MLA RAJENDRABHAI PATEL FELICITATES BALAKALAKAARS AT FESTIVAL PARK Surat, December 26, 2013 – As the entire City celebrates its very own festival - KhoobSurat 2013-14 - VR Surat, Gujarat’s only world-class community centric lifestyle destination, hosted Balakalakaar – City’s largest painting workshops for 1,200 underprivileged children. Held on Christmas Day at the Festival Park at VR Surat, Balakalakaar, an initiative of AIESEC in association with Virtuous Retail, provides underprivileged children from the city’s municipal schools, orphanages and slums, with a wonderful opportunity to express themselves through art with an innovative painting workshop. From various  locations across Surat, 600 of these children are from Pratham NGO affiliated to Municipal Schools in slum areas such as Unn, Mithikhadi, Navagam, Pandesara, Amroli, Kasod; 400 children are from Vatsalya Dham Orphanage, Kamrej; and 200 are from Umra Surat Municipal Corporation School No. 3. Rajendrabhai Patel,

Non-stop fun @VR Surat during Christmas (December 21 to 25), Ponk Fest (December 26 to 31) and New Year (December 26-January 5) This New Year’s Eve, the City of Surat, which has a vibrant history of unique celebrations, gets its very own festival. VR Surat, Gujarat’s only world-class community centric lifestyle destination, has announced a 15-day long festival ‘KhoobSurat 2013-14’ from December 21, 2013 to January 5, 2014. The flagship Center of Virtuous Retail, India’s first and largest institutionally owned developer-operator of lifestyle shopping centers, has lined up non-stop celebrations during Christmas (December 21-25), Ponk Fest (December 26-31) and New Year (December 26 to January 5). Special workshops for all members of the family have been organized at the Food Box and other venues at the center (see box for reference).  These include: Glitter Art Workshop for Children (December 21); Christmas Ornament Making Workshop for Children (December 22); Makeover f

Collection inspired by the Colours of Rainbow After the much successful diamond and wedding jewellery collections, PC Jeweller very enthusiastically has presented today a new line of jewellery called ‘SPECTRUM’ at all its 39 showrooms across the country. The new collection ‘SPECTRUM’ has been launched, keeping in mind the shift towards light and easy to wear jewellery amongst younger and working population. Inspired by the colours of the rainbow, the designs are engraved with stylish and colourful diamonds and stones cut in trendy shapes and affixed on yellow and white gold metal base. The collection will be available in likes of earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants and pendant sets and will come in the many colours of rainbow ranging through red to violet. PCJ has positioned ‘SPECTRUM’ as casual and affordable jewellery with the price ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1, 20,000. Brilliantly adopting the vibrance of the rainbow, the jewels have an opaque charm when adorne

·          Four different segments and 26 awards categories ·          Last date for applications – 16 th January 2014; Awards Nite on 21 st February 2014 ·          Jewellery Awards – Jewellery Category open to all including non-members of GJF ·          An independent and reputed agency shall be screening, monitoring and auditing the event. Mumbai, December 5, 2013: The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), the national trade body for the promotion and growth of trade in Gems and Jewellery Industry across India, presents the National Jewellery Awards (NJA 2014), the most prestigious awards in the gems & jewellery (G&J) industry to recognize the immense talent, innovation and creativity of its valued members and associates. NJA 2014 are an industry’s recognition from the industry, by the industry, to the industry. NJA 2014 comprises four different segments and 26 award categories. The four different segments are: Retailer Awards – Jewellery (

VR Surat contributes Rs 1 Lakh to “Save The Children India ” Surat, November 29, 2013 : Shop for fantastic stuff, win a fabulous car! Shopping Karne Aao, Fabia Le Jao! That’s exactly what Surat resident Mr. Dinesh Kakkar did at VR Surat (Dumas Road) – the brand new way to shop – during the month-long Dilwaali Diwali campaign held between October 25 and November 25, 2013! Mr. Paresh Mishra, Director-Operations, Western Region, Virtuous Retail, handed over the key of the brand new Skoda to a visibly happy bumper prize winner from Ratna Jyoti Apartment, at the Runway@ VR Surat. (Photo from right to left: Paresh Mishra (Virtuous Retail) & Emish Mali (Gen. Manager, Torque Automobiles, Skoda India Franchise) hand over the Skoda key to Mrs. Minu Kakkar, wife of Mr Dinesh Kakkar) Thirty lucky shoppers were declared as the daily winners and many won exciting prizes including a Mahindra Duro Bike, LCD TV and lots more. Any shopper, who bought goods worth Rs. 5,000 at VR S

State-owned Housing and Urban Development Corporation ( HUDCO ) plans to raise Rs 2,439 crore from an issue of tax-free bonds starting on Dec 2, 2013.  The Company is issuing tax free Bonds with a face value of Rs. 1,000 each in the nature of secured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures having benefits under Section 10(15)(iv)(h) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, as amended (“BONDS”) aggregating to Rs 500 crore ( “BASE ISSUE SIZE” ) with an option to retain oversubscription up to the Shelf Limit  of Rs 2439.1995 crore ( “ISSUE” ) . The Minimum Application Size for the Issue is five (5) Bonds across all of the Series of Bonds and in multiples of one (1) Bond thereafter. The Bonds issued through the Issue carry a coupon rate of 8.51%, 8.58% and 8.76% payable annually for 10 years (Series 1A), 15 years (Series 2A) and 20 years (Series 3A), respectively  for Qualified Institutional buyers (QIBs), Corporates and High Networth Individuals (HNIs) applying for bonds more than Rs. 10,00,0

The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation has rolled out 'Star Scheme' to train retail staff of jewellers and will benefit 10 lakh youth at an approximate cost of Rs. 1,000 cr. Gem and Jewellery Industry poised to gain from skill development under GJF's Star Scheme Mumbai , Nov 27-The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), the national trade federation for the promotion and growth of trade in Gems and Jewellery Industry across India in association with Gem and Jewellery Skill Council of India, has rolled out the National Skill Certification and Reward Scheme branded as the STAR SCHEME (Standard Training Assessment & Reward) to train sales staff of the jewellery retailers. The Star Scheme has been formulated to encourage skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programs under the Government of India’s National Skill Certification & Monetary Reward Scheme (NSCMRS).  India ha

The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), the national trade federation for the promotion and growth of trade in Gems and Jewelry Industry across India, has written to the Union Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram and has strongly advocated immediate reforms as following: 1)        Bring back SBLC and other credit buying of gold. Advance payment or COD restrictions may be lifted; 2)        Reduce import duty to 5%.  In a letter to the Finance Minister, Mr. Haresh Soni, Chairman, GJF, said, “When the gold import is restricted under 80:20 scheme, there is no way the import of gold is going to mount until and unless there is a growth in overall exports.  As such, we request you to allow SBLC (Gold Loan) scheme for the jewelry manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. This practice was followed in the recent past. However, this practice is prevalent in many countries due to the volatile gold prices and also supports the jewelry manufacturers, wholesalers and ret

VR SURAT  RECORDS 2 MILLION FOOTFALLS & 85% OCCUPANCY        TO INTRODUCE MORE PREMIUM & LUXURY BRANDS IN PHASE 3 Virtuous Retail, India's largest institutionally owned developer-operator of lifestyle shopping centers,is pleased to announce the Gujarat debut of Inditex-owned global high-street fashion brand Zara, at its 600,000 SF Flagship Center VR Surat , positioning it as the leading fashion destination in the entire region. Other key shop openings include UK's leading department store brand Marks & Spencer , global cosmetics giant MAC and luxury watch brand Omega. VR Surat is South Gujarat’s largest and only lifestyle destination. On this milestone occasion for VR Surat, Anupam Yog, Marketing Director, Virtuous Retail said, “We are excited to have successfully delivered the first international standard lifestyle and tourist destination in Gujarat, and we are particularly pleased to have initiated our India journey via Surat, the historic port cit