This Article is From Feb 21, 2013

Lord Balaji at arm's length in a new luxury watch

Lord Balaji at arm's length in a new luxury watch
Hyderabad: If you are a devotee of Tirupati's famous Lord Balaji, you can take comfort in knowing that He can be with you at all times.

What you need is Rs 27 lakh.

A limited edition luxury watch with His image, engraved in gold, embellished with rubies, emeralds and diamonds, has been made by a Swiss firm and is being sold globally.

However, the powerful trust that manages the Tirupati temple, the richest in India with annual earnings of Rs 2000 crore, is not thrilled about the initiative, but says it could not have stopped the venture, and has agreed to accept a part of the sales for its charitable hospital.

"We have no agreement on this because statutorily, we have no right to sell Lord Venkateswara's photo. It is available. People can take the photograph. They can put it on the Internet. They can put it on their products. They can advertise. One can't protect that at all. Only when they use in a derogatory sense, we have the persuasive power to go after them," says LV Subrahmanyam, CEO of the trust.

A total of 333 watches have been made so divine intervention is at hand, if you can afford it, and are quick enough to snap one up.

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