●๋•●๋•●๋•దేశ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స ●๋•●๋•●๋•

London: Computer scientists in the US are developing technology that will transform cars into intelligent vehicles fitted with aircraft-style black boxes that can record information about driving behaviour during accidents.

The car, which is being developed by researchers at computer chip giant Intel, will record information about the vehicle speed, steering and braking along with video footage from inside and outside the vehicle, The Telegraph reported.

This would be automatically sent to police and insurance companies in the event of an accident to make it easier to determine the cause of car crashes and identify the person responsible.

The device forms part of an intelligent car envisaged by researchers at Intel. They are developing technology that will transform cars into smart vehicles that are able to detect dangers on the road and even take over control from motorists.

They have been in discussions with car manufacturers about developing cars that are permanently connected to the Internet and other vehicles using wireless technology.

Camera systems that can recognise street signs and then take over control of a car if the motorist tries to drive the wrong way up a one-way street, for example, are being developed for use in vehicles.

On board sensors will also be able to detect pot holes in the road and report their location to road maintenance authorities as the car is moving.

The cars will also be able to track the location of surrounding vehicles and alert drivers if they get too close or try to change lanes when another vehicle is in their blind spot.

The technology was revealed at a research showcase by Intel in Santa Clara, California, last week. The company has been in discussions with car manufacturers about putting the technology into new vehicles.

Justin Ratner, the director of Intel Laboratories and chief technology officer, said: "We are looking at a whole range of enhancements that will improve the driving experience, safety and security of vehicles.

"The intelligent vehicle is what we are talking about here. Once a car is connected, more or less on a continuous basis, all sorts of interesting possibilities present themselves.

"With vision systems on cars, it is perfectly reasonable for a car on its own to see the sign that says 'wrong way' or 'do not enter' and bring the vehicle to a halt at the side of the road so we don't have these senseless accidents where someone has failed to recognise a sign.

"We have talked to highway maintenance departments about using sensors that are already in cars to report the GPS coordinates for pot holes in the road to the maintenance department."

Insurance companies are expected to welcome on-board car systems that will reduce the risk of accidents.

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said that aviation style black box technology for recording the circumstances around accidents could also help speed up payouts by reducing delays in determining causes of accidents

New Delhi: It is what you may call charity with benefit. Indians staying in the U.S. could in next three months avail tax concession on the money they will spend on social welfare projects at their native places in India.

Under the 'India Development Foundation for Overseas Indians', an initiative of Ministry of Overseas Indians, they will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary health centres and other infrastructure in their villages and places of origin in India.

The Ministry has already started the process of registering the foundation in the US and it will be in place in next three months, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told PTI in an interview.

After the US, the ministry will register the foundation in other countries, including the UK and the Gulf. According to official data, there are about 24 million Indians overseas.

The foundation, a 'not-for-profit' trust being set up under the Indian Trust Act, 1882, by the Ministry, will be the nodal agency to implement the projects across the country in cooperation with state governments and selected NGOs.

Designed to help in rural infrastructure development, the minister said his ministry would not only target millionaires or rich NRIs for contribution but the average Indian diaspora who want to give back to the society.

Bangalore: Hundreds of IT firms, including Indian bellwethers Infosys Technologies and Wipro will remain closed Monday due to the nationwide shutdown against the hike in fuel prices.

"As a precaution, we have given Monday off to our employees working in the Bangalore campus. They will compensate by working on Saturday (July 10)," Infosys Chief Executive Krish Gopalakrishnan told IANS.

The global software major, however, made arrangements for employees working on essential projects and business process outsourcing (BPO) services to work during the day, when the shutdown will be observed from dawn to dusk.

"We have made arrangement for those software engineers handling key projects for overnight stay and transport to essential staff on day shift," Gopalakrishnan said.

The $4.8-billion Infosys has its largest software development park in the electronics city, about 30 km from here, where about 16,000 employees work in its sprawling campus.

Similarly, Wipro, which has two software development parks in the electronics city and on the city's outskirts, declared a holiday, directing its employees to report for duty July 10 in lieu of Monday.

"We have declared a holiday for our employees July 5 in view of the nationwide shutdown. They have been asked to work July 10 though it's a weekend," Wipro Executive Vice-President Suresh Senapaty said.

The country's largest IT bellwether - Tata Consulting Services (TCS) was yet to decide whether to give off or not to its employees working in the Bangalore software development centre at Whitefield, about 20 km from the city.

"We will let you know later. There is no decision yet. In case we decide to declare holiday, the employees will be duly intimated by e-mail and sms," a company official said.

Due to uncertainty of public transport by the state-run Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation (BMTC), hundreds of small and medium enterprises in IT and biotech sectors have extended the weekend holiday to their employees up to Monday.

"With auto-rickshaw and taxi associations deciding to not to ply in support of the shutdown, we have asked our employees to stay back in the absence of official information on public transport being available," Deepk Chandra of a start-up IT firm in the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) said.

As a precautionary measure, several multinational firms have also decided to give an off Monday and ask their employees to compensate by working on a Saturday.

The nationwide shutdown has been called by the leading opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the ruling party in this southern state for the first time, the Janata Dal-United and the Left parties

New Delhi: Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel has made access to online social networking site Facebook free for its over 130 million subscribers, said the company. The offer will, however, be available only for two months till Aug 31.

The Facebook site will be available in English, Hindi and five more Indian languages - Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam.

"For the two-month period, the partnership enables Airtel customers to access Facebook's full mobile site faster and at no data cost from their Airtel mobiles via m.facebook.com," said an Airtel statement.

Customers, accessing mobile Internet for the first time need to SMS 'FACEBOOK' to 54321 to take advantage of this offer.

Bangalore: Technology firms Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and QuEST, apart from private sector aviation companies such as Mahindra Aerospace and L&T , are among the vendors currently in discussions with the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) for providing software, designing and manufacturing around 500 regional transport aircraft, reports Peerzada Abrar from The Economic Times.

India's ambitious civil aviation program (RTA-70 ) is aimed at building planes for carrying 70-90 passengers on short haul flights, and rival similar aircrafts from ATR, which currently dominates the country's skies.

Officials at NAL, the premier agency spearheading the project, confirmed that alliances are being worked out. "Negotiations are on with various private players like TCS, Infosys, Wipro to provide expertise in software, hardware and product development," a senior NAL official said on conditions of anonymity. The design and development of the prototype is estimated to cost about Rs. 5,000 crore and is expected to be ready by 2015-16 for flight trials.

Of the 500 planes, 200 will be sold to Indian defence, 200 to civil aviation companies and 100 units are to be exported. The project committee will explore the need to go in for a public-private partnership (PPP) at the beginning, so as to involve the Indian aerospace industry, which will be responsible for production at a later stage and marketing and servicing subsequently, officials added.

At the peak of the project, about 500 people from state-run agencies and around 2,000 people from the industry will be involved.

According to Roddam Narasimha, one of India's top aerospace scientists and a member of the high-powered committee for the country's national civil aircraft development project, RTA-70 is just a step in building a successful and globally competitive civil aviation program. "Public-private partnership is part of our vision for this project. We never had a civil aeronautical aircraft programme, nor have we made serious attempts," Narasimha said. "On the other hand, China is very far ahead of us. They are challenging Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 and may actually move ahead of them," he added.

China's answer to Boeing and Airbus is the Comac C919 aircraft. Its introduction was low-key , a move consistent with how Chinese firms prefer to operate overseas.

The aircraft designed and built entirely in China, will compete directly against industry leaders Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 after completing flight trials in four years. It should be available commercially by 2016.

"You will be surprised to know that 10 years ago, Indian Aeronautics was ahead of China. We had developed some of the key technologies on our own such as Carbon Fibre Wings and Flight Control System. India should take an initiative for a Civil Aeronautics Flight Programme. This project is a step in that direction," said Narasimha.

As trained people in the aerospace area are limited, the committee will rope in design experts from state-run organisations such as Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to share some of the project workload. The committee is headed by former chairman of ISRO, G Madhavan Nair.

The project committee has decided to form nine sub-committees to prepare reports on various parameters such as choice of engine, composite materials, avionics, landing gear, control systems, short haul runways, setting up of design bureau, hiring people, engaging the industry and infrastructure required for operating the regional transport aircraft service.

"The major projects have got delayed, not because we lack capabilities, but due to indecisiveness at the policy level. We want to develop an aircraft that serves not only India, but the world," said Narasimha.
The committee hopes the prototype will be rolled out in the next 5-6 years for flight testing and certification for initial operational clearance. By then, it plans to have production facility in place with the industry.

Besides Nair, CSIR director-general Samir K Brahmchari, ISRO chairman K Radhakrish

nan, DRDO chairman VK Saraswat, NAL director AR Upadhyaya, HAL chairman Ashok Nayak, Space Commission member Roddam Narasimha, Hinduja Automotive vice-chairman V Sumantran and Kinetic Engineering director Arun Firodia are the members of the high-powered committee.

New Delhi: The country's largest insurance company, LIC, plans to recruit around 10,000 employees in the current fiscal to give a push to its growth plans.

"We are planning to hire a good number of people this year as well. We intend to hire 10,000 people this year across the various cadre," LIC Managing Director A K Dasgupta told PTI.

Last year, LIC hired same number of people across various cadre including some lateral recruitment for the first time.

Of the total, about 5,000 development officers would be recruited in line with the growth plan, he said.

Besides, the corporation is planning to recruit people in class I cadre, specialised cadre like legal etc, he added.

At present, LIC has about 1,15,000 employees including about 21,000 class-I officers.

Meanwhile, LIC is also planning to expand its overseas presence by setting up a subsidiary in Singapore.

The company brings an IT management platform that allows businesses to monitor, control and automate their "computing endpoints", such as laptops, desktops and servers from a single view.
It also boasts the built-in intelligence that can identify which devices are not in compliance with IT policies and recommend security fixes or software updates to 500,000 machines in minutes. In a statement, Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli software, said: "BigFix automates some of the most time-intensive IT tasks across the most complex global networks, helping save organisations significant amounts of time, labour and expense. BigFix's real-time visibility and control for globally distributed computing devices will complement IBM's existing smarter datacentre offerings and strengthen our ability to build security into the fabric of the enterprise."
The company also highlighted this acquisition as its eleventh in the security-related field since 2006. BigFix will become part of IBM's software group.
This story originally appeared as IBM acquires BigFix to advance smart data center vision on ZDNet.com.

Karunakaran who made Toli Prema and Balu ABCDEFG with Pawan and Happy with Allu Arjun in past has given a decent hit ‘Darling’ with Prabhas recently.
He planned to make this movie initially with Ramcharan but since charan was busy with Meruphu and Orange commitments, karunakaran went to Prabhas.
Now he prepared a new subject Edure Ledu for Charan but since his producer feels that charan is too busy now and its impossible to get his dates for atleast 1 year, he is pressurizing karunakaran to make that movie with Hero Ram.
But Karunakaran doesn’t want to miss an oppurtunity to work with Ramcharan for 2nd time in a row and he is fixed for ramcharan only.
Will it be Ram or Ramcharan for Edure Ledu ? Lets wait and see..

Guys i don`t know if this real story of nehru family has been posted in the forum. but anyway it is a important part of untold history and we all should know about the truth :

INTERESTING HISTORY!

At the very beginning of his book, "The Nehru Dynasty", astrologer K.N.Rao mentions the names of Jawaharlal's father and grandfather.
Jawahar Lal's father was believed to be Motilal and Motilal's father was one Gangadhar Nehru.
And we all know that Jawaharlal's only daughter was Indira Priyadarshini Nehru; Kamala Nehru was her mother, who died in Switzerland of tuberculosis.
She was totally against Indira's proposed marriage with Feroze.
Why? No one tells us that!

Now, who is this Feroze?

We are told by many that he was the son of the family grocer.
The grocer supplied wines,etc. to Anand Bhavan (previously known as Ishrat Manzil)

What was the family grocer's name?

One frequently hears that Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather was Pandit Nehru.
But then we all know that everyone has two grandfathers, the paternal and the maternal grandfathers.
In fact, the paternal grandfather is deemed to be the more important grandfather in most societies.

Why is it then, no where, we find Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather's name?

It appears that the reason is simply this. Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather was a Muslim gentleman from the Junagadh area of Gujarat.
This Muslim grocer by the name of Nawab Khan, had married a Parsi woman after converting her to Islam.
This is the source where from the myth of Rajiv being a Parsi was derived.
Rajiv's father Feroze, was Feroze Khan before he married Indira, against Kamala Nehru's wishes.

Feroze's mother's family name was Ghandy, often associated with Parsis and this was changed to Gandhi,sometime before his wedding with Indira, by an affidavit.

The fact of the matter is that (and this fact can be found in many writings) Indira was very lonely. Chased out of the Shantiniketan University by Guru Dev Rabindranath himself for misdemeanor, the lonely girl was all by herself,
while father Jawahar was busy with politics, pretty women and illicit sex;
the mother was in hospital.
Feroze Khan, the grocer's son was then in England and he was quite sympathetic to Indira and soon enough she changed her religion, became a Muslim woman and married Feroze Khan in a London mosque.


Nehru was not happy; Kamala was dead already or dying. The news of this marriage eventually reached Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (better known as Mahatma Gandhi).
Gandhi urgently called Nehru and practically ordered him to ask the young man to change his name from Khan to Gandhi. It had nothing to do with change of religion, from Islam to Hinduism for instance.
It was just a case of a change of name by an affidavit. And so Feroze Khan became Feroze Gandhi.

The surprising thing is that the apostle of truth, the old man soon to be declared India's Mahatma and the 'Father of the Nation' didn't mention this game of his in the famous book, 'My Experiments with Truth'. Why?

When they returned to India, amock 'Vedic marriage' was instituted for public consumption.
On this subject,writes M.O. Mathai (a longtime Private Secretary of Nehru) in his renowned (but now suppressed by the GOI! ) 'Reminiscences of the Nehru Age' on page94, second paragraph: "For some inexplicable reason, Nehru allowed the marriage to be performed according to Vedic rites in 1942. An inter-religious and inter-caste marriage under Vedic rites at that time was not valid in law. To be legal, it had to be a civil marriage."


It's a known fact that after Rajiv's birth Indira and Feroze lived separately, but they were not divorced.
Feroze used to harass Nehru frequently for money and also interfere in Nehru's political activities. Nehru got fed up and left instructions not to allow him into the Prime Minister's residence Trimurthi Bhavan.
Mathai writes that the death of Feroze came as a relief to Nehru and Indira. The death of Feroze in 1960 before he could consolidate his own political forces, is itself a mystery. Feroze had even planned to remarry.

Those who try to keep tabs on our leaders in spite of all the suppressions and deliberate misinformation, are aware of the fact that the second son of Indira (or Mrs.Feroze Khan) known as Sanjay Gandhi was not the son of Feroze. He was the son of another Muslim gentleman, Mohammad Yunus.

Here, in passing, we might mention that the second son was originally named Sanjiv. It rhymed with Rajiv, the elder brother's name.
It was changed to Sanjay when he was arrested by the British police in England and his passport impounded, for having stolen a car.
Krishna Menon was then India's High Commissioner in London. He offered to issue another passport to the felon who changed his name to Sanjay.


Incidentally, Sanjay's marriage with the Sikh girl Menaka took place quite surprisingly in Mohammad Yunus's house in New Delhi.
And the marriage with Menaka was not so ordinary either, It was that her father,Colonel Anand, threatened Sanjay with dire consequences if he did not marry her daughter. And that did the trick.Sanjay married Menaka. It was widely reported in Delhi at the time that Mohammad Yunus was unhappy at the marriage of Sanjay with Menaka. Apparently he had wanted to get him married with a Muslim girl of his choice. It was Mohammad Yunus who cried the most when Sanjay died in the plane accident


In Yunus's book, 'Persons, Passions & Politics' one discovers that baby Sanjay had been circumcised following Islamic custom, although the reason stated was phimosis.
It was always believed that Sanjay used to blackmail Indira Gandhi and due to this she used to turn a blind eye when Sanjay Gandhi started to run the country as though it were his personal freedom.
Was he black mailing her with the secret of who his real father was?

When the news of Sanjay's death reached Indira Gandhi, the first thing she wanted to know was about the bunch of keys which Sanjay had with him.


Coming back to Rajiv Gandhi,
we all know now that he changed his so called Parsi religion to become a Catholic to marry Sania Maino of Turin, Italy.
Rajiv became Roberto.
His daughter's name is Bianca and son's name is Raul.
Quite cleverly the same names are presented to the people of India as Priyanka and Rahul.

What is amazing is the extent of our people's ignorance in such matters.

The press conference that Rajiv Gandhi gave in London after taking over as Prime minister of India was very informative. In this press conference, Rajiv boasted that he was NOT a Hindu but a Parsi.

Mind you, speaking of the Parsi religion, he had no Parsi ancestor at all.
His grandmother (father's mother) had turned Muslim after having abandoned the Parsi religion to marry Nawab Khan.


It is the western press that waged a blitz of misinformation on behalf of Rajiv. From the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, the big guns raised Rajiv to heaven.
The children's encyclopedias recorded that Rajiv was a qualified Mechanical Engineer from the revered University of Cambridge. No doubt US kids are among the most misinformed in the world today!
The reality is that in all three years of his tenure at that University Rajiv had not passed a single exam. He had therefore to leave Cambridge without a certificate.

Sonia too had the same benevolent treatment. She was stated to be a student in Cambridge. Such a description is calculated to mislead Indians. She was a student in Cambridge all right, but not of the University of Cambridge , but of one of those fly by night language schools where foreign students come to learn English. Sonia was working as an 'au pair' girl in Cambridge and trying to learn English at the same time.

And surprise of surprises, Rajiv was even cremated as per Vedic rites in full view of India's public.



This is the Nehru dynasty that India worships and now a foreigner leads a prestigious national party because of just one qualification being married into the Nehru family.
Saying that an Italian (or any foreigner) should not lead India will amount to narrow mindedness, but if Sania Maino (now Sonia) had served India like, say, Mother Teresa or Annie Besant, i.e. in anyway on her own rights, then all Indians should be proud of her just as how proud we are of Mother Teresa.
OR
Saying that any other party which comes to rule India is better is again equally worse.
The point is Indians who nominate the people to stand in these elections; and the people who vote their rulers (i.e. the authorities) must know that truth eventually come out some day.

10th August- India Vs New Zealand
13th August- Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand
16th August- Sri Lanka Vs India
19th August- Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand
22nd August- India Vs New Zealand
25th August- Sri Lanka Vs India

28th August- FINAL

FIXTURES-TRI SERIES 2010 Schedule and Dates

India, Sri Lanka,New Zealand

Airways

Indian Airlines 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet 1800 180 3333

Automobiles

Mahindra Scorpio 1800 22 6006
Maruti 1800 111 515
Tata Motors 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts 1800 11 3636

Banks

ABN AMRO 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank 1800 44 6000
Citibank 1800 44 2265
Corporatin Bank 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank 1800 122 222
State Bank of India 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank 1800 44 6655

Cell Phones

BenQ 1800 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist 1800 11 1211
Nokia 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson 3901 1111

Computers/IT

Adrenalin 1800 444 445
AMD 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers 1800 444 683
Canon 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems 1800 221 777
Compaq HP 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband 1800 424 1800
Dell 1800 444 026
Epson 1800 44 0011
eSys 3970 0011
Genesis Tally Academy 1800 444 888
HCL 1800 180 8080
IBM 1800 443 333
Lexmark 1800 22 4477
Marshal’s Point 1800 33 4488
Microsoft 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update 1901 333 334
Seagate 1800 180 1104
Symantec 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals 1800 44 6446
Wipro 1800 333 312
xerox 1800 180 1225
Zenith 1800 222 004

Couriers/Packers & Movers

ABT Courier 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd 1800 21 4560
DHL 1800 111 345
FedEx 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers 1800 11 3456
UPS 1800 22 7171

Education

Edu Plus 1800 444 000
Hindustan College 1800 33 4438
NCERT 1800 11 1265
Vellore Institute of Technology 1800 441 555

Healthcare

Best on Health 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic 1800 22 5292
LifeCell 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies 1800 33 4420
Pfizer 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses 1800 44 8383
VLCC 1800 33 1262

Home Appliances

Aiwa/Sony 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches 1800 22 7979
Blue Star 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners 1800 444 222
DishTV 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys 1800 21 4595
Godrej 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps 1800 33 4555
LG 1901 180 9999
Philips 1800 22 4422
Samsung 1800 113 444
Sanyo 1800 11 0101
Voltas 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio 1800 44 5432

Hotel Reservations

GRT Grand 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group 1800 111 000
Marriott 1800 22 0044
Sarovar Park Plaza 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays 1800 111 825

Insurance

AMP Sanmar 1800 44 2200
Aviva 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life 1800 227 227
LIC 1800 33 4433
Max New York Life 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance 1800 22 9090

Mattresses

Kurl-on 1800 44 0404
Sleepwell 1800 11 2266

Investments/Finance

CAMS 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO’s 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund 1800 22 0101

Paints

Asian Paints Home Solutions 1800 22 5678
Berger Paints Home Decor 1800 33 8800

Teleshopping

Asian Sky Shop 1800 22 1800
Jaipan Teleshoppe 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping 1800 220 777

Travel

Club Mahindra Holidays 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism 1800 444 747
Kumarakom Lake Resort 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours 1800 22 3344

UPS

APC 1800 44 4272
Numeric 1800 44 3266

Others

Consumer Helpline 1800 11 4000
LâOral, GARNIeR 1800 223 000
KONE Elevator 1800 444 666
Indane 1800 44 51 15
Aavin 1800 44 3300
Pedigree 1800 11 2121
Kodak India 1800 22 8877
Domino’s Pizza 1800 111 123
World Vision India 1800 444 550
Telecom Monitoring Cell 1800 110 420

Mumbai: It is now mandatory for any foreign worker to have an annual salary above Rs. 11 lakh to get an Indian employment visa. A Ukrainian citizen has approached the Bombay High Court against the ministry of external affairs, challenging a policy that mandates a minimum annual salary of $25,000 (over Rs. 11 lakh) as compulsory requirement for getting an employment visa, reports Nauzer K Bharucha of the Economic Times.

Many companies across the country hire foreigners legally at lower salaries though it's not a publicized fact. Stelmakh Leonid Lulia, 25, was not granted visa by the Indian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. She explains that her job at J P Morgan will lapse if she does not join in a week's time. "This is a sensitive constitutional matter on foreigners' right to employment and will have wide ramifications on foreign employees in the Indian services industry," says Prashant Uchil, Stelmakh's counsel. The matter is expected to come up on Friday before a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari for urgent relief.

On June 3, she made an application to the Indian embassy in Kiev for an employment visa along with all supporting documents of her employer. "Petitioner submits that she was curtly told by the consul officer at the embassy that she would not be granted employment visa as the rule has been introduced from April 2010 mandating a salary in India equivalent to $25,000 per annum for issuance of an employment visa," it said.

"It is for the embassy to give adequate notice of such drastic change so that applicants of such visas as also employers may plan accordingly," she said. The petition has also said this `unreasonable' classification of people earning less than $25,000 and more than $25,000 is "violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which applies to foreigners also". It has also asked the court to decide whether the denial of employment visa by the respondent is illegal and went against the tenets of international law governing free movement and work opportunities

Toronto: Canada should quickly ratify the landmark nuclear deal with India as it will bring more prosperity and cleaner energy to it and also help Ottawa to become 'clean energy superpower', a leading Canadian newspaper commented today.

"The deal is an opportunity for Canada," the Globe and Mail said in its editorial on the nuclear deal signed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, 36 years after Ottawa slapped sanctions on India after it exploded an atomic device.

"India is not and should not be treated as a pariah state over its nuclear programme. It has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it has also promised to never launch nuclear weapons first against an enemy," it said.

Wellington: Now you can potentially charge your cellphone battery just by walking with a new charger which can be fitted with the sole of your shoes and produce power when you walk.

Mobile phone company European Telco Orange has developed a charging prototype - a set of thermoelectric gumboots or Wellington boots with a 'power generating sole' that converts heat from the wearer's feet into electrical power.

The boot was designed by Dave Pain, managing director at GotWind, an energy firm.

Pain said the boot uses the Seebeck effect, named after physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, in which a circuit made of two dissimilar metals conducts electricity if the two places where they connect are held at different temperatures, reported TVNZ.

"In the sole of the Wellington boot there's a thermocouple and if you apply heat to one side of the thermocouple and cold to the other side it generates an electrical charge," Pain said.

"That electrical charge we then pass through to a battery which you'll find in the heel of the boot for storage of the electrical power for later use to charge your mobile phone."

These thermocouples are connected electrically, forming an array of multiple thermocouples. They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers.

When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated.

But the power boots have one drawback. You need to walk for 12 hours to generate one hour's worth of charge.

Pain, however, said his company was working on improving the technology, which could then also be used in other forms of clothing.

"The technology's not just limited to footwear, or indeed boots, but you could for example make clothing out of it, you know, a headband, for example," he said

Bangalore: China would soon launch a new facility for people to access TV, Internet and mobile phone through a single device combining broadcasting and telecommunication technologies.

Users will be able to access all the three through a single device, an official statement said.

A pilot scheme to integrate the three systems would be launched in 11 Chinese cities including Beijing [ Images ] and Shanghai. However, the statement gave no schedule and did not elaborate on the development of the trial programme.

The programme, known as "three networks integration" in Chinese, aims to make the three systems compatible and allow users to make telephone calls, surf the Internet and watch television through only one cable or wireless entrance, official Xinhua news agency reported.

Currently, TV, telecom and Internet networks are separated in China, and different operators provide access to cable TV, telecommunications and the Internet.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, said in January that the program would be accelerated through pilot projects from 2010 to 2012, focusing on trials connecting broadcasting and telecommunication networks.

It vowed to achieve comprehensive integration by 2015. China first proposed the program in 1998.But it was delayed because of conflicts of interest between different administrators and service operators, said Wu Jichuan, previously minister at the information industry ministry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

In China, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television regulates radio and TV while the MIIT is responsible for telecoms and Internet industries.

The programme will boost investment and consumption by 668 billion yuan ($98.38 billion) over the next three years, said Wu Hequan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

 New York: Yahoo wants to decrease the number of its shareholders and will buy back up to $3 billion in stocks over three years, the internet search company said Wednesday after its board approved the move at its recent annual meeting.

Re-purchasing of stocks is generally designed to raise value by limiting the number of shares on the market. Other firms, such as Microsoft, have also used the strategy to decrease cash reserves.

The search engine has lagged behind Google in advertising sales and been forced to cooperate with Microsoft. In the first quarter, Yahoo doubled earnings to $300 million.

New Delhi: Directors at Tata Consultancy Services, received commissions four times their salaries, making them some of the highest paid in the IT industry. Executive Directors at TCS were paid commissions ranging from Rs 95 lakh to a whopping Rs 2.5 crore, leading to a rise in their gross compensation package. Comparisons on a total salary basis reveal that TCS CEO earned almost thrice his counterpart at Infosys. For example, for the last fiscal, N Chandrasekaran earned Rs 2 crore as commission - as a board member - against a salary of Rs 46 lakh and Rs 51.1 lakh of perquisites, taking his annual salary to almost Rs 3 crore, reports Harsimran Julka & Srividya Iyer from The Economics Times.

On the other hand, Infosys' MD and CEO S Gopalakrishnan earned Rs 1.01 crore as annual compensation for the fiscal to March 31, 2010. This included an annual salary of Rs 32 lakh, perks and incentives of Rs 61 lakh, apart from contribution to provident and other funds of just Rs 8 lakh. Of course, Infosys CEO also holds a stake in the company, being a founder.While CFOs received almost the same amount, the packages were structured differently. TCS CFO S Mahalingam earns Rs 43.8 lakh as salary but Rs 1.5 crore as commission and Rs 42.2 lakh as perks, taking the total compensation to over Rs 2.36 crore. Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan earns almost 2.44 crore, with almost Rs 2 crore as incentive.

"There is a variable element in most compensation structures whose benchmarks are the profits. But in the case of Infosys and TCS, size of the businesses vary at different divisions, so its not quantifiable," says Sudhakar Balakrishnan, CEO, Adecco India. Of course, salaries in offshore locations can't be compared to onshore because of different living standards. Says Kunal Banerjie: CEO, Absolute HR international: "The ratio of variable salary of top executives may range from 50 percent to almost 90 percent in many cases."

Average commissions for non-executive directors at Infosys board was between Rs 49 lakh and Rs 65 lakh while the same for TCS had a higher upper limit of Rs 85 lakh. Interestingly, compensation as a proportion of total profit was almost the same at both the firms. TCS doled out Rs 15.2 crore as managerial remuneration on a profit of Rs 7,000 crore. While, Infosys gave Rs 16 crore as managerial remuneration, on a profit base of Rs 6,266 crore.While TV Mohandas Pai was also one of the highest paid at Infosys at Rs 3.13-crore annual package, Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy earned just Rs 57 lakh. At TCS, head of global corporate affairs and executive director, Phiroz Vandrevala, earned an annual package of Rs 1.69 crore.

The highest earning executive at Infosys last year was Ashok Vemuri, who heads Infosys' U.S. business. He earned almost Rs 4.88 crore, with an incentive of Rs 2.79 crore. BG Srinivas, head of European business at Infosys, who was last year top grosser is now relinquished to second spot with annual earnings of Rs 4.56 crore. HR experts explain the large difference in salaries of some executives.

San Francisco: Just 48 days after Microsoft began selling the Kin, a smartphone for the younger set, the company discontinued it due to disappointing sales. Microsoft took two years to develop the Kin which was backed with a hefty ad budget, reports Miguel Helft of the New York Times.

Forrester Research analyst Charles S. Golvin calls it 'an absolute failure' and said he was surprised to see Microsoft killing a product so quickly, given the company's history of sticking with new products and improving them over time.

Microsoft's consumer products unit has struggled to offer credible competitors to Apple's iPod and the iPhone and an array of smartphones powered by Google's Android software. A tablet computer project which was planned as a competitor to Apple's iPad was also canceled recently.

Microsoft announced that the Kin team will be shifted to the Windows Phone 7 project which is due in the fall. The Kin was introduced in two models aiming mainly at the young users which emphasized access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The sales figures were not disclosed by Microsoft or Verizon Wireless, which sold the phone. Due to the disappointing sales, Verizon had slashed down the prices of the phones considerably.

Brenda Raney, a Verizon spokeswoman, said the Kin "is still an important part of our portfolio" while Microsoft said it would cancel the pending release of the Kin in Europe and would work with Verizon Wireless to sell existing inventories.

Tokyo: Sony recently said that about 535,000 units of its "Vaio" brand personal computers globally may be in danger of overheating and that it has provided software on its website to eliminate the problem.

The company said in a statement that there have been 39 overheating cases in total, all reported outside Japan. Some of these have resulted in damage to computer bodies, but no burn injuries have been reported.

Some of Sony's F and C series Vaio PCs made in January this year and some custom-made models from the same series have been affected, the firm said. A Sony spokeswoman said the company has not estimated possible costs stemming from the problem.