India’s "crunch-proof" property market brought to London by Navyroof.com

As house prices in London and surrounding areas are in freefall, some selling for over £50,000 less than originally purchased, London property investors are looking to India for profitability where Merrill Lynch has predicted a 700 per cent increase in property prices by 2015.A seminar at the City Hotel, Brick Lane, London, at 7pm on September 17th will give London property investors valuable information on how they can benefit from investing in India’s thriving property sector.It is hosted by Navyroof.com – the company that brings investment opportunities from the most up-and-coming areas of India to the UK.Attendees will gain detailed knowledge of the Indian economy and the long term sustainable factors driving its rapid growth; they will also discover the areas that give the greatest capital appreciation on investment and will have the opportunity to listen to expert guidance on the purchasing process. The seminar will cover all aspects of the market, including Indian property law, to give investors all the information they need to escape the doldrums of the UK property market and to take full advantage of India’s booming economy.Mother IndiaThe seminar will also explain how London’s non-resident Indian community can give back and profit by investing in their motherland.India’s strong economic growth reflects the profound changes occurring in society. Over half of India’s current population is under 25, giving India the world’s largest population of workers and consumers by 2020. Increased urbanisation and modern young Indians preferring to live on their own means demand for housing has never been higher. Mortgage lending increased tenfold between 2000 – 2005 yet the ratio of mortgages to GDP remains low, which shows the massive potential in the property market.Andrew Fassnidge, Managing Director of Navyroof.com said, “This seminar will show both UK investors and non-resident Indians how easy, effective and profitable investing in India can be. All the economic indicators project a bright, sustainable future for India with Merrill Lynch predicting a seven-fold increase in the Indian property market by 2015. In the last two years alone, property prices in India increased by 70 per cent. Industry commentators are mooting that whilst the USA and Europe look to be involved in an economic downturn, emerging markets such as India, may be the ‘crunch proof’ economies. Anyone with even a small amount of capital should come along to the seminars to find out what opportunities there are for them to escape the UK property decline.”Invest In India Seminar Harrow 3rd September - 7pmInvest In India Seminar Brick Lane 17th of September - 7pmInvest In India Seminar Hounslow 23rd of September - 7pmAttendance can be secured for the 17th of September by signing up at http://www.navyroof.com/ or calling 020 7242 2452

DPI red herring

First off, apologies for the slightly confusing discrepancies between the dates above my previous posts and their stated publication dates. I migrated my nascent blog from another site and wanted to show exactly when I’d written them.Right, to Capitol Hill now, where the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has for the last couple of weeks been investigating Internet companies’ approach to privacy. The Committee is focusing particularly on behavioural targeting - the practice of inferring Internet users’ interests from their browsing behaviour and using this data to serve them more relevant (and thus more profitable) online advertisments.The House Committee sent a letter to thirty-three Internet companies on the first of this month questioning them about their privacy policies in regard to concerns raised by behavioural targeting.‘Questions have been raised regarding the applicability of privacy protections…and whether legislation is needed to ensure that the same protections apply regardless of the particular technologies or companies involved’, read the letter.While, of course, all the companies vigorously defended their privacy policies, Google’s approach is worthy of note. This behemoth of the Internet made a point of denying that it uses deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, and used this claim to evade answering a number of the Committee’s 11 questions.Deep packet inspection is a technology which examines the data in individual packets travelling across the Internet. This technology can be used by ISPs to analyse traffic passing over their networks and the analysis used to serve targeted ads to their users.Google don’t use DPI, so that’s any concerns about user privacy out the window then, eh? Well, up to a point, Lord Copper.For every search made through Google, the company retains the URL, IP address, time and date, operating system and browser used. It also delivers advertisements dependent on the search term entered.My problem with this is twofold. First, I don’t really want Google to know exactly where I’ve been on the Internet and what search terms I’ve entered. Secondly, I don’t want them to know who I am which, given that they have my IP address, they effectively do.So whether or not Google uses DPI or not, they still hold an unnecessarily large amount of personal information on me which they keep for 18 months. I don’t like that.So really, DPI is a red herring. It’s not how you get data, it’s what data you gather and whether you store it or not.I’ll still use Google though, but not under the misapprehension that they can be trusted to “do no evil”.

Government Goes For Incompetence Gold

The Government is on course to break its record for the largest loss of citizens' data in a single year. After a particular strong showing in the 2007 data loss competition when it managed to mislay some 36,989,300 pieces of personal information, the Government is setting its sights on smashing its own record for rank incompetence and utter farce.The latest step towards this unprecedented target was announced by a beaming official from the Ministry of Justice who proudly revealed that 45,000 people had been affected in nine separate data loss incidents within the Ministry."I am proud to announce that we are well on our way to making 2008 another record breaking year for data loss," said the gurning beancounter. "This latest data loss shows that Britain excels not only in sailing, cycling and rowing, but also leads the world in risible ineptitude."The best individual figures for the department were achieved in a single incident, when 27,000 people working for department suppliers were affected after information from badly protected electronic storage devices was disclosed without authorisation.Names, addresses and bank details were taken, while the MoJ made no efforts to notify the people involved.And in January 14,000 people were affected due to the theft of a poorly-protected laptop from secured government premises. Names, dates of birth and some national insurance numbers were lost.US analyst Brad Oysterburger says that there is still scope for the UK government to improve on its already phenomenal record for data loss. “If the government goes ahead with its plans for compulsory ID cards for all UK citizens and a centralised database recording all electronic communications, then these data loss figures could soon be considered a mere bagatelle. Britain looks in strong shape to cement its position as the greatest laughing stock in the world of data security.”

Morocco rules the roost this week

Morocco was rated one of world's top elite destinations in a recent article in the Home Overseas. This North Africa country has displaced other leading investment hotspots such as Australia and Slovakia. No surprises as Morocco not only offers affordable house prices but has recently seen a democratisation of public life, education and health, and strengthening of basic infrastructure leading to both social and political stability.Investing in Morocco could potentially lead to high return and it offers great investment potential for overseas property buyers. Among the advantages of investing in Morocco, the low cost and the high quality of labour leads the way; closely accompanied by their policy of structural reforms which attract the interest of the investors.Costa de la Luz in Spain and other beach areas have been overbuilt and are therefore over-priced. These escalated prices have lead investors to look to Morocco. It offers the same sunny weather, the same Mediterranean coast and is only 9 miles away in northern Morocco at sometimes 1/10 of the price.As the property market in the UK shows no signs of improvng, investors can choose from a number of foreign destinations offering great returns.

Privacy-tards

This may be a cynical PR story, but to my mind it's a great one.A major ISP, the identity of which I have absolutely no intention of revealing, has carried out a survey showing that while 84 per cent of internet users in the UK claim to be guarded about their privacy, 90 per cent of the same users are prepared to hand over their private data to any Tom, Dick or Harry on the interweb.This doesn't surprise me at all. In my experience, it's those incapable of distinguishing between genuine and imagined privacy threats who bleat loudest about supposed online privacy violations.This is more or less the conclusion of the ISP conducting the research: "...[it seems that] the more that people understood about the risks of online privacy violations, the less concerned they were about them," says the release.For example, they found that 84 per cent of all respondents (and there were over 1,000) said they would not give away income details online, yet also found that 89% of the those surveyed were willing to do exactly that.“Our research identified a significant gap between what people say and what they do when it comes to protecting sensitive information online,” was the rather obvious quote written by a faceless PR for the ISP's chief privacy officer.I rather admire the brazen way in which they carried out this survey. They asked lots of questions about attitudes to privacy, before asking them personal questions such as income. More than 87 per cent of respondents who said they guarded their income details actually gave them away in the second part of the survey.This is hypocrisy born out of stupidity. I would not be at all surprised if some of the respondents to this survey were the same self-righteous, self-important and self-appointed "privacy campaigners" who whine about Google Street View but are incapable of seeing the true threats to citizens' privacy in the modern age.

Panama - the latest property hotspot

Following John Darwin's exposẻ, the media has paid a lot of attention to Panama City. Mr Darwin faked his own death in a canoeing accident four years ago in order to enjoy a new life overseas with his wife. The media highlighted the lifestyle options that made Panama an attractive destination.
The 20 year tax exemption for buyers in Panama, good health care provision, and cheap property prices makes this Central American country hugely attractive to property investors.
More and more British property investors are looking to invest in emerging markets to reap the rewards the property boom first promised.

Dubai in danger of property 'overheating'

down by 10% by 2010, according to a new report. This is despite the opening of Concourse 2 at the new Terminal Three which will ease the overcrowding at the Dubai Emirates Airport. One would have thought that with the opening of this $US4.1 billion terminal, property prices would have direct positive impact.
But investment Global Investment Banking firm, Morgan Stanley predicts otherwise. Prices in the Dubai property market have risen a massive 79% since the start of 2007. Morgan Stanley report concludes that oversupply to hit Dubai in 2009, will leading to a period of price declines.

The 10 easiest UK postcodes to sell property

From the Times (Full article)Some interesting stats and facts:- In June 2006 there were 124,000 homes sold in England and Wales.- In June 2007 there were 105,000 properties sold. (A drop of 15 per cent)- So far, just 17,681 sales have been recorded in June this year. (A drop of 83 per cent) Here are the ten postcodes that registered the highest number of sales in June.1.CV6 (Coventry): 442. CR0 (Croydon): 403. S6 (Sheffield): 364. BN3 (Hove): 355. SW19 (Wimbledon): 356. BN1(Brighton): 347. E14 (Poplar): 348. ST5 (Newcastle-under-Lyme): 349. FY8 (Lytham Saint Annes): 3310. SG2 (Stevenage)

UK Web Servers Unnecessarily Emit CO² Equivalent to Over One Million Return Flights to India

A study of over 3,500 dedicated servers by Amenworld.com – the European hosting company – found that on average servers needlessly use 1000 kWh of energy, producing an excess of 632Kg of CO2 per server per year. This is the equivalent of one person making over a million return trips to India in a year. The research has resulted in Amenworld.com’s launch of a new range of servers in the UK that consume only half the power of conventional servers. A reduction of up to 632 Kgs of CO2 emissions per server is estimated year on year with these greener alternatives.The new servers will enable webmasters to become more eco-friendly by shrinking their carbon footprint and lowering electricity consumption – without compromising on quality. Olivier Djidjelli, Amen UK Country Manager, said, “Like other industries, the hosting industry has a role in the global effort to reduce levels of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Amenworld.com is playing its part by offering customers Eco Servers, a more environmentally conscious alternative to hosting. Our new Eco Range will allow webmasters to have a dedicated server at their disposal which combines both high technical performance and a significant reduction in greenhouse gasses.”The Eco Range’s dedicated, high-performance servers are available with 80GB or 160GB of storage space, with technical specifications that can be adapted to match client need. Components are optimally located to boost cooling airflow through the servers reducing the system’s temperature and the amount of power consumed. Amenworld.com’s Eco Servers have up to 3GB of RAM which helps to reduce the pressure on the low energy AMD dual core processors, further decreasing power consumption. At only £39 ex. VAT Amenworld.com’s Eco Range is an affordable option for the environmentally aware webmaster.