Army Chief General VK Singh retires today

General VK Singh will retire as Indian Army Chief today. His retirement will bring to an end his controversial tenure, which was marred by his Date of Birth (DOB) issue and revelation of bribery offered by top military brass.

General Singh (62) will hand over the charge to Eastern Army Commander General Bikram Singh, who will be the next Army Chief for tenure of two years and three months.

General Singh was appointed as the Army Chief on March 31, 2010. He was the first trained commando to become Army General and was also the first serving Indian military chief to take the Government to court.

He is the first General, who had drawn the government's attention over the shortage of arms and ammunition. His startling revelation about the bribe offering had created storm in the Parliament.

Born to a Colonel in the Indian Army in Bhiwani district in Haryana, General Singh is known as an honest, firm and upright officer.

India becomes Biggest ‘Baby Factory’ for UK

India has become the biggest ‘Baby Factory’ for Britain, a media report has suggested. It claims that UK is the sole biggest source of clients for India's booming 1.5 billion pounds surrogacy industry.

With a remuneration of 6,000 pounds a woman in India donates egg and carries baby as a surrogate mother, the report says. For the whole procedure to get a child (using surrogate mothershi) in India the Britons reportedly pay an average of 25,000 pounds.

"It is estimated that 2,000 births to surrogate mothers took place in the country last year, with most experts agreeing that Britain is the biggest single source of people who want to become parents in this way," the report said.

It should be noted that British women are banned from accepting surrogate motherhood. However, many top professionals including bankers, senior civil servants, executives at multinational companies and even National Health Service (NHS) doctors have taken the opportunity to become parents through surrogacy in India, as per the report.

There are nearly 1,000 unregulated clinics to support surrogated motherhood in India, many of which help Britons become parents.

Petrol becomes Cheaper in Delhi by Rs 1.26

In a partial relief for people of Delhi, petrol will become cheaper by Rs 1.26. The state government has decided not to charge 20% vat on hiked amount of Rs 6.28.

With the price slashed by Rs 1.26, now the petrol will be available at Rs 71.48 per litre in Delhi.

Delhi is the fourth Congress ruling state to cut the fuel taxes after a steep price hike in petrol last week.

Crying Babies feel Stressed, says Study

Babies who are left deliberately to cry by themselves to go sleep eventually without being comforted could feel ‘stressed’ even after they appear to settle, a new research has suggested.

Some parents opt for an odd procedure to stop their kids crying. It is called ‘controlled crying’. In this method, the baby is left unattended and uncomforted to cry and settle by itself which in regular course trains it to settle into a routine. But this is an absolute wrong therapy as the present study finds that in this case the kid feels stressed even after settled.

The study by Global Management, Ahmedabad and Wendy Middlemiss at the University of North Texas recently conducted the research in this context. The scientist took babies aged four to ten months and left them cry by themselves to fall asleep without comfort from their mothers and her team monitored their levels of hormone.

Researchers measured the length of time they cried for three nights and their mothers were requested to wait in a nearby room. By the third night of the study, infants were found to have cried for a shorter time before falling asleep. It was found that the levels of cortisol in their saliva remained increased.

The study found: "On the third day of the program, results showed that infants' physiological and behavioral responses were dissociated. They no longer expressed behavioral distress during the sleep transition but their cortisol levels were elevated."

The study further described that although the infants showed no behavioral indications that they were experiencing distress at the changeover to sleep; they continued to experience high levels of physiological distress, as per their cortisol level.

The chief researcher of the present study Dr Middlemiss is a member of the Attachment Parenting International Research Group, the Society for Research in Child Development, the National Council on Family Relations, and the American Psychological Association. He is also associated with Global Management, Strategic Management Consultant based in Ahmedabad, India.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Early Human Development.

Facebook launches iOS Camera App

World’s top social networking giant Facebook has launched its own photo sharing application for Apple’s iOS devices. The new mobile app allows users to upload photos faster and easier on Facebook.

Camera for iOS allows users to upload multiple photos at once. The event was being waited by many that how Facebook’s new app will impact Instagram, which the company acquired for $1 billion last month. Facebook’s Camera for iOS is available now on the Apple’s App Store.

The app allows you see your friends and family’s photos as well, showing albums and individual images. One can use the app to share multiple photos instead of having to post them one at a time. The app also has the facility adding captions and tagging them along the way. Using the tools you can also crop, rotate and add filter effects to the images using the app.

Petrol price hike: Firms offer Discounts on Petrol Cars

India's leading car makers have announced discounts of up to Rs 50,000 on petrol variants for a limited period following a steep hike in petrol prices by Rs 7.50 per litre.

While Maruti Suzuki India has started offering a discount up to Rs 30,000 on its best selling small car Alto in order to increase its sales, Tata Motors is giving discount between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 on the petrol variants of Indica and Indigo.

Similarly, a discount of up to Rs 3,000 is being offered on the petrol variants of Hyundai Motor such as Eon, Santro, i10, i20, Accent and Verna, HMIL under a "Petrol Price Lock Assurance" scheme. It will continue till May 31.

The move has been taken the sales of the cars declined due to high fuel prices in past few months.

When asked about offering rebate on the petrol models, Tata Motors spokesperson said: "We are offering discounts on the petrol variants of Indica and Indigo family. The rebate will vary between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 depending on the model".

There will be discount on Nano of up to Rs Rs 10,000 even though Tata offers rebate on its small car every month.

Reebok alleges Rs 8,700 Cr Fraud by former MD, COO

Reebok India has alleged a massive Rs 8,700 crore fraud by its former Managing Director Subhinder Singh Prem and former Chief Operating Officer Vishnu Bhagat. It could be said as the second biggest corporate scam after Satyam.

The scandal hit the headline when Reebok lodged an FIR with the Gurgaon police against Prem and Bhagat. They were accused of stealing products by setting up 'secret warehouses', fudged accounts and indulged in fictitious sales to cause a multi-crore dent to the company.

Later, the company’s financial director, Shahim Padath, lodged a written complaint alleging the duo for shipping off the company’s money and forging the bills in the last five years.

He alleged that the duo had caused a loss of Rs 1,300 crore to the company through various means.

The economic cell of Gurgaon police found that Singh and Bhagat had allegedly rented four warehouses without informing their seniors and used them to store goods and claimed they were supplied to genuine dealers.

They are accused of shipping off good to ghost companies and distributors across the country.

The scam came to light in March 2012 when Subhinder Singh was appointed as the MD of Adidas India in 2011 as part of an integration of the businesses of both Adidas and Reebok. Later, he was dismissed from the company along with Bhagat.

The company also alleged that the jobs of around 40,000 employees involved directly and indirectly in Reebok and Adidas in India were put at risk due to such fraudulent act by the duo.

India lead Global Maternal Death Rate

India leads with a maximum of 19 percent of the global maternal death rate – a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested.

While India tops the maternal death rate with 19 per cent Nigeria maintains the second position at 14 per cent of the global maternal death rate.

The report provide that approximately 287,000 women died in pregnancy and childbirth in 2010 across the world including the maximum of 56,000 in India followed by 40,000 in Nigeria.

Maternal deaths dropped by nearly half in the past two decades due to improvement in health systems and increased female education which is a decline of 47 per cent from levels in 1990.

The global Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in 2010 was 210 maternal deaths per one lakh live births, down from 400 maternal deaths per one lakh live births in 1990 – 2010 released by UN Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organization , UN Children`s Fund and the World Bank.

As per the report a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications like severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, high blood pressure every two minutes during pregnancy and unsafe abortion.

Of the 180 countries and territories that were covered in this UN study, 154 countries experienced total MMR percentage declines while 26 countries had an increase.

Spa Massage gives relief from Stress

Spa has become an important part of people's health and fitness activities these days. Spa or Swedish style massage gives body and mind deep relaxation. It also increases circulation to help bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissue and remove toxins from the body.

It target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, or other connective tissue. Massage can be applied with hands, fingers, elbows, forearm, and feet among many other application techniques. It is the best possible way to get relief from any kind of anxiety and stress.

Spa is not only a way for reduction or recovery; it has a lot more benefits for the body. Since stress is the major reason for illnesses, stress relief is one of the main purposes of Spa, besides transformation and embossing.

The Spa treatment helps to eliminate toxins and metabolic wastes from the body, it boosts metabolic rate to burn more calories, and it also soothes muscles and nourishes the skin making it look youthful and glowing. Other benefits of Spa are – improving digestive and immunity system, lowering cholesterol, regulating blood pressure, insomnia and fatigue.

There are several different types of spas to best suit your needs like Swedish massage is a full body, oil-based massage, couple massage, Deep Tissue and Sports Massage, Hot Stone Therapy, Shiatsu Massage, Hand and Foot Reflexology massage.

Modern life can be stressful, so what better way to relax than to visit a spa for a massage treatment. It not only relaxes your body but also mind.  Whether you have only a few hours or several days, take some time off work and get a massage to benefit your health.

Facebook launches own App Centre

Social network giant Facebook announced on Wednesday that it is building its own app center. Besides providing a lot of new apps, the new app centre will also enable paid Facebook apps for the first time.

The app centre is a new tool to discover the best apps, games and services available at the social network. It will come out as an important feature of the Facebook.com website as well as the apps for iOS and Android.

At present users of Facebook are using the same search bar they use to find people, groups and events to search an app. But after the launch they will be provided with a complete dashboard with details and ratings for each app.

The dashboard will show a list of top apps, exhibiting apps as per the user’s own usage patterns.

The new app centre is expected to be the zone to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga. Every app will have also an app detail page to describe what exactly makes an app unique.

The company will also let developers charge a one-off fee to use their service through Facebook. Earlier Facebook had launched the Facebook’s Open Graph initiative. It encouraged many top content providers to amalgamate their services into Facebook which also appeared at their Timeline or within the Live Ticker.

The new app of Facebook will also introduce paid apps on Facebook.com that will offer a new opportunity for Facebook developers to monetize their Facebook accounts. However Facebook will collect a 30% cut from each of these transactions.

Facebook is rapidly growing to meet the ever increasing passion of its users as well as introducing revolutionary facilities to attract even new surfers to enter its world. In this attempt, it seems very interesting to know about the new app centre.

We urge our readers to let us know about their reaction to the new approach by commenting on this article.

સરકારી બેન્કોમાં પૈસાના નામે નરોવા કુંજરોવા - ભારતની આંતરરાષ્ટ્રીય બેન્કનો કડવો અનુભવ

ગુજરાતી ભાષામાં એક કહેવત છે કે જો તમને કશી જ ખબર ના હોય તો એને "નરોવા-કુંજરોવા" કહેવાય. આજે મને આ વાતનો પ્રત્યક્ષ અનુભવ થયો. ફોરેન કન્ટ્રીમાંથી અમારા સંબંધીએ મોકલેલા પૈસા લેવા હું બેંક ઓફ બરોડા, આશ્રમ રોડ બ્રાન્ચમાં ગયો. ત્યાં જઈને મેં પૂછ્યું કે 'મનીગ્રામ' (આ એક વૈશ્વિક કક્ષાની પૈસાની લેતી-દેતી કરતી સંસ્થા છે જેમકે વેસ્ટર્ન યુનિયન). હું આશ્ચર્ય ચકિત થઇ ગયો એ જાણીને કે બેન્કના પટાવાળાથી માંડીને બેન્કના ટોપ કક્ષાના વ્યક્તિને આ સેવા વિશે ખબર જ નથી. મેં જયારે એક કસ્ટમર સર્વિસમાં બેઠેલા બહેનને પૂછ્યું કે "બહેન તમે મને જણાવશો કે આ મનીગ્રામ વિશે ક્યાં વિભાગમાં મારે પૂછવું?" એમણે મને કહ્યું કે "ભાઈ આ બેંકમાં તમે પૈસા ક્યાં જમા કરાવવા એ પૂછશો તો બધા લોકો તમને કહેશે કે અમારી પાસે આવો, પરંતુ જો પૈસા લેવાનું પૂછશો તો કહેશે કે સામેની બારીએ જઈને પૂછો".

અંતે કંટાળીને હું પાછો ઓફીસ આવી ગયો. આ બધી હકીકત એ સાબિત કરે છે કે જો તમે તમારા ગ્રાહકને સારી સગવડ પૂરી ના પાડી શકો તો તમે આ બીઝનેસમાંથી ફેંકાઈ જશો. લોકોને આજે સારા પ્રોડક્ટની સાથે સારી સર્વિસ અને સાથે સાથે સાચી માહિતી પણ માંગે છે.
 

AVOID CERTAIN TYPES OF FAILURE

Innovation experts have long argued that companies should be more tolerant of failure. But not all failure is created equally. Here are three types of failure that rarely contribute to learning and should be avoided whenever possible:

- Knowingly doing the wrong thing: When a project falls apart because someone hid information or misled others, any learning is moot. Failure is only acceptable when the project was done with good intentions.

- Failing to gather the right data: Often you can avoid failure by doing some simple research: asking target customers for input or testing an idea before launching it.

- Prioritizing research over experience: Some things are unknowable without real life experiments. Don't waste resources on researching a theory when you can create a prototype or conduct an experiment that will give you a more realistic answer.

Why Hillary Clinton arrives in Kolkata ?

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton arrived in Kolkata today on a three-day India visit. She will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tomorrow.

Clinton arrived in Kolkata from Dhaka. She attended a programme at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on issues related to women. The programme was held at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre. She met victims of human trafficking.

After meeting Mamata Benerjee tomorrow, Hillary Clinton would leave for Delhi. It is speculated that the would urge India to cut oil imports from Iran. High security arrangements have been made in Kolkata to prevent any untoward incident during Hillary Clinton's visit.

Indian Smartphone Users access Internet more than US

For the Indians, it is not wrong to say that their Smartphone is not only a device to call and send message but it is like a supercomputer for them through which they can link to anybody online.

A recent survey conducted by Google in partnership with a France based research company ‘Ipsos’ has revealed that the number of Indians prevail over the number of Americans in accessing internet on their Smartphones.

The survey revealed that 56 per cent of the Smartphone holders in India access internet on their phones several times in a day in comparison to 53 per cent in US. Out of the 56 per cent Indian users 59 per cent are males and 48 per cent females.

The Survey further provides the statistics that more than 75% of the Indians visit social networking sites on their Smartphones as compared to 54 per cent in the US. Again, while they access email up to 81 per cent the same is 73 per cent for the US users.

However, it is interesting to know that Smartphone users in India are less than 50 per cent of the 245 million Smartphone users in the US. In fact, mobile phone, which is always available with a person, has become the first choice to follow news, watch TV, listen to music, check e-mail and access internet.

Mobile Tariff may go up by 100%

The telecom firms said that if the recommendations of the Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are accepted by the government, the mobile tariff will be increased by 100%, which will put pressure on their subscribers.

The telecom giants are putting pressure on the government to review the suggestions made by the TRAI. Holding a joint media conference on Thursday, the chief executives of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Telenor owned Uninor and Videocon, said that the proposal if accepted would lead to 100 percent hike in the call rates.

The firms described the TRAI's suggestions as the death of knell for the telecom industry. Speaking at the joint press conference, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO Bharti Airtel, said that the telecom industry is already struggling to get rid of high debts. The TRAI's recommendations would make things worse for both the firms and subscribers.

The TRAI's suggestions if accepted would play havoc in a country like India where people are fed up of having high inflation. The executive said that TRAI's argument that the move would lead to 2 paise per minute annually is not realistic. He said that the call rates could be increased higher.

Rajiv Bawa, chief representative officer of Telenor, said that the recommendations are not in line with Supreme Court’s order, which has cancelled all the 122 2G spectrum licences allotted in 2008 during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja.

The court has directed the government to redistribute all the 122 licences in the auction.

The telecom giants also demanded the government to reduce the base price of spectrum by 80%. They said that all available spectrum should be put for the auction and the market should be allowed to discover the real price for the spectrum.

What We Know about Google's Penguin Update

Google’s Penguin update is an algorithm by Google to catch people who spam its search results or purposely do things to rank better that are against Google’s publishers guidelines.

The Penguin Update launched on April 24. It was a change to Google’s search results that was designed to punish pages that have been spamming Google.

In the ‘Google Webmaster Central’ blogs Google has written about the penguin update in these words: “In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam.

The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content”.

What is “webspam” or search spam?

Pages that try to gain better rankings through things like:

• Keyword stuffing

• Link schemes

• Cloaking, “sneaky” redirects or “doorway” pages

• Purposeful duplicate content

Through this step Google wants to differentiate “white hat SEO” from “black hat webspam” to encourage people to continue with SEO best practices.

Google wants the webmasters to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience.

Google believes that the new update will impact about 3.1% of queries in English; 3% in German, Chinese and Arabic. The percentage might be higher for languages where spam has been slipping through even more, such as in Polish, where 5% of queries are expected to change.

With an intention to get higher rankings or traffic, a few sites use online techniques that don’t benefit users. Those sites actually aim to look for shortcuts that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. In fact, Google observes all sorts of these webspam techniques every day. Hence, to restrain this practice Google has launched this algorithm.

Google’s Penguin update is a welcome step for all the genuine users, searchers and surfers but on the other hand it is a harsh blow to the cunning web crooks who want their sites to gain traffic following shortcuts.

Google has provided these steps for genuine surfing:

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

2. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.

3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.

4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.

5. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

6. Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.

7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

Only Kalam fit to be India's President

The term of present President of India Dr. Pratibha Devisingh Patil ends on July 24, 2012 and we have less than 3 months left to decide a new President for our nation.

In this context, among the long lists of names few names are emerging out as the finalists, such as Ex-President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Scientist Sam Pitroda, NR Narayana Murthy (Co-founder Infosys), E. Sreedharan or even actor of the yester years Waheeda Rehman.

However, majority of the opinions have at least agreed on one point - the new person should be apolitical, above partisan politics and non-controversial and name of the former President APJ Abdul Kalam has been the most in contention.

The media, including social media is abuzz with excitement for the return of the 81-year-old aerospace engineer to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

It is also heard that Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party, J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress have reached an accord on supporting Dr. Kalam for the first citizen. The BJP has also extended its support to Dr. Kalam, while the Congress and DMK are opposing his candidature.

Big debates are going on mainly on the topic that whether Dr. Kalam is fit for the second innings or not. Also, many people have conveyed their doubt that the former President may not opt to come back to the Raisina Hills.

Rajesh Kalra, the Chief Editor of Times Internet has presented his view in a blog article on the Times of India that calling back Dr. Kalam again to the Rastrapati Bhawan exhibits the state of a bankruptcy of human resources in the country, of course accepting the Nuclear scientist to be the most loved and non political man. But with due respect to your idea, we don’t feel offering the highest post to Dr. Kalam would anyway show bankruptcy of HR.

In a nutshell, one can observe it on the social media that only Dr. APJ Kalam is fit to be the President of India and he is the fittest candidate to take the responsibility for another term.

India demands justice for Richard Loitam

Richard Loitam, a student of the Acharya NRV School of Architecture in Bangalore, who was found dead in his hostel on April 18, a massive online campaign has been launched seeking justice for him.    

Loitam was a second semester Architectural Engineering student of the Acharya NRV School of Architecture. He was found dead on his hostel bed in the afternoon of April 18 under suspicious circumstances.

While the police have described the death as the repercussion of a bike accident, the students insist it to be a lethal physical assault by the senior students of the hostel where he was living.

A major social media campaign has been in progress online seeking justice for the 19 year old student. The Facebook group in this context has already earned 5,000 plus members.

As per the F.I.R. filed with the Madanayakanahalli police, on the night of April 17, Loitam reportedly quarreled with some of his hostel mates over watching an IPL match and later found dead in his hostel room.

Derex Sorensangbam, Loitam’s uncle has expressed deep dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the University Authorities as they got the death message after two and half hours. He has alleged that the college authorities and the police are trying to conceal the truth.

The postmortem report has reportedly shown that Loitam had been severely assaulted. However, Police are waiting for the Forensic Science Laboratory report.

Nobody has been arrested so far in this connection.

A protest meet was organized on Sunday. Amidst candles and slogans, people gathered to condemn the homicide and demanded that justice be brought at the earliest.

If this is really a case of physical assault by the senior students, the case is one of the most unfortunate events for the students. Ragging should be stopped at any cost. The concerned authorities should look into the matter without any bias and the culprits should be punished in the interest of justice.

Shah Rukh summoned for Smoking in Public

Bollywood superstar Shah Rulh Khan has been summoned by a court in Jaipur for publicly smoking in the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on April 8 during an IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.

The additional chief judicial magistrate's court in Jaipur has summoned the actor on the basis of a complaint filed against Shah Rukh by Anand Singh Rathore for smoking publicly.

Rathore runs a cricket academy for youngsters in Jaipur. He moved the court seeking a legal action against Shah Rukh for allegedly smoking at Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

He says that Shah Rukh is a public figure and his fans are following his style. If the actor will smoke in public place, it sends a negative message to his young fans.

He has the evidence that claims that the actor had smoked at the stadium while the match was going on.

Rathore also sought a probe why the was allowed to carry cigarette inside the stadium, while people usually are not allowed to have cigarette, match boxes, lighters and even water bottles inside the stadium.

In fact, smoking publicly has been banned in Rajasthan since 2000. The actor was also caught on TV camera, which was broadcasting the live of the tournament, while smoking at the stadium.

This is not for the first time Shah Rukh is facing trouble for his smoking habit in public. The actor was earlier criticised for smoking in public many times in cities.

Daily Exercise helps quit Smoking

Daily exercise may help smokers to quit smoking, a recent study has claimed. The study was presented at the World Congress of Cardiology organized by the World Heart Federation.

It claims that exercising for even 15 to 20 minutes a day can make someone leave smoking.

The study was performed by the scientists of the National Health Research Institute and China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan and Professor Chi Pang Wen presented the data at the World Congress of Cardiology meeting in Dubai.

During the study the researchers studied the health and behavior of about 430,000 people in Taiwan from 1996 to 2008. On the basis of their exercising time span, each subject was grouped into three groups.

The people who does not do any physical exercise were categorized as ‘Inactive’, the people who does physical exercise for around 15 minutes per day were added to the group ‘Low active’ and people who do exercise for at least 30 minutes or more were tagged as ‘Active’.

The study found that the low active group respondents, who exercise for 15 to 20 minutes per day shown to leave smoke to a ratio of 55 percent more than the inactive group. It further revealed that life expectancy increased by 5.6 years on average, and the risk of death was reduced by 43 per cent.

Smokers, who participated in physical activity, had an increased life expectancy of 3.7 years and a reduction in all-cause mortality of 23 percent – the study also observed.

Hence if you have been fed up with the different cigarette cessation programmes like the patch, nicotine gum and hypnosis, it is better to do exercise for some time in a day to leave smoking.

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga launched with ‘LUV’ Punchline

Maruti Suzuki launched ‘Ertiga’, its first ever Life Utility Vehicle (LUV) on Friday. Maruti promotes the new car with the punch line "Live life with LUV". Perhaps to make a difference while promoting their vehicles, companies have started adding new acronyms to woo the customers.

We can recall that in January this year, Ssangyong Motor Co (SMC) had launched the 'Actyon Sports’. The company described it as South Korea's "first LUV (Leisure Utility Vehicle)". And now Maruti has launched the Life Utility Vehicle, the LUV.

During the launching ceremony Pakaj Sharma, General Manager of Maruti Suzuki India Limited described Maruti Ertiga to make one fall in love with it for its newly designed features and attractive price range.

Maruti’s LUV Ertiga, is available in both diesel and petrol models. The model has a K series engine range with K14B debut in petrol models and D13A debut in diesel models.

The LUV is coming in seven colors such as Serene Blue, Ecru Beige, Firebrick Red, Granite Grey, Dusky Brown, Superior White and Silky Silver.

Like its punchline, the price offer of the vehicle is also a big feature to make one fall in love with the Ertiga. It is very much within the reach of a common man. For the petrol models the price range begins at Rs6.03 lakh in LXi, Rs6.75 lakh in VXi and Rs7.46 lakh in ZXi and for the diesel models it ranges from Rs7.46 lakh for LDi, Rs8.07 lakh for VDi and Rs8.63 lakh for ZDi.

So it is time now to watch the marketing scuffle between the two LUVs, Mahindras owned Ssangyong Motor’ the ‘Leisure Utility Vehicle’ from and Maruti Suzuki’s ‘Life Utility Vehicle’.

Robotic Surgery - Less Pain, Small Incisions

Robotic surgery is getting more appreciation and acceptance day by day both by the patients and the surgeons. This technical surgery is preferred as it involves less pain and small incisions with considerably shorter hospital stay time.

It is a common thinking that when our ailing body will be surrendered to a machine (Robot) during a surgery it may commit wrongs or negligence because of various reasons such as – if it was not programmed properly or because it does not has a mind to think.

But we should know that the surgeon is in full control of the robot and further the system cannot be programmed and it cannot act without the surgeon’s directions. In this way it is not far away from a manual hand operated surgery.

Rather, with the robotic surgery one will avail the benefit of having smaller incisions with less loss of blood. It will also allow you faster return to your normal life.

In a robot operated surgery small cuts are made to establish miniature instruments inside the body. The surgeon is seated at the console and views a magnified, hi-tech 3 D image of the inner body, the surgical site.

The hand movement of the surgeon on the console is transferred as commands, by which the surgical instruments will make the precise micro-movements.

The surgeon robot, which is called ‘Da Vinci Si surgical system’ consists of a set of four arms, two to operate, one to grip the camera and the fourth one for assistance. These arms are mounted on a podium and are controlled by the doctor sitting at the console.

The doctor’s console consists of an eye piece which gives a 3D view of the pictures brought by the camera and two joy-sticks to move the robot’s arms.

In fact the tiny robotic instruments allow surgeons to perform complicated dissections with more accuracy then they would be able through traditional surgery. Again, the robotic technology does away with natural hand tremors that a surgeon might have, adding improved accuracy to the surgery and less pain with minor blood loss for the patient.

Robotic surgery is a remarkable amalgamation of highly developed technology and finely tuned skills.

Google, Apple, Intel to face Antitrust Lawsuit

In a major blow to Apple Inc, Google, Intel Corp and four other technology firms, a district judge in California ordered them to face an antitrust lawsuit claiming they illegally conspired not to poach each other's employees.

District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected the companies' claims brought under the federal Sherman antitrust law and California's own antitrust law, the Cartwright Act.

The judge said that the existence of "Do Not Cold Call" agreements among various defendants "supports the plausible inference that the agreements were negotiated, reached, and policed at the highest levels" of the companies.

The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence," Koh added.

 Koh also dismissed the claims by Adobe Systems Inc, Intuit Inc, Walt Disney Co's Pixar unit and Lucasfilm Ltd. brought under California's unfair competition law.

Violence mars 'Beef Festival' at Osmania University

The 'Beef Festival' organised by some student groups at the Osmania University campus, turned violent, as other groups led by ABVP clashed with the organisers.

At least five students were badly injured in the melee. Two vehicles were also set on fire. The students attacked each other with sticks, rods and bricks during the chaos.

The 'Beef Festival' was organised by some student groups, who opposed "food fascism" in hostels. A student of one hostel was stabbed for supporting the 'Beef Festival'. He was admitted to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.

An Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus was also set on fire by the protesters who opposed the Beef Festival. The police had to resort to lathicharge and used teargas shells to disperse the clashing students.

Some dalit and left-wing student groups had organised the 'Beef Festival'. They included Telangana Students Association, Progressive Democratic Student Union, Student Federation of India and student groups from English and Foreign Languages University.

Tatra Deal: ED registers Case against Vectra Chief

A case of money laundering has been registered against Vectra chief Ravi Rishi by the ED in connection with the purchase of sub-standard Tatra trucks for the Indian army.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered the case against Rishi after Army Chief General VK Singh alleged that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by Lt Gen Tejinder Singh on behalf of Vectra Chief for clearing 600 sub-standard Tatra trucks in September 2010.

The case has been lodged under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the CBI registered a case against him.

Rishi along with few others will be interrogated by the agency in the case. Earlier, the CBI had questioned Rishi in connection with the Tatra truck deal of supplying trucks to the Army.

The ED is investigating whether the Tatra trucks have been sold to the Army at high price.

The Hidden Agenda in Decision Making

MAKING DECISIONS IS THE MOST important job of any executive. It's also the toughest and the riskiest. Bad decisions can damage a business and a career, sometimes irreparably. So where do bad decisions come from?

In many cases, they can be traced back to the way the decisions were made - the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision making process but rather in the mind of the decision maker. The way the human brain works can sabotage our decisions.

Researchers have been studying the way our minds function in making decisions for half a century. This research, in the laboratory and in the field, has revealed that we use unconscious routines to cope with the complexities inherent in most decisions. These routines, knows as heuristics, serves us well in most situations. In judging distance, for example, our minds frequently rely on a heuristic that equates clarity with proximity. The clearer an

Professor arrested for 'Anti-Mamata' Cartoons

A Professor of Jadavpur University was arrested for allegedly spreading the cartoons of the West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on the Internet.

Ambikesh Mahapatra, who is a Chemistry Professor of the University, was arrested on Thursday night on charges of forwarding "derogatory images" of Mamata to nearly 65 recipients and mocking her government policies.

He was booked under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for defamation).

The "anti-Mamata Banerjee" cartoon is based on Satyajit Ray's movie "Sonar Kella", which allegedly show Mamata and Railways Minister Mukul Roy discussing how to get rid of party MP Dinesh Trivedi, who has recently resigned as theUnion Railway Minister over passenger fare hike.

Even though, the Professor was arrested on Thursday night, police record showed his arrest is on Friday. He was forced to spend night at East Jadavpur Police Station. He will be produced in the court today.

SRK detained for Two Hours at Airport in US

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was detained by the US authorities for two hours at White Plains airport in New York. He was on the way to the Yale University for a function.

However, it is not clear why Shah Rukh was detained. Sources told PTI that he was stopped for over two hours by while others were cleared by the immigration officials soon after landing the flight at the airport.

The Yale University officials came to know about his detention after they contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Department at Washington when the actor was delayed to reach the function.

The actor was upset and said he was detained at the airport "as always happens". Khan was earlier detained for two hours at Newark airport in 2009 and was released after India's embassy in the US intervened.

Amazon to cut e-book Prices

Amazon, the biggest Internet retailer may soon be powered enough to decide the price of an e-book. This is the repercussion of the US government’s decision to sue some major publishers.

However, the other publishers expect a bad consequence for them as well as for the customers in this context. Recently after the Department of Justice (US) announced about the suing of five major publishers and Apple Inc. on price-fixing charges, Amazon declared its plans to cut prices of e-books.

Although this seems to put the consumers in a beneficial position, the status would not continue for long. On the other hand it will only make Amazon a more dominant power in the e-book industry.

As per the government report, the five publishers conspired with Apple in secret to develop a new policy that let them put their own retail prices. Hence when the deal was executed in 2010, prices increased everywhere as under the agreement, no bookseller could challenge Apple.

The government suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District in New York, made clear that the publishers were dissatisfied with Amazon.

They advocated that Amazon, which already controls about 60 percent of the e-book market, can be ready to bear a loss on every book it sells to gain market share for its Kindle devices to put its own terms. In this way Amazon will enjoy a monopoly status which has already been started.

Also the Traditional bookstores (hardcopy sellers), whose market had already been deteriorated due to e-books , fear that the price gap between the physical books they sell and e-books from Amazon will now become so much wider that their business will be ruined.

The market of both the hardcopy book sellers and Electronic books was okay till 2007 when Amazon introduced the first Kindle e-reader in 2007. It immediately built a commanding lead. The results were that at an earlier point of time Amazon had even 90 percent control over the book market.

This commanding position of Amazon was challenged after Apple's introduction of the iPad in 2010 which seemed to offer a way to fight Amazon.

Interestingly, Steve Berman, the lawyer who filed the class-action lawsuit against the five publishers and Apple for price-fixing has his law firm, Hagens Berman, in a Seattle office building that also houses Amazon offices. This coincidence leads to a speculation that Amazon might be the disguised instigator of these suits, which will actually benefit the company the maximum.

Give the Gift of Time and Space

For the past thirty years, the MacArthur Foundation has awarded "genius grants" to creative achievers to support their pursuit of new ideas. With virtually no restrictions on the money and no obligations required of the recipient, the awards are a vote of confidence in what the recipient is capable of achieving, given the luxury of time. Next time you want a talented employee to pursue a new idea, give out a genius grant of your own. 

It doesn't need to be money; you can give slack time so that your star has breathing room to explore her idea. Giving these awards not only will result in useful new ideas, but will signal to your people that you value creativity and are willing to invest time and resources in cultivating it.

How to Manage your Smartest People

The people in your organization who have the largest capacity to add value are not necessarily those who have the best titles or the most impressive educations. Also, they may not be the easiest people to manage. 

Here are three do's and don'ts for leading the smartest people in the room:

- Do explain things and persuade them. Don't tell them what to do. Smart people don't take a leader's word at face value; they need to understand why you're asking them to do something.

- Do use your expertise. Don't use your hierarchy. Smart people aren't impressed with titles.

- Do tell them what to do. Don't tell them how to do it. Smart people enjoy figuring out how to do things and will almost rise to the challenge.

Sony to buy 30% stake in MAA TV

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is all set to acquire a 30 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based MAA Television Network and its range of Telugu channels, which will give a big boost to the TV giant.

Once the process of acquisition is met, the current management of MAA TV would continue to function, while Sony Pictures will remain a strategic investor and content provider to MAA TV.

At present, Former owner of Matrix Labs, N Prasad, South actors Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna and producer Allu Arvind jointly hold 95 per cent of MAA TV’s equity capital.

After signing an agreement in this context and obtaining necessary approvals from the statutory authorities concerned, the contract would allow Sony Pictures or any of its affiliates to acquire 30 per cent equity stake in MAA TV. The whole process is expected to be completed within two months.

At present MAA TV, the 10-year-old Telugu TV network has four channels; a general entertainment channel, a music channel, a movie channel and a youth channel. The biggest asset of MAA TV is the satellite telecast rights for about 700 Tollywood blockbuster movies.

Presently, Sony Pictures has 120 channel feeds that are broadcast in 159 countries.

Obese People live in Denial Mode

Most of the obese people live under the false impression that they are not overweight. This denial mode attitude towards obese is becoming a major barrier to weight loss – Experts have suggested.

A recent study at the University of Illinois has provided that about 1200 in 3500 participants could not tell their weight accurately during the experiment. It implies that they do not think they are obese and it is a health issue.

The study specially pointed the case of India. It says that India has got nearly 20% increases in overweight people between 1998 and 2005. It means 1 in each 5 men and over 1 in each 6 women in the country is obese.

However, people in India has a different opinion towards obese. In many communities obesity is often taken as a symbol of prosperity. In other words fat people are considered healthy and rich while thin people are considered weak and poor in India.

In has been noticed that overweight people don’t think they are fat because everybody around them are like him.

Obese leads to various health dangers like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, arthritis, hypertension and muscle-skeletal disorders.

Normally a BMI (Body Mass Index) of less than 18.5 is considered underweight, 18.6-24.9 is normal, 25 to 29.9 is overweight and when it is above 30, it can be called obese.

More Obesity is one of the most important reasons for heart attacks as excessive body mass index increases chances of coronary artery disease.

Easter celebrated across World

Easter was celebrated on Sunday with great pomp and show across the world. This biggest Christian festival was observed with Easter feasts, games, egg-hunts and church services.

At the Vatican City in Rome Pope Benedict XVI pleaded people to take note of international demands to end the bloodshed in his ceremonial speech. Benedict celebrated Mass on this Christianity's most joyous holy day on the flower-adorned steps of St. Peter's Basilica, before a crowd of around one lakh people.

In Italy, families exchanged Easter eggs, which were made especially for the occasion containing special gifts that are placed inside the egg.

Easter is celebrated around the world with great fanfare and religious fervor. While observation of this religious festival is linked to Church, the basic outlines of Easter festivity vary in different countries, due to regional customs and traditions.

In Jerusalem, thousands crowded into one of Christianity's holiest churches to worship.

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II attended a traditional Easter service with three generations of the royal family at Windsor Castle.

In the U.S., Moravians in Winston-Salem, N.C., gathered for the 240th annual sunrise in the city. It is one of the oldest and perhaps the largest Easter sunrise service in the nation.

In Finland people lit up huge bonfire on Easter Eve and kids went around begging on the streets with deprived faces and broomsticks. As the sun sets, families gathered around huge bonfires to fight off the evil spirit.

In France Easter eggs (chocolate nowadays) were distributed. In this country the festival marks the end of fast period, a period during which no eggs could be eaten, creating abundance thereafter.

In Poland, people celebrated Easter through playing outdoor games of their choice. It is an old Polish custom that the man of the house is not permitted to participate in the preparations of the festival because the women fear that their moustache might turn grey.

In Switzerland, instead of Easter bunnies, the Swiss delivered Easter cuckoos who deliver the Easter eggs during the festival. Easter eggs come in different colors and designs.

In Russia the design on the Easter egg symbolizes the part of Russia to which it belongs. On Easter day, the eggs are cracked open with the help of a nail as it represents the crucifixion of the Christ.

As per the New Testament Easter is basically a Christian feast and holiday to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. The festival is preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and sacrament. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week which contains the Easter day.

The festival is also known in the names such as Easter Day, Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day and Resurrection Sunday.

In the majority of countries, Easter bunny is the prominent Easter symbol, while in France, Easter fish and bells are the major Easter icons. In many Eastern European countries, Easter egg decoration is an integral part of Easter celebrations. Pre-Lent carnivals are held across the world, with Rio de Janeiro carnival being the most famous one.

Sleepless Nights affect Employees' Performance

The sleepless night, which is caused by extended working hours and high-stress level, affect the employees' performance at workplace, says a survey by the industry body Assocham.

The chamber conducted a survey among people, who are working in sectors like IT, Telecom, Energy, and consumer durables in major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

While observing the World Health Day on Saturday (April 7), the chamber said that 78% of employees of the above mentioned sectors used to sleep less than 6 hours at night, which lead to depression and fatigue, which further affect their performances at the workplace.

Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said that less sleep leads to fatigue, physical discomfort, stress, irritation and depression, which pose as a biggest hindrance to their success.

The survey showed that maximum numbers of insomnia cases were reported in major cities. Among the cities, Delhi ranks first followed by Mumbai, Ahemdabad, Chandigarh, Pune and Chennai.

However, the chamber did not mention that the survey was conducted on how many respondents. The study said that most of the respondents complained of obesity.

The poor and hectic lifestyle causes stress, depression, and hypertension. About 40% of corporate employees were found not exercising on daily basis.

Taller Women prone to Ovarian Cancer

A new study has revealed that increase in height and weight of women would have resulted in ovarian cancer frequency increasing by 3% per decade. The result of the study was published in the ‘PLoS Medicine’.

The Oxford University based Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer along with around 100 internationally accredited researchers analyzed individual data of 25,157 women with ovarian cancer and 81,311 women without ovarian cancer of 47 epidemiological studies from 14 countries and almost all the relevant data available worldwide and reached to the conclusion.

They studied factors like increase in height, age, Body Mass Index (BMI), menopausal status, smoking, alcohol consumption, having first degree relatives with ovarian or breast cancer, use of oral contraceptives, use of menopausal hormone therapy etc. and found that for every 5cm increase in height a noteworthy increase in the risk of developing ovarian cancer is present. But the remaining factors were silent towards the risk.

Besides height, the researchers also marked enhancement of risk of ovarian cancer with the change of BMI. However, for body mass index, the risks depended on whether women had ever taken menopausal hormone therapy.

The study also observed that besides increase in height and BMI, no other factors like women's age, year of birth, society, education, family history of ovarian or breast cancer, menopausal status, hysterectomy were responsible to increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

Kids advised not to take Soft Drinks daily

Kids are advised not to take soft drinks on regular basis as they may develop heart ailments and high blood pressure in their future – a new study has suggested.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Researchers from the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research from the University of Sydney have advised children to limit their daily dose of consumption of soft drinks as they found that the children who drank one or more soft drinks each day be likely to have narrower arteries (on their eyes). Narrowing of the arteries is a clear symptom of a future cardiovascular complains.

This recent study has confirmed the findings of an earlier research of 2007 which was conducted on people who drank soda every day. It had concluded that those who drank soda every day, including the diet soda, were more likely to develop heart disease.

The WebMD website cited diction of Ramachandran Vasan, the lead author of the study that even one soda per day is enough to increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome up to 50 per cent.

This recent study was conducted on about 2,000 kids aged 12-years and was an extension of another research project.

- અમેરિકાના અન્ય ધનાઢ્યોની જેમ સ્ટિવે જાહેરમાં આવી ક્યારેય દાન નથી આપ્યુ

- લેખમાં સ્ટીવ જોબ્સને વર્તમાન સમયનો દ વિન્ચી ગણાવાયા

- હાલમાં જોબ્સ 8.3 અબજ ડોલરની સંપતિના માલિક

- જોકે, જોબ્સ ખાનગીમાં દાન આપતા હોવાની શક્યતા

- યુનિવર્સિટી ઓફ કેલિફોર્નિયાને 150 મિલિયન ડોલરનું દાન જોબ્સે આપ્યુ હોવાની અટકળ

સ્ટીવ જોબ્સની ગણના દુનિયામાં એક જીનિયસ, સંશોધક તેમજ દુરદ્રષ્ટા તરીકે થાય છે, આ ઉપરાંત જોબ્સ દુનિયાનો લોકોમાં ચહીતો અબજોપતિ પણ છે. જોકે, નવાઈની વાત એ છે કે જોબ્સ જેવા દુનિયાના અન્ય અબજોપતિઓ જે પ્રમાણમાં ચેરિટી કરે છે તેમ જોબ્સ નથી કરતા.

હાલમાં સ્ટીવ જોબ્સ ફોર્બ્સના જણાવ્યા અનુસાર 8.3 અબજ ડોલરની સંપતિનો માલિક છે. તે એપલ કંપની તેમજ ડિઝનીમાં 7.4 ટકાની હિસ્સેદારી ધરાવે છે. પરંતુ જોબ્સે કોઈપણ સંસ્થા કે અન્ય રીતે દાન આપ્યુ હોય તેવા એકપણ અહેવાલ આજસુધી પ્રસિદ્ધ નથી થયા.

અમેરિકાના જ પ્રખ્યાત અબજોપતિઓ વોરેન બફેટ અને બિલ ગેટ્સ દ્વારા સ્થાપિત કરવામાં આવેલી સંસ્થાનો પણ સ્ટીવ સભ્ય નથી. ઉલ્લેખનીય છે કે વોરેન બફેટ તેમજ ગેટ્સ જેવા અબજોપતિઓ પોતાની અડધા ઉપરની સંપતિનું દાન કરવાની જાહેરાત કરી ચુક્યા છે પરંતુ જોબ્સે તેમની સંસ્થાના સભ્ય બનવાની પણ ના પાડી દીધી હતી. વળી, આખા અમેરિકામાં જોબ્સના નામની કોઈ હોસ્પિટલ કે શૈક્ષણિક સંસ્થા પણ નથી.

સ્ટીવની આ બાબત અંગે જ ન્યૂયોર્ક ટાઈમ્સમાં એક લેખ રજૂ થયો હતો. જોકે, લેખકે તેમાં કબુલ્યુ હતુ કે તે સ્ટીવ જોબ્સને આ યુગનો દા વિન્ચી માને છે. વળી, લેખકે એમપણ કહ્યુ હતુ કે સ્ટીવના સંશોધનો તેમજ દ્રષ્ટિ અને કાર્યને લીધે જ લાખો લોકોના જીવનધોરણમાં સુધારો થઈ શક્યો.

વળી, લેખકે એમપણ કહ્યુ હતુ કે જોબ્સ મોટાભાગે પડદા પાછળ જ રહેવાનુ પસંદ કરે છે અને શક્ય છે કે તેમણે પોતાનું નામ આગળ ધર્યા વગર જ દાન કર્યુ હોય અને પોતાના મોત પછી સંપતિને દાનમાં આપવાનો પ્લાન પણ બનાવ્યો હોય. આ ઉપરાંત, હેલેન ડિલેરી ફેમિલી કોમ્પ્રેહેન્સિવ કેન્સર સેન્ટર યુનિવર્સિટી ઓફ કેલિફોર્નિયાને મળેલુ 150 મિલિયન ડોલરનું દાન પણ જોબ્સ દ્વારા અપાયુ હોવાની ચર્ચા છે.

જોકે, એપલના પ્રવક્તાએ આ અંગે કોઈપણ કોમેન્ટ આપી નહોતી.

Nasal Spray to combat Heart Disease!

Researchers have suggested that a nasal spray to combat Heart disease could be on the market in five years that could remove fat in arteries which actually elevates the risk of heart attacks.

‘The Mirror’ has reported that researchers of the Lund University in Sweden went through an experiment to find a way to combat with the heart disease. They applied a certain vaccine on some mice and found that it could diminish plaque by 60 to 70 percent.

Using the same vaccine a trial on 144 heart disease sufferers is in progress in the US and Canada. The vaccine can either be injected to the body or it can be used as a nasal spray. The same vaccine has not been named yet and it is hoped that it could be licensed within five years.

Mechanism:

Once the vaccine is used as a nasal spray it will stimulate the body’s immune system to restrain the production of antibodies which are responsible for increase of fatty deposits in arteries called plaque. These fatty deposits or plaques put strain on the heart by tightening the arteries and forcing it to pump far harder.

Researchers found that the new treatment was much more effective in removing fat from arteries than the established methods but it is equally true that the vaccine will be much costlier.