Sunday 28 April 2013

LPG subsidy directly in bank accounts from October 1


The government plans to provide subsidy to 14 crore LPG subscribers directly in their bank accounts from October 1, using the Aadhaar payment platform.

The government, official sources said, has decided to launch "Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for LPG throughout the country tentatively from October 1".

"This (transfer of LPG subsidy) would require a much larger number of beneficiaries to be covered for opening of bank accounts and linked to Aadhaar and banks have been asked to get ready for the launch," said one official.

A consumer will have to get his or her bank account seeded with Aadhaar number for getting the LPG subsidy. The annual subsidy per consumer is estimated at Rs 4,000. The supply of subsidised LPG cylinder has been capped at 9 cylinders per year for a consumer.

While about 32 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued by UIDAI, only 80 lakh bank accounts have linked to the unique identity numbers so far.

Under a pilot project for LPG subsidy transfer, 20 districts in the country will be covered by May 15.

While the exact procedure to transfer the subsidy is being worked out, sources said subscribers will have to buy the LPG bottle at prevailing market price (currently Rs 901.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi) and subsequently the subsidy amount will be transfered to the bank account.

The Finance Ministry has asked the public sector banks to speed up the process of linking accounts with Aadhaar.

The government expects that the DBT will eliminate all ghost LPG connections and diversion of cylinders.

Under the DBT scheme, subsidies and other benefits are transfered directly into the Aadhaar linked bank account of the beneficiary.

Saturday 20 April 2013

India's Sumit Dagar invents world’s first smartphone for blind people



AHMEDABAD: Blind people will soon be able to read SMSs and emails on their smartphones. Innovator Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) based on the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A ) campus, has developed the unique device.

Send this unique smartphone an SMS or email in any language and it converts it into blindfriendly braille. Dagar, who holds a postgraduate degree from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, had always been passionate about making technology more usable. He is now collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. "We have created the world's first braille smartphone," he said.

"This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns." Dagar started the project three years ago while studying interaction designing at NID.

After working with a couple of companies, he gave up his job to concentrate on his technology, formed a team of six people and started his venture Kriyate Design Solutions. Currently, the venture is being funded by Rolex Awards under its Young Laureates Programme, where they select only five people from across the world every two years to fund their projects .

Braille SMART

The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, which is based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes i.e expand and contract to its original shape after use This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in braille The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which will move up and down as per requirement.

The grid has a braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter

Friday 19 April 2013

TCS aims to increase campus hiring in US




 IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is confident of beating Nasscom estimate of 12-14 per cent industry growth this fiscal, today said it plans to increase campus recruitment in the US.

However, the quantum of hiring is likely to remain the same as that of the past financial year, said the Mumbai-based company, which announced its results yesterday.

"Last fiscal, we had hired 1,600 people in the US of which 100-150 were through campus recruitments. The hiring number for this year will remain similar but we want to increase campus hiring," TCSBSE -0.58 % Executive Vice-President and Head of Global Human Resources Ajoy Mukherjee told reporters during a post-earnings media round-table here.

"In the domestic hiring, the top software company is trying to maintain 60:40 ratio (60% trainees and 40% laterals)," Mukherjee said, adding the future recruitment will depend on the growth of business.

Justifying the drop in in-take target for FY14, which at 45,000 is less than the last fiscal, he attributed this to higher retention rate. "We had the best retention rate in the last 27 quarters at 82 per cent. We would like to take it up to 85 per cent this year."

Constant engagement with employees, challenging job opportunities and compensation were the main reasons for such a high retention rate, Mukherjee maintained.

He said the wage hike this year will be averaging 7 per cent in the country. "So based on performance, they (employees) will see a wage hike of 5-10 percent plus."

Salaries of employees in developing countries will go up by 4-6 per cent, while those located in developed nations will see hikes ranging between 2-4 per cent, he said.

The wage hike cycle will start this month. TCS has already given offers to 25,000 trainees and they will start joining from Q2 onwards, he said.

Stating that the joining ratio was also up at 74-75 per cent in FY13 as against 60-70 per cent in FY12, Mukherjee said the ratio in the current fiscal is expected to remain at the last year's level.

Country's largest software exporter TCS yesterday eported a 22.1 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 3,596.9 crore for January-March quarter, meeting market expectations.

Microsoft most attractive employer followed by HP Google in India: Survey




 IT and software major Microsoft has emerged as India's most attractive employer for the third straight year in 2013, according to a survey by HR service firm Randstad.

The company was followed by Hewlett Packard and Google India in the second and third positions, respectively.

Others in the top 10 most attractive employer list included -- IBM (4th), ONGC (5th), Sony (6th), Larsen & Toubro (7th), Steel Authority of India (8th), SBI (9th) and Tata Consultancy Services (10th).

Special recognition awards were also given to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the energy sector, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in the manufacturing sector and Larsen & Toubro in the infrastructure sector.

The survey further noted that in a market like India, where there is high attrition levels, employer branding is very important as it provides an advantage to attract and retain top talent.

"In the current competitive business environment, attracting and retaining the right talent are vital to organisation success. We are extremely happy to see an increase in Indian companies focusing on Employer Branding," Randstad India Chairman Paul Van De Kerkhof said.

According to the survey that covered 7,000 respondents, Indian workforce prefer competitive salary and job security.

Compared to last year, there is a significant increase in the importance given to salary and employee benefits and this has become the most important factor for potential employees, followed by job security.

"The findings show a preference for competitive salary and high job security, and these are in line with current market sentiments," Randstad India MD & CEO E Balaji said.

Besides, competitive salary and job security, the other factors that featured in the top five are pleasant working atmosphere, work-life balance and career progression opportunities.

"Understanding the pulse of what the workforce wants is the best route to building a strong employer brand and remain an attractive employer," Balaji added.

Astronomers find most Earth-like planets yet




NEW YORK: Astronomers working with NASA's Kepler planet-finding spacecraft said on Thursday that they had found the most Earth-like worlds yet known in the outer cosmos, a pair of planets that appear capable of supporting life and that orbit a star 1,200 light-years from here in the constellation Lyra.

The newly discovered planets are the two outermost of five worlds circling a yellowish star slightly smaller and dimmer than our Sun, heretofore anonymous and now destined to be known forever in the cosmic history books as Kepler 62. These planets are roughly half again as large as the Earth and are presumably balls of rock, perhaps covered by oceans with humid cloudy skies, although that is at best a highly educated guess.

Nobody will probably ever know if anything lives on these planets, and the odds are that humans will travel there only in their faster-than-light dreams, but the news has sent astronomers into heavenly raptures. William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center, head of the Kepler project, described one the new worlds as the best site for Life Out There yet found in Kepler's four-years-and-counting search for other Earths in the stars. He treated his team to pizza and beer on his own dime to celebrate the find (this being the age of sequestration). "It's a big deal," he said.

Looming brightly in each other's skies, the two planets circle their star at distances of 37 million and 65 million miles, about as far apart as Mercury and Venus in our own solar system. Most significantly, their orbits place them both in the "Goldilocks" zone of lukewarm temperatures suitable for liquid water, the crucial ingredient for Life as We Know It.

Goldilocks would be so jealous.

Previous claims of Goldilocks planets with "just so" orbits snuggled up to red dwarf stars much dimmer and cooler than the Sun have been beset by uncertainties in the size and mass and even the existence of these worlds, said David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an exoplanet hunter and member of the Kepler team.

"This is the first planet that ticks both boxes," Dr Charbonneau said, speaking of the outermost planet, known as Kepler 62f. "It's the right size and the right temperature." Kepler 62f is 40 percent bigger than Earth and smack in the middle of the habitable zone, with a 267-day year. In an interview, Mr Borucki called it the best planet Kepler has found

Its mate, known as Kepler 62e, is slightly larger — 60 percent bigger than Earth — and has a 122-day orbit, placing it on the inner edge of the Goldilocks zone. It is warmer but also probably habitable, astronomers said.

The Kepler 62 system resembles our own solar system, which also has two habitable planets: Earth and Mars, which once had water and would still be habitable today if it were more massive and had been able to hang onto its primordial atmosphere.

The Kepler 62 planets continue a string of breakthroughs in the last two decades in which astronomers have gone from detecting the first known planets belonging to other stars, or exoplanets, broiling globs of gas bigger than Jupiter, to being able to discern smaller and smaller more moderate orbs — iceballs like Neptune and, now, bodies only a few times the mass of Earth, known technically as super-Earths.

Kepler 62's newfound worlds are not still not quite small enough to be considered strict replicas of Earth, but the new results have strengthened the already rabid conviction among astronomers that the galaxy is littered with billions of Earth-size planets, perhaps as many as one per star, and that astronomers will soon find Earth 2.0, as they call it — our lost twin bathing in the rays of an alien sun.

"Kepler and other experiments are finding planets that remind us more and more of home," said Geoffrey Marcy, a veteran exoplanet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, and Kepler team member. "It's an amazing moment in science. We haven't found Earth 2.0 yet, but we can taste it, smell it, right there on our technological fingertips."A team of 60 authors, led by Mr Borucki of Ames, reported the discovery of the Kepler 62 planets in an article published online in the journal Science on Thursday.

As if that weren't enough, a group led by Thomas Barclay of Ames and the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute also reported the discovery of a planet 1.7 times as big as the Earth in the Goldilocks zone of Kepler 69, a star almost identical to the Sun, 1,040 light-years distant. The group's paper is destined for The Astrophysical Journal.

And in another paper submitted to the same journal, a group led by Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, in Heidelberg, Germany, took the first stab at trying to model conditions on the Kepler 62 planets. That is a tough job because Kepler 62, like the other Kepler stars, is too far away for astronomers to measure the masses of these planets, which would allow them to pin down their densities and composition.

Scaling up from the properties of the Earth, Dr Kaltenegger and her colleagues concluded that both of them were probably ocean worlds with humid, cloudy skies. Any life on them would probably be aquatic, she said, but "it might even be cooler life than we have here. Looking at the oceans, we find a lot of interesting life-forms there."

Dr Kaltenegger said she envisioned the pair as a kind of Darwinian test tube and wondered in an e-mail if life would evolve on both worlds and, if so, "Would life evolve 'the same' way or would there be very different life?"

"This is huge for the overall life-elsewhere question," said Sara Seager, a planetary expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the work.

Kepler, launched in March 2009, hunts planets by staring at 150,000 stars in a patch of Milky Way sky, monitoring their brightnesses and looking for blips caused when planets pass in front of their home stars. To date the spacecraft has identified 115 planets and has a list of 2,740 other candidates. (Over all, the world's astronomers now know of some 800 exoplanets.)

But Kepler, which had its mission extended for another three years last spring, is only now coming into its prime. A minimum of three blips is required to register a planet, and so planets like the Earth that take a year to make an orbit are only now coming into view in the Kepler data. Indeed, the new Kepler 62 planets each registered just three transits, as they are called.

But there is a hitch, Dr Seager and others cautioned. Because the Kepler stars are all too far away — hundreds or thousands of light-years — to be reliably weighted, astronomers will never be quite completely sure what any particular planet is made of or whether anything can or does live there.

In the case of Kepler 62, said Natalie Batalha of San Jose State University, a Kepler mission scientist, the astronomers had determined the composition of the new planets by comparison to three earlier objects that had similar sizes and turned out to be rocky.

"Mass by association," Dr Batalha called it in an e-mail message.

Which is fine if all you want is the statistics of the cosmos. As Dr Seager pointed out, "Kepler was not designed to tell us which planet to go live on, only how common Earth-like planets are."

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Centre to ban sale of junk food and fizzy drinks near schools after summer vacation




The junk is being taken out of school education across the country. After summer vacations are over this year, children will begin their new academic session in schools that do not have junk food outlets within 500 yards in any direction. This revolution in the making was revealed in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday when the Centre said that draft guidelines on regulating sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around school premises would be ready by July.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, representing the Centre, told the court that private firm AC Nielsen ORGMARG Pvt Ltd is in the process of framing norms to regulate availability of junk food and carbonated drinks within 500 yards of schools. The senior law officer assured the court that the draft guidelines on making quality and safe food available in school canteens would be in place by July 21. These guidelines will be crucial because there is no official definition of junk food now.

This has created much ambiguity among schools over what food products it should make available to children within its premises. The guidelines will thus clear the confusion and define what food is healthy and what is not healthy.

"We would seek the opinion of food processing companies after making the draft guidelines and prepare the final guidelines soon,"Mehra said.

Most, if not all, schools are kindly disposed to the proposed move. Principal of Laxman Public School Usha Ram said, "We are all up for banning junk food in school premises. We don't sell junk food in our school. In fact, we were the first one to introduce a Mother Dairy stall in our campus which offers health milk products. "Principal of Apeejay School, Pitampura, D. K. Bedi echoed this view, saying: "It will be excellent if junk food is totally banned in schools. Schools should only offer healthy food like juices and milk products to children. "After recording submissions of the Centre's counsel, a bench comprising Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath posted the next hearing in the matter for July 22. The Delhi government also displayed urgency in taking 'unhealthy food' off the shelves of city schools. The counsel representing the Delhi government, Anjum Javed, said that the Lieutenant Governor has the power to issue directions to city schools but that can be done only after the Centre frames guidelines on the issue.

Status report Meanwhile, the Centre also filed a status report in court, explaining why it has taken so long to complete the study in the matter. It told the court, however, that all the research has been completed now.

Assuring the court that all the fieldwork has been done and now it would not take much time, Mehra said, "We are pleased to share with you that we have been able to incorporate date from Meghalaya and Assam, due to which the study had to be extended. We have now completed the survey in both North-Eastern states, which was quite difficult due to the prolonged closure of schools in these regions."In January last year, the court had given six months to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to frame guidelines on banning sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around educational institutions.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 2010 by Rakesh Prabhakar, a lawyer for an NGO called Uday Foundation, seeking a direction banning sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around schools. The petition said, "It is time we change the way kids eat in schools. Such a ban will set new standards for healthy food. On one hand, children are taught in classroom about good nutrition and on the other hand we continue to make junk food available to them."

A welcome idea The schools also welcomed the idea of banning junk food and carbonated drinks in and around school premises and advocated only the sale of healthy foods in school premises.

Earlier, the court also asked the FSSAI to consult the All India Food Processors' Association (AIFPA) and restaurant associations for

framing the guidelines. AIFPA, in its application, had said that it deals with processing of fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, milk and milk products and also the manufacturers of biscuits and confectionery products. It also said that it may give some advice to the FSSAI.

 



16 injured in blast outside BJP office in Bangalore, police suspect terror attack


At least 16 people, including eight policemen, were injured when an "incendiary bomb" placed in a motorbike exploded near the Karnataka BJP city office buzzing with activity ahead of the May five Assembly polls.

The policemen were on security duty as part of the bandobast arrangements for the BJP office in view of the polls when the explosion ripped through the crowded area damaging two vans, a Karnataka State Reserve Police vehicle and a motorbike, top police officials said.

"Due to the blast, 16 people are injured -- eight policemen on duty and eight civilians. Nobody is critically injured. All are being treated at hospital," State DGP Lalrokhuma Pachau said.

A National Investigative Agency team has arrived here, he said, adding, forensic experts would also be joining them.

"As of now, we do not know what is the material of the bomb blast. We will know after examination," he said.

The blast occurred around 10.30 am when the BJP office is normally brimming with party workers and candidates. Today is the last day for filing of nominations.

City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar, citing preliminary investigation, said, "It is an explosion", adding a motorbike with an "incendiary bomb" was used. The bike was planted in the midst of cars, he said.

"At this stage, I can't say what kind of explosion it was", the police chief.

Sanjay Dutt gets four more weeks to surrender



New Delhi: Amid a deluge of ‘Pardon Sanjay Dutt’ pleas, the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Bollywood ‘Munna Bhai’ one more month time to surrender to undergo three-and-a-half- year jail term for illegally possessing firearms in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan granted some reprieve to Dutt a day after they rejected a similar plea by three other convicts in the case.

Dutt, 53, who was directed to surrender by April 18, had urged the apex court to allow him to finish shooting of his films which will take at least 196 days and submitted that he be allowed to surrender after completion of films as over Rs 278 crores has been invested by the producers in seven movies.

The court heeded to his request.

The apex court had on March 21 granted Dutt, who has already been in jail for 18 months, to surrender within four weeks to undergo the remaining prison term.
The court had also dismissed petitions by five convicts including Kazi seeking review of its verdict, saying there was no merit in them.

"We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed," a bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhanthe bench said.

The review petition was filed by Zaibunisa Anwar Kazi, Kersi Bapuji Adajania, Yusuf Khan @ Kayum Kasam Khan, Ranjit Kumar Singh and Altaf Ali Sayed whose conviction was upheld by the apex court on March 21.

However, the apex court had reduced to five years the six year jail term awarded to him by a designated TADA court in 2006, ruling out his release on probation because the "nature" of his offence was "serious".

Dutt, the son of famous Bollywood couple Sunil Dutt and Nargis, was convicted by the TADA court for illegal possession a 9 mm Pistol and a AK-56 rifle which was part of the consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for the coordinated serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

2014 Lok Sabha polls: Big losses to UPA, no gain for NDA, survey finds



NEW DELHI: The UPA is likely to come a cropper in the next Lok Sabha elections with the Congress tally getting almost halved, but the NDA will gain relatively little from its primary rivals decline, according to an opinion poll released by Times Now on Tuesday.

The poll, done by CVoter for the TV channel, suggests that the biggest gainers could be regional parties like the SP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and YSR Congress, leaving them and others like the BSP, BJD and Left in a position to determine who forms the next government.

The poll projects the UPA in its current form to get just 128 seats, with the Congress winning only 113 compared to its 2009 tally of 206. The NDA is projected to win 184 seats, but that includes 19 seats for the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) which seems most likely to walk out of the BJP-led alliance. If that is factored in, the NDA's tally would be closer to 160, since the BJP too would presumably win fewer seats in Bihar contesting on its own. In short, both the UPA and the NDA would be well short of the halfway mark of 272, but the saffron party would have the consolation of finishing as the single largest if the poll projections prove correct.

Another important caveat is that the poll was conducted between January and March and therefore may not have fully captured the impact (either way) of the hype surrounding Narendra Modi's increasingly likely projection as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

According to the poll, the SP will win 35 seats, Trinamool and AIADMK 27 each, Left and BSP 26 each, JD(U) 19, BJD 13 and the Jagan Reddy-led YSR Congress 12. These parties with almost 160 seats between them may well hold the key to government formation in that scenario.

For the Congress, the good news from the poll is that it is likely to gain significantly in Karnataka, winning 18 of the 28 seats compared to the six it won last time. But this gain could be more than offset by massive declines in Andhra Pradesh (8 compared to 33), Uttar Pradesh (6 against 21) and Rajasthan (8 versus 20) and minor losses elsewhere including in Maharashtra.

For the BJP, the gains and losses are projected to be much more modest in most states, except in Karnataka, where the party is estimated to get 7 seats against the 19 it won last time and in Rajasthan, where its tally is predicted to rise from 4 in 2009 to 17 in the next Lok Sabha. In Delhi, a 7-0 verdict for the Congress four years ago is projected to become a 6-1 win for the BJP this time.

Major earthquake rocks North India


New Delhi: A major earthquake that originated on the Iran-Pakistan border jolted North India on Tuesday afternoon, sending people running out of their homes for safety.

Iran's Press TV reported at least 40 deaths due to the quake, while unnamed officials said the country was expecting hundreds of dead.

A government officials told a news agency that "it was the biggest earthquake in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead".

As per the US Geological Survey, the quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale had its epicentre on the Iran-Pakistan border at a depth of 15.2 kilometres. It was located 86 kilometres east-southeast of the Iranian city of Khash.

An aftershock of 6.3-magnitude also hit the region, the Indian Metrological Department said.

The quake was felt in Iran, Pakistan and a major part of West Asia.

The quake was also felt widely in North India, including Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.

Reports said tall buildings swayed in Delhi.

The tremor, which struck around 4.20 pm, lasted for several seconds.

So far, no damage to life and property has been reported in India.

At least 37 people were killed and 850 wounded when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit south-west Iran on April 10.

Rural India turns good hiring ground: Report


 Companies across sectors are positive about business and recruitment in the first half of this fiscal year and the smaller cities will face the greener side of hiring, staffing solutions company TeamLease Services said today.

According to the TeamLease Services April-September FY'14 Employment Outlook Report, there is a 4 per cent rise in the employment outlook index to 79 when compared to the previous half year (October 2012 to March 2013), when it stood at 75.

The net employment outlook is the difference in the proportion of respondents reporting an increase in hiring needs and those reporting a decrease.

Commenting on the report, TeamLease Services Senior Vice- President & Co-Founder Sangeeta Lala said: "It is surprising that despite the economic downturn, the job market this half year shows a positive outlook in almost all the major sectors."

The business outlook too has grown by 2 per cent when compared to the previous half year (October-March 2013).

Hiring in Tier-I cities will see a marginal increase of 1 per cent in the April-September period, while recruitment for Tier II & III cities, are likely to register a 4 per cent rise, the report said.

"Tier-II cities are emerging as hiring grounds for cost effective talent, giving the mid level companies an opportunity to boost their employee base. Companies will also face new challenges for retaining the top level talent and calibrating the wrongly hired talent in the past," Lala said.

The report further noted rural BPOs that have emerged at locations such as Hosur, Kochi, Udupi, Falda and Chindwara are a good ground for hiring cost-effective support staff.

Hiring at middle and junior levels is set to be more popular in the April-September period, and in terms of functional areas, blue collar and engineering are far ahead of the rest, the report said.

In terms of employment and business outlook, ITeS and healthcare were the front runners. While, retail is projected to rise by 5 percentage points in employment outlook, the business outlook for the infrastructure sector is weak.

City trends point to Mumbai as the leader. The other gainers include Bangalore and Delhi.

The TeamLease Employment Outlook Report, which covered 614 companies in the latest round, focuses on the employment growth potential, the business outlook and hiring forecasts with relation to the location and the company profile.

Monday 15 April 2013

3 killed, more than 140 injured in Boston Marathon bombing




BOSTON: Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 140 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the US.

A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still unfolding said the attack was being treated as an act of terrorism.

President Barack Obama, speaking from the White House late Monday, pointedly avoided using the words "terror" or "terrorism," saying officials "still do not know who did this or why." However, a White House official later said the explosions at one of the world's oldest and most prestigious race was being treated as terrorism.

"We will find out who did this. We'll find out why they did this," Obama said in his brief statement. "Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice."

As many as two unexploded bombs were also found near the end of the 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) course as part of what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack, but they were safely disarmed, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.

The fiery twin blasts took place almost simultaneously and about 100 yards (meters) apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the street and through the fluttering national flags lining the course.

When the second bomb went off, the spectators' cheers turned to screams. As sirens blared, emergency workers and National Guardsmen assigned to the race for crowd control began climbing over and tearing down temporary fences to get to the blast site.

A pool of blood formed, and huge shards were missing from window panes as high as three stories.

"They just started bringing people in with no limbs," said runner Tim Davey, of Virginia. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to keep their children's eyes shielded from the gruesome scene inside a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners, but "they saw a lot."

Police said three people were killed. An 8-year-old boy was among the dead, according to a person who talked to a friend of the family and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Boston police said three people were killed. Hospitals reported at least 144 injured, at least 17 of them critically. The injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to amputations. Many victims suffered lower leg injuries and shrapnel wounds. Some suffered ruptured eardrums.

Some 23,000 runners took part in the race, which attracts more than 500,000 spectators and winds up in the heart of central Boston, near the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts state holiday which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis asked people to stay indoors or go back to their hotel rooms and avoid crowds as bomb squads methodically checked parcels and bags left along the race route. He said investigators didn't know precisely where the bombs were planted or whether they were hidden in mailboxes or trash cans.

He said authorities had received "no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen" at the race.

Obama was briefed on the explosions by Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco. Obama also told Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick that his administration would provide whatever support was needed, the White House said.

The Federal Aviation Administration created a no-fly zone over the site of the explosions, and briefly ordered flights bound for Boston's Logan International Airport held on the ground at airports around the U.S.

A few miles (kilometers) away from the finish line and around the same time, a fire broke out at the John F. Kennedy presidential library. The police commissioner said it may have been caused by an incendiary device but didn't appear to be related to the bombings.

The first loud explosion occurred on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. The second explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

They occurred about four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner crossed the line. By that point, more than 17,000 of the runners had finished the race, but thousands of others were farther back along the course.

The four-hour mark is typically a highly crowded time near the finish line _ both because of the slow-but-steady recreational runners likely to be completing the race and because of all the relatives and friends clustered around to cheer them on.

Runners in the medical tent for treatment of dehydration or other race-related ills were pushed out to make room for victims of the bombing.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said the two other explosive devices found nearby were being dismantled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the findings publicly.

At the White House, the Secret Service expanded its security perimeter after the attacks, shutting down Pennsylvania Avenue and cordoning off the area with yellow police tape. Several Secret Service patrol cars blocked off entry points, although the White House was not on lockdown and tourists and other onlookers were still allowed in the park across the street.

At Congress, members of intelligence committees said they expected to be briefed on the attack on Tuesday.

A woman who was near the second bomb, Brighid Wall, 35, said that when it exploded, runners and spectators froze, unsure of what to do. Her husband threw their children to the ground, lay on top of them and another man lay on top of them and said, "Don't get up, don't get up."

She said she saw six to eight people bleeding profusely, including one man who was kneeling, dazed, with blood coming down his head. Another person was on the ground covered in blood and not moving.

"My ears are zinging. Their ears are zinging. It was so forceful. It knocked us to the ground."

Competitors and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Authorities went onto the course to carry away the injured while race stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site.

Roupen Bastajian, a 35-year-old state police officer from the neighboring state of Rhode Island, had just finished the race when they put the heat blanket wrap on him and he heard the blasts.

"I started running toward the blast. And there were people all over the floor," he said. "We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated. ... At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing, or an ankle missing, or two legs missing."

At Massachusetts General Hospital, said Alisdair Conn, chief of emergency services: "This is something I've never seen in my 25 years here ... this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war."

The Boston Marathon honored the victims of the December shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, with a special mile marker in Monday's race.

Boston Athletic Association president Joanne Flaminio previously said there was "special significance" to the fact that the race is 26.2 miles long and 26 people died at Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Cities worldwide stepped up security following the explosions.

In Britain, police said they were reviewing security plans for Sunday's London Marathon, the next major international marathon. Thousands of people compete in the London Marathon every year, thronging the city's streets. London is also considered a top target for international terrorists.

A London Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed Monday that police are working with marathon officials to review security plans for Sunday's event. The London race's chief executive, Nick Bitel, expressed shock and sadness about the situation in Boston, saying "it is a very sad day for athletics and for our friends in marathon running."

In New York City, police spokesman Paul Browne said that critical response teams are deployed around the city. Officials were stepping up security at hotels and other prominent locations.

Spectator Cherie Falgoust was waiting for her husband, who was running the race.

"I was expecting my husband any minute," she said. "I don't know what this building is ... it just blew. Just a big bomb, a loud boom, and then glass everywhere. Something hit my head. I don't know what it was. I just ducked."

TCS bags Rs 1,400 crore India Post project




 IT major TCS has bagged the Rs 1,400-crore project of India Post for computerising counter operations and the two parties will sign a pact on Monday, a top government official has said.

The project is divided into two parts --two years for implementation and five years of maintenance.

"We will sign agreement with TCS on Monday for computerising counter operations under core system integration of India Post. Around Rs 1,400 crore has been earmarked for the project," Department of Post secretary P Gopinath told.

The government has approved Rs 4,909 crore for phase II of modernisation of post offices under which the department is gearing up for providing real time core banking services as well.

The Indian IT companies, which earn major part of their revenues from foreign markets especially the US and Europe, are betting big on the domestic government projects.

TCS had also bagged the mission mode e-governance project and Passport Seva Project from the MEA in October, 2008.

Infosys has bagged a Rs 700-crore project that would help India Post transform its banking and insurance operations cross 1,50,000 post offices in the country. The Department of Post has started deploying modern technology solution to develop core banking capability across post offices. As part of modernisation, it has set a deadline of March 31 to computerise all department post offices.

The IT modernisation project approved the Cabinet was divided in three parts: Pilot, Phase I and Phase II.

In Phase 1, DoP has to roll out modern IT solution in six circles, namely Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

The project included computerisation of all post offices, core banking solutions including installation of 1000 ATMs, mail tracking, customer service call center and introducing eCommerce solution, handheld devices for post masters for update on services like mails, money order etc.

Some activities like installation of ATMs under Phase 1 are yet to be completed by the department.

Under phase II of the IT project, DoP has plans to roll out modern IT solution in rest of the country.

Sanjay Dutt wants more time to surrender, moves Supreme Court



Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, convicted under the Arms Act in the 1993 Bombay blasts case, moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking more time to surrender.

The Bollywood actor's case will be heard on Tuesday. He has to surrender on or before April 18.

On March 21, the Supreme Court had upheld Dutt's conviction under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and sentenced him to five years in jail.

He was asked to surrender in four weeks to serve his remaining term of about three-and-a-half year.

Justice Markandey Katju, the chairman of the Press Council of India, in a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee last month, sought pardon for Sanjay Dutt under Article 72 of the Constitution.

Katju wrote that Dutt acquired the weapon for self-defence and not for any terrorist activity. Since he was not involved in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, justice, in Dutt's case, should be tempered with mercy, the retired judge held.

Saturday 13 April 2013

Tata wealth goes to charity: Ratan Tata





Washington: Wealth created by the Tata companies goes back to the people, former chief of the Tata conglomerate Ratan Tata has said.

In an interview to a television channel, Tata said it is not true that the Tatas are a family company and that the proceeds of these industrial operations go to the Tata family.

"It does not. The family owns about two per cent, collectively, of Tata Sons," he said.

"And the 60, 65 per cent that goes to charity, has always been seen as a noble usage of the wealth we have created from our companies, it goes back into education, medical, elevation of poverty or rural development.

"So, in a manner of speaking, it has always been our driving force that what we're doing is really for plowing it back to the people of India," Tata said.

The former titan also said that the Tata Group would never favour a hostile takeover.

"Yes, I've said that and what I mean is that if a company doesn't want us, we're not going to take it by force," Tata told CNN in an interview, which would be aired on Sunday.

"What we do before we acquire a company is spend a lot of time looking at the human chemistry, and the management and the work ethics and the -- and the manner of working of that company," he said.

"If there's a chemistry problem, or a business policy deviation from us, we have walked away from companies which would be good business fits for us, but its method of operation would be too alien, so we have stayed away from it," Tata said.

On corruption within the organisation, Tata agreed that the group has a tough policy. "We have 450,000 employees and I am quite open in the statement that I can't guarantee the integrity of every one of them," he said.

"What we do, when somebody breaks that code, how we deal with that person, I think, is the true index of what we will do and when we have had a major rogue officer or director, we have actually prosecuted that person and the person has actually gone to jail.

"So, I think we have walked the talk in terms of what we have advocated; we practice what we have preached, as a matter of fact," Tata said.

Major fire at temple kitchen of Tirumala temple


Tirupati: A major fire mishap was averted at the temple kitchen of the Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala on Saturday evening.
At around 5.15 pm, the kitchen staff were melting ghee for the laddus. The  pan was kept on a burner, and accidentally some of the ghee fell on the flames.
Soon the flames got out of control and rose to a height of about 30 feet and covered the entire kitchen and the adjoining ugranam (store room) with soot.
The smoke was also seen outside the temple. In a few minutes, the fire tenders were pressed into service and the flames were doused. No one was injured.
The site of the mishap is only a few feet away from the darshan queue area. The kitchen is located at the Sampangi Prakaram of the temple complex, which is at the backside of the Ananda Nilayam, the place where the presiding deity is kept.

Friday 12 April 2013

Amid 'wife swap' controversy, Antony orders dismissal of tainted officer


New Delhi: Even as a controversy raged over 'wife swapping' charges in Navy's Southern Command in Kochi, Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday ordered the dismissal of a Naval officer after he was found guilty of having illicit relations with the wife of his superior.
The order of dismissal of the officer, who is a Lieutenant Commander (equivalent to a Major in the Army), from service was approved by Antony on the basis of the inquiry report submitted by the Naval Headquarters on charges against him, defence sources said.

Without divulging the name of officer, the sources told reporters that he was found to be guilty of 'stealing the affection of brother officer's wife', which is a punishable offence in the armed forces.

The dismissal of the officer came at a time when the Navy is in the midst of dealing with a police complaint by the wife of a Lieutenant in Kochi accusing his seniors and colleagues of sexual harassment. The woman also made 'wife swapping' charges.

The Navy has also sent a report to the Defence Ministry denying the charges of sexual harassment in an FIR filed in Kochi.

The Navy has denied the charges, saying the Southern Naval Command had investigated the charges at its level and found that they were wrong.

Taking serious view of the allegations levelled by the officer's wife, Defence Minister A K Antony had ordered the Navy to submit a report in this regard.

The Navy has been consistently defending its officers and issued a statement saying "the wife of the officer has levelled unfair allegations against superior officers in her husband's chain of command, their spouses and other officers who have interacted with her."

"These officers accompanied by their respective spouses had tried to unsuccessfully resolve the issues dogging the couple's personal life in a bid to leverage the strength of the Naval community bond," it had said.

The Navy has also promised full cooperation to the ongoing police investigations into the case.

Positive effects of Social Networking websites

 
 
During his study, Rosen also found positive effects of using Facebook or similar social networking sites. According to his study, teenagers who spent more time online will show better "virtual empathy" to their online friends. Also, these social sites will help the introverted adolescents to socialize with their friends and help them to overcome their shyness. Importantly, these sites also provide tools for teaching in compelling ways that engage young students. Interestingly, Rosen in his study urged parents not to waste their time in spying children on Facebook or other social networking sites. Rosen said that children can easily find the ways their parents used to monitor them. "If you feel that you have to use some sort of computer program to surreptitiously monitor your child's social networking, you are wasting your time. Your child will find a workaround in a matter of minutes," Rosen said. "You have to start talking about appropriate technology use early and often and build trust, so that when there is a problem, whether it is being bullied or seeing a disturbing image, your child will talk to you about it." Positive Effects of Social Networking Websites: Young adults who spend more time on Facebook are better at showing "virtual empathy" to their online friends. Online social networking can help introverted adolescents learn how to socialize behind the safety of various screens, ranging from a two-inch smartphone to a 17-inch laptop. Social networking can provide tools for teaching in compelling ways that engage young students.

SC rejects Bhullar's mercy plea, upholds death sentence


SC rejects Bhullar`s mercy plea, upholds death sentence 

New Delhi: In a judgement that will lay precedence for others, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the mercy petition filed by Punjab militant Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, who was convicted of killing nine people with a car bomb in Delhi in 1993.

Delivering the verdict in a packed court room, a bench of justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya said that the petitioners failed to make out a case for commutation of sentence.

48-year-old Bhullar's Canada-based wife, Navneet Kaur, who was present in the court when the bench read out at 11.15 am two sentences of the operative portion of their verdict, looked dejected and refused to respond to questions from reporters as she left the court premises.

The apex court had reserved its order on April 19 last year on the plea of Bhullar's family which had filed a petition on his behalf pleading that his capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as there has been "inordinate" delay in deciding his mercy plea and he is not mentally sound.

It was submitted that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting his/her execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast here in September 1993, killing nine people and injuring 25 others, including then Youth Congress president MS Bitta.

The apex court had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar's appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.

He had filed a review petition which was also dismissed on December 17, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative petition which too had been rejected by the apex court on March 12, 2003.

Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on January 14, 2003. The President, after a lapse of over eight years, dismissed his mercy plea on May 25, 2011.

Today's decision will pave the way for his hanging and is likely to have an impact on 17 other convicts on the death row including those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case had pleaded that their death penalty should be commuted because the President took 11 years to reject their appeal. They have already spent 22 years in prison

Harbhajan is a backstabber says Sreeshant



New Delhi: S Sreesanth has cooked up a storm by claiming that it was Harbhajan Singh’s fault that led to the infamous ‘slapgate’ incident during the inaugural season of Indian Premier League in 2008.

He has said that continuously blaming him for it is disgusting.

The 30-year-old pacer has claimed that when he went to shake Harbhajan Singh’s hand after his then-IPL team, Kings XI Punjab, had beaten Mumbai Indians, the spinner lost his cool and premeditatedly hit him with his elbow.

“Whn I went to shake hands afte the match..he had lost it..he had already planned to hit me(elbow me)all his anger,” Sreesanth posted on his Twitter account on Friday.


“I don`t want Bhajji to feel bad now..I need to tell the truth to the world..wht happend was bad..it`s not my fault at all..and all media ???”

“Disgusting ..that`s all I can say..u should get hold of the video..them u all will know te truth..wht he did is completely out of control.”

Sreesanth also claimed that Bhajji never slapped him and he is really annoyed at the media for comparing this incident to whenever anything untoward incident occurs in IPL.

“It`s not my fault at all ..Nd I keep getting compared to all this bull s##*..whn ever anything bad happens in ipl or cricket match..crazy.”

“I had enough of this..I really request ll the media to show the world wht happend..then u all will realise..wht really happened.”

“To be whr Iam ..I ve no complaints..but now I want u All to know the truth.He (Bhajji)never Slapped me.the video will show u all..wt he did.”

“Can`t take this anymore..evrytime..Enough..,” Sreesanth posted on the microblogging site Twitter.

Sreesanth also wrote that he was scared of losing his place in the team and that is why he never said anything about the incident.

“Nd yeah..all I did is to tell u all wht happend.u all should know the truth.i was scared of loosing my place. I had no support wtsoevrr.”

Sreesanth was angered by the reports in the media that compared the spat between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir on Thursday to the “slapgate” incident.

Thursday 11 April 2013

Sushmita Sen to tie the knot with Wasim Akram?




Former Miss Universe and Bollywood diva Sushmita Sen is finally getting married! Sushmita Sen is reportedly tying the knot with Pakistani cricket star Wasim Akram. The two had become friends on the sets of a dance reality show. 
The latest buzz doing the rounds is that Bollywood beauty is seeing cricketer Wasim Akram and is also taking the relationship to the next level. The two were rumored to be seeing each other for couple of years.
According to reports, Sushmita had recently declared that she will get hitched soon. As she thinks that now is the time to settle down in life.
Sushmita Sen who has two adopted daughters Renee and Alisah has been linked up with a series of Bollywood men like -  Vikram Bhatt, Mudassar Aziz and actor Randeep Hooda. She was also linked to businessman Imtiyaz Khatri.
Now the twist in the tale is that cricketer Wasim Akram is reportedly seeing an Australian model and is living with her in Karachi currently.

Sachin Tendulkar to now enthral fans in an animated avatar

New Delhi:  Indian cricket's master blaster Sachin Tendulkar now has an animated avatar. It will be seen in "Master Blasters", a 3D action, comedy and adventure TV animation series.

In the show, the animated Sachin is appointed by the Programme for International Training of Cricket Heroes (PITCH) to head a cricket camp and mentor 12 young cricketers from around the world.

A dog will accompany them too. Another cricket camp will be headed by an animated version of cricketer Peter Taylor, who will compete with Sachin's team members. Sachin is excited.

"I have always been fascinated with the world of animation and have enjoyed watching it with my children. The challenge for the production team will be to ensure that some human values and learnings are imparted while continuing to entertain the viewers through the series," Sachin said in a statement.

"It will indeed be a different experience to see one's own rendition on the animated screen, performing larger-than-life action much beyond the limitation of the real world," he added.

The show, co-produced by Shemaroo Entertainment and Moonscoop LLC, will feature 26 episodes. But it is yet to be decided where the show will be telecast.

The show is likely to have good quality computer generated imagery.

Young cricketers will play a series of international, competitive matches in a futuristic, high-tech, spaceship-like cricket stadium that can actually fly and land anywhere in the world.

"Cricket runs in the blood of every Indian and working with an icon like Sachin is a dream come true. We plan to introduce this unique format to non-cricketing countries as well," said Smita Maroo, vice president, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd.

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Smartphone war: Apple's iPhone4 sales outshine iPhone5's as consumers lap up discounts in exchange offer



KOLKATA: iPhone4 sales have trebled during the last five days over the preceding week, surpassing the demand for the iPhone5 in India, as customers rushed to avail of the recently launched buyback scheme, said four large handset and electronics retailers. Apple is offering a discount of at least Rs 7,000 on the iPhone4 in exchange for any smartphone.

A senior official of a leading Apple premium reseller said the Cupertino-based company has decided to aggressively push the older model in India because it wants to position the two-year-old phone in the sub- Rs 20,000 segment, where brands like Samsung Galaxy, Sony Xperia, Nokia Lumia and BlackBerry are jostling for dominance.

The iPhone4 costs Rs 26,500 in India, and the exchange scheme allows an existing smartphone user to buy the Apple model for less than Rs 20,000.

Changing Tack for India

"Apple follows a single pricing policy across the world and the company or its distributors have resorted to indirect discounting to improve penetration of iPhones in India. Smartphone volumes in India either come from the entry-level or the Rs 12,000-22,000 segment, which is where Apple wants to position the iPhone4," said the official working with a premium reseller.

The buyback scheme could be an international first for Apple as well. While globally, Apple offers gift vouchers or discounts for existing iPhone, iPad, or Mac customers to buy company products, this is perhaps the first time that the company is offering such a scheme to entice customers of competitors.

Leading multi-brand retail chains like The Mobile Store, Future Group's eZone, Next Retail and Reliance Digital, which together have run more than 1,100 stores, said the iPhone4 has become one of the top three selling handsets by value, along with Samsung's Galaxy Grand and Note II. While executives in these chains refused to share specific sales data, they said iPhone4 sales have shot up three times since the exchange offer was unveiled last week.

This is how the scheme works. The customer will get a minimum discount of Rs 7,000, but if the value of his phone in the second hand market is more, his discount will be higher. For instance, if his model is fetching Rs 8,500 in the used phone market, he will get the entire amount as a markdown on his iPhone4 purchase.

The retailer, in turn, is getting reimbursed by Apple's distributors through a Rs 5,000 credit note. In addition, the retailer will pocket the money earned from selling the customer's old phone in the second-hand market.

Apple's arch-rival Samsung has been quick to respond to the buyback scheme, triggering a potential price war in the mid-to high-end smartphone segment, The Korean company, which is the clear market leader in India's fast-growing smartphone category, is offering markdowns of up to Rs 5,600 on mid-to-high-end Galaxy phones and tablets such as the Galaxy Tab, SIII, Grand and Note II that are purchased through credit cards. As per estimates, around 80% of the Rs 15,000-plus handsets and tablets are bought on credit or debit cards.

Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO of the Essar Group-owned The Mobile Store, India's largest cellphone retailer, says Apple has never chased volume market share as aggressively in India as it is doing now. "And with Samsung almost simultaneously launching its scheme, it will further energise the market," he said.

Veteran handset industry expert and ex-CEO of BlackBerry India Sunil Dutt says the Apple-Samsung war in India might lead to price cuts by other brands as well. "The Indian mobile phone market has never witnessed anything like this. Apple wants to grow fast in India while Samsung wants to protect its turf and keep ahead of Apple," he says.

Toyota, Nissan and Honda to recall 3.4 million vehicles over airbag



TOKYO: Four Japanese automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co are recalling a total of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide as a result of an airbag problem, the companies said on Thursday.

Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said the company supplied the airbags related to the recalls.

Toyota is recalling about 1.73 million vehicles globally, including 580,000 vehicles in North America and 490,000 vehicles in Europe because some airbags at the front seat next to the driver may not inflate when necessary, spokesman Ryo Sakai said.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, he said. Toyota will exchange the faulty inflator with new ones, a fix that is expected to take about an hour to two and a half hours for most models, he said. He declined to give the costs related to the recall.

Honda said it is recalling around 1.14 million vehicles worldwide. Nissan said it is recalling about 480,000 vehicles globally, while Mazda Motor Corp said it is recalling about 45,500 vehicles.

Takata has been informed that carmakers will recall about 2 million vehicles globally due to problems with airbags it had supplied, but not 3.4 million, said Hishikawa. Its shares dropped 9 percent to 1,819 yen on Thurday.

Fall in consumer demand forces retailers to shutdown shops in Bangalore's high streets



BANGALORE: The old high streets of Bangalore, a favourite of international and domestic brands, are losing their charisma. Declining sales have meant that businesses-from luxury beauty chains to electronics goods stores-are shutting down shops to consolidate operations.

Brands, such as Pavers England, Reliance Trends, Poe, Levis, KFC, Ezone and Cafe Pascuci, among others, have closed stores across Brigade Road, MG Road, Lavelle Road, Richmond Road and Indiranagar in Bangalore-the streets where citizens of the garden city traditionally shop.

"Brands need to do balance between malls and high streets," said Ram T Chandnanim, deputy managing director (South India) of CBRE South Asia, a real estate consultancy firm. "All major brands prefer to open stores in malls due to better infrastructure and assured footfalls. However, malls take a lot of time to develop."

The Indian retail sector has seen a single-digit increase in like-to-like store sales-an indicator of customer demand- in 2012, compared with 15 per cent even two years ago.

Retailers do not expect things to improve considerably this fiscal as demand continues to be depressed. "The retail industry will settle down by mid of next year as we get used to moderate growth," said Ashish Dikshit, chief executive officer of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle. The company has shutdown its multi-brand outlet Planet Fashion on Richmond Road.

Slower growth has also pulled down rentals in Brigade Road and MG Road as brands move to newer locations. "Average annual growth rate of high-street rentals since 2009 has been in the range of 6-9 per cent. Rental values across high-street locations are likely to witness nominal growth in short term," said a Vestian Global report.

Retailers are now looking to step up presence in malls or move to cheaper locations due to lower rentals and better infrastructure in terms of air-conditioning and parking facilities. "Retailers are cautious as growth numbers are not good. Mall stores are showing better growth in sales as compared to high street, which is more of branding presence," said Amit Bagaria, chairman of retail planning consultancy Asipac Projects.

"There is an increasing challenge in terms of parking on high streets," said Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive (lifestyle) at Reliance Retail. The company has closed all four pilot retail stores of American office supply chain Office Depot in Bangalore as they failed to meet targets. UK-based Pavers England, which closed its outlet in Indiranagar, is looking to enhance the number of shop-in shops in outlets of multi-brand retailers as compared to standalone stores.

Others like French beauty chain Jean Claude Biguine are opting for smaller outlets. It had reduced store size to 1,100-1,500 square feet from 2,000, and is also negotiating the rent.

"Real estate is a key component of business and if not handled properly can sabotage brand. It is challenging to build business in India as the available space is very expensive and can make business unviable," said Dharmendra Manwani, founder and chief executive officer of Jean Claude Biguine India.

"Some brands are also surrendering tenancy in parts and relocating to nearest catchment area or evolving shopping locations in suburban residential catchments to drive footfall as sales continues to be slow," said Prashanth Sambargi, partner at Mars Realty, which deals in retail space. A detailed email sent to Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail, Levis and Pavers England remained unanswered.

Bandla Ganesh Flying High


 
There is nothing more a producer can ask for except that his films become a hit at the box office and his bank balance is filling. In a way, it is important too that a producer keeps getting back his investments because the entire film industry and their livelihood depends on a strong set of producers.
Currently, one man seems to be jumping in joy. He is none other than Bandla Ganesh and the reason for that is the success of his recent venture ‘Baadshah’. It is heard that Ganesh is very happy he got lot of money from the film. Incidentally, he was so confident that prior to its release he declared it as a bumper hit.
On the other hand, how much ever press notes and statements are being given some media houses are saying collections are less. Already, anti-NTR media houses have launched a campaign on that point. Also, other Big Star fans have been doing some negative publicity that there is not much real collection. It is heard that all this is making Ganesh happy because that’s what he also wants so that he can save himself from IT raids.

US employers looking for foreign workers for 'dirty' jobs




WASHINGTON: As desperate as unemployed Americans are to find work, there are still some jobs that many would never consider applying for because they are seen as too dirty, too demanding or just plain unappealing.

But employers that struggle to fill those jobs — washing dishes, cleaning hotels, caring for the elderly — could soon get help now that business groups and labor unions have agreed on a plan to allow thousands of new low-skilled foreign workers into the workforce.

The deal, which still needs final agreement from lawmakers, is one of the last major hurdles to completing immigration overhaul legislation this year, one of President Barack Obama's highest priorities. It is expected to be part of a broader measure that would address the status of the 11 million immigrants who either arrived in the US illegally or overstayed their visas.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

India Inc to hire aggressively,





Indian businesses are among the most optimistic about their country's economic growth and are likely to hire more new workers than any other nation in the world, says a report.

According to the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), a quarterly survey of more than 3,000 businesses in 44 countries, India is one of the top 10 countries that plan to increase hirings. About 73 per cent of Indian businesses plan to increase staff numbers, which is more than double the global average of 36 per cent.

As many as 83 per cent of Indian businesses are optimistic about their local economy (up from 78 per cent three months earlier), and much higher than the global average of 50 per cent. Overall, Peru topped the list with 98 per cent businesses optimistic about the economy, followed by Philippines (92 per cent), the United Arab Emirates (92 per cent), Mexico (84 per cent) and India (83 per cent). Besides, about 88 per cent of Indian businesses plan to increase employee wages at or above inflation level.

Monday 8 April 2013

Chinese inflation slows sharply in March



Chinese inflation slowed sharply in March as food prices fell in the wake of the country’s New Year holiday and the central bank drained cash from the economy.

Consumer prices rose 2.1 per cent in March from a year earlier, below expectations and down from a ten-month high of 3.2 per cent in February when China celebrated its Lunar New Year. Food price inflation, which had surged to 6 per cent year on year in February, fell back to a pace of 2.7 per cent.


Looking past the seasonal rise and fall in prices caused by the holiday, Chinese inflation has remained mild this year. The average increase in consumer prices in the first quarter was 2.4 per cent, up only a little from the final quarter of 2012. Analysts said the subdued inflation was a reflection of how the Chinese economic recovery has been steady but unspectacular.

As consumer demand increases and excess capacity in industry is whittled away prices are likely to rise in China, but these trends have been progressing more gradually than many economists had predicted at the start of the year.

“Overall, the recovery has been moderate which helps to rein in the inflation pressure from the demand side,” said Jian Chang, an economist with Barclays. “Recovery means a continued rise, so we have been saying it looks more like a growth stabilisation, a gradual and moderate improvement.”

After bottoming out at 7.4 per cent annual growth in the third quarter of 2012, China rebounded to 7.9 per cent in the fourth quarter and is expected to have narrowly topped that pace in the first quarter. Beijing will report its first-quarter gross domestic product next week.

The Chinese central bank has drained cash from the economy for seven straight weeks since the Lunar New Year holiday ended in mid-February, helping to counter inflationary pressure and keep growth from overheating.

While the withdrawals – via open market operations – have been moderate, they have made clear that the central bank has shifted to a slight tightening bias after injecting cash in the financial system in the second half of last year to support the economic recovery.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said last month he was “on high alert” against prices increases and added that experience had taught him not to delay the fight against inflation.

Chinese officials have warned that monetary easing by developed countries from the US to Japan could send waves of hot money into emerging markets, fuelling inflationary pressure.

There is evidence that China has already been on the receiving end of major capital inflows since late last year. A record amount of foreign currency entered the country’s financial system in January and analysts say the central bank has had to step up its interventions in the foreign exchange market to keep the renminbi from appreciating

Former British PM Margaret Thatcher dies at 87




Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" who transformed Britain and inspired conservatives around the world by radically rolling back the state during her 11 years in power, died on Monday following a stroke. She was 87.

Britain's only woman prime minister, the unyielding, outspoken Thatcher led the Conservatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British premier since the early 19th century.

A grocer's daughter with a steely resolve, she was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed the unions, privatised vast swathes of British industry, clashed with the European Union and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders.

She struck up a close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a man she could do business with.

"We've lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton," Prime Minister David Cameron said.

"Her legacy will be the fact that she served her country so well, and she saved our country and she showed immense courage in doing so, and people will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably centuries to come."

Cameron cut short a visit to Europe to return to Britain after the death was announced and British flags at Cameron's official residence, 10 Downing Street, were lowered to half mast.

Mourners began to lay flowers outside her house in Belgravia, one of London's most exclusive areas. One note said: "The greatest British leader."

Thatcher died peacefully on Monday morning, said Lord Bell, a spokesman for the family. She had been in poor health for months and had declined into dementia in her final years.

"I think she will be remembered as one of the greatest prime ministers this country has ever had," Bell said.

"I'm sure she will be remembered in the context of other great men like Winston Churchill. She made a real difference to the way we live our lives," Bell said.

The British government said Thatcher would have a ceremonial funeral with military honours at London's St Paul's Cathedral, which falls short of a full state funeral, in accordance with the wishes of her family.

The lady's not for turning

The abiding images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with the miners' union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpopular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.

"It's very sad to hear of her death but her legacy and death are two different things. Politically, she did not leave a good legacy for the working class," Kevin Robertson, a 39-year-old garage manager, told Reuters in Edinburgh.

To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree. "The lady's not for turning", she once famously informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her policies.

Others who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes often referred to as "handbaggings", named after the black leather bag she invariably carried.

Queen Elizabeth said she was sad to hear the news of Thatcher's death and sent a message of sympathy to her family.

"Her memory will live long after the world has forgotten the grey suits of today's politics," said London Mayor Boris Johnson.