News-Analyse: 04/01/2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

TTML reports a net loss of Rs.318 crore

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd today said it has experienced a consolidated net loss of Rs 318 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010.

The company had reported a net loss of Rs 169 crore for the year ended March 2008-09, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) amended the Interconnection Usage Charges. The interconnect income accounted and interconnect cost accounted, therefore, are not strictly comparable with the previous year," the company said.

Months after mounting a blistering attack on the Indian system of governance that prevented big ticket projects, global steel giant ArcelorMittal today exuded confidence that its mega Rs 1.30 lakh crore investment would take off soon as some states were very "proactive".

"There is a light. We are coming nearer the light. Overall I am seeing the light. I do not know which one will start whether Karnataka or Jharkhand," ArcelorMittal CEO L N Mittal told PTI when asked if he was still pessimistic about his projects taking off in India.

The company is also working on a project in Orissa.

ICICI & HDFC are not Indian owned bks- but Indian Controlled Bks__Govt

"Going by the definition, they are certainly not owned by Indians," Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, R. P. Singh, said. "At best, the two can be called Indian-controlled banks," he added.

The government today said ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank cannot be called Indian-owned banks, setting at rest the debate generated over the nationality of the top two private sector lenders.

“At best, the two can be called as Indian-controlled banks,” Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary R. P. Singh said today when asked about the government’s stand in the wake of the two seeking clarifications on the matter.

Taking mobile tariffs to a new low, telecom service provider Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech and Norwegian firm Telenor, on Friday announced call charges as low as 20 paise per minute.

Uninor has introduced a concept of dyanamic pricing under which its subscribers can avail discounts of between five to 60 per cent, depending on their location.

Telenor has a 67.25 per cent stake in the company, while Unitech holds the remaining equity. The offer, dubbed the 24/7 Badalta discount plan, will be initially available to Uninor users in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

IT services provider Tech Mahindra on Friday reported a decline of 1.47 per cent in its consolidated net profit at Rs 226 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

Total income rose to Rs 1,257 crore for the quarter ended March 31, from Rs 1,059 crore in the same period last year, Tech Mahindra said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"This quarter saw us consolidate our position in the arena of complete end to end outsourcing. Our robust performance this quarter is a measure of our ability to understand customer needs and tailor solutions specific to these needs," Tech Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra said.

Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei said on Friday it was evaluating the reported security concerns in India and was seeking clarifications from authorities.

The Financial Times had reported that India was blocking the purchase of telecoms equipment from Chinese vendors on national security grounds.

Huawei said it had not received any official communication on the issue, but was willing to cooperate with relevant Indian government agencies to help solve their concerns, the firm's India-based spokesman said in a statement.

Sonata softwares developes Social networking & fashion Appln

Sonata Software, a leading IT consulting and software services provider, said on Thursday that it has developed a fashion and social networking application for US-based Golirious LLC, a mobile software developer.

The application called 'Love it or Lose it', allows Apple iPhone users to instantly connect with their friends and community members and request, and receive feedback on fashion merchandises, a release said.

The user-friendly application allows iPhone users to click photos of clothes or accessories while they are shopping and share them instantly with their friends.

Mid-sized software service provider MindTree outbid larger rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro apart from top multinational firms, to win Rs 30-crore contract from India’s Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI), senior government officials and persons familiar with the project told on Thursday.

While the contract is small when compared with several multi-million dollar deals announced by various government departments over past few years, it’s the first in a series of projects worth up to $1 billion to be outsourced by the UIDAI.

When contacted on Thursday, a MindTree spokesman declined to offer any specific comments.

Energy major Reliance Industries has discovered more oil on India's western coast, raising the potential of the exploratory blocks it has been drilling, the company said on Wednesday.

India's biggest conglomerate whose businesses span petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration and retail said the current flow was at 300 barrels of oil per day (bopd) at the onland exploratory block in the Cambay basin in Gujarat state.

UIDAI in talks with RBI for offering Banking solution with UID

The Unique Identification Authority of India and the Reserve Bank of India are in talks to explore linking the unique identity number with bank accounts to enable cashless transactions at outlets like 'kirana' stores.

The Authority has proposed a UID-enabled Bank Account (UEBA) which will give customers access to their account through Business Correspondent (BC) operating a handheld microATM device.

Transactions on the UID-enabled bank account function essentially as a prepaid system, similar to that used by mobile operators.

The case of a senior home ministry official caught taking Rs 10 lakh as bribe for the purchase of bulletproof jackets turned dramatic on Thursday, with the alleged bribe-giver claiming in court that there was a "cartel"in the MHA that received kickbacks, and that the scam was bigger than Bofors.

As the CBI sought custody of IRES officer R S Sharma and two other accused, one of them—R K Gupta, director of a Delhi company producing defence equipment— claimed he was framed for exposing the "cartel".

Former Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice, Gyan Sudha Mishra, will take oath as a Supreme Court Justice on Friday.

She will be the fourth woman judge in the apex court.

Mishra (61) was initially appointed as judge of the Patna High Court in March 1994, but was transferred to the Rajasthan High Court.

Rape victim in Gujarat seeks court for abortion

The Gujarat High Court has directed hospital authorities to conduct medical examination of a 13-year-old victim who has sought permission for abortion after she conceived as a result of being repeatedly raped allegedly by her employer.

Justice A S Dave directed the medical officer at the Surendranagar civil hospital to find out if the minor girl was physically and mentally fit to undergo termination of pregnancy.

The doctor has been asked to submit the report by May 4, and the girl also has been asked to remain present in the court.

I simply don't care about ULFA's threats - Assam CM

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday downplayed threats to his life by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) saying it was "nothing new." He ruled out talks with ULFA on its demand of sovereignty.

The Chief Minister was reacting to reports about New Delhi's warning of possible attacks by an ULFA hit squad against him, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his younger brother Susanta Biswa Sarma, said a police official.

"I simply don't care about ULFA's threats as these are nothing new for me. There has always been a threat perception on my life and still I move around freely," the Chief Minister said.

Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have arrested two paramilitary soldiers on suspicion of stealing arms and selling them on to Maoist rebels.

The arrests were made after police raided the camp of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Rampur town.

An inquiry has been ordered into the alleged theft and sale, officials said.

List spies in Intelligence agencies of India since establishment

Arrested IFS officer Madhuri Gupta may not be in the league of famous women spies Mata Hari and Virginia Hall, but the allegations that she was passing on sensitive information to ISI agents is a rude shock to the Indian establishment.

India's external Intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), like any other snooping organisation of the world, has a history of agents who had switched their loyalties towards countries where they were working.

Mata Hari's name became synonymous with espionage and the Dutch dancer, whose real name was Gertrud Margarete Zelle, was executed by a French firing squad in 1917 on charges of being a spy. Virginia
Hall was an American spy during the Second World War and the Gestapo (Nazi political police) considered her the most dangerous of all allied spies.

The Indian diplomat arrested for using her office in Islamabad to spy for Pakistan did not receive any information from the local head of India's intelligence-gathering agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Intelligence sources told that RAW's station chief in Islamabad, RS Sharma, was part of the team that was investigating Madhuri Gupta's activities over the last eight months. Gupta was arrested earlier this month for selling information to her Pakistani handler, a man she claims she fallen in love with.

Sharma was called to Delhi weeks before Gupta's arrest. He shared information collected against Gupta and returned to Islamabad before Gupta was taken into custody.

Looks like Nokia has gone on a phone announcement spree of late. Just days after the N8 was officially unveiled, Nokia has revealed its latest addition to the X-Series range of handsets.

The X-Series which, until now, comprised of the X3, the China specific X5 and the high-end X6, received a new sibling in the form of the X2. The X2, as evident from the naming scheme, will be positioned below the X3 and is a mid-range handset.
Let's see what it has to offer you.

The X2 features a 2.2 inch QVGA display, dedicated music keys, dual speakers, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, Nokia Messaging, Facebook integration and MicroSD card support. The phone, unlike other X-Series handsets, runs Nokia's proprietary S40 OS. On the imaging front, it has a very impressive 5 megapixel camera at the rear. This is a rather surprising because the X3, which is positioned above the X2, has a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The X2 is slated to be launched in June, first in India. The price is expected to hover at around the $112 (Rs. 5,000) mark. That seems to be a decent price for a handset of its caliber. Also, this might just be the cheapest 5 megapixel phone you could buy these days.

Cong accuses BJP of "GREED FOR POWER"

The Congress's Jharkhand unit today accused the BJP of "greed for power" which, it said, has led the saffron party to put on hold withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government in the state.

Alleging that the BJP was again "playing the game of numbers", a Congress release here said "Frequent change of decisions among the BJP and the JMM has not only left Jharkhand reeling under a political crisis, but also lowered the dignity of democratic norms."

IBM scientists create smallest 3D earth model

IBM scientists have created a 3D map of the earth so small that 1,000 of them could fit on a single grain of salt.

They accomplished this through a new, breakthrough technique that uses a tiny, silicon tip with a sharp apex -- 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point -- to create patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometre at greatly reduced cost and complexity.

A nanometre is a billionth of a metre. This patterning technique opens new prospects for developing nanosized objects in fields such as electronics, future chip technology, medicine, life sciences, and optoelectronics.

A Chinese electronics company has launched legal action against computer makers Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba over alleged infringements of
its patents, a report said Tuesday.

Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology, better known by its brand name Aigo, accused HP and Toshiba of violating six patents for USB Plus, a storage port technology used in many laptop computers, the Financial Times said.

Aigo is seeking one million yuan ($146,500) damages from HP, according to a complaint seen by the newspaper.

A doctor couple in Rajouri have been questioned by security agencies in connection with the sensational espionage case involving an Indian diplomat, who was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan.

A team of officials quizzed Dr Khem Raj Sharma and his wife Dr Champa Sharma for nearly two hours in connection with the spying case at Sunderbani in Rajouri district on Thursday night, highly placed sources said.

During questioning, Champa Sharma told interrogators that diplomat Madhuri Gupta had visited her residence in Sunderbani on March 29 for a day after crossing from Pakistan via Wagha border in a Toyota vehicle registered in Pakistan.

Hewlett-Packard Co said it has struck a $1.2 billion deal for Palm Inc, offering a 23 per cent premium to expand into the smartphone market.

The news comes after much speculation on Wall Street about who would buy Palm, which once dominated the market but which has been overshadowed by Apple Inc's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry and phones that use Google Inc's Android software.

In a sign of Palm's struggles, the company on Wednesday slashed expectations for the current quarter, saying slow sales of its products have resulted in low order volumes from phone carriers. "If you saw the guidance Palm just put out, it was clear they had to sell," said Phil Cusick, analyst at Macquarie Research.

Madhuri Gupta embraced by Islam ?????

Madhuri Gupta, the 53-year-old second secretary arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan, may have embraced Islam about six years ago, a media report has claimed.

Gupta, who was posted at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was perhaps a Shia Muslim, according to a media report.

"She was really inspired by the teachings of Islam, but was scared to announce her new faith," reads a report in the Post.

Man posing as a CBI sleuth arrested on molestation charges

A man posing himself as a top law officer of Haryana and a CBI sleuth was arrested on charges of molesting a woman in a hotel in Jaipur, police said.

Sanjiv Kadia, arrested late last night and was booked under various sections of the IPC, was granted bail by a local court, IGP (Jaipur Range) B L Soni said.

During questioning, he had told police that he was an Assistant Advocate General of Haryana and a CBI sleuth, the IGP said.

The house of two senior government officials were searched by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday.

They both stand accused of accepting large bribes.

O Ravi, a Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry, allegedly accepted 25 lakhs from a private distiller to transfer an administrator who was persistent and meticulous about the taxes owed by the distiller.

The government does not have any plans as of now to auction 4G spectrum, Communications Minister A. Raja said on Thursday.

"The auction of 3G spectrum is going on successfully. The question of the need of 700 MHz (4G) spectrum (for the public) is being studied. It is not necessary as of now," Raja said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

"If in the course of time, the need arises, we will decide how much of this should be released for the public," he added.

Mallaya Sr meets Sharad Pawar to back Lalit Modi in IPL issue

According to reliable sources, the Royal Challengers owner wanted Mr Pawar to back Mr Lalit Modi and allow him to have his say in the controversy.

After Indian Premier League (IPL) Chairman Lalit Modi met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi, it was the turn of liquor baron and owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore Vijay Mallya.

Mr. Mallya met Mr. Pawar at his residence here on Saturday to discuss supporting Mr. Modi, and the allegations of match-fixing that dog the event.

Public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has won the race becoming the first internet service provider to offer the fastest broadband speed in the country by servicing customers broadband connection speed up to 24 Mbps.

BSNL will now initiate with offering this high speed broadband service through the high speed digital subscriber loop (VDSL) technology.

It looks like YouTube is expanding its quiet and low-profile movie rental service. In addition to the movies from the Sundance Festival that were added back in January of the current year, the website is now also offering selections from over 500 other content partners. And what is interesting is that not all of them are flicks which can be termed "obscure".

A glance through the YouTube "store" reveals that popular movies like Reservoir Dogs, Precious, Pi and The Cove are listed and can be rented.

ISP launches solution which classifies WebSites for Age category

Reports have revealed that Tibboh, a new Internet Service Provider, or ISP, has joined hands with the British Board of Film Classification with the aim to classify about 3 billion websites by placing on them age restrictions akin to those found in movies. The aim of the complete exercise is to protect youngsters and kids from being exposed to inappropriate content on the internet.

The idea to provide movie-style ratings to websites was first put forward by Professor Tanya Byron in a study report commissioned by the Government on the ways to ensure that the internet and its content is safer for young children.

While the National Broadband Networks have been struggling to deliver a speed of just about 100 Mbps over a fiber network which is worth $43 billion, Alcatel - Lucent reportedly has come up with news that their research arm, which is called Bell Labs, has already made a breakthrough by demonstrating speeds of 300 Mbps.

The network that is used seems to be a copper wire and it seems to be quite similar to the network of Telstra who have connected to a lot of business and homes which are situated in Australia.

Blippy, Google, and a Midwest bank have been reported for uncovering credit card numbers of four people within Google search results, for over two months.

Blippy, a young start-up that helps people to make social networks around sharing data on purchased goods and services experienced the worst Friday in history.

It was found by VentureBeat that credit card numbers exposed by four Blippy users, could see in Google's search guide.

Jupiter Honda, dealers of Honda Motorcycles, have a launched a new initiative as part of its social responsibility.
Novel approach

It's distributing saplings to every customer who purchases bikes.

“In order to reduce the pollution caused by the carbon dioxide emissions by the two wheelers, we have started distribution of a plant to each customer as per the Honda philosophy of a clean environment,” said Y. Raghu Ram, managing partner of Jupiter Honda.

Uninor the Youngest GSM Mobile service operator today reportedly unveil its Mobile Internet Services on GPRS for its prepaid subscribers across UP East, UP West, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh where its GSM Mobile Service is offered today.

The Uninor has offered two data services pack-Data 9 worth Rs 9 valid for 3 days, offering free browsing up to 60 MB and Data 90 priced for a price of Rs 90 valid for 30 days with 3GB of free browsing.

Minor muslim girl sold as a 'Slave Wife' rescued by Women's group in WB

A 16-year-old Muslim girl from West Bengal, who was allegedly sold to live as a “slave wife” with a Dalit man, has been rescued from Ponchhada village in Karauli district of Rajasthan. Women’s groups here say the girl was a victim of a big trafficking network in eastern part of the State where there is a high gender imbalance.

Memi Khatoon, belonging to Nijgaon village in Malda district of West Bengal, was brought to Ponchhada from Delhi about a year ago after allegedly being purchased for Rs.26,000. She was forced to live as a wife with 40-year-old Paramsukh Lal Bairwa and was tortured and confined to his house for doing household chores.

Intex showcased its new Dual SIM mobile phone called IN 2020 in the Indian market. The phone will support two GSM SIM cards catering to customers who use more than one phone connection.

The phone supports expandable memory of upto 2GB and offers GPRS, WAP, QWERTY, chatting, texting and torch light features. The screen of the phone measures 1.8 inches and offers Black List feature.

Air India has planned several additional flights between India, UK and USA with a view to clearing the backlog of passengers stranded at various airports, as a consequence of closure of European Air Space for nearly a week from 15th April 2010.

On Sunday, 25th April 2010, the airline will operate a Mumbai-London-Delhi with a 342 seater Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft. On Monday, 26th April, there will be an additional flight on Delhi-London-Mumbai sector, again with a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

Army's suspected firing kills - sparks violence

An alleged timber smuggler was today killed and another injured in firing by security personnel who suspected them to be militants, sparking violent protests in Shopian district.

Army today said it has ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident which occurred in this south Kashmir district, 65 kms from here. Angry residents torched two army vehicles after the killing, prompting the security personnel to open fire which left four persons injured.

LG lauches its 3D Televisions in Indian market

LG Electronics has announced the launch of its 3D LCD TVs in India in partnership with the Valuable Group, a Mumbai-based media company.
The company has procured licences to telecast IPL matches in 3D formats.

LG Electronics will set up its 3D TVs where cricket fans will gather, including restaurants and cinema theatres across the country to coincide with Valuable Group’s live 3D broadcast of the final four games of the Indian Premier League. Making it the first time any sporting event has been broadcast in 3D, the Indian cricket fans will be able to enjoy the action on stunning 3D TV.

Hewlett-Packard introduced two new desktop PCs, the enterprise-geared Compaq 6005 Pro Ultra Slim and the consumer-oriented All-in-One, on April 21 along with news of a update to its HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 Series.

The first two PCs put a heavy emphasis on space savings and green design, with energy-efficient power supplies and recyclable shipping materials.

And while the All-in-One and TouchSmart run Intel processors, the Compaq 6005 represents HP's sixth generation of business desktops to feature processors from Advanced Micro Devices.

Investigation claims dozens of lapses on Saras during its test flight

The investigation report of the Saras Light Transport Aircraft (LTA) crash revealed dozens of lapses including an insufficient pre-flight debriefing, a poor telemetry system and lack of crew coordination.

According to a news report by The Hindu, indigenously developed light passenger aircraft Saras had crashed because of incorrect flight procedures set by its designer and adopted by the crew.

Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has re-launched its special home loan plan, also called teaser rates, to attract property buyers.

“Mortgages continue to be a focus area for ICICI Bank. We offer competitive rates in the market and currently the rates are 8.25 per cent for first year, 9 per cent for the second year and the existing floating rate thereafter,” said a spokesperson of ICICI Bank.

Vedanta Resources has outsourced the operation and maintenance of its Rs 8,200 crore power project in Orissa to Germany-based Evonik Energy.

The operation and maintenance (O&M) agreement was signed between Sterlite Energy, a subsidiary of the metal and mining group, and Evonik Energy Services India, the local arm of the fifth largest power company in Germany.

“Vedanta group is emerging as one of the leading players in the power sector in India and Evonik is one of the largest players in Germany, I think this will result in an excellent relationship between the companies and add lots of value in our power business,” Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) Director M. Siddiqi said in a statement.

Govt to infuse Rs.150 billion in state run Bks

The cabinet approved infusion of 150 billion rupees ($3.4 bln) in state-run banks during the fiscal year ending March, 2011, to help meet growing credit requirements of the economy, a government statement said.

"The infusion of 150 billion rupees in Tier I capital instruments of PSBs would enable them to expand their credit growth by about 1.85 trillion rupees ($41.6 bln)," the statement said on Friday.

The cabinet also gave its approval for infusion of additional capital in the next financial year after considering the third quarter results of banks in 2010/11.

In February, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had made a provision of 165 billion rupees ($3.7 bln) in the annual budget for state-run banks to ensure that they are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011.

India has signed two agreements with the World Bank for a loan of $3.2 billion to provide additional capital to state-run banks. Formalities for the first tranche of $2 billion have already been completed, it said.

The government expects an infusion of additional capital would also strengthen the Indian banking system, which remained largely unaffected during global financial crisis since September 2008.

India, Asia's third largest economy is expected to grow by around 8.5 percent in 2010/11 and 9 percent in the next financial year as per government estimates.

Govt expects $11Bn in 3G auction

India now expects its third-generation (3G) and broadband spectrum auctions to raise 500 billion rupees ($11.2 billion), much higher than the government's budget estimates of 350 billion rupees, telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja said on Friday.

On Thursday, Raja had said he expected the auctions to raise 450 billion rupees. "Everyday it is going up," he told reporters outside the parliament on Friday, referring to the bids for 3G spectrum, for which the auction is currently on. India kicked off a closely-watched multi-billion dollar spectrum acution on April 9 which would enable telecom firms in India offer premium third-generation services.

A one-day strike brought Kashmir to a standstill Friday, in a protest at the death sentences handed to three members of a separatist group who bombed a New Delhi market in 1996.

The three members of a Kashmiri group called the Islamic Front -- two Kashmiris and a Muslim resident of New Delhi -- were sentenced to death Thursday by a court in New Delhi.

Rajasthan CM on IPL commissioner Modi

Ratcheting up the political pressure on IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi and his supporters, Congress leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot issued an unusual communique late tonight in which he slammed former CM Vasundhara Raje and alleged that Modi was involved in several land scams in the state with Raje’s support.

The communiqué was released following a Cabinet meet this evening but the delay, according to the CM’s press advisor, was because of the time it took to word it.

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India today launched a new version of its compact car WagonR priced between Rs 3.28 lakh and Rs 3.81 lakh.

"This new launch of WagonR is important to Maruti Suzuki for many reasons. It demonstrates the growing research and development capability of the company," Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi told reporters here.

The new WagonR is developed from the latest platform of the vehicle that is available in Japan. The car is powered by BS-IV compliant 998cc K-series engine.

With this launch the existing WagonR will be phased out that was launched in 1999 and sold a total of 8.8 lakh units.

Sachin says retaining 8 players in a IPL team is important

Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians captain, has said the IPL franchises should be allowed to hold on to a certain number of players from their existing squads as the league prepares for a reshuffle at the end of the 2010 season, when existing player contracts expire. Next year the IPL will have two new franchises - Pune and Kochi - and a fresh auction but Tendulkar wanted teams to be able to retain at least eight players.

"About retaining players, my personal thoughts are that we should be allowed to retain four India players and four foreign players," Tendulkar told the Indian news channel Times Now. "As for domestic players, it should be up to the franchisees. I feel it's a tough call because all teams have made huge efforts in building a good side.

Air India on Friday said a Delhi-Coimbatore flight was chartered to ferry Indian Premier League (IPL) players and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's daughter Poorna for commercial reasons.

"It was absolutely a commercial decision. Chartered flights make a lot of money for the airline. We keep combining flights according to our operational demand. The IPL anyway has been our customer ever since it began," Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director of the airline, said in a statement.

Less than a week after utility and tractor major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) bought the entire equity of French partner Renault in their joint venture company, it today declared a steep reduction in prices of the Logan car.

MahindraThe prices were cut by Rs 27,000-80,000 for the Bharat-III variant, while the reduction for the BS-IV version is in the range of Rs 24,000-65,000.

Despite the car having a very low localisation level of around 50 per cent, as the engine and transmission is imported into the country, M&M says the reduction has been a result of rationalisation efforts undertaken by the company at its plant in Nashik.

Nudity, sexual activity, and physical intimacy were part of the “learning and practice of ancient tantrik secrets’’ at Dhyanapeetam Ashram of controversial godman Swami Nityananda at Bidadi, near Bangalore. Nityananda was caught on camera during an alleged sex romp with an actress last month.

Bizarrely, those who volunteered for the programmes were made to sign an agreement prohibiting them from disclosing any of these details or taking legal recourse after practising “ancient tantrik secrets’’. The programme is called ‘Learning from the Master Program’.

Norton 2011 beta released

As protections against garden-variety viruses and malware have become more effective, malware writers have turned to new ways to infect computers in the pursuit of profit. Two increasing threats are malware spread via bad Facebook links and so-called scareware -- malware that masquerades as virus-scanning software.

The beta of Norton Internet Security 2011 adds several tools designed to protect against those threats, along with other useful tools and tweaks. The result is a useful all-around security application aimed at keeping up with a fast-changing landscape where new threats are constantly emerging.

There are matches made in heaven, and on the other side of the spectrum, there is David Wang's accomplishment: booting Google's Android operating system on Apple's iPhone

Wang, the "planetbeing" member of the a group called the iPhone Dev Team devoted to hacking iPhones, posted a video demonstrating Android on an iPhone Wednesday.

The demo shows the boot process--complete with the Tux Linux mascot--and Wang using Android for browsing, receiving a text message, answering a phone call, and playing music. The phone is set up with a dual-boot configuration and indeed the video begins with it running iPhone OS.

Just when he was about give up his fight against the Bellary Reddy brothers, the Shashi Tharoor incident happened. With the Congress launching a full fledged attack on the BJP on its failure to contain corruption, former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has found enough reason to revive his campaign against the mining magnates.

In a move to up the heat on the Reddys, Gowda met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday morning and sought a probe by the Income Tax department into their financial deals.

Incidentally, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan had on Monday spoken about the failure of the Yeddyurappa government to act against the Reddy brothers despite enough evidence of an illegal mining scam.

Gilani positive of resuming talks with India soon

Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today reciprocated the good wishes conveyed to him by senior Indian leaders and hoped that the stalled dialogue between the two countries would be resumed soon.

Gilani made the remarks during a meeting with population welfare minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, who visited India recently and met several leaders, including Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

During her meeting with Awan, Sonia Gandhi sent her felicitations to President Asif Ali Zardari, prime minister Gilani and the people of Pakistan on the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which strips the president of his sweeping powers and removes changes made to the constitution by military dictators.

Facebook has shut down its Lite site aimed at users with slow or poor internet connections.

The stripped down version of the original ran for around seven months.

Facebook posted a note on its own fan page thanking those who used Lite, adding that it had "learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site".

"I think a lot of the Facebook experience was left out of Lite, especially the monetisable parts," said Ray Valdes of Gartner Research.

In a recently released report by Symantec, India ranks among top 5 countries globally for cyber attacks. India was ranked 11th in 2008 and has risen to 5th position in 2009. The other countries are Russia, China, US and Brazil. Also India ranks 2nd in the Asia Pacific countries for cyber crimes. Cyber attacks from India accounts for 16 percent in total cyber crimes in Asia Pacific countries in 2009, up from less than 1 percent in 2008.

Also the medium of cyber crime has also changed in 2009 than from 2008. In 2009, most of the cyber attacks were through social networking sites where as in 2008, it was mainly through emails. It is reported that on social networking site, personal information is easily available and users trust each other much more. In these cases it becomes easy to send malicious content which the targets users easily clicks. Once clicked, the suspicious files get stored into local system and than information stored can be easily collected.

3G auction will earn Rs.45,000 Cr to Govt - Raja

The ongoing auctions to award radio frequency spectrum for third generation (3G) telecom services and for rolling out broadband wireless internet services could raise Rs.45,000 crore, Rs.10,000 crore more than anticipated, the government said Thursday.

'We anticipated that the auction would raise Rs.35,000 crore. It may go up to Rs.45.000 crore,' Telecom Minister A. Raja said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

Carmaker General Motors India rolled out its 1,00,000th Chevrolet Spark from Halol plant, situated near Ahmedabad.

The hatchback is produced at the company's Halol and Talegaon plants, which has a total production capacity of 2,25,000 units per annum.

"Chevrolet Spark has performed exceedingly well in the Indian market. The car continues to record impressive growth in sales month after month," General Motors said in a statement.

The Income Tax (IT) department officials, who conducted raids on four IPL teams on Wednesday, Apr 21, have revealed that some 'incriminating documents' were recovered at the offices of Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

The eight-hour long searches began on Apr 21 evening and went on till 1 am on Thursday, Apr 22 morning. IT officials searched the offices of Chennai Super Kings in Chennai, Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab in Gurgaon and KKR in Kolkata.

Along with its plans to take on Apple and its iPhone with its upcoming Windows Phone 7 series, global giant Microsoft has something special planned for markets like India.

According to Sudeep Bharati, director, developer tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team, the company is working with manufacturers to come up with lower-end phones for the Indian market.

The Oberoi, one of the three luxury hotels which was stormed by militants nearly 17 months ago in the city, will reopen this weekend.

The Oberoi, Mumbai will finally welcome back guests on April 24 following an extensive renovation work.

East India Hotels has said that the total cost of renovation of its Oberoi property in south Mumbai, which was severely damaged during the November 2008 terrorist attacks in the city, is expected to be around Rs 160-180 crore.

Computers in companies, hospitals and schools around the world got stuck repeatedly rebooting themselves Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus.

McAfee Inc. confirmed that a software update it posted at 9 a.m. Eastern time caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file. It has posted a replacement update for download.

McAfee could not say how many computers were affected, but judging by online postings, the number was at least in the thousands and possibly in the hundreds of thousands.