Reliance Power

• Reliance Power, which recently entered the capital market with its maiden offer of 22.8 crore shares, is set to allot 15 shares apiece to 43 lakh retail investors, who have applied for 225 shares and above.
• The process of allocation of shares has been concluded and details will be out shortly. Of the 50 lakh retail applicants, while 43 lakh would get 15 shares, about four lakh investors who have applied for less than 225 shares would not get any share and the rest, about 3 lakh, have not been considered due to invalid applications.
• The company sought to raise Rs 11,500 crore. As the issue was subscribed 73 times, it ended up with Rs 4.52 lakh crore (about $119 billion). With the allocation process nearing completion, about Rs 1 lakh crore will be refunded.

Tatas acquire General Chemical of US for $1 b

• Tata Chemicals on had signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent stake in US-based General Chemical Industrial Products Inc for $ 1.005 billion (Rs 4,000 crore).
• Tata is now fifth largest steelmaker and the second largest branded tea bag owner worldwide, the Tata group is now poised to become the second largest soda ash manufacturer in the world.
• GCIL has a capacity of 2.5 million tones of soda ash, while Tata Chemicals is already at number three position globally (at 3 million tonnes) after its acquisition of the UK-based Brunner Mond in 2005. This would clearly pitch Tata Chemicals into the number two position worldwide.

IT/BPOs hit by internet crisis

• India’s thriving outsourcing industry looked for cover as two undersea cables in the Mediterranean that carry data and voice traffic broke down, and net surfers across the country battled a slow network and disruption of services.
• Trouble began on Wednesday(30th Jan) evening India time after two major undersea cables — SME 4 operated by a global consortium, and the Reliance Communications-owned Flag — snapped after an anchoring ship pulled them up 10 km off the coast of Egypt.
• Several firms have reported bandwidth declines upto 50%. The Internet Service Providers' Association of India estimated the bandwidth impact at 60%.
• Large parts of West Asia and India suffered Internet outages. Internet service providers and outsourcing companies took a hit.
• Employees from across BPO firms like HSBC, IBM Daksh, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Citi Global, Genpact, 24/7 Customer, Wipro BPO, Infosys BPO, HP and AOL, feel the impact of the rupture was evident at work.

Andhra Bank to open its office in New Jersey

Andhra Bank will be going global by opening a representative office in New Jersey, US. The Hyderabad-based bank is currently finalising the location of its office in Jersey .
The bank, with a total business of Rs 75,225 crore, is also eying other countries including in the Gulf and is currently awaiting approval from Saudi Arabian authorities.

TCS employ to lose 1.5% of total salary

• Employees of Tata Consultancy Services will lose about 1.5 per cent of the total cost to company (CTC) salary for the next two months, as the company failed to meet its internal economic value added (EVA) target of Rs 376 crore for the first time.
• EVA is calculated as net operating profit after taxes minus a charge of the opportunity cost of the capital invested. According to the income structure of most TCS employees, 30 per cent of their salary is variable in nature. This variable component is paid at the beginning of the quarter, in anticipation that the company will achieve a pre-set EVA target. In the third-quarter, however, the company was unable to achieve its goal owing to various factors such as higher onsite component of revenues, lower utilisation rates, rupee appreciation and several one-time taxation issues.
• If the dip is extended beyond the quarter, it could have a negative impact on employee sentiment and thereby spike attrition for the company, say industry insiders. Already the move has been condemned on various user-generated content such as blogs and forums.

Hillary Clinton wins Florida primary

Democratic hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the Florida Democratic presidential primary, a symbolic victory which gave a psychological boost to her campaign as she looks to Super Tuesday of February 5.Clinton easily outpaced rival Senator Barack Obama by receiving 48 per cent of the vote with 19 per cent of the vote counted.
Obama received 30 per cent of the vote, while former Sen. John Edwards placed a solid third with 14 per cent.
Among other things this will bring about a prospect of a fight for delegates at the National Convention in Denver this August.

Private equity funding to touch $48 bn

• Investment by overseas private equity funds is set to touch $48 billion in India by 2010, from $17.14 billion last year, even as the country has established an edge over China in this industry.

Airtel Q3 net jumps 42%

Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel posted a 42 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 1,722 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007, against Rs 1,215 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The company added 63.9 lakh new users during Q3 and the total number of subscribers at the end of third quarter were 5.7 crore.
Bharti Airtel market share of all India wireless subscribers stood at 23.6 per cent at the end of third quarter. Shares of the company were trading at Rs 856.25.

Mahatma Gandhi

My Prayers in remembrance of Mahatma Gandhiji on the Death (30th January) Anniversary.

Maruti Suzuki 3Q net up 24%

• India's largest carmaker, Maruti Udyog Ltd on 29th January 2008 reported a 24 per cent rise in quarterly net profit, helped by robust sales of its higher margin premium cars.
  Maruti, 54.2 percent owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, net profit rose to Rs 467 crore ($119 million) in the fiscal third quarter to end-December, from Rs 376 crore in the same period a year earlier.
  Maruti's sales rose 17 per cent to 2,01,629 units in the October-December quarter.Shares of Maruti, which has a market value of $6.1 billion, fell 1 per cent in the quarter, trailing a 6 per cent gain for the sector index and a 17 per cent climb for the benchmark index.

Suzlon Q3 net profit nearly doubles

• Suzlon Energy Ltd said its quarterly net profit nearly doubled, as it won more orders from foreign and local clients.
• Suzlon, which raised $590 million from the listing of its Belgian unit Hansen Transmissions International on the London Stock Exchange in October, said its standalone net profit rose to Rs 338 crore ($85.8 million) compared to Rs 176 crore.

Lakshmi Mittal , Ambanis among world's 10 richest CEOs

• Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal along with Ambani brothers -- Mukesh and Anil, are among the 10 wealthiest CEOs in the world, according to American magazine Forbes.
  Out of the world's 10 wealthiest CEOs, four positions have been grabbed by Indians -- Lakshmi Mittal is ranked at the second place followed by Mukesh Ambani (6th place), Anil Ambani (7th) and Wipro chief Azim Premji (9th).
  The list has been topped by Warren Buffet, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway with a fortune of $52 billion.
  Arcelor Mittal chief Lakshmi Mittal has a net worth of $32 billion, while Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani have fortunes worth $20.1 billion and $18.2 billion, respectively.
  Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive of Dell with a fortune of $17.2 billion ranks below the Ambani brothers at the eighth place though ahead of Premji. Koch Industries chairman and chief executive Charles Koch with a net worth of $17 billion is at the 10th position.

Bharat Gopi passes away

• Veteran film actor, producer and director Bharat Gopi (71) passed away at a private hospital here this afternoon. He was undergoing treatment at the KIMS Hospital ,Thiruvananthapurm after developed a chest pain during the shooting of Balachandran Menon's De Ingottu Nokkiye in Kayamkulam ,Alappuzha district.
  He is survived by his wife Jayalakshmi and children V G Murali Krishnan and Minu GopiBorn in 1937 in Chirayinkeezhu, Thiruvananthapurm, his real name was V Gopinathan Nair.
• 
  His first movie was Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram in1972. He has also acted in two Hindi movies, Aghat and Satah se udta admi.
  He is known for his performances in almost all the films he did Kodiyettam, Yavanika, Ormakkayi, Appunni, Panchavadippalam, Irakal etc. The film which awarded him the bharat award was Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Kodiyettam.
• 
  The actor was paralysed by a stroke in 1986, at the peak of his career. He was awarded the Padmashree in 1991. Recipient of several regional, national and international awards, the thespian wrote Abhinayam Anubhvam, for which he got the national award for the best book on cinema. He is considered one of the greatest film actors of India.

Awards :

International awards:

• 
  Special Jury award at the Asia Pacific International Film Festival, Tokyo (1985)
• 
  A five-film retrospective of his films was held in Paris, France, by the Government of France (1985)

National awards:

• Best actor - Kodiyettam - 1977
  Best film on social issues - Yamanam - 1991
  Best book on cinema - Abhinayam Anubhavam
  Padmashri 1991
  V. Shantaram award for the producer of the Best film - Padheyam - 1991

State awards:

• 
  Best actor 1977- Kodiyettam
  Best supporting actor - Kallan Pavitran - 1980
  Best actor - Ormakkayi - 1982
  Best actor - Ente Mamattukutti Ammakku, Eenam, Ettillam, Kattaththe Kilikoodu - 1983
  Best actor - Chidambaram - 1985

Harbhajan Singh is not a racist

• Racism charges against Harbhajan Singh were dropped , even as the spinner was fined 50% of his match fee for using abusive slur.
• Harbhajan was found guilty of using abusive language under ICC level 2.8 offence. The charge carries a minimum punishment of a 50% match fee fine. The maximum sentence under the offence is a one Test and two ODI ban.
• The Indian team, which was asked to stay put in Adelaide till the entire issue was sorted out, has now been asked to proceed to Melbourne for the Twenty20 tie against Australia scheduled to be held on Friday.

RBI keeps all key rates unchanged

• The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday ,29 th January 2008 kept all key rates unchanged - a move that could dash hopes of any cut in lending rates by banks.
• Reviewing its monetary policy, the apex bank stuck to its projection of economic growth at 8.5 per cent, while declaring that the policy mechanism would endeavour to contain inflation rate close to five per cent in the current financial year.
• The cash reserve ratio stays and the CRR repo and reverse repo rates as well as the bank rates remain unchanged. The policy actually leaves flexibility to change repo and reverse rates in the near future. The Reverse repo rate stays at 6 per cent and CRR at 7.5 per cent. The inflation target for 07-08 also remains at 4 to 4.5 per cent levels and 3 per cent in medium term.
• The fact that RBI did not go in for sucking out liquidity from the banking system gives the comfort feeling that inflation is manageable.

Microsoft Vista service pack (SP1) is set for release,India proud!!!

• Vista Service Pack (SP1) is set for release in later part of the first quarter this year, 2008.
• While the adoption is for increased acceleration, it is time to roll out a service pack that plugs some of the minor loopholes in the operating system.
• Typically, with the operating system cost working out to about a tenth of a personal computer, there is no longer any hesitation about the need to buy the product. Second, a Rs 15,000 PC can be loaded with Vista.
• Technology companies such as Infosys, TCS, Satyam, Wipro, and even the Indian Railways migrating to the Microsoft Corporation’s latest operating system, Vista, it is the turn of other enterprise customers and personal computer users to deploy the new generation OS with in-built security.
• The SP1 has been co-developed by teams at Redmond and R&D labs in Hyderabad,India.A proud moment for Indians and Indian IT professionals.

Larsen and Toubro net profit up 40 per cent

• Engineering firm Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has reported a 40 per cent surge in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 compared to the same period last year.
  Net profit for the October-December quarter amounted to Rs 6.94 billion ($176 million) compared to Rs 5.16 billion ($130 million) during the corresponding period last year.
  The growing demand from industrial, infrastructure and construction sectors and efficient execution of large orders have contributed to this robust growth.

Adam Gilchrist retired from Test cricket

The Australian vice-captain stunned the cricketing world when he revealed he was quitting at the end of the summer, just 24 hours after breaking the world record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in test cricket.
His team mates and even members of his own family were surprised by his decision, yet it was typical of a man who has always defied convention.
Just as he did whenever he was batting, Gilchrist opted to walk before the finger was raised, leaving on his own terms with his reputation intact.

His announcement was initially greeted by shock then a flood of tributes from around the world, all proclaiming him as the greatest wicketkeeper-batsmen of all time

Surat tops GDP race at 11.5%

India’s diamond capital, Surat, Gujarat has averaged 11.5% annualised growth between 2001-02 and 2006-07, even surpassing China’s 13-year record of 11.4% growth in 2007.
India’s average GDP growth of over 8% may have lagged China’s impressive double-digit growth in recent years, but a couple of non-metro, though large Indian cities have been punching well above the national average.
The Bangalore city region (which combines two districts in Bangalore city and Bangalore rural) at 10.3% and Ahmedabad city region (Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts) at 10.1% have delivered double-digit annualised growth within the same period, with Vadodara at 9.8%, just shy of the 10% mark.

Novak Djokovic wins Australian Open

Novak Djokovic has o become Serbia's first Grand Slam singles champion, claiming the 2008 Australian Open men's crown with a four-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Melbourne Park.

Djokovic won in 4 sets of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6, in a match that was characterized by a great show of athleticism and sheer physical strength demonstrated by both players.

In a match that lasted over three hours, Djokovic, the 3rd seed was the one who held his nerves and won the crucial points, after losing the first set to Tsonga, the 1st set that the Serbian lost in the whole tournament.

Sania Mirza becomes Asia's number one tennis player

• Sania Mirza is now all set to become Asia's numero uno tennis star, overtaking Chinese ace Na Li in the WTA Rankings.
• 
  
• The official list will be out only on Monday, but Sania's third-round appearance in the Australian Open has put her well on course for gaining three spots to 29th on the WTA charts.

Mohanlal at Technopark

• Mohanlal released a music album, "Voice of the Park" 0n January 25th 2008 at the technopark amphitheater .
  Voice of the Park is a music album which has been worked on from start to finish by Technopark employees.
  With seven songs in four different languages, the album has something to offer to everybody.
  
  
  

Russia buys one of world's most powerful computers from IBM

• A Russian university has bought one of the world's most powerful supercomputers from IBM , the first time that such sophisticated technology has been exported to the former Soviet Union.
• The Moscow State University has selected a Blue Gene device capable of 27.8 trillion operations per second to use in research on nanotechnology and scientific applications such as modelling the heart.
• The world's most powerful supercomputer is a Blue Gene device owned by the US Department of Energy and used at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to model the ageing of the US nuclear weapons stockpile and predict potential problems.
• The Department of Computational Mathematics at the Moscow university paid around $5 million for two racks of the supercomputer, which can run 2,600 times faster than the fastest home PC and should be operational by April 2008.

Six killed in factory fire in China

• Six women workers and a man died in a blaze at a private textile factory in Shantou, a special economic zone in China's Guangdong province.
  The fire broke out when the workers were asleep in the dormitory of the five-storey factory in the early hours today, police said adding 11 people were rescued by firemen.
  A storage room was located on the ground floor and the workshop was located on the second and fourth floors, with the third floor occupied by the owner, Xinhua news agency said.
  Another woman who suffered slight burns was reported to be in a "stable condition".

Nicholas Sarkozy arrives India

French President Nicolas Sarkozy lays a floral tribute at Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi, the memorial marking Gandhi's cremation site, at Rajghat in New Delhi on Friday, January 25, 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in India for a two-day state visit aimed at boosting political ties and pushing for a bigger share of the Asian economy.

BSNL ties up with US firm SOMA for WiMax

• State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has chosen the US-based SOMA Networks to deploy the world’s largest mobile WiMax network in India.
  The project is on a private- public partnership model wherein SOMA will also invest in providing the technology to BSNL. The revenue will be shared between the two companies.
  As per the deal SOMA will roll out mobile WiMax across three States — Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh — to provide wireless broadband coverage to nearly 200 million people over the next 3 years. Prior to this, the largest mobile WiMax project was the one announced by Sprint-Nextel, aimed at providing coverage to 100 million people in the US. This will be the first deployment of mobile WiMax version based on standard 802.16e in India.
• The wireless technology will also allow BSNL to roll out its broadband services faster. However, since WiMax modems are still on the expensive side, subscribers may find it more cost-effective to rent the modem from BSNL. The service is expected to be launched in the third quarter this year. While the tariffs are yet to be decided.
• Mobile WiMax is being touted as the technology that will give a big boost to broadband in India.

Main attraction:

• Boost for broadband
  Project is on private-public partnership model.
  SOMA will also invest in providing technology to BSNL.
  Initially, the service will be offered on PC and laptops

SBI net grows 70%

• State Bank of India’s net profit for the third quarter of the fiscal rose 70 per cent on the back of an increase in both interest and non-interest income.
• The country’s largest bank reported a net profit of Rs 1,809 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007, against Rs 1,065 crore in the same year-ago quarter.
• The net profit of the foreign offices grew 45 per cent. Deposits grew by 50 per cent and advances by 51 per cent.

A tribute to Don Bradman,Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar described his 80th international century, which came at the home ground of Sir Don Bradman, a tribute to the Australian legend.

Bradman, who died in February 2001, had in an interview once remarked that the little Indian reminded him of how batted.
Tendulkar was also touched by the Adelaide crowd which congratulated him after the ton.

• Sachin Tendulkar’s 39th century in what will probably be his final Test appearance in Australia ,the Adelaide Oval on 24th January.

India successfully launched an Israeli “spy satellite”

• India successfully placed an Israeli “spy satellite” in the polar orbit after a textbook launch carried out under a veil of secrecy from the Sriharikota space station on 21st January.The homegrown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C10) carrying the advanced 300-kg satellite TECSAR or Polaris as it is sometimes called lifted off flawlessly from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre as scheduled revealed Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) .
• The commercial satellite, which has a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), an advanced radar system, was placed in its intended orbit in 19 minutes 45 seconds after a perfect lift-off.The satellite is reported to be Israel’s most advanced satellite and the radar system allows it to view much more than its existing Ofek satellites that use cameras. It can take pictures of small targets under cloudy and foggy conditions and carry out day and night and all weather imaging. The first pictures are expected to be beamed in two weeks.
• It is expected to give a boost to Israel’s intelligence gathering capabilities and help keep an eye on its hostile neighbours. (The “spy” satellite is of great importance to Israel as it will be able to track the goings-on in the territory of its main enemy Iran and its alleged efforts to develop nuclear arms).
• TECSAR is a Synthetic Aperture Radar technology satellite, the design, development and fabrication of which were led by MBT Space, a division of the Israeli Aerospace industries with participation of other high-tech industries such as ELTA, Tadiran, Spectralink and Rafael.This is the second time that a “core alone” PSLV configuration had put a foreign satellite into orbit, meaning only the main PSLV vehicle was used for the TECSAR launch. The additional strap-on engines or booster motors to take up more than 600 kg payloads of satellites were not used.In April 2007, an Italian satellite Agile was put into orbit in such a configuration.

Societe Generale bank fraud costs $7 bn

• France's central bank and government scrambled to shore up confidence in the banking system after Societe Generale, the country's second-biggest bank, had been the victim of a massive and "exceptional” fraud by a junior rogue trader resulting in losses of 4.9 billion euros (over $7 billion).
• Anxious to rebuild its shattered capital, the bank announced an immediate capital increase of 5.5 billion euros, already underwritten by rival banks. SocGen, one of France's oldest banks and a world leader in free-wheeling modern financial derivatives, said the losses came to light at the weekend and blamed a backroom trader, who it said had tried to cover up bad bets on the stock market.
• Bank sources named the trader as Jerome Kerviel, who is in his thirties and who joined the investment bank division in 2000, moving from the middle office which checked deals to the front office or trading desk in 2005. He earned less than 100,000 euros a year. "It was an extremely sophisticated fraud in the way it was concealed," said Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton, who offered to resign but has been asked to stay on.
• Shares in the bank fell more than 6% to 74 euros.
• If fraud is proved, the loss will be the biggest caused by a single trader, dwarfing the $1.4 billion loss by trader Nick Leeson that brought down British bank Barings in the 1990s.

All Indians must read

'Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country'.

• Perhaps, these words of late US President John F Kennedy can best describe the spirit behind the sacrifice by three men, Col Vasanth V, Captain Harshan R and Naib Subedar Chuni, who will be awarded this year's "Ashok Chakra" posthumously.
• Displaying exemplary courage in the face of all odds, all three of them lost their lives fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Vasanth, who was in the 9th regiment of Maratha Light Infantry, chose Indian Military Academy over an admission in IIM and laid down his life in a fire fight when he was leading an operation to flush out militants near Uri town in Jammu and Kashmir.
• An idealist to the core, Vasanth, in 1997, had also encouraged his wife to set up an organisation, 'The Silent Front', dedicated to the widows of martyrs, as he felt that the stories of the spouses of soldiers were often untold.
• In a sad turn of event, it would be his wife Subhashini who would receive the award from the President on 26th January.
• Captain Harshan laid his life leading a bloody battle with militants, who had outnumbered him in the encounter on 20th March 2007 in Lolab area of Jammu and Kashmir.
• His father K Radhakrishnan Nair, who will receive the award, is naturally proud of Harshan but could not hide his emotions.
• Like Variant and Harshan, Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, whose career had been full of professional achievements, was not to be satiated till the very end.
• By killing three terrorists in his last battle, Lal inspired his small team to eliminate all other militants.

TCS sign up with Sony

• Tata Consultancy Services has signed a ‘multi-million dollar’ deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc (SPE) to develop and deploy Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions. It will enable Sony and its customers to ensure better use of all its IT assets to advance their business goals.
  Centred on the deployment of reusable and network-aware applications, the SOA framework leverages key business assets within and beyond enterprise boundaries, with interoperability, independent of platforms, languages and protocols.

MindTree Q3 net up 10.4%

• MindTree Consulting Ltd, a global IT and R&D services company, has reported a 10.4 per cent rise in net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007, to Rs 20.81 crore. Revenues for the quarter grew by 27 per cent to Rs 1,86.5 crore .
• The company has revised its guidance for total income this year to $186 million from $178-$180 million given at the beginning of the year.
  During the quarter, the company added 23 new clients, including two Fortune Global 500 organisations. The total client base at the end of the quarter was 190.

Taj Mahal on Sarkozy's itinerary

French president Nicholas Sarkozy is all set to fly to Agra to see the Taj Mahal even though model-turned-singer Carla Bruni will not coming to India.

Taj Mahal ,A Tribute to Love

Taj Mahal stands on the bank of River Yamuna, which otherwise serves as a wide moat defending the Great Red Fort of Agra, the center of the Mughal emperors until they moved their capital to Delhi in 1637. It was built by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in 1631 in memory of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a Muslim Persian princess. She died while accompanying her husband in Burhanpur in a campaign to crush a rebellion after giving birth to their 14th child. The death so crushed the emperor that all his hair and beard were said to have grown snow white in a few months.

• Agra, once the capital of the Mughal Empire during the 16th and early 18th centuries, is one and a half hours by express train from New Delhi. Tourists from all over the world visit Agra not to see the ruins of the red sandstone fortress built by the Mughal emperors but to make a pilgrimage to Taj Mahal, India’s most famous architectural wonder, in a land where magnificent temples and edificies abound to remind visitors about the rich civilization of a country that is slowly but surely lifting itself into an industrialized society.
• As a tribute to a beautiful woman and as a monument for enduring love, the Taj reveals its subtleties when one visits it without being in a hurry. The rectangular base of Taj is in itself symbolic of the different sides from which to view a beautiful woman. The main gate is like a veil to a woman’s face which should be lifted delicately, gently and without haste on the wedding night. In indian tradition the veil is lifted gently to reveal the beauty of the bride. As one stands inside the main gate of Taj, his eyes are directed to an arch which frames the Taj.

Mohanlal ,The saga continues....

Mohanlal is a National award winning Indian actor, producer, who works in Malayalam films. He is one of the most popular actors in the Indian state of Kerala. He is noted for his versatility, effortless acting, unique body language and for his association with some of the best Malayalam directors and screenwriters.
He was awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian honours in India, by the Indian Government in 2001. Mohanlal became immensely popular in Kerala during the mid 80's in light hearted roles with his easy and natural acting style.
The late 80's and the early 90's, known as the Golden Age of Malayalam cinema, produced some of the most creative and diverse Malayalam movies and enabled Mohanlal establish himself as one of the most talented actors in the country. He is critically acclaimed for his ability to get into the character's skin and portray their inner feelings and turmoils within a limited time-frame.

L&T bags $270 million orders

Leading engineering and construction firm, Larsen & Toubro Ltd said that its group had got orders worth Rs 1,057 crore ($270 million) in the Middle East.

Indra Nooyi to head Indo-US trade council

PepsiCo's Indian-born chief Indra Nooyi has been elected chairperson of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), a leading Washington-based advocacy group seeking stronger commercial ties between the two countries.

The USIBC currently represents 250 of the largest US companies investing in India and 12 of largest Indian global companies.
Nooyi, chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo, joined the USIBC board of directors last year.

With Nooyi at the helm, the council is now expected to play a more crucial role in taking the trade ties between India and the US to a new level and resolving some of the contentious trade issues between the two countries.

Bird flu,some facts

Bird flu is an infectious disease caused by several subtypes of the Influenza A virus, which is known to affect birds, particularly migratory birds, ducks and chickens. It is also called avian influenza or avian flu. The highly pathogenic Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 virus is an emerging avian influenza virus that has been causing global concern as a potential pandemic threat.
H5N1 has killed millions of poultry in a growing number of countries throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. Since the first H5N1 outbreak occurred in 1997, there has been an increasing number of HPAI H5N1 bird-to-human transmissions leading to clinically severe and fatal human infections.
More research is necessary to understand the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the H5N1 virus in humans. Exposure routes and other disease transmission characteristics such as genetic and immunological factors, that may increase the likelihood of infection, are not clearly understood.

Confident India seek to level series

• The 72-run triumph at Perth, regarded as one of the greatest wins overseas, will no doubt serve as a tonic for Anil Kumble and his men who have now proved to be worthy challengers to the champion team.
• India's unheralded pace trio -- R P Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma -- were highly impressive at Perth and it will be a tough call to leave one of them out to accommodate Harbhajan.
• The Australians, whose 16-match winning streak was broken at the Perth, have also been strengthened with the towering Matthew Hayden returning to the team after an injury lay-off.
• India appears to be a better balanced team than the world champions at the moment. Their batsmen are refusing to budge in face of Australia's pace fury and seniors, such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, have largely been immovable.
• The conditions at Adelaide are expected to be good for batting for the first three days. The game tends to move quickly thereafter when the pitch tends to increasingly get up and down.

Sensex ends 864.13 points up today

• Interest rate cuts in the US came as a confidence booster for the wounded bulls at Mumbai stock exchange who shot back in action to take indices further higher.
• BSE’s Sensex ended at provisional 17,594.07, up 864.13 points or 5.17 per cent. It touched a high of 17,997.11 and low of 16,951.03.

Dell will not close Bangalore centre

• Dell will not shutting down its R&D centre in Bangalore, contrary to recent media reports. The company is merely shifting focus from hardware to software .
• Earlier, Dell’s focus at the R&D centre was primarily on hardware. Gradually, it is phasing out hardware R&D from Bangalore and moving it to its other centres worldwide. It’s more of a reorientation of focus. The Bangalore R&D centre will now focus on management software and testing.
• The R&D centre in Bangalore currently employs around 500 people. On whether there have been any job cuts as a result of this shift in focus, the company said there have been “minor changes and reorganisation” and no major firing. In fact, the company will be recruiting more people.
• Dell hopes to set a “new standard for date centre energy efficiency and flexibility” with the PowerEdge M Series blade.
  Targeted at the mid to large enterprises, the M Series enables businesses to save on power and cooling costs while increasing server capacity. It provides lead-free configurations, thus delivering a green IT solution that helps customers minimise environmental impact. The M1000e blade enclosure in now available worldwide at a starting price of Rs 3,11,948, along with blades at Rs 96,148. The M1000e supports 16 blade servers.

India both an economic and military powerhouse!!!!

• In keeping with its aspirations to be viewed as an emerging superpower, India will showcase its hard military power to an international audience with a huge Army-IAF combat exercise in March and the exercise named "Brazen Chariots "so after "soft power", it's time to flex the military muscle now.
• The list of foreign observers is still being finalised but we expect representatives from around 100 countries. They will be taken to the Pokhran field firing ranges for the exercise and firepower demonstration.
• The exercise will be the largest in recent times, with the entire gamut of sophisticated weapon systems and platforms, reconnaissance and command and control systems coming into play in a bid to dazzle the foreign observers.
• The message for the foreign observers to take back home will be that India is both an economic and military powerhouse.
• India, after all, has spent a whopping $12 billion in the last four years to import military hardware and software. it plans to spend another $30 billion for the purpose during 2007-2012.

Don’t panic, Sensex will be back...

• Stock prices are subjective. Company profits are objective. Between the two falls the light of wisdom for those trying to read the meaning of this week’s stock market crash. The message for most people: Don’t panic.
• A lot of the mess in the global stock markets this week was triggered by cautious foreign funds pulling out money in the face of fears of a US recession. This is a bit like a driver braking or using the clutch repeatedly in a traffic jam. You can’t blame either the driver or the car for it.
• With the US Fed cutting its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points in an emergency measure on Tuesday, a key aspect of uncertainty may be over for investors across the globe. US stocks are down, tracking losses in key banks that burnt their fingers in bad home loans.
• Indian companies, however, are looking towards solid profit growth. In general, stocks are valued by analysts on the basis of their anticipated growth and sales and buttressed by prospects for the industrial sector or economy in question. On all these counts — collectively termed as fundamentals — India’s economy is going strong, and the GDP is expected to grow by 8.5 per cent in 2008/09.
• Whether it is a Narayana Murthy at Infosys, a Sunil Mittal at Bharti or an Ambani at Reliance, business is about generating profits at the ground level. Global inflows and outflows of capital cause their shares to go up in a futuristic view, but smart investors operate on the oft-proven faith that sooner or later a stock's price catches up with the value shown by its profit - and other fundamentals such as revenues, reserves, land or other assets including human resources.

Guruvayur Temple 'purified' after foreigner's entry........???

• A 'purification' ritual was performed in the famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple,Kerala on Sunday night after a British national entered it, despite his claim that he had converted to Hinduism.
• The temple thanthri (the traditional high priest) ordered 'punyaham' to be performed after it was found that the British national had worshipped in the shrine, where 'non-Hindus' are barred.
• Though he supported his claim by showing a certificate issued by the Thiruvananthapuram branch of the Arya Samajam, the priests held that as per rules they would accept only the certificate from the Kozhikode branch of Arya Samajam in such cases.
• The ban on entry of non-Hindus to major temples in Kerala continues to trigger controversy. Two days ago, top playback singer K J Yesudas, a Christian, had alleged that he was 'insulted' by authorities of Kadampuzha Devi temple in Kerala who refused him entry on religious grounds after inviting him.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO )launches Israeli satellite

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) agency has successfully launched the Israeli satellite TECSAR.
• The 350 kg satellite also referred to sometimes as Polaris is being launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh using the Indian workhorse rocket the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
• Considering the extreme geopolitical sensitivity of the launch, ISRO has made no formal announcement for this mission.

Swiss woman raped in Pushkar ,Rajasthan. Incredibly unsafe India???

• Within days of a 40-year-old British journalist alleging she was raped by the owner of a guest house in Udaipur on December 23, a Swiss tourist has made a similar accusation: That she was sexually assaulted by a hotel-owner in Pushkar, Rajasthan.

• The Swiss woman, in her late 20s, has said in her FIR filed with the Pushkar police that Nanu Rawat, the owner of Nanu Garden Restaurant and Hotel, raped her about a week ago in one of the rooms. She alleges that Rawat first tried to molest her while she was asleep, and then raped her even as her friend from Canada was sleeping in the same room. The tourist, a singer by profession, had come to Pushkar about a month ago.

• Agra has reported a number of cases of rape and sexual assault on tourists since September last year.

• Minister Ambika Soni has called a high-level meeting of state tourism secretaries on January 24 to try and find a solution to this serious law and order problem. Recently, Union Tourism Secretary S. Banerjee wrote to all state governments, reminding them of the ministry’s earlier recommendation to deploy special police at popular tourist sites.

Anil Ambani may be world’s richest man....!!

• With his wealth estimated at more than $57 billion, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani has emerged as India’s wealthiest citizen after the blockbuster IPO of his Reliance Power, and all indications are that he may jump to the top of the global rich list as well.
  The value of Anil’s holdings in seven listed entities will be around Rs 229,363 crore or $57.3 billion at last Friday’s closing price.
• Market experts expect Reliance Power to list at a much higher value. If the stock lists at Rs 900, Ambani will jump over Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecom tycoon who topped last year’s rich list with an estimated $67.8 billion to his account according to Forbes magazine.
• At Rs 900 per share, Anil Ambani’s personal wealth would be estimated at Rs 2,75,000 crore or $68.7 billion. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates followed Carlos Slim last year with an estimated wealth of $59.2 billion.

'Sir Sachin' for Gordon Brown

Sachin Tendulkar will join the honoured ranks of Sir Don Bradman or Sir Gary Sobers? British Prime Minister Gordon Brown certainly seems to think so. If he had his way, he would recommend the little master for a knighthood.
"Great players of the modern era — like Sachin Tendulkar — proposed for honorary awards so the British nation can salute their achievements in these sports",he said

If Brown's remarks come true, we could be looking at the first Indian sports knight. In between courting trade and investment from India and China visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown showed where his heart really lay — at the WACA stadium in Perth.

Widespread protests over dropping of Ganguly, Dravid

• Widespread resentment swept through cricket fans over Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and in-form VVS Laxman being dropped from India's squad for the triangular one-day series with Australia and Sri Lanka in Australia.

• While cricket fans were angry at the decision of the national selectors, most former Test stars, some of them former selectors, have welcomed the move to build a team for the future, keeping in view the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent.

• The selectors went along with Dhoni's judgement - after consulting Test captain Anil Kumble - to pick a young squad with a major focus on fielding abilities because the bigger grounds in Australia require strong throwing arms and swift movers. It meant that both Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid find no place in the team.

• From the team that last played an ODI series, Ganguly and Murali Kartik were left out while an unfit Zaheer Khan was not considered. In their place come Suresh Raina and Piyush Chawla while Ishant Sharma, who bowled well in the Perth win, gets another ODI call. Dinesh Karthik was added as a back-up 'keeper to make it a 16-man squad.
• Fast bowler Sree Santh retained his ODI spot after being cleared to play after a shoulder injury.
• Sachin Tendulkar, the last of the senior pros holding onto a place in the ODI team, is expected to be played sparingly due to the fatigue factor. At the most, the 34-year-old would be playing in five out of the eight league games

Mumbai Marathon

• Actors Arshad Warsi, Bipasha Basu, Shabana Azmi and Tina Ambani at the Mumbai Marathon 2008.

• Kenyan John Kelai and Ethiopian Mulu Seboka dominated proceedings at the fifth edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, winning the men's and women's categories respectively in the 42 km-long race.
• Kelai won the men's title for the second year running with a time of 2:12:22:21 and was closely followed by Eithopian Tariku Jiffar 2:12:27:98. Fellow Kenyan Philemon Boit finished third with a timing of 2:12:34:57. Seboka set a new race record and won the women's category with a timing of 2:30:03:19.
• Mogaka Irene from Kenya stood second with a timing of 2:32:50:91 ahead of compatriot Karie Toroitich, who stood third at 2:33:55:69. Indian runners had a field day in the half marathon category with Surender Singh and Kavita Raut winning the 21-km race in the men's and women's category respectively

Plenty of drama at Sydney

• The Sydney Test was an absorbing one in that it had all the elements that one normally loves to see in a Test match. There were some top notch individual performances that would be remembered for a long time but in the end the fracas between Symonds and Harbhajan overshadowed the memorable segments of that Test match.
• But for this incident and its aftermath, avid followers of the game will be still talking about the artistry of Laxman and the majesty of Tendulkar. Their knocks set India up in the Test match to try and put the pressure on the Aussies. However, the Aussies prevailed over the challenge posed by the Indians and won the match in the dying moments. On the fact of it, one must hand it to the hosts for hanging on and turning the tables on the visitors but the events that took place in the process were ludicrous.
• Some words are always exchanged on the field and the onus is on the umpires to control the game in a professional manner. They failed miserably in Sydney on that count and I for one believe that the Test match would have been incident-free but for the poor decisions by the umpires.
• A mistake or two is understandable but the Indians cannot be faulted if they feel that they were done in by the umpires. This is where the ICC needs to tighten up and be more proactive and stringent in assessing the performance of the umpires. All the brave statements that come from the ICC bigwigs amount to nothing if they replace an umpire on receipt of a protest. In doing so, the ICC makes one curious about its assessment process with regard to the umpires. With all respect to the umpires, poor decisions on the opening day of a Test match on a flat pitch will not be tolerated by international cricketers, especially when such decisions happen to turn the game on its head.
• Regardless of what transpires with regard to Harbhajan’s ban, the Indians still have a lot to play for and salvage some pride. It is all the more important that the Indians play well to put Australia under pressure as any deficiency on their part will attract more criticism and of course, some taunts from the hosts on the field.
  Despite the fact that everyone is aware of what went wrong in Sydney, the Indians will be expected to deliver in the next two Tests. If they fail to make an impression, all the support gained after the Sydney Test will be lost in no time.

Pamela’s secret

Pamela Anderson has revealed the secret to her super-sexy figure - and it’s not implants! The Blonde and Blonder beauty says the only workout she needs to stay looking fabulous at 40 is running after her two sons, Brandon, 1 1, and nine-year-old Dylan. “I don’t work out because my kids keep me in shape,” says Anderson. “I play every sport with them, football, basketball, baseball. I’m always outside and on the beach and in the water. I’m not a real gym person, and I don’t diet but I’m a vegetarian.”

Osama bin Laden's son wants to be peace ambassador between West and Muslims

Omar Osama bin Laden, right, and his British wife Jane Felix-Brown, now known as Zaina...

• Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father, except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.

• The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.

• Omar, one of bin Laden's 19 children, raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple says they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000-mile (4,825-kilometer) horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.

• "It's about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs, especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama -- are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar told the AP last week at a cafe in a Cairo shopping mall. Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of "bin Laden: peacenik."

• He suggested his father did not oppose his leaving _ and Alsabah interjected that Omar was courageous in breaking away, but neither elaborated.

Kerala Tourism, Kochi Port to host Volvo Ocean Race

• It’s the first for India, and it’s an added feather in Kerala’s hat. The Kerala Tourism along with the Kochi Port Trust is bringing the world’s premier catching event, Volvo Ocean Race, to India.
• The deal which will then officially make the Kochi port and Kerala one of the glamourous ports and states on the world map.
• The Volvo Ocean Race is a 33,000-nautical mile odyssey of unimaginable highs and desperate lows, that is played out on a worldwide stage over nine months. It takes place in key cultural and economic regions across the globe as well as the remote reaches of the planet.

Reliance Power IPO generates demand worth Rs 2.05 trillion

• An initial public offering (IPO) by Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power on Thursday made history with the IPO attracting bids for shares worth Rs 2.05 trillion, highest in the Indian primary capital market.
• The issue is closes tomorrow. According to the latest data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the IPO received bids for 452.43 crore shares as against the 22.8 crore shares .
• The demand for the Reliance Power IPO has surpassed that of Mundra Port and SEZ, which had generated the biggest demand for its initial offer last year receiving bids worth about Rs 2,00,000 crore with an over-subscription of 115 times, while the IPO of state-run Power Grid Corporation also generated demand worth about the same level.

High Court clears Tata Motors 'Nano' factory

• The Calcutta High Court threw out on Friday a slew of complaints against a factory to build the world's cheapest car, saying there was no anomaly in the acquisition of land for the project by Tata Motors.
• 
  
• Tata Motors Ltd unveiled the $2,500 Nano last week and said the new four-seater would roll out later in the year from its factory in West Bengal.
• 
  
• But controversy dogged the factory after local farmers complained the state's communist government had forcibly taken their land.

The low cost car model from Toyota

• Toyota Motor Corporation is about to complete work on a low cost passenger car, which will be launched in markets like India initially .
• The low-priced car is also expected to be launched in developed markets as well after launches in India, Russia, Brazil and China.
• The low priced car will not compete with the Rs 1 lakh Tata car but it is also expected to be launched in developed markets as well. The low priced car will be launched in India initially followed by Russia, Brazil and China.
• Toyota also plans to launch about five more cars, some of them on the Innova multi-purpose vehicle platform before 2015. By 2011, the company expects to sell about 2.11 lakh cars in India and about 5 lakh cars by 2015. The Indian subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Company is also set to post a 10–12 per cent increase in topline to about Rs 4,000 crore during 2007-08.
• Toyota is planning to make some minor changes in the Innova model but it will not undergo any design changes. These changes will be carried out based on the customers’ feedback. The new Corolla model will, however, be different from the existing model.

Ranbaxy Q3 net profit up 48% on forex gains

• Ranbaxy continued to reap benefits of foreign exchange gains in the July-September 2007 quarter and registered a 48 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 207.4 crore (year-on-year).
• Without the foreign exchange gains of Rs 45.5 crore, the company’s net profit for the third quarter grew 13 per cent touching Rs 161.9 crore. Ranbaxy has $440 million of foreign currency convertible bonds, which are to be repaid in 2011.
• In rupee terms, because of hardening of rupee against the dollar, Ranbaxy’s global sales remained almost flat at Rs 1,652 crore for the quarter (Rs 1,640.4 crore).
• However, in dollar terms, the company registered 15 per cent growth in global sales touching $406 million for Q3, driven by higher sales growth in emerging markets like India, Ukraine belt, South Africa and Brazil.
• Ranbaxy reported net profit of Rs 168.1 crore, up 21 per cent and net sales of Rs 1,038 crore (Rs 1,090 crore) for the quarter. Ranbaxy shares closed at Rs 421.85 against previous day’s close of Rs 420.15 on the Bombay stock exchange.

HCL Tech Q2 net profit rises 16.3%

• IT services company HCL Technologies Ltd on Thursday posted a 16.3 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 332.9 crore for the second quarter ended December 2007, as the company logged volume growth and increase in billing rates.
  In rupee terms, its revenue was up 24 per cent year-on-year at Rs 1,816.6 crore while the sequential growth was pegged at 6.3 per cent. In dollar terms, the revenue at $461 million was up 39.2 per cent year-on-year and 7.4 per cent sequentially, while the net profit at $84.5 million was up 30.6 per cent over corresponding period of the previous year and 9.1 per cent over the first quarter.
• HCL, which added 29 new clients during the quarter, saw gross margin improvement at 38 per cent compared to 37 per cent in the first quarter and 37.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
• As of December 2007, the company bought forward covers worth $2.3 billion spread over the next 10 quarters.
  Revenue from the consolidated IT services (core software and infrastructure services) grew 24.9 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter to Rs 1,598.2 crore. Its business process outsourcing services revenue grew 17.5 per cent on year to Rs 218.4 crore, but was down from Rs 219.8 crore in the previous quarter, mainly on account of a loss of a customer. The company registered 2,312 net additions in headcount increasing the total number of its employees to 48,000 at the end of December.
  The shares of HCL Tech were down 0.28 per cent on the BSE at Rs 267.60, over the previous close of Rs 268.35.

Indian tech workforce is two million strong

• Technology workforce in India is set to cross the magical two million mark, with the march from one million to two million happening in just about three years.
• This reflects both the sector momentum and appetite for growth fuelled by increasing interest in India as a preferred outsourcing destination and also availability of a large technical workforce.
• The IT and BPO segment has been the largest job creator in the country. If the Government continues to provide encouragement to this industry by way of benefits and incentives.
• A Nasscom(National Association of Software and Services Companies ) survey released in July 2007 stated that the industry recorded $39.6 billion revenues and employed about 1.6 million as of 2006-07. Last year, while IT software and services added over 1,77,000, ITeS and BPO added 1,38,000 people.

Wipro Q3 net up 8.80% at Rs 804.10 cr

• Wipro Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 804.10 crore for the third quarter ended December 2007 as compared to Rs 739 crore reported during the same quarter in 2006.
• Total income has increased from Rs 3651.1 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 to Rs 4429.6 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007.

HDFC Q3 net up 82.50% at Rs 648.90 cr

• Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) has recorded 82.53% increase in net profit at Rs 648.93 crore for the third quarter ended December 2007 as compared to Rs 355.49 crore in the year-ago period.
• 
  Total revenues for the quarter has increased to Rs 2,154.72 crore from Rs 1,457.73 crore in the year-ago period.

ITC third quarter net up 15.80% at Rs 830.70 cr

• ITC Ltd announced on Friday that it recorded a net profit of Rs 830.72 crore for the third quarter ended December 2007, showing an increase of 15.80% as compared with Rs 717.40 crore reported during the same quarter in 2006.
• 
  Total income for the quarter has increased to Rs 3,595.39 crore from Rs 3,184.49 in the year-ago quarter.

Tata Consultancy Services

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the leading information technology companies in the world. With a workforce of over 74,000 professionals spread across more than 50 global delivery centres, it helps organisations stay ahead with new technology. Its clients include seven of the top ten corporations in the Fortune 500 list of the largest corporations in the United States.

• Since its inception, the company has invested in new technologies, processes, and people in order to help its customers succeed. With inputs from its innovation labs and university alliances, and drawing on the expertise of key partners, TCS keeps clients up-to-date with new technology. This has helped the company meet various benchmarks of excellence in software development - it is the world's first organisation to achieve an enterprise-wide Maturity Level 5 on quality improvement models, CMMI® and P-CMM®, using the most rigorous assessment methodology, SCAMPISM.

• TCS helps clients from various industries solve complex problems, mitigate risks, and become operationally excellent. Some of the industries it serves are:
• Banking and financial services
• Energy and utilities
• Government
• Healthcare and life sciences
• Hi technology
• Insurance
• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Telecom
• Travel and hospitality

• TCS is headquartered in Mumbai, and operates in more than 50 countries and has more than 170 offices across the world.
• In terms of deal wins, the $1.2 billion deal with the Nielsen Company and other $100 million plus deals point to interesting prospects for TCS in the coming few quarters. Increasing levels of fixed-price billing to 45.4 per cent of revenues, the highest among Tier I players, is a positive, as this is a more efficient way of engagement. Increased delivery of services such as consulting from offshore locations could make this a ‘low-cost high revenue’ proposition, a healthy indicator on margins. The company could also tweak factors such as utilisation and repeat-business percentages, apart from using billing rates to improve realisations.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee ,A Profile

Born on December 25, 1924 at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh to Shri Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and Smt. Krishna Devi, Shri Vajpayee brings with him a long parliamentary experience spanning over four decades. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1957. He was elected to the 5th, 6th and 7th Lok Sabha and again to the 10th, 11th 12th and 13th Lok Sabha and to Rajya Sabha in 1962 and 1986. He has again been elected to Parliament from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh for the fifth time consecutively. He is the only parliamentarian elected from four different States at different times namely - UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi.

• Vajpayee had embarked upon a journalist's career, which was cut short in 1951 when he joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of today's Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading component of the National Democratic Alliance. A critically acclaimed poet, he still takes time off from affairs of state to indulge in music and in a bit of gourmet cooking.

• India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, was conferred upon him in recognition of his selfless dedication to his first and only love, India, and his more than half-a-century of service to society and the nation. In 1994, he was named India's 'Best Parliamentarian.'

• Vajpayee participated in the freedom struggle and went to jail in 1942. He was detained during Emergency in 1975-77.

• 
  Widely travelled, Shri Vajpayee has been taking a keen interest in international affairs, upliftment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women and child welfare. Some of his travels abroad include visits such as - Member, Parliamentary Goodwill Mission to East Africa, 1965; Parliamentary Delegation to Australia, 1967; European Parliament, 1983; Canada, 1987; Indian delegation to Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meetings held in Canada, 1966 and 1994, Zambia, 1980, Isle of Man 1984, Indian delegation to Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference, Japan, 1974; Sri Lanka, 1975; Switzerland, 1984; Indian Delegation to the UN General Assembly, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994; Leader, Indian Delegation to the Human Rights Commission Conference, Geneva, 1993.

• Well known and respected for his love for poetry and as an eloquent speaker, Shri Vajpayee is known to be a voracious reader. He is fond of Indian music and dance.

• Vajpayee was Prime Minister of India from May 16-31, 1996 and a second time from March 19, 1998 to May 13, 2004. With his swearing-in as Prime Minister, he has been the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to occupy the office of the Prime Minister of India through three successive mandates. Shri Vajpayee has also been the first Prime Minister since Smt. Indira Gandhi to lead his party to victory in successive elections.

• In May 1998, India conducted five underground nuclear weapon tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan. The five tests shocked and surprised the world, especially considering that the government had been in power for only a month. Two weeks later, Pakistan responded with its own nuclear weapon tests, making it the newest nation with nuclear weapons.

• During his premiership, Vajpayee introduced many important economic and infrastructural reforms domestically including, encouraging the private sector and foreign investments; reducing governmental waste; encouraging research and development and privatizing of government owned corporations.

• 
  Vajpayee oversaw his National Highway Development Project begin construction, in which he took a personal interest.

• Vajpayee led a diverse, fractious coalition to complete a full five-year term in office, be the guiding light over a collage of political chaos. He gave stability and unity when the country was the least united, and security when the country was most susceptible. This included not only the security of the borders from invasion, but of the security of 100 million families with the provision of jobs and education in a solid, hopeful economic future, and the strategic national future security.

• It was only during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's rule that George Fernandes as defence minister provided proper hospital services including CAT scans for army men in Siachen. Earlier, IAS babus were deciding how and what facilities jawans on those dangerous snow-bound heights should get without ever visiting the region themselves. Vajpayee and George have both risen above petty politics and endeared themselves to the common Indian as statesmen. During Pokhran -2 and the Kargil victory, their leadership shone with the Jai Jawan spirit.

• An ardent champion of women's empowerment and social equality, Vajpayee believes in a forward-looking, forward moving India, a strong and prosperous nation confident of its rightful place in the comity of nations. He stands for an India anchored in 5000 years of civilizational history, ever modernizing, ever renewing, and ever re-energizing itself to meet the challenges of the next 1000 years.
  

Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par :A movie to watch

• The Women and Child Development ministry will hold a novel training workshop for school principals and teachers through the screening of Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par so that they could learn a thing or two about child sensitivities.

• The movie would be part of a larger goal to educate teachers about child rights and how every child is different from others in their peer group when it comes to learning ability.

The movie is an eye opener for many parents. It tells us about the problems children face, and how to deal with it. Each school principal should compulsorily watch the movie.

Sania sets up third-round clash with Venus Williams

• Sania Mirza overcame Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the last 32 and a match against Venus Williams.
• In a battle lasting for one hour and 44 minutes, Sania got the better of Timea 6-1 4-6 7-5.
  In the next round, Sania has the uphill task of taking on eighth-seeded Venus Williams of the USA. The American defeated Camille Pin of France 7-5 6-4 to book a berth in the third round.
  Sania banked on the unforced errors of her opponent to wrap up the first set in style.

No funds to pay salary ,Attention IIT Bombay Alumni Association

• The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are rated as the world’s third best in engineering education, but the directors of the seven elite institutions are currently trying to get the Union HRD ministry to pay their electricity bills on time!

• In an indication of a fund crunch at India’s finest educational institutes, IIT-Bombay has recently written to the HRD ministry that they are not in a position to pay next month’s salaries to their staff members. All seven institutes have complained that government allocations are not keeping pace with the rising costs attached to the day-to-day running of these premier institutions.

• Since the inception of the first IITs in the 1950s, they have entirely relied on government patronage. The budgetary allocation in recent years was roughly Rs 550 crore. However, over the last decade, the IITs have had to tap an extensive network of alumni here and abroad to meet growing requirements. A large percentage of new initiatives are also being driven through industry partnerships.

• The HRD ministry, which allocates money to the IITs for recurring expenses on routine bills for electricity, water, laboratory material and salaries, has not increased the annual grants since 2002. Despite escalating costs and inflation, the ministry’s allocation has remained constant at Rs 7.04 crore since 2002. In the meantime, actual expenses under this head have risen by an additional Rs 13.15 crore in 2007. To bridge the shortfall, administrators are now dipping into the IITs’ endowment funds, which comprise savings put together over the years

Bisexuality not a transitional phase

• Researchers have finally debunked the stereotype that bisexual women are uninterested in or unable to commit to long-term monogamous relationships.

• The researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found bisexuality in women is a distinctive sexual orientation and not a transitional stage which some females adopt on their way to lesbianism.

• According to the study's lead author Lisa M Diamond of the University of Utah, "This research provides the first empirical examination of competing assumptions about the nature of bisexuality, both as a sexual identity label and as a pattern of nonexclusive sexual attraction and behaviour.

• The findings demonstrate considerable fluidity in bisexual, unlabelled and lesbian women's attractions, behaviours and identities and contribute to researchers' understanding of the complexity of sexual-minority development over the life span."

• The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing nearly 80 non-heterosexual women over a period of 10 years. In the study, they used interview data collected five times over a decade from the participant women who identified as lesbian, bisexual or unlabelled. The subjects initially ranged in age from 18 to 25 years old.

• The researchers found that bisexual and unlabelled women were more likely than lesbians to change their identity over the course of the study, but they tended to switch between bisexual and unlabelled rather than to settle on lesbian or heterosexual as their identities. Seventeen per cent of respondents switched from a bisexual or unlabelled identity to heterosexual during the study - but more than half of these women switched back to bisexual or unlabelled by the end.

Origin of bird flu in Bangladesh

• Bangladesh has been identified as the source of outbreak of bird flu in south Dinajpur, one of the two affected districts in West Bengal.

• The germs were brought by winds blowing from Bangladesh.

• The BSF guarding the Indo-Bangla border in the district has been alerted to ensure that no poultry products could enter from Bangladesh,

Indian employees to get highest salary hike in 2008

• Indians working with MNCs are slated to get the highest salary hike of about 14 per cent on an average across the world in 2008, as firms readily adopt measures to prevent their employees from jumping the ship.

• However, salary hike in China, the world's fastest growing major economy, is likely to remain static at eight per cent this year. Across the regions, employees in Asia would receive the highest salary increases worldwide.

Indians most wealthy in Silicon Valley

Indians in Santa Clara County, home of the Silicon Valley, have the highest median household income, own the most valuable homes, and are the best educated, according to a latest census report.

The report which provides a snapshot of Santa Clara County, one of the only two counties in the country, shows that Indians have median income of USD 116,240, which is about 44 per cent above the county's median of about USD 81,000.

The report profiled the four largest immigrant communities -- Indians, Mexicans, Chinese and Vietnamese. It found that although three-quarters of the Indian population was born abroad, they own the most valuable home of about median home price of USD 860,000, compared with the county's price of USD 743,000.

More than four in five Indian adults have at least a bachelors' degree and Indians are most likely to be white-collar professionals, with about 80 per cent engaged in management, professional and related occupations.

Sabeer Bhatia

• India born computer wizard, Sabeer Bhatia came into limelight when he created the web based e- mail- the Hotmail and later sold it to the software giant- the Microsoft for a staggering $ 400 million in 1998. This deal was struck after hectic negotiations between him and the Microsoft. After selling the hotmail to the Microsoft, Sabeer Bhatia worked with the Microsoft for about a year and then left it to start another venture- Arzoo Inc. It is an e-commerce firm with a revolutionary new way to shop on line. With the hotmail deal, Sabeer Bhatia became the Silicon Valley hero and is still basking in glory. Today, Sabeer Bhatia is an idol for all Indians who wish to make it big in the Silicon Valley.

• Sabeer Bhatia is one of the poster boys of Indian success story at Silicon Valley. He is better known as the man who co-founded Hotmail. He later sold it to Microsoft for $400 million and today Hotmail is the world's largest e-mail provider, with over 50 million registered users.

• Sabeer Bhatia was born in 1969 at Chandigarh. He comes from a humble background. His father was an army officer and his mother worked with the Central Bank of India. Sabeer Bhatia had his earlier schooling at Bishop Cotton's School in Pune and later on at St Joseph's College in Bangalore. After passing out from school he joined the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) at Pilani. At Pilani, he qualified to try for a transfer scholarship at Cal Tech, considered to be the world's most competitive scholarship. Sabeer Bhatia was the only applicant in the entire world in 1988 to get a passing score of 62.


• 
  In 1988 Sabeer Bhatia came to America and completed his B.Sc. with honours and earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1992, while working on his Ph.D., Sabeer dropped out and joined Apple Computers as a systems integrator. He worked for Apple Computer for a year. Then he worked for another startup, Firepower Systems Inc. In 1995, Sabir Bhatia co-founded Hotmail Corporation along with Jack Smith, a colleague at Apple Computers. They launched pioneering web-based e-mail service Hotmail. At the end of 1997, he sold Hotmail to Microsoft for $400 million. Sabeer Bhatia t worked for Microsoft for a year until March of 1999, and then in the middle of 1999 he founded Arzoo.com
  

Goa crisis

• Barely seven months after coming to power, the Congress-led government in Goa is on the verge of collapse.

• NCP has withdrawn support to the Digamber Kamat-led coalition government. Goa's earstwhile tourism minister Miccky Pachecho had earlier in the day claimed regarding the same.

• total of three ministers, including two belonging to NCP, namely Mickey Pacheko and Jose Philip D'Souza, alongwith independent MLA, Vishwajeet Rane have resigned from the government.

• Congress and its allies are resultantly reduced to 19 members in the 40-member assembly

MS word in online environs

• ‘Hotmail’ founder Mr Sabeer Bhatia-promoted firm, Install Collaboration Software Technologies Pvt Ltd (InstaColl), has launched a software that allows office suite applications such as Microsoft Word to function in an Internet browser environment.

• Christened ‘Live Documents’, the product could ‘pose a significant challenge to a significant portion of Microsoft’s revenues from the office suite’, because of it encompassing all features of Microsoft Office 2007, Mr Sabeer Bhatia, Chairman, InstaColl, said. “The software allows changes made on the document in the browser environment to be synchronised with the document on the desktop in real-time, ensuring that the desktop and Web versions are always in sync” .

• This also means that any change made by one user of a multi-user document will be instantly updated for all users and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

• For individual users the product is distributed free of cost and can be downloaded from the company Web site. “For corporate clients, we may look at different pricing models.

HCL’s low-cost laptops

• HCL’s low-cost laptops to be available from Jan 26 .
  
  Available nationwide from January 26 will be 2 ultra portable PC platforms: The MiLeap X Series is a People’s PC — albeit with full functionality — with a 7-inch LCD screen, 2 GB of solid state internal storage, 512 MB of memory, fuelled by an Intel Celeron mobile chip. To ruggedize it for Indian conditions and also make it ‘child proof’, the X Series has additional cushioning around the display and keyboard.
  
  The operating system is an Ubuntu flavour of Linux, though users are free to port a Windows version if they choose, adding an external hard drive through the USB port. Slots take standard wireless data cards that telecom providers such as Reliance Telecom and Tata Indicom have been offering in India, but a CD/DVD drive has been dispensed with to achieve the low selling price of Rs 13,999.

Apple unveils 'world's thinnest' laptop

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled what he called "the world's thinnest notebook computer" in his annual Macworld address .

However, investors were unimpressed with the new products. Apple's shares had risen three percent before the announcement but ended the day over five percent lower.

Selling in the US for $1,800, the laptop is powered by Intel's 1.6 GHZ Core 2 Duo processor as standard, with an available 1.8 GHZ upgrade. It has 2 GB of RAM, battery life of five hours and an 80 GB hard drive. It has no built-in CD drive, but does offer an external drive for an additional $99

Taliban captures fort in Waziristan,Pakistan

• Around 30 Pakistani troops were feared killed early Wednesday morning when Taliban militants captured a fort manned by security forces in the restive South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

• The militants launched an attack on the fort, located about 80 km from South Waziristan's main town of Wana, at about 2100 hours on Tuesday.

• The Pakistan Army confirmed the attack but denied that the Taliban had taken control of the fort.

Mohanlal,The acotor for all seasons!!!!

Mohanlal is rated one of the most talented actors in India.Mohanlal was born on May 21, 1960 in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala State (India) to Sri Viswanathan Nair(Late.) and Smt Santhakumari . He had an elder brother named (Late.) Pyare Lal. He did his schooling from Mudavanmukal School and Model School, Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum) and completed his BCom from M.G. College (Thiruvananthapuram).

He married Suchitra, daughter of veteran actor-producer K. Balaji, on 28 April 1988. He has two children - Pranav and Vismaya. Commonly he is know as Prince of Kerala . One of his classmates Priyadarshan is also one of the reputed film makers of Malayalam and Hindi film industry.

His range is enviable, his flair for comedy is impeccable and his dialogue delivery effortless. There are not many actors who can portray both comic and serious roles with the same ease.And that has reached upto Padmashri one of the nations highest civilian honour.

His first major breakthrough came in the film Manjil Virinja Pookkal (1980), in which he played a villain. The film was a major hit, and Mohanlal followed it up with more roles as a villain, most notably in Uyarangalil.

The film named 'Rajavinte Makan' was a real break-through in his career. It was this movie that made him a superstar. This period also saw him joining hands with many noted artistes like Padmarajan, Sreenivasan, Sathyan Anthikkad, Priyadarshan giving many notable movies like "Naadodikkattu", "Thoovaanathumbikal", "Nammukku Paarkan Munthirithoppukal", "T.P.Balagopalan M.A.", etc.

Civilian Honours

2001- Padmashri by the Government of India.

National Film Awards
1989 Special Jury Award - Kireedam

1991 Best Actor - Bharatham

1999 Best Actor - Vaanaprastham

1999 Best Film ( Producer ) - Vaanaprastham

Kerala State Film Awards

1986 Best Actor - T.P. Balagopalan M.A.

1988 Special Jury Award - Padha Mudhra, Chitram, Utsavappittennu, Aryan and Vellanakalude Nadu

1991 Best Actor - Ulladakkam, Kilukkam, Abhimanyu

1991 Second Best Film - Bharatham (Producer)

1995 Best Actor - Kalapani, Spadikam

1995 Second Best Film - Kalapani (Producer)

1999 Best Actor - Vaanaprastham

2005 Best Actor - Thanmatra

Hungarian PM arrives India, N-issue likely to be discussed

• Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany will arrive today on a four-day visit during which India is expected to seek support of NSG member for a waiver of atomic group's guidelines to enable New Delhi to have trade with international community in the field.

• The two sides will explore possibility of enhancing their multifaceted relations with particular focus on trade and investment.

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gyurcsany will hold talks on a wide-range of issues.

• During the talks, Singh is expected to raise the issue of India's desire for civil nuclear cooperation with the international community in the backdrop of Indo-US deal.
• 
  The Hungarian side is likely to be apprised about the ongoing talks between New Delhi and IAEA for the safeguards agreement, which is a prelude to India approaching 45-nation NSG for a waiver to its rules.
• 
  Hungary is a member of the European Union, with which India has a strategic partner.

Rajinikanth to act in 3D animation film

• India is all set to gets its first 3D superhero, as south Indian film star Rajnikanth dons an animated persona for a forthcoming film titled Sultan the Warrior.

• Rajnikanth, whose flamboyance is unequalled by Bollywood actors and who may even have more fans than Amitabh Bachchan, has become the first actor to be animated ever in Indian cinema history

Azim Premji

• Azim Premji is Chairman of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India. He is an icon among Indian businessmen and his success story is a source of inspiration to a number of budding entrepreneurs.

• Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Hashim Premji was studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA when due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called upon to handle the family business. Azim Premji took over the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21.

• Under his stewardship, WIPRO has grown from a US$ 2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company to a US $1.76 billion IT- giant. Ranked among the top 100 Technology companies globally, Wipro is also the largest BPO services provider based in India. Premji was named as the Business Man of the Year 2000 by Business India and the Business Leader of the Year 2004 by the Economic Times. The TIME magazine listed him in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people worldwide. In 2003, the Fortune magazine named him as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US.

• In 2006 FORBES ranked him at 25th among the world richest. In 2007 FORBES ranks him at 21 on the World Richest Billionaires. Yet, as mentioned above, he even doesn’t have a fancy brand wear; and nor even a Mercedez.

Infosys

• Infosys Technologies Ltd. was started in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250. Today, a global leader in the "next generation" of IT and consulting with revenues of over US$ 3 billion.

• Infosys was founded on July 2, 1981 by N.R. Narayan Murthy and six of his colleagues, namely, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora. Narayan Murthy borrowed Rs.10,000 from his wife Sudha Murthy as seed capital for the company. In 1987 Infosys got its first foreign client, Data Basics Corporation from the United States and opened its first office in the USA. In 1993, Infosys became a public limited company and successfully completed IPO in India. In the same year Infosys received ISO 9001/TickIT certification. Infosys set up its first office in Europe in Milton Keynes, UK in 1996. In 1999, Infosys crossed $100 Million in annual revenue and was listed on NASDAQ. It was Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. In the same year Infosys opened offices in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and Australia. In 2000, Infosys crossed $200 Million in annual revenue. In 2004, Infosys crossed US $1 Billion in annual revenue. In 2006, Infosys completed 25 years of its existence and its revenues crossed $ 2 billion. Today Infosys has more than 50,000 employees and has presence in more than 20 countries across the world. Its corporate headquarters is in Bangalore.

Services offered by Infosys are:

• Application Development & Maintenance,
• Corporate Performance Management,
• Enterprise Quality Services
• Infrastructure Services Packages
• Application Services
• Product Engineering
• Systems Integration

Reliance Power IPO subscribed over 6 times

• Anil Ambani group's Reliance Power IPO generated a demand of over Rs 78,975 crore within one hour of its book building process, that started on Tuesday morning.

• According to the latest data available on the National Stock Exchange, the IPO got subscribed over 6.75 times till 11 a.m. in the first day of its public issue.

• Most of the bids came at Rs 450, the upper end of the price band making it the country's largest ever IPO with an estimated proceeds of Rs 11,700 crore, bankers close to the IPO said.

• Reliance Power has a diversified portfolio of 13 medium and large-sized power projects, under development and strategically located at various places across India.

• With an installed capacity of 28,200 megawatts, the Reliance Power IPO will significantly contribute to reducing the demand-supply gap for the power in the country at competitive rates.

Kozhikode emerges winners in school fest

• Kozhikode has once again emerged winners in the state school kalotsavam. The district has bagged 635 points and will receive a trophy weighing 117 sovereigns.

• Hosts Kollam stands second with 626 points and Ernakulam is in the third position with 622 points. Palakkad stands fourth with 597 points.

Narendra Modi in Guruvayur

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi performed " thulabharam" at the Sree Krishna Temple in Guruvayur on 14th January 2008 ,Kerala,India.

Lohri2008

• Lohri festival is celebrated every year on 13th of January.It is a festival to worship fire. Lohri .Lohri Festival is celebrated with great pomp in North India. At this time Earth starts moving towards the sun marking the auspicious period of Uttarayan.

• Like most other festivals in India, Lohri is also related to the agricultural activities of the farmers. It marks the harvesting season in Punjab and the end of the winter season. Lohri usually falls on the last day of the month of Paush, a day known as Makar Sankranti in most parts of the country. According to the English calendar, Lohri falls on 13th January every year.

No ban for Indian workers

Dismissing reports of a freeze on recruitment of workers from India, Malaysia on Wednesday insisted that it never made a ruling to this effect. "Let me state categorically that the Home Ministry has never come out with any ruling that we have stopped the intake of foreign workers from India," Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad told reporters


He said he was not aware where these reports came from. "This has disturbed us a lot," he said.


The news reports about the ban came during a visit by Defence Minister A K Antony to Malaysia, triggering a furor in India. Malaysian Works Minister Samy Vellu, who is in New Delhi to attend the conference of overseas Indians, had denied the reports on Wednesday itself.