Surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday became the richest person in the world.

Record-breaking performance by India's stock markets has put the industrialist Mukesh Ambani at the top of a list of the world's richest people. With India's most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore), making Ambani's wealth total of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%).

Reliance Industries, which was founded by Mr Ambani's father, Dhirubhai, spans oil, textiles and biochemicals and has annual revenues of $27bn, close to its fellow Indian conglomerate Tata Industries. Mukesh Ambani and his estranged younger brother, Anil, split the group's assets on their father's death in 2002.

The performance of companies owned by both brothers have been equally remarkable in the recent run by the Indian stock market. The Sensex has risen about 39 per cent since it became the third emerging market after China and Russia to surpass $1 trillion in May, helped by economic growth of around 9 per cent a year and a strengthening currency.

Shares in Reliance Industries, which has the heaviest index weighting on the Sensex, have risen by nearly 80 per cent this year. Indeed, Reliance Industries, operator of the world's third-largest refinery, has accounted for about a quarter of the Sensex's gain since it first crossed 10,000 points in February 2006.

In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around $62.29 billion each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin and Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about $56 billion.

The five richest people in the world with their net worth.

1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)

2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)

3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)

4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)

5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)


Source: (Times, Independent)

This is the moment when every Indian should feel proud off, as for the first time the indigenously build light combat aircraft Tejas was used on Thursday (October 25) at a naval weapons range off the coast of Goa, at an altitude of 7 kilometers and at 0.6 times the speed of sound, the 'Tejas' did something that took the fighter program a leap further, it fired an air to air missile, something described as a textbook launch.

The launch validated many features of the fighter -- like the ability of the missile to jump clear of the aircraft on launch, the effect of the missile on the structure and handling on the aircraft itself and the important sub-systems of the aircraft that allow it to fire missiles safely and to lethal effect. Tejas is also controlled by advanced computers and fly by wire controls that keep it stable in flight for India's fledgeling indigenous fighter industry. The missile launch has more than one facet - our homegrown fighter aircraft is now a lethal bird of prey.

With advance war fighter like Sukhoi 30 MKI, already in India's arsenal, India is still going forward with the Tejas, the indigenously developed Light combat aircraft and achiving milestones one after another and why it shouldn't as IAF is planning to fully develop Tejas and replace the notorious and ageing MiG 21s.

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Source: (Times Now)

This Wednesday was like any other Wednesday in Indian law of court but something dramatic happened this Wednesday, which was never witnessed earlier, It was a day of life sentences across the country on Wednesday. A total of 60 people were awarded life imprisonment in three high-profile and one lesser-known cases across India by courts for criminal acts in four separate cases.. They ranged from politician Amarmani Tripathi to policemen in Delhi, Islamic radicals in Tamil Nadu and Hindus charged with killing Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.

The crimes ranged from bomb blasts in Coimbatore to target BJP leader LK Advani and murder of a pregnant poetess in Lucknow following an affair to killing of two businessmen in a fake police encounter in Delhi and burning nine persons alive during communal riots in Kanpur in the aftermath of the demolition of Babri Masjid mosque.

The judges pronounced the stunning verdicts within hours of one another, ending years of agonizing trials and eventually delivering justice to the family members of those killed in the four cases. The maximum number of 31 life terms was awarded in Tamil Nadu's bustling Coimbatore town where a special judge found 31 Islamic radicals guilty for the deaths of 58 people in a string of deadly bomb blasts in 1998.

Court in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, also gave similar sentences to Tripathi's wife Madhumani, Tripathi's cousin Rohit Chaturvedi and a contract killer. The victim was shot dead in Lucknow in May 2003.

Source: (Khabrein, Hindustan Times)

No matter what you have hear about India being the world economic power in some 20 years down the line. However,recent survey carried out by international consultancy and research firm AT Kearney has ranked India at the 71st position in its annual ranking of the world's most globalised nations, AT Kearney and Foreign Policy Globalisation Index 2007.

The list of 72 countries is topped by Singapore for the third consecutive year followed by Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland.

India fell 10 places from its 61st position in 2006. The country was placed at the second bottom position last year as well in a list of 62 nations just ahead of Iran. This year, 10 countries have debuted on the index, and all of them have come at ranks higher than India.

AT Kearney said that India's low position is despite the country's services export and the total trade rising by more than a third. "India's standing as a premier off-shoring destination with a booming economy often masks the fact that 70% of its population lives in rural areas," the report said.

Despite a doubling of Internet users in 2005, only 5% of India's population had access to the Internet and less than half of its population was attached to the power grid, it said.

The Globalisation Index is an annual study which assesses the extent to which nations are becoming more or less globally connected taking into account 12 variables grouped into four categories, economic integration, personal contact, technological connectivity and political engagement.

Mr A. Raja, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, today informed that the telecom sector has reached 250 million subscribers three months ahead of the target date as it has been adding more than seven million subscribers every month.

The target set by the department of 15% tele-density by 2010 was achieved in September 2006 itself, four years in advance. The gross number of telephones by the end September 2007 was 248.66 million as compared to 241.02 million in August 2007. The overall tele-density reached 21.85% in September 2007 as against 21.20% in August 2007.

As for the wireless segment there was a fall in subscription and it accounted for 7.80 million subscription in September 2007 as against 8.31 million subscription in August 2007. In the wire-line segment, the subscriber base decreased to 39.58 million in September 2007 as against 39.73 million subscribers in August 2007. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base reached 209.08 million at September end.

During April-September of 2007, 42.80 million total phone subscribers have been added as compared to 29.70 million during the corresponding period in the previous year.

Noticing this incredible rise in figures Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that with the addition of 7.64 million phone connections in September, the 500 million target by 2010 appear modest.

Here is a good news, inflation has hit 5 year low at 3.07%, as increased farm production reduced prices of fruit and vegetables which moved down to 4%.Prices of eggs as well as fish dropped down marginally by 1% whereas prices of bajra and maize dipped by 2%.

Lower food prices may not prevent inflation from accelerating in the coming months as banks increase lending in the world's second-fastest growing major economy. However, prices of furnaces shot up by 46 per cent followed by aviation turbine fuel which rose by 5 per cent. Prices of broad-gauged diesel locomotive prices also jumped by 9 per cent.

The Apex bank- RBI, stock regulator -SEBI as well as the Center have played a pivotal role in maintaining inflation at the sustainable level. They helped to curtail liquidity in the financial system by streaming in various norms such as raising ceiling on market stabilisation scheme (MSS) bonds, liberalizing rules on forex and controlling overseas capital inflow via P- Notes. RBI took prudential measures such as enhancing the provisioning requirements and risk weights for select categories of banking assets, namely consumer finance, real estate, housing and capital market exposures.

All this efforts have finally paid off. Moreover, with more than half of the $17.7 billion of the net purchases of Indian stocks this year may have been through the use of participatory notes, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts estimate and also record overseas investments have caused rupee to strengthen at 11.4% this year, the fastest gain in 33 years.

Source: (Times, MyIris, Bloomberg)

Recent attacks in INDIA, one at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and the other at Dargah Sharif in Ajmer, the only thing which was common between the two were both attacks were triggered by mobile phones. Investigations revealed that in both the cases, the SIM cards were taken in the same fictitious name — Babulal Yadav — and the picture given for the purpose of verification was that of a Noida-based yoga teacher, Tarak Nath, who protested when his photo was published as a suspect after the Hyderabad blast.

However, the service provider have tighten the procedure for securing the new connection by verifying the same in various stages, but it seem it was a cake walk for these terrorist in procuring the sim cards.

According to Times of India, its still a piece of cake when it comes to acquiring SIM in fictitious names. "It could have been under any name. We chose the names of home secretary Madhukar Gupta and Intelligence Bureau director P C Haldar. It's not that any one service provider is lax, most of them are, with the exception of state-owned BSNL and MTNL. The connection in the name of Gupta is a post-paid one from Vodafone (9873310143) and Haldar's a pre-paid Airtel connection (9958784077). The shady agent who got us the connections bragged that he could provide any connection, under any name." Times stated.

When times took the initiative to acquire two SIM'S they were delivered to them and activated within 48 hours and that too for mere Rs 200 for the post-paid connection and Rs 150 for the pre-paid connection.

"In the race for getting more customers, the mobile phone operators have appointed area agents who, in turn, have recruited boys — neither of whom have any appreciation of security needs; their aim is to simply boost numbers.As a result, not only are connections given with flimsiest of checks, there is proactive help for the necessary paperwork — identity proof and the rest are "arranged" by the boys." TOI.

After all in India we never take thing seriously, that's what this whole incidence has indicated India takes its security so casually. This is the high time after all, with more and more terror attacks it time to check all the loop hole and try to patch them before anyone else can take unfair advantage.

Source: (Times)

Patni Computer Systems on Wednesday said that it has bagged a multi-year $200 million deal with Britain's The Carphone Warehouse, Europe's largest mobile phone retailer, a five year deal will cover a wide range of consultancy, software and maintenance services.

Patni will become The Carphone Warehouse's technology partner for developing next-generation systems for the latter's global telecom and retail operations. The Carphone Warehouse is a large mobile phone retailer with over 2,100 stores in 11 countries. The consulting portion of the agreement will involve redesigning some of CPW’s business processes to help them reduce costs.

“Patni will become a key technology partner providing services across consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance. In addition, Patni will also be a key partner to The Carphone Warehouse for developing next-generation systems for its global telecom and retail operations,” the company said.

Patni's telecom business contributes 14.1 percent to its revenues. The company also recently acquired Europe-based telecommunications consulting services company Logan-Orviss International.

The agreement ranks alongside deals of similar size it got as ABN AMRO’s preferred vendor in a $2.2 billion contract and its engagements with General Electric.

Source: (ZDnetIndia, EconomicTimes)

Following our story of India plans to put the nuclear deal with US down the drains to save the coalition government which is between UPA and Left. Now Australia has decided to review its plans to sell uranium to India after the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has told the US President, George Bush, that "certain difficulties" would prevent India from moving forward on the pact for the foreseeable future.

Efforts for a US-India nuclear pact, which would open India to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, paved the way for Australia's uranium deal with India.

Medcalf said the US decision to work with India on nuclear issues triggered the Howard Government's policy change to also engage with India. "It was really only when the US turned around to accepting India's nuclear status, that most of the rest of the world could contemplate having a civilian nuclear relationship with India," he said.

Medcalf said that if Labour won the federal election, the impasse in talks regarding the Indo-US nuclear pact could "forestall any possible rift in Australian-India relationship" over Labour's pledge to abandon uranium sales. Times Reported on Wednesday.

However, The non-proliferation lobby in the United States has gone ballistic over Australia's readiness to sell uranium to India and has begun a concerted campaign to protest such a move.

Its plans include calling on the Australian public to oppose any such transfer by its government to New Delhi, which has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of ACA and Leonard Spector, deputy director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said official documents from the Australian Parliament show that the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty bans Australian uranium exports to countries like India that have not signed the NPT.

"This move flagrantly contradicts Australia's long standing international nuclear nonproliferation commitments and should be reconsidered and reversed," Australian decision to sell uranium to India, "which is not a member of the NPT, has not signed the CTBT [Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty], and has refused to halt its production of plutonium for weapons, would violate Australia's past political and treaty commitments to the principle of full-scope international safeguards as a condition for supply of nuclear technology and material." Kimball said.

The bottom line of the entire drama is The sales of Uranium is worth billions in export dollars because India plans to use nuclear energy to meet its burgeoning power needs.

Source: (Times, Rediff and SMH)

There was a surprising turn to the sensex bull run after crossing 19K mark, marketing today crashed more than 1700 points, minutes after the opening bell. The sudden down fall of the market led SEBI to hit the panic button, closing the market for almost 30 minutes, before it resumed it trading for day.

The 30-share index, Sensex, tumbled to 17,307.90, a fall never seen before,and the impact wasn't limited to the Sensex only but also Nifty showed the symptoms and tumbles as much as 500 points after the opening bell.

Minutes after the market was closed for trading our honorable FM appeared on national television and urged investor and analyst, `not to panic` as this step was taken by the SEBI and it is aimed at arresting the surge in foreign inflows through PNs, which are offshore derivative instruments that allow foreign investors to invest indirectly in a the stock markets which has seen the BSE Sensex zoom more than 5,000 points in two months.

He also stated that there was nothing to be alert of and this was a normal procedure to curb the inflows of FII in Indian market.

With markets open at 10:55 am today, it has shown a signs of recovery as speculated by our honorable FM, all we have to see is can market recover till the day's end as quoted by FM.

Defence Minister A K Antony's four-day visit to Moscow, beginning today, is expected to reinvigorate defence cooperation between both countries, India has apparently succumbed to the Russian demand for jacking up the annual cost escalation charge of contracted weapon systems to 5% from the present 2.55%.

While the defence ministry was tight-lipped, sources said this would lead to India paying millions of dollars extra for the 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters at an overall cost of over $8.5 billion. Of the 230, IAF has already inducted around 60 of these fighters, which will be the mainstay of India’s combat fleet in the coming years. While the deals for 190 Sukhois were signed earlier, another one for 40 of these fighters was finalised recently at a cost of around $1.6 billion.

Apart from Sukhois, India is also on course to acquire 347 more T-90S main-battle tanks and 80 more Mi-17 medium-lift utility and assault helicopters from Russia.

Source : (Times)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday told US president George Bush that his government would not be able to hold safeguards negotiations with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in what brings down the curtain on a long and painstaking push for operationalisation of the deal during his tenure.

‘‘The Prime Minister explained to president Bush that certain difficulties have arisen with respect to the operationalisation of the India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement,’’ tersely noted the official press release issued after the talks.

Save a three-line reference to the deal, the one-page statement focussed exclusively on the deadlocked WTO talks and how to take them forward. The shyness reflected the government’s embarrassment in being forced to cast aside, at least for now, what it sincerely felt was going to be a historic and honourable agreement for India.

Singh conceded his failure to get past the obstacles raised by the opponents of the deal, as well as allies leery of a confrontation with the Left on the matter, after Bush responded to the PM’s efforts to reach him.

Singh had, early on, failed to get through to Bush who was on Air Force One.

The conversation with Bush after the UPA government blinked in the face-off with the Left was necessary because he was, on the American side, the chief catalyst for the successful negotiation of the 123 Agreement. Bush defied strong resistance from non-proliferation hardliners, as well as lobbyists for Pakistan, in the state department and Pentagon who argued that ‘‘concessions’’ to India would tip the scales in the sub-continent towards India and annoy the old-time ally.

The US president had also vowed to lug the deal through the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the US Congress in the face of continued opposition.

The statement said that the two leaders also discussed the divergences holding up the Doha Round. Reiterating that India was committed to the successful conclusion of the Doha Round, the statement said trade liberalisation had contributed immensely to the growth of the world economy.

The statement said the draft texts in circulation could be the basis for discussions towards an agreed outcome in agriculture and industrial tariffs (non-agricultural market access or NAMA). Although there were grey areas in the text and specific numbers which needed to be agreed upon, the texts gave a broad indication of the range of possibilities on most issues, the statement added. Singh said that India was comfortable with most of the elements of these texts.

It was a reasonable compromise between differing positions of various countries. As is true of any trade deal, it involved give and take by all and India was ready to do its share of giving in this regard.

Source: (Times)

Four trading sessions — that's what it took the sensex to rally from 18k to 19k, making it the fastest 1,000-point run in the history of the 21-year-old index. If you think that's a milestone, consider this: Over the last month, the sensex has gained 3,500 points. And during this period, four of its five all-time highs were achieved.

"Milestones are a stone's throw away," muttered a derivatives strategist at a domestic brokerage even as the sensex closed at 19059.

The question is, what's feeding the frenzy? The answers at 19K remain what they were at 18K. Unabated buying interest by foreign fund managers because returns from India remain among the best in the world; and expectations that in the future, the Indian economy and corporates will continue to do well.

In any case, these are variables that don't change over four trading sessions. Which is why, foreign institutional investors have pumped $7 billion into Indian stocks in less than a month.

The rush for Indian paper started on September 19 after Ben Bernanke, chief of the US Federal Reserve, cut key interest rates in an attempt to save the world's largest economy from dipping into a recession. Call it the Ben(ji) effect if you will!

He cut interest rates due to the sub-prime mortgage mess. Sub-prime loans are extended to people with low income and hold the potential for default. The gamble American lending institutions took was that with a certain degree of controls, they wouldn't default. But high interest rates in the US started pushing up the numbers of people who couldn't repay the loans.

As it turned out, American banks had a huge exposure to this segment of borrowers and many started tottering under the weight of defaults. The problem had reached proportions that threatened to derail the American economy. Bernanke reckoned that if he cut interest rates, it would be easier for people to service their loans and the financial services sector could ride out the storm.

But investors in the stockmarket saw it differently. It would be some time before the American financial system recovered from the mess it had gotten itself into. In any case, with lower interest rates, returns on their investments would go down. It made sense, therefore, to look at safer markets that offered better returns. Like India.

"India is being looked at much differently today than a few months back," said a dealer at a foreign brokerage. To that extent, India has been re-rated. Going by FII inflows over the last couple of weeks, it is tempting to believe the India re-rating story is playing itself out well.

In the days ahead, institutional players believe FIIs will become specific in their stock selection, but deal sizes will increase substantially. "FII buying is expected to be more stock- specific, driven by strong growth stories rather than broadbased buying," said Naresh Kothari of Edelweiss Securities.

Source: (Times)

The Amul Butter girl might soon claim her place in Guinness Book of the World Records. The butter girl campaign, launched in 1967 completed 40 years recently. It is believed to be the world’s oldest running outdoor advertising campaign.

Air India’s Maharaja is one of the oldest mascots in the country. It was created way back in 1946 by JWT.

However, this does not fall under the outdoor category. In the international arena, the Marlboro Man was one of the longest advertising campaigns, lasting from the 1960s to the 1990s. Thus, in a way, there appears to be no competition to the four-year-old girl a subject of public admiration since 40 years.

It is learnt that the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) — the umbrella organisation that sells dairy products under the Amul brand — will pitch for the record in the outdoor campaign category. Incidentally, the campaign is being managed by the same advertising agency — daCunha Communications — which designed the moppet way back in 1966.

“We are researching along with our advertising agency before filing the claim. According to our primary observations, no other ongoing advertising campaign is as old as Amul Butter girl in the world. However, we want to substantiate our claim,” a senior GCMMF executive said.

The moppet has been the centre of all the promotions for Amul Butter. Interestingly, the annual budget for the campaign is just about Rs 2 crore that brings in revenue of about Rs 500 crore for GCMMF through the sale of butter.

The federation follows the practice of spending only one per cent of its previous year's revenues on advertising during the current year.

"The butter girl campaign has been built brick by brick for last 40 years in India. We are aiming to showcase the creative strength of cooperatives to the world by claiming the world record," the executive said.

Cyber criminals are up for more serious chastisement. They will no longer be able to exploit loopholes in the Information Technology Act, which requires law enforcement agencies to book criminals under different laws.
The government will soon make the IT Act of 2000 complete in itself by importing provisions from not only the Indian Penal Code (IPC) but also from other statutes like the Indian Evidence Act (IEA) of 1872 and the Code of Criminal Procedures (CCP) of 1973.

Inclusion of provisions in the Indian Evidence Act will give legal authority for the use of digital signatures under the prevailing cyber law itself. Sections 47, 67A, 85A, 85B and 85C of the IEA will be adopted, a department of information technology official said. Making fake digital signature certificates will now be a criminal offence and would attract harsher punishment.

While Section 47 and 67A of the IEA deal with matters related to proof of handwriting and signatures, Sections 85A, 85B and 85C deal with matters relating to authentication of digital signatures. The inclusion of these Sections will help law enforcement agencies as well as the judiciary.

“If some document is sealed with digital signature, it can be opened only with the help of two codes, one of which is with the user and the other with the controller of certifying authority (CCA). The documents will not open unless the codes match — as is the case in operating a bank locker,” an expert on digital signatures said. Inclusion of these new Sections will also help in promoting the use of digital signatures, the DIT official said.

The department also proposes to include Sections 320 and 198A of the CCP in the IT Act to help enforcement agencies in treating cyber criminals like other criminals. Once the review of the IT Act of 2000 is over, the government will invite public comments before finalising the changes.

Shares of 3i Infotech are likely to see an upside Monday on the company acquiring US-based J&B Software Inc and its subsidiaries for $25.25 million.

J&B Software Inc. is engaged in the business of providing software products and services relating to remittance processing in the United States with blue chip customers.

It has robust and highly scalable software products for payment processing. J&B Software Inc. is engaged in the business of providing software products and services relating to remittance processing in the United States with blue chip customers.

3i Infotech expects the acquisition to be EPS accretive. “The acquisition of J&B Software Inc. is a strategic move for 3i Infotech as it would enable penetration into the blue chip BFSI customer base in the US,” the company said in a notice to BSE.

The 3i Infotech share closed 4.13 per cent lower at Rs 142.70 on Friday.

Corporates may find it increasingly difficult to retain graduates from top B-schools despite offering them handsome pay packets as these aspiring managers are on the constant lookout for newer challenges, a recent survey has said.

"At least 47 per cent of the young and curious management graduates expect to move out of their jobs in less than three years in search of better career opportunities and higher compensation packages," the annual Nielsen Campus Track B-School Study said.

The new generation of management graduates has a healthy appetite for newer challenges and the booming employment market in the country has ample of that in the offering, the study added.

"A good reputation and a brand image are the primary factors, while compensation is the next most important thing for these aspiring managers," the study added.

The average salary expectation for the IIM students is close to Rs 19 lakhs, 30 per cent more than the last year’s expectations. While they expect a package of at least 14.2 lakhs from the domestic companies, the figures double to about 27.4 lakhs when it comes to salary expected from foreign companies.

"IIM students depend a lot on their network of alumni while selecting the prospective employers," the study said.

While 84 per cent graduates value feedback from seniors, 80 per cent analyse a company based on their summer training experience. Also, 72 per cent choose to rely on pre-placement talks, the study added.

Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the UN panel on climate change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore, said on Friday he was overwhelmed by the award.

"I can't believe it, overwhelmed, stunned," Pachauri told reporters and co-workers after receiving the news by telephone at his office in New Delhi. "I feel privileged sharing it with someone as distinguished as him," he added.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this year made the strongest ever link between mankind's activities and global warming -- gaining widespread publicity around the world. "I expect this will bring the subject to the fore," he said. "I'm only a symbol of a much larger organisation, the IPCC, and it's really the scientific community that contributed to the work of the IPCC. They're the real winners of this award."

Asked what he would do now, he said he was going to "have a good sleep", having been travelling extensively.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has collaborated with One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation to bring the latter's much-hyped $100 laptop to India to promote e-learning among poor children.

Under this initiative, Reliance Communications (RCom) will provide Internet connectivity, network backbone, logistics, and support to the OLPC initiative.

The initiative aims at covering over 25,000 towns, and 6,00,000 villages in the country by 2008. The larger OLPC project has already provided laptops to 5 million school children across the world, and aims to cover 150 million by 2008.

Based on the Linux OS, the OLPC (XO) laptop has replaceable keyboards, which can be changed for use with 35 global languages.

While announcing the collaboration, Tina Anil Ambani, said, "Children are the future of the nation, and shaping the future of millions of school children through new age learning systems is of prime importance in today's digital era."

OLPC has launched its first pilot in the country at a school in a tribal village at Khairat, near Karjat in Maharashtra, where school children have been provided with laptops, and training for teachers to incorporate new ways of imparting education.

Carla Gomez Monroy, learning consultant of OLPC, and a part of the pilot, said, "Children lack opportunity, and not capability. Children at Khairat school, who have never even seen a laptop before, are showing easiness and receptiveness while learning on laptops. It has also resulted in reduction in the number of children absentees."

Sumit Chowdhury, chief information officer of RCom, said, "School children will be able to access their educational modules in local languages, collaborate with each other, connect to the Internet, and play games as well."

The laptops are connected via network to the school server. All laptops are on the network, so school children can interact with each other, and share the learning experience. However, once out of the school network, these laptops are rendered absolutely useless. They would work only till such a time the battery lasts.

"Keeping in mind that the laptops will be handled by school children, they have been built drop-proof, 45-degrees shock-proof, water proof, and have a longer battery life as compared to regular laptops," added Chowdhury.

RCom and OLPC are in talks with government agencies, NGOs, content developers, translators, teachers, and project managers to create successful ecosystems to further the OLPC program in India.

Around 20,000 youths from the eight northeastern states are to be recruited for India's booming IT enabled services and business process outsourcing (ITES-BPO) industry.

According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), the initiative for the recruitment drive is being done with help from the union ministry of development of northeastern region (DoNER).

Nasscom, the apex body of Indian IT and service companies, has created an assessment and certification programme called Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) for a common and transparent recruitment process.

"About 100 NAC tests would be conducted across the northeast followed by job fairs early next year for the successful candidates for recruitment to the ITES-BPO industry," said Brajamohan Sinha, director of the Tripura manpower and employment department.

The tests, meant for graduates and others, are to be held in phases later this month and in November and December.

According to a Nasscom statement, of the 20,000 proposed recruits, the highest number of 8,000 would be from Assam followed by 3,500 from Tripura, 2,000 in Nagaland, 1,500 each from Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and 1,000 each from Manipur and Sikkim.

"The ITES-BPO industry is growing at an overwhelming pace and giving a major fillip to the Indian economy. India has established its leadership position globally in the off shoring market and now the availability of skilled manpower is one of the key barriers to the fast growth of the industry," Nasscom said.

Air Chief Marshal F H Major on Friday said IAF fighter pilots are now gearing up to take part in the world famous US 'Red Flag' air combat exercise, confirming an earlier TOI report.

But it's too early for the Left to raise their flags of protest against the 'Red Flag' since the exercise will be held only in mid-2008.

Six IAF fighters, two transport aircraft and an IL-78 mid-air refueller are likely to fly to Nellis US air force base at Nevada, north-west of Las Vegas, for the exercise.

"We have bid for 'Red Flag' in 2008. It's the most sought after exercise in the world. The facilities at Nellis can simulate all kinds of air warfare and we want our pilots and technicians to be exposed to it," said ACM Major.

India and US have held around 50 joint military exercises in the last six-seven years to enhance "functional interoperability" between their armed forces, with the recent Malabar naval war-games in the Bay of Bengal being the latest example.

With Indian Railways planning to install ATMs in selected trains, you may be able to withdraw money while travelling.

"We already have ATMs in many stations. Now, as a further step, we are planning to install ATMs in some trains as a pilot project," said a senior railway ministry official.

"We are in discussion with some banks to finalise the ATM project", said the official adding a feasibility study is also being commissioned to study the proposed ATM plan.

In the first phase, ATMs would be installed in popular trains and later on depending upon the success of the facility it would be extended to other trains.

However, trains passing through Naxal-affected areas are not being considered for ATM facility for security reasons, the railway official said.

"We have strengthened security measures at railway stations and trains by deploying explosive detection devices, door-frame metal detectors, CCTV and smart video cameras at sensitive stations. Beside acquiring modern security gadgets our dog squads have also been strengthened as there is a need for deploying sniffer dogs at stations", he said.

Steps have been initiated to operate Global Positioning System (GPS) in trains to improve our trains tracking system. A GPS-based system for rail navigation has been planned in coordination with IIT Kanpur. The system provides real time tracking system using GPS.

Beside ATMs and ATVMs, Railway Ministry is planning a major up-gradation of entertainment in some inter-city super-fast trains.

As per the plan, the seats of the coaches will be equipped with flat-panel television touch screens with head phones offering passengers options of live and pre-recorded entertainment and movie channels.

BANGALORE: The rupee appreciation looks to be hitting jobs in the technology sector. The industry's spends devoted to hiring have hit a speed breaker. According to industry observers and media analysts, the last few months have seen as much as a 50% decline in recruitment advertisements.

Several tier-1 tech firms that advertised 12 times across the country in a quarter has brought the frequency down to five. Domestic and MNC tech firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL, Patni, IBM, HP and Dell are all said to have embarked on a "conscious cost-cutting binge". The only exception is seen to be Accenture, which continues to spend heavily on print recruitment ads as the company has an ambitious mandate to increase its India strength.

Analysts say the decline in advertising is a consequence of increased utilisation of the bench (those sitting idly waiting for projects), and a greater dependence on employee referrals (on an average 30% of the entire IT hiring is done through this channel) and external hiring agencies.

Joydeep Raha, vice president (initiative) in advertising company Lowe, said, "IT firms today are extremely conscious about the utilisation levels of their bench staff to optimise productivity and increase profitability (which has been badly hit by the rupee appreciation). This has significantly brought down the size of the IT recruitment ad market."

Ajay Shroff, director in ad firm Pinxit Blue, said, "This scenario has resulted in an immediate business impact of 20 to 25% on ad agencies. Agencies that do not have a vertical spread could be the most hit, by up to 50% of their income. Also, the bring-the-buddy scheme (employee referrals) has become extremely popular, with some companies doubling or even trebling the referral bonuses."

Shroff said one employee was recently given a reward of Rs 1 lakh by his employer for referring his friend to work. "IT recruitment ads have become seasonal. Now, ad firms wait for increment/attrition months like June, July, August or January to put out the ads. This has started impacting our revenues adversely," said Soumya, director (accounts) at RK Swamy BBDO.

Quality of talent has always been a problem with recruitment ads, which drives up costs. "A single print ad can throw up 10,000 resumes at a time. But often, the employable ones in the lot could be barely 10. Imagine the time and energy we end up spending on screening these CVs" asked an HR manager of a large IT firm.

MUMBAI: It’s another feather in the cap of Indian academia. Vijay Govindarajan, the Earl C Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at Dartmouth Colleges Tuck School of Business, will soon join General Electric (GE) as professor in Residence and chief innovation consultant to help the company advance its innovation agenda.

Indian academicians are among the most sought after business brains in the West. Already people like Govindarajan, Ram Charan and CK Prahalad are advising several Fortune 500 companies. Incidentally, all three of them have made it to the Thinkers 50, an annual ranking of the Top 50 business and management thought leaders.

Says Govindarajan, "My area of expertise is how to create breakthrough businesses while managing the current business. And this is what I will do at GE as well." This was also a theme that Govindarajan addressed in the bestselling book 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators (co-authored with Chris Trimble).

Jeffrey Immelt has been pushing innovation at GE ever since he took over in 2001. The idea is to grow though organic innovation instead of just acquiring companies. GE has identified six areas to innovate in: environment, infrastructure, demographics, emerging markets, digital technologies and financial liquidity.

Each of these businesses present tremendous opportunities to create breakthrough businesses, says Govindarajan. "For instance, demographic changes are leading to a huge ageing population and huge healthcare needs in the coming 50 years."

"This means GE needs to identify these needs now and see how it can address them through its diagnostics business. Similarly, environmental problems like global warming and water scarcity also present significant opportunities."
This is the first time GE has created the position of chief innovation consultant. Govindarajan will perform three roles during his one year stint at the company (he will return to Tuck in 2009): teaching its top 600 executives and teams, consulting on a few innovation projects and consulting to GE executives who want to develop their ideas.

GE does a good job of integrating what they teach at their development centre in Crotonville with actually growth strategy, says Govindarajan.

BANGALORE: Continuing with its string-of-pearls acquisition strategy, Wipro has entered into an agreement to acquire a Singapore-based design services semiconductor firm in an all-cash deal. However, the value of the deal was not disclosed.

Wipro Technologies will acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore (OTCS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry, Japan, over a period of one year and this would be its second acquisition in the semiconductor space with the earlier one being NewLogic.

OTCS registered revenues of 8.8 million Singapore dollars for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 and has a 40-member team. Vasudevan Aghoramoorthy, V-P, Wipro Technologies said, this acquisition will enable them to meet the demand for newer wireless technologies and also expand its breadth of offering in the semiconductor design space.
For the first time, Wipro Technologies has made an acquisition in the Far East region with all its previous buyouts in the US and Europe.

OTCS is focussed on wireless design and has capabilities in radio frequency (RF) technologies. It mainly works for the parent company with some third party clients and Wipro expects to provide solutions for the semiconductor companies.

Sudip Nandy, chief strategy officer, Wipro, said, “Wipro sees this transaction as strategic fitment in building niche competencies which will enhance our presence among technology companies in Japan.”

Wipro Technologies has also entered into an agreement with Oki Electric to set up a dedicated development centre in Bangalore. Mr Aghoramoorthy said, this centre will work with tandem with the Singapore centre.

"OKI has been enhancing its design and development skills. We have been looking for a global partner to improve our efficiency in semiconductor design through outsourcing," said Masahiko Morioka, president, silicon solutions company at Oki Electric Industry.