Tough start to Formula One for Force India team
The first Indian-owned team to start a Formula One race were given a tough lesson in the realities of the sport when both their cars failed to finish Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.Force India, which is co-owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, never expected to challenge the likes of McLaren and Ferrari for victory but were hoping to at least make it to the finish.
Former Australian Grand Prix winner, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, crashed out on the first corner, while Germany’s Adrian Sutil retired after eight laps because of a hydraulic pressure problem.
“It was a very disappointing first race for Force India,” the team’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne told reporters.
Click here to read further
Source: Reuters
Charlesworth turns down curtailed role
Ric Charlesworth on Monday refused to accept the curtailed role offered to him by the ministry of sports and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).
The Australian hockey legend, who arrived in the capital on Monday morning at the behest of the ministry, was not willing to restrict his role to the junior men’s and the women’s squads.
“That was not part of the deal,” he told The Telegraph and made it clear that he was only interested in coaching the senior national team.
“Things don’t work that way. I have not come to India to do that (coaching the juniors),” an irate Charlesworth said.
When asked whether he would like to coach the junior men’s and senior women’s squads only, Charlesworth categorically said: “No.”
The Australian’s rebuff came after the IHF once again had its way and managed to convince the ministry to keep Charlesworth at bay from the senior national team.
After a four-hour meeting on Monday with top IHF officials — that included supremo K.P.S. Gill — the ministry decided to finalise Charlesworth’s appointment as the technical advisor but said the Australian would only look after the junior programmes of the federation.
Click here to read more
Source: Telegraph
Sania Mirza sends Peer packing
Sania Mirza continued her domination of Shahar Peer, defeating the ninth-seeded Israeli in three sets, to reach the fourth round of the Pacific Life Open here on Sunday. Sania triumphed 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-3 for her third straight win over Peer in four meetings.“We always play tough matches, but it’s about finding a way to win,” Sania said.
Sania, ranked 32nd in the world, said she was pleased that she was able to regain her focus after dropping a tight first set.Sania earned a fourth round meeting with Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, the defending champion in the tier one tournament that runs alongside the ATP Masters Series event here. Hantuchova, the fifth seed, beat China’s Zheng Jie 6-4, 6-2.
Click here to read more
Source: Hindu
Stressed Taslima to leave
Taslima Nasreen has decided to leave India, at least temporarily, to the relief of the home ministry and security agencies.
The Bangladeshi author has told the government she wants to go away for a few months because she is under too much stress and needs a break. It’s not clear when she will leave, but sources said it might not be easy for her to return soon.
“I have to leave this impossible situation. I cannot interact with people. I cannot any more take this stress which has led to hypertension. I want to lead a de-stressed life and I want to live life to the full,” PTI quoted Taslima as telling the agency from an undisclosed location in Delhi.
She did not say which country she would go to, but officials told The Telegraph she might travel to Sweden or London.
Click here to read more
Source: Telegraph
India Not to Ban Blackberry Phones
The blackberry users in India can leave a sigh of relief at least for the moment. The Indian government, which contemplated banning the blackberry devices in India for security concerns has now said that it will not be doing so. At least for the moment. The blackberry in question was that of RIM’s recently introduced phones in India.
The controversy over the security aspect of the blackberry rose when Tata Teleservices was denied permission by the home affairs ministry to launch services owing to security concerns even while other operators were offering the service. DoT, however, said out it had already informed all operators to stop Blackberry services by the end of December because of objections by home ministry. However, responding to requests, operators were given a three-month extension, which ends in March.
The major concern for security agencies in India seems to be the fact that emails made from Blackberry can neither be traced nor be recorded. But the telecom ministry has assured that there is simply no question of banning the blackberries. In fact, the telecom ministry even said that it is keen to see the blackberries continue their services in India.
Click here to read more
Source: TMC Net
Sarabjit’s village unites to save him
Sarabjit Singh’s native village has united to show its solidarity with the son of this soil. Relatives and friends, supported by religious and social organizations of the nondescript village close to Indo-Pak border have joined hands to save Sarabjit, who will reportedly be sent to the gallows on April 1 in Pakistan.
On Monday, the locals made an announcement from Bhikhiwind Chowk, urging the traders to close their establishments to express solidarity for the man whose only offence was reportedly that he had crossed the border while he was under the influence of liquor some 17 years ago.
Click here to read more
Source: India Times
Spectrum War Round II: GSM, CDMA providers fight over eGSM band
A new round of spectrum battle has broken out between existing GSM operators and CDMA players who are launching GSM services after the government recently approved mobile services on dual technology. This time around, they are battling for the rights to use the ‘eGSM band’.
The ‘eGSM band’ involves radio frequencies of 880-890 MHz paired with 925-935 MHz. The GSM operators’ body, Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), has said that globally this band is used by service providers to offer GSM-based mobile services and all the GSM equipment manufactured worldwide is attuned to operating in this band. In India, however, this band was earmarked for CDMA-based mobile services though it was never allotted to CDMA operators.
Source: Economic Times
Sewage falling into Ganga causing cancer, SC informed
The Supreme Court today decided to hear the issue of discharge of untreated sewage into the Ganga posing a cancer threat to people living on its banks.
Two applications filed in the apex court pointed to threat of deadly diseases afflicting due to domestic sewage pollution of the Ganga in 36 towns in four states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
The applications pointed out that the pollution posed thread of diseases like gall bladder cancer, mild intestinal disease and kidney complications.
The court, which is monitoring the ambitious Ganga Action Plan aimed at checking pollution in the river, was informed that the serious health hazards due to domestic sewage pollution had been confirmed by Industrial Toxicology Research Institute, Lucknow.
Advocate Krishan Mahajan, who is assisting the court in the matter, mentioned the applications filed by him before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and expressed the urgency of hearing the health threat to around 76 per cent of the people living on the banks.
He said that the latest report of the Lucknow institute had found that Ganga waters have become home to a virulent form of E-coli bacteria (producing the Shiga toxin) that can lead to ailments ranging from mild intestinal disease to severe kidney complications.
Courtesy: Outlook India
Agarwalla Brothers May Make Millions From Scrabulous
Brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the creators of the online word game Scrabulous, could make millions of dollars from their game, which started off as a hobby. The rights to for the Scrabble board game are held by Hasbro in North America and Mattel in the rest of the world. Both companies kicked off an online storm when they accused the brothers of pirating their game.
However with over 700,000 daily users Scrabulous has a mighty fan following and when these fans threatened to boycott products made by Mattel and Hasbro, the gloves were off. Speculations are that the company will now buy the game from the Agarwalla brothers.
The whole story began in 2004 when the brothers created the software version of Scrabble and called it Bingo Binge. Apparently they were miffed when a website where they played the game decided to charge users.
Courtesy: NewsLocale
India running short of product managers,technical architects: Survey
Indian software product development companies are currently witnessing a dearth of product managers and technical architects, according to a study.
India currently has around 800 product managers and 2,500 technical architects though the demand for the same was three times more, according to Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov, a consulting firm which has released the results of its annual survey on ‘Compensation and Benefits 2008.’
The average salary for technical architects rose from Rs 17.3 lakh in 2005 to Rs 18.85 lakh in 2006 and Rs 22.17 lakh last year due to the wide gap between demand and supply, the survey, which covered 40 software product development companies in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, NCR region of the country, said.
The average salaries of product managers rose by 25 to 30 per cent, said Shammi from Zinnov.
Courtesy: Economic Times