Samsung launches Champ & OmniaLite in India

Samsung has announced two touchscreen handsets, the Champ C330 and the Omnia Lite B7300 for the Indian customers.

The Samsung Champ boasts of a 2.4 inch QVGA touch screen display along with Touchwiz Lite 2.0 UI and the Stylus Pen. The set incorporates 30MB internal memory, microSD support up to 8GB, social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace Twitter and Photo sharing sites like Flickr, Photobucket.

Apart from that, the Champ is integrated with Sound Alive 3D effects and FM Radio listening without antenna. The Champ is the smallest and cheapest touchscreen handset in India.

Samsung Champ C330 is available for Rs 4,000 - 4,500/- in India.

Google's StreetView monitored by German Govt

The German government said on Wednesday it will scrutinize Google's promise to respect privacy requests by letting people opt out of its "Street View" mapping system and that it would be ready to intervene if necessary.

In a country wary of surveillance due to the Nazis' Gestapo and East Germany's Stasi secret police, the response to Street View has been overwhelmingly negative even though Germans got assurances they can have images of their homes kept out.

Google's announcement on Tuesday that it would allow Germans to stay out of Street View failed to allay fears that privacy would be compromised by the navigation system.

Hindustan motors to relaunch All New Ambassdor in 2011

The King of Indian Roads, HM Ambassador is undergoing heart surgery along with make ups and is getting ready for a 2011 relaunch. Ambassador has been almost 70 years old and still running on Indian soil. HM plans to bring the new Ambassador, besides delivering its current Ambassador variants for Taxi segment. And the new Ambassador will be the bread-earner for the company in a few more years after the launch, HM hopes.


HM chairman C K Brila has stated that the new Amby will have a retro design and sport cutting-edge engineering to compete on comfort and value for money. Overseas experts have been roped in for the metamorphosis. He also added that the new version will be ready by January-February 2011 for test trials and is expected to undergo validation by May so that commercial production can begin in July 2011.

European auto experts have been roped in for a renovate Ambassador such that the platform and overall dimensions remain the same. According to MD Manoj Jha, the new car will be a sibling of the Ambassador but the change will be so holistic that it will be a completely different vehicle. Apart from the new-look retro exterior, the interiors will be revamped. It will be powered by BS IV-complaint and BS V-ready 1.5 litre and 2 litre diesel as well as petrol engines that are powerful and fuel-efficient. He also added that , overseas technology firms are processing each aspect of the car to ensure the new Amby is on par with contemporary vehicles on Indian roads in terms of built quality and reliability.

India ranks second in Beer production

India's beer production surged by 12.3 per cent last year, second only to Vietnam among Asian countries, even as the continent overtook Europe for the first time as the world's biggest beer-producing area since 1974.

Asia beat Europe amid its economic growth with 58.67 million kilolitres of beer produced, up 5.5 per cent from the previous year, a Kirin Holdings Co research arm said yesterday.

Among Asian beer producers, Vietnam saw a 24.3 per cent surge during the period, followed by India at 12.3 per cent and China at 7.0 per cent. But production in Japan dropped by 2.2 per cent.

Asia took the top slot in the ranking list for the first time since 1974, the Kirin Institute of Food & Lifestyle has said.

UN appeals International communities to aid Pakistani flood victims

The United Nations planned to launch an appeal on Wednesday for international aid for victims of Pakistani floods that continue to spread.

The floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed more than 1,600 people and devastated large areas of the country.

Maurizio Giuliano, a UN spokesman in Pakistan said 14 million people, including six million children, were affected by the crisis and that nearly half of them would need immediate help for survival.

The appeal for “few hundred million dollars” would be launched this evening at UN headquarters in New York Wednesday, he said.

Rohan Murthy & Lakshmi venu engaged

He courted her for a nearly a year, but it took him less than a day to propose and solemnise a quick-fire engagement that is set to take corporate India by storm.

On Thursday, Rohan Murty, doctoral student at Harvard University and the only son of NR Narayana Murthy, the founder and chairman of Infosys Technologies, the country’s second largest software services firm, was engaged to be married to Lakshmi Venu, the only daughter of TVS Motor company’s CMD, Venu Srinivasan.

“They were introduced to each other by a common friend and they must have spent time time getting to know each other,” said a delighted Mr Murthy, Rohan’s father who says the families have known of the couple’s interest for the past several months. “Lakshmi has visited our home and we are very happy with this engagement,” he added.

2nd edition of Champions league launched

The second edition of the multi-million dollar Champions League Twenty20 was launched here in a glittering function attended by top officials of Cricket South Africa and star players including retired spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan.

CSA president Dr. Nyoka, secretary Gerald Majola and CLT20 CEO Sundar Raman unveiled the glittering trophy at a city hotel on Tuesday night.

South African players Jean-Paul Duminy, Alviro Petersen, Albie Morkel, Wayne Parnell and Makhya Ntini were also present. Mr. Raman said India will continue to be represented in future by three teams while two teams from Australia and South Africa, the two other founder members, will take part.

“We have a 10-year contract with ESPN Star Sports. The number of matches will remain 23 but regarding the increase in number of teams that is the decision of CLT20 council. Three teams from India, two each from South SAfrica and Australia will take part in future tournaments also. The other teams were on invitational basis,” he said.

China accuses imported milk powder for latest scandal

The latest milk powder scandal in China has taken a new turn with the concerned Chinese dairy saying it was distributing products imported from New Zealand. The New Zealand supplier has claimed its products were “100% safe”.

Synutra International, the Chinese dairy, made the statement after the government ordered a probe into accusations that babies had developed breasts after consuming milk powder sold by it.

Hormonal levels in at least three babies in Hubei province and one in Beijing have risen to the levels of adult women after consuming the milk products, sources said. The Chinese health ministry on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the allegations.

Indian origin Computer scientist claimed to have solved toughest riddle

An Indian-origin computer scientist based in the US claims to have solved one of the world's most complex mathematical riddles.

Vinay Deolalikar, who works with the US multinational information technology corporation Hewlett-Packard in California, believes he has solved the problem of "P versus NP", Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

The Massachusetts-based Clay Mathematical Institute has categorised "P vs NP" as one of the seven millennium problems. It is considered the "most difficult" one to be solved.

Gmail revamped

Search giant Google has revamped its email service Gmail. The company has overhauled the contact management tool found inside Gmail.

In a blog post Benjamin Grol, Gmail product manager said "An improved Contacts interface has been the number one requested feature from user feedback."
While the core Gmail experience has been changed significantly since its 2004 launch, the Contacts interface has not seen too many changes. The new version of Gmail's contact manager, which Google says is already in the process of going out to users, brings with it a number of changes and addons.

* Mail, Contacts, and Tasks links have moved to the top left of Gmail.

* Compose mail is now a button rather than a link.

AETN, Network 18 JV to launch History in India

AETN and Network18 have reached an agreement to form a joint venture, AETN-18 India on Wednesday which will now launch History, BIO and other popular AETN channels in the Indian market.

AETN is the fastest growing pay television company in the United States operating two of the top five Pay TV networks - History and A&E, and the number one women's network Lifetime. In addition, History is the number one factual channel in the US since 2009.

The joint venture between Network18 Group with a share of 51 per cent and AETN holding 49 per cent will be based in Mumbai. This venture will be owned by AETN and 'New TV18' eventually. Timelines for the launch of various channels will be announced shortly and all new business operations are subject to regulatory approval. BMR Advisers acted as transaction advisers to Network18 Group.

TRAI sets 2013 as deadline for digitalization in entertainment industry

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday recommended that all analogue signals be phased out by 2013 to allow consumers to watch high quality digital channels of their choice on a-la-carte basis.

Digitization will help companies improve signal quality and offer more interactive and value-added services.

In its recomendation, TRAI said the implementation of the digital broadcast signals should take place in a phased manner starting March 2011 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Cities with population over one million should be digitalised by December, 2011 while in all other urban areas, including municipal corporations, digitalisation should take place by December, 2012.

Infy to find successor of Narayana Murthy

Infosys Technologies, India's second ranked software exporter, will commence the task of finding a replacement for its chairman and chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy from January next year, a national financial newspaper reported on Monday citing three sources.

Infosys' nominations committee, including ICICI Bank's non-executive chairman KV Kamath and Cornell University professor Jeffrey Sean Lehman, has already begun discussions on the process, the paper reported.

"It has to start at the right time. The normal time for discussing such replacements is around two quarters ahead of the departure of the person, which is what the plan is," the report said quoting a person close to the process.

The software firm has also begun internal discussions on the size and composition of the board to face new challenges, the report said, adding an Infosys spokeswoman declined to comment.

Bharti to buy Telecom Seychelles

Continuing its acquisition spree in the international market, Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said the company will acquire 100 per cent stake in Telecom Seychelles for USD 62 million (about Rs 288 crore).

The acquisition comes on heels of Bharti acquiring Zain Telecom's Africa assets for USD 10.7 billion, for which the deal was closed in June.

"The Board of Directors has approved the acquisition deal on Wednesday morning," said Bharti Airtel CEO (International) and Joint MD Manoj Kohli.

US visa fee hike to be used to develop its Border security

In what could deal a serious blow to Indian tech companies, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to steeply hike US visa fees for skilled workers to raise $ 600 million in emergency funding to help secure the US-Mexico border.

Senators passed a similar plan last week. But since the House version passed in a voice vote Tuesday is slightly different it will go back to the Senate for final congressional approval before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The measure proposes to raise the fees on H-1B visas for companies who have more than 50 per cent of their employees on such visas for highly skilled professionals from $ 320 to $ 2,320. Similarly, the fee on L visas given to multi-national transferees will go up from $ 320 to $ 2,570.

The additional fees from the popular H-1B and L visas programmes would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned surveillance drones to better secure the US-Mexico border, one of the rare issues both Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon.

The legislation targets companies that lawmakers say "exploit" US visa programmes. A summary of the Senate version listed Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam as such firms, saying that they fly thousands of employees to the US to work at as technicians and engineers for their clients.

Aamir & Peepli live

Actor-producer Aamir Khan has received 'thank you' letters from over 500 villages named Peepli in the country for making their hamlet famous with his forthcoming production Peepli Live.

"Aamir was surprised when he started getting postcards from different Peeplis thanking him for making the movie. Even he wasn't aware that there were so many villages with the same name," a source close to the actor said.

"The hand-written letters have been pouring in and some people have invited Aamir to visit their village and meet them in person. Touched by the gesture, Aamir has asked his staff to keep all the letters in his archive. He is touched that the villagers made the effort to write to him personally," the source added.

There are over 1,000 Peeplis all over India. The movie is set in Peepli Bhadwai village of Madhya Pradesh.

Indonesia blocks 4,000 porn sites

The Indonesian government on Wednesday announced that it is blocking access to four million pornography sites on the Internet following continuing calls from the public to protect the nation's youth from the dangers of smut.

The censoring is across the board and encompasses any material deemed pornographic, including nudity, explicit sex whether heterosexual or not, sex organs and pornographic symbols.

Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said the step taken in conjunction with the holy month of Ramadan, was in line with the country's anti-pornographic laws that were passed on October 30, 2008.

"Right this moment, around 90 per cent of such sites are being blocked, we will carry out the blocking exercise in stages until all are blocked," he told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.

These sites have been blamed by the Indonesian public as the cause of the moral decay currently taking place among young Indonesians.

Tifatul added that the move would be retained even after Ramadan and as long as the anti-pornography laws are in force.

UK scientists find superbug gene

British scientists have found a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and are warning that it is widespread in India and could soon appear worldwide.

The gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the UK after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.

The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.

In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors reported finding a new gene, called NDM-1.

Villagers of Mumbai Shore collecting items washed away from sinking vessels

Villagers at Uran have been having a field day, collecting items for their evening tea and snacks. Unfortunately, the items can prove to be very dangerous, as they have been plucked out of an oily sea.

Nine containers from the vessel MSC Chitra washed ashore at Uran yesterday, and villagers wasted no time in rummaging through them. They broke the containers and started taking the tea powder and biscuits from them, little realising that they could be contaminated.

The entire shoreline of Uran was flooded with open tea bags, medicines and biscuit packets swimming in oil. While some containers broke when the high tide lashed the containers against the rocks, others were broken by the villagers looking for some bounty.

US Govt review finds glitch in electronics of Toyota cars

The government’s investigation into complaints of sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles has found no evidence of flawed electronics in 58 of the vehicles that crashed, federal regulators said Tuesday.

An examination of the crashes also found only one instance in which an accelerator pedal became trapped under a floor mat, and none in which a pedal became stuck or sprang back too slowly, according to a preliminary report to Congress.

Toyota has recalled nearly nine million Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide to correct problems involving floor mats and sticky pedals, and lawmakers and some drivers have long suggested that a malfunction in the electronic throttle control system of the vehicles might explain some of the reports of sudden acceleration.

3000 online bank accounts robbed in UK by Cyber attack

In one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks, hackers have robbed nearly 675,000 pounds from about 3,000 online bank accounts in Britain.

The scam was carried out by using a computer virus -- described by experts as the most dangerous malware programme ever created -- that emptied the bank accounts while showing customers fake statements, the Daily Mail reported.

Internet security firm M86 Security, which discovered the scam, said the hackers stole a total of 675,000 pounds from the unnamed British bank.