Best News of the Year

Best news some time picture says

2012-01-22T23:05:00.000-08:00

18 January 2012 the cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side after it turn aground off the west coast of Italy at Gigolo island.

Katrina Kaif Voted the Best Indian Celebrity Match for Prince William

Sand artist Rajesh Muliya creates a sand sculpture of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose on the eve of his birth anniversary in Then, Gujarat. (PTI)

A reflection of the illuminated North block and South Block on Raisina Hill can be seen, a day before the Republic Day dress rehearsal in New Delhi. (PTI)

A monorail is seen on its tracks before a trial run at the Anik depot in Mumbai. The run was scheduled till Bhakti park station in the city. (PTI)

Cynthia Phaneuf catches her reflection in ice as she executes a move during the exhibition gala at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. (Reuters)

The Indian team shows off their trophy after they won against South Africa in Hockey Test match series in New Delhi. India won the series 3-0. (Express photo: Ravi Kanojia)

Oprah Winfrey speaks about her Indian experiences at the annual Literature Festival in Jaipur. (Reuters)

US favoured Mamata after 2009 LOKSABHA to BIDHANSABHA elections

2011-04-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

After Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's excellent performance in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, her stock rose proportionately among the Americans.

In a diplomatic cable, leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, sent by the US consulate here in 2009, the officials advised their political bosses back home to cultivate the mercurial leader who is likely to be the next West Bengal chief minister.

The cable painted an appreciative picture of the railway minister who it said was "conscientiously trying to transform her image from a political maverick and firebrand to a woman ready, able and willing to lead India's fourth most populous state."

The Americans have a reason to back her ascendancy to the top political post in Bengal as the CPM led-Left government had maintained their aversion for everything imperialistic. "Banerjee is inspiring the faithful and convincing the agnostic that the CPM's 33-year uninterrupted rule in Bengal is set to end. Her July 21 (2009) rally in Kolkata, with crowds estimated up to half a million, was this summer's largest political demonstration and dwarfed the CPM's August 31 timid and lacklustre response."

The cable went a step ahead to advise US government: "Her party's public rhetoric, devoid of any anti-Americanism... is encouraging signs that a Banerjee-led Bengal government will be friendlier to the US".

Biman said so...

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said the leaked cables on Mamata Banerjee proved what Left Front chairman Biman Bose had been claiming -- that capitalists, and especially the US, were campaigning in favour of the Congress-Trinamool Congress combine in the Bengal polls.

Anna Hazare gets Indian support to the point of real and virtual world

2011-04-09T00:40:00.000-07:00

Students and stars, retired judges and rights activists, corporates and canny politicians' In a rare consonance of idea and ideal, thousands of Indians joined the chorus for a more stringent law against corruption, a rapidly snowballing movement propelled by reformer Anna Hazare whose fast-unto-death entered day two here Wednesday.

In what has become one of the biggest mass movements in recent times, 72-year-old Hazare's fast at Jantar Mantar in the Indian capital found resonance across the country with thousands more coming forward to join the crusade against corruption - and a stronger, more comprehensive Lokpal (ombudsman) bill to fight corruption in public life.

The Manmohan Singh-led government, battling a series of corruption allegations, fought the unexpected onslaught and said it was not averse to civil society's suggestions.

The Lokpal Bill 2010 provides for filing complaints of corruption against the prime minister, ministers and MPs with the ombudsman. However, Hazare says the bill in its present form is toothless and his supporters had drafted a separate Jan Lokpal bill that calls for the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (in states) being independent of government control.

According to India Against Corruption, the banner under which the protests are being held, people from 400 cities and towns are participating in the movement - one that Hazare calls a second satyagraha, on the lines of the peaceful protest launched by Mahatma Gandhi against the British.

"This is democracy and we want people's participation in drafting the Lokpal Bill," Hazare told reporters.

The stirring strains of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymn "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram" and the rousing "Vande Mataram" played as people gathered together for the extraordinary protest and made sure politicians stayed out.

So, Om Prakash Chautala, Ajit Singh, Madan Lal Khurana and Uma Bharati had to make hasty retreat as protesters said no political party would be allowed to gain mileage from their movement. Similar reports came in from other parts of the country.

"We want representation from civil society in drafting the Lokpal Bill, 50 percent from civil society and 50 percent from the government," said Hazare.

The frail Hazare, a former soldier whose work in the drought prone village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra became a global byword for rural development, said he was fine and good for another 10-12 days.

Thousands flocked to Jantar Mantar, a short distance from Parliament House, which became a virtual lodestone for all seeking to right governmental wrongs. The gathering included Magsaysay award winners Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Sandeep Pandey.

Students and human rights activists in the evening held a candlelight march.

Thousands more stepped out of their homes in various states to be counted amongst those in this fight. The word had spread through mouth and also through social networking sites and SMSes.

At the Lucknow University, for instance, scores gathered at the Jhulelal Park where three social activists have been fasting since Tuesday.

In Bangalore, four people were on an indefinite fast as part of the nationwide campaign and scores more joined in a relay hunger strike.

In what appeared to be a truly pan-India sentiment, ditto was the story in Agra and hundreds of other towns.

Even the normally apolitical Bollywood stepped out to pledge its support.

Film star Aamir Khan wrote to Manmohan Singh asking him to pay "heed to the voice of Hazare"

"I am merely one of many who fully support Hazare, and have come to appreciate that this upright man is willing to sacrifice his life in the fight against corruption."

Glorious Victory in Cricket world cup 2011

2011-04-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Mahendra Singh Dhoni kept the party on for a billion fans as India clinched the World Cup for the second time after a sixwicket victory in the keenly-contested final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium at Saturday 2^nd April.

After Gautam Gambhir’s late dismissal gave Sri Lanka a glimmer of hope, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh calmly took India to the target, the whole of India erupting to the sound of Dhoni’s whack off Nuwan Kulasekara off the second ball of the 49th over.

As fireworks went off in the night sky of India’s tinsel town, it was touching to see Yuvraj hugging Sachin Tendulkar and shedding some tears. It was also an emotional moment for coach Gary Kirsten who was given a lap of honour too.

But it is now Dhoni after Kapil Dev who brought glory after 28 years for the cricket-mad nation. India started the journey as hot favourites in the game’s biggest event because of their vaunted batting line-up and they finished like champions as they rode on Gautam Gambhir’s 97 and Dhoni’s well-composed unbeaten 91 to chase down Sri Lanka’s fighting total of 274 at the loss of four wickets in 48.2 overs. There could have been nothing better than the way Indian skipper Dhoni finished the game by whacking a six over long-on against Nuwan Kulasekara and got the man-of-the-match award for his scintillating batting in the grand finale.

All eyes however were fixed on local hero Tendulkar as the pre-match talk centred on the little master and spin legend Muttiah Muralidaran. But one thing was for sure that people would not remember the 2011 final for these two great cricketers but for the gutsy Indian captain.

Dhoni, in a way, gave the perfect gift to Tendulkar and completed the genius’s legacy, giving him the trophy he craved for so long.

The master blaster failed to live up to the big occasion to craft his hundredth international 100 as the 37-year-old batsman was dismissed for only 18 runs, rather it was Gambhir and Dhoni who overshadowed Mahela Jayawardene’s classy unbeaten hundred to guide their side to the world’s top prize.

The full-house partisan crowd cheered every success of the Indian team in the field and apparently the home support inspired Dhoni’s boys to lift the trophy but for one occasion the crowd was silent when Tendulkar became second victim of Lankan paceman Lasith Malinga, edging the ball to keeper Kumar Sangakkara, who gave the first breakthrough removing dangerman Virender Sehwag for a second-ball duck.

India however proved their point why they are considered the best batting line-up in the world. Young Virat Kohli joined Gambhir to steady the ship associating 83 runs in the third wicket stand as well as bring back the enthusiasm among the jubilant fans. Occasional spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan brought his team back in contention by taking a superb return catch to send back Kohli for 35 runs, but that only brought the Indian skipper to the middle to take the game away from the islanders.

But Sri Lanka captain Sangakkara must rue for missing the stumping of Dhoni off Dilshan on the very second ball while Ruwan Kulasekara dropped Gambhir, who missed the hundred for only three runs after being bowled by Thisara Perera, at long-off while the batsman was on 30.

Man-of-thetournament Yuvraj Singh then came to finish the job in style with his skipper, who led from the front with a 79-ball 91 that contained eight boundaries and two big sixes.

Earlier it was former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene who stood tall in the big occasion to give his team a defendable total on a hard and true surface. The experienced campaigner played his best innings in the tournament when his team needed it most after a sluggish start. The right-hander’s priceless unbeaten 103 came from 88 deliveries and contained 13 boundaries.

Jayawardene showed pure class during his well-composed knock and reached the magical figure in style by hitting two consecutive boundaries against Zaheer Khan, who bowled an impressive first spell with three consecutive maidens in first three overs.

He executed the first boundary by cutting it over and in the gap between short thirdman and point and then smashed the second one over mid-off to prove that he saved his best in the tournament for the big day.

Sri Lanka made maximum use of the batting Powerplay, which they took in the last five overs, by hitting 63 runs, and Perera deserved some praise beside his senior partner for his 9-ball 22 and he finished the job with a last-ball six that was battered from a good length over mid-wicket.

Captain Sangakkara, dashing Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera and Nuwan Kulasekara came up with some contribution but Jayawardene, only the sixth man to hit a hundred on the game’s biggest stage, almost single handedly controlled the Sri Lankan innings.

After a little drama, Sangakkara won the second toss and has decided to bat first but Zaheer’s brilliant opening spell jittered the Lankan innings as they amassed only nine runs from first five overs. Upul Tharanga struggled from the very beginning and finally was caught by Virender Sehwag at slip off Zaheer.

Sangakkara joined Dilshan to repair the damage by associating 43 runs in the second wicket stand before the latter was being bowled by Harbhajan Singh. With 60 for 2 on the scoreboard in 16.3 overs, Jayawardene came to bat with his skipper Sangakkara and they calmed down the innings by sharing 62 runs in the third wicket stand. But the Lankan innings lost its way and suffered a huge blow when captain Sangakkara was caught behind off Yuvraj Singh for a 67-ball 48, the second highest score in the innings that featured five boundaries.

Finally the tail-enders gave Jayawardene tremendous support to ensure a competitive total on the board.

Zaheer conceded only six runs in his first five overs but completed with an expensive figure of 2 for 60. Two wickets haul however helped him to share the top bowling spot in the competition with Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi as both claimed 21 wickets.

80,000-page charge sheet against Raja

2011-03-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

To end the long saga of the 2G scam, the CBI and the government legal advocates have decided to file the charge sheet on April 2nd. An 80,000 page charge sheet will be filed against former Communications Minister A. Raja, four former telecom officials and two telecom companies to the Supreme Court on April 2nd. The documents carry the complete details of the parties involved, politicians who were involved, the Bureaucrats who were involved, the corporates companies who were involved, corporate personalities, Media persons and lobbyists and the Petitioners who brought the scam to the lime light. The 60-day deadline for filing the charge sheet expires on April 3.
80,000-page charge sheet against Raja

Earlier the charge sheet was to be submitted on March 31st but the government legal advisor K.K. Venugopal told a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly that the agency was still in the process of readying the charge-sheet. When asked for the reason of the postpone, he said that the persons involved in the case were high profile personalities who vouch for a good defense by raising technical objections at every stage. He said the only way to avoid road blocks from the defense is to have a strong case built on them which has no loop holes.

Venugopal also played safe when Justice Singhvi expressed a desire to peruse the draft charge sheet before it was filed in the special court. He said that if they filed the draft charge sheet to the court then the accused would then claim that the Supreme Court has examined the charge sheet and we do not have the option of seeking discharge.

The accused will be charged under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 and 471 (forgery and passing off forged documents as original) of the Indian Penal Code, and several charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The legal advisor has also listed them under conspiracy to defraud, using the first come first serve policy and forgery of official documents.

The charge sheet also lists the Swan telecom company and said that the Swan telecom takeover was against the Reserve Bank of India norms. The penalty under the Foreign Exchange Management Act would be five times the loss caused to the government and the company property can also be confiscated.

However, the probe into the scam has still not seen a complete end with CBI arresting fresh people to add on to their pages. Two more persons Asif Balwa and Rajeev B Agarwal or alleged involvement in money transfer to DMK's Kalaingar TV channel in connection with the 2-G spectrum case. Asif is the younger brother of former Managing Director of DB-Etislat group Shahid Balwa, who has already been arrested by the CBI. Shahid's association with the underworld is being probed by the agency separately.

Further on the current scenario Justice Singhvi has made it very clear that no interference from any quarter would be tolerated. If there was any interference, the CBI could bring it to the court's notice immediately.

Bomb explosion during President's visit to Manipur

2011-03-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

A powerful bomb explosion took place near the Raj Bhavan here, where President Pratibha Patil is staying, officials said today.

The bomb, allegedly planted by militants, went off at 11 PM last night at Ananda Singh Academy, about 2 km from Raj Bhavan, where the President was staying, they said.

No casualty was, however, reported in the blast. Patil is on a two-day visit to Manipur. Police and central forces are conducting round the clock patrolling and forces were deployed at all vulnerable points.

President will today lay the foundation stone of an Information Technology Park at Mantripukhri near here, officials said.

Patil would also meet representatives of some social organisations before leaving for Delhi at 11 AM, the sources said.

Meanwhile, normal life was paralysed in the city following the 40-hour strike called by Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF) to boycott the President's visit.

The MPLF, formed by three major insurgent organisations of the United National Liberation Front, Revolutionary People's Front and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak has been fighting for an 'independent Manipur'.

Vidya and Tusshar now in lovemaking workshop

2011-03-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

Tusshar Kapoor will be playing the love interest of Vidya Balan in Ekta Kapoor's next production Dirty Pictures. The film is a biopic on South sex siren, Silk Smitha. While Vidya will be playing the lead role of Silk Smitha in the film, Tussahar will portray the character of the only person, whom she loved.

Dirty Pictures will feature a passionate relationship between the character Silk Smitha and her love. So that, actress Vidya Balan and actor Tusshar Kapoor will be seen getting indulged in rigorous love making sequences. Though Tusshar has been a part of much adult-rated film, he however, has never personally indulged into love making scenes. With Dirty Pictures Tusshar will be first time getting intimate on-screen with actress Vidya Balan.

To make sure that nothing goes wrong during the shoots, Sister Ekta Kapoor has suggested rigorous workshop sessions of love making between Tusshar and Vidya, so that both of them get emotionally and physically comfortable with each other. Tusshar confirms that he is featuring in Dirty Pictures and will be playing the love of Silk Smita. He showed his belief in the director of the film, Milan Luthria by saying that he will make the content aesthetic. The actor revealed that he will be seen in a passionate relationship with Vidya Balan in Dirty Pictures.

The actor said that the workshop by Ekta will help him get compatible with Vidya as he does not know her well. He has just known her ages ago when Vidya acted in Ekta's daily soap Hum Paanch. Tusshar also said that people have misconception that Vidya is elder to him and thus it will a mismatch on-screen. He clears that he in fact is one year elder to her and they will work towards being compatible on-screen.

Women dominated corporate world in India

2011-03-07T23:38:00.000-08:00

As the world celebrates Woman's Day Tuesday, a striking facet in the otherwise male-dominated corporate world in India has been the representation of women in the top echelons of banking and financial services.

Consider this: The country's second largest commercial lending institution, ICICI Bank, is headed by a woman, Chanda Kochhar; so is the case with the third largest in the private sector, Axis Bank, which has Shikha Sharma on the top seat.

One of the largest foreign banks in the country, HSBC, and the Indian arm of the global financial powerhouse JPMorgan Chase are also headed by women, with Naina Lal Kidwai and Kalpana Morparia respectively overseeing their operations.

Even the Reserve Bank of India, until recently, had two women among four of its deputy governors in Usha Thorat, who has retired, and Shyamala Gopinath, who is still serving the apex industry institution.

"Women have this thing with numbers, finance and money. The banking industry gave them equal opportunities and they have excelled," Finance Secretary Sushma Nath, who is herself the first woman to occupy the top post in North Block, told IANS.

In fact, a look at the composition of the top brass of 11 top listed banks on the Indian stock markets reveals that nine of them have at least one woman on their boards and two of them have women serving as chief executives.

This is backed by a recent study of 240 top Indian companies by EMA Partners, the global executive-search firm, which says more than a half of India's women chief executives are accounted for by the banking and financial services industry.

"The banking and financial services industry has seen the presence of more women on top than any other industry. In fact, women chief executives among the private sector and foreign banks would almost outnumber men in this sector," the study said.

According to Alok Khare, president of the All India Bank Officers Association, out of about one million bank employees in the country, 15-17 percent are women. "But in metro centres and cities, 27-30 percent are women," Khare told IANS.

What are the reasons for this pleasant exception to the male bastion that the corporate world is?

"Some of the operational challenges in terms of gender aren't there in our banking and financial services industry," said Aruna Sundararajan, who was till recently the chief executive for digital inclusion at Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd.

"This industry also does not need the kind of networking that is otherwise required in the corporate sector. It has also provided equal, merit-based opportunities to women," Sundararajan, now a joint secretary in the urban development ministry, told IANS.

Experts say the answer to this also dates back to 50 years when then prime minister Indira Gandhi nationalized 14 top banks in the country, followed by seven more in 1980, and made them adopt a common process of recruitment through competitive tests.

Besides, the working hours of banks were suited to serve the woman's domestic schedules, there was physical proximity to the place of work, the job offered an element of respectability and the profession did not require physical labour.

The result: Banking became a vocation of choice for career-minded women.

Priyanka Chopra Loose her patience

2011-02-26T02:36:00.000-08:00

Priyanka is famous for her cool temperament but there's a limit to even Priyanka Chopra's patience. The star got into a heated verbal argument with a man in Delhi while promoting her just released film '7 Khoon Maaf'. He was out to rattle her, and PC finally reacted.

The incident happened at the recording of an interactive interview. A man, apparently from Punjab, piped in to accuse Priyanka of "not being a Punjabi".

Said a member of Priyanka's entourage: "Priyanka was taken aback by the accusation. At first she laughed it off saying she is very much Punjabi. But the man kept piping in loudly with his allegation. Priyanka finally told him to shut up and quit before she got really angry."

The man disappeared from the venue soon after, but Priyanka, known to be extremely warm to fans, was hurt by the vehemence of the accusation.

Apparently the man kept insinuating she had done nothing for Punjab and Punjabis.

The spokesperson for '7 Khoon Maaf' confirmed the incident adding: "It was weird and inopportune. Priyanka's Punjabiyat had nothing to do with the occasion. We don't know where the man came from and where he disappeared to. But the whole incident was suspicious."

Parts of Jammu & Kashmir belong to China & Pak?

2011-02-14T02:04:00.000-08:00

People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir released a power-point presentation called 'Vision on Kashmir' which showed portions of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by China and Pakistan. The presentation displayed Aksai Chin and Karakoram occupied by China, marked in red and parts of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, which was marked in green. According to the PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti, it was for the first time that a mainstream political party had dared to speak about the regions under controversy and also said that the party was wanted Jammu and Kashmir to become a gateway for Central and South Asia.The depiction of the map brought a lot of dis-concern to Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and he said that Mehbooba was in favor of Army rule in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that she wanted the Kashmiris to replicate like people in Egypt since her party stands as the opposition now. "Her statement smacks of sheer frustration and desperation. She mindlessly wants the people of J&K to somehow replace the present dispensation even if it is at the cost of handing over the State to the Army", said Omar.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was also not happy with PDP's PowerPoint presentation. He said that the party had done a big mistake by agitating people of Kashmir through map depiction and if it did not correct it, he would take action against them.

Mehbooba, who is PDP Chief leader had lauded the army's role in Egypt and even tacitly asked Kashmiris to rise in peaceful demonstrations for a change of government. Drawing parallels between the Cairo protests and last year's summer unrest in Kashmir, Mehbooba said that while the people in the most populous Arab country were not accused of anything, the leadership in J&K was dubbing protesters drug addicts and Lashkar-e-Taiba agents.

Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar, in a joint statement said that it was unfortunate that the leader of a political party is linking the 2010 agitation in Kashmir with the Egypt agitation and wants democracy to take a back seat and the Army to take over.

Mehbooba said that her party had not done anything to challenge the sovereignty of the country over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan selected as special jury award at Zee Event

2011-01-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan walked away with the special jury award for her performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film “Guzaarish” at the Ponds Gold Radiance Zee Cine Awards 2011 held in Singapore.

Aishwarya was honoured Friday as the best actress (female) jury choice for her outstanding performance in the sensitive and challenging role of Sofia in “Guzaarish” that also starred Hrithik Roshan as a paraplegic patient.

The actress also performed at the event on hit numbers from “Raavan”, “Action Replay” and “Robot”.

The award comes right after winning a gong for cinematic excellence for her work for the same film at the recently held Apsara Awards.

The tragic hero

2011-01-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday brings a bad news for Sourav Ganguly and his fans which turned on bad fortune of them on Sunday.None of the 10 franchises put his name up in the wish list for the second time after the first round of auctions ended on Sunday.Sourav would not be playing in IPL . It's completely unbeliveable disbelief when his name was announced by the auctioneer on Saturday and there was no response from the franchise owners.On Sunday,disbelief gave way to indignation as none of the franchises pencilled him out to be re-auctioned even though 28 players from the unsold list were given a second chance.UP captain Mohammad Kaif,one of Souravs proteges,in fact,was given a third chance and finally found a buyer in Royal Challengers Bangalore.Souravs Kolkata Knight Riders teammate Murali Kartik,who too had gone unsold in Round I,hit pay dirt when he was re-presented at the auction with Pune Warriors buying him for $400,000 double his base price.It was almost as if the 10 franchises had come to the auction with a mindset that the likes of Sourav,Chris Gayle,Mark Boucher and Brian Lara were not to be touched.The franchises reluctance to buy West Indies and English players was understandable because of the uncertainty over their availability for the entire IPL-4 (April 8-May 20).However,it was baffling why teams like Pune,Kochi and Deccan Chargers who had plenty in their kitty refused to go for Sourav even though they didnt have enough Indian batsmen on their rosters.It was a humiliation of sorts for a man whom BCCI had anointed as an icon player when IPL was conceived.For the record,of the 48 capped Indian players who went on auction,only three, including Sourav,remained unsold.The other two Wasim Jaffer and VRV Singh could not find a buyer even though,unlike Sourav,they were put up for re-auction.KKR,having splurged on Day I,operated on a low key on Sunday.They spent $500,000 on L Balaji and $250,000 on Jaydev Unadkat to bolster their pace attack even as Bengal boy Ashok Dinda was snatched away by Delhi Daredevils.KKR also made a couple of low-key purchases in Dutch allrounder Ryan ten Doeschate and U-20 Aussie pacer James Pattinson,but still failed to address the balance of the side.Having bought seven foreign players and only five Indians,they now have no option but to recruit from CAB first division club Kalighat,which has served as a supply chain for them for three IPL seasons.There is talk of Sourav taking up a mentoring role with an IPL side,but the man himself remained tight-lipped about his future plans.

UNDER ATTAACK

2010-12-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

Whether it's the attack of the ORGC in Pakistan or the ONGC in India, the long-drawn physical tug-of-war has transformed to a ferocious battle in the cyber world. The recent attacks on the government websites in Pakistan are just a reminder of this on-going virtual war. The sites were hacked by a group of hackers calling themselves the 'Indian Cyber Army'. However, the government started securing the attacked websites shortly after the hackers had gained root access to a main server hosting important websites.

Meanwhile, a report said the government's experts claimed the cyber attack had been successfully thwarted. The group managed to hack at least 36 out of the 40 websites which are reportedly being hosted on the hacked server.
The hackers had inserted a page on the websites declaring that they had successfully rooted the server. The websites had not been entirely defaced.
The hacking attempt appears to be associated with the Mumbai attacks. Details pertaining to the group behind the attack are not clear.

Carbon menace? Indian man's device to help the world go green

2010-08-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Virendra Kumar Sinha, who runs a workshop in East Champaran in Bihar, was ignorant about the possibilities of his pollution control device that can be attached to generators or other diesel engines to reduce noise and air pollution. With emissions of carbon dioxide forecasted to touch 43 percent by 2035, Virendra's device could go a long way in making a big difference in the world, which requires a cleaner and greener environment.

Virendra's workshop, which started in 1981 by manufacturing iron gates and grills, situated just opposite a school. Since they face frequent power cuts, Virendra had to install a generator that resulted in noise and air pollution, which affected school children and neighbors. "It was difficult to move to a new location for me so I started thinking about ways to control this pollution," says Virendra. This was when he thought about something that could control the pollution and finally he come up with a device that can be attached to a generator or other diesel engines to minimize the noise and smoke, reports Manu A B from Rediff Business. It took him six years of experiments to build the first device. Initially, what started as a mission to carry out his work smoothly, turned into a successful innovation with universal appeal and value.

A patented device, it allows carbon deposits to get collected periodically. This can be reused as raw material for shoe polish and local small-scale industry units. Virendra Kumar is now fine-tuning the device to further reduce noise emanating from engines. His next project is a pollution control device for four-wheelers.

Just like most other innovators in India, Virendra Kumar faces a severe fund crunch. Most of the work is now done manually but if machinery is in place, he can manufacture the device faster and more cost-effectively.

"There has been no recognition for my innovation even in my home state. If the government does not take interest in such innovations, how can we grow? This device can reduce pollution considerably. My dream is to make this device available to people across India," says 62-year-old Virendra Kumar.

This unit was fitted to the 10 HP engine used in his workshop. He found that the noise levels could be brought down considerably. He continued to work on it to make it more efficient. And he managed to get the desired results.

The attachment consists of a cylindrical drum having concentric perforated screens and a few long perforated tubes having equally spaced mesh linings. The cylindrical drum is placed between the generator and the exhaust pipe. The exhaust gases, which enter the unit, strike against the array of protruding fins and perforated tubes continuously. The vortex results in the dissociation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into carbon particulates and oxygen.

The innovation also works as a silencer by internally canceling out sound waves as they pass through a series of concentric channels. The carbon-based effluents are removed as soot and solid deposits. As a result the exhaust gases are very clean.

On an average, after 3,000 hours of engine operation, about 5 kg of soot gets collected at the bottom of the drum. In about six to eight months, it collects 12 to 14 kg of carbon, which can be easily taken out.

The testing of the device was done in BIT Mesra, Ranchi. The institute also observed a reduction in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide up to 30 percent and considerable reduction in temperature.

While it takes one day to make a small device, a bigger one would take two days. Virendra Kumar has sold about 40 pollution control devices for different types of engines so far. The device costs Rs.2500 to Rs.10,000 depending upon the type of engine. While Virendra takes just 5 percent as his profit, this innovation can turn out to be very profitable for small factories and households that use generators.
But no company has come forward to help Virendra. "This is a solution that can solve pollution problems across the world in the most cost-efficient manner. Yet, our government does not care to promote these innovations. The science and technology officials in Bihar were also contacted but nothing has happened so far," he says.
"After I got introduced to the National Innovation Foundation, I have received a lot of exposure," says Virendra. Getting the patent for this device in 2008 was the crowning glory for him. In 2009, Virendra won the NIF's award for innovation from President Pratibha Patil.

12-year old Indian origin a Math genius

2010-08-28T03:28:00.001-07:00

Very unlikely, and the most awe-inspiring, delegate made her presence at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2010. 12-year-old Kaavya Jayram, who presented a paper on her results in the area of integer partitioning - expressing numbers as the sum of other numbers, was the youngest person at the International Congress of Women Mathematicians, a satellite conference that preceded the ICM reports Indian Express.

Her paper will be published by the International Journal of Number Theory. Parimala Raman, an invited speaker at ICM and one of India's most well-known experts in algebra who is now the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics at Emory University, U.S. said, "She is really good and she is way ahead of her age. She is interested in problem solving and research, taking great courses at Stanford. She was at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in December when I gave a talk. We've been in touch."

Kaavya took a fancy to number theory after attending a definitive lecture on the subject at IIT Kanpur by Professor Manindra Agrawal who heads the institute's computer science department.

She was home schooled by her mother as she had attained the tag of a 'problem child' at school, thanks to her intelligence. She decided she would be a mathematician, when eight, and began taking courses at the San Jose State University and Stanford University, the latter at the invitation of noted number theorist Kannan Soundararajan.

Kaavya says of her fancy for numbers, "What I like about number theory is there are so many unsolved problems which seem simple but have stumped mathematicians for years."

Presently the family is based in California's Bay Area and is in India for a year. After this, Kaavya will go to university full time, perhaps to Berkeley or Stanford.

Hackers to encash from ATM security flaws

2010-06-28T01:40:00.000-07:00

Flaws have been detected in the automated teller machines (ATM's) design that has made these ARMs vulnerable to hackers and the cash dispensers may have to let go off their cash holdings.The method for 'jackpotting' ATMs will be demonstrated by Barnaby Jack, head of research at Seattle-based, security firm IOActive Labs at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas to be held on July 28.

"ATMs are not as secure as we would like them to be. Barnaby has a number of different attacks that make all the money come out," said Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat conference and a member of President Obama's Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Diebold and NCR are the world's biggest ATM manufacturers. Moss feels that, inorder to raise awareness of the problems among ATM operators and keep them prepared to secure themselves from such problems, there is a need to go public and communication ports that are sometimes accessible from outside an ATM is a potential route of attack.

"People are starting to realize that hardware products do have security vulnerabilities. Parking meters, ATMs, everything that has electronics in it can be broken. A lot of times a hardware product is just a computer in a different shell," said Joe Grand, a hardware security expert.

World Cup Concert

2010-06-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Shakira performs on stage during the official Kick-off celebration concert of the
2010 FIFA World Cup on June 10, 2010 at the Orlando stadium in Soweto

Indian engineering students make helmet that charges mobiles

2010-05-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

Dudhaiya and Bhatt who are final-year students of electrical engineering are planning to file a patent for their innovation. This is an attempt by the students to bring down the number of accidents caused due to people not using helmets while driving. "The number of accidents in the city is on the rise. Two-wheeler drivers who don'twear protective head gear face a greater risk," says Pragnesh.greater risk,"

Two Ahmedabad students, Pragnesh Dudhaiya and Aalok Bhatt of Nirma University, have designed a helmet that doubles up as a mobile phone charger. This helmet charges a mobile in 40 minutes by using solar and wind energy, reports Shraddha Singh of Bangalore Mirror.

Three days is all that the students took to create this new generation helmet. "We designed it when our college was hosting a 'green fest'," Pragnesh said. Emphasizing on energy saving using this helmet, he says that during daytime, the helmet would use solar energy to charge a cellphone attached to it, while in the night, it would use wind energy. "It will cost Rs. 1,000, a small price to pay for safety as well as convenience," he added.

Indian firm gives handset biggies run for their money

2010-04-29T03:26:00.001-07:00

When four friends planned to diversify their IT hardware distribution business and start making mobile phones, which would specifically suit Indian consumers, did not know that after two years, they will be giving mobile handset majors; such as Nokia, Samsung and LG, a run for their money, reports Economic Times.

In the two years of span, Micromax grew to become the third-largest GSM mobile phone vendor in India, after Nokia and Samsung, with a market share of six percent. According to research firm IDC, this Rs.1,600 crore brand, which sells around one million mobiles every month, has a presence in more than 500 districts through 70,000 retail outlets. Speaking on this subject, Vikas Jain, one of the four founders of Micromax Informatics, the company that owns the Micromax Mobile brand, said, "We saw that the MNC brands were not selling phones that suited Indian consumers' requirements. This void had to be filled. So in April 2008, we forayed into the handset market."

Targeting specifically at the rural masses, the company has also started selling handsets that come with features appealing to urban consumers such as music phones, qwerty and internet-enabled handsets. "We wanted to approach the market in a different manner by first going to rural and semi-urban areas, establishing a good distribution base and then targeting the big cities," said Vikas Jain.

Recently, the company came up with a universal remote control phone, one that can be paired to household appliances like the TV, AC, to act as a remote control for them. "We have to be quick in launching new products as competitors can also copy a lot of this soon enough," reasons Jain.

Hackers turn employers! Will pay you to spread more spam

2010-04-28T03:44:00.001-07:00

After facing stricter rules in the U.S, Spammers over there have started outsourcing the work to in India, Bangladesh, China and other developing countries to tackle the simple tests known as captchas, which ask web users to type in a string of semiobscured characters to prove they are humans and not a spam-generating robot.

According to online exchanges like Freelancer.com, where dozens of such projects are bid on every week, these spammers are paying 80 cents (Rs.35.43) to $1.20 (Rs 53.14) per 1,000 deciphered boxes.

Luis von Ahn, a Carn egie Mellon computer science professor who was a pioneer in developing captchas, estimates that thousands of people in developing countries, primarily in Asia, are solving these puzzles for pay. But internet firms like Google say that they do not worry a lot about people being paid to decode captchas because they are one of several tools that websites use to secure themselves. Some sites, for instance, might also send confirmation codes as text messages to cellphones, which then have to be entered into a separate verification page before new email accounts are activated.

5 most awful HR policies hampering company's business

2010-04-23T04:05:00.000-07:00

Counting on several problems that organizations face, CEOs can attribute the problems to some of the unfortunate and misguided policies that serve to slow operations and drive away talented employees. And here is the list of five most destructive human resources policies, writes Liz Ryan, an expert on the new-millennium workplace and a former Fortune 500 HR executive in Business Week.

1. Unaccommodating policy: Several organizations follow a "time-off policy" that oblivious to a normal person's entanglements and obligations. And, in such kind of policies employees' personal life is not given any value, rather they invest their mental and emotional energy in according to the company.

2. Manager-driven transfer policy: It's reasonable to expect a new employee to stay in his or her job for a year, but to put your managers forever in charge of your employees' career progress is a very bad idea. It lets employees know that if they can't trust their boss to look out for their interests when an appealing job in the company is available, their best bet is to bail on the organization entirely.

3. The no-references policy: It happens sometimes that managers subject the employer to defamation charges by saying something unfortunate. And, the withholding of positive references for people who served your interests is unethical and shameful.

4. Need to submit proof for bereavement leaves: In some organizations, if an employee plans to miss a few days of work on account of a family member's death, then they are told by the managers to bring documentation from the funeral home to prove that their loved one has died. And, consequently, it brings in bad-faith, bad-taste management, and an enormous insult to your trusted employees.

5. "Theft-of-Time" policies: As per the "Theft-of-time" rules, managers seek to ding (or terminate) employees for checking eBay (EBAY), updating their blogs or Facebook profiles, or otherwise doing nonwork stuff during the workday. But, the major problem is there is no theft of time for salaried employees, who are not paid for the time, rather, they are only paid for the hard work and their good ideas. And, such kind of policies fails among those employees who manage to complete their work "productively" earlier than the destined working hours.

Wharton management gurus sing India's success mantra

2010-04-16T04:05:00.001-07:00

A uniquely 'India way of doing business', which has fuelled an economy that even in perilous global times remains a dynamo, is essentially based on a simple philosophy - "think in English and act in Indian", say four U.S. professors.

The professors of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania have made the suggestion after a two-year study of some of India's largest firms, of businesses that have played a leading role in the country's rapid development.

The essence of the India way is best expressed by those business leaders themselves, say Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh, Jitendra Singh and Michael Useem, co-authors of "The India Way: How India's Top Business Leaders Are Revolutionizing Management".

"We 'think in English and act in Indian'," R. Gopalakrishnan, the executive director of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, is quoted as saying in an article drawn from the book by Forbes.com.

"For the Indian manager," Gopalakrishnan explained, "his intellectual tradition, his y-axis is Anglo-American, and his action vector, his x-axis, is in the Indian ethos.

"Many foreigners come to India, they talk to Indian managers and they find them very articulate, very analytical, very smart, very intelligent - and they can't for the life of them figure out why the Indian manager can't do what is prescribed by the analysis," he told the four.

The Wharton professors say they found from their study of Indian business leaders that their "x-axis" is defined by four distinctive elements of managing:

1. Holistic engagement with employees. Indian business leaders see their firms as organic enterprises, where sustaining employee morale and building company culture are critical obligations and the very foundations of their success. People are viewed as assets to be developed, not costs to be reduced.

2. Improvization and adaptability are also at the heart of the India way. In a complex often volatile environment with few resources and maddening red tape, business leaders learn to rely on their wits to circumvent the innumerable hurdles they recurrently confront.

3. Creative value propositions. Given the enormous and intensely competitive domestic market and the country's discerning customers, most of them of modest means, Indian business leaders have of necessity learned to be highly creative in developing their value propositions, delivering entirely new products and services with extreme efficiency.

4. Broad mission and purpose. Indian business leaders place special emphasis on personal values and on having a vision of growth and strategic thinking. In addition to serving the needs of their stockholders, like CEOs everywhere, they also stress broader purpose.

They take pride in enterprise success but also in family prosperity, regional advancement and national renaissance.
Bundled together, these principles constitute a distinctly Indian way of conducting business, one very different from other countries, especially the US, where the blend centers more on delivering shareholder value, the professsors say.

Company managers in the West can usefully learn from India's example, the professors concluded.

Indian techie builds low cost robot for household chores

2010-04-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

A Bangalore based Microsoft techie, Ramaprasad has built robots that can cook, keep the house safe when he is away and help him spend his leisure the way he likes it best. Also, these robots tell him news that interests him, and show him ads of products he would like to buy.

Talking to Bangalore Mirror on the sideline of Microsoft Tech Ed being organized in Bangalore, Ramaprasad said that it is awesome letting smart robots do all the humdrum work at home. What thrills him even more is that he made all the robots, which he calls Buddyhomes. The software, hardware, design and implementation are all his.

For the past 15 day, Buddyhomes do every work for Ramaprasad. They wake him up with an alarm. If he does not wake up, they pour some water over his head! He goes for his breakfast. He puts the noodles into a pan on the stove. Then he leaves because he wants to read the newspaper. Meanwhile, a buddyhome stirs the noodles. In two minutes, he gets the message that noodles is ready. He scans the newspapers. He is interested in Lalu Prasad Yadav. He smiles. Immediately, the screen on the wall before him shows the latest available news about Lalu.

Building these robots with software including cloud computing, Microsoft.Net, Visual Studio 2010 and Open Computer Vision, Ramaprasad said that the technology to build the robots is 'very simple'. It has three webcams and a screen, gesture-recognising software, and hardware from SP Road near Town Hall. "It costs me just Rs.16,000. It is so reasonable because most parts are from SP Road. The motors, chips, atmega, and H bridges are all from SP Road."

Now Ramaprasad is trying to finetune the robots to do wet mops of the floor, and do more sophisticated cooking. In particular, he wants to pursue gesture-reading robots because he sees great potential in it for the hearing- and speech-impaired. "I think it is possible to interpret gestures, and turn that into voice. Think how it can help those who cannot speak," said Ramaprasad, who studied in College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, and has a BE in computer science and engineering from Anna University.

Firms don't want to invest in sustainability: McKinsey

2010-04-09T02:38:00.001-07:00

Over 50 percent executives believe that sustainability - the management of environmental is extremely important for any company to build new-product development and overall corporate strategy, but companies are yet to take a proactive approach to manage sustainability. Currently only 30 percent of executives say their companies actively seek opportunities to invest in sustainability or embed it in their business practices.

The survey done by McKinsey explored how companies define sustainability, how they manage it, why they engage in activities related to sustainability, and how they assess as well as communicate this engagement.

Companies are defined as being most engaged with sustainability if their executives say that sustainability is a top-three priority in their CEOs' agendas, that it is formally embedded in business practices, and that their companies are extremely effective at managing it.

Many companies don't actively address sustainability despite the attention paid to it by the media and some consumers and investors is that many have no clear definition of it. Overall, 20 percent of executives say their companies don't. Among those that do, the definition varies: 55 percent define sustainability as the management of issues related to the environment. In addition, 48 percent say it includes the management of governance issues, and 41 percent say it includes the management of social issues. Fifty-six percent of all the respondents define sustainability in two or more ways.

Given that reasoning, it makes sense that most respondents report their companies incorporate sustainability in reputation-building efforts. But companies consider sustainability in a wide range of other business activities as well. Around 60 percent consider sustainability important to overall corporate strategy.

Given sustainability's importance, it's surprising that only 27 percent of respondents say their CEOs or other C-level executives run their companies' sustainability initiatives on a day-to-day basis. Thirty-one percent say business units or functional managers take on this responsibility, and 25 percent say their corporate social responsibility departments do so.

Seventy-six percent of executives say engaging in sustainability contributes positively to shareholder value in the long term. Companies that manage sustainability proactively are much likelier to seek and find value creation opportunities.

Companies where sustainability is a top item in their CEOs' agendas are twice as likely as others to integrate sustainability into their companies' business practices. This suggests that senior executives who want to reap the benefits of incorporating sustainability into their companies' overall strategies must take an active role in the effort.

Rising frauds in corporate India to be dealt firmly

2010-04-07T03:22:00.001-07:00

The overall incidence of fraud is rising in corporate India in the last two years and there is a need for Indian firms to deal with fraud risks firmly, according to the KPMG Fraud Survey Report 2010. The report also states that the financial services and consumer markets industry segments specifically, see a higher level of fraudulent activities within their industry, reports PTI.

"The need of the hour is for organisations to realise the importance of putting effective internal control mechanisms in place, so as to manage risks," KPMG Forensic Head, Deepankar Sanwalka, said. The survey indicates 'procurement' and 'sales and distribution' as the most vulnerable areas across industries susceptible to fraud risk.

Financial statement fraud emerges as a major issue for investors. An overwhelming 81 percent of the respondents of the survey perceive financial statement fraud as a major issue in India. "Accountability is no longer restricted to a company as a whole but also streams down to each and every individual. It has become imperative for companies to be vigilant and aware and not just act when fraudulent situations arise," he said.

Ineffective whistle-blowing systems, inadequate oversight of senior management activities by the audit committee and weak regulatory oversight mechanisms are the reasons for the growing worries as well as the increase in the number of frauds that one can see in the industry today, the report said.

"Managing the risk of fraud is essentially no different to managing any other type of business risk. All that it requires is resilience to combat that fraud," KPMG Forensic Executive Director, Rohit Mahajan, said.

Bribery and corruption have come to be viewed as an inevitable aspect of doing business in India by many Indian companies, the report said. Almost 38 percent of the respondents believe that bribery is an integral feature of industry practises and is most rampant in seeking routine regulatory approvals and to win new business from prospective clients, it revealed.

According to 53 percent of the respondent companies, e-commerce and computer-related fraud will be a source of major concern in the coming years with supply-chain fraud, a close second followed by bribery and corruption and intellectual property fraud, the report said.

However, whatever be the type of fraud, 75 percent of the respondents indicate that, except intellectual property (IP) fraud, fraudulent activities were perpetrated by employees, reaffirming that the enemy within poses the highest risk, it said.

CIOs not considered for board-level roles in Indian firms

2010-04-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

According to a recent Microsoft India survey, only 46 percent of the C-level executives surveyed believe organisations in India are either ready or somewhat ready for CIO leadership. The corresponding numbers for chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief operating officers (COOs) were 99 percent and 95 percent respectively, reports Writankar Mukherjee from the Economic Times.

"The maturity of an Indian CIO is heterogeneous," says Punit Modhgil, Marketing Head (enterprise and public sector) at Microsoft India. "Our survey shows only the top 100 Indian companies have defined a specific role for the CIO. This is because the role of a CIO is relatively new in India, may be just 10-15 years old compared to the West where it has been in existence for the past 25 years," said Modhgil.

As compared to other C-level executives for board-level roles in Indian firms, the Chief information officers (CIOs) or executives who head the information technology function, are seen to be at a disadvantage. Among top executives, finance heads are most sceptical about the readiness of CIOs to join the board - only 12 percent of CFOs believe CIOs are boardready. By comparison, nearly 50 percent of the HR heads and 23 percent of the CEOs surveyed feel that CIOs are ready to join the board.

Microsoft had surveyed some 200 leading companies in India for the study. Recently, there were only a clutch of Indian CIOs who moved into leadership slots.

However, the Microsoft survey indicated that the Indian CIOs were found to be short on three critical attributes of senior leadership talent - insights into a company's business, ability to influence peers and manage change and lead business transformation.

Eight things execs hate about IT

2010-04-01T03:16:00.000-07:00

Nobody hates the people in IT - it's the system that's broken. IT's bureaucratic processes rival the tax code in complexity. When challenged, IT justifies red tape as necessary because the business makes half-baked requests and is clueless about enterprise impact, writes Susan Cramm is a blogger on Harvard Business Review and Author of 8 Things We Hate About IT.

The CIO may be impressive, but he or she is also totally unavailable. When you have questions, your only option is someone a few rungs down, who lacks the breadth of expertise to advise senior executives. IT nags you for requirements and complains that you always change your mind about what you want from your systems. Your 'simple' request requires a boatload of specialists and weeks (if not months) of analysis.

It's not just that IT projects are never completed on time it's that they never feel completed at all. They are perennially 90 percent done. When you need help, you feel like a technology pauper, going door-to-door begging for help from functional specialists who complain that you didn't get them involved early enough.

When you try to brainstorm with IT about new technologies you could use to innovate - like 2.0 tools, for instance - they patronize you by dismissing your questions and noting that your people aren't properly using the systems already in place. No matter how much you spend or how hard you work, the promise of technology seems perpetually beyond your reach.

Kodak launches 14 megapixel touch screen camera

2010-04-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

Bangalore: Kodak has launched Slice, which is a 14 mega pixels camera with an internal 5x optical zoom, image stabilization and a 3.5-inch 16:9 capacitive touchscreen on the back. Along with taking photos, it can also record 720p HD video at 30fps, according to Slash Gear.

Slice comes with 2GB of onboard storage, and also comes with microSDHC card slot for additional storage. It has face and scene detection technology and an automatic "Smart Shoot" mode which will pair those features with ISO and dynamic range balance for better shots. ISO settings from 64 to 3200 are possible.

Kodak Slice also has a share button which allows users to upload photos on various social networking services like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. The Kodak Slice is available is priced at $349.95.

Soon, unlock all software with a single tool

2010-04-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

Scientists in the U.S. claim to have developed a computer program that would help anyone to edit inaccessible software like Microsoft Word and Apple iTunes, and even add customized features to them.

The software would also help the user to move program from computer screens to mobile devices, which do not have a standard operating system, researchers at the University of Washington said. "Microsoft and Apple aren't going to open up all their stuff. But they all create programs that put pixels on the screen. And if we can modify those pixels, then we can change the program's apparent behaviour," said Professor James Fogarty.

The UW tool - Prefab, allows people to personalise programs based on their needs, according to the report that appeared online in Physorg.com. Prefab takes advantage of the fact that almost all displays are made from prefabricated blocks of code such as buttons, sliders, check boxes and drop-down menus. The tool looks for those blocks as many as 20 times per second and alters their behaviour. It unlocks previously inaccessible interfaces and allows people to add the same usability tool to all the applications they run on their desktop.

Tech-enabled multitasking: A time waste?

2010-03-31T03:01:00.000-07:00

Contrary to assumptions about multi-tasking in devices like PCs, smartphones, notebooks and netbooks being useful, experts believe that it can materially damage the economy. The problem is that human multitasking involves interrupting one task with another, according to a study.

There was a time when "interruption" meant an unexpected phone call or visitor and mail was delivered only once daily, reports Lamont Wood of Computerworld. Now, employees are continually barraged with e-mail, instant messages, texts, BlackBerry traffic, blog updates, news feeds, Tweets, Web sites with enticing links and calendar reminders - and the phone still rings, people still drop by and paper mail is still delivered. Simply dealing with the deluge gives people the illusion of productivity. But statistics indicate that might be all it is - an illusion.

According to Jonathan Spira, Chief analyst at research firm Basex, about 28 percent of an office worker's time is lost to interruptions and recovery time. Taking into account the size of the U.S. knowledge worker workforce (more than 65 million) and the average knowledge worker's salary (more than $21 per hour) and other data that's proprietary, he figures interruptions cost the U.S. about $900 billion per year, out of a gross domestic product of approximately $14.5 trillion.

In particular, efficiency experts are alarmed by the effects of computer-enabled multitasking on office work and office workers. "I used to say that multitasking made a task take 15 percent longer. Now I say 50 percent," says Bary Sherman, Head of PEP Productivity Solutions, a California-based management consultancy that specializes in helping organizations become more efficient.

Efficiency experts say that the productivity issue can be countered by sometimes by turning off seemingly innocent features that serve mostly to distract us, sometimes by using overlooked features that eliminate time-wasting tasks, and sometimes by simply steeling our resolve against the siren song of endless digital distraction.

Scientists develop world's tiniest superconductor

2010-03-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

Scientists have developed the world's tiniest superconductor -- a sheet of four pairs of molecules less than a nanometre wide.

The Ohio University (OU)-led study provides the first evidence that nanoscale molecular superconducting wires can be fabricated for use in nanoscale electronic devices and energy applications. (A nanometre is a billionth of a metre).

"Researchers have said that it's almost impossible to make nanoscale interconnects using metallic conductors because the resistance increases as the size of wire becomes smaller," said Saw-Wai Hla, associate professor of physics, astronomy at the OU, who led the study.

"The nanowires become so hot that they can melt and destruct. That issue, Joule heating, has been a major barrier for making nanoscale devices a reality," added Saw-Wai Hla, who works at the OU Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute.

Superconducting materials can carry large electrical currents without loss of power or generating heat. They are currently used in applications ranging from supercomputers to brain imaging devices.

Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911, and until recently, was considered a macroscopic phenomenon. The current finding suggests, however, that it exists at the molecular scale, which opens up a novel route for studying this phenomenon, Hla said, according to an OU release.

"We've opened up a new way to understand this phenomenon, which could lead to new materials that could be engineered to work at higher temperatures," Hla said.

These findings were published in the Monday online edition of Nature Nanotechnology.

India role model to the world: ISRO Chief

2010-03-31T02:58:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days, when India used to look at NASA or other satellite centres to launch satellites. Today, India is the first country to orbit 10 satellites in one single mission and the facilitator for a major discovery of water molecules and water ice on the lunar surface. Also, it is one of the six in the world with capability to make satellites and launch them from its own soil.

Speaking at 34th Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore convocation, Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Chairman - Space Commission, Secretary - Department of Space and Chairman - ISRO said, "When I entered ISRO, it was in nascent phase, and now the heights we have reached in the space sector, is achieved with a shoestring budget as low as three percent of NASA's expenditures on space programmes." Adding to it, he also said that India is a front runner in the global comity playing pre-eminent roles in the International forums of space agencies and space-faring nations.

According to ISRO's report, India is developing a winged reusable rocket, and the ISRO has configured a Technology Demonstrator as a first step towards realizing it. Scientists have already configured a winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), and ISRO believes that it is the first step towards realizing a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-reusable launch vehicle.

The Indian satellite centre has also received foreign proposals evincing interest to send their instruments for hosting by the Chandrayaan-2 which would be jointly developed with Russia. According to ISRO, the Megha-Tropiques satellite, an Indo-French joint mission for the study of the tropical atmosphere and climate related aspects, is expected to be launched later this year. It is set to join a string of global spacecraft designated to study climate change.

Radhakrishnan, who was conferred Post Graduate Diploma when the first convocation was held 34 years ago, with some of the renowned names like Kiran Karnik, Sudarshan P, Prof S Chandrasekhar (representing IIM-Ahmedabad and Calcutta) and many more, joined ISRO in its nascent phase and saw it evolve into a great team providing valuable and self-less service to the nation.

Interact with your walls: 23 yr old Indian innovates

2010-03-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

Anup Tapadia, a 23-year old Indian, has launched a digital technology company 'TouchMagix', which specializes in converting ordinary surfaces into three-dimensional interactive environments.

"The idea behind TouchMagix was to bring the interactive experience a step closer to reality," says 23-year-old Tapadia. The first technology we developed was called MotionMagix, and it allows any projection screen to be made interactive. Imagine walking up to a real wall, projecting a picture on it, and interacting with the objects in the picture," said Tapadia.

He also said that he was inspired by origami in many ways. It taught him the importance of scaling designs in 3-D. Tapadia, who bagged two master degrees in Computer Science at the age of 21, is an alumnus of University of California, San Diego. At age of 14, he became the world youngest professional to pass the Microsoft Certifications (MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA). Bill gates, Azim Premji, Raghunath Mashalkar and many others have written and appreciated his achievements in the field of technology and science. Also, he worked for a year with Qualcomm in San Diego, U.S, where he developed two products in distributed mobile computing, which were patented. Later on he joined the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to pursue a PhD in communication theory and systems.

Explaining about the latest version of the MotionMagix system, Tapadia said that the latest version allows surfaces like LCD and plasma screens, LED floors and walls to be made interactive, so one can project a football field on the floor of a mall and start chasing the ball. "It has extensive applications in retail, malls, advertising, events, promotions and gaming. At a cost of Rs.3.5 lakh upwards, the technology is limited to installations in shopping malls and multiplexes, but it is only a matter of time before people start using the walls, tables and floors in their homes as convenient surfaces for entertainment," said Tapadia.

some of Event

2010-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

Asian stocks rise amid Greece hopes; Europe down

McCarthy’s Musings: MLS Trio Aims To Advance World Cup Claims In Amsterdam

Massive earthquake hits chile

Obama won’t fill Fed seats this week

17 Indians sentenced to death for killing a Pakistani in UAE

2010-03-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Seventeen Indians have been sentenced to death by Sharjah's Shariah Court for killing a Pakistani man and injuring three others in a vicious attack last year.

Judge Yousuf Al Hamadi sentenced the 17 men to death after all evidence, including DNA tests, showed they had knifed the Pakistani to death, Khaleej Times reported.

The victim had died of his wounds after he was stabbed repeatedly on various parts of his body and had also suffered brain damage, police said.

The attack in January last year followed a fight over the control of the illegal liquor business in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah, one of the emirates of UAE, the paper said.

The police had said the suspects had attempted to kill three other compatriots of the victim, but they managed to escape and were rushed to Kuwaiti Hospital for treatment.

The convicted men are aged between 17 and 30 years. According to the three Pakistanis who survived, 50 people set upon them with knives on that fateful day last year.

Police had rushed to the area and arrested the 17, who had allegedly led the attack. The others were let off due to lack of evidence.

During court hearings, all the suspects confessed they had fought with and murdered the victim. Forensics reports and DNA tests also proved their role in the crime.

Moscow Attack a Test for Putin and His Record Against Terror

2010-03-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

The brazen suicide bombings in the center of Moscow confronted Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin with a grave challenge to his record of curbing terrorism, and raised the possibility that he would respond as he had in the past, by significantly tightening control over the government.

The explosions Monday, set off by female suicide bombers in two landmark subway stations, killed at least 38 people and wounded scores of others, touching off fears that the Muslim insurgency in southern Russia, including Chechnya, was once again being brought to the country’s heart.

The attacks during the morning rush hour seemed all but designed to taunt the security services, which have been championed by Mr. Putin in the decade since he took power in Russia. The first one occurred at the Lubyanka subway station, next to the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, also known as the F.S.B., the successor agency to the Soviet-era K.G.B. that was led by Mr. Putin in the late 1990s.
Mr. Putin, the former president and still Russia’s paramount leader, has built his reputation in part on his success in bottling up the Muslim insurgency in southern Russia and preventing major terrorist attacks in the country’s population centers in recent years. If the bombings on Monday herald a renewed campaign by insurgents in major cities, then that legacy may be tarnished.
The attacks could also throw into doubt the policies of Mr. Putin’s protégé, President Dmitri A. Medvedev, who has spoken in favor of liberalizing the government, increasing political pluralism and dealing with terrorism by addressing the root causes of the insurgency.
While Mr. Medvedev has not yet put in place many major changes, Mr. Putin has generally allowed him to pursue his course. More terrorism, though, could cause Mr. Putin to shove Mr. Medvedev aside and move the security-oriented circle of advisers around Mr. Putin to the forefront.
“Putin said, ‘One thing that I definitely accomplished was this,’ and he didn’t,” said Pavel K. Baev, a Russian who is a professor at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo.
“My feeling is this is not an isolated attack, that we will see more,” Mr. Baev said. “If we are facing a situation where there is a chain of attacks, that would undercut every attempt to soften, liberalize, open up, and increase the demand for tougher measures.”

Mr. Putin on Monday limited his comments largely to vows to destroy the terrorists who organized the attacks, who have not been identified, but who the Russian authorities said they suspect came from Chechnya or neighboring regions in the Caucasus Mountains. But when he last faced a spate of such violence, in 2004, he reacted with a sweeping reorganization of the government that he said would unite the country against terrorism, but also concentrated power in the Kremlin.

He pushed through laws that eliminated the direct election of regional governors, turning them into presidential appointees, and made it all but impossible for political independents to be elected to the federal Parliament. He also increased the strength of the security services.

Boris I. Makarenko, chairman of the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow, a research organization, cautioned that it was too soon to speculate whether Mr. Putin might feel the need to clamp down. Mr. Makarenko said he believed that Mr. Putin’s reputation had not suffered badly because of terrorist attacks early in his tenure as president.

But Mr. Makarenko noted that the bombings in the Moscow subway came as Russia’s financial problems had been agitating the government. Protests have broken out in some major cities, and the opposition, while still relatively weak, has been gaining some support.

“The public has become more skeptical about the government in general in recent months, due to the government’s limited ability to tackle the effects of the economic crisis, to the inefficiency and misbehavior of the police, and other issues,” he said. “These terrorist attacks might be another piece in the efforts of those who want to go after the government.”

The subway system in Moscow is one of the world’s most extensive and well managed, and the bombings on Monday spread anxiety that is unlikely to dissipate for some time. For many people here, the day’s events recalled the tense times in the early part of the last decade when the city, including the subway, was hit with several terrorist attacks.

While the Muslim insurgency has not subsided in recent years, major attacks outside the Caucasus region had been unusual, and in April 2009, the Kremlin even announced what it described as the end of special counterterrorism operations in Chechnya.

But in November 2009, terrorists bombed a luxury passenger train that was traveling in a rural area from Moscow to St. Petersburg, killing 26 people. Last month, a Chechen rebel leader, Doku Umarov, threatened in an interview on a Web site to organize terror acts in Russian population centers.

“If Russians think that the war is happening only on television, somewhere far off in the Caucasus, and it will not touch them, then we are going to show them that this war will return to their homes,” he said.

Mr. Medvedev, who took office in 2008, has called for a somewhat different tack on the insurgency, saying that the government should aggressively hunt down the terrorists, but also focus on the poverty and government malfeasance that he contended nurtured extremism.

Last June, Mr. Medvedev visited the region and gave an unusual speech in which he seemed to offer an implicit rebuff to the uncompromising Putin strategy.

“It is no secret to anyone here that these problems in the North Caucasus, and in the south of our country in general, are systemic,” Mr. Medvedev said. “By saying that, I am referring to the low living standards, high unemployment and massive, horrifyingly widespread corruption.”

Mr. Medvedev also appointed a new leader of Ingushetia, a Muslim region, who echoed his belief that hard-line measures would only stir a backlash.

On Monday, though, some senior members of Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, were already suggesting that the government needed to adopt a stern new plan to combat terrorism.

Vladimir A. Vasilyev, chairman of the security committee in Parliament, lashed out at law-enforcement authorities, saying that they should be punished for allowing the attack.

“I am convinced that all those who failed to carry out their duty will bear responsibility,” he said, adding that current laws were “ineffective.”

For his part, Mr. Medvedev voiced only a determination to catch those behind the attacks. “We will continue our counterterrorist operations with unflinching resolve until we have defeated this scourge,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Ellen Barry, Andrew E. Kramer, Michael Schwirtz and Yulia Taranova.

Satyam's Raju laundered cash before scam came to light

2010-03-29T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad: In a startling revelation, a whistleblower has told CBI that the six bank accounts and fictitious firms that the company's disgraced Chairman B Ramalinga Raju had floated in London had were liquidated long before the scam came to light in January 2009, reports Sagar Kumar Mutha of Times News Network.

"The six companies and bank accounts which were operated from London were started in 1999 and closed down just before the listing of Satyam's American Depository Rights on New York Stock Exchange in May 2001. These accounts and fictitious firms were clearly part of Raju's modus operandi to divert Satyam scam money," whistleblower said.

CBI sources said the whistleblower contacted the agency on his own and his statement is being currently recorded. "Since these benami accounts no longer exist, this person will be able to provide us valuable leads as to the trail of the money that were in these accounts," a CBI official said.

While CBI has not revealed the identity of the whistleblower, STOI has been able to gather that he is a Hyderabadi-origin UK national settled in London and was once associated with the company's UK operations. "CBI got acquainted with this individual while it was pursuing its investigations into suspected money laundering activities of Ramalinga Raju abroad," the official said and added some close family members and relatives of this mysterious individual still live in Hyderabad.

ISI forcing Indian terror suspects to launch attacks

2010-03-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Indian terror suspects under the patronage of Pakistan's ISI are being pressurized to launch terror attacks in the country. "The men have been provided cover for so long. There are no free lunches in the world. They have to show their worth to enjoy the shelter of the ISI," a source who requested for anonymity told PTI.

Many terrorists who have been given protection for quite a number of years have been asked to prove their worth or face consequences. This was revealed during investigations into the alleged plans of Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa International men to plant a bomb in the national capital and Himachal Pradesh.

Sources said that the men were being provided directions by Pakistan-based Wadhwa Singh and Parminder Singh, who figure in dossier of wanted terrorists passed to Pakistan recently. He said attempts are being made by certain men to re-group and launch attacks on country's stability.

Sources said that with Commonwealth Games scheduled later this year, the terror groups being provided all help by ISI are under more pressure to launch attacks but are jittery over busting of various modules by police across the country. They said the efforts are to launch an attack and try to project the country as unsafe before the Games. They said the strategy would be to launch an attack through various groups based here rather than by those from outside the country.

Incidentally, on Wednesday, hundreds of armed militants including top LeT commander Abdul Wahid Kashmiri and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin had gathered in Kotli town of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) vowing to wage 'jihad' against India.

Ram Gopal Varma to make sequel to 'Agyaat'

2010-03-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ram Gopal Varma is set to go ahead with a sequel to his just-released spooky thriller "Agyaat" that has garnered mixed reviews. The director says in part two the story will shift from the jungles to the city.

“I'd have been seriously worried if the reviews had been favourable. The critics were just as harsh on my previous horror film 'Phoonk'. It made enough profits to keep everyone happy.”

"Agyaat", says Varma, was made at a budget of Rs.5 crore. "The sequel would be marginally costlier to make. But again it would feature no major stars. The jungle will again be the star of the film,” said the director.

And the plot?

“At the end of 'Agyaat' my lead pair Nitin Reddy and Priyanka Kothari come out of the killer jungle. 'Agyaat 2' will begin with the pair telling the police what happened. Nitin accompanies the cops into the jungle and shows them how brutally the other members of his team were murdered. Now when he returns to the city, the creature follows him.”

Part of the sequel to "Agyaat" will take Varma back to the Sigiriya jungles in Sri Lanka.

"In 'Agyaat', the challenge was to not show the murderous creature and still create panic and horror, as in 'The Blair Witch Project' or John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. I think the power of cinema lies in the power of the imagination. I've used the jungle as a sub text for the entity."

Critics have complained about the insubstantiality of the terror and horror in "Agyaat". But according to Varma, that is its USP. "The challenge was to create horror from nothing. Ridley Scott once said that if you try to explain a supernatural experience, you lose the thrill of it."

This would be Varma's second sequel after "Sarkar Raj" which followed "Sarkar".

“I like to leave my options. Most of my films are open-ended. I like to carry the story forward. I thought, I'd make a sequel to 'Phoonk'. But now I've decided to do a sequel to 'Agyaat' instead. As for the sequel not being received properly, I don't think that matters,” said the director.

Telugu star Nitin, who plays the lead in "Agyaat" is very excited about the sequel. Apparently he has been instructed to get into Rambo-like physical shape for "Agyaat 2".

"I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel. It'd be a treat working with Ramu again. It was tough shooting in Sigiriya jungles. We had a couple of injuries. Let's see what happens this time

Nepal gets party mandate to boost ties with India

2010-03-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

Nepal's ruling CPN-UML on Friday underlined the need to strengthen ties with India as it asked the Prime Minister to seek the support of New Delhi for its landmark peace process during his visit from August 18.

Ahead of Madhav Kumar Nepal’s "goodwill visit" to India, the Standing Committee of the CPN-UML asked the Prime Minister to boost the friendly relations and undertake mutually beneficially bilateral talks in New Delhi, according to party sources.

The top Communist panel asked Nepal to make issues relating to the progress of the peace process and drafting of the constitution and promoting bilateral interest the focal point during his talks with the Indian leaders.

The support from CPN-UML is crucial amid pressure from the coalition partners on the Prime Minster to refrain from inking any controversial treaty during his India visit next week.

The opposition Maoists openly warned Nepal against signing any treaty with India without a consensus among all political parties in the country, saying the CPN-UML-led government has no right or mandate to sign any agreement.

The former rebels have threatened to oppose any such deal and called for the renegotiation of the landmark 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship that provides the platform for the special ties between the two neighbours.

The Prime Minister last week assured Parliament that he would not sign any controversial pact with India without taking the lawmakers into confidence.

Women president for State BJP?

2010-03-24T05:22:00.001-07:00

Senior women leaders in MP BJP are of opinion that time is ripe for the baton of State president to be passed over to a woman in State. Since the time of the Jana Sangh, the organisation is headed by men in the state and its time that the fairer sex had a chance, they feel.

They point out that BJP president Nitin Gadkari has implemented the one-third gender quota in the organisation for the first time, by inducting 40 women in the 121-member new national executive and appointing 13 women office-bearers. The BJP is set to elect its state unit president in the first week of April.

In its 2008 national council, presided by Gadkari’s predecessor Rajnath Singh, the BJP had adopted a resolution that earmarked one-third of all posts for women with the promise that it will be executed when a new team is constituted.

Leaders like National in-charge of BJP women’s wing Sumitra Mahajan, former minister Kusum Mehendale and State education minister Archana Chitnis are supporting the idea. Remains to be seen whether the idea could turn into reality.

15 CEOs, who should be paid $1 per annum

2010-03-24T04:21:00.000-07:00

Following the path of Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler in 1979 and Edward Liddy, former CEO of Allstate (ALL); Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt decided to work for $1 a year.

CEOs take $1 year primarily for two reasons. The first is that the firms they run are in deep trouble that they make the gesture to show that are willing to share the sort of sacrifice that their employees and shareholders must. The second reason is that some people who run companies, particularly those in which they own large positions in the firms, would be viewed as greedy to take compensation to operate the corporations that have made them rich.

1. AIG's Chief Executive Robert Benmosche has an annual package of $10.5 million approved by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. He took the package even though a number of AIG executives have much lower capped compensation and some AIG managers gave up bonuses that they earned earlier. Benmosche threatened to quit AIG last November in a fit over government restrictions on his company. He spent part of the summer at his Croatian villa while AIG was in deep trouble, a symbol of how little he cares about the symbolic value of spending long days in the office after taking the reins of a troubled firm supported by taxpayers. Benmosche served as CEO of Met Life (MET) for eight years and left a wealthy man.

24/7 Wall St. has put together a list of 15 CEOs who are paid too much, and should work for $1 a year. The people on the list are a combination of chief executives at companies which have taken Federal money or still survive on large taxpayers loans.
2. GM CEO Ed Whitacre, who has been the auto firm's chairman since last June, about the time GM came out of Chapter 11 with $50 billion in U.S. aid. After saying GM would make an extensive search for someone to replace the car company's CEO Fritz Henderson, who Whitacre forced out in December of last year, the chairman took the top job for himself in January. Whitacre then got the government to allow the GM board to grant him a $9 million compensation package. CEO claims that GM will repay taxpayer loans, but it is extraordinary that he will not work for $1 a year until then. He became wealthy running AT&T and its predecessor companies.

3. U.S. SEC filings do not show what Toyota (TM) CEO Akio Toyoda makes. Since his family founded the firm and still owns a stake in the world's No.1 car company, he is certainly well off. Recalls of more than eight million Toyotas worldwide will cost the corporation hundreds of millions of dollars. Some legal analysts believe that the damage from liability suits could set back Toyota another $5 billion. The trouble at the company drove its share price from $92 to $72.
4. The turnaround of Palm (PALM) has been a miserable failure. Some analysts even question its ability to survive, at least as an independent entity. Palm recently lost $18 million for its quarter ending February 28 and has lost money for 10 quarters in a row. Palm's guidance for future quarters sent the firm's stock down nearly 30 percent the day after it released it earnings. The shares have plunged from $18 in October to $4. Jon Rubinstein, Palm's CEO, took over in June 2009 so the entire collapse in share price has happened on his watch. The Palm proxy said he made $4.2 million last year. He should drop that to $1 for nearly destroying the company.

5. Freddie Mac (FRE) has a new CEO as of October - Charles Halderman. As the former chairman of Putnam Investment Management, he almost certainly became wealthy.

6. Fannie Mae's CEO, Michael Williams received $900,000 in salary for 2009. He got $3.1 million in 'deferred salary' that was paid out in four cash installment last year.

7. Blockbuster (BBI) CEO James Keyes made $8.4 million in the company's last fiscal year. The movie rental company is teetering on the brink of Chapter 11. Keyes made none of the critical strategic moves that could have built revenue around internet streaming rentals, DVDs by mail, or kiosk-based rental services. His decisions, or lack of them, have helped push the firm's share price from $1.40 last September to $.31.

8. Michael Dell has done a great deal of damage to his company, Dell Computers (DELL), since he took over as CEO from Kevin Rollins in February 2007. Dell had backed Rollins in public right up until the end. The company earned $4.6 million in 2006, Rollins' last full year. Net income has not matched that level since then. Dell's shares have fallen about 40 percent since Rollins left. The company has struggled with customer service problems and an inability to develop a blockbuster product. Dell owns 226 million shares of his company which is over 11 percent of the outstanding shares. He made $2.2 million last year, hardly reasonable for a man who has done a great deal to ruin his firm's chances to compete effectively with its largest competitors.

9. Lloyd Blankfien, CEO of Goldman Sachs, made the symbolic gesture of taking nearly no pay this year, at least compared to the tens of millions he has taken in years past. Blankfein's compensation for 2009 was a mere $862,657. He made $54 million in 2007 and $41 million in 2008. Goldman's board could certainly argue that Blankfein should have been paid better. Goldman posted record profits in its last fiscal year and its shares are up 60 percent over the last year. But, Goldman's image with the Administration, Congress, and the public has been badly damaged. Its role in the collapse of AIG is still in question. Blankfein would, from a strategic standpoint, be better off in the court of public opinion, or the next time that he has to go before Congress, to be able to say he was paid $1 even if Goldman is doing extraordinarily well.

10. It is nearly impossible to find a company that dominates as its industry as much as Nokia (NOK). It has let such a large multitude of its opportunities be successful taken over by smaller competitors. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo runs the world's largest handset company by far. Nokia has a market share of about 35 percent globally, but, the high-end of the market has gone to RIM (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), and more recently to Google (GOOG) Android operating system powered phones. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will be remembered as a CEO who let his company's size advantage be squandered because of lack of innovation.

11. Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) has been one of the more poorly run companies in the video game industry since Zelnick Media took over the job of operating the firm through a management contract. Strauss Zelnick is Take-Two's Chairman, and one of his underlings at Zelnick Media, Ben Feder, acts as Take-Two's CEO. They should make no more than $1 between them.

12. Howard Stringer was brought in to turn Sony (SNE) around when he was made CEO in 2005. Over that period, Sony's stock has gone from $40 to $36, significantly underperforming the DJIA. Sony, under Stringer's stewardship, has run third in the three-horse race in the video console business behind Microsoft (MSFT) and Nintendo. Its TV and digital camera businesses have had shrinking margins, and Sony has been bested by a number of firms, particularly Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), in the consumer electronics sector.

13. TheStreet.com has been through a period of bad earnings and worse financial reporting problems since Darryl Otte took over as interim and then permanent CEO starting in March 2009. In 2009 the firm had revenue of $60.2 million, down 15 percent from 2008. Operating expenses for 2009 were $93.2 million, increase of 29 percent. For the trouble he has caused shareholders over the last year, Otte received a base salary of $425,000, a potential bonus of $320,000, and 650,000 restricted stock units.

14. Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint (S), made $19 million in 2008. The company lost $2.4 billion on $32.3 billion in revenue in 2009. The numbers look worse compared with the improvements in the results from AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, Sprint's two larger rivals. Sprint's stock is down over 70 percent since Hesse took over and there is nothing to make investors think that the problems at the company will do anything other than get worse.

15. GE (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt has run the conglomerate since 2001 and the company's stock has dropped from $54 to $18 over that period. Perhaps one good thing Immelt did is to agree to sell a controlling interest, which he said he never do, of NBCU to Comcast (CMCSA). The entertainment unit never seemed to fit well inside GE. Unfortunately, NBCU was not really GE's biggest problem last year. Due to underperformance at its capital unit and some of its industrial and infrastructure divisions, GE's earnings dropped from $17.4 billion in 2008 to $11 billion last year. GE public relations has made a great deal out of the fact that Immelt has not taken his bonus for two years in a row, but he made $9.9 million last year and still had a base salary of $3.3 million.

Scientist invent invisibility cloak to hide objects

2010-03-23T21:31:00.001-07:00

No, this is no magic, but pure science. German scientists have created a three-dimensional "invisibility cloak" that can hide objects by bending light waves. "For now these...cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do," said Tolga Ergin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, according to Reuters.

These scientists have published their finding in the journal Science and in their study, Ergin and his colleagues used photonic crystals with a structure that looks like piles of wood to make an invisibility device, or cloak. Transformation optics use a class of materials called metamaterials that guide and control light. It is possible that in the future make it possible large objects invisible, but for now the researchers said they were not keen to speculate on possible applications.

They used the cloak to conceal a small bump on a gold surface -- a bit like hiding a small object underneath a carpet and then making both the bump and the carpet invisible. The "cloak" was composed of special lenses that work by partially bending light waves to suppress the light scattering from the bump. "This is very exciting, because mankind has always thought about being invisible or having invisibility cloaks," Ergin told Reuters in a telephone interview. "This is the first proof of principle. It shows that the technique works."

He added, however, that it would be many years before anything as large as a person, car or tank could be made to disappear with this technique. "There have been proposals in the field of transformation optics for different devices like beam concentrators, beam shifters, super antennas which concentrate light into one point from all directions, and much, much more. It is really hard to say what the future will bring, but the field is definitely very broad and the possibilities are very large."

India will be most educated in 2030 : by Sibal

2010-03-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

"India in 2030 will be most educated in the world. The world must realize that future human capital will flow from India. They should make our population literate and take the benefit," Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said in an event organized by computer giant HP and TV channel CNBC.

He also reiterated his point that his ministry is in touch with Nandan Nilekani, the chief of Unique Identity Authority for an UID for every single student.

"Nandan has told me that he will work with us."

Sibal also stressed the need for an education finance corporation, which will help refinancing education with a long-term goal and provide education loans to all needy students.

All secondary schools in India will have a computer teacher each and the central government will bear the related expenses, Sibal said.

"We have now a policy. All schools will have an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) teacher. We will pay their salary, which is Rs.10,000 per month," Sibal said to highlight the need for technology to better educational scenario in the country.

"We are open to any technology solution (provided by private sectors) but it should not be elitist. The real problem is in rural India and we must keep that in mind. I think, the private sector can collaborate with government and train these ICT teachers," he said.

"Our focus is on giving every child an opportunity."

Sibal also said that all states should chip in to improve education and make right to education a success.

"It is not about politics, it is about education... it's about every single child. We need a system in place for quality education and quality teachers."

The minister also said that India will be most educated country in the world by 2030 and it will be the key to provide intellectual capital to all countries.

Sony launches clock radio

2010-03-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

Bangalore: Sony unveiled the ICF-C71PJ clock radio, which is unique as it sports a built-in projector that will throw up the time onto a bedroom wall.

Users can set the projector at different angle according to the wall, and can even show the time on the ceiling. The ICF-C717PJ also has a built in thermometer to show room temperature, and has five nature sounds programmed in to help users relax before going to sleep.

Also, the clock radio has dual alarms, which can be set to play an AM or FM radio channel, a buzzer or digital music from an iPod or other digital media player. Nature sound choices include undersea world, waves, mountain brook, rainfall or a birdsong.

Users can also set the LCD display to one of four brightness settings. Battery backup ensures users wake up even when there is an overnight power outage. The company has planned to ship to Europe in April.

Terrorists to use our cell numbers for terror act

2010-03-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

Mumbai police have managed to track down two or three websites that are used to send masked messages and are collaborating with IT experts to get to the bottom of the matter, reports V Narayan from TNN. Two cases on getting rude SMS from a number a person knows, going to police with a complaint and then finding out that the supposed sender is clueless about what happened, have been reported to Mumbai police in the past month.

Though the police officials are yet to track down the sender, they have managed to unearth a bizarre truth, that of the 'masked SMS'. The user has to register on a website (for as little as $10) and can send text messages to and from any mobile number on the planet without being identified. "We have received two complaints in the last one month where the sender's number was camouflaged," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria told TOI.

The masked SMS service is easy to operate. Giving TOI a demo, the IT expert logged on and sent this reporter an SMS from his colleague's number with utmost ease. Of course, the friend had no record of the said message in his outbox. Senior Nasscom officials say these websites can be blocked but it's a long process.

IT industry sources said, "It's rare for the real miscreant to be caught in such a situation because people might register under false identities and also commit credit card fraud to pay the small registration fee," says IT expert Vijay Mukhi. If caught, can the culprit be charged under our laws? "Yes," says Mukhi. "Section 66 A of the IT Act talks about sending offensive messages using any communication device, Section 66 C is the identity theft section and Section 66 D the cheating by impersonation section." A pornographic message will be charged under Section 66 E, while Section 66 F is quoted in the case of cyber terrorism.

If proved, the offence of identity theft attracts a 3-year jail term plus a cash fine of upto Rs. 1 lakh in India. While there is a misuse of computer act that is invoked in such cases in the U.S., the law in India is still inadequate to handle such innovative mobile spoofing. "Based on our findings we will decide what action should be taken against these websites. If need be, we could pull them down as well," he added.

Commenting on the action plan for this matter, Mukhi says, "Not immediately. As of now, one just has to be careful and cross-check the credibility of a message before filing a complaint." He added that the need of the hour is to spread awareness about the problem. "Time was when wi-fi was misused but we've managed to tackle that. Camouflaging is a dangerous issue and must be dealt with seriously and immediately."

IIM grads prefer domestic offers to international ones

2010-03-11T03:37:00.001-08:00

Even though students across IIMs this year got good international offers, unlike last year, from firms in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, U.S and Australia, they have preferred to take domestic over international ones. Better career prospects in India, because of the booming economy, are the main reason.

For example, in IIM-Bangalore, 15 students accepted international offers, and same number of students turned down global placements. Talking to The Times of India, Sapna Agarwal, Head of Career Development Service, IIM-B said, "We don't have data on the number of students opting out of international ones. But this time maybe 15 students accepted domestic offers over international ones."

An IIM-B student, who didn't want to be named, was offered a consulting role in the UK, but he opted for a domestic offer from a general management company which is yet to declare his position. "India is a more happening place than anywhere else.

These IIM graduates believe that the future is India. "One always gets to travel abroad and work there. The learning there can be implemented here," said a student.

An IIT-Bombay student, Aditya, who got the offer from one of the leading I-banks where he would have been placed in NY, London, Hong Kong or Singapore, he preferred to stay in India looking at a long-term career in India. "I didn't want to settle abroad," said he.

Deemed universities concerned more about revenue

2010-03-09T02:14:00.000-08:00

The Government appointed committee to review the functioning of deemed universities said that many private deemed universities are predominantly concerned about revenue generation rather than promoting academic and research activities.

The panel is headed by P N Tandon in its report, has also suggested setting up a national committee for fixing rational fee structure for deemed universities which can be reviewed from time to time. Most of the deemed universities have fee structure considerably higher than that recommended by the official fee structure committees established according to the Supreme Court directives. Many of them created their own fee structure committees to justify the exorbitant fees, according to the report which have been submitted to the apex court.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter tomorrow. The committee has found 44 of the 130 deemed universities to be unfit for the status while another 44 have been found deficient in many areas. It has recommended that the 44 deficient deemed universities should be given three years time to rectify their short comings while the deemed university status should be withdrawn from those found unfit.

"Except a few public-funded institutions, quality research is not done in any of the deemed universities. Research, which is a major component of university, is not being carried out by these institutions," said the report. It also stated that there is not a single example of technology transfer, generation of patents and intellectual property in these institutions. Even though the UGC guidelines speak about holding an all-India entrance test to enroll students, the deemed universities never follow any common entrance examination. They conduct their own entrance which is very often restricted to limited geographical locations or regions.

The committee has recommended that the highest governing body of the deemed universities should be headed by the vice-chancellor and should include distinguished academics and professionals as its members.

India has least no. of corporate women leaders

2010-03-08T02:06:00.001-08:00

Bangalore: Even though, whole world is celebrating 100th year of International Women's day, leading companies are failing to make the most of the talents of their female workforce.

According to the Corporate Gender Gap report brought out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) the U.S. led the way with the highest percentage of female employees (52 percent), while India had the lowest (23 percent). To tackle the problem, the WEF urged companies to do more to educate and utilise female talent.

Talking to BBC, Saadia Zahidi, Co-autor of the report said, "The findings of The Corporate Gender Gap Report are an alarm bell on International Women's Day that the corporate world is not doing enough to achieve gender equality. While a certain set of companies in Scandinavia, the US and the UK are indeed leaders in integrating women, the idea that most corporations have become gender-balanced or women-friendly is still a myth."

This report is based on a survey of 600 of the heads of Human Resources at the world's largest employers across 16 industries in 20 countries. The average number of women holding the CEO level position was a little less than five percent among the 600 companies surveyed. Finland (13 percent), Norway (12 percent), Turkey (12 percent), Italy (11 percent) and Brazil (11 percent) have the highest percentage of women CEOs in this sample. Most of the respondents blamed traditional and cultural practices for women being unable to move up the career ladder.

Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF said, "Women account for one-half of the potential talent base throughout the world and therefore, over time, a nation's competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilises its female talent."

Business tactics?Time to learn it from Indian CEOs

2010-03-08T02:05:00.001-08:00

As the Indian economy is all set to grow by 7.5 percent this year, experts are saying that it could be the best time for Western CEOs to learn some lessons from their Indian counterparts, reports CNN.

While Western economies continue to stutter, a report forecasts that India will soon return to the high-growth trajectory it enjoyed before the crisis. At the same time, the new research published in this month's Harvard Business Review shows that the heads of India's biggest companies have a very different approach to leadership from Western bosses.

Peter Cappelli, Professor of management at Wharton University of Pennsylvania, was one of the researchers behind the study, and based on interviews with leaders and HR departments from 98 of India's 150 biggest companies, he identified some of the key differences between Indian and Western bosses.

"In terms of lessons for managers elsewhere, one of the most important things is that Indian leaders lead with a sense of social purpose," Cappelli told CNN. He said that every leader interviewed gave a specific social purpose as being the goal of their business. Those purposes ranged from improving healthcare in India, to getting cell phones to people who don't have access to communication tools, and proving to the international community that Indian companies can lead in IT.

"Having a social purpose really motivates workers," said Cappelli. "If you can articulate a social purpose for your organization and take it seriously it can have real benefits." Indian firms invest an enormous amount in their employees' training and development, and IT firms typically allocate 60 days of formal training for new hires and companies often spend months training even experienced workers hired from other firms.

The study said that U.S. firms have largely abandoned investing in employees, seeing it as a waste if they leave the business. It adds that employee turnover is estimated to be 30 percent in India, and investing in employees ensures the quality of those who stay at the company.

According to Cappelli, U.S. companies often think about strategy in terms of chasing customers or pursuing market opportunities, but Indian firms will more often start by identifying their strengths, identifying their customers' needs, and then try to meet those needs.

"Indian companies do that by taking smart, motivated people, really engaging them and investing in them, and letting them loose to just beat on those problems, often with just trial and error approaches, until they come out with a solution that's kind of out of the box," he said.

Vineet Nayyar donates Rs. 30 Crore to charity

2010-03-06T04:38:00.001-08:00

Vineet Nayyar, Managing Director of IT services firm Tech Mahindra has donated a third of shares in the company, converted from employee stock option plan (ESOP) in the past, worth over Rs. 30 crore to a Delhi-based charitable organization run by his wife, reports Economic Times.

He has gifted 3.5 lakh shares, which is worth Rs. 31.78 crore as per the closing price of Tech Mahindra shares on Wednesday at NSE, to Essel Social Welfare Foundation. Essel Social Welfare Foundation, an umbrella organization to many other NGOs, supports education of underprivileged children, including the girl child and the visually handicapped. It is run by Reva Nayyar, a retired bureaucrat who has in the recent past been involved with ministry of woman and child development and has been instrumental in enactment of policies and legislation pertaining to women and child welfare.

Vineet Nayyar when contacted by Economic Times said, "I have been associated with the organization for the past few years and trying to help these children in whatever way I can." This donation is large even by the standards set by bigger companies in the country. Most Indian companies donate in the range of Rs. 1-5 crore annually. As per disclosures made by public-listed firms, just three firms, Reliance Industries, Jindal Steel and Power and Jaiprakash Associates, had donated more than Rs. 30 crore each for the year ended March 31, 2009.

China 2nd, India 9th among top 10 largest industrialized economies

2010-03-05T20:17:00.001-08:00

China has become the second largest industrial manufacturer in the world, says a United Nations Industrial Development Organization report. According to the report 'International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2010', two more developing countries - India and Brazil - figure in the list of top 10 industrial manufacturers globally at the ninth and tenth positions.

Germany ranks fourth, followed by France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Russia. "With this development, China unseats Japan and is trailing behind the United States," UNIDO said.It added that China's share of the global total of manufacturing value (MVA) was at 15.6 percent, slightly higher than Japan, which stands at 15.4 percent.

The United States maintains its number one spot at 19 percent. While China has a lead in absolute amount of production, the UN also pointed out that Japan is still the world's most industrialised country, in terms of MVA per capita, totaling nearly $9,000 compared to $700 for China. The three countries, U.S., China and Japan produce half of the world's manufacturing output, UNIDO said.

APJ Kalam, Ratan Tata most trusted Indian people

2010-03-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: Even though APJ Kalam is no longer the first man of India, but he continues to ignite young Indians along with Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, as both are voted as the most trusted in a list of 100 public figures from across India, according to survey done by Reader's Digest.

The list of most trusted people also features Amitabh Bachchan, Kiran Bedi, Sachin Tendulkar and AR Rahman. Indians also reveal some new preferences with the inclusion of Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, E Sreedharan and Abhinav Bindra in the top 30.

Among the most trusted professions in India, teachers lead the list followed by firefighters and humble farmers, while politicians, real estate agents, government officials and police officers are at the bottom of the Trust Survey of 40 everyday Indian professions.

The survey, which is conducted for the first time in India, carries fascinating findings from the Digest's exclusive, independent poll, which reveals the people and professions we trust and those we don't. Around 750 Indians were surveyed online and asked to rank the shortlisted individuals and professions they have the most faith in.

U.S. won't succeed if India has more scientists: Obama

2010-03-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama has said that the U.S. is facing stiff competition from India and cannot succeed if the country continues to produce more scientists and engineers than America, reports Business Ghana.
"I said this during the State of the Union (address), I repeated it today in Henderson in my town hall: Other countries are not playing for second. They're playing for first," he told the Las Vegas-Area Chambers of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Friday. "That's just one example of the competition that we're facing on everything. If India or South Korea are producing more scientists and engineers than we are, we will not succeed."

This is the second time in two days that Obama has told people to gear up as countries like India, China and Germany are marching ahead in various fields, including clean energy technologies.

On Thursday, the President had said that the U.S., being the world leader, cannot afford to lag behind in clean energy technologies amid the fast growth of India, China and Germany in the field, and sought efforts to prevent any country from "out-competing" America in future.
"We know that whoever leads the clean energy revolution is going to lead the 21st century economy. And we can't wait. Because China is not waiting. India is not waiting. Germany is not waiting. We can't afford to wait," he said at a grassroots fundraiser for Senator Michael Bennet in Denver, Colorado.

20 yr old Bangalore engineers design the Earth-bound system

2010-03-03T02:49:00.000-08:00

Taking innovation to the new level, Gokul Kannan and Aswin Kadri, students of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, designed a system which is Earth-bound. The system would help in generating electricity continuously using wind power.
Kannan is the son of Mylswamy Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayan-1, who won the awards for discovering water on the lunar surface. Kannan and Kadri won a cash prize of Rs 55,000 and certificates by a team of judges of IIT Kharagpur and American multinational, General Electric for the system, which might proved to be a boon to power-starved cities of India.Talking to The Times of India, Gokul and Aswin, who are III year BE mechanical engineering students, said that they won the award based on theoretical calculations. "Our next step is to prove it practically which we plan to do during our holidays in June," said Gokul. He also said that it was a low cost, small-scale wind turbine generator producing electricity ranging between 5KW to 7.5KW, which can be easily used in ordinary households. "Once implemented, it will certainly prove a tremendous advantage to power-starved cities of India," claimed Gokul. Talking about the inspiration to do this kind of project, Gokul said, "We felt that some major domestic problems have to be solved in India and one of them was power. Keeping this in mind we decided to take up this project which took about two-and-a-half months to complete."
This project would not have been possible without the support of parents. Both the parents had left their son to work independently on their project. Annadurai said, "I lest Gokul to work independently on his project with his classmate and never interfered with them. If some of the practical issues are resolved and once implemented, it is bound to prove an advantage to many parts of this country."