Three years and a billion investment dollars after the Fisker Karma rolled forth as a stunning plug-in-hybrid concept, it’s finally ready to rock as a stunning production car. All in less time (and for far less money) than GM needed to produce the Chevy Volt.

The Karma’s recipe calls for sexy design stirred with a heap of sustainability. We had faith in the styling part of the concoction: While growing up in Denmark, Henrik Fisker inherited from his father a deep appreciation for American cars of the Sixties. Upon completing formal design studies, he put his rearing to excellent use. Warming up for the Karma, Fisker designed the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V-8 Vantage—all of which stand tall next to any Corvette or Eldorado. More→

Global aviation organization Airports Council International (ACI) has released  its World Airport Traffic Report for 2010, with London, Paris and Hong Kong  taking out the first three places in terms of international passenger  traffic.

According to the report, worldwide airport passenger numbers increased by 6.6  percent in 2010 to 5.04 billion. Worldwide domestic traffic increased by 5.8  percent while international traffic jumped by 7.7 percent.

London’s Heathrow airport remained the busiest in the world, handling over 60  million international passengers. The big mover was South Korea’s Incheon, which  moved into the top ten in 2010. Madrid fell out of the top 10, Incheon moved  into 8th place and Tokyo dropped from 8th in 2009 to 9th.

1. London (Heathrow), United Kingdom:  60.9 million passengers per  year
2. Paris, France:  53.15 million
3. Hong Kong: 49.77  million
4. Dubai, UAE: 46.31 million
5. Frankfurt, Germany: 46.3  million
6. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 45.13 million
7.  Singapore: 40.92 million
8. Incheon, South Korea:  32.94 million
9. Tokyo (Narita), Japan: 32.16 million
10.  Bangkok, Thailand: 31.41 million

When it comes to overall passenger numbers — domestic and international –  the ACI list takes a different shape, dominated by U.S. facilities.

1. Atlanta, USA: 89.33 million
2. Beijing, China: 73.94 million
3.  Chicago, USA:  66.77 million
4. London (Heathrow), UK: 65.88  million
5. Tokyo (Haneda), Japan: 64.21 million
6. Los Angeles, USA: 59.07  million
7. Paris, France: 58.16 million
8. Dallas, USA: 56.9 million
9. Frankfurt, Germany: 53 million
10. Denver, USA: 52.2  million

The list also detailed the fastest growing airports (with more than 5 million  annual passengers):

1. Istanbul, Turkey
2. Campinas, Brazil
3. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
4.  Charleroi, Belgium
5. Moscow (Sheremetyevo), Russia
6. Belo Horizonte,  Brazil
7. Bogota, Colombia
8. Phuket, Thailand
9. Shanghai,  China
10. Muscat, Oman

Norway’s unrepentant mass killer, Anders Behring Breivik, is now under arrest. And he should count himself lucky for — if entirely undeserving of — a penal system in that country that is among the cushiest in the world. There’s no capital punishment, and the longest jail term allowed is 21 years (a caveat: if a prisoner is deemed to still be a threat, his sentence can be extended in five-year blocks indefinitely, though it’s highly unlikely, according to Norwegian officials). In Norway, rehabilitation is the guiding principle, not punishment — a somewhat difficult notion to swallow given the gravity and callousness of his crimes.

“Both society and the individual simply have to put aside their desire for revenge, and stop focusing on prisons as places of punishment and pain,” one Norwegian prison official told the Daily Mail. “Depriving a person of their freedom for a period of time is sufficient punishment in itself without any need whatsoever for harsh prison conditions.”

Norway’s newest jail may hold rapists and murderers, but Halden Prison — the country’s second largest and most secure facility — looks more like a posh sleepaway camp. In fact, architects say they purposely tried to avoid an “institutional feel.” When it opened in 2010, some news accounts called it the “most humane” prison in the world.

Indeed, one of the many perks at Halden is flat-screen televisions in inmates’ rooms. There’s no HBO, though, so reruns of Oz and The Wire are contraband. Still, prisoners get private cells with mini-fridges and large windows to let in more sunlight. Here, then, is a quick tour of what luxuries may await Breivik behind bars. More→

Swedish Supercar giant Koenigsegg, in partnership with Interglobe aviation (the company which runs Indigo airlines) stepped onto Indian soil with the Koenigsegg Agera. Priced at a whooping 12.5 CR, the Agera will be the second most expensive car in India after the Bugatti Veyron.

There is technology in the 2012 Audi A6 that is so advanced, the car will be banned from some countries by the United Nations. The international organization feels that the A6′s infrared pedestrian detection system is so powerful that it could be repurposed by rogue paramilitary groups.

The rest of the 2012 Audi A6 is slightly less dangerous. We suspect that the A6′s extensive use of aluminum, highly efficient drivetrains and more unique styling will be less sought after by gun-wielding thugs. Those new attributes should help generate some interest from other groups, though, namely the more traditional customers who have been buying the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class sedans instead. More→

The First Edition Bodyguard set will have matching serial numbers, the prefix for the revolvers will begin with RBG and prefix for the pistols will begin with CBG.

Only 2000 sets will be produced with serial number ranges of RBG0001 – RBG 2000 for the revolvers and CBG001- CBG2000 for the pistols.

Each of the first Edition sets will come with a beautifully handcrafted glass top presentation case, coin and First Edition gun rugs.

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‘It looks better in real life than it does in pictures’ is as effusive as I’m likely to get about the front-end treatment on the new Bentley Mulsanne, for want of proper swearing. This is not a pretty car from the front. This is a car that looks as if it has been self-medicating for a very long time. A thick, upturned bar-shaped slash of an intake on the bottom of the bumper that makes the car look happily dazed, a thrusting masculine grille bookended by a pair of giant eyes that look for all the world like the car is surprised by its own existence. More→

If a TV set was indeed an idiot box, the world has more idiots than sane consumers. The growing influence of new media such as internet and mobile phones and the clout of newspapers and magazines notwithstanding, television continues to rule the media landscape in most markets across the world. India is no exception.   The figures speak for themselves. Despite a much longer history, print media in India is still out of reach of more than 70% of the population. Internet reaches only around six per cent media consumers across the country. Television has emerged as the most powerful medium of entertainment, education and awareness.  With inputs from Mumbai-based television audience measurement agency TAM Media Research, we present a snap-shot of TV consumption pattern in India.  It reaches more than 60% of Indian households. Most interestingly, of the 134 million television households in the country, 70 million are in rural areas and 64 million in urban India. It is accessed by people cutting across demographics, geography and socio-economic background.  India is the world’s second largest broadcast market both in terms of viewership base as well as the number of channels (around 500) here. And yet, broadcast is a nascent phenomenon in India. It has been around for five decades and 40% of the population is outside its reach. More→