9	23,853.2	22.1
Research In Motion	7,991.2	5.2	12,652.3	11.7
Bada	4,208.8	2.7	2,055.8	1.9
Microsoft	4,087.0	2.7	1,723.8	1.6
Others	863.3	0.6	1,050.6	1.0
Total	153,686.1	100.0	107,740.4	100.0

Source: Gartner (August 2012)

Nokia quarter 2 2012 interim report could be accessed here:-Nokia interim report of Q2 2012

Is Lumia gonna Luminate the darkness for Nokia???

Incredible India-really it is!

Incredible India is the name of an international marketing campaign by the Government of India to promote tourism in India in 2002 to a global audience. but is India really Incredible well yes it is - in sense of spirit and stature, in expanse and economy, in geography and history, in nature's beauty and technological knowledge.

The inception of India was with one of the world's Oldest civilizations. India is the seventh largest country by area, the sixth nuclear power house and one of the world's fastest growing economy. India is undoubtedly the world's largest democracy. India houses world's second largest population. Since the freedom of India in 1947 from the British government India has been a democratic country.More than 30 percent population in India is young(between the age group of 18-24, this makes 400 million young people in India of total 2.41 billion Indian population)

India has been an non-violent country and this could seen proven by the great Mahatma Gandhi.The Indian Army is the Third largest in the World in terms of military personnel, Yet India has the distinction of not invading any country in the last 100,000 years of history.

Over several millennial India has absorbed and preserved customs, traditions and Ideas from both immigrants and invader's. Not surprisingly, India is the birthplace of four religions. The land of Hinduism is also the site for the world's largest mosque, the Jama masjid. The santhome basilica- considered one of the only three tombs of Apostles to be located and preserved - is also in India.India is also one of the most diverse nation in the world in every aspect.India is also home to many cuisines in the world and is said to have a new cuisine every 100 miles of travel.
In the terms of Geographical area, India occupies only 2.4% of the world's total land area, Yet it is home to 60%-70% of the world's biodiversity. There are about 500 species of mammals in India,out of which 21 species are not found anywhere else in the world. India is home to world's largest population of tigers. In the world', tigers and lions are not found together in any one country -except in India.More than 2000 species of birds can be seen in India.

Some amazing facts:-

• The world's highest cricket ground is in chail, Himachal Pradesh,India.Built in 1893,this pitch is 2444 meters above sea-level.
• India has the largest number of post offices in the world
• The Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world.It employs over a million people.
• Until 1896,India was the only source of diamonds in the world.
• The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the ladakh valley.

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15 August-Independence Day of India

Google doodle on Indian Independence Day

The Independence Day of India, celebrated on 15 August, is a holiday commemorating India's independence from the British rule and its birth as a sovereign nation on 15 August 1947. India achieved independence following the Indian independence movement noted for largely peaceful nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience led by the Indian National Congress. The independence coincided with the partition of India wherein the British Indian Empire was divided along religious lines into two new states—Dominion of India (later Republic of India) and Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic of Pakistan); the partition was stricken with violent communal riots.

The Independence Day is a national holiday in India. The flagship event takes place in Delhi where the Prime Minister hoists the national flag at the Red Fort, followed by a nationally broadcast speech from its ramparts. The day is observed all over India with flag-hoisting ceremonies, parades and cultural events. Citizens rejoice the day by displaying the national flag on their attire, household accessories, vehicles; varied activities such as kite flying, bonding with family and friends, and enjoying patriotic songs and films are seen.

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India'n medal tally at London Olympics 2012

London Olympics Ended on the 12th of Aug 2012. India was able to gain just 6 medals(2 silver and 4 bronze) this year which is even lesser than the total medal of of an Olympic player like Michael Philips.
But this medal tally is by far the best medal tally by Indian contingent ever in a single Olympic game

Gagan Narang won the country's first medal at the Games (By order of winning numbers according the first date of winning), a bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event.

Vijay Kumar won a silver medal in men's 25 m rapid fire pistol event and became the third man ever representing India to win an individual silver medal after Norman Pritchard (2) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Adding to that, Saina Nehwal, won a bronze medal in women's singles in badminton. She has become the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics. She is also the second Indian woman to win an individual medal after Karnam Malleswari's bronze medal in Weightlifting in 2000.

Mary Kom won India its fourth medal at the games by winning a Bronze in the Women's flyweight category in Boxing. She is the third Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics.

Yogeshwar Dutt by winning a bronze in the 60 kg Freestyle Wrestling event, won India the fourth bronze and the fifth medal overall. This is the third individual medal in wrestling after bronze medals by Sushil Kumar in 2008 and K D Jadhav in 1952.

Sushil Kumar won the Silver medal in 66 kg Freestyle wrestling. Sushil Kumar is the first Indian to win an individual medal in back to back Olympics. He had won a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same category.

India Ranked 55th among the all participant countries.

According to the Internal scale this is a very low medal tally for such a Huge country like India which is the second most populous country in the World. This medal tally 

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Sim Card cloning a new mass Cyber attack being experienced by Indian Telecom users

India a country with second largest number of mobile phone subscriber's having more than 965 million mobile phone user's(July 2012).India has a teledensity of more than 80% and an average monthly addition of mobile phone user of around 50 million users currently (July 2012).

These Huge statistics of Indian cellphone users also increases risk of Cyber attacks.Such a recent case of Cyber attacks are being experienced by cellphone user's since a year.User's in India are always being prone to cyber attacks by various organisation which sometime attack for own sake or for the sake of the people of the country(Anonymous India attacks).One such Cyber attack related to cellphone user's is being reported in various parts of the country.

In the advent of such attack first a person receives a missed call from a number starting with +92.calling the number back makes a person susceptible to SIM card cloning. According to various resources cloning a SIM card requires physical access to the SIM card or interception of the communication between caller and it's cellphone operator.

A yogi using a Mobile phone

Over a hundred thousand user's have fallen prey to this scam.Anyone can clone a SIM card by using a hardware tool that can read and copy information from it. But wirelessly or remotely intercepting information contained within the SIM, though theoretically possible, is considered extremely difficult. It may require hacking into the telecom operator's network or using very expensive tools. An article on eHow, a website that explains how users can performs various tasks using several gadgets, says that the SIM can be cloned using a cheap hardware tool that can extract the authentication key from one SIM and copy it to another. But it doesn't mention any method that can make use of missed calls to clone a SIM.In case the subscriber takes the call before it is dropped as a missed call then the caller on the other end poses as a call center executive checking the connectivity.The caller then asks the subscriber to press # 09 or # 90 call back on his number to establish that the connectivity to the subscriber was seamless.

When the user redials the number then a huge sum of money is deducted from the mobile phone if the mobile phone connection is prepaid and if the connection is a postpaid one then a number calls to different numbers creep in the bill of the user.This activity is becoming a lot common these days and is spread across all parts of the country.The intelligence agencies of the country is still skeptical about such a big hacking/cracking attempt being going on.

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Yoga- A spiritual and aesthetic discipline

Yoga is commonly known as a generic term for a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline originating in ancient India and found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.Specifically, Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools in Hindu philosophy. It is based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and aims to use meditation to attain spiritual insight and tranquility.

The aim of yoga is varied and ranges from improving health to achieving moksha. Within the Hindu monist schools of Advaita Vedanta, Shaivism and Jainism, the aim of yoga takes the form of moksha, which is liberation from all worldly identification and the cycle of birth and death (samsara), at which point there is a realization of identity with the Supreme Brahman. In the Mahabharata, the aim of yoga is variously described as entering the world of Brahma, as Brahman, or as perceiving the Brahman or Ātman that pervades all things. For the bhakti schools of Vaishnavism, bhakti or service to Svayam Bhagavan itself may be the ultimate aim of the yoga process, where the aim is to enjoy an eternal relationship with Vishnu. The aim of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility through meditating on the Hindu concept of divinity or Brahman.

Now there are a specific categories of books specifically in yoga.Few of them could be found here at this website www.indianbooks.co.in 

Link:

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Raksha Bandhan-The Indian festival of bonding brother and sister relation

In India cousins whether male or female all are treated as Brother or Sister, a perfect example of bonding between the family ties since inception of relationships. Another example of this kind of family bonding between brother and sister could be found by a festival celebrated in India called Raksha Bandhan.This festival is mainly observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Muslims in India.

Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection) is a festival primarily observed in India and Nepal, which celebrates the relationship between brothers, cousins and sisters. It is also called Rakhi Purnima in most of India. It is also celebrated in some parts of Pakistan.The festival is observed by Hindus, Sikhs and some Muslims.The central ceremony involves the tying of a Rakhi (sacred thread) by a sister on her brother's wrist. This symbolizes the sister's love and prayers for her brother's well-being, and the brother's lifelong vow to protect her.

Rakhi's which are tied on brother's wrist by her sister

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread, which comes in many colors and designs, by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her as she presents sweets to him. The brother usually presents his sister with an envelope filled with money however, other presents such as saris and clothing can be given. The brother and sister traditionally feed one another sweets. These sweets include anything from Jalebi, Kaju Katli, and Burfi. Since north Indian kinship practices give cousins a status similar to siblings, girls and women often tie the rakhi to their male cousins as well (referred to as "cousin-brothers" in regional parlance) in several communities. Unrelated boys and men who are considered to be brothers (munh-bola bhai or adopted brothers) can be tied rakhis, provided they commit to a lifelong obligation to provide protection to the woman or girl.










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Olympics and India:Story since the beginning

India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete (Norman Pritchard) winning two medals in athletics. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920, and has participated in every Summer Games since then. India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games since 1964. The 1920 team consisted of two wrestlers, two athletes and a manager. Out of the four sportsmen, only Mr. Phadeppa Dareppa Chaugule completed his event that is the Marathon. He ranked 19th with a timing of 2 Hours 50 Minutes 45.4 Seconds for a distance of 42 .750 KMs. He thus becomes India's first Olympic Marathon runner. It was indeed a great achievement for an Indian to participate and to complete the event amidst many serious adversities. Indian athletes have won a total of 21 medals, mostly in field hockey. For a period of time, India's men's field hockey team was dominant in Olympic competition, winning eleven medals in twelve Olympics between 1928 and 1980, including six successive gold medals from 1928–1956.

Flag of India

India after independence from the British empire on 15th august,1947 competed for the Olympics games as an Independent nation in 1948. Before Independence also India competed for Olympics six times in 1900, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936.

India competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. It was the first time that India competed as an independent nation at the Olympic Games.India won gold medal for Hockey game at that time.This gold medal was a very big achievement for a Newly Independent nation like India.

India competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.India won a Gold medal for Hockey and a Bronze medal for wrestling.

India competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.India won a Gold medal in Hockey.

India competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. This was the first time since 1928 that the Men's team failed to achieve a gold medal in field hockey. They lost 1-0 to Pakistan to secure the second position.

India competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.this time also Indian Men's Hockey team won a Gold medal.

India competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico.This time Indian team won a Bronze medal for Hockey game.

India competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.India Won a Bronze medal for it's Hockey team.

India competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. This is the first Olympics since 1924 in which the Indian Men's hockey team do not win an Olympic Medal, in fact Indian team did not won any medal at all.

India competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR.This time Indian Men's Hockey team won a Gold medal.

Olympics symbol

India competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States. India didn't win a medal but the Games are remembered for bringing Indian women athletes centre stage. P. T. Usha lost the bronze medal in 400 metre hurdles by one-hundredth of a second. Earlier in the Games, Shiny Abraham (now Shiny Wilson) reached the semifinals of 800 metres with a (then) personal best of 2:04.69 seconds and became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of an Olympic event. She finished last in the semifinal.

Later, the Indian women's 4x400 metre relay team composed of P. T. Usha, Shiny Abraham, M. D. Valsamma and Vandana Rao made it to the finals. They finished last among the seven teams in the final but set an Asian record of 3:32.49 seconds.

India competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea.India did not won any medal this time.

India competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.No medal was won by India.

India competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States For the first time Indian tennis team won a bronze medal.This year single medal was Won by India, no medal was won in Hockey.

India competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.This time India won a Bronze medal for weightlifting. 

India competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.India won a silver medal for Shooting.

India competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. India was represented by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). A contingent of 56 athletes represented India, and had a support-staff of 42 officials. The athletics contingent was the largest, with 17 athletes.

For the first time since 1928, the Indian Men's Hockey Team was unable to take part in the Summer Olympics due to its failure to qualify. A two-year ban imposed by the International Weightlifting Federation after the 2006 Commonwealth Games doping scandal originally resulted in only one Olympic weightlifter, Monika Devi from India being scheduled to compete, but she too failed a drug test, and was also withdrawn. However, on August 9 it was declared she was clean, but the event she was supposed to participate in, had already closed.

On August 11, 2008, Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle shooting event. In doing so, he won the first ever individual gold medal for India, and the first medal in any event for India at the Beijing Games. The previous highest individual achievements for India were two silver medals won by Norman Pritchard, an Englishman born in India representing Great Britain, at the 1900 Paris Olympics and one silver medal won by the 2008 flagbearer Rajyavardhan Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Sushil Kumar won the second ever wrestling medal for India, the first being the bronze earned by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Vijender Kumar won a bronze medal in the middleweight boxing category, having lost in the semifinals. This was India's first-ever Olympic medal in boxing.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw the best ever performance by an Indian contingent, in terms of the number of medals. They won three medals in all (one gold and two bronze medals), surpassing the two silvers by Norman Pritchard in 1900 Paris Olympics and the gold and bronze medals won by the Indian field hockey team and Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav respectively, at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

India Olympic Team is competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.India sent an 83-member athlete team to London; this will be India's largest contingent ever at the games. Sushil Kumar was the flag bearer in the opening ceremony.

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