Housework and raising children are jobs that have no end.

Innovative mother... Garbage collector Lakshmi pulls her garbage collection tricycle along with some schoolchildren as she transports her daughter Mounica to school in Hyderabad . Lakshmi earns Rs 2,000 a month, a chunk of which goes towards her daughter's education, who studies in an English medium school.

Pakistan should co-operate with India in 26/11 trial

With the filing of the chargesheet in a Mumbai court in the November 26 terrorist attack case, the legal process of fixing responsibility and dispensing justice in the country’s one of the most heinous and well-planned crimes with international ramifications has started. The nature of the chargesheet, in which the surviving Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab and 35 other Pakistani nationals and two Indians have been named as accused, underlines the trans-border roots of the crime.The document, which runs into 11,280 pages with details of how the action was planned and executed, supported with evidence and witness statements, is the result of meticulous investigation. The investigating team deserves credit for putting it together and presenting a case, working against difficult odds. Only Kasab, among the Pakistanis, will be on trial in person and the fact that the 32 Pakistanis are yet to be apprehended, shows the challenging task of bringing to book all those involved in the crime. The names of even two serving officers of the Pakistan army figure in the chargesheet though it stops short of pointing to the involvement of any Pakistani official agency. A fair and speedy trial would strengthen India’s case, and it is still not late to ensure that Kasab is legally represented in the court.

While the judicial process has started in India, it is still not known at what stage the investigations that the Pakistan government has claimed to have started in that country are. Pakistan had admitted, probably under international pressure, that the conspiracy was hatched in that country, but it has not disclosed whether it has launched criminal proceedings against those involved, who include senior leaders of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Some of the clarifications it has sought from India create doubts that the Pakistani authorities are deliberately resorting to delaying tactics or trying to bring in extraneous issues within the purview of the investigation. The internal political situation in Pakistan and the government’s dubious policy on militancy might limit its ability to pursue the case and therefore there is the need for continued efforts to prod Islamabad in the matter.


The full extent of the conspiracy will be known and retributive action possible only if there is unreserved co-operation from Pakistan, the investigations on both sides complement each other and the judicial processes proceed simultaneously. It is more a matter of Pakistan’s will and sincerity than India’s readiness.

The Kashmir Issue-Views

Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri's said that most of the negotiations on Kashmir were successfully completed during his tenure as foreign minister under Pervez Musharraf and draft agreements were ready to be signed. They were to have been signed during the visit of the Indian PM to Pakistan which did not take place, according to Kasuri, because of elections in India.

There is another view that the Indian government backed off at the last moment. Some informed observers in India maintain that developments in Pakistan came in the way of the agreement being finalised.

Is this the Honour given for our Military Personnels

Rashtrapati Bhavan, the august premises where the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces awards highly coveted medals to select members of the military, witnessed an unusual, unprecedented and ignominious scene recently. An anguished delegation of military veterans returned over 2,000 gallantry and distinguished service medals to the president to register their protest over the government's stubborn denial of the long-promised one-rank-one-pension (OROP) dispensation for retired faujis.

More than the status of the serving community, it is the plight of the retired military personnel that has triggered the unseemly returning of medals by the veterans. As per current pension norms, all military personnel receive different pensions for different ranks depending on when they retire. This, incidentally, is true for the civilians also and only those who attain the pay scale of secretaries to the government of India have the benefit of OROP.

But given the fact that military personnel retire at a very early age harmonisation was sought and successive governments since the days of Rajiv Gandhi have promised to do so, but never delivered on the promise. Consequently many pension asymmetries prevail. For instance, a sepoy who retired before 1996 gets a pension that is 82 per cent less than a post-2006 retiree.

Are you all aware of Rule 49-O ?

Rule 49-O is a rule in The Conduct of Elections Rules.It describes the procedure to be followed when a valid voter decides not to cast his vote.Well,I invite you all to the different angles of this.

Text of Rule 49-O says If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Current scenario implies Since the ballot paper / Electronic voting machine (EVM) contains only the list of candidates, a voter cannot record his vote under Section 49-O directly. He must inform the presiding officer at the election booth. This violates the secrecy of the ballot. However, with paper ballot a different method is used to "waste" ones vote, which is stamping on multiple candidates.

Negative / Neutral Voting is there in the proposals of the Election Commission of India.

Satyam to exercise cost-cutting, relocate onsite staff

Satyam Computer on Thursday announced cost-cutting measures including relocating onsite support staff to tide over the current financial crisis in the company and meet the challenges posed by the global economic slowdown.

The company has also put a freeze on expenses relating to internal issues. "All capital expenditures, unless required to meet customer deliveries, are being suspended till further notice. This includes renewal of laptops, office renovation.

The company has suspended external training as well as the advertising and marketing co-lateral expenses for the time being.

Azharuddin to join Congress

Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin is all set to join the Congress party.
He wants the Congress to come back to power.

Gold touched a record high above Rs.15,000 per 10 gm in Mumbai

Taliban plan to target India

After Pakistan agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP), including Swat Valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, intelligence sources confirmed the threat that Taliban actually poses to India which is not far from the Indian boundary.

Government may ban FDI in cigarettes

The commerce ministry is considering a proposal to ban foreign direct investment in the manufacture of cigarettes for sale in the country.

A proposal to prohibit FDI in the manufacture of cigarettes, where it is manufactured for domestic consumption, has, accordingly, been initiated by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and is under consideration of the government.

Satyam recalls 1,500 onsite staff

Satyam Computer Services has called back more than 1,500 overseas employees, attached to projects that are shut down due to termination of contract by clients.The first batch of 170 employees who were attached to State Farm Insurance, an Illinois-based insurance company, that terminated its contract with Satyam, has already returned to Satyam headquarters in Hyderabad.

The Ford Story 2.0 Web Site Launches

Ford created TheFordStory.com Web site in December to help show the public that the company is different – Ford has a plan centered around great new products that deliver on fuel economy, quality, safety and smart technologies.

Now the company is introducing “version 2.0” of this social media Web site. Highlights of the updated site include:

· Daily updates of fresh content, showing the progress on Ford Motor Company's plan. A particular emphasis will be on fuel economy and quality, as Ford tries to make the reality of where we stand competitively match the perception the public has today.

· An Outside Voices area, providing visitors the ability to not only see what Ford is saying about itself, but also what consumers and the news media are saying about the company directly.

· Easier ability to share individual articles and videos, allowing visitors to spread Ford's story and progress to others.

· Connection with other external social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr – and it now can be browsed on iPhones.

3G auction may fetch only Rs 20,000 cr

The Finance Ministry has sharply scaled down the estimated income from auctioning 3G spectrum. The Budget estimate for the year 2009-10 pegs revenues from the auction, expected to be held later this year, at Rs 20,000 crore only.

The total income from collecting telecom licence fees, entry fees and spectrum charges from the operators for the year 2009-10 is estimated at Rs 33,335 crore compared with the revised estimate of Rs 13,174 crore during 2008-09.

USO fund
----------
While the Universal Services Obligation fund has collected nearly Rs 20,000 crore for rolling out telecom services in rural areas, the Finance Ministry has allocated only Rs 1,800 crore for 2009-10.

Rs 100-cr tax concessions in TN budget

The Tamil Nadu budget, presented by the State Finance Minister, Mr K. Anbazhagan, on Tuesday, shows a deficit of Rs 11,823.64 crore, chiefly on the back of tax concessions worth Rs 100 crore and interest-free crop loans to be given to farmers wh o repaid their loans on time from this fiscal.

Land tax for dry land would be reduced to Rs 2 from the present Rs 15 a acre, and to Rs 5 from Rs 50 for wet land.

Pakistan army vows to hold fire in Swat

Pakistan's military on Tuesday vowed to hold fire and respect a controversial agreement signed between the government and militants to enforce Islamic law in the violence-torn Swat valley.

Why Economy melt down !!!

The Economic Base Theory (EBT), owing its origins to the debate between Charles Tiebout and Douglass North, provides a useful framework to understand the Indian growth story and predict future growth prospects. North argued that an exogenous world demand creates direct, indirect, and induced effects and leads to local political, economic, and social growth. Moreover, government decisions, investment decisions (e.g., housing) at least in the short-run, and export decisions may lead to the outside demand.

The direct effect is the initial immediate effect of the demand on output, employment, or income. For instance, output in the manufacturing sector will increase by, say, $5 million to meet the increased export demand of $5 million. To meet this additional output the manufacturing sector has to buy additional inputs from other industries, pay additional salaries to households, or import additional goods and these changes in output, employment, and income that occur as a result of the direct effect are called the indirect effect. Another round is the induced effect and measures the increase in household incomes and spending caused by the direct and indirect effects.


Moreover, the direct effect stimulates the economic base, or export sector; in contrast, the indirect and induced effects exist only to serve the basic sector. The EBT and the simple Keynesian model differ slightly. In the EBT the endogenous flow remains consumption, redefined now as “domestic expenditures”, which ignores savings and hides investment expenditures within it. Furthermore, external demand, the driver of the economy, assumes the function of investment in the Keynesian model.

Positive, high correlation between foreign direct investment inflows and India’s GDP growth provide some evidence for the operation of the EBT. During the last five years the aggregate FDI inflows have increased nearly seven times from Rs 95,639 crore in 2003 to Rs 6,54,949 crore in 2007. The service sector has the largest share (22%) followed by the software industry accounting for 15.6%. GDP growth rates show a corresponding increase — an average of 9.3% during the three years ending March 2008, compared with an average of 6.6% and 6%, respectively, in the preceding three and five years.


India’s rise as a dominant actor in the service outsourcing sector is partly explained by the Theory of the New International Division of Labour, associated with Frobel. Technological advances permitted splitting of production processes and China became a manufacturing centre, followed by the spread of information technology, during the 1990s, and the main beneficiary was India. Additionally, India was well placed to derive the full benefits of globalisation due to an unintended convergence of events.


First, India was fortuitously placed twelve hours away — while the west slept, India worked. Second, the Y2K scare focused research attention on IT and led to the creation of tools that accelerated services outsourcing. Third, privatisation of higher technical education during the 1990s fulfilled the desire of Indian parents to make their children engineers, ensuring that sufficient numbers of willing technical personnel were available to work in the IT sector.
When will the world demand revive again? Analysis of the depth and duration of 14 ‘severe’ meltdowns by Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart provides some insights into the possible timeline for demand regeneration. The sample includes the depression, the recent ‘big five’ crises in the developed world (e.g., Norway — 1987, Japan — 1990s); and crises in emerging-market economies. Generally, financial crises are long-drawn out affairs.

Speech of Shri Lalu Prasad introducing the Railway Budget 2009-10

1. Mr. Speaker, Sir I rise to place before the House, the Revised Estimates for 2008-09 and the estimated receipts and expenditure for 2009-10 for the Indian Railways. The estimates for 2009-10 are for the whole year, but, at present I seek from the august House, a vote on account, sufficient to cover the estimated expenditure for the first four months of the fiscal. The requirements for the remaining part of the year are to be voted separately, later on.

2. Speaker sir,

Shukriya se main shuroo karta hoon apni bat aaj,
Sath lekar main chala hoon desh, duniya aur samaj,
Main chukata he rahoonga desh ki mitti ka karj,
Rashtra sewa reet meri aur yahi mera rivaj.

3. I have great pride that, in its journey of service to the nation, the Indian Railways have reached an important milestone. Being an integral part of this journey for the last five years, I can proudly say that Indian Railways scaled a new pinnacle every year and now stand at the zenith of success from where, without imposing any burden on the common man, the railways are set to establish the historic landmark of earning a cash surplus before dividend of more than Rs 90,000 cr, in five years. The same Railways which faced a paucity of funds for replacement of over aged assets in 2001 and which had to defer payment of Rs. 2,800 cr as dividend to General Revenues, have now surprised the whole world with a historic financial turnaround. Sir, the year 2008 witnessed a financial turmoil and worldwide recession making it difficult for even Fortune 500 companies to raise debt from the international markets. This august House would be pleasantly surprised to know, that even in such adverse times, the Indian Railway Finance Corporation, in November 2008, has successfully raised a 10 cr dollar loan, equivalent to Rs 500 cr, at a rate of only 4 percent, from the international market.

4. Sir, the transformation of the Railways is fundamentally different from the financial turnaround witnessed in private sector companies. While private companies resort to anti-people measures like increase in prices, retrenchment of employees and lockouts, Railways have kept the human aspect as the central focus and achieved an extraordinary feat without putting any extra burden on the common man or the employees. In the last five years the Railways have stepped up the annual growth rate of freight loading from an average of 3 percent during the decade of 90’s to an average of 8 percent. The declining trend of railways share in transportation of steel and cement, witnessed during the past several years has also been arrested as the Railways increased their share in transportation of these commodities, over the last five years. This transformation has been possible through the significant improvement in productivity of railway assets and efficient working by railway employees.

Sir,

Karigari ka aisa tareeka bata diya,
Ghate ka job hi daur tha beeta bana diya,
Bharat ki rail vishwa me is tarah ki buland,
Hathi ko chust kar diya cheeta bana diya.

Painless CyberKnife kills cancer

Cruise missile technology will now be used to treat cancer. An artificial intelligence-enabled robot performs the revolutionary CyberKnife treatment, a bloodless and painless surgery. It allows doctors to treat tumours in brain, lungs, liver, prostate and spine without causing any damage to other organs.

The Rs 30-crore CyberKnife arrived in Bangalore from the US last week at the Health Care Global (HCG), a network of cancer care units.HCG is the first Bangalore hospital to procure the CyberKnife. Its computer system not only tells the robot where the tumour is but where it is in relation to the breathing cycle.

CyberKnife uses two cameras and infrared technology with absolutely no human intervention during surgery. The treatment is reduced from 5-6 weeks to a maximum of five days with 45-60 minutes per session.

Govt, RBI in talks on more borrowing

The Government and the Reserve Bank of India are in discussion on additional borrowing programmes and the two together will ensure that they are managed in an efficient and orderly manner

High forex reserves can worsen recession

High reserves promise safety in a storm. But, beyond a point this safety becomes illusory, because rising forex reserves worsen the global imbalances that have precipitated the recession.

YSR seeks votes at pension scheme launch

The government function meant to launch `Abhayahastam' pension scheme for women self help groups (SHG) turned out to be a political propaganda platform with chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Congress MP U Arun Kumar openly seeking votes for the Congress party.

The contributory pension scheme for the SHG members was launched on Friday at the Agriculture University in Rajendranagar.

Satyam scam to be included in B-schools

The Satyam scam is now going to be a part of most B-school curriculum, including Hyd's Indian School of Business. The life and times of fallen IT czar, B Ramalinga Raju, will figure among the list of case studies on fraudulent business practices.

SEBI sets $8-bn open bidding cap for FIIs in corp debt

In a move aimed at creating more transparency in the allocation process for investments in the corporate debt market,the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday said it would allocate $8 billion debt investment limit to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in an open bidding platform.

Sebi said that all bidding for the limits would be through the stock exchanges and the window for bidding would remain open for two hours. The minimum amount that an FII can bid is capped at the lower end at Rs 250 crore, with a minimum ticket size of Rs 100 crore. The bid price will be expressed in basis point and a minimum flat fee of Rs 1,000 per successful bid shall be levied for the allocated amount.

Fish oil prevents cholesterol ......Have a ride..thru the topic

Scientists at Columbia University Medical Center have found yet another reason why eating fish can be beneficial.

Dr. Richard J. Deckelbaum, Director of the Columbia Institute of Human Nutrition, has found that a diet rich in fish oils can prevent the accumulation of fat in the aorta, the main artery leaving the heart. The researcher says that the beneficial actions of fish oil, which block cholesterol build-up in arteries, are even found at high fat intakes. Fish are generally rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to provide many health benefits, such as helping to prevent mental illness and delaying some of the disabilities associated with aging.


Eating tuna, sardines, salmon and other so-called cold water fish seems to protect people against clogged arteries. Omega-3 fatty acids are also known to lower triglycerides, a type of fat often found in the bloodstream.

The researchers observed that the fatty acids contained in fish oil markedly inhibit the entry of "bad" cholesterol (LDL) into arteries, and, consequently, much less cholesterol collects in these vessels.

Kingfisher cuts its pilots' salaries by Rs 80,000

Private air-carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, has effected a Rs 80,000 cut in the salaries of all its pilots.Earlier, they were paided a salary of Rs 4.30-lakh per month. Now it has been cut to Rs 3.50-lakh.

The salary package is mainly based on the flying hours of about 70-hours.

Light aircraft lands in Australian harbour

A light aircraft made an emergency landing in shallow water in an Australian harbour on Friday and the pilot and five passengers are safe.

There was an engine trouble which made them to land.

KP, Flintoff became the most expensive players

England players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff became the most expensive players of the Indian Premier League after being sold for a whopping $1.55 million (appr Rs 7.35 crore) in the second edition, getting Rs 1.35 crore more than what Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni got in the first edition.

Pietersen, who was England's captain till recently, was bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers while Flintoff went to Chennai Super Kings at the auction.

State to introduce bill on Medical Care

The state government will introduce, in the forthcoming budget session, a bill on emergency medical services with an aim to extend unrestrained medical care to patients unescorted by relatives. The bill seeks to make it mandatory for all private hospitals to admit and treat victims of accidents, natural calamities or terror attacks.

The new bill makes a provision for punishment and penalties for hospitals not abiding by the directives on treatment of patients during any emergency.

Hatts off for Bhushan Gagrani, secretary for medical education and drug department (MEDD).

Kampani gets bail !!!

Justice K C Bhanu of the AP High Court on Thursday reserved his orders on the petitions filed by Nimesh N Kampani, former non executive director of Nagarjuna Finance Ltd (NFL), who sought quashing of the criminal proceedings against him in a lower court and grant him anticipatory bail.

The case against promoter directors of NFL and Kampani is for committing a fraud on the public to a tune of nearly Rs 100 crore.

Twin degree programme

When it comes to twinning programmes, they're mostly distributed evenly of half and half - one semester in the foreign university and the rest in India. But the masters programme in MS embedded systems offered at the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, designed and developed for working professionals in semi-conductor is held in the weekends. Another programme offered in the same way is the MBA-MS-MITS.

After signing a collaborative twinning engineering programme with University at Buffalo, New York, the course is structured in such a way that students have to spend only a month away from home.

All courses will be taught only on weekends for up to six weeks. Each of these days will comprise full-day instructions. The first batch of both the twinning degree programme will start in July.

USA Swimming bans Phelps for three months

Record-setting Olympic champion Michael Phelps has been banned for three months by USA Swimming amid controversy over a photograph published in a British newspaper purportedly showing him smoking marijuana.

Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.

Satyam shares up; market cheers new CEO appointment

Shares of Satyam Computer were up 4% at Rs48.10 at 10:00 AM on Friday, after the company announced the appointment of a new CEO.

World's Top 3 Wealthiest CEOs

Warren Buffet

Larry Ellison

Mukesh Ambani

ICICI fires dealer for forex fraud

ICICI Bank has sacked one of its dealers who had entered into improper forward trades by executing deals to favour four Kolkata-based Top 20 Global Fin Brands 19 Indian banks in Top 500 Global Financial Brands corporates.

These companies could buy or sell currency at exchange rates which were more attractive than what they would have been offered in the regular course of business.

The employee had struck deals by ensuring that the corporates received favourable rates by tinkering with the last two digits in the forex rates, which is typically as 46.4534 or 28.6751. The software did not throw up an alert when these transactions happened since the first four digits were not changed. The deals were done in Japanese Yen, Euro and dollars.

A senior bank official said the bank got suspicious when it spotted that the dealer, who was a relationship manager for the global market division in Mumbai, was carrying out trades for a bunch of Kolkata corporates. This never happens unless the company concerned is very big.

Books.....The Knowledge Point

The New Age of InnovationCategory : Non-Fiction

Author : C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan

Publisher : McGraw-Hill Education India Pvt Ltd

Bipin Kabra joins Dhanalakshmi Bank as CEO

Mr Bipin Kabra has joined the Thrissur,Kerala-based Dhanalakshmi Bank as the Chief Financial Office He worked both as chartered accountant and a cost accountantand has over 16 years of experience in financial services sector.

'Slumdog Millionaire' now in Tamil

Valentine’s day ( February 14) and Kollywood will see the release of not a romantic film, but of the dubbed version of one of cinema’s biggest dramas – Slumdog Millionaire. K Natarajan, of Falcon films, has bought the Tamil rights for the Oscar nominee, paying a sum of over Rs.50 lakhs.

Slumdog Millionaire has been dubbed as " Naanum Koteeswaran" (I am a millionaire too), with popular Tamil actor Simbu lending his voice for the lead role played by Dev Patil, and veteran playback singer S P Balasubramaniam dubbing for Anil Kapoor.

3 Indian women entrepreneurs among third IWEC awardees

Three Indian businesswomen are among the 15 women entrepreneurs who have been awarded the third La Caixa International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge Awards (IWEC) this year.

The three Indian women entrepreneurs are Dipali Goenka, Director of Welspun Retail, Vasundhara Mantri, professional Jewellery Designer and Anita Lal Creative Head, The Goodearth Company.

Iran launches home-built satellite

Iran has successfully placed into orbit its first domestically made satellite, using an indigenous launcher. It is the Safir-2 rocket.
The lightweight satellite can carry out remote sensing and satellite telemetry operations. It is expected to have a maximum life of three months and will orbit the earth 15 times per day.

A S Murthy appointed as Satyam's CEO

Satyam Computer's A S Murthy who was heading Satyam's global operations was appointed as the new CEO.Company board Satyam has also got a Rs 600 crore breather from the banks for immediate working capital requirements.

Infosys freezes recruitment, mulls pay cuts

Employees of Infosys Technologies may have to live with a salary cut and without any significant increment, even as the IT bellwether has virtually frozen fresh recruitments on account of the global meltdown.

Sensex, Nifty end in red

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Thursday fell nearly 111 points on heavy selling by funds in bluechips led by Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies.

The Sensex, which gained 135 points in the last two sessions, fell by 110.97 points to 9,090.88.