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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Ford sells Jaguar/Land Rover to Tata
Homegrown auto major Tata Motors has clinched the Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) deal estimated to be valued between $2-2.5 billion.
According to sources close to the development, the deal was signed last evening and is estimated to have cost the Tatas between $2-2.5 billion.
When contacted a Tata Motors spokesperson said the company would make an announcement at an "appropriate time". Ford on the other hand has been insisting that they would make public the deal only after it has informed its employees.
The sources said the formal announcement of the deal is likely to be made at 5.30 pm IST.
The deal has taken almost nine months to finalise as both Ford and Tata and their financiers sought to iron out issues seen as crucial to the future of the two British marques. It is expected to cover long-term supply of engines to both brands from Ford.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/26tata.htm
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Most TB cases found in India
Three million people develop tuberculosis in the Southeast Asian region every year, India reporting 22 per cent of these, and over half a million die of the disease, says the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) report released on Monday.
The 11 countries of the region which account for 25 per cent of the world's population carry more than one-third of the global burden of tuberculosis, the report said.
India and China record the highest number of TB cases globally, it said and added that, besides India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand are part of the high burden countries.
Of the 22 countries that record TB, these five countries together have over two million cases or 95 per cent of all cases globally.
The 11 countries included in the report are India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Timor-Leste, and North Korea.
Releasing the report on World TB Day, Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO's regional director for the Southeast Asia region, said there should be a “concerted action globally, nationally and locally” to contain TB.
“There is emerging evidence of a reversal in the burden of TB in this region,” he added.
“The impact of TB is reducing and it is remarkable to note that there are TB driven programmes in this region that have been instrumental in bringing down the number,” said Jai P. Narain, WHO's director for communicable diseases.
He said India and Indonesia alone contribute 40 per cent of the total cases reported in the region. India's share is 22 per cent.
“The region, with 4.97 million TB cases, carries over one-third of the global burden of TB," said the Tuberculosis in the Southeast Asia region 2008 report.
“Most cases occur in the age group of 15-54 years, with males being disproportionately affected in the region,” the report said.
Though deaths due to TB have declined after introduction of DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short course) in the region, the disease still claims more than 500,000 lives each year, it said.
The report said an overall case detection rate of 68 per cent was achieved in 2006 in the region, close to the global target of 70 per cent.
It said that all member countries are in the process of implementing the new Stop TB strategy through their multi-year national TB control plans.
But it said that establishing an adequate network of quality assured laboratories for performing drug susceptibility testing (DST) remains a main challenge for the region.
“Interventions for the management of MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant TB) cases under the national programmes have been developed and implemented by Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal,” the report said.
It underlines that over the next 10 years the countries in the region should teat and cure 25 million TB patients, including those with HIV co-infection and drug-resistant TB.
“Save at least five million people from dying from TB and prevent at least one million cases of multi-drug-resistant TB," the report emphasised.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=146289998 Signs You Masturbate Too Much
Most of us won’t admit to it, but we all do it, even you. Come on, you know what I’m talking about–blog masturbation. You really shouldn’t, as it can cause numerous psychological symptoms such as low self-esteem, obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic attacks. Here is how you know when you’ve gone too far, so that you can keep from going blind.
1. You are becoming obsessive.
You check your page stats not only every day, but several times a day. If the stats are lower one day than they were the day before, you cry. You may already be using that auto-erotic blog toy called Google Analytics and looking at who’s watching you. You are so, so nasty.
2. You’re giving yourself LOTS of love.
You just adore that new header you spent all that time jacking around with. Isn’t it slick? Oooh, nice header. Okay, click on out of your own page already and check out someone else for a change. And link to others at least as often as you link to yourself.
3. Your work is beginning to suffer.
You’re hitting Technorati more often than you are responding to your boss’s emails. Technorati has your number. How low can you go? Jeez, you’re going to get a crick in your neck if you keep doing that.
4. You are starting to become numb.
Your blog no longer looks juicy. You are ready to call it quits, because you have only had five new visitors during the last hour. Fortunately, there’s an off button. Press it gently. There you go. Doesn’t that feel better?
5. You are getting sore.
If you are going to stay on MyBlogLog all day long, then get yourself an ergonomic chair. And a nice soft keyboard pad. Don’t get chafed from all that clicking.
6. You’re starting to get red.
Your eyes that is. What did you think I was talking about?? Hit the brightness button on your monitor and turn it down a tad. Or up. Up and down. Whatever.
7. You take your laptop into the bathroom at work.
You’ve gone too far, really.
8. Your personal relationships are beginning to suffer.
You have been writing posts five times a day for weeks. Your hands are tired. Your SO no longer remembers what you look like.
So now you know if you have a problem. If so, please get help before you go insane or grow hair in places that don’t have follicles. I recommend going cold turkey and shutting down your blog if this is happening to you. Then I can have all of the traffic to myself and have some peace….ahhhh.
Posted in: Metablogging
Thursday, March 20, 2008
India ranks 10th in domestic car sales
India is ranked 10th in the world with respect to domestic car sales in the year 2007, according to a report published on Tuesday by an international Automobile Manufacturers Association.
According to the report, global car sales crossed the 70 million mark for the first time ever last year, and the U.S topped the list with sales of 16.46 million cars. But the U.S share of the global car market has fallen from 29.1% in 2002 to 22.9% last year.
The second to sixth places for 2007 remained the same as in 2006: China ranked second (8.792 million), followed by Japan (5.354 million), Germany (3.483 million), the UK (2.8 million) and Italy (2.741 million).
India was one among the 3 emerging markets that rose one notch from the 2006 rankings. The total domestic sales in India for the year 2007 was 1.99 million cars. Besides India, Russia climbed to seventh position with 2.644 million domestic sales, and Brazil climbed to ninth spot (2.463 million).
A total of 71.82 million cars were sold worldwide in 2007, up 4.5% from the previous year.
In the recent years, India has emerged as one of the major bases for manufacturing small passenger cars. At present the Indian automotive industry boasts of being the 3rd largest manufacturer of small cars.
According to the international car statistics almost 70% of the cars sold in the country come under the segment of small cars. A number of car manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai, Honda, Ford, Hindustan Motors, Fiat, General Motors etc offer various new model of cars now and then.
It is expected that the various automobile manufacturers will be investing about $ 5 billion in India, between 2005-2010.
http://www.autoindia.com/News/auto-news-india928.html
World Bank rates India as top receiver of remittances in 07
India is the top receiver of remittances from abroad in 2007, followed by China and Mexico, according to the World Bank's Migration and Remittances Fact book 2008, released here Wednesday.
The top five recipients of migrant remittances in 2007 were India ($27 billion), China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), the Philippines ($17 billion) and France ($12.5 billion), according to the fact book.
For 2007, recorded remittances flows worldwide were estimated at $318 billion, of which $240 billion went to developing countries. These flows do not include informal channels, which would significantly enlarge the volume of remittances if they were recorded.
"In many developing countries, remittances provide a life line for the poor," said Dilip Ratha, a senior economist, and author of the fact book with Zhimei Xu.
"They are often an essential source of foreign exchange and a stabilizing force for the economy in turbulent times."http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14626704
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
33 of Life’s Most Powerful Lessons
Below are 33 of the most powerful lessons in life. I encourage you to share yours with me by leaving a comment below. =)
- Often those who aren’t the easiest to love are the ones who need it the most.
- Seeing children play can make even the bluest day brighter.
- Money is not the root of all evil, fear is.
- The secret to happiness is the acceptance of yourself.
- Happiness is not based on external status, it is an internal state.
- Money can’t make me happy, but self-sufficiency gives me the freedom to share myself creatively, without worrying about how I’m going to pay the bills.
- Every man has a right to choose his own destiny.
- The path is the way.
- Coming is going, going is coming.
- The hardest is found in the easiest.
- Heaven and hell exist here and now, within your own mind.
- Life is the largest stage.
- Music is one of the most supreme expressions of life. It is art in it’s most transitory form. It is gone within an instant, and therefore, extremely precious.
- Follow your gut, you’ll thank yourself later.
- Remember what your mother taught you, it came from the most sacred place of love that exists.
- Never let an argument last, never hold a grudge, it will make your heart heavy.
- Forgive those that have yet to do you wrong, and you won’t have to worry about it should the time come.
- Be grateful for this moment, it is all there is.
- The source of most of your frustrations and anxiety are the result of living in the future, or the past.
- Spend time alone with yourself every day.
- Always go with yourself, never against yourself.
- You have to be your own best friend.
- If you don’t like what someone else says to you, you can walk away. But if you don’t like what you say to yourself, you can’t walk away. Therefore, if you’re going to be with yourself all the time, you might as well be nice to yourself.
- The truth shall indeed set you free.
- Lies only exist if we believe in them.
- Even the most fundamental beliefs about reality are not true in themselves. Our thinking makes them true in our experience.
- Your thoughts create reality.
- The biggest lie is the lie of your imperfection.
- Being kind is more important than being right.
- Your heart is your best compass.
- Cherish those that you love, you never know if you’ll see them again.
- Your beliefs are a filter for your reality.
- Love is the supreme expression of life, it is the essence and ground of all creation.
India Rocks (Video)
THIS IS OUR INDIA.........DONT DARE TO CHALLENGE US.....WE INDIANS R D BEST Watch out this video from an Indian movie Namastey London to know what India really is...
INDIA ROCKS!! - A funny movie is a click away
University from Wardha to offer MBA course in Hindi
A university in Wardha in Maharashtra will soon be starting an MBA course. While looking at the increasing demand for MBA graduates, this comes as no news.
The only difference here would be the medium of instruction and the course content — it would all be in Hindi. It is probably the first of its kind, designed for students who wish to opt for a Hindi MBA.
The Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha will be offering the course from the next academic year starting from July 2008. As the vice-chancellor G Gopinathan says, “It is a commercial language now, why miss it?” University authorities believe that management and technology cannot be restricted to a particular language.
Gopinathan said, “It is the bazaar and business language and it needs to be experimented. Though we have not devised the entire curriculum in Hindi, we will do it as soon as the course starts. We did not wish to delay the launch because of the nitty-gritty.”
Currently, the university will use translated versions of books written by different authors in English. The board of studies’ committee from the university has already had several meetings to discuss various topics that have to be incorporated.
The MBA (Hindi) will be offered in rural, tourism and finance managements to begin with and later offer other specialised courses. The university is planning to release the advertisements by the end of this month.
A university in Hyderabad had earlier offered the course in Urdu (just the medium of instruction) and surprisingly managed to get 100 per cent placements for their MBA graduates, said the vice-chancellor.
DNA spoke to a couple of corporates to check out the placement value of Hindi MBA graduates. Kishore Biyani, the MD of Pantaloon Retail, said, “It is always good to learn in your basic language. The understanding of concepts will be better. If the curriculum is in par with the MBA (English), then we will not have a problem in recruiting such candidates.”
Charudatta Deshpande, head of corporate communications, ICICI, said, “There is no sacrosanct policy on knowing English in the finance industry. The person has to deal with numbers. If the concepts are clear, we will not have a problem in recruiting. In fact, it will be an added advantage for us to recruit front office candidates with an MBA in the local language.”http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1156781
Transferring money to parents' account? 5 tips
Many young professionals move to cities in search of jobs, leaving parents in their hometown. Once they find a job they usually send a part of their earnings home to help their parents. Outlook Money takes a look at the options one has to send money home and the costs involved. While the channels of sending money home remain the same - banks and post offices - the modes of transfer have increased over the years.
In parents' account
Thanks to core banking you can now deposit the money in your parent's account from the city where you are based. Braja Sundar Rath, 34, a Hyderabad-based IT professional, sends money to his parents in Gunupur, Rayagada district, Orissa. Earlier he used to send money through a demand draft (DD).
"Using a DD had its own problems," says Rath.
When the bank branch where his parents have their account got connected to the core banking facility (it allows you to operate your account and use other banking facilities from any branch of the same bank irrespective of the location of your account), he started depositing money in their account directly.
"The money gets credited to the account immediately and at zero cost," says Rath.
Open a joint account
The problem comes when branches don't have the core banking facility. In such a case you can either open a new account for your parents in a branch that has the facility, or you can open a joint account with one of your parents and give them a debit card to operate it.
You should, however, remember that with a new account the quarterly average balance has to be maintained. In private sector banks this amount can be as high as Rs 10,000. For public sector banks it is around Rs 1,000.
A little help from friends
If you feel that the cost of maintaining a quarterly average balance is too high or if your parents don't want to operate a new account or the process of depositing money is too time consuming, then you can deposit the money in a friend's account who is based in your hometown.
Alwin Horo, 24, an ITeS professional based in the NCR, tried depositing the money in his parents' account, in Ranchi, from Gurgaon. "I stood in the queue for more than two hours. When my turn came I was told that the time for depositing money in outstation accounts was over," says Horo.
Luckily for Horo he has a Ranchi-based friend who's bank account is connected through core banking. Now, Horo deposits around Rs 6,000 a month in his friend's account for his parents. But do keep in mind that this may increase the friend's tax liability.
Transfer online
Online transfers save you the time and effort of visiting a bank branch to deposit money. At present, around 80 financial institutions offer this facility in India. To transfer funds online, you will need to opt for the net banking facility and register yourself for the third-party funds transfer facility.
Through this facility funds can be transferred instantly. The only condition is that the actual time taken to credit the account depends on the time taken by the payee's bank to process the payment.
Further, you can transfer funds from your account to any other branch that offers the facility. Also, any transfer request made on a non-working day also gets presented to the Reserve Bank of India the very next working day. The best part, however, is that this facility is offered free of cost.
Demand draft
This was the good old way of sending money home. This option will still hold good if the branch with which your parents bank is not covered by core banking and you aren't as lucky as Horo. But there are certain disadvantages of going the DD way.
First is the cost. For example, you will have to pay up to Rs 60 to get a DD made of up to Rs 5,000. Some banks do not charge for this facility if you have an account with them.
Second, you have to send the DD through courier or speed post, which is added cost. Also, once the draft is submitted it takes a minimum of three working days for the funds to be transferred. On top of all this you will lose time standing in queues to get the draft made.
Many banks have a dial-a-draft facility where you can call the bank and they will deliver the draft to you after which you can send it to your parents. This option is more expensive than others and you have to use your credit card to avail this facility.
Instant money order
If you don't have the time to get a DD made or to deposit money in your parents' bank account, do an instant money order (iMO). With iMOs, you can transfer funds instantly to more than 600 post offices across India. You can find the list of the post offices covered at India Post's website www.indiapost.gov.in.
You can transfer Rs 1,000-50,000 from a designated iMO post office. The charges depend on the amount to be transferred. For example, transferring up to Rs 5,000 costs Rs 150 and Rs 300 for amounts between Rs 45,001 and Rs 50,000.
To transfer money you have to fill a "To Remit Payment" (TRP-1) form and submit it with the money. You will get a printed receipt with a computer generated confidential 16-digit iMO number.
Give this number to your parents. Your parents have to give this number at any designated iMO post office counter, fill up and submit a "To Make Payment" (TMP-1) form along with an identification proof.
Payments below Rs 20,000 will be made in cash, and others by cheque. Your parents can also receive the payment in their post office savings account in the same iMO office.
| Mode | Time taken 1 | Cost |
Demand draft | 5-10 days | Depends on the value of the DD 2 |
Deposit in parent's account | Instant | Free |
Dial-a-draft | 7-10 days | Transaction fee of 1% of |
Electronic transfer | Instant | Free |
Instant money order | Instant | Rs 150 - 300 |
Joint | Instant | Min. quarterly balance to be |
1 Time taken for parents to receive the money
New Marriage law for Muslim women in India
The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board has released the "Shariat Nikahnama" that they claim would give equal rights to both Muslim men and women.
If the board has its way, a Muslim woman would be entitled to seek divorce if her husband was found having illicit relationship with another woman.
The board has also rejected any divorce done through SMS, e-mail, phone as video conferencing, besides rejecting divorce done on provocation.
A Muslim woman can seek divorce if she is forced by her husband to indulge in unnatural sex. She can also seek divorce if her husband contracts AIDS.
"We have framed the new nikahnama strictly in accordance with the tenets of Islam, which clearly prohibit any kind of harassment or oppression of a married woman by her husband," said AIMWPLB president Shaista Amber.
Shaista Amber added that at the shariat also entitles a woman to take separation even when the husband refuses to grant a divorce.
"Besides extra-marital relationship, these include absence of physical relationship between the husband and wife for more than a year, abandonment of the wife for more than four years, failure of the husband to look after the wife and family or any kind of ill-treatment or torture," said the model nikahnama.
The new nikahnama has 17-point guidelines for marriage under the Shariat for bride and groom, while eight points on the divorce process.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/New_Marriage_law_for_Muslim_women_in_India_/articleshow/2875129.cms
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Pakistan to get its first woman speaker
Fahmida Mirza is all set to become the first woman speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly. The Pakistan People's Party on Tuesday nominated 51-year-old Mirza, a medical graduate, and Faisal Karim Kundi as its candidates for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker respectively of the Lower House of Parliament. The two candidates are expected to win as the Pakistan People's Party and its allies -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -- have a majority in the National Assembly. If she is elected, Mirza will be the first woman speaker of Pakistan. The deadline for the filing of nomination papers for the two posts ended at noon on Tuesday. Polling for the posts will be held through secret ballot at 11 am on Wednesday and the new speaker will take charge as custodian of the House the same day. The nominations were made by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari very late on Monday night following weeks of consultations with the party's MPs and its allies. Mirza comes from a political family of Sindh province. She is the wife of Zulfiqar Mirza, a member of the Sindh provincial assembly and a close aide of Zardari. She won in the February 18 polls from the coastal district of Badin. Kundi, who was elected to the National Assembly for the first time, is a youngster who was personally groomed by slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto [Images]. He defeated Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the polls in the latter's traditional stronghold of Dera Ismail Khan. The PPP, which emerged as the largest group with 120 seats in the 342-member House, is set to form government with its coalition partners. According to an agreement signed by the PPP and PML-N, the candidates for prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker will be from the PPP. But the PPP has not yet resolved its differences over the nomination of a candidate for premiership. PPP vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a front-runner for the premiership, was sidelined by Zardari following reports that he had secretly met President Pervez Musharraf [Images] and members of the military establishment. A majority of MPs have suggested that Zardari should become prime minister after contesting by-elections. After meeting Zardari late on Monday night, Fahim said he too had proposed that PPP co-chairman should become prime minister. There was no word from the party on Zardari's reaction to Fahim's proposal. Senior PPP leader Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah has said that the nominee for premiership will be announced by March 20. "The future prime minister will be announced by March 20. There are four to five candidates for the top slot and the final decision will be taken after consulting our coalition partners," he said. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/18pakpoll.htm
7 Tips zur Anmache
1. Wie komm’ ich nur an ihn ran?
7 Tips zur “Anmache” - und dir fallen bestimmt noch mehr ein:
1. Lächle, zwinkre, lache ihm zu - Augenkontakt bringt's!
2. Geh mit ihm Eis essen.
3. Organisier 'ne Fete, lad ihn ein, oder nimm ihn zu einer mit.
4. Zeig ihm auf jeden Fall, dass du dich freust, wenn er auf dich zukommt - nicht übertreiben, aber deutlich.
5. Sag ihm, dass du mit ihm tanzen gehen möchtest.
6. Lass dir was einfallen: Mach Ballons an sein Fahrrad, oder schick ihm 'ne Rose, ohne dass er genau weiß, wo's herkommt - ahnen reicht.
Es gibt viele verschiedene Möglichkeiten, Kontakt aufzunehmen. Jede hat ihre eigene Art, sonst wäre es ja auch langweilig.
Mädchen sind oft zurückhaltender als Jungen. Wartest du auch lieber, dass er auf dich zukommt? So kann man sich zwar keinen Korb holen, aber:
Was ist, wenn du wartest und wartest und wartest...., bis die Chance vielleicht vertan ist? Wenn du es schaffst, von dir aus auf einen Jungen zuzugehen, hast du den großen Vorteil, dass du dir aussuchen kannst, wen du kennenlernen möchtest, und es kann schön sein, aktiv was dafür zu tun. Ob ein Junge das nicht auch mal gut findet, "angemacht" zu werden und nicht immer der Aktive sein zu müssen?! Natürlich gibt's Zeiten, da hat man keinen Bock, aktiv zu sein und findet Warten einfach angenehmer.
Übrigens: Vielen Menschen fällt es nicht ganz leicht, Kontakt zu machen, denn es spielt die Angst mit, abgelehnt zu werden. Gerade von denen, die uns besonders wichtig sind.
2. Wie komm' ich nur an sie ran?
Stell dir vor, du siehst sie (zum ersten Mal oder vielleicht ständig in deiner Klasse, im Bus, beim Sport oder sonst wo). Dein Herz fängt an zu klopfen, die Hände werden feucht, du hast natürlich gerade mal wieder nicht die beste Meinung von deiner eigenen Erscheinung, überlegst dir wilde Einleitungen, um sie anzusprechen.
Bemerkt sie dich überhaupt??!
"Hey, du?" klingt nicht gerade originell. Aber was sonst? Während du dir all das überlegst und versuchst, noch möglichst cool zu gucken, redet sie längst höchst interessiert mit einem anderen ...
Von Jungen erwarten die meisten Mädchen immer noch, dass sie den ersten Schritt tun. Das ist wahnsinnig schwierig, denn es besteht ja das Risiko, abgewiesen zu werden und sich zu blamieren. So eine Ablehnung tut weh und drängt nicht gerade nach Wiederholung. Wenn du Angst hast rot zu werden, dann ist es eben so! Du wirst sehen, Mut zu mehr Gefühl und Offenheit führen auch zum Erfolg.
Überleg dir, was zu dir passt. Was bist du für ein Typ? Eher ein Draufgänger oder eher ein Zurückhaltender? Du kannst in verschiedene Rollen schlüpfen und mal ausprobieren, was du besonders gut kannst. Warum sollte man den anderen Menschen nicht zeigen, dass man sie gerne kennenlernen möchte. Denk mal daran, wie gut es dir tut, so etwas zu hören!!
Es hilft wenig, irgendwas nachzuspielen, was du im Kino gesehen hast und was gar nicht zu dir passt. Menschen sind verschieden: Was zu dem einen gut passt, ist für den anderen noch lange nichts.
Wenn Mädchen den ersten Schritt tun, wollen sie selber aussuchen, statt ausgesucht zu werden. Sie sind aktiv. Für Jungen ist das ungewöhnlich, aber doch meist irgendwie toll und entlastend: Echt stark!
Aber wo kann man überhaupt jemanden treffen? In der Klasse sind Mädchen und Jungen zwar gemeinsam, die jeweiligen Freizeitaktivitäten laufen jedoch meistens getrennt ab. Die meisten Mädchen sind den Jungen in ihrer Entwicklung um etwa zwei Jahre voraus und finden etwas ältere Jungen interessanter.
Gut für Kontakte sind gemeinsam organisierte Feten. Ihr könnt für schummrige Beleuchtung und Super-Musik sorgen, Körperkontakt ergibt sich beim Tanzen!
Auch in Jugendgruppen kann man Leute kennenlernen. So mancher geht zum Beispiel zu den Pfadfindern, um eine Freundin oder einen Freund zu finden! Man hat gemeinsame Interessen, Diskussionen, oder auch etwas vorzubereiten und zu organisieren. Hör dich doch mal in Deinem Ort um. Es gibt mit Sicherheit irgendeine Gruppe, in der du mitmachen kannst!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wer wagt, kann verlieren....
...oder gewinnen, und dann kann es ganz toll sein..."
http://www.sexundso.de/anmache.htm
Monday, March 17, 2008
Cities to Host Half of Humans by End of 2008
Cities to Host Half of Humans by End of 2008
The Japanese capital is the world's largest and most densely populated city
In many wealthy Western nations, like the United States, up to 70 percent of people live in metropolitan areas
Beijing, China
China is the world's most populous nation and is currently experiencing a rapid social transition.
Shanghai, China
Farmland has been swallowed by skyscrapers and ribbons of freeway unravel across the horizon as Shanghai's frenzied building boom continues
New Delhi, India
In New Delhi, one of two Indian megacities, 95 percent of the metropolis has no system of formal garbage collection and relies instead on ragpickers
Mumbai (Bombay), India
Dharavi is a one-square-mile (three-square-kilometer) slum in the heart of bustling Mumbai, India's other megacity
Cairo, Egypt
People have lived in Cairo for some 6,000 years, but explosive growth is relatively modern
Lagos, Nigeria
The city's population is expected to reach 18 million in the next two years
Indian students spend $13 bn on education abroad: ASSOCHAM
Over 90 per cent of students appearing for IIT and IIM entrance examinations are rejected due to capacity constraints, of which the top 40 per cent pay to get admission abroad.
"Over 150,000 students every year go overseas for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion. This amount is sufficient to build more IIMs and IITs," it said.
The primary reason for a large number of Indian students seeking professional education abroad is lack of capacity in Indian institutions. The trend can be reversed by opening series of quality institutes with public-private partnership by completely deregulating higher education, ASSOCHAM President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.
Higher education in India is subsidised as an IIT student pays an average 120 dollar monthly fee, while students opting for education in institutions in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and UK shell out 1,500-5,000 dollars as fees every month.
Deregulation of higher education in the country will result in creating annual revenues of $50-100 billion, besides providing 10-20 million additional jobs in the field of education alone, the chamber said. India has only 27,000 foreign students, as compared to four lakh in Australia.
ASSOCHAM further said vocational education in India is a meagre five per cent of its total employed workforce of 459.10 million as against 95 per cent in South Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 70 per cent in Germany.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Indian_students_spend_13_bn_on_education_abroad/rssarticleshow/2874645.cms
Netherlands Bans Sex with Animals
The ban was two years in the making, but the Dutch parliament has finally decided to outlaw bestiality and animal pornography.
REUTERS
A still of a man hugging a horse taken from the film "Zoo," a documentary about beastiality, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film.
By passing the ban, the Netherlands joins the ranks of 80 countries where animal pornography is explicity forbidden, Harm Evert Waalkens, the member of parliament who proposed the law, told the Associated Press. "The Netherlands has been a magnet for perversities -- and we want to stop that," Waalkens said, adding that pornographers had lobbied fiercely against a ban.
The Party for the Animals, however, which has two members of parliament, wanted the ban to be more wide-ranging. The party's Esther Ouwehand called for the castration of pigs and the artifical insemination of cows to also be outlawed, too.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,541437,00.html
India to be among top 5 markets: Coke
Betting big on India's potential to emerge as its top five markets in the world, Cola giant Coca Cola on Monday committed to more 'incremental' investment on top of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), it is pumping in the next three years. "We are bullish on India. It is a matter of stimulation... as the growth comes, you have to put in incremental investments," E Neville Isdell Chairman and CEO of US-based multinational Coke told PTI. "We are investing $ 250 million (Rs 1,000 crore)... this will not be the last. More investments will come," Isdell, who is visiting India as part of pushing business in tandem with a pleasure trip, said. Dubbing Coca Cola (India) as a 'profitable' venture that is adding to the balance sheet of the global giant, the CEO said, "We have arrived in India. But we have not arrived to the level where we want to." "It is a question of long-term commitment. India figures in the global growth strategy of Coke. We are going to make it among the top 10 countries for Coke and then later among the top five," he said, but did not give any time frame on whether the first milestone would be achieved in five years or less. Stating that India is currently at number 17 in the list of countries where Coke is present, Isdell said the country had emerged among the best markets for the company during the year 2007. Recounting the tough time Coke faced in India owing to the pesticide controversy, Isdell said the company had learnt its lesson from the fact that despite it not doing anything wrong, the perception was contrary. "...It (pesticide) was not correct. But the perception took the form of reality and it was our credibility that took us out of it. We are doing well but we have to align with the society," he said. Asked about the acceptability of Coke in India and if it was getting hurt by a spate of controversies ranging from pesticide to water depletion being caused by the cola giant, Coke's worldwide CEO said, "We re-entered India in 1993 and had not become integral part of the society (at that time)." Listing out various corporate social responsibilities activities initiated by it since then as part of making itself more acceptable in India, Isdell said that though Coke was water-neutral and ground water usage was 'zero degree', the company was taking a series of measures including providing rain harvesting and other water-related facilities. Having visited one such facility in Gujarat on Sunday where Coca Cola (India) has created a big over-head water tank for the villagers, Isdell said the resistance that it faced was 'nothing new' in India. The company had faced major problems in France and Japan in fifties and both the countries are now major markets for Coke. Isdell, who is likely to meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram during his visit, said the company was not affected by the appreciation of rupee. "We are a local brand, not importer," he said but listed inflation, which is ruling over five per cent now as an area of concern but the government is addressing the issue. Asked about the impact of the financial crisis and recessionary pressures in the US, Isdell said "we will be affected but not as much as others. We are better placed than any other company." "80 per cent of our business comes from non-US countries. We have been named among the top 10 US brands in 2007," he said adding the company's growth would be global, even as there could be some impact in Mexico. Listing India as a major growth story for the MNC, the company said that Coca Cola (India) had posted profits for the last six straight quarters and the outlook is also good. Although he declined to give financial details of Indian operations, Isdell said he is quite enthusiastic about the prospects and said the strategy would include introducing more products in the domestic market. India was also being assessed as a hub for global sourcing for one or two items for the worldwide operations but parried the queries on details. So much so, that he demonstrated his confidence about the success here saying "our race to make India among top 10 markets is on." http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/17coke.htm
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Now add friends from Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and more in Orkut
Orkut just added another feature to make it more famous. Now they are allowing you to add friends from your yahoo, hotmail and AOL in the orkut. All you need is to select the email provider, give username password there which you use in it and voila, you can invite / add friends from other service provider also.
So Enjoy for one more reason to be on orkut.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Bollywood's Sexiest Scenes
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Here's your steamy top ten:
1. Anil Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia in Jaanbaaz
Well, these two were certainly not looking for a needle in that haystack! Anil and Dimple got it on with extreme, primal passion in a scene that remains a Bollywood inspiration. Wow.
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Bollywood's hottest siren and the liplock-addicted lad fogged up the camera lens with their on-screen antics in this film, set to Kunal Ganjawalla's distinctively sung Bheege Hont Tere.
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Dixit was barely 20 when this film came out in 1988, and while it was many years before her bosom-heaving dhak-dhak days, the actress was sizzling in intimate scenes with Khanna, 18 years her senior.
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Sridevi was at her absolute sexiest as Shekhar Kapur sensually shot the Kaante nahin kat te song in the superhero film, a song where Sri virtually makes love to the camera. Incredible stuff.
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The film -- and the actress -- might have been completely forgettable, but this duo pushed the limits of censorship with a body-baring song that showed Bollywood was growing up to sex at its most realistic.
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Arguably a film best known for Dimple briefly showing off her assets, she and longtime on-screen lover Rishi had quite a bit of fun with a few raunchy scenes.
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It was a liplock that, despite the controversy it kicked up, was pretty tame. Yet Sanjay Gadhvi's rain-framed kiss was memorable for a million reasons -- including scandalous rumours about Ash, then engaged to now husband Abhishek Bachchan.
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A forgettable actress who gained notoriety by posing topless for a magazine cover, Kulkarni never shied away from the heat. In this film she was particularly well complimented by the always-amorous Akshay.
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Neither star was as big -- or were half as attractive -- as they are today, but that Aye Mere Humsafar song set temperatures rising with Shetty draped over Khan, cleavage almost constantly on display.
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While Akshay had both the lissome Raveena Tandon -- and fights with wrestling star The Undertaker -- to look forward to in this enjoyable ego-trip film, things really got hot with Madame Re as the duo mudwrestled with extreme abandon. Whoa.
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/mar/13sli1.htm
Interesting "tricks of the body" to learn
| Interesting "tricks of the body" to learn |
| 1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear. When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, but you're more discriminating. Take that tickle in your throat; it's not worth gagging over. Here's a better way to scratch your itch: "When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm," says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. "This spasm relieves the tickle." 2. Experience supersonic hearing! If you're stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It's better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you're trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones. 3. Overcome your most primal urge! Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about Jessica Simpson. Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won't feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. For best results, try Simpson's "These Boots Are Made for Walking" video. 4. Feel no pain! German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord. 5. Clear your stuffed nose! Forget Sudafed. An easier, quicker, and cheaper way to relieve sinus pressure is by alternately thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you'll feel your sinuses start to drain. 6. Fight fire without water! Worried those wings will repeat on you tonight? "Sleep on your left side," says Anthony A. Star-poli, M.D., a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you're on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity's in your favor. 7. Cure your toothache without opening your mouth! Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands. 8. Make burns disappear! When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand. Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the natural method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is less likely to blister. 9. Stop the world from spinning! One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance—the cupula—floats in a fluid of the same density as blood. "As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises," says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional foot-on-the-floor wisdom. 10. Unstitch your side! If you're like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground. 11. Stanch blood with a single finger! Pinching your nose and leaning back is a great way to stop a nosebleed—if you don't mind choking on your own O positive. A more civil approach: Put some cotton on your upper gums—just behind that small dent below your nose—and press against it, hard. "Most bleeds come from the front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose," says Peter Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in Durban, South Africa. "Pressing here helps stop them." 12. Make your heart stand still! Trying to quell first-date jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical-services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It'll get your heart rate back to normal. 13. Thaw your brain! Too much Chipwich too fast will freeze the brains of lesser men. As for you, press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much as you can. "Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too," says Abo. "In compensating, it overheats, causing an ice-cream headache." The more pressure you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside. 14. Prevent near-sightedness! Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. "It's usually caused by near-point stress." In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles—like the eyes—into relaxing as well. 15. Wake the dead! If your hand falls asleep while you're driving or sitting in an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It'll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck; loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in the body govern the feet, so don't let your sleeping dogs lie. Stand up and walk around. 16. Impress your friends! Next time you're at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He'll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that's a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will fold like a house of cards. By misaligning his hips, you've offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body's ability to resist. 17. Breathe underwater! If you're dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first—essentially, hyperventilate. When you're underwater, it's not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it's the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin' ain't right. "When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity," says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. "This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen." It'll buy you up to 10 seconds. 18. Read minds! Your own! "If you're giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep," says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as long-term memory. |
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
9 Cool Ways to Overcome Laziness
Laziness = lack of desire = no productivity. Laziness is a perfectly natural thing. For some reason if we weren’t had to do offices, meet deadlines, we could have dozed the whole day, watch TV or just do nothing.
Laziness is the lack of desire to perform work or expend effort. What behavior is considered laziness varies according to personal and societal standards.
1. Have a good rest.
If we don’t get enough rest we could easily feel lazy. Don’t waste your time with those late night shows, hurry up to bed and have a good rest. During daytime you can take a nap for say half an hour or 20 minutes, enough to get back some lost energy.
2. Exercise.
Exercise is a great way to boost your energy levels and put you in a better mood. Its very easy for people to fall into the laziness trap if they feel low of energy. Make sure you have a workout in the morning every day, it will keep you fresh and active for most part of the day.
3. Motivation.
Its is very easy to forget the purpose of your work. Remind yourself why is your work so important, think for your satisfaction, family, money and so so. What if something happens to
me , family if I don’t start with my work? Think about the consequences.
4. Remove the distractions.
Laziness attracts distractions. Kids like watching TV while talking, yep we bloggers tend to browse others blogs when we are supposed to write on our own. If you remove those distractions, for example unplugging the Internet, lockup the TV, you’ll notice in couple of days how laziness is gradually leaving your life.
5. Reward yourself!
Reward yourself! You need to reward yourself for completing each task, in order to feel good about having stressed yourself in order to get the job done. Reward yourself to eat your favorite meal or watch movie if you complete the tasks.
6. Healthy diet.
Make sure you’re on a healthy diet ; junk or fast food doesn’t give your body the nutrients it needs to be active. You’ll only become fat and lazier if you don’t stop those chips, frys, pizzas etc. Fruit juices are great way to supplement your body with nutrients while working.
7. Divide the task into smaller chunks.
If the task at hand is big it can easily overwhelm anyone. In such cases, divide the task into smaller chunks, and go through them one by one. Remember, you can’t gobble an apple at one go, its much easier to eat if you take it bit by bit.
8. Set goals for yourself.
If you have goals set up for yourself, you have something to look forward to, it maybe your paycheck, a car etc. Create list of large and small things and prioritize. Its lot easier to overcome laziness if you have purpose in life.
9. Don’t stop.
Its easy enough to get lazy after completing task. Don’ t let your brain talk you into lazying. Once you have completed a task move over to the next one but make sure you reward yourself with something for accomplishing the latter task. If you really don’t have any work, head over to the gym, start jogging, help your kids with the homework, do anything to keep your hands and feet’s moving but say no to TV, internet, etc.
Source: The World Wide Web! -
Tata's Next Move: A WiMax Breakthrough in India
Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become a global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network.
AFP
The Tata logo on a car in Mumbai, India.
Already 10 Indian cities and 5,000 retail and business customers use the product, and by next year Tata will offer service in 115 cities nationwide. The folks at Tata can hardly contain their excitement. "WiMax is not experimental, it's oven-hot," says Tata's Prateek Pashine, in charge of the company's broadband and retail business.
Of course WiMax is not new. Most everyone in the industry has been talking about it for years. Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has been propagating its virtues in pilot projects across the world, including India and Africa.
Powered by Intel Chips
Sprint will be rolling out a WiMax network in Washington next month, and in other US cities next year. Until now the most advanced use of WiMax has been in Japan and Korea, where Japanese carrier KDDI and Korea Telecom offer extensive WiMax networks. However the Japanese and Korean services are not available nationwide -- KDDI will have its major rollout only in 2009 -- and most people use them as supplements to the wired services.
It's in emerging economies like India, where there is little connectivity and where mobile usage is soaring because of the difficulty in getting broadband wires to homes and offices, that WiMax is likely to see its full potential as a commercially viable technology. Intel, whose silicon chips power WiMax, has been pushing for this technology for some years and its executives are practically salivating at the thought of the successful rollout in India. "The more countries and telcos that get behind this technology the better," says R. Sivakumar, chief executive of Intel South Asia. Predicting that the new technology will make other types of Internet access obsolete, he boasts "Tata will set the cat among the pigeons."
Tata Communications has been working on setting this up for a couple of years, and successfully completed field trials last December. It has used the technology from Telsima, a Sunnyvale, California maker of WiMax base-stations and the leading WiMax tech provider in the world. For now, the technology will be restricted to fixed wireless, but Tata plans to make it mobile by midyear. The company has invested about $100 million in the project (€64 million), which will increase to $500 million over the next four years as it begins to near its goal of having 50 million subscribers in India.
Global tech analysts are will be watching carefully. Though WiMax is prevalent in Korea, the Korean service is a slightly different version, says Bertrand Bidaud, a communications analyst with Gartner in Singapore. It's a Korea-specific pre-WiMax technology called WiBRO.
But the Indian market is where the conditions for a WiMax deployment are the best, he says, because of limited fixed lines. That means Tata has fewer hurdles to overcome. And as WiMax scales up fast, it will give service providers greater flexibility and costs will drop equally rapidly. "If it doesn't succeed in India, it will be difficult [for it to succeed] anywhere else, and Bharti, Tata has been virtually asleep, with a limited subscriber base for its limited product. In fact, even with as many as seven broadband providers in the market, the total Indian subscriber base is just 3.2 million and there is no clear market leader. But with the WiMax rollout Tata can gain a leadership position and add "a few thousand subscribers a day," says Alok Sharma, chief executive of Telsima. Tata is, of course, going for the heavy-billing corporate customer -- a target audience that is beginning to make big investments in technology.
Temple Service via WiMax
But also important is the ordinary Indian retail customer who can watch movies via WiMax and enjoy Tata's other unique offerings. For instance, users can take in an early morning worship service at the famous Balaji temple in South India. The temple permitted Tata to install cameras so that Hindu devotees from around the world could watch the proceedings in the temple around the clock. To get connected initially, users will simply have to go to a store, buy a router, install it, and then they become instantly connected. It will be as easy as buying apples, Tata executives promise.
The Tata rollout is a chance for India to become cutting-edge in mobile Internet services, say WiMax boosters. For India, which "always used last year's fashion to dress itself up," says Sharma, it is a chance to launch a brand new. fourth-generation technology that the world can follow. "India is becoming the knowledge center of the world; it should take the lead in this," he adds.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,541215,00.html10 Tips For Improving Your Appointment Setting Skills
No matter what business you’re in, the odds are that you spend at least some time in appointments. Your appointments may be big group meetings, one-on-ones, or even job interviews. You may even be skipping the face-to-face aspect of meeting and be taking conference calls or using Skype. No matter what type of meeting you’ve scheduled, though, these tips can help you improve your appointment setting skills.
- Set agendas ahead of time. Knowing what you plan to accomplish in a meeting can help you decide how long to plan to stay at that appointment — assuming you can keep to your agenda. It can be hard to get other people to stay on track, but no one really wants to spend all day in a single appointment. Furthermore, completing an agreed upon agenda is really the only way to be sure when your meeting is over.
- Offer time and date options for appointments. Rather than going through a lengthy back and forth, either on the phone or via email, pick two or three appointment times that work for you and present them to the other half of your appointment. If you’re dealing with a larger group, it’s almost guaranteed that at least one option won’t work for someone, and having multiple options is a much faster way to reach consensus.
- Avoid fancy software applications. While there is some very snazzy appointment setting software out there, try to avoid using anything out of the ordinary. The exception to this rule is parties or very large meetings. In general, using these applications take more time than they’re worth — there’s a learning curve for new users, and having to visit a site to respond can take double the time of replying to an email. However, when you’re trying to coordinate large groups of people, using an application can provide a central location rather than sending out huge batches of emails.
- Make sure you really need a meeting. Plenty of appointments are set for simple things like handing over a document for approval. Unless that document is short enough to be completely examined during the meeting, it might be more worthwhile to drop off the document and come back later to answer questions and handle the approval process. Before actually setting your appointment, think about whether the matter could be handled in a faster way.
- Minimize travel time. One of the reasons that appointments eat up so much time in our calendars is the necessity of travel. We have to travel to clients’ offices, coffee shops or wherever the heck we’re meeting. We can minimize that commitment by suggesting that we meet at our own locations, meet halfway, or skip meeting in person altogether. Options like telephone calls or video conferencing can often handle all the requirements of that appointment you were going to drive across town for.
- Schedule time for both preparation and debriefing. When you set your appointment, think about what you might need to do to prepare for it — review a report, prepare a presentation or iron your shirt — and schedule time for each of those activities before your actual appointment. It’s also worthwhile to schedule a fifteen-minute prep session just before your appointment for any last minute details. Same goes for afterwards: you may have certain follow-up tasks to handle after your meeting. Scheduling at least a few minutes after an appointment guarantees that you’ll have time to make sure your notes are complete and any sort of further action at least makes it on to your calendar (if you can’t do it then).
- Separate personal and business appointments. Many of us try to load all of our out-of-the-office appointments into one day. Ignoring the problem of what happens if just one runs late, you’ve got the issue of trying to switch gears between the presentation you just gave to a client and the shot the doctor’s waiting to give you. That sort of mental switch up can only make it harder to handle your later appointments. Try to schedule your personal and business appointments on different days.
- Keep your appointment schedulers up to date. If you aren’t the only person scheduling your appointments, it’s vital to keep the others in the loop. Otherwise, your significant other might be expecting you at a family dinner at the same time you’re finishing up a major project. I like shared calendars, such as Google Calendar for that very reason, but there are ways to share just about every type of calendar, if you’re reliant on your own system. Appointment schedulers can include your manager, your significant other, an administrative assistant (yours or the departments) and a whole host of other people.
- Limit invitees. You may not need the whole company present for a progress report. Instead, decide who actually needs to be in on your appointment — you can always send out a mass email later on if people feel left out. I’ve been in situations before where higher ups felt left out if you didn’t bring them in on every single appointment you were setting up. The best bet seems to be presenting the meeting as something that wouldn’t be a valuable use of their time.
- Confirm everything! Confirm when and where the meeting is, what the agenda covers, even how to get there. All you really need is a brief email a day or two before the appointment that outlines the appointment and ask for a simple yes in response if everything is correct.
Indian billionaires = nearly one-third of Indias GDP.
In comparison to America and China, India’s GDP might be small, but the wealth amassed by Indian billionaires - estimated at 340.9 billion dollars by the US business magazine Forbes - is nearly 31 per cent of the country’s total GDP. This gives the billionaires nearly three times more weight in the economy than their American counterparts and over ten times of those in China. The net worth of all the Chinese billionaires is just about three per cent of the country’s GDP, while that for the US billionaires is nearly 11 per cent.
According to latest data available with International Monetary Fund (IMF), the GDP size of India, China and the US for 2007 are estimated at 1,089.9 billion dollars, 3,248 billion dollars and 13,794 billion dollars respectively. Forbes said there are a total 42 billionaires in China and 469 in the US with a combined net worth of 95 billion dollars and 1.6 trillion dollars, respectively. The magazine put the number of Indian billionaires at 53.
The GDP share of Indian billionaires’ wealth is more than four times of the global average also. Forbes magazine put the combined wealth of all 1,125 billionaires in the world at 4.4 trillion dollars, which is just about seven per cent of the world’s total GDP size.
http://www.2point6billion.com/2008/03/11/indian-billionaires-nearly-one-third-of-indias-gdp/
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
NSE among world's top ten F&O bourses
Growing interest of investors beyond the equities has catapulted the National Stock Exchange of India to a list of the world's ten largest derivative bourses, with its trading volume clocking the fastest growth in the league.
According to an annual report on global trading volumes released by Washington-based trade group Future Industry Association (FIA), NSE has moved up six places to become the ninth largest derivative exchange in the world.
Besides, two other bourses from India, MCX and NCDEX have retained their places in the top 50 - MCX retained its 28th position while NCDEX slipped five places to 30th in the rankings based on trading volume for the year 2007.
In addition, about a dozen F&O contracts being traded on NSE, MCX or NCDEX have also made it to the top 20 rankings in the individual categories.
NSE has also emerged as the fastest-growing bourse among the world's ten largest derivative exchanges as its total traded volumes nearly doubled in 2007.
According to FIA, NSE registered a growth of 95.32 per cent in its F&O volume in 2007 to close to 380 million as against about 194 million in 2006.
Following the merger of Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group has become the largest F&O exchange, pushing Korea Exchange to the second spot. CME and Korea Exchange saw 2.8 billion and 2.7 billion contracts respectively changing hands during the year.
The two were followed by Eurex, Liffe, CBOT, ISE, Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros of Brazil, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, NSE and Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo in top ten. FIA said more than 15 billion F&O contracts changed hands during 2007 globally, representing a 28 per cent growth.
MCX recorded a growth of 51.1 per cent to about 69 million F&O contracts in 2007, while that of NCDEX dropped 34.4 per cent to 35 million contracts.
Among the 54 exchanges reporting volumes to FIA, the fastest growth of 881 per cent was recorded by Chicago Climate Exchange to 283,758 contracts, followed by over 200 per cent growth at Turkish Derivatives Exchange and JSE South Africa.
FIA said this market was no longer concentrated in North American and European centers. China, though still largely closed to foreign participants, has become a huge force in agricultural and metals futures trading, while NSE continues to move up the top exchange list, it noted.
Among the top 50 Exchange-traded derivative contracts, NSE's Nifty Futures was ranked 19th with 138.8 million contracts, which grew 97.5 per cent in the year. Nifty Options contract was ranked at 36th position with total volume of 52.7 million contracts, marking an 181.8 per cent growth.
Among the top 20 equity index F&O worldwide, Nifty Futures was ranked at ninth position, while Nifty Options was at 15th place in terms of number of contracts traded.
Besides, MCX's Crude Oil Futures was ranked at 11th place in the top 20 energy F&O contracts. It registered a 212 per cent growth in 2007 with a total volume of 13.9 million.
MCX's Copper and Silver Futures contracts were ranked sixth and ninth among top 20 metal F&O contracts worldwide, while Gold, Silver M and Zinc Futures contracts at the same bourse were ranked at 12th, 14th and 20th positions.
In another list of top 20 Agricultural F&O contracts, NCDEX's Pepper Futures was ranked at the 18th position. Prior to its six-place jump in 2007, NSE had slipped one position in the overall F&O league table to 15th in 2006, from 16th in 2005, according to FIA.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/NSE-among-worlds-top-ten-FampO-bourses/283535/#
Researchers? Only 156 per million in India
India lags behind China in spending on research and development work as well as number of scientific researchers, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, he said the number of core researchers in India was about 1.5 lakh as compared to China's 8-10 lakh. Number of persons doing research and development in Scandinavian countries is 7,000 per million of population and 4,700 per million of population in US. In India, there are 156 researchers per million of population. "This is a very big issue," he said. R&D spending as percentage of GDP in India is only 0.8 per cent as compared to China's 1.23. Developed countries have R&D expenditure of upto 3 per cent of GDP. Of the 0.8 per cent expenditure in India, 80 per cent is by public sector, while the private sector share is only 20 per cent. In China and US, the public sector share is only 30 per cent each, while in Japan it is only 18 per cent. Private sector component in R&D will have to increase, he said adding the Government had given a slew of tax incentives on R&D spend in sectors like pharma and electronics. Sibal said to increase number of researchers in the country, university system will have to be strengthened by expanding and upgrading infrastructure as presently R&D quality in university is negligible. The XIth Plan allocations for Scientific Departments including Departments of Science and Technology and Atomic Energy, has been increased three folds to Rs 75,304 crore during the XIth Plan (2007-2012) as compared to Rs 25,301.35 crore of Xth Plan Period, he said. http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/12rnd.htm
7 Things Happy People Have In Common
Ever notice how some people just seem to be able to be content and bounce back no matter what the circumstances? Research shows that this isn't a gift or a talent - it's, a skill that they have developed. Surprised? Well, the real surprise is that you too can put to work their techniques and make your life happier too.
1. Happy people cooperate with life.
Each person has a destiny to fulfill. You can fight it or cooperate with it. Does that mean you just lay back and let life happen? No. But you can adopt the attitude that you will play the cards you are dealt the very best you can. When you begin to cooperate with life, you will notice new ways in which you are motivated. Life wants you to realize your destiny. Wouldn't you rather cooperate than battle with life?
2. Happy people don't just think positive, they act positive.
Thinking positive definitely has its place, and you'll need to change your thoughts to ever be truly happy. But don't wait on the feelings to come. You have direct control over how you act and what you think (feelings and physiology are indirectly affected). If you want to be a happier person, act happier. If you want to be a more compassionate person, act more compassionate. If you want to be a friendlier person, act friendlier. The feelings will follow.
3. Happy people ask for what they need.
Good things don't generally just fall out of the sky. Complaining gets you nothing, except to attract you to other complainers. If you believe that "you reap what you sow", then asking for what you want makes much more sense than sowing complaints. It's your choice-- you can choose to point fingers and assign blame, and still end up with nothing. Or you can simply ask.
4. Happy people are willing to change.
It's contrary to all laws of nature for things to stand still. If you try to make that happen, you'll always be disappointed. If you let fear of change stop you, you are in essence *agreeing* to not having what you want. You can believe that change will harm you and resist it. Or you can embrace it and believe that it will help you. It all depends on what you decide to believe.
5. Happy people don't allow themselves to be defeated.
A failure or set back does not mean that the goal will never be yours, nor is it evidence that you should quit. It simply means that you need more practice, more experience. Be willing to make mistakes. Don't give up. Don't allow one slipup, or setback from the outside, influence you to erase all the progress you've made. Feel the joy of the finish line!
6. Happy people live in the present.
If you are alert to the present, and anticipating the future, you are better able to take advantage of opportunities. If you are brooding over the past, you'll be blinded to present possibilities, and lose the advantage for future prospects. A happy life is the product of living a great present. And a well lived present is a guarantee of a wonderful future. You can only affect your future by what you do today.
7. Happy people plan ahead.
Happy people know that they must exercise mastery in their lives, show control in their life in order to guard against feelings of being helpless and victims. Planning is essential to getting things done. Planning is essential to making sure you are spending time on your priorities, and not just the next thing that gets your attention. Plan for what's important to you, and choose to spend your limited time, money, energy, and resources on it.
Credit : Kathy Gates
The Top job sectors in India
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The hottest job sectors in India
Looking for a job? Well, this is the best time to be in India. India will see over 1 million new jobs this year said the Ma Foi Employment Trends Survey.
Ma Foi, one of India's largest HR consultancy firms, has predicted a 3 per cent increase in employment in 2008. Education, health and hospitality sectors will see a major jobs boom this year. These sectors are likely to replace the IT sector as the largest job creator in India. The health sector shows the highest growth in recruitment at 8.9 per cent followed by IT at 7.3 per cent, ITeS at 7.2 per cent and hospitality at 6.9 per cent.
About 426,668 jobs are going to be generated by the hospitality sector. This sector is closely followed by health at 295,829 and education training and consultancy at 166,005.
When it comes to salary hikes, energy generation and supply sector will experience the highest average salary increase of 16.8 per cent. Other booming sectors in terms of average salary increase are information technology, real estate and construction, trade and hospitality. |
India has emerged as the second most optimistic nation in the world in terms of employment outlook, with 36 per cent of employers having positive hiring plans for the April-June quarter this year.
Indian employers are the second most optimistic in the world, next only to Singapore. India shares the second place with Peru and Romania, says the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
In the Asia Pacific region, employers in Singapore are the most optimistic with a net employment outlook of 60 per cent, followed by India (36 per cent), while employers in China reported the weakest hiring forecast in the region, for the third consecutive quarter.
Employers in Costa Rica, Argentina, Poland, Hong Kong, Australia, Greece and South Africa also have favourable second quarter hiring plans.
Spain and Italy report the weakest job prospects in the next three months. The survey said that employers in all four regions in India are positive about their hiring intentions.
The southern region is likely to witness the most robust hiring pace (39 per cent), employers in the North anticipate brisk hiring activity with a net employment outlook of (36 per cent).
In case of the Western region, the employment outlook is 35 per cent and for the Eastern region, it is 26 per cent.
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The boom in the tourism industry has been a boon for the hospitality sector.
The hospitality sector will see the largest addition of 430,000 jobs, from 6.16 million in 2007 to 6.59 million in 2008.
"Tourism has a cascading effect on the hospitality sector, which was a result of the increase in the occupancy ratios and average room rates. With the demand continuing to surge, many global hospitality majors have evinced a keen interest in the Indian hospitality sector," said K Pandia Rajan, managing director, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd.
It adds that an estimated $11.41 billion is expected to be seen in the hospitality sector in the next two years and that India is likely to have around 40 international hotel brands by 2011.
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The healthcare sector will offer job opportunities to 290,000 more people, from 3.32 million in 2007 to 3.61 million in 2008. The Indian health services sector is estimated to be around Rs 75,000 crore (Rs 750 billion) and is estimated to grow by 170 per cent by 2012.
Going ahead, the demand for healthcare will rise, creating more employment in this sector.
Does experience matter? Yes! Experienced workers are hired more than freshers, who constitute a little more than a quarter of the newly hired.
But there are some good news for freshers, too. Sectors where the demand for freshers is above 30 per cent include hospitality, energy generation & supply sector, ITeS and mining and extraction. Real estate and construction stands out as the sector in which more than 75 per cent of the recruitments are of experienced professionals.
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The education sector, including training and consultancy, is expected to add 166,000 employees.
In 2007, the sector had employed 10.2 million people, which could go up to 10.4 million people this year.
Companies in the production and service sectors have facing a talent crunch. Hiring more people is thus essential for companies which have initiated partnerships with private and public institutes to build up relevant skills and training.
Other hot job sectors include: IT and ITES which will add 74,693 and 56,221 jobs, respectively. Banking/finance/insurance will add 7,600 jobs; energy generation & supply will add 15,197 jobs, real estate & construction will see 47,401 new jobs being created, and manufacturing which will see over 40,000 new employees |
India's largest job provider so far, IT and ITeS sector will see a fall in hiring this year. Rupee appreciation, the US slowdown and cost cutting measures initiated by the IT companies brings bad news for IT sector aspirants.
While the companies will continue to hire, it is expected to add only 130,000 jobs, taking the employee strength to 1.93 million in 2008 from 1.8 million last year.
"The trend is suggesting a slight dip in new job creations as sectors like textiles and IT have been hit by the rupee appreciation," says K Pandia Rajan.
"Last year, there was a 3.26 per cent increase in the number of jobs but it toned down to 3.05 per cent for 2008.
Major culprits for the stagnation have been the textile and IT and ITeS sectors, which could not generate enough jobs due to the currency appreciation," he adds.
Campus placements are likely to be hit this year. Mid-size and large IT and ITeS companies recruit in large numbers from engineering campuses in tier-III cities, with around 50 per cent students from these institutes getting placement offers. But due to the rupee rise, the percentage may drop to 35 per cent.
The textiles and clothing sector also faces the brunt of rupee appreciation. With an employment base of 1.5 million jobs, this sector is projected to generate only about 17,000 jobs this year.
The lowest employment generating sectors for 2008 are manufacturing of food and beverages, minerals and metal products and manufacturing of furniture.
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Which city do you live in? Is your city going to generate the maximum number of jobs? Check out!
Mumbai has always been home to millions of job seekers who migrate from different parts of the country. There is a job for everyone in the city that never sleeps.
In the city analysis, Mumbai is set to generate the highest number of jobs followed by Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
The hiring story is upbeat in small cities. In terms of the percentage change in employment between 2006-07 and 2007-08, Hyderabad is the forerunner followed closely by Pune.
Bhubhaneswar is another city with above 20 per cent growth in employment.
India's growth track has changed considerably. The impact on expected employment over the next one year will be mixed.
While some sectors such as mining, minerals, food products, furniture, textiles are expected to turn in negative growth in employment, there are many sectors like health, hospitality, IT and ITeS, real estate and construction that hold much promise for job seekers.
So what are you waiting for? Grab the opportunity to work in the booming sectors. All the best!
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/12job1.htm
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
25 per cent US teenage girls have sexual disease
At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.
A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls � nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 per cent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found.
About half of the girls acknowledged ever having sex; among them, the rate was 40 per cent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behaviour including oral sex can spread some infections.
For many, the numbers likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Paediatrics' committee on adolescence.
But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.
Dr John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, from 2003-04, likely reflect current rates of infection.
"High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk," Douglas said.
The CDC's Dr Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, "screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities."
The study by CDC researcher Dr Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a 2003-04 government health survey. Teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 per cent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 per cent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 per cent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 per cent.
Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those diseases individually.
HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available, but Douglas said it likely has not yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.
Chlamydia and trichomoniasis can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up shots for females aged 13 to 26.
The American Academy of Paediatrics has similar recommendations.
Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, '"Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see.'"
Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.
The American Academy of Paediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she said.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14620510
India is the 6th most popular country in US
India is the sixth most popular country in the US, with 69 per cent of Americans having a positive image about it, while Pakistan finds itself among the 10 most unpopular nations, according to a new poll. Of 22 countries rated in Gallup's 2008 World Affairs survey, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Japan win favour with at least 80 per cent of Americans. The top four is followed by Israel at 71 per cent. While India ties with France at the sixth spot for the positive image, the opposite is true of Pakistan which is viewed favourably only by 22 per cent of those polled and negatively by 72 per cent. The February 11-14 survey shows that 73 per cent of those polled perceive Afghanistan negatively, while the number is 77 per cent for Iraq and 88 per cent for Iran. About 6 in 10 Americans have a favourable view of Egypt, South Korea and Mexico, Gallup USA has said. Ten countries are viewed unfavorably by at least half of Americans. Of these, Iran, North Korea, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Cuba are viewed more negatively than positively by a greater than 2-to-1 margin. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and China have somewhat more moderately negative images. The poll shows an interesting political divide of America as well with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq all viewed more favourably by Republicans than by Democrats. France, Mexico, China, Venezuela, and Cuba are all viewed more favourably by Democrats than by Republicans. Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,007 adults, aged 18 and older. The maximum margin of sampling error is three percentage points. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/11india.htm
17 Indians in WEF's Global Young Leaders list
As many as 17 Indians -- including Wadia Group chairman Jeh Wadia, SKS Microfinance CEO Vikram Akula, Bhatia Enterprises chairman Sabeer Bhatia, music composer A R Rahman, and sitar player Anoushka Shankar -- have been named the Young Global Leaders for 2008, in a list announced by the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. As many as 245 leading executives, public figures and intellectuals -- all aged 40 or younger -- were chosen from around the world by the WEF. The honour is bestowed each year by the WEF to recognise and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, the media and society at large from 65 countries. The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), the Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21). The Indians who feature on the list are: "The World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers. We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in a statement. Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2008 were chosen by a selection committee of 31 eminent international media leaders, including Thomas H Glocer, chief executive officer, Reuters, UK; Arthur Sulzberger, chairman and publisher, The New York Times, USA; Robert Thomson, publisher, Dow Jones & Company and The Wall Street Journal, USA; and Hisashi Hieda, chairman and chief executive officer, Fuji Television Network, Japan. The selection committee is chaired by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The 2008 Young Global Leaders (YGL) nominated represented over 65 countries and included Vikram Akula, chief executive officer and founder, SKS Microfinance, India; Steffi Graf, founder and chairperson, 'Children for Tomorrow', Germany; Wadah Khanfar, director-general, Al Jazeera Satellite Network, Qatar; Mugo Kibati, group chief executive officer, East African Cables, Kenya; Shakira Mebarak, singer and manager, Pies Descalzos Foundation, Colombia; and Michelle Peluso, chief executive officer, Travelocity.com, USA; among others. "I feel greatly honoured for having been selected as one of the Young Global Leaders, and I am very confident that through this platform every YGL will be highly instrumental in empowering the youth and will be successful in bringing in significant changes. It's a great privilege for me to be associated with the prestigious World Economic Forum and I will make sure to use this opportunity to share my entrepreneurial spirit for reducing the unemployment of eligible youth in developing and underdeveloped nations," said Suhas Gopinath, chief executive officer and president, Globals ITeS, India. The current community of Young Global Leaders represents over 60 countries and includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, USA; Crown Prince Haakon of Norway; Malvinder M Singh, chief executive officer and managing director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India; Hiroshi Nakada, mayor of Yokohama, Japan; Nicky Newton-King, deputy chief executive officer, JSE, South Africa; Carlos Danel, co-chief executive officer, Banco Compartamos, Mexico; and Jack Ma Yun, chairman and chief executive officer, Alibaba Group, People's Republic of China. For a full list of Young Global Leaders, click here. http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/11wef.htm
10 Ways to Instantly Build Self Confidence
Self confidence is the difference between feeling unstoppable and feeling scared out of your wits. Your perception of yourself has an enormous impact on how others perceive you. Perception is reality — the more self confidence you have, the more likely it is you’ll succeed.
Although many of the factors affecting self confidence are beyond your control, there are a number of things you can consciously do to build self confidence. By using these 10 strategies you can get the mental edge you need to reach your potential.
Build Self Confidence
1. Dress Sharp
Although clothes don’t make the man, they certainly affect the way he feels about himself. No one is more conscious of your physical appearance than you are. When you don’t look good, it changes the way you carry yourself and interact with other people. Use this to your advantage by taking care of your personal appearance. In most cases, significant improvements can be made by bathing and shaving frequently, wearing clean clothes, and being cognizant of the latest styles.
This doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot on clothes. One great rule to follow is “spend twice as much, buy half as much”. Rather than buying a bunch of cheap clothes, buy half as many select, high quality items. In long run this decreases spending because expensive clothes wear out less easily and stay in style longer than cheap clothes. Buying less also helps reduce the clutter in your closet.
2. Walk Faster
One of the easiest ways to tell how a person feels about herself is to examine her walk. Is it slow? tired? painful? Or is it energetic and purposeful? People with confidence walk quickly. They have places to go, people to see, and important work to do. Even if you aren’t in a hurry, you can increase your self confidence by putting some pep in your step. Walking 25% faster will make to you look and feel more important.
3. Good Posture
Similarly, the way a person carries herself tells a story. People with slumped shoulders and lethargic movements display a lack of self confidence. They aren’t enthusiastic about what they’re doing and they don’t consider themselves important. By practicing good posture, you’ll automatically feel more confident. Stand up straight, keep your head up, and make eye contact. You’ll make a positive impression on others and instantly feel more alert and empowered.
4. Personal Commercial
One of the best ways to build confidence is listening to a motivational speech. Unfortunately, opportunities to listen to a great speaker are few and far between. You can fill this need by creating a personal commercial. Write a 30-60 second speech that highlights your strengths and goals. Then recite it in front of the mirror aloud (or inside your head if you prefer) whenever you need a confidence boost.
5. Gratitude
When you focus too much on what you want, the mind creates reasons why you can’t have it. This leads you to dwell on your weaknesses. The best way to avoid this is consciously focusing on gratitude. Set aside time each day to mentally list everything you have to be grateful for. Recall your past successes, unique skills, loving relationships, and positive momentum. You’ll be amazed how much you have going for you and motivated to take that next step towards success.
6. Compliment other people
When we think negatively about ourselves, we often project that feeling on to others in the form of insults and gossip. To break this cycle of negativity, get in the habit of praising other people. Refuse to engage in backstabbing gossip and make an effort to compliment those around you. In the process, you’ll become well liked and build self confidence. By looking for the best in others, you indirectly bring out the best in yourself.
7. Sit in the front row
In schools, offices, and public assemblies around the world, people constantly strive to sit at the back of the room. Most people prefer the back because they’re afraid of being noticed. This reflects a lack of self confidence. By deciding to sit in the front row, you can get over this irrational fear and build your self confidence. You’ll also be more visible to the important people talking from the front of the room.
8. Speak up
During group discussions many people never speak up because they’re afraid that people will judge them for saying something stupid. This fear isn’t really justified. Generally, people are much more accepting than we imagine. In fact most people are dealing with the exact same fears. By making an effort to speak up at least once in every group discussion, you’ll become a better public speaker, more confident in your own thoughts, and recognized as a leader by your peers.
9. Work out
Along the same lines as personal appearance, physical fitness has a huge effect on self confidence. If you’re out of shape, you’ll feel insecure, unattractive, and less energetic. By working out, you improve your physcial appearance, energize yourself, and accomplish something positive. Having the discipline to work out not only makes you feel better, it creates positive momentum that you can build on the rest of the day.
10. Focus on contribution
Too often we get caught up in our own desires. We focus too much on ourselves and not enough on the needs of other people. If you stop thinking about yourself and concentrate on the contribution you’re making to the rest of the world, you won’t worry as much about you own flaws. This will increase self confidence and allow you to contribute with maximum efficiency. The more you contribute to the world the more you’ll be rewarded with personal success and recognition.
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/10-ways-to-instantly-build-self-confidence/
Monday, March 10, 2008
Vatican lists seven new social sins
Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins.
So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of “new” sins such as causing environmental blight.
After 1,500 years, the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalisation. The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican’s number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.
Asked what he believed were today’s “new sins,” he told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.
“(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control,” he said.
The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning. Girotti, in an interview headlined “New Forms of Social Sin,” also listed “ecological” offences as modern evils.
In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race. Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively “green.”
It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.
Girotti, who is number two in the Vatican “Apostolic Penitentiary,” which deals with matter of conscience, also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.
But Girotti also bemoaned that fewer and fewer Catholics go to confession at all. He pointed to a study by Milan’s Catholic University that showed that up to 60 per cent of Catholic faithful in Italy stopped going to confession.
In the sacrament of Penance, Catholics confess their sins to a priest who absolves them in God’s name. But the same study by the Catholic University showed that 30 per cent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God’s intermediary and 20 per cent felt uncomfortable talking about their sins to another person.
'Om Shanti Om' sweeps Central European Bollywood Awards
Farah Khan's second directorial venture 'Om Shanti Om' has swept the fifth Annual Central European Bollywood Awards (ACEB).
Voting for the awards began in January and continued till March 7. Votes outside central Europe were not counted, BNA-Germany said in a release Monday.
On March 8, the winners were announced in Munich at the second International Bollywood-Blogger meeting.
The awards are hosted by a leading Swiss website, molodezhnaja.ch, and central Europe's discussion panel bollywoodforum.ch.
While 'Om Shanti Om' won the best film award, it got Khan the best director trophy as well. The film also won prizes for the best special effects, best art direction and best costumes.
Music director duo Vishal-Shekhar won the award for best music for the commercially acclaimed project, 'Dastaan-e-Om Shanti Om...'.
Sonu Nigam was voted the best singer and newcomer Deepika Padukone walked away with the award for breakthrough role (female) category.
Shah Rukh Khan bagged the best actor award for his performance in 'Chak De! India'. The blockbuster also won the awards for best cinematography and best editing.
Mani Ratnam's 'Guru' won the best script trophy. The movie also got Shreya Ghoshal the best singer (female) award for the song 'Barso re...'. For the same movie, Vidya Balan and Mithun Chakraborty bagged the 'Best Actor in Supporting Roles' awards in the female and male categories respectively.
Shahid Kapur and Kareena Kapoor who paired up in 'Jab We Met' were declared the Best Couple. Vikram Chatwal was conferred the award for breakthrough role (male) for 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.'.
In the most disappointing film category director 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' left all other nominees behind.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080310/r_t_ians_en_bwd/ten-om-shanti-om-sweeps-central-european-aaba444.html
India less corrupt than China: Survey
While Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are considered the least corrupt among 13 major Asian economies, India, ranked 8th, fared better than 10th-placed China in a survey conducted by a regional think-tank. The annual survey by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy exclude countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh, notorious for corruption. On a scale of zero to 10, where zero is the best possible score, Singapore topped the list with 1.13, followed by Hong Kong (1.80) and Japan (2.25). India was ranked 8th with a score of 7.25, faring worst than last year, when it scored 6.67. China was placed at number 10 at 7.98, compared to the previous year score of 6.29. The Philippines was considered the most corrupt economy with a score of 9.00, followed by Thailand (8.00). More than 400 expatriate business people were asked to rank countries based on issues that could negatively impact their business. These included red tape, policy clarity, financial reforms, transparency and liberalisation, PERC said. "Our survey of over 400 expatriate businessmen working in Asia put the inadequacies of the various banking systems of the region into a fairly accurate perspective," the PERC said. http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/10india1.htm
Websites To Make You Faster, Better, Stronger…
here is a quick list of my top ten most frequented websites.
These websites will help you increase your productivity, save time, and just make you smarter overall.
They are in no particular order, so don’t let placement have any affect on your trial.
- RescueTime – This website provides you with a lightweight app that records and graphs how you spend your time on your computer. Taking small “quicky” breaks can often turn into a 20 minute excursion to read an article on SlashDot or check out the latest on Digg. RescueTime will allow you to see exactly how you spent your time and will even send a weekly report to your email.
- Skype – Skype isn’t really a website, but I decided to include it anyway. Instead of using a landline of cellular phone to reach people you talk with often, use Skype. For a small fee, you can call anyone in the world from your computer.
- DumbLittleMan – A great source of 15-20 weekly articles with emphasis on how to get the most from your life. Examples include 20 Things I’m Glad Life Taught Me and 9 Ways to Have A Better Day Than Yesterday.
- Zen Habits – ZenHabits is about “achieving goals … and successfully implementing good habits.” Some examples of the type of content you’ll find there is: 12 Pratical Steps for Going With the Flow and Top 20 Motivation Hacks.
- LifeHacker – A very frequently updated blog with tips on increasing your productivity. A few examples: Improve Your Vision at the Computer and How to Avoid Impulse Shopping.
- Google Reader – If you do not yet use a feed reader, start. Instead of individually visiting all your normal blogs, just subscribe to their feeds. This’ll put all the articles you like into one neat little location for quick and easy reading.
- StevePavlina – One of the forerunning personal development blogs on the internet today. Steve talks about ways to master your time management, nurture motivation to reach your goals, and how to develop balance within your life. Steve has written articles like 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job and 30 days to Success.
- HowStuffWorks – HowStuffWorks houses tons and tons of articles about how pretty much anything you can imagine works. Ever wonder how exactly an automatic transmission works? How about how exactly a digital camera works? If so, this site is for you.
- 43folders – 43folders provides many methods to “improve efficiency and get things off your mind” as well as “ideas about modest ways to improve your life and reduce stress.”
- LifeHack – A life hack is “any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing.” Some of my favorite articles are 10 Tricks to Get Your Writing Started and 5 Ways to Deal With Irresponsible People.
Well, there you have it. Try visiting a few of these websites daily or a few times a week and let me know if you’ve learned anything!
http://www.personadev.com/category/downloads/
Ten worst countries for women
But for many of the 3.3 billion female occupants of our planet, the perks of the cyber age never arrived. As International Women's Day is celebrated today, they continue to feel the age-old lash of violence, repression, isolation, enforced ignorance and discrimination.
"These things are universal," says Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of New York-based Equality Now. "There is not one single country where women can feel absolutely safe."
In spite of real progress in women's rights around the globe – better laws, political participation, education and income – the bedrock problems that have dogged women for centuries remain. Even in wealthy countries, there are pockets of private pain where women are unprotected and under attack.
Some countries, often the poorest and most conflict-ridden, have a level of violence that makes life unbearable for women. Richer ones may burden them with repressive laws, or sweep the problems of the least advantaged under the carpet. In any country, refugee women are among the most vulnerable.
So widespread are the disadvantages that it's hard to pinpoint the worst places in the world for women. Some surveys rate their problems by quality of life, others by health indicators. Human rights groups point to countries where violations are so severe that even murder is routine.
Literacy is one of the best indicators of women's status in their countries. But Amnesty International Canada's women's rights campaigner Cheryl Hotchkiss says building schools alone doesn't solve the problem of equal education.
"There's a huge range of barriers women face to getting an education," she says. "It may be free and available, but parents won't send their daughters out to school if they can be kidnapped and raped."
Health is another key indicator, including the care of pregnant women, who are sometimes forced into disastrous early marriage and childbearing, as well as infection with HIV/AIDS. But again, statistics fail to show the whole, complex story.
"On a rural lake in Zambia, I met a woman who had not told her husband she was HIV-positive," says David Morley, CEO of Save the Children Canada. "She was already living on the edge because she had no children. If she told him, she would be kicked off the island and sent alone to the mainland. She felt she had no choice, because she had no power at all."
Putting power in women's hands is the biggest challenge for improving their lives in every country, advocates agree. Whether in the poorest countries of Africa, or the most repressive of the Middle East or Asia, lack of control over their own destinies blights women's lives from early childhood.
Here are 10 of the worst countries in the world to be a woman today:
• Afghanistan: The average Afghan girl will live to only 45 – one year less than an Afghan male. After three decades of war and religion-based repression, an overwhelming number of women are illiterate. More than half of all brides are under 16, and one woman dies in childbirth every half hour. Domestic violence is so common that 87 per cent of women admit to experiencing it. But more than one million widows are on the streets, often forced into prostitution. Afghanistan is the only country in which the female suicide rate is higher than that of males.
• Democratic Republic of Congo: In the eastern DRC, a war that claimed more than 3 million lives has ignited again, with women on the front line. Rapes are so brutal and systematic that UN investigators have called them unprecedented. Many victims die; others are infected with HIV and left to look after children alone. Foraging for food and water exposes women to yet more violence. Without money, transport or connections, they have no way of escape.
• Iraq: The U.S.-led invasion to "liberate" Iraq from Saddam Hussein has imprisoned women in an inferno of sectarian violence that targets women and girls. The literacy rate, once the highest in the Arab world, is now among the lowest as families fear risking kidnapping and rape by sending girls to school. Women who once went out to work stay home. Meanwhile, more than 1 million women have been displaced from their homes, and millions more are unable to earn enough to eat.
• Nepal: Early marriage and childbirth exhaust the country's malnourished women, and one in 24 will die in pregnancy or childbirth. Daughters who aren't married off may be sold to traffickers before they reach their teens. Widows face extreme abuse and discrimination if they're labelled bokshi, meaning witches. A low-level civil war between government and Maoist rebels has forced rural women into guerrilla groups.
• Sudan: While Sudanese women have made strides under reformed laws, the plight of those in Darfur, in western Sudan, has worsened. Abduction, rape or forced displacement have destroyed more than 1 million women's lives since 2003. The janjaweed militias have used systematic rape as a demographic weapon, but access to justice is almost impossible for the female victims of violence.
• Other countries in which women's lives are significantly worse than men's include Guatemala, where an impoverished female underclass faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
In Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, few women escape the torture of genital mutilation, many are forced into early marriages, and one in 10 dies in pregnancy or childbirth.
In the tribal border areas of Pakistan, women are gang-raped as punishment for men's crimes. But honour killing is more widespread, and a renewed wave of religious extremism is targeting female politicians, human rights workers and lawyers.
In oil-rich Saudi Arabia, women are treated as lifelong dependents, under the guardianship of a male relative. Deprived of the right to drive a car or mix with men publicly, they are confined to strictly segregated lives on pain of severe punishment.
In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a vicious civil war has put women, who were the traditional mainstay of the family, under attack. In a society that has broken down, women are exposed daily to rape, dangerously poor health care for pregnancy, and attack by armed gangs.
"While the potential of women is recognized at the international level," says World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan, "this potential will not be realized until conditions improve – often dramatically – in countries and communities. Too many complex factors, often rooted in social and cultural norms, continue to hinder the ability of women and girls to achieve their potential and benefit from social advances."
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/326354
70% want to talk to BPO agents of opposite sex: Study
If you dial a call centre, whose voice do you want to hear at the other end? Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone was the overwhelming answer in a recent survey on call centres.
While Bachchan was voted favourite-celebrity-to-answer-a-call by both men and women, there were gender differences when it came to the other questions. To start with, the men said they preferred talking to women and the women customers said they preferred talking to men. The survey thus confirmed what has long been an open secret.
The study was conducted by Avaya GlobalConnect and the Sydney-based research firm callcentres.net. Questionnaires were emailed to 300 respondents in India who had recently used the services of a call centre. They were from various income groups.
Exactly 70% said that they preferred talking to an agent of the opposite sex. And almost one-third were more demanding—they wanted the agents to be both of the opposite sex and younger than them.
The study comes at a time when a number of banks and telecom companies have begun diverting their customer-query traffic to their call centres rather than have people visiting their outlets.
Even government monoliths like the Indian Railways and state-owned telecom companies, which have a less-than-shining record of customer service, are setting up call centres to address queries. The customers don’t seem to mind with 58% saying that interacting with call centres made life easy.
More than gender, it was the age groups that responded in different ways. The youngsters or Generation Y (16 to 30 years) had the most complaints and said it was usually a problematic process.
They also had the lowest service expectations from the men and women at the other end of the phone. Middle-aged customers or the Baby Boomers (46 to 61 years) had the highest expectations about service quality.
The Silent Generation (62 to 82 years), surprisingly, found the least problems with call centres. They were more than happy to speak to a number of different people on the same call, as long as it helped resolve their problem.
What did customers look for in an agent? Once again there was a gender difference: for males it was being helpful, while for females, intelligence was most sought after.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/70_want_to_talk_to_BPO_agents_of_opposite_sex_Study/rssarticleshow/2850429.cms
Friday, March 7, 2008
Hindus living in Pakistan : Must read
This letter was written by a Times of India.com reader who chooses to be called ‘Asa’ in response to a recent article (“ Allah’s will and US strategy ”)
The lucidly written letter, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Hindus living in Pakistan, is reproduced in its entirety below.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/The_only_place_I_call_home/rssarticleshow/2845479.cms
The lucidly written letter, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Hindus living in Pakistan, is reproduced in its entirety below.
Karachi bears the symptoms of Mumbai. It has the Arabian Sea where the hordes go to breathe because the ceiling is so high, hopeful youth walk briskly on the roads to seize the day and of course fail, beautiful women travel in the quiet isolation of the backseat with a man they know as driver, eternal Parsis fear that they are all dying. And, incredibly, Shiva, Lakshmi and Vishnu have encroached on prime real estate.
Outside one such temple in the posh Clifton neighbourhood, on a distant Monday four years ago, stood a man in pathan suit. His name was Jayanti Ratna. He was wielding a stick and surveying the large crowds that were trying to enter the temple. "Jai Shiv Shankar," he kept screaming.
Occasionally, he stopped some people by placing his stick horizontally around their chests. "Muslims are not allowed," he said to them. He stopped me too. "Are you a Hindu," he said, "Muslims are not allowed inside." That was the first time during the two month tour of Pakistan that my religion was asked. And it was outside a Hindu temple. He was shown the passport. His eyes softened. "Christians, too, are not allowed. But then you are an Indian." It was inevitable that he would let me pass. Wasn't it dangerous for a man to stand in the heart of Karachi, outside a temple, and ask Muslims to get lost? "Not at all," he said, "I was born here. I belong here. I'll exercise my right to serve my faith."
The next day, outside the Lakshmi Narayan temple, a small austere shrine that stood at the edge of a creek, four Pakistani girls were stopped at the gate by an ageless Gujarati woman called Bani. "Muslims aren't allowed," Bani told them angrily. "We just want to walk around and look," Rumi, one of the girls said. "Then go to the zoo," Bani told them. The girls were not outraged at all. They pleaded in between giggles. "We just want to pray," one of them said. From inside the temple emerged, Hirakumari, a young woman who was related in a complicated way to Bani. She shouted at the girls, "Go pray to your god. You eat cows, make fun of our gods, ask if our gods don't feel cold being naked..." But Hirakumari would eventually tell me that deep down she loved the Muslims. "They will feed us for the rest of our lives, if it comes to that. Pakistan is the only place I call home but how can we let them inside the temple?"
Pakistan's Hindus number somewhere between 2.5 million (an official estimate which is suspect) and 5 million (the figure granted by Hindu politician Kishinchand Parwani). Over 95 percent of them live in the Sindh province, chiefly impoverished farmers and labourers. Some of them are visibly rich though, and they are allowed to be rich without peril. Like fashion designer Deepak Perwani who had a Ganesha tattooed on his right arm, and whose red dyed hair often perplexed urchins. His analysis of the Indo-Pak divide was, "Indians can't cut a salwar to save their lives and Pakistanis can't cut a churidar ."
Ten years ago, when he wanted to open a store in Karachi, his friends asked him not to flaunt his name on the door. He didn't listen. "There's been no trouble, not a single incident outside my shop," he said. Since Partition, the only time the Hindus of Karachi felt insecure was in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition.
But Perwani, once Pakistan's cultural ambassador to China, did have a problem. The Sindhi community was small and it was not easy for him to find a suitable girl. "The girl has to be imported," he said, "since I am doing too well here to be exported." His mother Renu, an amicable and efficient woman said, "People in India don't want their daughters to live in Pakistan. It's a mindset." As she considered the various options for her son, her eyes turned a bit severe. "I will never accept a Muslim girl in my house."
The simple aggression of Pakistan's Hindus was just one of the many things that confused the Indians who toured that country in the merciless summer of 2004. The visible life on the streets of a nation that was almost always governed by the military and of another that glorified democracy, was the same. The roads and the slums looked the same. Even there, lazy cops stood in street corners without poise. People drove like fools. Pedestrians ran across the road and giggled at the end of the effort. This place was home.
Our plight was the same. Our hereditary memory was common. True, pork was hard to find here and beef easily available. Every hotel room, no matter how cheap, had a bidet. There were no pubs, and emasculated newspapers said, "Pakistan and India" instead of "India and Pakistan". But we had expected much grander things to separate the two nations.
After an unscathed life in Pakistan, a Hindu in Karachi becomes dust in a crematorium that lies beside a Muslim graveyard. The crematorium has a room called the 'library' where there are no books. Just bundles of ashes of men and women who have become memories. These ashes will stay here, sometimes for years, until the relatives are granted visas to let them immerse the remains in Ganga.
Outside one such temple in the posh Clifton neighbourhood, on a distant Monday four years ago, stood a man in pathan suit. His name was Jayanti Ratna. He was wielding a stick and surveying the large crowds that were trying to enter the temple. "Jai Shiv Shankar," he kept screaming.
Occasionally, he stopped some people by placing his stick horizontally around their chests. "Muslims are not allowed," he said to them. He stopped me too. "Are you a Hindu," he said, "Muslims are not allowed inside." That was the first time during the two month tour of Pakistan that my religion was asked. And it was outside a Hindu temple. He was shown the passport. His eyes softened. "Christians, too, are not allowed. But then you are an Indian." It was inevitable that he would let me pass. Wasn't it dangerous for a man to stand in the heart of Karachi, outside a temple, and ask Muslims to get lost? "Not at all," he said, "I was born here. I belong here. I'll exercise my right to serve my faith."
The next day, outside the Lakshmi Narayan temple, a small austere shrine that stood at the edge of a creek, four Pakistani girls were stopped at the gate by an ageless Gujarati woman called Bani. "Muslims aren't allowed," Bani told them angrily. "We just want to walk around and look," Rumi, one of the girls said. "Then go to the zoo," Bani told them. The girls were not outraged at all. They pleaded in between giggles. "We just want to pray," one of them said. From inside the temple emerged, Hirakumari, a young woman who was related in a complicated way to Bani. She shouted at the girls, "Go pray to your god. You eat cows, make fun of our gods, ask if our gods don't feel cold being naked..." But Hirakumari would eventually tell me that deep down she loved the Muslims. "They will feed us for the rest of our lives, if it comes to that. Pakistan is the only place I call home but how can we let them inside the temple?"
Pakistan's Hindus number somewhere between 2.5 million (an official estimate which is suspect) and 5 million (the figure granted by Hindu politician Kishinchand Parwani). Over 95 percent of them live in the Sindh province, chiefly impoverished farmers and labourers. Some of them are visibly rich though, and they are allowed to be rich without peril. Like fashion designer Deepak Perwani who had a Ganesha tattooed on his right arm, and whose red dyed hair often perplexed urchins. His analysis of the Indo-Pak divide was, "Indians can't cut a salwar to save their lives and Pakistanis can't cut a churidar ."
Ten years ago, when he wanted to open a store in Karachi, his friends asked him not to flaunt his name on the door. He didn't listen. "There's been no trouble, not a single incident outside my shop," he said. Since Partition, the only time the Hindus of Karachi felt insecure was in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition.
But Perwani, once Pakistan's cultural ambassador to China, did have a problem. The Sindhi community was small and it was not easy for him to find a suitable girl. "The girl has to be imported," he said, "since I am doing too well here to be exported." His mother Renu, an amicable and efficient woman said, "People in India don't want their daughters to live in Pakistan. It's a mindset." As she considered the various options for her son, her eyes turned a bit severe. "I will never accept a Muslim girl in my house."
The simple aggression of Pakistan's Hindus was just one of the many things that confused the Indians who toured that country in the merciless summer of 2004. The visible life on the streets of a nation that was almost always governed by the military and of another that glorified democracy, was the same. The roads and the slums looked the same. Even there, lazy cops stood in street corners without poise. People drove like fools. Pedestrians ran across the road and giggled at the end of the effort. This place was home.
Our plight was the same. Our hereditary memory was common. True, pork was hard to find here and beef easily available. Every hotel room, no matter how cheap, had a bidet. There were no pubs, and emasculated newspapers said, "Pakistan and India" instead of "India and Pakistan". But we had expected much grander things to separate the two nations.
After an unscathed life in Pakistan, a Hindu in Karachi becomes dust in a crematorium that lies beside a Muslim graveyard. The crematorium has a room called the 'library' where there are no books. Just bundles of ashes of men and women who have become memories. These ashes will stay here, sometimes for years, until the relatives are granted visas to let them immerse the remains in Ganga.
Large number of women work with low salaries: ILO
A large number of women work with low salaries and without any social protection, says a new report of International Labour Organisation.
"More women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to get low-productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights or voice at work," the ILO report issued for International Womens Day says.
"Global employment trends for women - March 2008", says that the number of employed women grew by almost 200 million over the last decade, to reach 1.2 billion in 2007 compared to 1.8 billion men. However, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million over the same period.
"Women continue to enter the world's workforce in great numbers. This progress must not obscure the glaring inequities that still exist in workplaces throughout the world," said ILO Director General Juan Somavia.
"The workplace and the world of work are at the centre of global solutions to address gender equality and the advancement of women in society. By promoting decent work for women, we are empowering societies and advancing the cause of economic and social development for all," said Somavia.
The report also shows improvement in the status of women in labour markets throughout the world but they have not substantially narrowed gender gap in the workplace.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Large-number-of-women-work-with-low-salaries-ILO/281551/
India not to commercialise sex work: Minister
India will not consider legalising commercial sex or giving licences to brothels, Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury has said.
"I am ready to legalise brothels or red light areas if the sex workers say their decision is informed. In most cases their choice is not informed but is forced due to poverty or other reasons," Chowdhury said.
"Many sex workers ask me why I am withholding this issue. But I patiently listen to them and, in turn, ask them whether they would allow their daughters to enter the trade. The answer has always been a complete silence - and they drop their demands," Chowdhury said on the sidelines of a human trafficking conference.
The conference was organised by the UN office on Drugs and Crime along with the ministry of women and child development ahead of the International Women's Day March 8.
The minister said her government has no intention of legalising or licensing brothels, but would remain committed to combating human trafficking, especially of women and children.
Human trafficking means recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people by means of threat, use of force or other forms of coercion like abduction for the purpose of exploitation.
According to UN estimates, approximately 150,000 people are trafficked within South Asia annually, with children and young women being lured from their homes with promises of a good job, good marriage or stardom in the entertainment industry.
Many are forced into prostitution or slavery where they suffer unspeakable indignities and hardship.
Organisations like the Bhartiya Patita Uddhar Sabha have been demanding the legalisation of commercial sex workers since 1984.
Khairati Lal Bhola, president of the Sabha, said: "The government must accept this demand for at least the better health and education of the 5.4 million children of sex workers."
Bhola said a survey conducted during 1990-96 revealed that there were more than 7.5 million call girls, 2.38 million prostitutes, 1,100 red light areas and 300,000 brothels across the country.
Now, more than a decade later, the numbers has gone up manifold and the condition of sex workers is still vulnerable, especially due to the threat of diseases like AIDS.
Pressing for the need to legalise prostitution, he said: "Not only will the government earn a tax on their income, it will help in chucking out agents, middlemen, goons and corrupt police officials who take hafta (protection money) from them.
"Sex workers can earn more to provide education to their children, who can be prevented from inheriting their mother's profession."
Chowdhury, however, said human trafficking of women largely depends on the principle of demand and supply.
"My government is planning to bring amendments to the existing Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and clients visiting brothels would be penalised," she said.
Asked why the government was not directing police to clamp down on red light areas in the country, the minister said: "It is feared that it may spread to residential colonies if we take such measures in the present scenario. After analysing the consequences, we will act accordingly," she said.
Chowdhury appreciated the 24 percent increase in fund allocation to her ministry by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and said: "The government understands the needs and demands of women and is committed to its promise to empower them."
Micro-finance schemes that allow women to borrow money from the government to start their own small industries of weaving, knitting, painting and others have yielded tremendous results, she said, adding that now the focus would be on encouraging women to do highly skilled jobs and earn more.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1154815
3 Indian women in Forbes’ mega-rich list
Ahead of the International Women's Day, three Indian women have powered their way to the Forbes list of global billionaires.
The three Indian women include Savitri Jindal having a net worth of $8.2 billion, Bennett, Coleman & Co's chairperson Indu Jain at $4.4 billion and Anu Aga of the Thermax group with a net worth of $1.1 billion. France's Lilince Bettencourt is the world's richest woman with a net worth of $22.9 billion, placing her at the 17th position on the list led by Warren Buffet, who is worth $62 billion. However, the Indian women featuring on the list are way behind as compared to their male counterparts in terms of the ranking. Savitri Jindal ranks at the 110th place on Forbes Billionaires list that has 1,125 members. Indu Jain, the 71-year-old chairperson of media powerhouse, has been placed 236th on the list, while Anu Aga ranks 1,014th. Aga took over as chairperson of Thermax, the maker of energy, environment management systems, in 1996 after the death of her husband Rohinton, stepped down in 2004 in favour of daughter Meher, the magazine said, adding that she is still on board and is involved in social causes. Besides, Savitri Jindal has been the chairperson of O P Jindal Group since husband Om Prakash's death in 2005. “Her four sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen, run the $8 billion (sales) steel, power empire. Sajjan, the most ambitious, says he plans to invest $15 billion in aluminium, cement and infrastructure over the next three years. Youngest, Naveen, who last July inked a $2.1-billion deal to mine iron ore in Bolivia, is a Member of Parliament,” the Forbes magazine added. | |
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14618259 | |
Thursday, March 6, 2008
How to Succeed in Interviews : Tips
As no interviews are completely predictable, there is no magic formula which you can follow. However, if you plan and prepare carefully, your chances of getting the job will be high. The information given here is designed to help all job seekers.
Preparing for the Interview
What are you going to be interviewed for? It is essential that you have a clear idea of what the job entails. Read the advertisement carefully. Then look at the demands of the job itself. How is the job described? Is that what you want? Look at exactly what the job demands and what other things are implied. Have you got the right qualifications and experience? Are you overqualified? Will training be given? There may be qualifications or experiences which are essential, or you may be able to make a case for lack of qualifications being balanced by relevant work experience or vice versa.
Once you have decided to apply for the post, find out all you can about the organization and make the application. You may need to obtain guidance on this, if you cannot do this own your own. Getting it right at this stage may mean the difference between being invited for an interview and an immediate rejection. Keep a copy of the original advertisement and your application so that you can refresh your memory before you go to the interview.
Work Out Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Work out your strengths and weaknesses before making the application. Strengths and weaknesses should be assessed in the light of the demands of your chosen job or career. If you haven't already thought this through and you really aren't qualified or experienced enough for the posts you apply for, your moral will crash with the subsequent rejection letters. You must establish a through knowledge of your plus points in relation to each company. You must consider your potential weaknesses too. Be realistic - nobody expects you be to be perfect, but balance is essential. There may be ways you can show your weaknesses in a positive light, so do this as long as you won't seem too clever or arrogant.
A good interviewer will treat you politely, will ensure that you will be free from interruptions and noise, and that you have been put at your ease before the actual interview begins. Often you will be asked about your journey or the weather at the beginning.
A good interviewer will test you through his/her questions to see if you are able to do the job, and will also give you information about the job. It is important for the company that even if you do not get the post, you should not go away from the interview feeling unfairly treated. You should listen well while they are talking, stay looking attentive and when answering ask if you can add anything if you are not sure whether to keep talking.
Once the interview begins the interviewer may either start by telling you more about the job and the company or may ask you questions first, and then give you details of what the job entails. The interviewer will probably take notes; do not be put off by this. Most interviewers will jot down a few reminders of the things that you have said so that they can remember all the facts later and make an informed judgment on which candidate to appoint. It is in your interests that they write rather than forget you. Don't make the mistake of trying to see what the interviewer writes; it probably won't help you and it will destroy your concentration on what you are saying.
The questions themselves can be asked in a variety of ways. A good interviewer will link the questions well and the conversation will flow as one question leads naturally on from another. Most interviewers will try to ask all the candidates the same sorts of questions so that they have a basis for comparison, whilst still leaving them enough flexibility to probe areas of possible weakness.
Create a Good Impression
Interviewers often assess individuals very quickly as they enter the room. Typically they have analyzed the candidate in about four minutes, which means that your first four minutes are very important. However, there is room to redeem yourself - the last few minutes and the way you depart from the interview are also very important. The memories of first impressions and last impressions count. So try to keep back your weaknesses till the middle of the interview.
The interviewer will need to see what kind of a person you are and whether you will fit in with the organization and be happy there. You will be showing them what kind of person you are by every answer you give to each question. Your likes and dislikes may reveal your motivation too. Although you might think that your happiness is of no importance to the interviewer, remember that if you are content, you won't interrupt others and will probably stay with the company longer. No one wants to employ someone who is permanently miserable or moaning.
http://www.bizcovering.com/Employment/How-to-Succeed-in-Interviews.84156
India to have 1 mn new jobs in 2008: Survey
The hospitality, health and education sectors are likely to replace the IT/ITeS sector as leading job creators in the country, which will have over 10 lakh new work opportunities in 2008, a survey revealed on Thursday.
India will add 10,25,800 jobs, a tad lower than 10,30,000 jobs in 2007, predicted the Ma Foi Employment Survey 2008.
"The traditional job creating horses like IT and ITeS sectors have been replaced by hospitality, health and education sector," Ma Foi Management Consultants Managing Director K Pandia Rajan said while releasing the survey.
Ma Foi is the largest human resource service provider and staffing company in India. It has been conducting the employment survey since 2004.
The 2008 survey was carried among 2006 companies from 22 sectors of the economy and is claimed to be the largest study on the organised sector.
The hospitality sector is shown to generate the maximum number of employment in 2008 with over 4.26 lakh jobs.
"An estimated USD 11.41 billion is expected to be seen in the hospitality sector in the next two years. India is likely to have around 40 international hotel brands by 2011," the survey highlighted.
The health sector is expected to create over 2.95 lakh jobs led by a strong presence of private players and rising opportunities in medical tourism and telemedicine.
The education sector, including training and consultancy, is expected to add 1.66 lakh employees.
The survey found that manufacturing sectors of food products and beverages, furniture, mineral and metal products and mining will witness a constraint in hiring in 2008.
Female condom for Rs 5 in India
A five-rupee female condom (FC) will now spearhead India's fight to control HIV spread among women.
Under the first phase, the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) is procuring 15 lakh female condoms from UK's Female Health Company (FHC), which will be doled out to sex workers and housewives in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal over the next 8 months. A decision on a countrywide upscale will be undertaken after reviewing data from these four states.
According to Naco director-general K Sujatha Rao, a year-long pre-programme acceptability and feasibility study, involving 60,000 women in 13 sites — 11 involving high risk groups like sex workers and two family planning programmes — in eight states from November 2006, found 60% women re-purchasing the condom and over 98% of the users finding it comfortable. Naco through UNFPA had procured five lakh condoms from FHC for its acceptability study.
Rao told TOI: "The pilot project was highly successful showing consistent use of FCs. We have, therefore, decided to scale up the programme under which we will first train women on how to use these condoms."
Union health minister A Ramadoss said: "When a male partner refuses to wear a condom, women need self-initiated methods to protect themselves against unplanned pregnancies and HIV/AIDS."
According to Manoj Gopalakrishna from Hindustan Latex Limited, India till now imported FCs making them expensive. "We have now set up an FC manufacturing unit in Kochi. FHC has transferred the condom manufacturing technology to us. We will manufacture 10 million FCs annually. Though the cost of making each condom will be Rs 40, it will be available to women for Rs 5 through 200 NGO-led targeted interventions."
Esther Bayliss from the Female Health Foundation told TOI: "Female condoms — FC1 and FC2 — are the only ones approved by US FDA and WHO. These condoms are the first and only female-initiated barrier method that is safe and effective if used correctly and consistently providing dual protection against the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancy."
Nearly 40% of the 2.5 million HIV positive victims living in India are women, most of them hapless housewives who don't look at their husbands as a threat and commercial sex workers unable to negotiate with clients refusing to use a condom.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Female_condom_for_Rs_5_in_India/rssarticleshow/2841558.cms
List of Top 100 Billionaires : Forbes
100 Richest people according ''Forbes'' Ranking
| Place | Name | Age | Nationality | Wealth according "Forbes"* |
| 1 | Warren Buffett | 77 | USA | 62,0 |
| 2 | Carlos Slim Helú and Family | 68 | Mexiko | 60,0 |
| 3 | William Gates III | 52 | USA | 58,0 |
| 4 | Lakshmi Mittal | 57 | India | 45,0 |
| 5 | Mukesh Ambani | 50 | India | 43,0 |
| 6 | Anil Ambani | 48 | India | 42,0 |
| 7 | Ingvar Kamprad and Family | 81 | Sweden | 31,0 |
| 8 | Kushal Pal Singh | 76 | India | 30,0 |
| 9 | Oleg Deripaska | 40 | Russia | 28,0 |
| 10 | Karl Albrecht | 88 | Germany | 27,0 |
| 11 | Li Ka-shing | 79 | Hongkong | 26,5 |
| 12 | Sheldon Adelson | 74 | USA | 26,0 |
| 13 | Bernard Arnault | 59 | France | 25,5 |
| 14 | Lawrence Ellison | 63 | USA | 25,0 |
| 15 | Roman Abramowitsch | 41 | Russia | 23,5 |
| 16 | Theo Albrecht | 85 | Germany | 23,0 |
| 17 | Liliane Bettencourt | 85 | France | 22,9 |
| 18 | Alexei Mordaschow | 42 | Russia | 21,2 |
| 19 | Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal al-Saud | 51 | Saudi-Arabia | 21,0 |
| 20 | Michail Fridman | 43 | Russia | 20,8 |
| 21 | Wladimir Lisin | 51 | Russia | 20,3 |
| 22 | Amancio Ortega | 72 | Spain | 20,2 |
| 23 | Raymond, Thomas and Walter Kwok | NA | Hongkong | 19,9 |
| 24 | Michail Prochorow | 42 | Russia | 19,5 |
| 25 | Wladimir Potanin | 47 | Russia | 19,3 |
| 26 | Christy Walton and Family | 53 | USA | 19,2 |
| 26 | S. Robson Walton | 64 | USA | 19,2 |
| 26 | Jim Walton | 60 | USA | 19,2 |
| 29 | Lee Shau Kee | 80 | Hongkong | 19,0 |
| 29 | Alice Walton | 58 | USA | 19,0 |
| 31 | David Thomson and Family | 50 | Canada | 18,9 |
| 32 | Sergey Brin | 34 | USA | 18,7 |
| 33 | Larry Page | 35 | USA | 18,6 |
| 34 | Michael Otto und Family | 64 | Germany | 18,2 |
| 35 | Stefan Persson | 60 | Sweden | 17,7 |
| 36 | Suleiman Kerimow | 42 | Russia | 17,5 |
| 37 | Charles Koch | 72 | USA | 17,0 |
| 37 | David Koch | 67 | USA | 17,0 |
| 39 | François Pinault und Family | 71 | France | 16,9 |
| 40 | Michael Dell | 43 | USA | 16,4 |
| 41 | Paul Allen | 55 | USA | 16,0 |
| 41 | Kirk Kerkorian | 90 | USA | 16,0 |
| 43 | Steven Ballmer | 52 | USA | 15,0 |
| 43 | Shashi und Ravi Ruia | NA | India | 15,0 |
| 43 | Abigail Johnson | 46 | USA | 15,0 |
| 46 | Nasser al-Kharafi und Family | 64 | Kuwait | 14,0 |
| 46 | Jacqueline Mars | 68 | USA | 14,0 |
| 46 | Birgit Rausing and Family | 84 | Sweden | 14,0 |
| 46 | Jack Taylor and Family | 85 | USA | 14,0 |
| 46 | John Mars | 71 | USA | 14,0 |
| 46 | Forrest Mars Jr. | 76 | USA | 14,0 |
| 46 | Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor and Family | 56 | Great Britain | 14,0 |
| 46 | Carl Icahn | 72 | USA | 14,0 |
| 54 | German Khan | 46 | Russia | 13,9 |
| 55 | Susanne Klatten | 45 | Germany | 13,2 |
| 56 | Wagit Alekperow | 57 | Russia | 13,0 |
| 56 | Donald Bren | 75 | USA | 13,0 |
| 58 | Alain und Gerard Wertheimer | NA | France | 12,9 |
| 59 | Dmitrij Rybolowlew | 41 | Russia | 12,8 |
| 60 | Azim Premji | 62 | India | 12,7 |
| 60 | Naguib Sawiris | 53 | Egypt | 12,7 |
| 62 | Anne Cox Chambers | 88 | USA | 12,6 |
| 63 | Iskander Machmudow | 44 | Russia | 11,9 |
| 64 | Sunil Mittal and Family | 50 | India | 11,8 |
| 65 | Alexander Abramow | 49 | Russia | 11,5 |
| 65 | Michael Bloomberg | 66 | USA | 11,5 |
| 67 | Wiktor Wexelberg | 50 | Russia | 11,2 |
| 68 | Michele Ferrero and Family | 81 | Italy | 11,0 |
| 68 | Nassef Sawiris | 46 | Egypt | 11,0 |
| 68 | George Kaiser | 65 | USA | 11,0 |
| 68 | Spiro Latsis and Family | 61 | Greece | 11,0 |
| 72 | Alexej Kuzmichew | 45 | Russia | 10,8 |
| 73 | Philip Knight | 70 | USA | 10,4 |
| 73 | Viktor Raschnikow | 59 | Russia | 10,4 |
| 75 | Ernesto Bertarelli | 42 | Switzerland | 10,3 |
| 76 | Kumar Birla | 40 | India | 10,2 |
| 77 | Igor Zyuzin | 47 | Russia | 10,0 |
| 77 | Hans Rausing | 82 | Sweden | 10,0 |
| 77 | Edward Johnson III | 77 | USA | 10,0 |
| 77 | Iris Fontbona and Family | Chile | 10,0 | |
| 77 | Antonio Ermirio de Moraes and Famila | 79 | Brasil | 10,0 |
| 77 | Leonardo Del Vecchio | 72 | Italy | 10,0 |
| 77 | Wladimir Jewtuschenkow | 59 | Russia | 10,0 |
| 84 | Serge Dassault and Family | 82 | France | 9,9 |
| 85 | Alberto Bailleres and Familie | 75 | Mexico | 9,8 |
| 86 | Ramesh Chandra | 68 | India | 9,6 |
| 87 | Charles Ergen | 55 | USA | 9,5 |
| 87 | John Kluge | 93 | USA | 9,5 |
| 87 | Ronald Perelman | 65 | USA | 9,5 |
| 90 | Silvio Berlusconi and Family | 71 | Italy | 9,4 |
| 91 | Gautam Adani | 45 | India | 9,3 |
| 91 | Alisher Usmanow | 54 | Russia | 9,3 |
| 91 | Petr Kellner | 43 | Czech Republic | 9,3 |
| 94 | August von Finck | 78 | Germany | 9,2 |
| 96 | Onsi Sawiris | 78 | Egypt | 9,1 |
| 97 | Mohammed al-Amoudi | 62 | Saudi-Arab | 9,0 |
| 97 | George Soros | 77 | USA | 9,0 |
| 97 | Robert Kuok | 84 | Malaysia | 9,0 |
| 100 | Abd al-Asis Abdullah al-Ghurair and Family | 54 | U.A.E | 8,9 |
| *in Billion. Dollar | ||||
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,539826,00.html
Highest job offers in India's Business schools
With students bagging plum job offers from domestic as well as multinational companies, the institutes say that placement offers have never been better. Here are the highlights from India's premier management institutes.
Lateral placements
IIM-A: Lateral placements, which are meant for students with prior industry experience, saw a total of 103 offers. The average salary increased from Rs 16.2 lakh last year to Rs 18.3 lakh this year.
The number of students eligible for lateral placements rose from 89 last year to 112 this year. Around 37 consulting, private equity, real estate, finance, information technology, general management and marketing companies recruited students.
Some notable firms that recruited on campus were Booz Allen, Monitor Group, Google and Amazon. Private equity, niche consulting, technology and logistics made a debut this year.
IIM-L: IIM-Lucknow had 45 companies over a period of 45 days. There were a total of 146 offers, the highest IIM Lucknow has ever witnessed.
This year's lateral placements or higher entry placement programme (HEPP) attracted consulting companies in large numbers, with Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, TSMG, Cap Gemini, Headstrong Consulting, Hewitt Associates, Cognizant and IBM making over 65 offers.
Standard Chartered, Lehman Brothers, Barclays, Yes Bank, among other financial institutions, extended the top finance offers.
IIM-K: The lateral placements at IIM Kozhikode witnessed the participation of around 55 students, 35 recruiters from India and abroad. A total of 103 offers were made and the average salary was Rs 15.56 lakh per annum.
A number of companies from the finance, consulting, marketing and general management space participated in the placements. IT companies also participated in laterals in big numbers. Around 13 international offers were made to students with the highest salary pegged at $175,000.
IIM-C: IIM Calcutta too witnessed a record number of lateral placement offers this year with a total of 148 lateral offers being made across a variety of sectors including consulting, commercial banking, private equity, wholesale banking and IT management.
The placements process attracted as many as 42 companies over a period of 45 days. The recruiters offered key responsibilities to students within India and abroad including major business locations such as US, Europe, West Asia and South-East Asia. The average annual package offered was Rs 14.15 lakh, whereas the highest domestic offer amounted to Rs 21 lakh.
IIFT: A total of 53 students took part in lateral placements at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi. While 32 companies confirmed participation for the placement process, 18 companies made offers. The highest domestic salary offered went up to Rs 13 lakh.
Final placements
The final placement week at all IIMs will take place from March 6-12, with the exception of IIM-Bangalore where placements started on March 4.
IIM-B: Around 10 companies participated on second day of the final placement at the IIM-B campus. More than 50-odd companies, including Indian consulting firms and leading banks, are expected to participate on the third day.
The companies which will attend the final placement at IIM-B on Thursday include leading banks such as ICICI, StanChart, HSBC and consulting firms like PwC, KPMG and Deloitte.
IMT GHAZIABAD: The campus recruitment process at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad saw an increase in average salary to Rs 10.87 lakh per annum compared to Rs 10.36 in 2007.
The highest domestic salary offered at the institute was Rs 17 lakh, which came from Abhishek Industries - Trident Group, whereas Olam International offered the highest international package at $85,000. Around 522 offers were made for 340 students. Only one student opted out of the placements to get into entrepreneurship.
JBIMS: Mumbai-based Jamnalal Bajaj Institute for Management Studies (JBIMS) offered Rs 29 lakh, the highest reported domestic salary. The average salary stood at Rs 13.84 lakh. The number of investment banks visiting the campus doubled this year and 17 per cent of the batch accepted offers from them.
Consulting also remained an extremely sought-after profile on the campus. Top recruiters from banking included HSBC, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, First Gulf Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/06jobs.htm
First Bollywood acting school to be launched in Britain
Top Indian actors Anupam Kher, Urmila Matondkar, Tabu and Boman Irani will teach at the first Bollywood acting school in Britain starting from September.
The school will be based in the Ealing Institute of Media in the west London borough of Ealing. It will train British and British Asian students for careers in Indias mammoth entertainment industry.
The School is a partnership between the Indian acting academy Actor Prepares, Heathrow City Partnership (HCP) and Ealing Hammersmith and West London College (EHWLC).
Actor Prepares is a teaching academy founded in 2005 in Mumbai by Kher, who will be the key person driving the school here.
About 60 students will be admitted in the first year and will pay 6,000 pounds each for a three-month course.
Kher is better known in Britain for his role as the father of Jesminder in 'Bend It Like Beckham'.
The acting school is the outcome of increasing linkages in recent years between Indian films and Britain in terms of story themes, actors, locales and post-production activities.
Several Indian films are shot in Britain every day while regional agencies offer incentives for Indian film producers to shoot and carry out post-production work in their regions.
Kishore Lulla, chairman of Eros International, said that a British Bollywood acting school was overdue.
"There will be huge demand among young South Asians and plenty of parts available to them playing South Asians who live abroad," he said.
"Five or ten years ago their parents would have disapproved because they wanted their children to be doctors or engineers but now they are more relaxed about letting them act."
"Bollywood actors are making more money than those professions and the industry is more transparent and less disreputable than it was," he said.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1154662
Mittal, Ambani brothers among Forbes top 10 super-rich
Leading upto his name and fame in the world of stocks legendary investor Warren Buffett has overtaken software czar Bill Gates as well as Mexican Tycoon Carlos Slim Helu to become the world's richest person, as per Forbes' annual list of billionaires.
These three are followed by NRI steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani at fourth, fifth and sixth position.
Another Indian businessman K P Singh has occupied the eighth position.
In terms of wealth created in the last one year, Anil Ambani has come on top, followed by his elder brother Mukesh Ambani.
Buffett has been ranked at the top with a net worth of 62 billion dollars, higher than Slim's 60 billion dollars and Gates' 58 billion dollars.
Forbes has put Mittal's net worth at 45 billion dollars closely followed by Mukesh Ambani's 43 billion dollars and Anil Ambani's 42 billion dollars.
Singh has a net worth of 30 billion dollars.
The other Indians who have made it to the Forbes list include Ravi and Sashi Ruia and Azim Premji, who have occupied the 43rd and 30th spot with net worth of 15 billion dollars and 12.7 billion dollars respectively.
Besides, the list also has Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Rahul Bajaj, each with a worth of one billion dolllar.
Buffett, the 77-year-old chief of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, saw his wealth jump from USD 52 billion last year to USD 62 billion, pushing Microsoft co-founder Gates into third position after 13 years at the top.
Mexico's telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu grabbed second place with a tidy nest egg of USD 60 billion, up from USD 49 billion last year.
Buffett, who announced in 2006 he was giving the majority of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saw his wealth spike mostly due to the rising value of his Berkshire Hathaway stock.
In total, this year's list sees 1,125 people around the world making the billionaire's list, up from 946 last year.
Their total net worth stands at USD 4.4 trillion, up from USD 3.5 trillion in 2007.
By nationality, the United States still easily led the rankings with 469 billionaires up from 415 last year, but Russia replaced Germany as the second placed country with 87 billionaires.
Third-placed India saw the number of its super-rich jump to 53 entries on the list -- four of them in the top 10 -- although China and Hong Kong if taken together would overtake it, with 42 and 26 billionaires respectively.
Japan, although still the second largest economy in the world, saw its number of billionaires trailing at 24 -- overtaken by Turkey, which this year saw its number of mega-tycoons on the list jump from 22 in 2007 to 35.
Following is the list of billionaires who have Indian citizenship or are residents of India, as complied by the Forbes Magazine.
Rank Name: Net Worth ($bil)
4. Lakshmi Mittal: 45.0
5. Mukesh Ambani: 43.0
6. Anil Ambani: 42.0
8. KP Singh: 30.0
43. Shashi & Ravi Ruia: 15.0
60. Azim Premji: 12.7
64. Sunil Mittal & family: 11.8
76. Kumar Birla: 10.2
86. Ramesh Chandra: 9.6
91. Gautam Adani: 9.3
110. Savitri Jindal & family: 8.2
164. Anil Agarwal: 6.0
178 Adi Godrej & family: 5.5
198. G M Rao: 5.2
203. Pallonji Mistry: 5.0
236. Indu Jain: 4.4
260. Dilip Shanghvi: 4.0
277. Jaiprakash Gaur: 3.9
277. Shiv Nadar: 3.9
288. Uday Kotak: 3.7
307. Cyrus Poonawalla: 3.5
327. Anand Jain: 3.4
368. Chandru Raheja: 3.0
368. Tulsi Tanti: 3.0
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Mittal-Ambani-bros-among-Forbes-top-10-superrich/281115/
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Nano leads India's small car challenge at Geneva Motor Show
Across the sprawling pavillians, some of the most talked about models this year were compact cars. And of course Nano ruled the roster. Just after the Honda presser, a European journalist asked Takeo Fukui, global CEO, Honda Motor Co, about the Nano and India's small car challenge. "We need smaller and cheaper vehicles," he replied. "But the Nano I don't understand. For sure ecology is important and safety is important too."
Right across him, at the Nano pavillion, despite the satin-draped cars before the formal launch a couple of hours later that afternoon, journalists, officials from rival MNC companies and press and publicity workers kept dropping by for a dekko. Like Detroit, the talk of the show was the Rs 1 lakh car from Tata Motors. And the questions -- about safety, environment and a possible Euro foray -- kept coming. All through the day.
If the Nano made waves at Geneva and with the world media-- its interest in Tata Motors piqued by not just the biggest innovation in the auto industry since the combustion engine as a visibly awed Indian visitor put it, but also the Jaguar-Land Rover deal which is close to completion -- it wasn't the only small option on display.
Some of the biggest names in the business from Daihatsu and Toyota to Nissan, Renault and Suzuki displayed compact cars. Part of the reason for the compact rush is of course local -- Europe is a big hatchback market and compact cars have always enjoyed a significant share of this market.
Terios, a Materia in 1.5 and 1.3 variants, a very very retro looking Trevis and a vra vra vroom gorgeous Copen two-seater roadster coupe which takes the small is beautiful dictum to an entirely different level altogether.
Close by mother company Toyota too displayed some pretty cool models. Rubbing shoulders with the Auris, long rumoured to be the final replacement for the Corolla though so far the two models have been happily co-existing, the Avensis and the Hilus and RAV4 which created a flutter at the auto show circuit all through last year is the Urban Cruiser and Aygo. The Urban Cruiser is interesting because it's a takeoff on the hatchback platform but with a totally different positioning twist.
The Aygo is even more interesting from the India point of view because there have long been rumours that Toyota might use it's platform for its Indian small car. Either way the Daihatsu and Toyota compacts offer interesting design and positioning insight into the not-too-distant future small car in India. Even if Toyota builds a global small car from scratch only for emerging markets (a la Innova project), these models will offer platform and design cues that may be incorporated in that.
Auto Expo regulars were of course happy to see Suzuki displaying the same models in Geneva that had their global preview in Delhi in January. Among them the Splash and the A-Star, not to mention the Concept Kizashi2. Quite apart from that and the fact that all three are due for an Indian roll out in the next 12-18 months, Suzuki's Geneva showing had a strong Indian theme.
In his opening address Toshihiro Suzuki, board member and senior managing executive officer-global marketing of Suzuki said: "Our new model (A-Star) is due to be produced by Maruti Suzuki India from the end of this year. At Suzuki we recognised India's potential and began investing there about 25 years ago. We now have a more than 55% share of the Indian market for passenger cars despite increasingly intense competition. Also 25 years of technological advances and personnel training have enabled Maruti Suzuki India to build vehicles of European standard quality.
And the company has an R&D division that has gained immense experience since starting its original task of adapting Japanese models for the Indian market. Suzuki sees India as a strategically vital base for production and R&D so we're going to continue investing over the long term.
For the concept A-Star designers from Maruti Suzuki India joined our design work from the very beginning of the project. By bringing together Japanese and Indian aesthetics in pursuit of a design with a mainly European character, they created a unique cross cultural synergy." High praise indeed for Indian innovation and ingenuity.The Nano effect continues.
Of course close by the Euro-Japanese Nissan-Renault's commitment to India also came through albeit a little tangentially. Renault's Megane Coupe Concept (among the hottest of the show along with the Mazda Taiki concept), Koleos crossover (featured in ET AutoMania's global launch section a couple of weeks ago), Laguna GT and Twingo Renault Sport are not intended to come to India anytime soon.
Neither are the Nissan GT-R supercar and the Pivo2 concept (which created a major flutter when it first debuted and has continued to grab eyeballs in auto shows across the globe). But Nissan chief Carlos Taveras did say that the Infinity range is a definite possibility.
"We do not have any definite plan but the opportunity is there and we are looking at the prospects of growth and progress in India," he said. "We will address that opportunity definitely in the near future."
For Nissan that would be one part of a larger jigsaw where India will be the centre of its global small car strategy. That strategy will spawn a family of models. But till it does, to build brand presence and visibility in India, the next model to roll out after the X-Trail and Teana will be the Murano also on display at its pavillion in Geneva.
Beyond the small car, a number of other models too are exciting from the India perspective.
The new Ford Fiesta for one. The whole range of green vehicles for another. Ford has its entire green range on display. Mazda has a hybrid dual fuel Mazda 5, Toyota has a plug-in Prius and Tata Motors announced that it intends to go full steam ahead into alternative technologies.
"We are very keen to have a presence in that segment in the course of time. The Tata group will be involved with bio-fuel but we will also look at electric vehicles, hybrids, flexi fuels and other options," said Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata. That would mean buying technology and components systems and investing in R&D.
Does that mean a hybrid Nano will debut in Geneva sometime in the not too distant future? Tata Motors isn't saying anything just yet (it isn't even offering a time frame for the conventional Nano's Euro debut) but don't rule it out.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Nano_leads_Indias_small_car_challenge/rssarticleshow/2841186.cms
100 Weird Facts About the Human Body
The human body is an incredibly complex and intricate system, one that still baffles doctors and researchers on a regular basis despite thousands of years of medical knowledge. As a result, it shouldn’t be any surprise that even body parts and functions we deal with every day have bizarre or unexpected facts and explanations behind them. From sneezes to fingernail growth, here are 100 weird, wacky, and interesting facts about the human body.
The Brain
The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy. There may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered.
- Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.
- The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.
- The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive.
- Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream. The brain only makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.
- The brain is much more active at night than during the day. Logically, you would think that all the moving around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than, say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your brain turns on. Scientists don’t yet know why this is but you can thank the hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams.
- Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don’t take it as a sign you’re mentally lacking if you can’t recall your dreams. Most of us don’t remember many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 2-3 seconds–barely long enough to register.
- Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and neural tissue couldn’t grow or regenerate. While it doesn’t act in the same manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and the illnesses that affect it.
- Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.
- The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain. That doesn’t mean your head can’t hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can give you a pounding headache.
- 80% of the brain is water. Your brain isn’t the firm, gray mass you’ve seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a squishy, pink and jelly-like organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water content of the tissue. So the next time you’re feeling dehydrated get a drink to keep your brain hydrated.
Hair and Nails
While they’re not a living part of your body, most people spend a good amount of time caring for their hair and nails. The next time you’re heading in for a haircut or manicure, think of these facts.
- Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. If you’ve ever had a covering of stubble on your face as you’re clocking out at 5 o’clock you’re probably pretty familiar with this. In fact, if the average man never shaved his beard it would grow to over 30 feet during his lifetime, longer than a killer whale.
- Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. Unless you’re already bald, chances are good that you’re shedding pretty heavily on a daily basis. Your hair loss will vary in accordance with the season, pregnancy, illness, diet and age.
- Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair. While it might sound strange, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that men’s hair should be coarser than that of women. Hair diameter also varies on average between races, making hair plugs on some men look especially obvious.
- One human hair can support 3.5 ounces. That’s about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more plausible.
- The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.
- There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. Humans are not quite the naked apes that we’re made out to be. We have lots of hair, but on most of us it’s not obvious as a majority of the hairs are too fine or light to be seen.
- Blondes have more hair. They’re said to have more fun, and they definitely have more hair. Hair color determines how dense the hair on your head is. The average human has 100,000 hair follicles, each of which is capable of producing 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime. Blondes average 146,000 follicles while people with black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. Those with brown hair fit the average with 100,000 follicles and redheads have the least dense hair, with about 86,000 follicles.
- Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails. If you notice that you’re trimming your fingernails much more frequently than your toenails you’re not just imagining it. The nails that get the most exposure and are used most frequently grow the fastest. On average, nails on both the toes and fingers grow about one-tenth of an inch each month.
- The lifespan of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average. While you quite a few hairs each day, your hairs actually have a pretty long life providing they aren’t subject to any trauma. Your hairs will likely get to see several different haircuts, styles, and even possibly decades before they fall out on their own.
- You must lose over 50% of your scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone. You lose hundreds of hairs a day but you’ll have to lose a lot more before you or anyone else will notice. Half of the hairs on your pretty little head will have to disappear before your impending baldness will become obvious to all those around you.
- Human hair is virtually indestructible. Aside from it’s flammability, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is practically non-disintegrative. If you’ve ever wondered how your how clogs up your pipes so quick consider this: hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.
Internal Organs
Though we may not give them much thought unless they’re bothering us, our internal organs are what allow us to go on eating, breathing and walking around. Here are some things to consider the next time you hear your stomach growl.
- The largest internal organ is the small intestine. Despite being called the smaller of the two intestines, your small intestine is actually four times as long as the average adult is tall. If it weren’t looped back and forth upon itself it wouldn’t fit inside the abdominal cavity.
- The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. No wonder you can feel your heartbeat so easily. Pumping blood through your body quickly and efficiently takes quite a bit of pressure resulting in the strong contractions of the heart and the thick walls of the ventricles which push blood to the body.
- The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades. While you certainly shouldn’t test the fortitude of your stomach by eating a razorblade or any other metal object for that matter, the acids that digest the food you eat aren’t to be taken lightly. Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at dissolving the pizza you had for dinner but can also eat through many types of metal.
- The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, the distance around the earth is about 25,000 miles, making the distance your blood vessels could travel if laid end to end more than two times around the earth.
- You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. The mucus-like cells lining the walls of the stomach would soon dissolve due to the strong digestive acids in your stomach if they weren’t constantly replaced. Those with ulcers know how painful it can be when stomach acid takes its toll on the lining of your stomach.
- The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court. In order to more efficiently oxygenate the blood, the lungs are filled with thousands of branching bronchi and tiny, grape-like alveoli. These are filled with microscopic capillaries which oxygen and carbon dioxide. The large amount of surface area makes it easier for this exchange to take place, and makes sure you stay properly oxygenated at all times.
- Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.The main reason for this is simply that on average women tend to be smaller than men and have less mass to pump blood to. But women’s and men’s hearts can actually act quite differently, especially when experiencing trauma like a heart attack, and many treatments that work for men must be adjusted or changed entirely to work for women.
- Scientists have counted over 500 different liver functions. You may not think much about your liver except after a long night of drinking, but the liver is one of the body’s hardest working, largest and busiest organs. Some of the functions your liver performs are: production of bile, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis, and detoxification.
- The aorta is nearly the diameter of a garden hose. The average adult heart is about the size of two fists, making the size of the aorta quite impressive. The artery needs to be so large as it is the main supplier of rich, oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
- Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. For most people, if they were asked to draw a picture of what the lungs look like they would draw both looking roughly the same size. While the lungs are fairly similar in size, the human heart, though located fairly centrally, is tilted slightly to the left making it take up more room on that side of the body and crowding out that poor left lung.
- You could remove a large part of your internal organs and survive. The human body may appear fragile but it’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too great, but the missing organs wouldn’t kill you.
- The adrenal glands change size throughout life. The adrenal glands, lying right above the kidneys, are responsible for releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In the seventh month of a fetus’ development, the glands are roughly the same size as the kidneys. At birth, the glands have shrunk slightly and will continue to do so throughout life. In fact, by the time a person reaches old age, the glands are so small they can hardly be seen.
Bodily Functions
We may not always like to talk about them, but everyone has to deal with bodily functions on a daily basis. These are a few facts about the involuntary and sometimes unpleasant actions of our bodies.
- Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph. There’s a good reason why you can’t keep your eyes open when you sneeze–that sneeze is rocketing out of your body at close to 100 mph. This is, of course, a good reason to cover your mouth when you sneeze.
- Coughs clock in at about 60 mph. Viruses and colds get spread around the office and the classroom quickly during cold and flu season. With 60 mph coughs spraying germs far and wide, it’s no wonder.
- Women blink twice as many times as men do. That’s a lot of blinking every day. The average person, man or woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.
- A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400-800 cc of fluid but most people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc.
- Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water. While we might typically think that urine is the liquid part of human waste products, the truth is that what we consider solid waste is actually mostly water as well. You should be thankful that most waste is fairly water-filled, as drier harder stools are what cause constipation and are much harder and sometimes painful to pass.
- Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day. With that kind of sweat-producing power it’s no wonder that your gym shoes have a stench that can peel paint. Additionally, men usually have much more active sweat glands than women.
- During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Saliva plays an important part in beginning the digestive process and keeping the mouth lubricated, and your mouth produces quite a bit of it on a daily basis.
- The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you’d like to think you’re too dignified to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few times a day. Digestion causes the body to release gases which can be painful if trapped in the abdomen and not released.
- Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.
Sex and Reproduction
As taboo as it may be in some places, sex is an important part of human life as a facet of relationships and the means to reproduce. Here are a few things you might not have known.
- On any given day, sexual intercourse takes place 120 million times on earth. Humans are a quickly proliferating species, and with about 4% of the world’s population having sex on any given day, it’s no wonder that birth rates continue to increase in many places all over the world.
- The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. While you can’t see skin cells or muscle cells, the ovum is typically large enough to be seen with the naked eye with a diameter of about a millimeter. The sperm cell, on the other hand, is tiny, consisting of little more than nucleus.
- The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings and many other unexpected changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types of dreams women have and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but many women also dream of water, giving birth or even have violent or sexually charged dreams.
- Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. While few babies are born with teeth in place, the teeth that will eventually push through the gums of young children are formed long before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the fetus starts to form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.
- Babies are always born with blue eyes. The color of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents, but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.
- Babies are, pound for pound, stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly couldn’t pull a covered wagon at its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might very well be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny creatures, so watch out for those kicks.
- One out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing mothers may cringe at this fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has already erupted and sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of choppers comes in.
- A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. When only a small fraction of the way through its development, a fetus will have already developed one of the most unique human traits: fingerprints. At only 6-13 weeks of development, the whorls of what will be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will not change throughout the person’s life and will be one of the last things to disappear after death.
- Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. All life has to begin somewhere, and even the largest humans spent a short part of their lives as a single celled organism when sperm and egg cells first combine. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.
- Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep. Most people’s bodies and minds are much more active when they’re sleeping than they think. The combination of blood circulation and testosterone production can cause erections during sleep and they’re often a normal and necessary part of REM sleep.
Senses
The primary means by which we interact with the world around us is through our senses. Here are some interesting facts about these five sensory abilities.
- After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp. If you’re heading to a concert or a musical after a big meal you may be doing yourself a disservice. Try eating a smaller meal if you need to keep your hearing pitch perfect.
- About one third of the human race has 20-20 vision. Glasses and contact wearers are hardly alone in a world where two thirds of the population have less than perfect vision. The amount of people with perfect vision decreases further as they age.
- If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it. In order for foods, or anything else, to have a taste, chemicals from the substance must be dissolved by saliva. If you don’t believe it, try drying off your tongue before tasting something.
- Women are born better smellers than men and remain better smellers over life. Studies have shown that women are more able to correctly pinpoint just what a smell is. Women were better able to identify citrus, vanilla, cinnamon and coffee smells. While women are overall better smellers, there is an unfortunate 2% of the population with no sense of smell at all.
- Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents. While a bloodhound’s nose may be a million times more sensitive than a human’s, that doesn’t mean that the human sense of smell is useless. Humans can identify a wide variety of scents and many are strongly tied to memories.
- Even small noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by uninvited noise. The sound causes their pupils to change focus and blur their vision, making it harder to do their job well.
- Everyone has a unique smell, except for identical twins. Newborns are able to recognize the smell of their mothers and many of us can pinpoint the smell of our significant others and those we are close to. Part of that smell is determined by genetics, but it’s also largely do to environment, diet and personal hygiene products that create a unique chemistry for each person.
Aging and Death
From the very young to the very old, aging is a necessary and unavoidable part of life. Learn about the process with these interesting, if somewhat strange facts.
- The ashes of a cremated person average about 9 pounds. A big part of what gives the human body weight is the water trapped in our cells. Once cremated, that water and a majority of our tissues are destroyed, leaving little behind.
- Nails and hair do not continue to grow after we die. They do appear longer when we die, however, as the skin dehydrates and pulls back from the nail beds and scalp.
- By the age of 60, most people will have lost about half their taste buds. Perhaps you shouldn’t trust your grandma’s cooking as much as you do. Older individuals tend to lose their ability to taste, and many find that they need much more intense flavoring in order to be able to fully appreciate a dish.
- Your eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing. When babies look up at you with those big eyes, they’re the same size that they’ll be carrying around in their bodies for the rest of their lives. Their ears and nose, however, will grow throughout their lives and research has shown that growth peaks in seven year cycles.
- By 60 years of age, 60-percent of men and 40-percent of women will snore. If you’ve ever been kept awake by a snoring loved one you know the sound can be deafening. Normal snores average around 60 decibels, the noise level of normal speech, intense snores can reach more than 80 decibels, the approximate level caused by a jackhammer breaking up concrete.
- A baby’s head is one-quarter of it’s total length, but by age 25 will only be one-eighth of its total length. As it turns out, our adorably oversized baby heads won’t change size as drastically as the rest of our body. The legs and torso will lengthen, but the head won’t get much longer.
Disease and Injury
Most of us will get injured or sick at some point in our lives. Here are some facts on how the human body reacts to the stresses and dangers from the outside world.
- Monday is the day of the week when the risk of heart attack is greatest. Yet another reason to loathe Mondays! A ten year study in Scotland found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week. Researchers theorize that it’s a combination of too much fun over the weekend with the stress of going back to work that causes the increase.
- Humans can make do longer without food than sleep. While you might feel better prepared to stay up all night partying than to give up eating, that feeling will be relatively short lived. Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was doing.
- A simple, moderately severe sunburn damages the blood vessels extensively. How extensively? Studies have shown that it can take four to fifteen months for them to return to their normal condition. Consider that the next time you’re feeling too lazy to apply sunscreen before heading outside.
- Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress. That high stress job you have could be doing more than just wearing you down each day. It could also be increasing your chances of having a variety of serious medical conditions like depression, high blood pressure and heart disease.
- A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated. While it might be gross to think about, the blood in the head may be enough to keep someone alive and conscious for a few seconds after the head has been separated from the body, though reports as to the accuracy of this are widely varying.
Muscles and Bones
Muscles and Bones provide the framework for our bodies and allow us to jump, run or just lie on the couch. Here are a few facts to ponder the next time you’re lying around.
- It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Unless you’re trying to give your face a bit of a workout, smiling is a much easier option for most of us. Anyone who’s ever scowled, squinted or frowned for a long period of time knows how it tires out the face which doesn’t do a thing to improve your mood.
- Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206. The reason for this is that many of the bones of children are composed of smaller component bones that are not yet fused like those in the skull. This makes it easier for the baby to pass through the birth canal. The bones harden and fuse as the children grow.
- We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. The cartilage between our bones gets compressed by standing, sitting and other daily activities as the day goes on, making us just a little shorter at the end of the day than at the beginning.
- The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. While you may not be able to bench press much with your tongue, it is in fact the strongest muscle in your body in proportion to its size. If you think about it, every time you eat, swallow or talk you use your tongue, ensuring it gets quite a workout throughout the day.
- The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone. The next time someone suggests you take it on the chin, you might be well advised to take their advice as the jawbone is one of the most durable and hard to break bones in the body.
- You use 200 muscles to take one step. Depending on how you divide up muscle groups, just to take a single step you use somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 muscles. That’s a lot of work for the muscles considering most of us take about 10,000 steps a day.
- The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself. If you’ve ever chipped a tooth you know just how sadly true this one is. The outer layer of the tooth is enamel which is not a living tissue. Since it’s not alive, it can’t repair itself, leaving your dentist to do the work instead.
- It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it. Lazy people out there shouldn’t use this as motivation to not work out, however. It’s relatively easy to build new muscle tissue and get your muscles in shape, so if anything, this fact should be motivation to get off the couch and get moving.
- Bone is stronger than some steel. This doesn’t mean your bones can’t break of course, as they are much less dense than steel. Bone has been found to have a tensile strength of 20,000 psi while steel is much higher at 70,000 psi. Steel is much heavier than bone, however, and pound for pound bone is the stronger material.
- The feet account for one quarter of all the human body’s bones. You may not give your feet much thought but they are home to more bones than any other part of your body. How many? Of the two hundred or so bones in the body, the feet contain a whopping 52 of them.
Microscopic Level
Much of what takes place in our bodies happens at a level that we simply can’t see with the naked eye. These facts will show you that sometimes that might be for the best.
- About 32 million bacteria call every inch of your skin home. Germaphobes don’t need to worry however, as a majority of these are entirely harmless and some are even helpful in maintaining a healthy body.
- Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days. Skin protects your delicate internal organs from the elements and as such, dries and flakes off completely about once a month so that it can maintain its strength. Chances are that last month’s skin is still hanging around your house in the form of the dust on your bookshelf or under the couch.
- Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute. While that sounds like a lot, it’s really just a small fraction of the cells that are in the human body. Estimates have placed the total number of cells in the body at 10-50 trillion so you can afford to lose a few hundred million without a hitch.
- Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour. You may not think much about losing skin if yours isn’t dry or flaky or peeling from a sunburn, but your skin is constantly renewing itself and shedding dead cells.
- Every day an adult body produces 300 billion new cells. Your body not only needs energy to keep your organs up and running but also to constantly repair and build new cells to form the building blocks of your body itself.
- Every tongue print is unique. If you’re planning on committing a crime, don’t think you’ll get away with leaving a tongue print behind. Each tongue is different and yours could be unique enough to finger you as the culprit.
- Your body has enough iron in it to make a nail 3 inches long. Anyone who has ever tasted blood knows that it has a slightly metallic taste. This is due to the high levels of iron in the blood. If you were to take all of this iron out of the body, you’d have enough to make a small nail and very severe anemia.
- The most common blood type in the world is Type O. Blood banks find it valuable as it can be given to those with both type A and B blood. The rarest blood type, A-H or Bombay blood due to the location of its discovery, has been found in less than hundred people since it was discovered.
- Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin. The blood in these capillaries is normally highly oxygenated and therefore quite red. This explains why the lips appear pale when a person is anemic or has lost a great deal of blood. It also explains why the lips turn blue in very cold weather. Cold causes the capillaries to constrict, and the blood loses oxygen and changes to a darker color.
Miscellaneous
Here are a few things you might not have known about all different parts of your anatomy.
- The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream. It isn’t entirely clear to scientists why this is the case, but if you are opposed to having nightmares you might want to keep yourself a little toastier at night.
- Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria. This is to your advantage, as the mucus that lines your nose and throat, as well as the tears that wet your eyes are helping to prevent bacteria from infecting those areas and making you sick.
- Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil. If you’ve seen the Matrix you are aware of the energy potentially generated by the human body. Our bodies expend a large amount of calories keeping us at a steady 98.6 degrees, enough to boil water or even cook pasta.
- Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t. The chemicals and hormones released when you are afraid could be having unseen effects on your body in the form of earwax. Studies have suggested that fear causes the ears to produce more of the sticky substance, though the reasons are not yet clear.
- It is not possible to tickle yourself. Even the most ticklish among us do not have the ability to tickle ourselves. The reason behind this is that your brain predicts the tickle from information it already has, like how your fingers are moving. Because it knows and can feel where the tickle is coming from, your brain doesn’t respond in the same way as it would if someone else was doing the tickling.
- The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body. While not exact down to the last millimeter, your armspan is a pretty good estimator of your height.
- Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears. In the animal world, humans are the biggest crybabies, being the only animals who cry because they’ve had a bad day, lost a loved one, or just don’t feel good.
- Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. This doesn’t have a genetic basis, but is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed, making them somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of accidents and deaths each year.
- Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Most men have a much easier time burning fat than women. Women, because of their reproductive role, generally require a higher basic body fat proportion than men, and as a result their bodies don’t get rid of excess fat at the same rate as men.
- Koalas and primates are the only animals with unique fingerprints. Humans, apes and koalas are unique in the animal kingdom due to the tiny prints on the fingers of their hands. Studies on primates have suggested that even cloned individuals have unique fingerprints.
- The indentation in the middle of the area between the nose and the upper lip has a name. It is called the philtrum. Scientists have yet to figure out what purpose this indentation serves, though the ancient Greeks thought it to be one of the most erogenous places on the body.
India all set to have its first Beer Garden!
Fancy drinking freshly brewed beer under open skies? Well, how about a beer street inside a mall? With the Haryana government recently allowing setting up of micro beer brewery pubs, a first for any state in the country, the Rs 2,000-crore Rockman Group is all set to unveil the country’s first Beer Garden (actually two), in Gurgaon in the next three-four months with an investment of over Rs 100 crore.
The Rockman Group has entered into a joint venture with the Lowenbrau Buttenheim International Division (independent of InBev and Ravi Jaipuria joint venture) to set up these beer gardens which will serve fresh non-pasteurised beer.
To be spread over 6,000 sq ft (inside and mall) and 6,000 sq yards for the open area, the first two Rockman Gardens will be located in Ambience Mall, Gurgaon and Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.
Besides selling beer, these Gardens will also have a shopping centre where one can find all paraphernalia connected with beer drinking––such as bottle openers, kegs, mementos and exotic beer mugs. German-based Kaspar Schulz and Weyermann will offer Bavarian crockery & cutlery, interiors design and furniture & fixtures for the same project.
Rockman Group managing director CS Agarwal says, “It’s time that Indian society embrace beer and wine as socially acceptable drinks. Through Beer Garden we would like to connect with young generation and consumers above 50 years.”
Rockman also envisages to develop some unique beer styles suitable to the Indian palate and consumption. “Our beer gardens will house breweries producing these unique and different beer styles. The ambience will be different from pubs and hotel bars,” adds Mr Agarwal.
The world’s largest traditional beer garden, Hirschgarten in Munich, has a seating capacity of over 8,000 people.
Brewing the beer in front of consumers, the beer garden provides the lush green surroundings. Keeping this tradition intact, Rockman plans to take this project national and reach out to places like Goa, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India_all_set_to_have_its_first_Beer_Garden_/rssarticleshow/2837993.cms
Investing in India : Tips and Info
Investing in India
The first and second-generation reforms have created a conducive environment for foreign investments in India. Market oriented policies are boosting economic activity, all round development and GDP growth rate. Government procedures are constantly being simplified and paper work minimised. As the Indian economy gears for competition in the international market, overseas investors clearly see the potential for attractive returns from investments in India, which is also evident from the many FDI success stories already achieved.
Policy Framework
Industrial Policy
The Indian Government’s market liberalisation and economic policy reforms programme aims at rapid and substantial economic growth and integration of the country’s economy with the global economy. The industrial policy reforms have eliminated the industrial licensing requirements except for certain select sectors, removed restrictions on investment and expansion and facilitated easy access to foreign technology and direct investment.
The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 and the Statement on Industrial Policy of 1991 provide the basic framework for the Government’s overall industrial policy. The procedures for obtaining government approvals have been progressively simplified and quickened. Normal FDI proposals are cleared within a month. Areas earlier reserved for public sector have mostly been opened for private sector participation also.
Industrial Licensing
All industrial undertakings are exempt from obtaining an industrial license to manufacture, except for the following:
• Industries reserved for the Public Sector;
• Industries retained under compulsory licensing;
• Items of manufacture reserved for the small scale sector; and
• Any proposal attracting locational restriction.
Industrial undertakings exempt from obtaining an industrial license are required to file an Industrial Entrepreneur Memoranda (IEM) with the Secretariat of Industrial Assistance (SIA), Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
Foreign Investment Policy
Foreign investment is permitted in virtually every sector, except those of strategic concern such as defence (opened up recently to a limited extent) and rail transport. Foreign companies are permitted to set up 100 per cent subsidiaries in India. No prior approval from the exchange control authorities (RBI) is required, except for certain specified activities. The investment should be in accordance with the prescribed guidelines and the details of the investment should be filed with the authorities within the prescribed time limit. This procedure is applicable only for fresh investments directly in Indian companies and not for purchase of shares from the existing shareholders. This investment procedure is commonly known as the "automatic approval route".
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) of the Government of India is constituted mainly to promote inflows of FDI into the country, as also to provide appropriate institutional arrangements, transparent procedures and guidelines for investment promotion and to consider and approve/recommend proposals for foreign investment.
Secretariat for Industrial Assistance (SIA) has been set up by the Government of India in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to provide a single window service for entrepreneurial assistance, investor facilitation, receiving and processing all applications which require Government approval, conveying Government decisions on applications filed, assisting entrepreneurs and investors in setting up projects (including liaison with other organisations and State Governments) and in monitoring implementation of projects. It also notifies all Government Policy decisions relating to investment and technology, and collects and publishes monthly production data for select industry groups. The SIA website (http://siadipp.nic.in) provides for chat time during fixed hours when all questions are answered. During other times, investors are encouraged to write e-mails and the Secretariat assures a reply within 24 hours.
In order to give further impetus to facilitation and monitoring of investment, as well as for better coordination of infrastructural requirements for industry, a new cell called the "Investment Promotion and Infrastructure Development Cell" has been created.
Regulation and procedures
Procedures for obtaining government approvals have been considerably simplified. Approval procedures have been laid out for undertakings that are
• exempt from industrial licensing requirements (including existing units undertaking substantial expansion);
• subject to compulsory industrial licensing; and
• small scale units exceeding the prescribed limit of investment in plant and machinery and continuing to manufacture small scale reserved item(s) or, in cases where exemption from industrial licensing granted for any item, is withdrawn.
Automatic approval route and FIPB route
• Foreign investment into India is governed by the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy of the Government of India and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA). With increasing liberalisation of the Indian economy, generally, there is no need to obtain prior approval of the Government of India for a fresh investment to be made into an Indian company (only procedural filings have to be made with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Indian central bank). In certain cases, however, and also for investment in certain specified sectors, prior approval is required. Further, investment in certain specified sectors, is subject to foreign equity caps.
New ventures
All items/activities for FDI up to 100% by Non-Resident Indians (NRI)/Overseas Corporate Bodies (OCB) fall under the Automatic Route except those that expressly require a prior Government approval.
An investor may, if so prefered, choose to make an application to the FIPB and not avail of the automatic route.
Investment in Public Sector Units as also for units located in Export Oriented Units (EOU)/Export Processing Zones (EPZ)/Special Economic Zones (SEZ)/Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTP)/ Software Technology Parks (STP) would also qualify for the Automatic Route. Investment under the Automatic Route is governed by the notified sectoral policy and equity caps and RBI ensures compliance of the same.
Any change in sectoral policy/sectoral equity cap is notified by the SIA in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion.
Existing Companies
Besides new companies, automatic route for FDI/NRI/OCB investment is also available to the existing companies to induct foreign equity. For existing companies with an expansion programme, the additional requirements are that:
• the increase in equity level must result from the expansion of the equity base of the existing company without acquisition of existing shares by NRI/OCB/foreign investors;
• the money to be remitted should be in the sector(s) under the automatic route.
Otherwise the proposal would need Government approval through the FIPB. For this, the proposal must be supported by a Board Resolution of the existing Indian company.
For existing companies without an expansion programme, the additional requirements for eligibility for automatic route are that:
• they are engaged in the industries under automatic route (including additional activities covered under the automatic route regardless of whether the original activities were undertaken with Government approval or by accessing the automatic route);
• the increase in equity level must be from expansion of the equity base; and
• the foreign equity must be in foreign currency.
Equity participation by international financial institutions in domestic companies is permitted through automatic route subject to Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) /RBI regulations and sector specific caps on FDI.
Indian companies are required to notify the RBI of receipt of inward remittances within 30 days of such receipt and file required documentation within 30 days of issue of shares to Foreign Investors. This facility is available to NRI/OCB investment also.
Government approval (FIPB route)
For the following categories, Government approval for FDI/NRI/OCB through the FIPB shall be necessary:
• All proposals requiring an Industrial License.
• All proposals in which the foreign collaborator has a previous venture/tie-up in India in the same or allied field. However, this condition is not applicable for proposals in the Information Technology industry.
• All proposals relating to acquisition of shares in an existing Indian company.
• All proposals falling outside notified sectoral policy/caps or under sectors for which FDI is not permitted and/or whenever any investor chooses to make an application to the FIPB and not to avail of the automatic route.
Indian companies getting foreign investment approval through FIPB route do not require any further clearance from RBI for the purpose of receiving inward remittance and issue of shares to the foreign investors. These Companies are required to notify the RBI of receipt of inward remittances within 30 days of such receipt and file required documentation within 30 days of issue of shares to Foreign Investors.
Foreign Investment in the Small Scale Sector
Small Scale Undertakings (SSUs) are defined as units having investments in fixed assets in plant and machinery of not more than INR 10 million. Under the small scale industrial policy, equity holding by other units including foreign equity in a small scale undertaking is permissible up to 24 per cent. However there is no bar on higher equity holding for foreign investment if the unit is willing to give up its small scale status. In case of foreign investment beyond 24 per cent in a small scale unit which manufactures small scale reserved item(s), an industrial license carrying a mandatory export obligation of 50 per cent must be obtained.
A SSU manufacturing small scale reserved item(s), on exceeding the small-scale investment ceiling in plant and machinery by virtue of natural growth, needs to apply for and obtain a Carry-on-Business (COB) License. No export obligation is fixed on the capacity for which the COB license is granted. However, if the unit expands its capacity for the small scale reserved item(s) further, it needs to apply for and obtain a separate industrial license.
Foreign Investment Policy for trading activities
Foreign investment for trading is permissible under the automatic route up to 51% foreign equity, and beyond this by the Government through FIPB. For approval through the automatic route, the requirement would be that it is primarily export activities and the undertaking concerned is an export house/trading house/ super trading house/star trading house registered under the provisions of the Export and Import policy in force. However, under the Government route, 100% FDI is permitted in case of trading activities carried out in certain specified sectors such as hi-tech medical and diagnostic items, items for social sector, exports, bulk imports, to name a few.
FDI upto 100% is also permitted for E-commerce activities subject to the condition that such companies would divest 26% of their equity in favour of the Indian public in five years, if these companies are listed in other parts of the world.
Other modes of Foreign Direct Investments
Global Depository Receipts (GDR)/American Deposit Receipts (ADR)/Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCB)
Indian companies are allowed to raise equity capital in the international market through the issue of GDRs/ADRs/FCCBs. These are not subject to any ceilings on investment. An applicant company seeking Government’s approval in this regard should have a consistent track record for good performance (financial or otherwise) for a minimum period of 3 years.
There is no restriction on the number of GDRs/ADRs/FCCBs to be floated by a company or a group of companies in a financial year. A company engaged in the manufacture of items covered under Automatic Route whose direct foreign investment after a proposed GDRs/ADRs/FCCBs issue is likely to exceed the prescribed percentage for automatic approval, or which is implementing a project not contained in project falling under Government Approval route, would need to obtain prior Government approval. Foreign investment through preference shares is also treated as foreign direct investment.
State Level Project Implementation
India has evolved a comprehensive organisational structure at the state level for industrial development. In most states the organisations present to assist and promote industries are:
• Investment Promotion Agencies (IPA)
• State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDC)
• Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (SSIDC)
• State Financial Corporation (SFC)
• District Industries Centre (DIC)
• Single Window Service and Escort Service
Several state governments have set up single window services (SWS) and investor escort services (ES). SWS aim at providing the investors a single point of contact to meet all regulatory requirements and get the required approvals. ES is targeted at large and medium sized projects and one individual is assigned from one of the state government agencies to the investor. ES seeks to help the investor in information collection, identification of project sites, arranging feasibility studies, clearance of the project by financial institutions, etc.
Investment Incentives
The state finances a part of the fixed capital cost of the project. Various states have designated areas as ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ according to their levels of development. The level of incentive provided by a state varies and is generally larger for investment in backward areas. Further, the terms and ceiling of the incentives vary across states, depending on the nature of industry that the state is trying to promote.
Power Tariff Incentives
Power tariff incentives are extended by state governments in different ways, such as exemption from the payment of electricity duty, freeze on the tariff charged for new units for a few years after commencement of production, assurance of uninterrupted electricity supply, concessional rates of billing subject to certain conditions and fiscal incentives for purchase and installation of captive power generation sets.
The actual incentives given vary across states and from industry to industry and are also dependent upon the area in which this unit is set up. Some states specify a list of industries, which do not qualify for some of these incentives.
Other Incentives
Some states extend other incentives to small-scale units or priority industries as defined in their industrial policy statements. Such incentives include concessional loans granted by State Financial Corporations, price preference on goods made by Small Scale Industries (SSIs) in purchases made by government and semi government organisations, exemption from the payment of octroi (entry tax) for a certain specified period, preferential allotment of land and sheds in industrial areas to SSIs and grant of interest free loans in lieu of deferred sales tax.
A few states have taken the initiative to streamline the investment approval process by introducing common application forms for various approvals. A ‘green channel facility’, has been introduced in some states, where applications required for clearances will be received and processed through various institutional offices on a time bound basis.
Policy framework
Most FDI activities permitted for foreign direct investment are placed on the automatic route. Under this the applicant company has only to notify the Reserve bank of India within 30 days of inward remittance of funds and again within 30 days of issuing shares to the non-resident investor. Some salient features of the FDI policy are:
• Original investment as also the returns on investment are fully repatriable
• Payment of fee and royalty to foreign technology provider is permitted including that by a wholly owned subsidiary to its off-shore parent company
• Payment of royalty and use of trade marks and brand name without transfer of technology is also permitted
• FDI is not permitted in the areas of agriculture and plantations other than the tea sector, real estate business other than development of integrated townships and settlements, retail trading, atomic energy, lottery business, gambling and betting sectors.
Foreign Investment Implementation Authority (FIIA)
The Government of India has set up the Foreign Investment implementation Authority (FIIA) to facilitate the process of translating FDI approvals into implementation. The agency provides services to foreign investors to help obtain necessary approvals, sort out operational problems and seek intervention of various government agencies to find solution to their problems.
The functions of the FIIA are as under:
• Expediting various approvals/permissions;
• Fostering partnership between investors and government agencies concerned;
• Resolve difference in perceptions;
• Enhance overall credibility;
• Review policy framework; and
• Liaise with the Ministry of External Affairs for keeping India’s diplomatic missions abroad informed about translation of FDI approvals into actual investment and implementation.
The FIIA acts as a single point interface between the investor and Government agencies including Administrative Ministries/State Governments/Regulatory Authorities/Tax Authorities/Company Law Board, etc.
Investment Promotion and Infrastructure Development (IP & ID) Cell
The functions of the Cell include: -
• Dissemination of information about investment climate in India;
• Investment facilitation;
• Developing and distributing multimedia presentation material and other publications;
• Organising Symposiums, Seminars, etc. on investment promotion;
• Liaison with State Governments regarding investment promotion;
• Documentation of single window systems followed by various States;
• Match-making service for investment promotion;
• Coordination of progress of infrastructure sectors approved for investment/technology transfer, power, telecom, ports, roads, etc.;
• Facilitating Industrial Model Town Projects, and Industrial Parks, etc.;
• Promotion of Private Investment including Foreign Investment in the infrastructure sector;
• Compilation of sectoral policies, strategies and guidelines of infrastructure sectors, both in India and abroad; and
• Facilitating preparation of a perspective plan on infrastructure requirements for industry.
Entry strategy into India
A business presence in India may be established by a foreign entity through:
Company
A company may be incorporated, inter alia, using the following modes:
• Incorporating an Indian company with 100% foreign equity, operating as a wholly owned subsidiary;
• Incorporating a Joint Venture Company (JVC) with an Indian partner and/or with the general public and operating as a listed company; or
• Incorporating a JVC with an Indian partner and operating as an unlisted company.
Branch Office
A branch would mean an establishment carrying on substantially the same activity as its Head Office. Foreign companies intending to open a Branch Office (BO) in India need to obtain prior permission of RBI which would encompass even approval to the scope of activities that are intended to be carried out in India. As per the guidelines laid down by the RBI, the BO in India is allowed to carry on only the following activities:
• Export / Import of goods;
• Rendering professional or consultancy services;
• Carrying out research work, in which the parent company is engaged;
• Promoting technical or financial collaboration between Indian companies and parent or overseas group company;
• Representing the parent company in India and acting as buying / selling agent in India;
• Rendering services in Information Technology and development of software in India;
• Rendering technical support to the products supplied by parent / group companies;
• Foreign airline / shipping company
Liaison Office
A Liaison Office (LO) is in the nature of a representative office set up primarily to explore and understand the business and investment climate. A LO is not permitted to undertake any commercial / trading / industrial activity, directly or indirectly, and is required to maintain itself out of inward remittances received from abroad through normal banking channels. The LO is permitted to undertake only the following activities:
• Representing in India the parent Company / group Company;
• Promoting export/ import from/ to India
• Promoting technical / financial collaborations between the parent / group companies and companies in India;
• Acting as a communication channel between the parent Company and Indian companies.
Any company intending to open a LO in India is required to obtain prior approval from the RBI, the apex foreign exchange management authority in India. Approval is usually granted for three years and can be renewed on expiry thereof.
Project Office
Foreign companies can establish Project Offices (POs) in India specifically for the purpose of execution of specific projects. A PO is similar to a branch office opened for the limited purpose of executing a particular contract. As POs are opened for undertaking a specific activity they cannot perform any other function or undertake any other activity. Generally, companies engaged in turnkey projects or installation projects set up POs. All expenses of POs must be met through inward foreign currency remittances if the rupee component of the contract, if any, is not sufficient to meet the said expenses. RBI approval is required to open a PO.
Important sectors where FDI up to 100 per cent is permitted
Automatic route
Most manufacturing activities
Non-banking financial services
Infrastructure such as roads and highways, ports and harbours, electricity generation transmission and distribution, mass rapid transit systems, LNG projects, etc.
Drugs and pharmaceuticals that do not attract compulsory licensing or involve use of recombinant DNA technology
Hotels and tourism
Food processing
Electronic hardware
Software Development
Film industry
Advertising
Hospitals
Oil refineries
Pollution control and management Exploration and mining of minerals other than diamonds and precious stones
Management consultancy
Venture capital funds/ companies
Setting up/ development of industrial park/ industrial model town/ SEZ
Government route
Airports (beyond 74%)
B2B e-commerce
Trading companies within notified policy
Drugs and pharmaceuticals not falling under the automatic route
Integrated township development
ISPs without gateways, electronic mail and voice mail beyond 49 per cent
Courier services other than distribution of letters
TV software production for Broadcasting
Sectors which attract ceiling on foreign ownership
Sector
Telecom
Coal and lignite
Mining
Private sector banking
Insurance
Domestic airlines
Petroleum
(other than refining)
Refining
Investing companies/
Services sector
Atomic minerals
Defence industry sector
Broadcasting
Setting up hardware
facilities such as uplinking,
HUB, etc.
Cable network
Direct-to-Home
Terrestrial Broadcasting FM
Small scale industries (SSI) sector
Satellites
Tea sector
Print Media
FDI cap (in per cent)
49
74
49
50
74
74
49
26
40
60
51
51
74
26
49
74
26
49
49
20
20 (portfolio investment)
24
74
100*
74**
26**
Activities
Basic, cellular, value-added services, global mobile personal communications by satellite I
Internet service providers with gateways, radio-paging, end-to-end bandwidth
Public sector undertakings
Other than public sector undertakings
For exploration and mining of coal or lignite for captive consumption
Exploration and mining of diamonds and precious stones
Private banking sector
Insurance sector (subject to obtaining license from IRDA)
No direct or indirect equity participation by foreign airlines
In un-incorporated joint venture
In incorporated joint venture
Petroleum products and pipeline sector
In infrastructure related marketing and marketing of petroleum products
For public sector undertakings
Investment through such vehicle is treated as resident equity
a. mining and mineral separation
b. value addition
c. integrated activities
For arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment, defence aircraft and warships
Private companies incorporated in India with permissible FII/ NRI/ OCB/ PIO equity within the limits to set uplinking hubs (teleports) for leasing or hiring out their facilities to broadcasters.
Footnote: As regards satellite broadcasting, all TV channels irrespective of the ownership or management control to uplink from India provided they undertake to comply with the broadcast (programme and advertising) code.
Foreign investment allowed up to 49 per cent (inclusive of both FDI and portfolio investment) of paid up share capital. Companies with minimum 51 per cent of paid up share capital held by Indian citizens are eligible under the Cable Television Network Rules (1994) to provide cable TV services.
Companies with a maximum of foreign equity including FDI/ NRI/ OCB/ FII of 49 per cent would be eligible to obtain DTH License. Within the foreign equity, the FDI component not to exceed 20 per cent
The licensee shall be a company registered in India under the Companies Act. All share holding should be held by Indians except for the limited portfolio investment by FII/ NRI/ PIO/ OCB subject to such ceiling as may be decided from time to time. Company shall have no direct investment by foreign entities, NRIs and OCBs. As of now the foreign investment is permissible to the extent of 20 per cent portfolio investment. No private operator is allowed in terrestrial TV transmission.
If FDI in an SSI unit exceeds 24 per cent of the paid up capital, the company looses its SSI status. Further, if the item/s of manufacture is/ are reserved for the SSI sector, the company has to obtain an industrial license and undertake a minimum export obligation of 50 per cent of annual production on such products.
Establishment and operation of satellites.
FDI permitted in tea sector, including tea plantations requiring prior government approval
*subject to compulsory divestment of 26 per cent equity of the company in favour of an Indian partner/ Indian public within a period of five years.
In Indian entities publishing scientific/ technical and speciality magazines/ periodicals/ Journals
In Indian entities publishing newspapers and periodicals
**subject to guidelines notified by ministry of information and broadcasting periodically.
Foreign technology agreements
The RBI through the automatic route, within the following prescribed monetary limits, permits foreign Technology Agreements in all industries:
• Royalty up to 5 per cent on domestic sale and 8 per cent on exports is allowed by wholly owned subsidiary to offshore parent company.
• Lump sum payment not exceeding US$ 2 million
• Royalty not exceeding 2 per cent on exports and 1 per cent on domestic sale for use of the trade marks/ brand names
All other proposals for foreign technology agreement, not meeting any or all of the parameters for automatic approval, and all cases of extension of existing foreign technical collaboration agreement, are considered for approval, on merits, by the Government. Application in respect of such proposals should be submitted in the prescribed form to the SIA Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Industry.
Facilitating alliances
While a number of foreign companies have established operations in the country on their own, others have successfully teamed up with local companies and leveraged their presence in the country. Many organisations help foreign organisations forge alliances with local companies. These include the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and consulting firms that in addition assist in chalking out entry strategies, undertaking feasibility studies, etc.
Indian embassies and missions abroad closely assist foreign investors in their initiatives to participate in various projects in India. ‘Escort services’ are provided to the foreign investor for realisation of the project.
Further information can be obtained at http://www. Bisnetindia.com and http://www.indian industry.com
Indians: Charity rich, philanthropy poor
There is no paucity of funds or lack of individual commitment to society but Indians are stingy, say non-governmental organisations and experts. "We raise 90 per cent of our funds to support orphanages from individuals and rest from trusts. There is no shortage of funds but a lack of heart amongst people who spend several thousand rupees on eating out but do not help the impoverished," says Anjali Gopalan, who heads Naz Foundation, a Delhi based NGO. Most of the time people donate money only if it is connected to aid religious purposes, adds Gopalan. Naz works for raising awareness to prevent spread of HIV/AIDS. Major-General Surat Sandhu (Retd.), Chairman, South Asian Fund Raising Group (SAFRG), says that while India is charity rich, it is philanthropy poor and NGOs need professional fundraisers to motivate and inspire people to contribute for social issues. "Most of the NGOs suffer from fund crisis. There are 1.2 million NGOs in India but less than one per cent of NGOs have professional fund-raisers and that too in the metros only, what about other cities? The potential of giving in the country is huge but we are tapping a mere fraction of it," he says, while adding India has more than 87,000 millionaires in dollar terms and over 700,000 people earning more than Rs 2 million a year. The civil society sector in the country raises funds upto $ 600 million in a year, while the potential is of more than $ 10 billion. Non-profit sector in US raises $ 260 billion each year from population of 295 million and UK raises $ 41 billion in a year from 60 million people. "The credibility of an organisation is directly proportional to the number of 'Individual Supporters' it has. Out of 4.3 million individual supporters worldwide, 70,000 are from India. We have started fundraising with only 5,000 supporters and every year more thousands of people join this noble mission," says Dev Kumar Chatterjee of Greenpeace, an environment rights group. A large number of people are still ignorant about environmental issues and they think twice before donating, he adds. Swami Agnivesh, a social activist, says that before independence there was a special bonding between Indians and the civil society used to fund everything from hospitals to schools but after the formation of government, the major portion of the fund do not reach to the needy people. "NGOs are doing a great job by raising funds for the major issues prevailing in the country. Government grants a huge amount of money but only 1 per cent of that reaches to the cause. We should not depend on anyone and only through self sustaining capacity, we will be in a better position to address poverty and inequity that prevails," he adds. Sandhu says, "Government grants Rs 6000 crore (Rs 60 billion) on NGOs whereas International NGOs give Rs 5000 crore (Rs 50 billion) through Foreign contribution regulation Act (FCRA) in a year. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) send over $ 23 billion into the country as remittances for the development purposes per year. But we still need to raise more funds from individuals as the contribution is much less than the potential." According to Planning Commission report, funds which come from abroad for development purposes are much more than Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), so it is clear that funds are not well utilised and are being invested in wrong purposes," says Bejon Mishra of Consumer Voice, a NGO. Mishra adds, "We need professional fund-raisers to exploit the resources to its potential. Most of the NGOs spend 60-70 per cent of their funds, which is meant to be utilised in the country, on hiring foreign consultants. We should create professionals here by organising workshops and conducting specialised courses in fund-raising." http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/05ngo.htm
Biharis unwanted all over India: Bal Thackeray
In an apparent bid to recapture his party's Marathi sons plank being hijacked by MNS leader Raj Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday targeted Biharis saying they were an "unwanted lot" in all parts of the country.
"They are not wanted in Southern India, Assam and also Punjab and Chandigarh. The Biharis have antagonised local population wherever they had settled. The UP-Bihari MPs have shown their ingratitude towards Mumbai and Maharashtra with an anti-Marathi tirade in Parliament," Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Samana.
The "Bihari" leaders, accusing people of Mumbai of harbouring anti-national sentiments are trying to stir again the fire of anti-north Indian feelings in Maharashtra and should realise that the exercise would only put their brethren in Maharashtra at the receiving end, Thackeray said in a veiled suggestion of a backlash.
MPs from Bihar and UP had raised the issue of anti- north Indian stand of MNS, that led to wide spread violence in Maharashtra.
The arrest of Raj Thackeray following his anti-north Indian sentiments last month had put the Shiv Sena in a difficult spot as the breakaway faction led by the nephew of the Sena chief appeared to be drawing political mileage in the state at the cost of the parent party.
Sena executive President Uddhav Thackeray recently asserted that it was only his party that was wedded to the cause of Marathis and nobody else.
Referring to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, whom he had earlier dared to perform Chhatpooja in Mumbai, the Sena leader in his editorial, said those who have turned Bihar into a hell should not try to teach nationalism to Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Thackeray's comments came even as the Maharashtra police served a show cause notice to Raj Thackeray asking him to explain as to why the gag order enforced on him following the party's anti-north Indian agitation should not be extended.
The MNS leader was in Pune when the notice was served at his Mumbai residence on Tuesday.
Shame on Bal Thackrey
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Biharis-unwanted-all-over-India-Bal-Thackeray/280678/
Manmohan reminds Pak: Our destinies interlinked
Assuring the newly elected leadership in Pakistan that India seeks good relations with the neighbour, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday hoped the two sides would work on a framework for enduring peace.
"India wants to live in peace with Pakistan. The destinies of our two nations are interlinked. We need to put the past behind us," he said while replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to President's Address in the Lok Sabha.
"We need to think about our collective destiny, our collective security, our collective prosperity," he said while assuring the newly elected leadership in Pakistan that India seeks "good relations" with it.
Singh noted that in their first pronouncement after the recent elections in Pakistan, leaders of main political parties have spoken of their interest in developing close relations with India and working with it to bring about durable peace.
He said the dialogue resumed with Pakistan over the last few years was started when Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi were Prime Ministers.
Singh surprised the opposition BJP by describing steps taken by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his then Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif as "most courageous".
"The most courageous steps to build peace were taken by Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We have continued the process with President Musharraf."
Singh said in both India and Pakistan there was a consensus to have close and cooperative relations and a framework for enduring peace.
"I hope that the newly elected leaders in Pakistan can quickly move forward with us on this," he said.
Congratulating the people of Pakistan for showing that they want to choose the democratic path, he extended "warmest good wishes" of the people and the Government of India as they consolidate democracy.
"A great daughter of Pakistan had to sacrifice her life in the process. We mourned with profound sadness the death of Benazir Bhutto," he said adding "the people of Pakistan have paid their tributes to her memory in their own way.
The Prime Minister said India wanted peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia. "We want mutually beneficial relations with all our neighbours, with all major powers and with all our economic partners."
http://in.news.yahoo.com/indianexpress/20080305/r_t_ie_nl_general/tnl-manmohan-reminds-pak-our-destinies-i-aaaedd4.html
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Football: Arsenal beat AC Milan to advance into Champions League
Arsenal struck twice late on to become the first English team to beat AC Milan in the San Siro and deservedly reach the last eight of the Champions League. 
Veteran Maldini congratulates goalscorer Fabregas
Arsene Wenger's side produced a virtuoso display but had to wait until the 84th minute before Cesc Fabregas fired in a low 30-yard finish.
Emmanuel Adebayor then turned in Theo Walcott's cross in injury time to send the holders crashing out.
Fabregas hit the bar in the first-half as Arsenal dominated almost throughout.
It was another famous Champions League win for Arsenal in Milan, following on from their famous 5-1 win against Inter in November 2005.
Milan opened brightly, with Fabregas clearing off the line from Paolo Maldini's header at the near post, but once Arsenal found their stride they controlled the first 45 minutes in composed fashion.
Fabregas dictated affairs in midfield to even outshine Kaka, but the Brazilian escaped to set up Alexandre Pato after 18 minutes, only for the youngster to finish tamely.
Arsenal were understandably furious after 32 minutes when Alexander Hleb was shown the yellow card for diving by Austrian official Konrad Plautz, even though he had been blatantly upended on the edge of the area by Alessandro Nesta.
And they were frustrated seconds later when Fabregas saw a rising drive from 20 yards rebound off the crossbar with Zeljko Kalac well beaten.
Arsenal could have taken the lead seconds after the break when Fabregas's corner landed at the feet of Philippe Senderos, but he could only send an instinctive finish straight at Kalac.
Emmanuel Eboue then wasted another glorious chance as Andrea Pirlo sent an awful pass straight to Adebayor. He found Eboue in space only 10 yards out, but he shot wastefully wide.
Milan had faded as an attacking force, but Pirlo kept Manuel Almunia on his toes with a dipping free-kick that was turned around the post by Arsenal's keeper.
Wenger made a bold substitution with 20 minutes left, sending on Walcott for Eboue.
And within four minutes he almost set up a goal, only for keeper Kalac to stretch out a leg and block his cross with a collection of Arsenal players waiting to pounce.
Arsenal almost paid the price for their profligacy in front of goal with 12 minutes left when Pato was only inches off target with an angled shot that took a deflection off Senderos.
Arsenal finally got the goal they so richly deserved with six minutes left when Fabregas advanced and sent a low shot into the corner past the despairing dive of Kalac.
And a stunning performance got the final flourish it deserved when Walcott crossed perfectly for Adebayor to turn in at the far post.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7272514.stm
India win the Commonwealth Bank series defeated Australia
BRISBANE: India win the Commonwealth Bank series.
Praveen Kumar was the most successful bowler who picked up 4 wickets.
India created history by notching up their first-ever cricket tri-series title on Australian soil by pipping the world champions by nine runs in a nail-biting second finals which saw fortune fluctuating from one team to the other till the very end.After scoring a competitive 258 for nine largely built around Sachin Tendulkar's majestic 91, the Indians held their nerves in the tense dying moments to stop the Australians at 249 with two balls to spare and wrap up the best-of-three finals with a 2-0 margin.
It was a remarkable display by the Indians who not only conquered the mighty Australians in their own den but brought about a happy ending to a turbulent tour, marked by a racism row involving Harbhajan Singh and a series of on-field bickerings.
The Indians had entered the tri-series finals in 1986, 1992 and 2004 but had never managed to win a single match but made amends for their past failures with the thrilling win at the Gabba.
Paceman S Sreesanth dismissed James Hopes in the very last over to bring India's moment of glory, triggering scenes of wild celebrations among the players as they hugged each other.
http://cricket.expressindia.com/news/India-create-history-Down-Under-win-triseries/280066/
Desperate Asian women faking virginity in Britain
Some Asian women in Britain are going to great lengths to fake their virginity, driven to desperation by concepts of 'honour' in a community where myths about their first sexual experience is still widely held, an Asian radio station reported.
If found to have sex before marriage, the lives of some young Asian women can be at risk and they can be driven away from their homes, experts and community workers told the BBC Asian Network documentary "Like a Virgin", broadcast Monday.
As a result, desperate young women are using fake blood and even going in for reconstructive surgery to fake their virginity, the investigative radio documentary reported.
In an echo of social attitudes held in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, the programme found that most of the 17 to 21 year old men interviewed in the region of West Midlands - home to a large number of Asians - preferred women to be virgins at marriage.
Concepts of 'izzat' - or honour - are strongly held among some conservative Asian communities in Britain and have been linked not only to the practice of forced marriage but also, in some cases, the murder of young women.
An adviser formerly with the national sexual health charity Brook said she personally received requests for information on faking virginity on a daily basis from young Asian women - and that she provided the information because she feared for the safety of these women.
She said: "They would sometimes come in to the centre because they were concerned about the fact that maybe they had had unprotected sex with a boyfriend and they were concerned about whether other men would know they had had sex before and were not a virgin.
"The discussions would then go around some of the myths around virginity... that girls bleed on the first time of having sexual intercourse. So we were able to say, 'lots of girls don't'.
"The problem is that lots of men and lots of people within the (Asian) community believe that that is true, and therefore they (young women) are very concerned that they will get married and they won't bleed and their husband will believe they weren't a virgin at marriage and all the problems that that would cause them in life."
She said women were using red dye and mock blood that can be bought from novelty shops that they inserted into their vaginas or spread on the bed sheet after having sex. One Pakistani woman said she knew someone who had used a bottle of red ink - and got away with it. "Her mother-in-law was very happy," said the woman.
Underlining the seriousness of the issue, the adviser said she agreed to provide information on how to fake virginity because "for some young women the risks to them and their personal safety were so great that if they were not able to fake it then the consequences could have been dire.""
A community worker who works with young Asians in west London said some girls have had to flee their homes and go into shelter "because their life is on the line. Somebody may have found out".
Linda Cardozo, a gynaecologist at Kings College Hospital in London, said some desperate Asian women were seeking reconstructive hymen-repair surgery, but that it was "quite difficult to achieve" the repair because there may not always be enough tissues to bring together.
In any case, there was no guarantee that the woman would bleed.
"The main aim of hymen repair is to bleed on wedding night, but of course there are many women who don't bleed on their wedding night, whether they are virgins or not.
"This is because the hymen may be very stretchy, they may have used tampons for menstruation, they may have had lot of exercise and subtle tissues and therefore there are many women who have their first intercourse without bleeding at all.
"So there's no guarantee these women will achieve the aim they set out to achieve," the doctor added.
Although some 24 such repairs had been performed in the state health sector, the vast majority of such surgeries are thought to take place in the private sector, which each surgery costs between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds. ($3,000-4,000)
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1154263
Tennis player Serena Williams in Saree (Pic)
Tennis player Serena Williams walks the ramp in a traditional In