India, after emerging as the second largest market for the world’s largest handset maker Nokia (by volumes), is steadily working its way up on the value chain also. This is because the Indian market is perhaps the last of the high growth markets left in the world.
Besides, the country is adding over 10 million new users a month, the highest in the world, which translates into robust handset sales. ET spoke to Nokia’s executive VP (devices, finance, strategy and sourcing) Robert Anderson on his take on both the domestic market as well as the global scenario.
Do you feel that the global slowdown in handset sales will have a similar impact in emerging markets such as India? How important is the market here for you?
We still maintain that handset sales will be up by 10% this fiscal. This is good, but lower than last year’s figures. But emerging markets, where communication devices are fast becoming a daily necessity, the sales will continue to grow. We are doing our part to make the handset attractive to customers in emerging markets even during such times (of slowdown). This is the primary reason why we offer solutions and services (and not just handsets). For instance, we have just unveiled ‘Nokia life tools’, an agricultural information and education service for emerging markets today. The fact that we have chosen India yet again for the global launch of our new handset offerings for emerging markets is a reflection of the importance of this country. India will add 229 million new users over the next three years, of which 60% will come from rural India.
The new handsets focus on bringing internet to the customers via these devices. Nokia has always talked about internet on the mobile as the next biggest challenge. How do you plan to address this?
Nokia cannot change the internet, but we can definitely change the way you access the net on the handset. We can give you the internet on mid and lower end handsets and ensure that this facility is not restricted to those customers who use high-end handsets. For instance, in the case of rural India, Google may not be the most relevant site. Instead, the users will need a handset that will allow them to use services like weather forecasts in a format comfortable to them. Therefore, the handset, the interface and services, which includes content, must all be addressed together before the masses will use internet on their mobiles and we are working to make this a reality. In emerging markets such as India, the biggest challenge for Nokia is to get people to buy mid- and high-end phones.
Currently over 60% of your volumes are driven by entry level handsets. How important a challenge is it for you to change this ratio?
Yes, entry level handsets drive sales here, but it is crucial to note that this is a market that is also driven by aspirations. We have added an aspirational aspect to our products. This is best illustrated by the fact that for the first time ever, the replacement market is now larger than the entry market in countries such as India. We are also adding attractive designs and features to all our mid level handets to make them attractive to even first time users. The results will come over time.
What is your take on Near Field Communications (NFC) or the mobile wallet? Do you see this as the next big revolution on the mobile handsets? By when do you see mass adoption of this, where people can swipe their handsets on buying products or services?
We believe that NFC has the potential to be a technology that can change the way we do things today. We are very bullish on this will work with potential partners on this platform. There are several applications that become attractive if you look at from an NFC point. Recently, we launched some handsets that has the NFC feature to some extent.
In the UK, you recently gave unlimited music downloads with certain handset models. Will you replicate this business model in India?
We will offer unlimited music downloads when Nokia launches its music phones in India sometime next year. We are in talks with all major music labels in India to enter into deals with them. We have not signed any deals here yet. Globally, we have agreements with all major music labels.
Dec 6, 2008
Business - Q&A SAP India CEO
Jessica Mehroin Irani & Santanu Mishra
MUMBAI: The global slowdown may have affected almost all industries. But SAP India CEO Ranjan Das told ET that it has no impact on the sales of enterprise products as companies continue to spend on IT. Excerpts:
How does the fourth quarter looks like for SAP India?
We all know there is a slowdown and it has impacted India. In third quarter, we grew by 46% in India alone, which is huge in itself. However, it is hard for me to predict how we will perform in Q4. I think in mid and long-term, India is expected to grow at a faster rate than other regions.
What impact will slowdown have on your licence sales?
There is a lot of credit crunch, but companies need to maintain their business processes. However, the revenue stream is drying up and has also lowered confidence. This will definitely impact IT spending if revenues go down. But software is less likely to get hit than hardware as replacing hardware systems can be put off for a while.
Also, CEOs want to know where they can invest their shrinking pool of funds, how can they cut costs without weakening their business and how they can defend their market share or increase it. So chances are less that license sales would come down significantly.
Are there any large SAP implementation deals that are happening?
This is a great time for companies who are planning transformations and to go ahead with it. Some companies have already realised this and more will follow up by January-February next year. Recently, a company which is shutting down some of its plants told us they wanted to implement SAP across all its existing systems.
Their IT systems were built 10 years ago and when they complete this transformation process, they will be able to compete better as their operating efficiency will be better. Companies in regulated space will also have to compete with global players by 2010. They too will have to undertake this transformation process.
Which industry has the potential for large-scale SAP implementation?
I think, the public sector has huge potential and is catching up steadily. There is immense need for automation and optimisation in utilities, government organisations and defence among others. The government companies have to invest in products like SAP on their own for better efficiency and if they don’t, citizens will force them to do so.
With many Indian IT companies looking at acquisitions in the SAP consulting space, do you feel threatened?
I think it is great as it validates our status in the market. Everybody expects us to have a bigger footprint and we have lots of customers.
In fact, this is not a threat to us since major chunk of our revenue comes from license sales and not from consulting practise. Many a times, the IT service companies partner with us during the course of such consulting.
Also, there is a real shortage on the number of people who can implement our software. If the IT players in India build SAP practice, it is great news for us as this would increase the number of people with expertise in SAP.
Would CEOs incur additional costs for SAP products to attract more customers when the demand itself has slowed down?
If you are going out of business, you will invest neither in IT nor in anything else. That is the case for some small and medium enterprises, but majority are still in business. They might be hunkering down during this storm, but this storm will recede. Though, nobody knows when.
IT spending will definitely go down, but it won’t go to zero. In times of crisis, you cut down on things, but you don’t entirely stop them
MUMBAI: The global slowdown may have affected almost all industries. But SAP India CEO Ranjan Das told ET that it has no impact on the sales of enterprise products as companies continue to spend on IT. Excerpts:
How does the fourth quarter looks like for SAP India?
We all know there is a slowdown and it has impacted India. In third quarter, we grew by 46% in India alone, which is huge in itself. However, it is hard for me to predict how we will perform in Q4. I think in mid and long-term, India is expected to grow at a faster rate than other regions.
What impact will slowdown have on your licence sales?
There is a lot of credit crunch, but companies need to maintain their business processes. However, the revenue stream is drying up and has also lowered confidence. This will definitely impact IT spending if revenues go down. But software is less likely to get hit than hardware as replacing hardware systems can be put off for a while.
Also, CEOs want to know where they can invest their shrinking pool of funds, how can they cut costs without weakening their business and how they can defend their market share or increase it. So chances are less that license sales would come down significantly.
Are there any large SAP implementation deals that are happening?
This is a great time for companies who are planning transformations and to go ahead with it. Some companies have already realised this and more will follow up by January-February next year. Recently, a company which is shutting down some of its plants told us they wanted to implement SAP across all its existing systems.
Their IT systems were built 10 years ago and when they complete this transformation process, they will be able to compete better as their operating efficiency will be better. Companies in regulated space will also have to compete with global players by 2010. They too will have to undertake this transformation process.
Which industry has the potential for large-scale SAP implementation?
I think, the public sector has huge potential and is catching up steadily. There is immense need for automation and optimisation in utilities, government organisations and defence among others. The government companies have to invest in products like SAP on their own for better efficiency and if they don’t, citizens will force them to do so.
With many Indian IT companies looking at acquisitions in the SAP consulting space, do you feel threatened?
I think it is great as it validates our status in the market. Everybody expects us to have a bigger footprint and we have lots of customers.
In fact, this is not a threat to us since major chunk of our revenue comes from license sales and not from consulting practise. Many a times, the IT service companies partner with us during the course of such consulting.
Also, there is a real shortage on the number of people who can implement our software. If the IT players in India build SAP practice, it is great news for us as this would increase the number of people with expertise in SAP.
Would CEOs incur additional costs for SAP products to attract more customers when the demand itself has slowed down?
If you are going out of business, you will invest neither in IT nor in anything else. That is the case for some small and medium enterprises, but majority are still in business. They might be hunkering down during this storm, but this storm will recede. Though, nobody knows when.
IT spending will definitely go down, but it won’t go to zero. In times of crisis, you cut down on things, but you don’t entirely stop them
Business - Chanda Kochhar tipped to succeed Kamath
George Smith Alexander
MUMBAI: ICICI Bank, the country’s second-largest bank, will soon announce MD & chief executive KV Kamath’s successor. While joint MD &CEO Chanda Kochhar
Chanda Kochhar is the fronrunner for the top post, banking circles said ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s MD & CEO, Shikha Sharma, has also been shortlisted by the bank. There is a distinct possibility that the bank’s board will consider the succession issue at its next meeting on December 19.
Mr Kamath, whose term comes to an end next April, is expected to become the non-executive chairman. Current chairman N Vaghul’s term too comes to an end next year. Mr Kamath took over as the CEO from Mr Vaghul in 1996. For the past few years, the bank has been running a process to shortlist candidates for the CEO’s job. An announcement was expected last month, but sources said this was postponed due to the credit crisis and financial turbulence.
Other than finance, Ms Kochhar is also responsible for the global treasury, principal investments & trading, risk management and legal functions. She joined the erstwhile ICICI as a management trainee in 1984, and has handled major business streams like retail, corporate and international banking in the past few years.
The appointment of the next CEO would free up a board berth, and among the senior officials who could be considered for the slot are ICICI Lombard ED Vishakha Mulye, and NS Kannan and Bhargav Dasgupta, EDs of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. The bank had chosen a long and unconventional process of picking the new CEO. Mr Kamath had taken the help of professor Wayne Brockbank of University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to obtain independent data on the leadership attributes of senior officials shortlisted for the job.
Initially, Mr Vaghul, along with Mr Kamath, had created a list of 12 senior officials in the ICICI group who were perceived as potential candidates.
Other than Ms Kochhar and Ms Sharma, the shortlisted officials included ICICI Lombard General Insurance’s MD & CEO Sandeep Bakhshi; ICICI Ventures MD & CEO Renuka Ramnath; the three EDs of ICICI Bank — V Vaidyanathan, Madhabi Puri-Buch and Sanjoy Chatterjee; Ms Mulye, Mr Kannan and Mr Dasgupta. ET had, on October 3, explained the selction process for the new chief.
Mr Brockbank, along with ICICI Bank officials, had helped in creating a detailed profile of these officials which were placed before the bank’s governance committee. The committee members include Mr Vaghul, Anupam Puri, MK Sharma, PM Sinha and Marti G Subrahmanyam.
MUMBAI: ICICI Bank, the country’s second-largest bank, will soon announce MD & chief executive KV Kamath’s successor. While joint MD &CEO Chanda Kochhar
Chanda Kochhar is the fronrunner for the top post, banking circles said ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s MD & CEO, Shikha Sharma, has also been shortlisted by the bank. There is a distinct possibility that the bank’s board will consider the succession issue at its next meeting on December 19.
Mr Kamath, whose term comes to an end next April, is expected to become the non-executive chairman. Current chairman N Vaghul’s term too comes to an end next year. Mr Kamath took over as the CEO from Mr Vaghul in 1996. For the past few years, the bank has been running a process to shortlist candidates for the CEO’s job. An announcement was expected last month, but sources said this was postponed due to the credit crisis and financial turbulence.
Other than finance, Ms Kochhar is also responsible for the global treasury, principal investments & trading, risk management and legal functions. She joined the erstwhile ICICI as a management trainee in 1984, and has handled major business streams like retail, corporate and international banking in the past few years.
The appointment of the next CEO would free up a board berth, and among the senior officials who could be considered for the slot are ICICI Lombard ED Vishakha Mulye, and NS Kannan and Bhargav Dasgupta, EDs of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. The bank had chosen a long and unconventional process of picking the new CEO. Mr Kamath had taken the help of professor Wayne Brockbank of University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to obtain independent data on the leadership attributes of senior officials shortlisted for the job.
Initially, Mr Vaghul, along with Mr Kamath, had created a list of 12 senior officials in the ICICI group who were perceived as potential candidates.
Other than Ms Kochhar and Ms Sharma, the shortlisted officials included ICICI Lombard General Insurance’s MD & CEO Sandeep Bakhshi; ICICI Ventures MD & CEO Renuka Ramnath; the three EDs of ICICI Bank — V Vaidyanathan, Madhabi Puri-Buch and Sanjoy Chatterjee; Ms Mulye, Mr Kannan and Mr Dasgupta. ET had, on October 3, explained the selction process for the new chief.
Mr Brockbank, along with ICICI Bank officials, had helped in creating a detailed profile of these officials which were placed before the bank’s governance committee. The committee members include Mr Vaghul, Anupam Puri, MK Sharma, PM Sinha and Marti G Subrahmanyam.
Business - Microsoft still interested in Yahoo search: CEO
NEW YORK: Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Friday the US software giant remained interested in acquiring Yahoo's search business and
would rather do a deal "sooner than later."
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo," Ballmer said in an interview published in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. "I think I've been very open about that."
"I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later," he said.
"But at the end of the day, that would have be something Yahoo would be as interested in as I have expressed our interest."
Asked by the newspaper whether the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo were in talks, Ballmer replied: "The answer is no, but I wouldn't tell you if there were."
Ballmer, who hired former Yahoo executive Qi Lu this week to be Microsoft's online services chief, said if Microsoft and Yahoo tied up on search, market leader Google "would have perhaps a real credible competitor sooner."
But, he added, Microsoft is "fully prepared to compete without any partnership with Yahoo."
Google dominates online search with more than 60 percent of the market. Yahoo has around 20 percent of the market while Microsoft is a distant third with under 10 percent.
Microsoft has been trying to boost its online clout and Ballmer said the company was ready to put up the money needed.
"We are prepared to invest significant amounts of money in our online business, five to 10 percent of operating income if we had to, for the next five years," he said, repeating remarks made to shareholders.
Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang earlier this year rejected a 47.5-billion-dollar bid by Microsoft for his company, earning the disapproval of many shareholders.
Yang announced last month that he was stepping down as chief executive.
It appears unlikely that any deal between Microsoft and Yahoo would go ahead until his replacement as CEO has been found.
would rather do a deal "sooner than later."
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo," Ballmer said in an interview published in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. "I think I've been very open about that."
"I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later," he said.
"But at the end of the day, that would have be something Yahoo would be as interested in as I have expressed our interest."
Asked by the newspaper whether the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo were in talks, Ballmer replied: "The answer is no, but I wouldn't tell you if there were."
Ballmer, who hired former Yahoo executive Qi Lu this week to be Microsoft's online services chief, said if Microsoft and Yahoo tied up on search, market leader Google "would have perhaps a real credible competitor sooner."
But, he added, Microsoft is "fully prepared to compete without any partnership with Yahoo."
Google dominates online search with more than 60 percent of the market. Yahoo has around 20 percent of the market while Microsoft is a distant third with under 10 percent.
Microsoft has been trying to boost its online clout and Ballmer said the company was ready to put up the money needed.
"We are prepared to invest significant amounts of money in our online business, five to 10 percent of operating income if we had to, for the next five years," he said, repeating remarks made to shareholders.
Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang earlier this year rejected a 47.5-billion-dollar bid by Microsoft for his company, earning the disapproval of many shareholders.
Yang announced last month that he was stepping down as chief executive.
It appears unlikely that any deal between Microsoft and Yahoo would go ahead until his replacement as CEO has been found.
World - Oil could fall to $25 a barrel: Merrill Lynch
In a research report published on Thursday, it said oil prices should begin to rally in the second half of 2009.
Merrill Lynch recently cut its forecast for the average price of US crude oil futures and North Sea Brent crude oil to $50 a barrel from a previous estimate for both crudes of $90.
"With demand vanishing across all key oil consuming regions, benchmark crude oil prices continue to plummet," it said. "In the short-run, market participants will focus on both OPEC and perhaps even non-OPEC producer responses to balance the market."
"A temporary drop below $25 is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC production cuts are required," it said.
"In our view, oil prices could find a trough at the end of Q1 2009 or early Q2 2009 with the seasonal slowdown in demand. Then, as economic activity starts to strengthen, we see oil prices posting a modest recovery in the second half of 2009."
Oil prices hit a peak above $147 a barrel in July but have fallen more than $100 since then as the severity of the global economic downturn has become clear.
Merrill Lynch said a combination of high oil prices and high leverage had proven dangerous for the global economy.
"On October 1, we lowered our average crude oil price forecast in 2009 to $90 per barrel based on a global GDP growth forecast of 3 percent. Since then, our economists have revised their 2009 global GDP growth forecast down to 1.3 percent, a scenario consistent with a global recession.
"As a result, we are now lowering our average WTI and Brent crude oil price forecast to $50 per barrel for 2009."
It said the major downside risk to its price forecast would be a revision of economic growth assumptions for China, which are currently at 8.6 percent for next year.
"In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations," it said. "We now expect an outright contraction in global oil demand in 2009."
Merrill Lynch recently cut its forecast for the average price of US crude oil futures and North Sea Brent crude oil to $50 a barrel from a previous estimate for both crudes of $90.
"With demand vanishing across all key oil consuming regions, benchmark crude oil prices continue to plummet," it said. "In the short-run, market participants will focus on both OPEC and perhaps even non-OPEC producer responses to balance the market."
"A temporary drop below $25 is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC production cuts are required," it said.
"In our view, oil prices could find a trough at the end of Q1 2009 or early Q2 2009 with the seasonal slowdown in demand. Then, as economic activity starts to strengthen, we see oil prices posting a modest recovery in the second half of 2009."
Oil prices hit a peak above $147 a barrel in July but have fallen more than $100 since then as the severity of the global economic downturn has become clear.
Merrill Lynch said a combination of high oil prices and high leverage had proven dangerous for the global economy.
"On October 1, we lowered our average crude oil price forecast in 2009 to $90 per barrel based on a global GDP growth forecast of 3 percent. Since then, our economists have revised their 2009 global GDP growth forecast down to 1.3 percent, a scenario consistent with a global recession.
"As a result, we are now lowering our average WTI and Brent crude oil price forecast to $50 per barrel for 2009."
It said the major downside risk to its price forecast would be a revision of economic growth assumptions for China, which are currently at 8.6 percent for next year.
"In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations," it said. "We now expect an outright contraction in global oil demand in 2009."
Mktg - One iPhone in Obama's tech arsenal(G.Read)
NEW YORK: The brains behind Barack Obama's Internet campaign revealed they had just one smartphone between them the day their unlikely high-tech
revolution began.
In a first public discussion since last month's historic election, new media director Joe Rospars, online director Scott Goodstein and blogging supremo Sam Graham-Felsen all referred to a "tidal wave" of online voter activism.
After the 2004 campaign of presidential hopeful Howard Dean pioneered the online political revolution, voters in this election cycle were ready to experiment.
Internet technology was rapidly developing, and with emerging tools such as networking site Twitter, Obama's long-shot bid for the presidency got underway.
"We were a very small organisation. It was just three of us," said Rospars -- who worked on Dean's influential Blog for America movement -- at the Alliance of Youth Movements conference in New York.
"Sam, I think, was the only one on the campaign that had an iPhone," Goodstein said. "I used to tease him."
From that humble start, the three whizzes went on to mastermind a campaign that put the first truly Internet-friendly president in the Oval Office.
They did this by embracing the gamut of new media tools, from YouTube to e-mail lists, from blogs to Facebook, and by putting an Obama platform on iPhones so that users could recruit contacts to the cause.
The result, says Micah Sifry, co-founder of politics blog TechPresident, was a "mass participation revolution" that appears set to continue after Obama is inaugurated on January 20.
The country was already ripe for putting politics online when Obama launched his fight for the Democratic nomination, then took on Republican J
ohn McCain.
Ninety per cent of people younger than 29 use the Internet, one in three Americans have posted a comment or rating, and one in five have posted something they created themselves, Sifry said.
The Obama team brilliantly exploited that culture, amassing 13 million email addresses, 3.95 million individual donors and 3.2 million friends on the Obama Facebook page.
Backers were encouraged to post photos, videos and opinions on mybarackobama.com, while armies of volunteers ensured that every message on the blog or on Facebook was answered.
High-tech innovations also allowed Obama's Web warriors to set new standards for the old political arts of tailoring messages and responding to attacks.
Mass emails were modified to reflect targets, depending on gender, age group, and location, right down to the neighborhood.
The rapid response unit blogged or posted YouTube videos "pretty much instantaneously" when an article or TV segment was deemed negative, Graham-Felsen said.
"If the McCain campaign put out an ad that had inaccuracies in it, say on tax policy, I'd run over to our deputy economic policy advisor, take my video or have him film himself, and we'd put it on YouTube and instantly rebut," he said.
Obama has made clear he wants to continue his e-connection to the people as president, using YouTube to broadcast addresses, allowing debate on his transition site change.org, and maintaining a steady flow of mass emails to supporters.
Goodstein said that new media is in politics to stay. "I think the cat's out of the bag."
revolution began.
In a first public discussion since last month's historic election, new media director Joe Rospars, online director Scott Goodstein and blogging supremo Sam Graham-Felsen all referred to a "tidal wave" of online voter activism.
After the 2004 campaign of presidential hopeful Howard Dean pioneered the online political revolution, voters in this election cycle were ready to experiment.
Internet technology was rapidly developing, and with emerging tools such as networking site Twitter, Obama's long-shot bid for the presidency got underway.
"We were a very small organisation. It was just three of us," said Rospars -- who worked on Dean's influential Blog for America movement -- at the Alliance of Youth Movements conference in New York.
"Sam, I think, was the only one on the campaign that had an iPhone," Goodstein said. "I used to tease him."
From that humble start, the three whizzes went on to mastermind a campaign that put the first truly Internet-friendly president in the Oval Office.
They did this by embracing the gamut of new media tools, from YouTube to e-mail lists, from blogs to Facebook, and by putting an Obama platform on iPhones so that users could recruit contacts to the cause.
The result, says Micah Sifry, co-founder of politics blog TechPresident, was a "mass participation revolution" that appears set to continue after Obama is inaugurated on January 20.
The country was already ripe for putting politics online when Obama launched his fight for the Democratic nomination, then took on Republican J
ohn McCain.
Ninety per cent of people younger than 29 use the Internet, one in three Americans have posted a comment or rating, and one in five have posted something they created themselves, Sifry said.
The Obama team brilliantly exploited that culture, amassing 13 million email addresses, 3.95 million individual donors and 3.2 million friends on the Obama Facebook page.
Backers were encouraged to post photos, videos and opinions on mybarackobama.com, while armies of volunteers ensured that every message on the blog or on Facebook was answered.
High-tech innovations also allowed Obama's Web warriors to set new standards for the old political arts of tailoring messages and responding to attacks.
Mass emails were modified to reflect targets, depending on gender, age group, and location, right down to the neighborhood.
The rapid response unit blogged or posted YouTube videos "pretty much instantaneously" when an article or TV segment was deemed negative, Graham-Felsen said.
"If the McCain campaign put out an ad that had inaccuracies in it, say on tax policy, I'd run over to our deputy economic policy advisor, take my video or have him film himself, and we'd put it on YouTube and instantly rebut," he said.
Obama has made clear he wants to continue his e-connection to the people as president, using YouTube to broadcast addresses, allowing debate on his transition site change.org, and maintaining a steady flow of mass emails to supporters.
Goodstein said that new media is in politics to stay. "I think the cat's out of the bag."
World - Zimbabwe to introduce 200 million dollar note
HARARE: Inflation-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200 million dollar note just days after a 100 million dollar note came into circulation, 10 nations with high inflation
the government announced on Saturday.
The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent.
On Thursday the central bank introduced 100 million, 50 million and 10 million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies.
The 100 million dollar note is worth only about 14 US dollars, and its value erodes by the day.
Cash can now only be withdrawn once a week from banks, according to the latest measures by the central bank.
Ordinary people can withdraw 100 million dollars a week while companies are permitted to withdraw 50 million dollars.
Prices of basic goods and services rose sharply on Thursday when the 100 million dollar note was introduced.
Long queues in banks and cash shortages are commonplace in Zimbabwe as people take hours to withdraw money which is still not enough to see them through the day.
The 100,000 banknote is worth only one US dollar on the widely-used parallel black market and is only half the amount needed to buy a loaf of bread.
Zimbabwe's political leaders are currently deadlocked over who should control key ministries in a power-sharing deal brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after March elections thrust the country into crisis.
Once the region's breadbasket, the country is facing widespread food shortages while cholera has killed 575 people, the UN said on Friday.
the government announced on Saturday.
The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent.
On Thursday the central bank introduced 100 million, 50 million and 10 million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies.
The 100 million dollar note is worth only about 14 US dollars, and its value erodes by the day.
Cash can now only be withdrawn once a week from banks, according to the latest measures by the central bank.
Ordinary people can withdraw 100 million dollars a week while companies are permitted to withdraw 50 million dollars.
Prices of basic goods and services rose sharply on Thursday when the 100 million dollar note was introduced.
Long queues in banks and cash shortages are commonplace in Zimbabwe as people take hours to withdraw money which is still not enough to see them through the day.
The 100,000 banknote is worth only one US dollar on the widely-used parallel black market and is only half the amount needed to buy a loaf of bread.
Zimbabwe's political leaders are currently deadlocked over who should control key ministries in a power-sharing deal brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after March elections thrust the country into crisis.
Once the region's breadbasket, the country is facing widespread food shortages while cholera has killed 575 people, the UN said on Friday.
Columnists - Barkha Dutt;Don't shoot the messenger
This time, this too shall not pass. And that’s the good part. The anger after the attacks in Mumbai is inflammable enough to start a fire. But as India demands answers, action and accountability, should we pause and wonder, for just a second, what sort of house we want to build on the ashes of this cathartic blaze?
All this rage and the energy of an enlightened citizenry will end up exhausting itself if not directed at specific ideas for change. So, while we demand the ouster of politicians, we need to look beyond the sense of easy power that it gives us and ask where we go from here. Will we learn our lessons or will the headlines lapse till the next attack, and the next?
The real tragedy of Mumbai is that we now know for sure that more lives could have been saved had the system not been bogged down by inertia, red tape and turf wars. What sort of country does not give its National Security Guard (NSG) commandos — iconic heroes for a new India — even one dedicated airc-raft? It is criminal that a proposal to this effect gathered cobwebs for three years. How do we explain that specific intercepts on a naval invasion (as first reported in HT) were ignored and are now dismissed as inputs that were not “actionable?” It is embarrassing to watch multiple agencies compete in public to defend themselves — leaving us feeling even more vulnerable than before. And the worst part is the horrible, horrible sense of déjà vu.
Nine years ago, when India emerged victorious from a conflict in Kargil, many of the same questions were asked. How had Pakistani infiltrators made their way 8 kilometers inside our territory? When would we have a centralised security apparatus that would end the internal bickering? When would our Army get the snowshoes and night-vision devices that are mandatory for any fighting force? In 2008, we are asking the same questions all over again as we wonder about the quality of the bullet-proof vests that failed to protect many bravehearts. It shocks us to know that four different reports submitted back then as part of a national security overhaul still await full implementation. It’s almost too painful to remember that the border management report had admitted that coastal security needed modern technology and infrastructure and even proposed a unified maritime agency. In 2001, a group of ministers approved all four reports on the intelligence apparatus, internal security, border management and higher management of defence. Yet, here we are, back at the drawing board.
These are the questions that we should be demanding answers to. Rage has to find a specific syntax so that it does not get lost in the anarchy of anger. Rage, for example, must not become an excuse for targeting another religious community.
Some of that rage has been directed at the media as well. And yes, one of the lessons that are still waiting to be learnt is that you need a centrally co-ordinated information dissemination system in place when such crises erupt. We admire our armed forces, but most of us were stunned when the Navy, while dismissing questions on intelligence inputs, held the media as a “disabling force”. Some people have raised questions about why we had to report on an ongoing operation. Many of the allegations are untrue and a case of shooting the messenger. Here are the cold facts: the security cordon on the site of encounters was determined by officials and was respected by journalists at all times. Had anyone asked us to retreat or switch off our cameras for tactical reasons, we would have done so.
In fact, we would have had no option but to consent. But even while the operations were on, we were briefed, on record, and off camera by multiple agencies, including at a press conference by the Navy’s marine commandos that was telecast live with their permission. Daily briefings by a central point of contact would have reduced any inadvertent confusion thrown up by media coverage. And yes, maybe the media did make some unwitting mistakes as did almost everyone involved in dealing with a terrorist attack of the kind India has never seen before. But the NSG thanked the media; the commandos called in to tell us they finally have their dedicated aircraft and the Home Ministry’s Special Secretary also complimented the media. So, how is it that some people are suddenly trying to push us on the other side of the enemy line?
I received a text message from a young woman whose brother died inside the Oberoi Hotel. She talks about how she is determined to find the strength to fight back. She also thanks journalists for giving her a sense that she could share what she was going through when it all felt frightening and isolating. Television, this past week, has tried to provide a larger sense of community to a city in grief. It may surprise some readers but many of those who had families trapped inside the two hotels wanted to talk. They wanted to express their pain, anger, grief, fear and sometimes hope. Of course, the privacy of those who wanted to retreat into solitude was respected at all times. But there were scores of others — both survivors and victims — who wanted to share. And we believe we tried our best to tell their stories.
The truth is that in the weeks and months to come, we’ll have much to learn from a week that could transform India forever. For starters, we need to find a language in which dialogue is possible without malice, hatred and communal prejudice. Otherwise, we shall lose the India we love. And the terrorists would have won.
Barkha Dutt is Group Editor, English News, NDTV
All this rage and the energy of an enlightened citizenry will end up exhausting itself if not directed at specific ideas for change. So, while we demand the ouster of politicians, we need to look beyond the sense of easy power that it gives us and ask where we go from here. Will we learn our lessons or will the headlines lapse till the next attack, and the next?
The real tragedy of Mumbai is that we now know for sure that more lives could have been saved had the system not been bogged down by inertia, red tape and turf wars. What sort of country does not give its National Security Guard (NSG) commandos — iconic heroes for a new India — even one dedicated airc-raft? It is criminal that a proposal to this effect gathered cobwebs for three years. How do we explain that specific intercepts on a naval invasion (as first reported in HT) were ignored and are now dismissed as inputs that were not “actionable?” It is embarrassing to watch multiple agencies compete in public to defend themselves — leaving us feeling even more vulnerable than before. And the worst part is the horrible, horrible sense of déjà vu.
Nine years ago, when India emerged victorious from a conflict in Kargil, many of the same questions were asked. How had Pakistani infiltrators made their way 8 kilometers inside our territory? When would we have a centralised security apparatus that would end the internal bickering? When would our Army get the snowshoes and night-vision devices that are mandatory for any fighting force? In 2008, we are asking the same questions all over again as we wonder about the quality of the bullet-proof vests that failed to protect many bravehearts. It shocks us to know that four different reports submitted back then as part of a national security overhaul still await full implementation. It’s almost too painful to remember that the border management report had admitted that coastal security needed modern technology and infrastructure and even proposed a unified maritime agency. In 2001, a group of ministers approved all four reports on the intelligence apparatus, internal security, border management and higher management of defence. Yet, here we are, back at the drawing board.
These are the questions that we should be demanding answers to. Rage has to find a specific syntax so that it does not get lost in the anarchy of anger. Rage, for example, must not become an excuse for targeting another religious community.
Some of that rage has been directed at the media as well. And yes, one of the lessons that are still waiting to be learnt is that you need a centrally co-ordinated information dissemination system in place when such crises erupt. We admire our armed forces, but most of us were stunned when the Navy, while dismissing questions on intelligence inputs, held the media as a “disabling force”. Some people have raised questions about why we had to report on an ongoing operation. Many of the allegations are untrue and a case of shooting the messenger. Here are the cold facts: the security cordon on the site of encounters was determined by officials and was respected by journalists at all times. Had anyone asked us to retreat or switch off our cameras for tactical reasons, we would have done so.
In fact, we would have had no option but to consent. But even while the operations were on, we were briefed, on record, and off camera by multiple agencies, including at a press conference by the Navy’s marine commandos that was telecast live with their permission. Daily briefings by a central point of contact would have reduced any inadvertent confusion thrown up by media coverage. And yes, maybe the media did make some unwitting mistakes as did almost everyone involved in dealing with a terrorist attack of the kind India has never seen before. But the NSG thanked the media; the commandos called in to tell us they finally have their dedicated aircraft and the Home Ministry’s Special Secretary also complimented the media. So, how is it that some people are suddenly trying to push us on the other side of the enemy line?
I received a text message from a young woman whose brother died inside the Oberoi Hotel. She talks about how she is determined to find the strength to fight back. She also thanks journalists for giving her a sense that she could share what she was going through when it all felt frightening and isolating. Television, this past week, has tried to provide a larger sense of community to a city in grief. It may surprise some readers but many of those who had families trapped inside the two hotels wanted to talk. They wanted to express their pain, anger, grief, fear and sometimes hope. Of course, the privacy of those who wanted to retreat into solitude was respected at all times. But there were scores of others — both survivors and victims — who wanted to share. And we believe we tried our best to tell their stories.
The truth is that in the weeks and months to come, we’ll have much to learn from a week that could transform India forever. For starters, we need to find a language in which dialogue is possible without malice, hatred and communal prejudice. Otherwise, we shall lose the India we love. And the terrorists would have won.
Barkha Dutt is Group Editor, English News, NDTV
Columnists - Khushwant Singh
I was reading Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals for the second time. It’s a highly readable series of essays on the role of intellectuals in Europe and the United States. The writings of some of them like Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, Jean-Paul Sartre and Bertrand Russell had a profound and lasting effect on generations of Europeans and Americans. India also produced intellects like Rammohun Roy, Sri Aurobindo and M.N. Roy. It has also some highly educated and perceptive thinkers today. But their impact on Indian society has been, and is, marginal. Why ?
I can assign two reasons for the failure of our intellectuals to change society. One is that all of them wrote in English that barely 10 per cent of educated Indians can read and comprehend. The masses never get to know about them. The second, and the more important factor in isolating intellectuals was, and is, the fact that the vast majority of our countrymen look up to their gurus or godmen for guidance because they speak their language.
It is oral and not written communication. Gurus have massive following but their learning is limited to churning out accepted religious concepts unaffected by occidental learning. Most of their pravachans (lectures) are accompanied by hymn singing and at times dancing in ecstasy. Their congregations return to their homes contented and at peace with themselves because they do not have to wrestle with new ideas. That is why caste distinctions persist, foeticide is widely practised and we continue to breed at a suicidal rate. Our gurus never deal with such social problems.
I am not sure if my reading of the ineffectiveness of Indian intellectuals in changing social attitudes is correct. I hope to have readers’ reactions.
I can assign two reasons for the failure of our intellectuals to change society. One is that all of them wrote in English that barely 10 per cent of educated Indians can read and comprehend. The masses never get to know about them. The second, and the more important factor in isolating intellectuals was, and is, the fact that the vast majority of our countrymen look up to their gurus or godmen for guidance because they speak their language.
It is oral and not written communication. Gurus have massive following but their learning is limited to churning out accepted religious concepts unaffected by occidental learning. Most of their pravachans (lectures) are accompanied by hymn singing and at times dancing in ecstasy. Their congregations return to their homes contented and at peace with themselves because they do not have to wrestle with new ideas. That is why caste distinctions persist, foeticide is widely practised and we continue to breed at a suicidal rate. Our gurus never deal with such social problems.
I am not sure if my reading of the ineffectiveness of Indian intellectuals in changing social attitudes is correct. I hope to have readers’ reactions.
World - US confirms Pakistan role in Mumbai attacks
NEW DELHI: The United States has confirmed to India that Pakistan's military and intelligence chiefs have effectively admitted that the terrorists
involved in last weeks terror attacks in Mumbai were Pakistani nationals and members of terrorist outfit the Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a Times Now report. ( Watch )
Chairman of US joint chiefs of staff admiral Michael Mullen made the revelations to national security advisor MK Narayanan and defence minister AK Antony.
Mullen told Indian government officials that he had told Pakistan that the US had evidence that the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks were Pakistani nationals and members of LeT.
Earlier, Mullen had asked Pakistan's top leadership to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan", the US embassy said in a statement.
While taking note of the recent success of Pakistani security forces in operations against militants on the Afghan border, Mullen "also encouraged Pakistani leaders to take more and more concerted action against militant extremists elsewhere in the country", the statement said.
India has blamed Pakistan-based elements, including the outlawed Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, for carrying out the attacks and asked Pakistani authorities to act against them.
President Zardari has denied Pakistan's involvement in the attacks and called on India to furnish evidence to substantiate its accusations.
Pakistani media reported that Zardari and other leaders told Mullen that Pakistan is not involved in any way in the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is ready to cooperate in the probe into the attacks provided India shares evidence with it, they said.
The US is concerned about the impact of tensions on the war on terror as Pakistan has threatened to divert troops from the Afghan border to the frontier with India if the situation worsens.
Pakistan is a key supply route for US troops in Afghanistan. American officials also fear that the diversion of troops from the Afghan border could fuel cross-border raids by the Pakistani Taliban.
involved in last weeks terror attacks in Mumbai were Pakistani nationals and members of terrorist outfit the Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a Times Now report. ( Watch )
Chairman of US joint chiefs of staff admiral Michael Mullen made the revelations to national security advisor MK Narayanan and defence minister AK Antony.
Mullen told Indian government officials that he had told Pakistan that the US had evidence that the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks were Pakistani nationals and members of LeT.
Earlier, Mullen had asked Pakistan's top leadership to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan", the US embassy said in a statement.
While taking note of the recent success of Pakistani security forces in operations against militants on the Afghan border, Mullen "also encouraged Pakistani leaders to take more and more concerted action against militant extremists elsewhere in the country", the statement said.
India has blamed Pakistan-based elements, including the outlawed Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, for carrying out the attacks and asked Pakistani authorities to act against them.
President Zardari has denied Pakistan's involvement in the attacks and called on India to furnish evidence to substantiate its accusations.
Pakistani media reported that Zardari and other leaders told Mullen that Pakistan is not involved in any way in the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is ready to cooperate in the probe into the attacks provided India shares evidence with it, they said.
The US is concerned about the impact of tensions on the war on terror as Pakistan has threatened to divert troops from the Afghan border to the frontier with India if the situation worsens.
Pakistan is a key supply route for US troops in Afghanistan. American officials also fear that the diversion of troops from the Afghan border could fuel cross-border raids by the Pakistani Taliban.
India - Pigeons fly back to their Taj Nest
Rajiv Sharma
MUMBAI: Thousands of pigeons that had disappeared from their usual feeding spot outside the Taj Hotel following the recent terror attacks, have been
making a gradual comeback due to the efforts by animal activists.
According to Arvind Shah from Karuna, an NGO, at least 15,000 pigeons used to come to this spot to feed. "These grains were mostly provided by tourists and the general public who used to visit this area on a regular basis,'' he said.
However, the firing at the hotel scared the birds away. "The sound of crackers and gunfire is almost the same. Pigeons and other birds are scared of such noises,'' Shah said. With no food available in the area anymore, these birds were only flying around.
On Friday morning, animal activists managed to persuade the police to allow them to put birdseed outside the hotel. "We managed to put around 80 kg of grains, which would last a couple of days. This would help bring the birds back,'' he said.
People visiting the area, too, kept food for the birds. Akash Mehta, a visitor, said even animals like stray dogs were affected by the firing.
MUMBAI: Thousands of pigeons that had disappeared from their usual feeding spot outside the Taj Hotel following the recent terror attacks, have been
making a gradual comeback due to the efforts by animal activists.
According to Arvind Shah from Karuna, an NGO, at least 15,000 pigeons used to come to this spot to feed. "These grains were mostly provided by tourists and the general public who used to visit this area on a regular basis,'' he said.
However, the firing at the hotel scared the birds away. "The sound of crackers and gunfire is almost the same. Pigeons and other birds are scared of such noises,'' Shah said. With no food available in the area anymore, these birds were only flying around.
On Friday morning, animal activists managed to persuade the police to allow them to put birdseed outside the hotel. "We managed to put around 80 kg of grains, which would last a couple of days. This would help bring the birds back,'' he said.
People visiting the area, too, kept food for the birds. Akash Mehta, a visitor, said even animals like stray dogs were affected by the firing.
Science - Method to estimate time of death ?
WASHINGTON: Scientists have proposed a new method to estimate the approximate time of death, based on the analysis of several substances from the
vitreous humour of the eye of cadavers.
A team at the University of Santiago de Compostela has developed a piece of software which in fact makes it possible to establish precisely the post mortem interval, information that will make the work of police easier, the 'Statistics in Medicine' journal reported.
To apply this technique, the researchers analysed potassium, urea and hypoxantine concentrations present in the vitreous humour of the eye of the human cadaver, and then introduced the figures into a computer programme.
Subsequently, the software that has been invented by these Galician scientists uses this information and is capable of establishing the time at which death occurred.
"The equations we have developed now make it possible for us to estimate the PMI more precisely than before, and provide a useful and accessible tool to forensic pathologists that is easy to use," Jos Ignacio Munoz Bars, who led the team, was quoted by the 'ScienceDaily' as saying.
The traditional techniques for estimating the PMI are based on the study of parameters such as rectal temperature of the cadaver or one of the organs, such as the liver, in rigor mortis, or post mortem lividity examination.
These methods are complemented by biochemical analyses of the body fluids. One of these is the vitreous humour, the gelatinous liquid that is found behind the crystalline lens of the eye.
vitreous humour of the eye of cadavers.
A team at the University of Santiago de Compostela has developed a piece of software which in fact makes it possible to establish precisely the post mortem interval, information that will make the work of police easier, the 'Statistics in Medicine' journal reported.
To apply this technique, the researchers analysed potassium, urea and hypoxantine concentrations present in the vitreous humour of the eye of the human cadaver, and then introduced the figures into a computer programme.
Subsequently, the software that has been invented by these Galician scientists uses this information and is capable of establishing the time at which death occurred.
"The equations we have developed now make it possible for us to estimate the PMI more precisely than before, and provide a useful and accessible tool to forensic pathologists that is easy to use," Jos Ignacio Munoz Bars, who led the team, was quoted by the 'ScienceDaily' as saying.
The traditional techniques for estimating the PMI are based on the study of parameters such as rectal temperature of the cadaver or one of the organs, such as the liver, in rigor mortis, or post mortem lividity examination.
These methods are complemented by biochemical analyses of the body fluids. One of these is the vitreous humour, the gelatinous liquid that is found behind the crystalline lens of the eye.
Lifestyle - Liplock is latest fad
Me - Have posted this article a few months back.
According to a British daily, London Fashion Week and awards ceremony functions were rife with the highly intimate kisses. “On the party scene, air kissing – that horrible ‘ mwaah, mwaah’ used by the kind of people who know your job title and dress size but forget your name – is out,” the paper said.
“Instead, there’s a far worse social plague doing the rounds: being kissed on the mouth,” the paper added. Australian body language expert Allan Pease, who has been lip-kissed by a stranger twice in recent weeks, said that the new trend was fast catching on. “I don’t know where it started but it’s certainly catching on. It’s big in Britain and it’s filtering through here too,” an Australian newspaper quoted Pease as saying.
Pease, who wrote The Definitive Book Of Body Language with his wife Barbara, said: “We’re definitely becoming more comfortable with our sexuality. While the origin of human mouth kissing was for force feeding your babies – whereby the mother would masticate her food and put it into her baby’s mouth with her tongue – the primary purpose these days of kissing on the lips is to stimulate the libido. Lip kissers might deny it, but it has to be sexual,” he added.
However, British behavioural expert Judi James disagrees with Pease’s views. “It’s not a sexual thing: there is increasing evidence of it between parents and sons and daughters, as well as heterosexual men,” she said. “It’s more about fast-tracking bonding and empathy,” she added.
Australian social etiquette coach June Dally-Watkins is horrified with the latest fad. “No. No. No. I’m not for that,” she said. “It’s far too intimate. I think it’s wrong. And I don’t think it’s healthy. My lips are special. Precious. Not even my children or grandchildren do I kiss on the lips. It should be reserved absolutely for that one special person.”
According to a British daily, London Fashion Week and awards ceremony functions were rife with the highly intimate kisses. “On the party scene, air kissing – that horrible ‘ mwaah, mwaah’ used by the kind of people who know your job title and dress size but forget your name – is out,” the paper said.
“Instead, there’s a far worse social plague doing the rounds: being kissed on the mouth,” the paper added. Australian body language expert Allan Pease, who has been lip-kissed by a stranger twice in recent weeks, said that the new trend was fast catching on. “I don’t know where it started but it’s certainly catching on. It’s big in Britain and it’s filtering through here too,” an Australian newspaper quoted Pease as saying.
Pease, who wrote The Definitive Book Of Body Language with his wife Barbara, said: “We’re definitely becoming more comfortable with our sexuality. While the origin of human mouth kissing was for force feeding your babies – whereby the mother would masticate her food and put it into her baby’s mouth with her tongue – the primary purpose these days of kissing on the lips is to stimulate the libido. Lip kissers might deny it, but it has to be sexual,” he added.
However, British behavioural expert Judi James disagrees with Pease’s views. “It’s not a sexual thing: there is increasing evidence of it between parents and sons and daughters, as well as heterosexual men,” she said. “It’s more about fast-tracking bonding and empathy,” she added.
Australian social etiquette coach June Dally-Watkins is horrified with the latest fad. “No. No. No. I’m not for that,” she said. “It’s far too intimate. I think it’s wrong. And I don’t think it’s healthy. My lips are special. Precious. Not even my children or grandchildren do I kiss on the lips. It should be reserved absolutely for that one special person.”
Tech - Top 10 free iPhone Apps
Pandora Radio
The most popular free app on iPhone is Pandora Radio. Pandora Radio is users own free personalised radio available to stream music on their iPhone. Just start with the name of one of your favourite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora promises to create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it.
Pandora users on the Web can just log in. Pandora on the iPhone is fully integrated with Pandora on the Web. Users can listen to their existing stations -- and create new ones right from their iPhone or iPod Touch.
Facebook
The second most popular free app on iPhone in 2008 was Facebook, which reportedly completed 1 million downloads in August this year. Termed as the pairing of the two most-hyped tech products of the year, Facebook released iPhone-customised website in August 2007.
The site uses javascript to avoid page refreshes, although there is still some lag in moving around the site. The main navigation tabs -- Home, Profile, Friends and Inbox -- are at the top of the site. Click on any person and see their profile, wall or photos via a horizontally scrolling interface.
Facebook is a social network that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
Tap Tap Revenge
Tap Tap Revenge is a music game in the tradition of Guitar Hero or Revolution that puts user's rhythmic skills to the test in all-new ways. Tap through the beats or shake left and right as the arrows fall.
Download exclusive tracks or take on your friends in Tap Tap Revenge's unique head-to-head two-player mode. Tap Tap Revenge comes with more than 40 free songs! The game was originally created by Nate True for hacked iPhones. Tapulous bought the game from True and added a number of features, like the two player mode.
Tapulous, which hired a team of "all-star" developers to create applications, raised $1.8 million in capital from a number of high profile angel investors. Tapulous launched in January of this year with the goal of crafting applications exclusively for iPhones and iPod Touch devices, which are essentially iPhones without the mobile telephone feature.
Shazam
The concept behind Shazam is: whenever a user hears a song playing and can't identify it -- on the car FM or at a friend's house, just activate the Shazam application on his mobile phone. It "listens" to the song for about 30 seconds, and then sends a text message to the phone identifying the artist and title. Shazam's database contains audio fingerprints for nearly 5 million songs.
Downloading Shazam from the Apple App Store is free. No charges are mentioned in the terms see, but the company reserves the right to begin charging for its service later (after notifying users).
Labyrinth Lite edition
Labyrinth was one of the first iPhone apps to offer a light version of the game for people to play before coughing out cash for the full version. The game utilises the accelerometer to allow users the ability to tilt and move their iPhone in an attempt to guide a metal ball bearing to its end goal.
Along the way, there are pieces of the maze that stick out and block your path, pegs to keep you from sliding through a short cut, and plenty of holes that will bring you to the beginning of the maze.
Labyrinth is said to respond well to every slight tilt and turn, but users can't quite get the same effect out of nudging it that they can with the actual puzzle.
Once a user beats a level, he moves on and tries another. There are 10 levels to try in the free version.
Remote
Sixth most popular iPhone app of the year 2008 is Remote. Remote is a software application for iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to control audio and video playback in their iTunes library and on Apple TV.
When users first launch the Remote application on their iPhone or iPod touch, they need to complete a one-time pairing procedure to choose which iPhone or iPod touch controls which Apple TV or which copy of iTunes. When controlling an Apple TV or iTunes using Remote, user's iPhone or iPod touch's screen looks much like the mobile version of iTunes.
At the bottom of the screen are Playlist, Artists, Albums, Search, and More buttons; the latter displays a screen with Audiobooks, Composers, Genres, Movies, Music Videos, Podcasts, Songs, and TV Shows.
A neat feature in Remote which is not available in iTunes on the iPhone or iPod touch is Search. Users just need to Tap a few letters and they instantly get a list of all content-- artist names, tracks, movies, etc -- containing the search phrase. Tap on a track or video to play it, or tap on an artist or album to browse its contents. Remote also remembers the user's last search, so the user doesn't lose his results when he switches to another screen.
Google Earth
Google Earth came to iPhone as recently as October 2008, yet the free app has made its place in the top 10 free iPhone apps of 2008.
With Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch, users can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world's population and a third of the world's land mass.
With Google Earth for iPhone, users can tilt their iPhone to adjust the view to see mountainous terrain. View the Panoramio layer and browse the millions of geo-located photos from around the world.
View geo-located Wikipedia articles, use the 'Location' feature to fly to their current location and search for cities, places and business around the globe with Google Local Search.
Lightsaber Unleashed
Lightsaber Unleashed is the official release from Lucasfilm Ltd. When users open the application they are taken to what looks like an ad for another StarWars game.
After selecting Lightsaber user is taken to a screen that allows him to either select one of the five characters or create his own. The five characters include Darth Vader, Rahm Kota, Maris Brood, The Apprentice and Shaak Ti. Users can view a full screen picture of their character as well as read a bio about them. The colour of their Lightsaber is displayed as a shadow to their picture.
Users can select their Name, Character Picture, Custom Lightsaber and Even write a Bio for them. Lightsaber customisation too is simple, just choose one of five handles and then scroll the colors till you have get the desired shade.
The application is quite entertaining. It also allows users to play StarWars music in the background as they wield their Lightsaber
AIM
AIM too makes its place among the ten most popular free apps pf 2008. Launched in early 2008, the software allows users to chat over the AIM network, switch among conversations, and upload user profile photos. It is the first `official' native Web chat application for iPhone.
With AOL's AIM chat application, iPhone users can: Send and receive messages over WiFi, EDGE, or 3G networks; connect to anyone on the AIM network worldwide, whether they're on AOL, AIM, ICQ, .mac or MobileMe; manage their Buddy List feature, choose Favorites, or add a new buddy any time -- all changes are automatically synced with iChat; and Send IMs and SMS text messages and take pictures with the built-in camera to use as their Buddy icon.
Urbanspoon
Another big hit on iPhone, the application provides users with many local options when choosing a restaurant.
Designed to find restaurants around, based on the user's location, it finds nearby cities, and a diverse pool of restaurants to choose from.
After using the phone's GPS to detect restaurants in the area, Urbanspoon presents the user with a slot machine-like listing of cuisine types and price.
To activate the slot machine, user needs to give the phone a hard shake (the accelerometers inside the phone will measure the movement). The dials will spin around a few times, and he will be presented with a suggested restaurant (you can shake again if you’re not happy with the option thrown. Urbanspoon also lists recent reviews of the restaurants it finds.
The most popular free app on iPhone is Pandora Radio. Pandora Radio is users own free personalised radio available to stream music on their iPhone. Just start with the name of one of your favourite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora promises to create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it.
Pandora users on the Web can just log in. Pandora on the iPhone is fully integrated with Pandora on the Web. Users can listen to their existing stations -- and create new ones right from their iPhone or iPod Touch.
The second most popular free app on iPhone in 2008 was Facebook, which reportedly completed 1 million downloads in August this year. Termed as the pairing of the two most-hyped tech products of the year, Facebook released iPhone-customised website in August 2007.
The site uses javascript to avoid page refreshes, although there is still some lag in moving around the site. The main navigation tabs -- Home, Profile, Friends and Inbox -- are at the top of the site. Click on any person and see their profile, wall or photos via a horizontally scrolling interface.
Facebook is a social network that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
Tap Tap Revenge
Tap Tap Revenge is a music game in the tradition of Guitar Hero or Revolution that puts user's rhythmic skills to the test in all-new ways. Tap through the beats or shake left and right as the arrows fall.
Download exclusive tracks or take on your friends in Tap Tap Revenge's unique head-to-head two-player mode. Tap Tap Revenge comes with more than 40 free songs! The game was originally created by Nate True for hacked iPhones. Tapulous bought the game from True and added a number of features, like the two player mode.
Tapulous, which hired a team of "all-star" developers to create applications, raised $1.8 million in capital from a number of high profile angel investors. Tapulous launched in January of this year with the goal of crafting applications exclusively for iPhones and iPod Touch devices, which are essentially iPhones without the mobile telephone feature.
Shazam
The concept behind Shazam is: whenever a user hears a song playing and can't identify it -- on the car FM or at a friend's house, just activate the Shazam application on his mobile phone. It "listens" to the song for about 30 seconds, and then sends a text message to the phone identifying the artist and title. Shazam's database contains audio fingerprints for nearly 5 million songs.
Downloading Shazam from the Apple App Store is free. No charges are mentioned in the terms see, but the company reserves the right to begin charging for its service later (after notifying users).
Labyrinth Lite edition
Labyrinth was one of the first iPhone apps to offer a light version of the game for people to play before coughing out cash for the full version. The game utilises the accelerometer to allow users the ability to tilt and move their iPhone in an attempt to guide a metal ball bearing to its end goal.
Along the way, there are pieces of the maze that stick out and block your path, pegs to keep you from sliding through a short cut, and plenty of holes that will bring you to the beginning of the maze.
Labyrinth is said to respond well to every slight tilt and turn, but users can't quite get the same effect out of nudging it that they can with the actual puzzle.
Once a user beats a level, he moves on and tries another. There are 10 levels to try in the free version.
Remote
Sixth most popular iPhone app of the year 2008 is Remote. Remote is a software application for iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to control audio and video playback in their iTunes library and on Apple TV.
When users first launch the Remote application on their iPhone or iPod touch, they need to complete a one-time pairing procedure to choose which iPhone or iPod touch controls which Apple TV or which copy of iTunes. When controlling an Apple TV or iTunes using Remote, user's iPhone or iPod touch's screen looks much like the mobile version of iTunes.
At the bottom of the screen are Playlist, Artists, Albums, Search, and More buttons; the latter displays a screen with Audiobooks, Composers, Genres, Movies, Music Videos, Podcasts, Songs, and TV Shows.
A neat feature in Remote which is not available in iTunes on the iPhone or iPod touch is Search. Users just need to Tap a few letters and they instantly get a list of all content-- artist names, tracks, movies, etc -- containing the search phrase. Tap on a track or video to play it, or tap on an artist or album to browse its contents. Remote also remembers the user's last search, so the user doesn't lose his results when he switches to another screen.
Google Earth
Google Earth came to iPhone as recently as October 2008, yet the free app has made its place in the top 10 free iPhone apps of 2008.
With Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch, users can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world's population and a third of the world's land mass.
With Google Earth for iPhone, users can tilt their iPhone to adjust the view to see mountainous terrain. View the Panoramio layer and browse the millions of geo-located photos from around the world.
View geo-located Wikipedia articles, use the 'Location' feature to fly to their current location and search for cities, places and business around the globe with Google Local Search.
Lightsaber Unleashed
Lightsaber Unleashed is the official release from Lucasfilm Ltd. When users open the application they are taken to what looks like an ad for another StarWars game.
After selecting Lightsaber user is taken to a screen that allows him to either select one of the five characters or create his own. The five characters include Darth Vader, Rahm Kota, Maris Brood, The Apprentice and Shaak Ti. Users can view a full screen picture of their character as well as read a bio about them. The colour of their Lightsaber is displayed as a shadow to their picture.
Users can select their Name, Character Picture, Custom Lightsaber and Even write a Bio for them. Lightsaber customisation too is simple, just choose one of five handles and then scroll the colors till you have get the desired shade.
The application is quite entertaining. It also allows users to play StarWars music in the background as they wield their Lightsaber
AIM
AIM too makes its place among the ten most popular free apps pf 2008. Launched in early 2008, the software allows users to chat over the AIM network, switch among conversations, and upload user profile photos. It is the first `official' native Web chat application for iPhone.
With AOL's AIM chat application, iPhone users can: Send and receive messages over WiFi, EDGE, or 3G networks; connect to anyone on the AIM network worldwide, whether they're on AOL, AIM, ICQ, .mac or MobileMe; manage their Buddy List feature, choose Favorites, or add a new buddy any time -- all changes are automatically synced with iChat; and Send IMs and SMS text messages and take pictures with the built-in camera to use as their Buddy icon.
Urbanspoon
Another big hit on iPhone, the application provides users with many local options when choosing a restaurant.
Designed to find restaurants around, based on the user's location, it finds nearby cities, and a diverse pool of restaurants to choose from.
After using the phone's GPS to detect restaurants in the area, Urbanspoon presents the user with a slot machine-like listing of cuisine types and price.
To activate the slot machine, user needs to give the phone a hard shake (the accelerometers inside the phone will measure the movement). The dials will spin around a few times, and he will be presented with a suggested restaurant (you can shake again if you’re not happy with the option thrown. Urbanspoon also lists recent reviews of the restaurants it finds.
Lifestyle - Top 10 common dreams and their meanings
Vaibhav Chaudhury
Dreams have always been a mystery to us. The Association for the Study of Dreams has revealed that the majority of us have dreams with similar Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
themes, and it is possible to gain better health (mental and physical), entertainment and even financial gains from such dreams.
A well known American psychic, Edgar Cayce claimed that through dreaming, people gain access to their spirit and all possible questions are answered by our inner conscious. Some dream interpretations are strange, while others are pretty understandable. We bring you ten most commonly experienced dreams to help you interpret their meaning within the context of your own life.
Car troubles
Description: This is a common nightmare among all ages, even for people who usually don't drive. In this dream, you are usually in or near a car or some other type of vehicle which goes out of control. The circumstances can vary, for example, you may find that you have no brakes, or that the steering wheel doesn't work, or that you have run out of fuel. You may also dream that you are going off the road, off a cliff, going through a red light, or crashing into an object or person. Vaibhav Jain, a sales manager with a leading telecom company, recalls "I don't remember my dreams. But a few years ago, when I was getting over a troubled relationship and going through an emotional turbulence, I used to have a recurring dream that I am driving a car and suddenly the brakes failed. It was an intense feeling."
Interpretation: A vehicle is the symbol of our life's path. This dream arises when things are not going well for you and you are unable to control the unpleasant events happening in your life. If the car in your dream has poor control or missing parts, it suggests that your sense of control over current conditions is being compromised. "A troubled car dream always means that you are going through a change - be it changing jobs or experiencing your first pregnancy," says Anuj Singh, a clinical psychologist.
Failing a test
Description: This dream is often seen by those who have been out of school for a long time. In this dream you are prevented from passing a test in diverse circumstances. In one scenario, you find that you are unprepared to undergo the test either because you have not prepared for it or because you are missing the necessary equipments needed to sit for the exam. In another scenario you may find that you can't answer any of the questions or that the test is in some unknown language. You can also not complete the exam within the stipulated time or find that you are late in arriving at the exam hall. All these factors contribute to you failing this test. Monika Tomar, a content writer with a MNC, says, "I get this dream periodically. It's usually college and I've blown a class off for almost the entire semester and once the finals come I have to find a map and locate the room like it's my first day there."
Interpretation: Such dreams highlight your frustration and depression. It usually means that you are feeling tested in life and may experience the fear of not being accepted. It could even imply not being prepared to face challenges or not being good enough. You are worried that you are not making the grade and measuring up to other people's expectations. "To dream that you are taking an exam indicates that you are being put to the test or being scrutinised in some way. These dreams also suggest that you are feeling unprepared for a challenge. These dreams are not about the content of the test, but rather how you are feeling while taking the exam," explains Anuj.
Illness or dying Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
Description: A dream death is a moderately common nightmare and it involves deaths of famous people, your parents or children, a lover or even yourself. Occasionally, it occurs during the onset of an illness. According to American psychic, Edgar Cayce, when you dream about the accidental death of any person, that person's death symbolizes something in you that is no longer functioning. Manish Kumar, a senior engineer says, "I usually dream of goons breaking into my house and shooting at my father. I'm the only one who witnesses this in the dream"
Interpretation: This dream is related to your life and it means that you are emotionally hurt or are afraid of being hurt. "This dream may work as a warning for you to make you aware of an upcoming physical risk to yourself or a loved one. When it is someone else in the dream who dies, it can mean that you feel that part of yourself (that you see represented by that person) is also dead. It may also mean that you wish the person would go away or that you fear losing them," interprets Anuj.
Being chased
Description: Dreaming about being chased is also a commonly experienced nightmare. Most often the chaser in the dream is a monster or some person who is frightening; occasionally it may be an animal. Such dreams are not only horrifying and shocking, but often leave the dreamer with a lasting image of the dream. It is also worth noting that sometimes this dream is a replay of an actual event in your life. Atul Kulkerni, a student, says, "When I was young I used to have nightmares about being chased. Usually I was chased by two lions and I would be running away from them towards my house, but I could never reach the door no matter how hard I'd try."
Interpretation: This type of dream often results from stress. In this type of dream you feel frightened, attacked and in danger. If you dream of being chased by someone you know, this person is somehow contributing to your anxiety. If you dream of being chased by a stranger, it's possible that the stranger represents some aspect of yourself. "Running is an instinctive response to physical threats in our environment, therefore 'chase dreams' represent your way of coping with fear or stress. Instead of confronting the situation, you are running away and avoiding it", explains Anuj.
Bad or missing teeth
Description: Teeth dreams usually involve the discovery of extremely decayed or missing teeth in your own mouth. Common dream scenarios include having your teeth crumbling in your hands or your teeth falling out one by one with just a light tap. Priti Singh, a call centre executive, recalls, "Five years back, I would constantly dream about my teeth falling out. And not just falling: they actually crumble into much smaller pieces, and I end up spitting the pieces throughout my dream. I was seeing that dream so often that I actually went and talked to someone about it, and they told me it could mean that I wasn't feeling nurtured or loved by those around me."
Interpretation: What does it mean when we dream about missing teeth? At the most basic level it means that we are afraid of being looked upon as unattractive. At a deeper level, it can signify a fear of embarrassment or loss of power in real life. "Sadly, we live in a world where good looks are valued highly and our teeth play an important role in conveying that image. The dreams about your teeth reflect your anxiety about your appearance and how others perceive you. Another rationalization for falling teeth dream may be rooted in your fear of being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some specific situation", explains Anuj.
Falling or sinking
Description: We have all had falling dreams. This is the most common dream, and is sometimes accompanied by muscle jerks, which may jolt you awake. In such dreams we are usually falling through the air and are extremely frightened. Occasionally we may be sinking in water and in danger of drowning. Shradha Singh, customer care executive, says" I often dream that am floating or have the ability to levitate, sometimes with a great sense of power other times with powerlessness."
Interpretation: Dreams of falling often arise from the fear of losing control. A person who is having this dream is either insecure or lacks support in real life. If you have this dream you should evaluate your current situation and try to identify the problem. "Falling is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. Sometimes when we have these dreams, your whole body jerks or twitches and we wake up. This happens because falling or sinking dreams typically occur during the first stage of sleep and the dreams in this stage are often accompanied by muscle spasms of the arms, legs, and the whole body. This jerking action is part of an arousal mechanism that allows the sleeper to awaken and become alert and responsive to possible threats in the environment," says Dr. Anuj.
Missed a train, bus, boat or plane Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
Description: In this type of dream you are rushing to catch a bus, train, plane or other type of public transport, but you miss it generally by a fraction of second. You feel frustrated rather than afraid in these dreams. In a variation of this theme, you arrive very late for a performance in which you are supposed to participate and find that the event has already begun.
Interpretation: "Travel images often signify an emotional journey of discovery and this dream usually means that you have missed out on an important opportunity in your real life. This dream often occurs when you are struggling over an important decision", explains Dr. Anuj.
Faulty machinery
Description: In the faulty machinery dream you dream of trying to operate some mechanical equipment while it malfunctions. Many such dreams involve telephones, with the dreamer having trouble dialing, getting disconnected or making a faulty connection. It can involve a lost Internet connection or a jammed or broken machine. Abhishek Srivastava, a web developer, says "I dream about the faulty connection most often. I can never dial the right number or get hold of the person I am trying to reach"
Interpretation: "This dream means that you are losing touch with reality or that a part of your body or mind is not functioning properly. You can also have such dream when you are feeling anxious about making a connection with another person in real life," says Dr. Anuj.
Lost or trapped
Description: In this dream you try to find your way out of an unknown territory such as a forest, city streets, a large building or any other maze-like structure. Another way this dream plays out involves you being trapped, buried alive, caught in a web or unable to move for some other reason. Ankur Srivastava, a bank employee says, "One recurring dream is of being on my way somewhere and taking a shortcut through a building. This turns into an endless series of stairs and doors that lead nowhere."
Interpretation: Dreaming about getting lost is very common and will usually occur when you are not able to decide on how to react to a certain situation in real life. "This type of dream will usually carry an element of fear or of frustration and it usually means that you are trapped in real life and you are unable to make the right choice," interprets Dr. Anuj.
Dreaming nudity
Description: In this type of dream you are in a state of undress, partial undress or inappropriate dress. For example you have gone to work wearing pyjamas. Occasionally you are the witness of another person who is naked while you are clothed. This is often accompanied by feelings of embarrassment and shame, but occasionally with the feeling of pride or freedom. Kumar Mohit, a software engineer, recalls "When I was young the most recurring dream was that I went to school wearing only pajamas and I am surprised that I still remember it"
Interpretation: As with all the dreams, the emotional tone of this one is important to the meaning. The meaning of this dream is that you are feeling exposed, awkward or you are afraid that you have revealed too much of yourself to someone who is not trustworthy. An interesting fact about this type of dream is that it occurs much more frequently in people who are involved in a wedding ceremony or event management in their real life. "Getting humiliated at the realisation that you are walking around naked in public, is often a reflection of your vulnerability or shamefulness. Finding yourself naked at work or in a classroom suggests that you are unprepared for a project at work or school. But if you are proud of your nakedness and not embarrassed or ashamed then it symbolises your unrestricted freedom", explains Dr. Anuj.
Dreams have always been a mystery to us. The Association for the Study of Dreams has revealed that the majority of us have dreams with similar Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
themes, and it is possible to gain better health (mental and physical), entertainment and even financial gains from such dreams.
A well known American psychic, Edgar Cayce claimed that through dreaming, people gain access to their spirit and all possible questions are answered by our inner conscious. Some dream interpretations are strange, while others are pretty understandable. We bring you ten most commonly experienced dreams to help you interpret their meaning within the context of your own life.
Car troubles
Description: This is a common nightmare among all ages, even for people who usually don't drive. In this dream, you are usually in or near a car or some other type of vehicle which goes out of control. The circumstances can vary, for example, you may find that you have no brakes, or that the steering wheel doesn't work, or that you have run out of fuel. You may also dream that you are going off the road, off a cliff, going through a red light, or crashing into an object or person. Vaibhav Jain, a sales manager with a leading telecom company, recalls "I don't remember my dreams. But a few years ago, when I was getting over a troubled relationship and going through an emotional turbulence, I used to have a recurring dream that I am driving a car and suddenly the brakes failed. It was an intense feeling."
Interpretation: A vehicle is the symbol of our life's path. This dream arises when things are not going well for you and you are unable to control the unpleasant events happening in your life. If the car in your dream has poor control or missing parts, it suggests that your sense of control over current conditions is being compromised. "A troubled car dream always means that you are going through a change - be it changing jobs or experiencing your first pregnancy," says Anuj Singh, a clinical psychologist.
Failing a test
Description: This dream is often seen by those who have been out of school for a long time. In this dream you are prevented from passing a test in diverse circumstances. In one scenario, you find that you are unprepared to undergo the test either because you have not prepared for it or because you are missing the necessary equipments needed to sit for the exam. In another scenario you may find that you can't answer any of the questions or that the test is in some unknown language. You can also not complete the exam within the stipulated time or find that you are late in arriving at the exam hall. All these factors contribute to you failing this test. Monika Tomar, a content writer with a MNC, says, "I get this dream periodically. It's usually college and I've blown a class off for almost the entire semester and once the finals come I have to find a map and locate the room like it's my first day there."
Interpretation: Such dreams highlight your frustration and depression. It usually means that you are feeling tested in life and may experience the fear of not being accepted. It could even imply not being prepared to face challenges or not being good enough. You are worried that you are not making the grade and measuring up to other people's expectations. "To dream that you are taking an exam indicates that you are being put to the test or being scrutinised in some way. These dreams also suggest that you are feeling unprepared for a challenge. These dreams are not about the content of the test, but rather how you are feeling while taking the exam," explains Anuj.
Illness or dying Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
Description: A dream death is a moderately common nightmare and it involves deaths of famous people, your parents or children, a lover or even yourself. Occasionally, it occurs during the onset of an illness. According to American psychic, Edgar Cayce, when you dream about the accidental death of any person, that person's death symbolizes something in you that is no longer functioning. Manish Kumar, a senior engineer says, "I usually dream of goons breaking into my house and shooting at my father. I'm the only one who witnesses this in the dream"
Interpretation: This dream is related to your life and it means that you are emotionally hurt or are afraid of being hurt. "This dream may work as a warning for you to make you aware of an upcoming physical risk to yourself or a loved one. When it is someone else in the dream who dies, it can mean that you feel that part of yourself (that you see represented by that person) is also dead. It may also mean that you wish the person would go away or that you fear losing them," interprets Anuj.
Being chased
Description: Dreaming about being chased is also a commonly experienced nightmare. Most often the chaser in the dream is a monster or some person who is frightening; occasionally it may be an animal. Such dreams are not only horrifying and shocking, but often leave the dreamer with a lasting image of the dream. It is also worth noting that sometimes this dream is a replay of an actual event in your life. Atul Kulkerni, a student, says, "When I was young I used to have nightmares about being chased. Usually I was chased by two lions and I would be running away from them towards my house, but I could never reach the door no matter how hard I'd try."
Interpretation: This type of dream often results from stress. In this type of dream you feel frightened, attacked and in danger. If you dream of being chased by someone you know, this person is somehow contributing to your anxiety. If you dream of being chased by a stranger, it's possible that the stranger represents some aspect of yourself. "Running is an instinctive response to physical threats in our environment, therefore 'chase dreams' represent your way of coping with fear or stress. Instead of confronting the situation, you are running away and avoiding it", explains Anuj.
Bad or missing teeth
Description: Teeth dreams usually involve the discovery of extremely decayed or missing teeth in your own mouth. Common dream scenarios include having your teeth crumbling in your hands or your teeth falling out one by one with just a light tap. Priti Singh, a call centre executive, recalls, "Five years back, I would constantly dream about my teeth falling out. And not just falling: they actually crumble into much smaller pieces, and I end up spitting the pieces throughout my dream. I was seeing that dream so often that I actually went and talked to someone about it, and they told me it could mean that I wasn't feeling nurtured or loved by those around me."
Interpretation: What does it mean when we dream about missing teeth? At the most basic level it means that we are afraid of being looked upon as unattractive. At a deeper level, it can signify a fear of embarrassment or loss of power in real life. "Sadly, we live in a world where good looks are valued highly and our teeth play an important role in conveying that image. The dreams about your teeth reflect your anxiety about your appearance and how others perceive you. Another rationalization for falling teeth dream may be rooted in your fear of being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some specific situation", explains Anuj.
Falling or sinking
Description: We have all had falling dreams. This is the most common dream, and is sometimes accompanied by muscle jerks, which may jolt you awake. In such dreams we are usually falling through the air and are extremely frightened. Occasionally we may be sinking in water and in danger of drowning. Shradha Singh, customer care executive, says" I often dream that am floating or have the ability to levitate, sometimes with a great sense of power other times with powerlessness."
Interpretation: Dreams of falling often arise from the fear of losing control. A person who is having this dream is either insecure or lacks support in real life. If you have this dream you should evaluate your current situation and try to identify the problem. "Falling is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. Sometimes when we have these dreams, your whole body jerks or twitches and we wake up. This happens because falling or sinking dreams typically occur during the first stage of sleep and the dreams in this stage are often accompanied by muscle spasms of the arms, legs, and the whole body. This jerking action is part of an arousal mechanism that allows the sleeper to awaken and become alert and responsive to possible threats in the environment," says Dr. Anuj.
Missed a train, bus, boat or plane Dreams and their meanings (Getty images)
Description: In this type of dream you are rushing to catch a bus, train, plane or other type of public transport, but you miss it generally by a fraction of second. You feel frustrated rather than afraid in these dreams. In a variation of this theme, you arrive very late for a performance in which you are supposed to participate and find that the event has already begun.
Interpretation: "Travel images often signify an emotional journey of discovery and this dream usually means that you have missed out on an important opportunity in your real life. This dream often occurs when you are struggling over an important decision", explains Dr. Anuj.
Faulty machinery
Description: In the faulty machinery dream you dream of trying to operate some mechanical equipment while it malfunctions. Many such dreams involve telephones, with the dreamer having trouble dialing, getting disconnected or making a faulty connection. It can involve a lost Internet connection or a jammed or broken machine. Abhishek Srivastava, a web developer, says "I dream about the faulty connection most often. I can never dial the right number or get hold of the person I am trying to reach"
Interpretation: "This dream means that you are losing touch with reality or that a part of your body or mind is not functioning properly. You can also have such dream when you are feeling anxious about making a connection with another person in real life," says Dr. Anuj.
Lost or trapped
Description: In this dream you try to find your way out of an unknown territory such as a forest, city streets, a large building or any other maze-like structure. Another way this dream plays out involves you being trapped, buried alive, caught in a web or unable to move for some other reason. Ankur Srivastava, a bank employee says, "One recurring dream is of being on my way somewhere and taking a shortcut through a building. This turns into an endless series of stairs and doors that lead nowhere."
Interpretation: Dreaming about getting lost is very common and will usually occur when you are not able to decide on how to react to a certain situation in real life. "This type of dream will usually carry an element of fear or of frustration and it usually means that you are trapped in real life and you are unable to make the right choice," interprets Dr. Anuj.
Dreaming nudity
Description: In this type of dream you are in a state of undress, partial undress or inappropriate dress. For example you have gone to work wearing pyjamas. Occasionally you are the witness of another person who is naked while you are clothed. This is often accompanied by feelings of embarrassment and shame, but occasionally with the feeling of pride or freedom. Kumar Mohit, a software engineer, recalls "When I was young the most recurring dream was that I went to school wearing only pajamas and I am surprised that I still remember it"
Interpretation: As with all the dreams, the emotional tone of this one is important to the meaning. The meaning of this dream is that you are feeling exposed, awkward or you are afraid that you have revealed too much of yourself to someone who is not trustworthy. An interesting fact about this type of dream is that it occurs much more frequently in people who are involved in a wedding ceremony or event management in their real life. "Getting humiliated at the realisation that you are walking around naked in public, is often a reflection of your vulnerability or shamefulness. Finding yourself naked at work or in a classroom suggests that you are unprepared for a project at work or school. But if you are proud of your nakedness and not embarrassed or ashamed then it symbolises your unrestricted freedom", explains Dr. Anuj.
World - Choose your own Miss World!
Nona Walia
With just a few days left for the finals, the countdown to the Miss World pageant has begun in earnest. The spin in the story is: you, dear reader, Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008 Parvathy Omanakuttan. Vote for Parvathy here
are now empowered to choose the most beautiful woman in the world!
Vote for your favourite beauty online on www.missworld.com and she will be crowned Miss People’s Choice at the Miss World Pageant.
India’s Parvathy Omanakuttan, the Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008, is vying for the support and attention of all Indians, as she tries to get the crown back to India after a gap of eight years. Voting for Parvathy is simple. You just need to go to the Miss World website at www.missworld.com , register, select ‘Contestants’, choose India under ‘Visit contestant’s profile’, then select ‘10’ when asked to rate her as ‘Miss People’s Choice’. The higher the ratings Parvathy receives, the better her chances of winning.
Parvathy is competing with 111 contestants at the 58th Miss World final, which will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 13.
The stunning Indian beauty, Parvathy, is already a hot favourite in South Africa. She, along with the other contestants, have been on an adventurous safari in Limpopo. In an interview with South Africa’s The Times, she said, “We got to live in a typical tribal hut, which was an amazing experience. The huts were made in such a way that we were warm. There were no lights or air conditioners, but we felt at home... I’m a nature freak.”
Not only that, she’s actually captured South Africa’s attention wearing an apron and a white chef’s hat and helped whip up a traditional Zulu dish. Parvathy’s interested in “experimenting with world cuisines”. With her long, black hair and stunningly fit body, Parvathy has the potential to be a global beauty. Not only that, she can impress you with her sexy dance moves – be it Latin or classical ballroom.
It’s up to Indians now to make Parvathy the next Miss World 2008. Parvathy’s motto in life has been: dream with your eyes open. And she’s dreaming of bringing back the crown. Only you can help her fulfill that dream.
With just a few days left for the finals, the countdown to the Miss World pageant has begun in earnest. The spin in the story is: you, dear reader, Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008 Parvathy Omanakuttan. Vote for Parvathy here
are now empowered to choose the most beautiful woman in the world!
Vote for your favourite beauty online on www.missworld.com and she will be crowned Miss People’s Choice at the Miss World Pageant.
India’s Parvathy Omanakuttan, the Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008, is vying for the support and attention of all Indians, as she tries to get the crown back to India after a gap of eight years. Voting for Parvathy is simple. You just need to go to the Miss World website at www.missworld.com , register, select ‘Contestants’, choose India under ‘Visit contestant’s profile’, then select ‘10’ when asked to rate her as ‘Miss People’s Choice’. The higher the ratings Parvathy receives, the better her chances of winning.
Parvathy is competing with 111 contestants at the 58th Miss World final, which will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 13.
The stunning Indian beauty, Parvathy, is already a hot favourite in South Africa. She, along with the other contestants, have been on an adventurous safari in Limpopo. In an interview with South Africa’s The Times, she said, “We got to live in a typical tribal hut, which was an amazing experience. The huts were made in such a way that we were warm. There were no lights or air conditioners, but we felt at home... I’m a nature freak.”
Not only that, she’s actually captured South Africa’s attention wearing an apron and a white chef’s hat and helped whip up a traditional Zulu dish. Parvathy’s interested in “experimenting with world cuisines”. With her long, black hair and stunningly fit body, Parvathy has the potential to be a global beauty. Not only that, she can impress you with her sexy dance moves – be it Latin or classical ballroom.
It’s up to Indians now to make Parvathy the next Miss World 2008. Parvathy’s motto in life has been: dream with your eyes open. And she’s dreaming of bringing back the crown. Only you can help her fulfill that dream.
Sport Personality - Sourav Ganguly;A captain's legacy
B.L. Nguyen
For Sourav Ganguly, the final Nagpur Test against Australia was not only a chance to go out of the scene with a series win, but an opportunity to exorcise some demons.
Four years earlier, the old stadium was the scene of a debacle that started Ganguly’s inglorious fall from the captaincy and plunged Indian cricket into four years of indifferent performance. Trailing 0-1 after two Tests against Australia, India arrived to see a greentop, reputedly a payback from the Vidarbha Cricket Association to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a lost political battle.
Ganguly mysteriously withdrew from the Test at late notice, with cynics contending that he had run away to avoid defeat. Amid the chaos, India ceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a crushing 342-run loss.
In 2005, India squandered the Test series against Pakistan with an insipid last-day collapse. Ganguly was then banned for slow over rates. With India struggling, Ganguly’s fading batsmanship came under scrutiny.
Then, Greg Chappell became coach. Struggling for runs, Ganguly privately asked him for a frank opinion. Told that his form did not merit selection, Ganguly angrily went public. The dispute turned into a soap opera encompassing leaked emails, orchestrated peace summits, riots and gag orders. Ganguly was humiliatingly stripped of the captaincy and dropped.
In a little more than a year, the verdict on Ganguly’s legacy had savagely turned. Ganguly became widely reviled and ridiculed. Amid the political machinations and a downturn in performance, his contributions to Indian cricket and his record 21 Test wins were forgotten.
Ganguly had taken the reins of the Indian team in the 2000 season after a ruinous match fixing scandal and five consecutive Test defeats. In his first season in control, India ended Australia’s famed run of 16 consecutive wins after being forced to follow on in the epic Eden Gardens Test in Kolkata. Against the odds, they won the series, primarily due to Ganguly protégé Harbhajan Singh, who had been resuscitated from disciplinary oblivion at the captain’s behest.
Ganguly then led India to the 2003 World Cup final, before overseeing a drawn series in Australia and a triumph over Pakistan. This yielded India’s first Test win in Australia for 22 years. The latter was India’s first series win in Pakistan.
Such results were symptomatic of Ganguly’s captaincy, which saw significant improvement in India’s away record. He instilled backbone into his troops, and India was no longer seen as a soft team that spontaneously unravelled amid alien conditions. This was typified by a stirring win at Headingley, England, in 2002, when Ganguly elected to bat on a greentop and declined the light so that he could force a result.
However, Ganguly’s fighting spirit was based not on cold ruthlessness and efficiency, but a mix of belligerence and brinkmanship in the mould of Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga. He preferred angry young men, such as Harbhajan and Yuvraj Singh. Instead of trying to emulate and surpass rival pacesetters, he attempted to take them down through an attitude of defiance. This was exhibited in his testy rivalry with Steve Waugh, and his infamous shirt take-off at Lord’s.
When one is in decline, the limitations of such an approach tend to be magnified to such an extent that it appears grotesque, even ridiculous. Ganguly’s disregard for rational planning and attention to detail in favour of hairy-chested confrontation began to bite. Weighed down by inept fielding and fitness, an ageing ODI team was exposed.
Coupled with the intrigue that perpetually surrounds BCCI, Ganguly’s legacy was battered, dogged by accusations that he was destroying Indian cricket with a “divide and rule” strategy. Never one to accept defeat, Ganguly dug in. A year later, the youngsters fell upon hard times and Ganguly was resuscitated. He batted with a productivity not seen for years. Against Pakistan, he scored a century and double century to be named man of the series.
After India lost in Sri Lanka in August, rumblings about the seniors resurfaced. Ganguly appeared to be gone, but was retained for the Australia series. Prior to the first Test, he parried suggestions that the seniors were being forced out. As the journalists finished, Ganguly said: “Just one last thing...this is going to be my last series. I’ve decided to quit...hopefully we’ll go on a winning note.” Needless to say, it wasn’t the last theatrical twist in his career.
Ganguly was then quoted as saying that “every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team...some…have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored”. Was he referring to Mahendra Singh Dhoni?
Despite the distractions, Ganguly batted productively, with a poise and serenity that belied the pressure on his position. His most influential contributions came in partnership with new captain Dhoni, whose batting had also been questioned, in the two victorious Tests, helping to consolidate India’s position
Towards the end of the final Test, Dhoni allowed Ganguly to marshal the troops for one last time. Harbhajan winkled out the winning wicket, LBW without offering a shot, the exact same ending to Ganguly’s most famous triumph at Eden Gardens seven years ago. The passing of the torch was a fairy tale finish for Ganguly, as though the rumblings in between had never happened.
As Ganguly heads into retirement on a high, Dhoni’s India has the chance to vie for supremacy. The series was largely won by younger players who display the attitude that Ganguly brought to the 21st century India, more confident of its place in the world.
Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan, the most prominent figures in India’s triumph, rattled Australia with bat and ball and attitude. They exhibited a Gangulyesque style of overt and primal aggression. Such an unsubtle style is limiting, not least through bans and fines.
Despite these limitations, Ganguly did what was needed at the time—galvanizing an uncertain group of skilful cricketers, giving them a sense of purpose that enabled them to fight outside their comfort zone and in foreign lands. Now that a foundation exists, a more sophisticated approach is needed for further progress. India will hope that Dhoni can channel the Ganguly-instilled fight in a more refined manner.
B.L. Nguyen is a freelance cricket writer based in Adelaide,
Australia. He blogs at Yellowmonkeysbananabucket.blogspot.com
For Sourav Ganguly, the final Nagpur Test against Australia was not only a chance to go out of the scene with a series win, but an opportunity to exorcise some demons.
Four years earlier, the old stadium was the scene of a debacle that started Ganguly’s inglorious fall from the captaincy and plunged Indian cricket into four years of indifferent performance. Trailing 0-1 after two Tests against Australia, India arrived to see a greentop, reputedly a payback from the Vidarbha Cricket Association to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a lost political battle.
Ganguly mysteriously withdrew from the Test at late notice, with cynics contending that he had run away to avoid defeat. Amid the chaos, India ceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a crushing 342-run loss.
In 2005, India squandered the Test series against Pakistan with an insipid last-day collapse. Ganguly was then banned for slow over rates. With India struggling, Ganguly’s fading batsmanship came under scrutiny.
Then, Greg Chappell became coach. Struggling for runs, Ganguly privately asked him for a frank opinion. Told that his form did not merit selection, Ganguly angrily went public. The dispute turned into a soap opera encompassing leaked emails, orchestrated peace summits, riots and gag orders. Ganguly was humiliatingly stripped of the captaincy and dropped.
In a little more than a year, the verdict on Ganguly’s legacy had savagely turned. Ganguly became widely reviled and ridiculed. Amid the political machinations and a downturn in performance, his contributions to Indian cricket and his record 21 Test wins were forgotten.
Ganguly had taken the reins of the Indian team in the 2000 season after a ruinous match fixing scandal and five consecutive Test defeats. In his first season in control, India ended Australia’s famed run of 16 consecutive wins after being forced to follow on in the epic Eden Gardens Test in Kolkata. Against the odds, they won the series, primarily due to Ganguly protégé Harbhajan Singh, who had been resuscitated from disciplinary oblivion at the captain’s behest.
Ganguly then led India to the 2003 World Cup final, before overseeing a drawn series in Australia and a triumph over Pakistan. This yielded India’s first Test win in Australia for 22 years. The latter was India’s first series win in Pakistan.
Such results were symptomatic of Ganguly’s captaincy, which saw significant improvement in India’s away record. He instilled backbone into his troops, and India was no longer seen as a soft team that spontaneously unravelled amid alien conditions. This was typified by a stirring win at Headingley, England, in 2002, when Ganguly elected to bat on a greentop and declined the light so that he could force a result.
However, Ganguly’s fighting spirit was based not on cold ruthlessness and efficiency, but a mix of belligerence and brinkmanship in the mould of Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga. He preferred angry young men, such as Harbhajan and Yuvraj Singh. Instead of trying to emulate and surpass rival pacesetters, he attempted to take them down through an attitude of defiance. This was exhibited in his testy rivalry with Steve Waugh, and his infamous shirt take-off at Lord’s.
When one is in decline, the limitations of such an approach tend to be magnified to such an extent that it appears grotesque, even ridiculous. Ganguly’s disregard for rational planning and attention to detail in favour of hairy-chested confrontation began to bite. Weighed down by inept fielding and fitness, an ageing ODI team was exposed.
Coupled with the intrigue that perpetually surrounds BCCI, Ganguly’s legacy was battered, dogged by accusations that he was destroying Indian cricket with a “divide and rule” strategy. Never one to accept defeat, Ganguly dug in. A year later, the youngsters fell upon hard times and Ganguly was resuscitated. He batted with a productivity not seen for years. Against Pakistan, he scored a century and double century to be named man of the series.
After India lost in Sri Lanka in August, rumblings about the seniors resurfaced. Ganguly appeared to be gone, but was retained for the Australia series. Prior to the first Test, he parried suggestions that the seniors were being forced out. As the journalists finished, Ganguly said: “Just one last thing...this is going to be my last series. I’ve decided to quit...hopefully we’ll go on a winning note.” Needless to say, it wasn’t the last theatrical twist in his career.
Ganguly was then quoted as saying that “every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team...some…have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored”. Was he referring to Mahendra Singh Dhoni?
Despite the distractions, Ganguly batted productively, with a poise and serenity that belied the pressure on his position. His most influential contributions came in partnership with new captain Dhoni, whose batting had also been questioned, in the two victorious Tests, helping to consolidate India’s position
Towards the end of the final Test, Dhoni allowed Ganguly to marshal the troops for one last time. Harbhajan winkled out the winning wicket, LBW without offering a shot, the exact same ending to Ganguly’s most famous triumph at Eden Gardens seven years ago. The passing of the torch was a fairy tale finish for Ganguly, as though the rumblings in between had never happened.
As Ganguly heads into retirement on a high, Dhoni’s India has the chance to vie for supremacy. The series was largely won by younger players who display the attitude that Ganguly brought to the 21st century India, more confident of its place in the world.
Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan, the most prominent figures in India’s triumph, rattled Australia with bat and ball and attitude. They exhibited a Gangulyesque style of overt and primal aggression. Such an unsubtle style is limiting, not least through bans and fines.
Despite these limitations, Ganguly did what was needed at the time—galvanizing an uncertain group of skilful cricketers, giving them a sense of purpose that enabled them to fight outside their comfort zone and in foreign lands. Now that a foundation exists, a more sophisticated approach is needed for further progress. India will hope that Dhoni can channel the Ganguly-instilled fight in a more refined manner.
B.L. Nguyen is a freelance cricket writer based in Adelaide,
Australia. He blogs at Yellowmonkeysbananabucket.blogspot.com
India - Kerala looks to use global yacht competition to promote tourism
Ajayan
Kochi: The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race—from Cape Town to Kochi—concluded here when a Russian team, the last of eight, called at the port on Thursday night.
The third leg of the yacht race—held every three years that circumnavigates the earth—starts on 13 December when the competitors leave for Singapore. This is the first time the race has included an Indian port of call.
While the race is a high-profile marketing platform for global brands, such as telecom company Ericsson and sports goods manufacturer Puma, Kerala is looking to tap into it as a way to promote tourism at a time when the industry has been hit by a global economic slowdown and the Mumbai terror attack.
The Cochin Port Trust and the Kerala tourism department are co-hosts for the stopover, which has seen an influx of mostly domestic tourists. Officials here are hoping the presence of a number of sailing teams, officials and people associated with the race from across the globe will help them attract tourists.
“It’s a mix of sports, tourism and business,” said N. Ramachandran, chairman of the Cochin Port Trust.
The regatta around the globe that typically takes nine months to complete, started from Alicante in Spain on 11 October and will conclude at St Petersburg in Russia in late June. Formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, the race is expected to cover 39,000 nautical miles. One nautical mile is equal to 1.85km.
For now, however, it is companies that sponsor teams or otherwise promote themselves through the race which are the ones reaping the benefits.
“It makes sense to use this as a platform for us, a global player in the telecom industry, and turn this into an event for meeting our customers who can converge at a place,” said Richard Brisius, manager of the Ericsson racing team that has sponsored two yachts. The Ericsson 3 yacht emerged as the winner in the second leg, arriving at Kochi three days ahead of its expected arrival date of 3 December. Ericsson 4 came in third.
Brisius, who was part of the sailing team in the race in 1989 and 1992, said these stopovers are also spots where its customers gather and where sales and marketing activities are undertaken.
During the last race three years ago, the company met over 4,500 customers, most of them represented by senior officials. Planning for these marketing activities were started two years earlier.
Brisisus, however, admitted there are limitations since the stopover is just at one port in India. But rather than holding a series of meetings, linking marketing with the sport helps in adding value to its brand,he said.
In some of the countries such as Singapore, China, Brazil and the US, there is also a small race at the port, which will attract a lot of people, giving more promotion to the brand, he said.
For Puma, the sports goods manufacturer, which has brand ambassadors such as soccer player Pele and 2008 Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, the race is a platform to give credibility and visibility to the brand, said Rajiv Mehta, managing director of Puma Sports India Pvt. Ltd. “Puma is among the very few firms that is also into manufacture of race and sail apparatus which is being used by most yachts and their sailors in this race. And this should give the company more credibility in its step to get into lifestyle business,” he said.
Kochi: The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race—from Cape Town to Kochi—concluded here when a Russian team, the last of eight, called at the port on Thursday night.
The third leg of the yacht race—held every three years that circumnavigates the earth—starts on 13 December when the competitors leave for Singapore. This is the first time the race has included an Indian port of call.
While the race is a high-profile marketing platform for global brands, such as telecom company Ericsson and sports goods manufacturer Puma, Kerala is looking to tap into it as a way to promote tourism at a time when the industry has been hit by a global economic slowdown and the Mumbai terror attack.
The Cochin Port Trust and the Kerala tourism department are co-hosts for the stopover, which has seen an influx of mostly domestic tourists. Officials here are hoping the presence of a number of sailing teams, officials and people associated with the race from across the globe will help them attract tourists.
“It’s a mix of sports, tourism and business,” said N. Ramachandran, chairman of the Cochin Port Trust.
The regatta around the globe that typically takes nine months to complete, started from Alicante in Spain on 11 October and will conclude at St Petersburg in Russia in late June. Formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, the race is expected to cover 39,000 nautical miles. One nautical mile is equal to 1.85km.
For now, however, it is companies that sponsor teams or otherwise promote themselves through the race which are the ones reaping the benefits.
“It makes sense to use this as a platform for us, a global player in the telecom industry, and turn this into an event for meeting our customers who can converge at a place,” said Richard Brisius, manager of the Ericsson racing team that has sponsored two yachts. The Ericsson 3 yacht emerged as the winner in the second leg, arriving at Kochi three days ahead of its expected arrival date of 3 December. Ericsson 4 came in third.
Brisius, who was part of the sailing team in the race in 1989 and 1992, said these stopovers are also spots where its customers gather and where sales and marketing activities are undertaken.
During the last race three years ago, the company met over 4,500 customers, most of them represented by senior officials. Planning for these marketing activities were started two years earlier.
Brisisus, however, admitted there are limitations since the stopover is just at one port in India. But rather than holding a series of meetings, linking marketing with the sport helps in adding value to its brand,he said.
In some of the countries such as Singapore, China, Brazil and the US, there is also a small race at the port, which will attract a lot of people, giving more promotion to the brand, he said.
For Puma, the sports goods manufacturer, which has brand ambassadors such as soccer player Pele and 2008 Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, the race is a platform to give credibility and visibility to the brand, said Rajiv Mehta, managing director of Puma Sports India Pvt. Ltd. “Puma is among the very few firms that is also into manufacture of race and sail apparatus which is being used by most yachts and their sailors in this race. And this should give the company more credibility in its step to get into lifestyle business,” he said.
India - RBI slashes rates to shore up growth
V. Ramakrishnan and Swati Bhat / Reuters
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday slashed its key short-term interest rates by 1 percentage point to boost growth and shore up investor confidence amid signs of economic slowdown and in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai.
The central bank reduced its key lending rate, or repo rate, by 100 basis points to 6.5%, its lowest rate in two years, with effect from Monday.
The reverse repo rate, the rate at which the central bank absorbs excess cash from the system, falls to 5.0% from 6.0%, its lowest in more than three years.
“Industrial activity, particularly in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, is decelerating,” RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao told a news conference.
Subbarao said the central bank would closely monitor developments in global and domestic financial markets and would take swift and effective action as appropriate.
“The Reserve Bank’s policy endeavour will be to minimise the negative impact of the crisis and to ensure an orderly adjustment,” he said.
The main lending rate has now been cut by 250 basis points since 20 October, when the central bank made its first rate reduction in more than four years to shield the economy from the global financial crisis.
Saturday’s decision was the first change in the reverse repo rate since July 2006.
The cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits banks must keep with the central bank, was left unchanged at 5.5%.
Expectations of rate reductions have mounted ever since last week’s attacks in Mumbai in which gunmen brought the business district to a standstill as they holed up in two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, killing 178 people.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield fell 8 basis points to 6.76% on Friday ahead of the central bank’s decision, which had been well flagged by government officials, and the rupee gained against the dollar.
The government is also expected to announce fiscal measures to give impetus to the economy, which data show may be decelerating more rapidly than anticipated from an annual rate of 9% in the fiscal year which ended last March.
The exact timing of the government’s expected steps is not known.
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday slashed its key short-term interest rates by 1 percentage point to boost growth and shore up investor confidence amid signs of economic slowdown and in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai.
The central bank reduced its key lending rate, or repo rate, by 100 basis points to 6.5%, its lowest rate in two years, with effect from Monday.
The reverse repo rate, the rate at which the central bank absorbs excess cash from the system, falls to 5.0% from 6.0%, its lowest in more than three years.
“Industrial activity, particularly in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, is decelerating,” RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao told a news conference.
Subbarao said the central bank would closely monitor developments in global and domestic financial markets and would take swift and effective action as appropriate.
“The Reserve Bank’s policy endeavour will be to minimise the negative impact of the crisis and to ensure an orderly adjustment,” he said.
The main lending rate has now been cut by 250 basis points since 20 October, when the central bank made its first rate reduction in more than four years to shield the economy from the global financial crisis.
Saturday’s decision was the first change in the reverse repo rate since July 2006.
The cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits banks must keep with the central bank, was left unchanged at 5.5%.
Expectations of rate reductions have mounted ever since last week’s attacks in Mumbai in which gunmen brought the business district to a standstill as they holed up in two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, killing 178 people.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield fell 8 basis points to 6.76% on Friday ahead of the central bank’s decision, which had been well flagged by government officials, and the rupee gained against the dollar.
The government is also expected to announce fiscal measures to give impetus to the economy, which data show may be decelerating more rapidly than anticipated from an annual rate of 9% in the fiscal year which ended last March.
The exact timing of the government’s expected steps is not known.
Business - Jet wants employees to take voluntary pay cut by 15 Dec
Mumbai: With losses mounting by the day, private carrier Jet Airways has reportedly asked its employees to take a voluntary pay cut and will wait till 15 December for their response.
The carrier, which fired 1,900 employees in October only to reinstate them under pressure from various quarters, has made the request to pilots, cabin crew and engineering staff, a source in the airline said on the condition of anonymity.
“Chairman (Naresh Goyal in an e-mail earlier this week) has asked the employees to take a pay cut volountarily and the management has given its employees time till 15 December for a decision,” the source said.
It is, however, not clear what the airline proposes to do if the employees do not agree for a voluntary pay cut.
A Jet Airways spokesperson, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue.
Jet operates a full-service airline as also a budget carrier - JetLite. Goyal had also announced earlier that his airline would cooperate with Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines to cut costs.
The carrier, which fired 1,900 employees in October only to reinstate them under pressure from various quarters, has made the request to pilots, cabin crew and engineering staff, a source in the airline said on the condition of anonymity.
“Chairman (Naresh Goyal in an e-mail earlier this week) has asked the employees to take a pay cut volountarily and the management has given its employees time till 15 December for a decision,” the source said.
It is, however, not clear what the airline proposes to do if the employees do not agree for a voluntary pay cut.
A Jet Airways spokesperson, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue.
Jet operates a full-service airline as also a budget carrier - JetLite. Goyal had also announced earlier that his airline would cooperate with Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines to cut costs.
Columnists - Vir Sanghvi;Let's recall lessons from emergency
Those of you old enough to remember the early 1970s—and I hasten to add that even I was at school then!—may recall that as India reeled from the 1973 oil price hike, from global inflation and the civil disobedience of the JP movement, it became common for the educated middle class to say things like, “What India needs is a dictator.”
Then, of course, we got one.
In June 1975, Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties, locked up the Opposition, censored the press and imposed her Neanderthal son, the thug-like Sanjay, on the nation. It was clear that if young Sanjay had his way, the institutions of democracy would never be reassembled again.
We’ve air-brushed the middle-class response to the declaration of Emergency out of the history books. But the truth is that people were delighted. There were no more strikes. Petty crime went down. Beggars were removed from the streets. And yes, the trains ran on time.
These developments worked mainly to the middle class’ advantage but of course they were justified at elite cocktail parties in terms of benefits to the poor. “How does democracy help a hungry man?” or “India’s poor have no interest in freedom of the press” etc., etc.
But, of course, the poor did need democracy. It was what kept the government’s sterilizers from dragging them out of their homes and lopping off their scrotal sacs. It was what made politicians—even Congress politicians—feel that they had a modicum of accountability towards the people of India. And it was what kept the police from locking up any poor, uninfluential person and then throwing away the key.
Indira Gandhi, of course, had no idea that the poor felt this way. Nor were there any uncensored newspapers to tell her the truth. And so, in early 1977, over the objections of her son, she called a general election. In her mind, this was the perfect solution. She would get democratic endorsement for her dictatorship.
We all know the rest of the story. The poor rose up against the Congress which suffered its first defeat in history and both Indira and thug-like son lost their own seats. The middle class quickly changed sides, decided that democracy was what made India great after all and embraced the new Janata regime (for two years, till Mrs Gandhi and the Neanderthal returned to power…).
I mention all this history to refresh your memory because in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks I am beginning to hear the same kind of middle-class murmurs and whines about the ineffectual nature of democracy and the need for authoritarian government.
The first part of the argument is framed in terms that are non- controversial enough. India’s politicians are greedy sods, incompetent buffoons who have let the country down.
So far, so good.
But then, it gets more complicated. The real heroes of 26/11 were the men in uniform, the navy commandos, the Army, the Mumbai police and the ATS. Therefore, we should put our faith in these people not in politicians.
Others simply say that democracy has failed India and that we need a strong leader. Some talk openly about a benign dictator (a commodity on par with virgin prostitutes) and some demand an abridgement of the universal franchise that, they say, has led us to this mess. Many (and I’m sure you’ve got the text messages too) demand that we refuse to cast our votes as a gesture of protest: “We should refuse to cooperate with these bloody politicians.”
I’m not saying that any of this is dangerous—no dictator is going to seize power because of discontent in Malabar Hill or Cuffe Parade—but it is certainly silly. Not only does it demonstrate that we have forgotten the lessons of the Emergency but it also shames the Indian middle class and shows up the cowards that are some of its most vocal members.
Like small children we crave the security offered by men in uniform every time we sense danger. We lose our nerve, abandon the only real functioning democracy in the populous states of the Third World and long for a leader who will fight the terrorists in the manner of Superman. Like frightened rabbits scurrying for cover, we lose all perspective and all common sense.
Contrast our responses to those from America after 9/11. The President was a dimwit, a man who had just stolen the election, and who reacted bizarrely to the news of the strikes and then took to his plane. But Americans did not abandon faith in their democracy. They came together and resolved to fight terrorism as one nation. It was the same in England after 7/7. Pressure was put on politicians and policemen and consequently there were no repeats of the terrorist bombings. In Spain, the government in power was defeated in the election held after the Madrid bombings and the terrorist attacks ceased.
I hold no brief for India’s politicians. Nor do I dispute that they have let our country down. But I think that those of us who long for superhero-style dictators are also letting the country down—they are certainly betraying our democracy, built over so many decades with so much sacrifice.
We have a right to expect better of our politicians. We have a right to abuse them. We have a right to pressure them. And we have a right to demand a change.
But these are democratic rights. Abandon democracy and we lose our rights. Nor do we necessarily succeed in the battle against terrorism.
Take the example of Pakistan where successive military dictatorships have nearly destroyed that nation. All those who think that a strong leader can fight terrorism should learn from the example of Pervez Musharraf who despite having the entire Pakistan army (and the Pentagon as well) behind him was unable to prevent terrorists from nearly killing him twice and taking Pakistan to the brink of chaos.
There are no quick fixes in the battle against terror. And there are no Supermen who can solve our problems. Of course, our government can do a better job. And of course our politicians have failed us.
Then, of course, we got one.
In June 1975, Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties, locked up the Opposition, censored the press and imposed her Neanderthal son, the thug-like Sanjay, on the nation. It was clear that if young Sanjay had his way, the institutions of democracy would never be reassembled again.
We’ve air-brushed the middle-class response to the declaration of Emergency out of the history books. But the truth is that people were delighted. There were no more strikes. Petty crime went down. Beggars were removed from the streets. And yes, the trains ran on time.
These developments worked mainly to the middle class’ advantage but of course they were justified at elite cocktail parties in terms of benefits to the poor. “How does democracy help a hungry man?” or “India’s poor have no interest in freedom of the press” etc., etc.
But, of course, the poor did need democracy. It was what kept the government’s sterilizers from dragging them out of their homes and lopping off their scrotal sacs. It was what made politicians—even Congress politicians—feel that they had a modicum of accountability towards the people of India. And it was what kept the police from locking up any poor, uninfluential person and then throwing away the key.
Indira Gandhi, of course, had no idea that the poor felt this way. Nor were there any uncensored newspapers to tell her the truth. And so, in early 1977, over the objections of her son, she called a general election. In her mind, this was the perfect solution. She would get democratic endorsement for her dictatorship.
We all know the rest of the story. The poor rose up against the Congress which suffered its first defeat in history and both Indira and thug-like son lost their own seats. The middle class quickly changed sides, decided that democracy was what made India great after all and embraced the new Janata regime (for two years, till Mrs Gandhi and the Neanderthal returned to power…).
I mention all this history to refresh your memory because in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks I am beginning to hear the same kind of middle-class murmurs and whines about the ineffectual nature of democracy and the need for authoritarian government.
The first part of the argument is framed in terms that are non- controversial enough. India’s politicians are greedy sods, incompetent buffoons who have let the country down.
So far, so good.
But then, it gets more complicated. The real heroes of 26/11 were the men in uniform, the navy commandos, the Army, the Mumbai police and the ATS. Therefore, we should put our faith in these people not in politicians.
Others simply say that democracy has failed India and that we need a strong leader. Some talk openly about a benign dictator (a commodity on par with virgin prostitutes) and some demand an abridgement of the universal franchise that, they say, has led us to this mess. Many (and I’m sure you’ve got the text messages too) demand that we refuse to cast our votes as a gesture of protest: “We should refuse to cooperate with these bloody politicians.”
I’m not saying that any of this is dangerous—no dictator is going to seize power because of discontent in Malabar Hill or Cuffe Parade—but it is certainly silly. Not only does it demonstrate that we have forgotten the lessons of the Emergency but it also shames the Indian middle class and shows up the cowards that are some of its most vocal members.
Like small children we crave the security offered by men in uniform every time we sense danger. We lose our nerve, abandon the only real functioning democracy in the populous states of the Third World and long for a leader who will fight the terrorists in the manner of Superman. Like frightened rabbits scurrying for cover, we lose all perspective and all common sense.
Contrast our responses to those from America after 9/11. The President was a dimwit, a man who had just stolen the election, and who reacted bizarrely to the news of the strikes and then took to his plane. But Americans did not abandon faith in their democracy. They came together and resolved to fight terrorism as one nation. It was the same in England after 7/7. Pressure was put on politicians and policemen and consequently there were no repeats of the terrorist bombings. In Spain, the government in power was defeated in the election held after the Madrid bombings and the terrorist attacks ceased.
I hold no brief for India’s politicians. Nor do I dispute that they have let our country down. But I think that those of us who long for superhero-style dictators are also letting the country down—they are certainly betraying our democracy, built over so many decades with so much sacrifice.
We have a right to expect better of our politicians. We have a right to abuse them. We have a right to pressure them. And we have a right to demand a change.
But these are democratic rights. Abandon democracy and we lose our rights. Nor do we necessarily succeed in the battle against terrorism.
Take the example of Pakistan where successive military dictatorships have nearly destroyed that nation. All those who think that a strong leader can fight terrorism should learn from the example of Pervez Musharraf who despite having the entire Pakistan army (and the Pentagon as well) behind him was unable to prevent terrorists from nearly killing him twice and taking Pakistan to the brink of chaos.
There are no quick fixes in the battle against terror. And there are no Supermen who can solve our problems. Of course, our government can do a better job. And of course our politicians have failed us.
Business - Foreign carmakers in India cut prices to lift sales
Foreign car makers in India have slashed prices as the once booming industry struggles to prop up falling sales amid tight credit conditions, high interest rates, and a slowing economy.
South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co's Indian unit is selling its compact Santro at its 1998 launch price of 299,000 rupees ($6,020), down from the regular price of around 333,000 rupees and is offering incentives such as insurance, accessories and exchange bonuses on other models in December.
Ford Motor Co's Indian unit has cut up to 91,000 rupees off its supermini Ford Fiesta for 10 days.
"There is a slowdown in the market place and consumer confidence is low. We had a situation here. So we are taking the opportunity to stimulate the market," said Nigel Warks, Ford India's executive director of marketing, sales and service.
"We thought... let's kick some life into the market and get the customers coming in."
Hyundai Motor India's domestic car sales in November fell 23.3 percent from a year earlier to 14,605 units, while Ford India sold 2200 cars in November, 40 more than a year earlier.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car maker, saw sales fall an annual 27 percent in November, and sales of Tata Motors' main brand Indica fell nearly 14 percent from a year earlier.
Tata Motors said that despite orders on hand, they could not be converted into sales due to lack of financing for customers.
Discounts are being offered at the top end of the market too. Last month, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd slashed the price of its Civic Hybrid by about 800,000 rupees for four days, and said it received more than 1,000 enquiries.
South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co's Indian unit is selling its compact Santro at its 1998 launch price of 299,000 rupees ($6,020), down from the regular price of around 333,000 rupees and is offering incentives such as insurance, accessories and exchange bonuses on other models in December.
Ford Motor Co's Indian unit has cut up to 91,000 rupees off its supermini Ford Fiesta for 10 days.
"There is a slowdown in the market place and consumer confidence is low. We had a situation here. So we are taking the opportunity to stimulate the market," said Nigel Warks, Ford India's executive director of marketing, sales and service.
"We thought... let's kick some life into the market and get the customers coming in."
Hyundai Motor India's domestic car sales in November fell 23.3 percent from a year earlier to 14,605 units, while Ford India sold 2200 cars in November, 40 more than a year earlier.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car maker, saw sales fall an annual 27 percent in November, and sales of Tata Motors' main brand Indica fell nearly 14 percent from a year earlier.
Tata Motors said that despite orders on hand, they could not be converted into sales due to lack of financing for customers.
Discounts are being offered at the top end of the market too. Last month, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd slashed the price of its Civic Hybrid by about 800,000 rupees for four days, and said it received more than 1,000 enquiries.
India - IIM-A to offer management course for school principals
Armed forces, working professionals, and officials from public and private organisations have all benefited from various courses offered by IIM-A. Now, it is the turn of principals of rural and municipal schools to draw some benefits from the premier B-School. If everything goes as per the plan, IIM-Ahmedabad will soon have a curriculum on strategic management and leadership for principals.
A curriculum is being devised to help these principals learn the basics of how to manage and motivate people from diverse fields be it politically-motivated sarpanchs, students' parents, teachers or leading from the front.
The Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), a non-governmental organisation, came up with the idea to train principals. The aim is to bring about a change in the functioning of the schools and providing a better and motivated environment for children to study.
The curriculum will be divided into four parts- social, instructional, institutional and personal leadership. "The social part includes tips on how to deal with sarpanchs, students and their parents. The instructional aspect will include motivating teachers and other staff members to work towards a goal," said Aditya Natraj from KEF.
He added: "The institutional aspect will focus on creating a positive environment and culture for learning. The personal part will talk about how to lead an institution where children get inspired by their principals."
The duration of the programme in Rajasthan and urban municipal schools in Ahmedabad will be three years.
IIM-A Prof Rajeev Sharma, who is working on the curriculum, said, "We have visited Rajasthan where we have had a series of meetings with various school authorities."
KEF along with Bodh Shiksha Samiti has signed memoranda of understanding with about 100 schools in two districts of Rajasthan. "We have decided to have another such programme for principals of municipal schools in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat," Natraj added.
IIM-A is already conducting training programmes for CBSE school principals in 'strategic leadership and management'.
A curriculum is being devised to help these principals learn the basics of how to manage and motivate people from diverse fields be it politically-motivated sarpanchs, students' parents, teachers or leading from the front.
The Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), a non-governmental organisation, came up with the idea to train principals. The aim is to bring about a change in the functioning of the schools and providing a better and motivated environment for children to study.
The curriculum will be divided into four parts- social, instructional, institutional and personal leadership. "The social part includes tips on how to deal with sarpanchs, students and their parents. The instructional aspect will include motivating teachers and other staff members to work towards a goal," said Aditya Natraj from KEF.
He added: "The institutional aspect will focus on creating a positive environment and culture for learning. The personal part will talk about how to lead an institution where children get inspired by their principals."
The duration of the programme in Rajasthan and urban municipal schools in Ahmedabad will be three years.
IIM-A Prof Rajeev Sharma, who is working on the curriculum, said, "We have visited Rajasthan where we have had a series of meetings with various school authorities."
KEF along with Bodh Shiksha Samiti has signed memoranda of understanding with about 100 schools in two districts of Rajasthan. "We have decided to have another such programme for principals of municipal schools in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat," Natraj added.
IIM-A is already conducting training programmes for CBSE school principals in 'strategic leadership and management'.
World - US to send 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan
Washington, Dec 6 (DPA) The US military is preparing for a build-up of as many as 20,000 troops next year in Afghanistan to step up the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency, a top US commander said Friday.
The military has started building housing, latrines and other infrastructure needed to support the increase, Major General Michael Tucker, the deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference.
The first troops will begin arriving in January, Tucker said. Although the winter usually results in a slow down in fighting because it is more difficult for the insurgents to operate, US forces were anticipating 'a very active winter,' Tucker said.
'If he wants to continue to fight through the winter, we'll be here to fight him,' he said.
Pentagon officials have said they will begin shifting troops to Afghanistan as conditions in in Iraq continue to improve and forces begin leaving. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to move troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, which has seen an upswing in violence in the last two years.
US and NATO forces have been unable to snuff out the ability of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to slip across the rugged mountainous border with Pakistan to carry out attacks. Other NATO countries have been reluctant to send more troops and the stretched US military has fewer soldiers available to send.
The Pentagon is currently reviewing the strategy in Afghanistan and is expected to announce a revised approach in the weeks ahead designed for improved counterinsurgency operations, reaching out to tribal leaders and better tackle the cast rural areas of the country.
The new plan could be similar to the 'troop surge' strategy in Iraq that has helped to sharply reduce violence, but Tucker said the buildup was not modelled entirely after Iraq.
'It's not necessarily a surge as much as it is a reinforcement,' he said. 'Our intent is to shore up security so that we can set the conditions for governance to take hold.'
There are more than 30,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan, about half of them are under NATO's command.
The military has started building housing, latrines and other infrastructure needed to support the increase, Major General Michael Tucker, the deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference.
The first troops will begin arriving in January, Tucker said. Although the winter usually results in a slow down in fighting because it is more difficult for the insurgents to operate, US forces were anticipating 'a very active winter,' Tucker said.
'If he wants to continue to fight through the winter, we'll be here to fight him,' he said.
Pentagon officials have said they will begin shifting troops to Afghanistan as conditions in in Iraq continue to improve and forces begin leaving. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to move troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, which has seen an upswing in violence in the last two years.
US and NATO forces have been unable to snuff out the ability of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to slip across the rugged mountainous border with Pakistan to carry out attacks. Other NATO countries have been reluctant to send more troops and the stretched US military has fewer soldiers available to send.
The Pentagon is currently reviewing the strategy in Afghanistan and is expected to announce a revised approach in the weeks ahead designed for improved counterinsurgency operations, reaching out to tribal leaders and better tackle the cast rural areas of the country.
The new plan could be similar to the 'troop surge' strategy in Iraq that has helped to sharply reduce violence, but Tucker said the buildup was not modelled entirely after Iraq.
'It's not necessarily a surge as much as it is a reinforcement,' he said. 'Our intent is to shore up security so that we can set the conditions for governance to take hold.'
There are more than 30,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan, about half of them are under NATO's command.
Entertainment - Priests sign 1.4M pounds record deal
Melbourne, Dec 5 (ANI): Three middle-aged Irishmen who called themselves the Priests, and signed a 1.4million pounds record deal, released their self-titled debut album in Britain two weeks ago.
The album by Eugene O'Hagan, his younger brother Martin, and their long-time friend David Delargy has entered the charts at No5, and it was released in Australia this week.
O'Hagan, who runs his parish of Ballyclare and Ballygowan in Northern Ireland, is very humble with the prospect of landing at the top of the British album charts.
"If that happens it will be another little miracle," the Australian quoted him as saying.
"We'll live with it if we are and we'll live it if we're not. We'll just be happy if people enjoy the record.
"It's a bit unusual and unexpected," O'Hagan said of their sudden fame.
"It's exciting and bewildering, too. It's not something we do every day of our lives but we're getting used to it," he added. (ANI)
The album by Eugene O'Hagan, his younger brother Martin, and their long-time friend David Delargy has entered the charts at No5, and it was released in Australia this week.
O'Hagan, who runs his parish of Ballyclare and Ballygowan in Northern Ireland, is very humble with the prospect of landing at the top of the British album charts.
"If that happens it will be another little miracle," the Australian quoted him as saying.
"We'll live with it if we are and we'll live it if we're not. We'll just be happy if people enjoy the record.
"It's a bit unusual and unexpected," O'Hagan said of their sudden fame.
"It's exciting and bewildering, too. It's not something we do every day of our lives but we're getting used to it," he added. (ANI)
Lifestyle - Emirates Airbus A380 'too quiet' to allow sleep to pilots!
London, Dec 5 (ANI): Emirates Airbus A380 pilots are finding it difficult to sleep during rest breaks in the crew rest area - because the aircraft is "too quiet".
The pilots are complaining that they cannot sleep in the crew-rest area in the rear of the main deck for they are constantly disturbed by sounds created by passengers.
The lack of engine noise in the A380's cabin compared with other long-haul airliners means they are constantly disturbed by sounds created by passengers, such as crying babies, flushing vacuum toilets and call bells.
Sometimes, passengers also mistake the rest area for a lavatory, and pull the door handle.
Emirates senior vice-president, fleet, Capt Ed Davidson said that the have has asked Airbus for a solution. They have ruled out insulating the walls of the rest area, situated at the rear of the all-economy main deck.
"We are expecting to hear back from them by the middle of the month," Flightinternational.com quoted Davidson as saying.
He said that one option could be installing lightweight generators to create ambient noise.
"We're getting a lot of complaints. It's not something we expected.
"On our other aircraft, the engines drown out the cabin noise. [On the A380] the pilots sleep with earplugs but the cabin noise goes straight through them," he added. (ANI)
The pilots are complaining that they cannot sleep in the crew-rest area in the rear of the main deck for they are constantly disturbed by sounds created by passengers.
The lack of engine noise in the A380's cabin compared with other long-haul airliners means they are constantly disturbed by sounds created by passengers, such as crying babies, flushing vacuum toilets and call bells.
Sometimes, passengers also mistake the rest area for a lavatory, and pull the door handle.
Emirates senior vice-president, fleet, Capt Ed Davidson said that the have has asked Airbus for a solution. They have ruled out insulating the walls of the rest area, situated at the rear of the all-economy main deck.
"We are expecting to hear back from them by the middle of the month," Flightinternational.com quoted Davidson as saying.
He said that one option could be installing lightweight generators to create ambient noise.
"We're getting a lot of complaints. It's not something we expected.
"On our other aircraft, the engines drown out the cabin noise. [On the A380] the pilots sleep with earplugs but the cabin noise goes straight through them," he added. (ANI)
Business - Reliance Retail forays into home
Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited on Friday announced its entry into interior furnishing business under the banner of 'Reliance Living Furnishing' with its first store at Noida. The store offers a three-tiered private label range, Home One (basic), My Home (mid-tier) and My Home Premium (Lifestyle).
The home furnishing items, 80 per cent of which would be the company's own labels, are priced between Rs 199 to Rs 14,000. Reliance Retail, which operates 800 stores across 60 cities having a total retail space of 38 lakh square feet.
Briefly outlining the expansion strategy, senior vice president of Reliance Retail, Manu Kapur said, "the company plans to open 7 stores in next two months starting with Delhi and Hyderabad". "We have not put any target regarding the number of stores which we intend to set up.
Our turnover figures would be set once we receive adequate customer response," Kapur said.
The home furnishing items, 80 per cent of which would be the company's own labels, are priced between Rs 199 to Rs 14,000. Reliance Retail, which operates 800 stores across 60 cities having a total retail space of 38 lakh square feet.
Briefly outlining the expansion strategy, senior vice president of Reliance Retail, Manu Kapur said, "the company plans to open 7 stores in next two months starting with Delhi and Hyderabad". "We have not put any target regarding the number of stores which we intend to set up.
Our turnover figures would be set once we receive adequate customer response," Kapur said.
Sport - India;Maradona gets a tumultuous welcome in Kolkata
Kolkata, Dec 6 (IANS) Thousands of torches and lamps dispelled the darkness of the night, as Kolkatans welcomed football legend Diego Armando Maradona to the city in a carnival atmosphere early Saturday.
Accompanied by girlfriend Veronica, the Argentinian soccer genius touched down at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 1.25 a.m. on a two-day trip to the city, as 50,000 people lined the roads and uncountable more sat glued to their television sets to catch the first glimpse of the football wizard on their home turf.
The diminutive new Argentina soccer coach, in great spirits despite the fatigue of a 48-hour flight, was welcomed at the tarmac by West Bengal sports minister Subhas Chakraborty and the organizers with flowers.
From the airport, Maradona and Vernonica were put into a specially designed bus that had transparent windows to enable the soccer buffs have a momentary glance of the player, whose heroic performance enabled Argentina win the World Cup in 1986.
People, wearing Argentine jerseys and carrying Maradona's cutouts and posters welcoming him in multiple languages - English, Hindi, Bengali and Spanish - ran alongside the bus, as it hit the streets on the way to the hotel.
Maradona fans waved flags of India and Argentina and danced to the tune of foot-tapping Latin American music, besides raising slogans eulogising the football legend who would spend the next two days in the city laying the foundation stone of a soccer academy, visiting Mother House - the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity - and attending a charity dinner.
The unbridled enthusiasm of the soccer aficionados proved infectious, and Maradona rose from his seat in the bus to wave back at the crowd, as two thousand people held aloft lighted torches on both sides of the road.
Giving more Indian traditional touches to the welcome, there were saree-clad women with well-lit earthen lamps and those blowing conch shells to usher in the prince of football, who rose from a shanty town - Villa Fiorito - on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires to reach the zenith of fame and fortune.
Passions ran high in Kolkata, cricket crazy India's soccer crazy hub, as old infirm men waited side by side with children not yet in their teens, able bodied youths and housewives for Maradona.
'I have been waiting for more than an hour.. I am a great fan of Maradona,' said housewife Ratna Sen, who had travelled 25 kms to be a part of the occasion.
Colourful processions also came from various districts, and blue-white balloons resembling the colours of the Argentina jersey were released.
'Maradona is a phenomenon. This is a momentous occasion. It's the raw passion for soccer which has brought so many people on the roads,' said former India international footballer and Arjuna awardee Prasun Banerjee, waiting on a city street.
More than 5000 policemen, including the Rapid Action Force and crack commandos were deployed on the entire route of Maradona's convoy to prevent any breach of peace.
A couple of over-enthusiastic teenagers were seen climbing lamp posts near the airports to hoist Argentine flags, forcing the security personnel to step in and bring them down.
On Saturday, Maradona would be felicitated at the Salt Lake stadium and would also call on communist patriarch Jyoti Basu.
Accompanied by girlfriend Veronica, the Argentinian soccer genius touched down at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 1.25 a.m. on a two-day trip to the city, as 50,000 people lined the roads and uncountable more sat glued to their television sets to catch the first glimpse of the football wizard on their home turf.
The diminutive new Argentina soccer coach, in great spirits despite the fatigue of a 48-hour flight, was welcomed at the tarmac by West Bengal sports minister Subhas Chakraborty and the organizers with flowers.
From the airport, Maradona and Vernonica were put into a specially designed bus that had transparent windows to enable the soccer buffs have a momentary glance of the player, whose heroic performance enabled Argentina win the World Cup in 1986.
People, wearing Argentine jerseys and carrying Maradona's cutouts and posters welcoming him in multiple languages - English, Hindi, Bengali and Spanish - ran alongside the bus, as it hit the streets on the way to the hotel.
Maradona fans waved flags of India and Argentina and danced to the tune of foot-tapping Latin American music, besides raising slogans eulogising the football legend who would spend the next two days in the city laying the foundation stone of a soccer academy, visiting Mother House - the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity - and attending a charity dinner.
The unbridled enthusiasm of the soccer aficionados proved infectious, and Maradona rose from his seat in the bus to wave back at the crowd, as two thousand people held aloft lighted torches on both sides of the road.
Giving more Indian traditional touches to the welcome, there were saree-clad women with well-lit earthen lamps and those blowing conch shells to usher in the prince of football, who rose from a shanty town - Villa Fiorito - on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires to reach the zenith of fame and fortune.
Passions ran high in Kolkata, cricket crazy India's soccer crazy hub, as old infirm men waited side by side with children not yet in their teens, able bodied youths and housewives for Maradona.
'I have been waiting for more than an hour.. I am a great fan of Maradona,' said housewife Ratna Sen, who had travelled 25 kms to be a part of the occasion.
Colourful processions also came from various districts, and blue-white balloons resembling the colours of the Argentina jersey were released.
'Maradona is a phenomenon. This is a momentous occasion. It's the raw passion for soccer which has brought so many people on the roads,' said former India international footballer and Arjuna awardee Prasun Banerjee, waiting on a city street.
More than 5000 policemen, including the Rapid Action Force and crack commandos were deployed on the entire route of Maradona's convoy to prevent any breach of peace.
A couple of over-enthusiastic teenagers were seen climbing lamp posts near the airports to hoist Argentine flags, forcing the security personnel to step in and bring them down.
On Saturday, Maradona would be felicitated at the Salt Lake stadium and would also call on communist patriarch Jyoti Basu.
Business - India;Nuke power sector to be opened to pvt players
India will open nuclear power sector to private players after talks on civil nuclear agreement with Canada and Russia conclude, minister for science and technology, Kapil Sibal said on Friday. He said the government is also working towards allowing foreign direct investments in the mining sector.
"Once the negotiations with Russia, and possibly Canada in nuclear commerce talks are done with, the government will soon open up the sector (nuclear power sector) for the private players to participate," Sibal said.
"The government is also drafting regulatory framework towards opening up the mining sector for FDI," he added. The minister called for innovative methods for generating renewable energy, agricultural optimisation, and innovations in technological upgrade. "Technology itself is not the solution, we need to develop parallel infrastructure to run the technology," he said.
The department of science and technology's head for international cooperation YP Kumar said, "Some 14 joint RandD projects have been identified, under the Indo-Canada and Indo-Israel cooperation agreements. This number can be further augmented with greater bilateral interactions."
Canadian high commissioner Joseph Caron said Canada is making efforts for increasing energy efficacy demands. For this, he said India and Canada are exploring the possibility of setting up joint nanotech and biotech centres, and a combined funding of $17 million has been received for this.
CII former president and Hero Honda Corporate Services chairman Sunil Kant Munjal lauded Canada for its work in the field of energy conservation, efficacy and production.
Highlighting the work done by Hero Honda toward preventing climate change, he said, "Hero Honda has setup a new plant at Haridwar, which might be the world's largest green roof. The need of the hour is to think beyond the currently addressed problems, and think about future. Industries in India have woken up a little late, but they are being proactive in addressing the environmental concerns."
"Once the negotiations with Russia, and possibly Canada in nuclear commerce talks are done with, the government will soon open up the sector (nuclear power sector) for the private players to participate," Sibal said.
"The government is also drafting regulatory framework towards opening up the mining sector for FDI," he added. The minister called for innovative methods for generating renewable energy, agricultural optimisation, and innovations in technological upgrade. "Technology itself is not the solution, we need to develop parallel infrastructure to run the technology," he said.
The department of science and technology's head for international cooperation YP Kumar said, "Some 14 joint RandD projects have been identified, under the Indo-Canada and Indo-Israel cooperation agreements. This number can be further augmented with greater bilateral interactions."
Canadian high commissioner Joseph Caron said Canada is making efforts for increasing energy efficacy demands. For this, he said India and Canada are exploring the possibility of setting up joint nanotech and biotech centres, and a combined funding of $17 million has been received for this.
CII former president and Hero Honda Corporate Services chairman Sunil Kant Munjal lauded Canada for its work in the field of energy conservation, efficacy and production.
Highlighting the work done by Hero Honda toward preventing climate change, he said, "Hero Honda has setup a new plant at Haridwar, which might be the world's largest green roof. The need of the hour is to think beyond the currently addressed problems, and think about future. Industries in India have woken up a little late, but they are being proactive in addressing the environmental concerns."
Tech - World's fastest personal supercomputer unveiled
London, December 5 (ANI): An American company has unveiled the world's first personal supercomputer, which is 250 times faster than the average PCs.
David Kirk, chief scientist at the company NVIDIA, has revealed that the Tesla supercomputers will go on sale for more than 4,000 pounds.
Most consumers may consider that amount very hefty, but the company says that it is just a tiny fraction of what computers with similar capabilities usually cost.
The designers of the novel supercomputer believe that it should be able to help doctors process the results for brain and body scans much more quickly, allowing them to tell patients within hours instead of days whether they have a tumour.
Scientists also hope that they will be able to find cures for cancer and malaria faster than traditional research, as the novel personal supercomputer would enable them to run hundreds of thousands of simulations to create a shortlist of the most potent drugs.
"Pretty much anything that you do on your PC that takes a lot of time can be accelerated with this," Times Online quoted David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA, as saying.
Unlike previous supercomputers that needed huge rooms for installation, Tesla personal supercomputers will look like the PC that many people already have in their homes.
"These supercomputers can improve the time it takes to process information by 1,000 times. If you imagine it takes a week to get a result [from running an experiment], you can only do it 52 times a year. If it takes you minutes, you can do it constantly, and learn just as much in a day," Dr Kirk said.
The new computers make innovative use of graphics processing units (GPUs).
They were first launched in the U.S. last month, and became available to British customers on December 4.
Tesla supercomputers will initially be sold to the scientific and research community and universities.
The PC maker Dell said that it would soon be mass-producing them for the general consumer market.
Eric Greffier, a Dell senior executive, said: "Before mobile phones were reserved for the few, now we can't live without them. It will be the same with these supercomputers. They are the building block for the computing of the future." (ANI)
David Kirk, chief scientist at the company NVIDIA, has revealed that the Tesla supercomputers will go on sale for more than 4,000 pounds.
Most consumers may consider that amount very hefty, but the company says that it is just a tiny fraction of what computers with similar capabilities usually cost.
The designers of the novel supercomputer believe that it should be able to help doctors process the results for brain and body scans much more quickly, allowing them to tell patients within hours instead of days whether they have a tumour.
Scientists also hope that they will be able to find cures for cancer and malaria faster than traditional research, as the novel personal supercomputer would enable them to run hundreds of thousands of simulations to create a shortlist of the most potent drugs.
"Pretty much anything that you do on your PC that takes a lot of time can be accelerated with this," Times Online quoted David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA, as saying.
Unlike previous supercomputers that needed huge rooms for installation, Tesla personal supercomputers will look like the PC that many people already have in their homes.
"These supercomputers can improve the time it takes to process information by 1,000 times. If you imagine it takes a week to get a result [from running an experiment], you can only do it 52 times a year. If it takes you minutes, you can do it constantly, and learn just as much in a day," Dr Kirk said.
The new computers make innovative use of graphics processing units (GPUs).
They were first launched in the U.S. last month, and became available to British customers on December 4.
Tesla supercomputers will initially be sold to the scientific and research community and universities.
The PC maker Dell said that it would soon be mass-producing them for the general consumer market.
Eric Greffier, a Dell senior executive, said: "Before mobile phones were reserved for the few, now we can't live without them. It will be the same with these supercomputers. They are the building block for the computing of the future." (ANI)
Health - Two-drug BP therapy can prevent heart attack, stroke
Washington, Dec 4 (ANI): Doctors are usually advised to begin high blood pressure treatment with a diuretic-based strategy, but now an international study has shown that a different single-pill drug combination could be more effective at preventing cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.
The findings of the randomised study led by a University of Michigan Health System researcher, has actually challenged the way blood pressure is usually treated worldwide.
The researchers in the ACCOMPLISH study compared two drug combinations and the results turned out to be so significant that the trial was stopped early.
Both single-pill combination drugs helped more than 75 percent of people who had high blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors get their blood pressure down.
In fact, more importantly, patients in the study taking the combination that included a calcium channel blocker had 20 percent fewer heart-related events than the patients taking the other combination.
For the study, a total of 11,506 study participants took a single tablet that includes two medications. One group received a tablet containing benazepril, which is a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor, and amlodipine, which belongs to a class of drugs known as calcium channel blockers or CCBs. The other pill combined benazepril and hydrochloro-thiazide, a type of diuretic or "water pill."
Scientists observed a 20 percent reduction in cardiovascular events with the ACE/CCB combination tablet.
Currently, national guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure (also called hypertension) call for patients who need medication to start out on a single pill, usually a diuretic, or water pill, and to add other drugs only as needed to bring pressure down.
However, the new results may actually change those guidelines. The new study suggests physicians no longer give diuretics preferred status in treating patients.
"This robust study showed us that switching patients to a single-pill combination meant that twice as many patients got to their blood pressure goal, regardless of previous therapy," said University of Michigan Health System's Kenneth Jamerson, M.D., the leader of the study.
He added: "The significant reduction in cardiovascular events we observed in patients will, I hope, show physicians that earlier use of a combination medication, especially with amlodipine, may be in the best interest of patients," he says.
The study results have shown that just six months of treatment with either drug combination was enough to bring the blood pressure of 73 percent of patients into an acceptable range.
The drop in blood pressure was despite the fact that two-thirds were already taking some other medication before they entered the study.
The study has appeared in the latest edition of New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)
The findings of the randomised study led by a University of Michigan Health System researcher, has actually challenged the way blood pressure is usually treated worldwide.
The researchers in the ACCOMPLISH study compared two drug combinations and the results turned out to be so significant that the trial was stopped early.
Both single-pill combination drugs helped more than 75 percent of people who had high blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors get their blood pressure down.
In fact, more importantly, patients in the study taking the combination that included a calcium channel blocker had 20 percent fewer heart-related events than the patients taking the other combination.
For the study, a total of 11,506 study participants took a single tablet that includes two medications. One group received a tablet containing benazepril, which is a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor, and amlodipine, which belongs to a class of drugs known as calcium channel blockers or CCBs. The other pill combined benazepril and hydrochloro-thiazide, a type of diuretic or "water pill."
Scientists observed a 20 percent reduction in cardiovascular events with the ACE/CCB combination tablet.
Currently, national guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure (also called hypertension) call for patients who need medication to start out on a single pill, usually a diuretic, or water pill, and to add other drugs only as needed to bring pressure down.
However, the new results may actually change those guidelines. The new study suggests physicians no longer give diuretics preferred status in treating patients.
"This robust study showed us that switching patients to a single-pill combination meant that twice as many patients got to their blood pressure goal, regardless of previous therapy," said University of Michigan Health System's Kenneth Jamerson, M.D., the leader of the study.
He added: "The significant reduction in cardiovascular events we observed in patients will, I hope, show physicians that earlier use of a combination medication, especially with amlodipine, may be in the best interest of patients," he says.
The study results have shown that just six months of treatment with either drug combination was enough to bring the blood pressure of 73 percent of patients into an acceptable range.
The drop in blood pressure was despite the fact that two-thirds were already taking some other medication before they entered the study.
The study has appeared in the latest edition of New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)
Science - Cleaner air will make buildings turn green with lichen and moss
London, Dec 5 (ANI): A new research into how stone facades will be altered by changes in the atmosphere has suggested that as pollution patterns change, iconic limestone structures like the Empire State Building and the Pentagon will turn green with lichen and moss in the future.
According to a report in New Scientist, cities will become more colorful as pollution patterns change and wind-swept rain washes away the black coal soot typical of the 20th century.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, cities in Europe and the US were dominated by dark grey and black buildings.
These were often made of cream-coloured stones like limestones, covered in a black crust of coal soot.
According to Peter Brimblecombe and Carlotta Grossi of the University of East Anglia in the UK, the era where atmospheric pollution determined the damage to building materials is over.
The pair recently completed an assessment of how damage to buildings in London has varied over the past 900 years and how it is likely to evolve over the coming century, when soot from coal-burning stoves is unlikely to be a concern, but climate change is.
They used historical climate and pollution data, combined with equations that describe how different climates and different types of pollution affect building materials.
For instance, archive tax records show how much fuel was used through the centuries, which can be used to estimate historical pollution levels.
With estimates of how much black carbon soot deposited on buildings at different times, the researchers can calculate the reflectivity of buildings, which indicates how black they were.
It turns out that for most of the 900 years, buildings were clean.
"It seems the past two centuries (of blackened buildings) were a bizarre anomaly," said Brimblecombe. "In a sense, we are now back in medieval England," he added.
A study on a limestone building known as the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, using pictures taken throughout its 20th century construction, shows that the cream-coloured facade was black even before the structure was completed in the 1930s.
In subsequent decades, however, air-quality regulations meant black crusts of soot became less of a problem, and parts of the building that get most soaked with rain have been naturally cleaned.
According to the researchers, the coming century will see iconic limestone structures like the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the gothic cathedrals of Europe and the US turn yellow, reddish-brown, and even green with lichen and moss. (ANI)
According to a report in New Scientist, cities will become more colorful as pollution patterns change and wind-swept rain washes away the black coal soot typical of the 20th century.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, cities in Europe and the US were dominated by dark grey and black buildings.
These were often made of cream-coloured stones like limestones, covered in a black crust of coal soot.
According to Peter Brimblecombe and Carlotta Grossi of the University of East Anglia in the UK, the era where atmospheric pollution determined the damage to building materials is over.
The pair recently completed an assessment of how damage to buildings in London has varied over the past 900 years and how it is likely to evolve over the coming century, when soot from coal-burning stoves is unlikely to be a concern, but climate change is.
They used historical climate and pollution data, combined with equations that describe how different climates and different types of pollution affect building materials.
For instance, archive tax records show how much fuel was used through the centuries, which can be used to estimate historical pollution levels.
With estimates of how much black carbon soot deposited on buildings at different times, the researchers can calculate the reflectivity of buildings, which indicates how black they were.
It turns out that for most of the 900 years, buildings were clean.
"It seems the past two centuries (of blackened buildings) were a bizarre anomaly," said Brimblecombe. "In a sense, we are now back in medieval England," he added.
A study on a limestone building known as the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, using pictures taken throughout its 20th century construction, shows that the cream-coloured facade was black even before the structure was completed in the 1930s.
In subsequent decades, however, air-quality regulations meant black crusts of soot became less of a problem, and parts of the building that get most soaked with rain have been naturally cleaned.
According to the researchers, the coming century will see iconic limestone structures like the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the gothic cathedrals of Europe and the US turn yellow, reddish-brown, and even green with lichen and moss. (ANI)
Entertainment - Beyonce is richest young star with $80 mn in bank
London, Dec 5 (IANS) American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer and actress Beyonce Knowles has been named as the richest star under 30 with an estimated $80 million (55 million pound) bank balance.
According to contactmusic.com, Knowles, 27, topped the list of wealthy young celebrities compiled by Forbes magazine, just weeks after she and her rapper husband Jay-Z were named Hollywood's richest couple by the publication.
Pop superstar Justin Timberlake, 27, came second with an earnings of $43 million (30 million pound) followed closely by US basketball player Kobe Bryant with $39 million (26.8 million pound).
Others to have made it to the top 10 in sequential order are LeBron James, Roger Federer, Keira Knightley, Maria Sharapova, Daniel Radcliffe, Miley Cyrus and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
According to contactmusic.com, Knowles, 27, topped the list of wealthy young celebrities compiled by Forbes magazine, just weeks after she and her rapper husband Jay-Z were named Hollywood's richest couple by the publication.
Pop superstar Justin Timberlake, 27, came second with an earnings of $43 million (30 million pound) followed closely by US basketball player Kobe Bryant with $39 million (26.8 million pound).
Others to have made it to the top 10 in sequential order are LeBron James, Roger Federer, Keira Knightley, Maria Sharapova, Daniel Radcliffe, Miley Cyrus and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
India - Cheaper airfare on cards as Jet slashes fuel surcharge after AI
India's largest private carrier Jet Airways has announced a reduction in fuel surcharge on air fares on all domestic routes from December 6. This move is in response to the recent reduction in aviation turbine fuel by the oil marketing companies. Crude oil prices has plunged to $46 a barrel from $147 a barrel in July 2008.
Flag carrier Air India has also reduced fuel surcharge from December 2 on all its domestic routes. Other airlines may follow suit, say industry observers. The move by these carriers is aimed at wooing back passengers whom airlines had lost to other modes of transport on account of higher air fares.
For routes under 750 kms, Jet has reduced the applicable fuel surcharge by Rs 400, to Rs 1,950. Fuel surcharge on these routes previously stood at Rs 2,350. For routes over 750 kms, the carrier has also reduced the applicable fuel surcharge by Rs 400 to Rs 2,700. Fuel surcharge on these routes previously stood at Rs 3,100.
Similarly, Air India has reduced fuel surcharge for all domestic sector flights by Rs 400. The fuel-surcharge is now Rs 2,350 for sectors below 750 kms and Rs 3,100 for sectors over 750 kms. The average reduction in fuel surcharge will be over 14.5%.
The cut-back in fuel-surcharge is a consequence of the reduction in ATF prices from September 2008 onwards, including the reduction announced by oil companies for December 2008. Domestic air travel demand has been sluggish in recent months, and the reduction in fuel surcharge is expected to stimulate domestic air travel market during the winter peak season. Says Raghu Menon, CMD, Air India, "We have decided to bring down the fuel surcharge, now that crude prices have fallen globally, thereby bringing down aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Although crude prices are still volatile, we hope it will stabilise at current levels, so that there is a short to medium term relief in ATF costs." He adds that while the airlines are no doubt going through difficult times, it is necessary for the carrier to react positively to pass on some concession to passengers and generate demand.
However, according to data available with the Air Passenger Association of India (APAI), air travel dipped nearly 30% in the July-September quarter owing to record high air fares on the domestic network. Says an aviation analyst, "Seats are a perishable commodity. Once the doors of the aircraft are shut, unoccupied seats are a waste.With dwindling load factors, airlines are unable to pull in their revenues. Slashing air fares are a smart business proposition for the airlines."
Flag carrier Air India has also reduced fuel surcharge from December 2 on all its domestic routes. Other airlines may follow suit, say industry observers. The move by these carriers is aimed at wooing back passengers whom airlines had lost to other modes of transport on account of higher air fares.
For routes under 750 kms, Jet has reduced the applicable fuel surcharge by Rs 400, to Rs 1,950. Fuel surcharge on these routes previously stood at Rs 2,350. For routes over 750 kms, the carrier has also reduced the applicable fuel surcharge by Rs 400 to Rs 2,700. Fuel surcharge on these routes previously stood at Rs 3,100.
Similarly, Air India has reduced fuel surcharge for all domestic sector flights by Rs 400. The fuel-surcharge is now Rs 2,350 for sectors below 750 kms and Rs 3,100 for sectors over 750 kms. The average reduction in fuel surcharge will be over 14.5%.
The cut-back in fuel-surcharge is a consequence of the reduction in ATF prices from September 2008 onwards, including the reduction announced by oil companies for December 2008. Domestic air travel demand has been sluggish in recent months, and the reduction in fuel surcharge is expected to stimulate domestic air travel market during the winter peak season. Says Raghu Menon, CMD, Air India, "We have decided to bring down the fuel surcharge, now that crude prices have fallen globally, thereby bringing down aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Although crude prices are still volatile, we hope it will stabilise at current levels, so that there is a short to medium term relief in ATF costs." He adds that while the airlines are no doubt going through difficult times, it is necessary for the carrier to react positively to pass on some concession to passengers and generate demand.
However, according to data available with the Air Passenger Association of India (APAI), air travel dipped nearly 30% in the July-September quarter owing to record high air fares on the domestic network. Says an aviation analyst, "Seats are a perishable commodity. Once the doors of the aircraft are shut, unoccupied seats are a waste.With dwindling load factors, airlines are unable to pull in their revenues. Slashing air fares are a smart business proposition for the airlines."
World - US;O.J. Simpson sentenced to up to 33 years in prison
O.J. Simpson, acquitted in a murder trial that gripped America more than a decade ago, was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison on Friday for kidnapping and robbery in a bungled attempt to recover memorabilia of his storied sports career.
Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass ruled that Simpson, 61, who was known as "The Juice" during his days with the National Football League and later appeared in several movies, would be eligible for parole after nine years.
The retired star athlete had been found guilty two months ago of all 12 charges against him for last year's gunpoint holdup of two sports collectors in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Shackled and dressed in blue prison garb, Simpson appeared somber as the sentence was pronounced. Minutes earlier he had pleaded for leniency, saying he had only meant to retrieve personal possessions he believed were wrongly taken from him.
"I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and I didn't mean to steal anything," he said, his husky voice trembling with emotion.
Defense lawyer Yale Galanter insisted Simpson acted foolishly, though not out of criminal intent. But Glass was unmoved, saying, "It was much more than stupidity."
Before his downfall, Simpson had not only been a sports hero in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the very picture of American success and celebrity.
Simpson has been in custody since he was convicted of the hotel room robbery on Oct. 3.
That was exactly 13 years after his controversial 1995 acquittal in Los Angeles of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, who were found stabbed and slashed to death in June 1994.
A civil court jury later found Simpson liable for the deaths and awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that remains largely unpaid.
SIMPSON IN SHACKLES
Goldman's father Fred and other family members, who have pursued Simpson for years in court and in the media, were present for the sentencing and celebrated the decision.
"We are thrilled. It is a bittersweet moment knowing that that S.O.B. (son of a bitch) is going to be in jail for a very long time. It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs," said Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman.
Denise Brown, sister of Simpson's slain ex-wife, added her family had "mixed emotions" about the sentence because of Simpson's two children with Nicole -- Sydney and Justin, who are both in their 20s.
"Our hearts are saddened that they once again face the tragedy of yet another parent absent in their lives," Brown said.
The most serious penalty received by the onetime star was 15 years for kidnapping. He was sentenced to an additional six years for use of a deadly weapon in the commission of that crime, plus 12 years for assault, bringing his total maximum term to 33 years.
Simpson had faced a possible life sentence. His lawyers had asked that he serve no more than six years for storming into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino with five cohorts to hold two sports merchandise dealers at gunpoint, then making off with thousands of dollars in collectibles.
The four other men originally charged in the case all pleaded guilty and took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of testimony.
Neither Simpson nor co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart, who was sentenced to spend 7 1/2 to 27 years in prison on Friday, testified during the trial.
Galanter has said his client's past as a notorious murder defendant, widely seen as having eluded justice in Los Angeles, was a factor in Las Vegas jurors' guilty verdict.
And prosecutors told jurors during opening statements that the Las Vegas case grew out of grudges Simpson had nursed since his murder trial and civil case, and suggested they could right a wrong by convicting him.
But Judge Glass, known for her tough sentences, said she was not influenced by Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago.
"There are many people who disagreed with that verdict but that's not what matters to me," she said before sentencing him. "I'm not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else."
(Additional reporting by Damon Hodge)
Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass ruled that Simpson, 61, who was known as "The Juice" during his days with the National Football League and later appeared in several movies, would be eligible for parole after nine years.
The retired star athlete had been found guilty two months ago of all 12 charges against him for last year's gunpoint holdup of two sports collectors in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Shackled and dressed in blue prison garb, Simpson appeared somber as the sentence was pronounced. Minutes earlier he had pleaded for leniency, saying he had only meant to retrieve personal possessions he believed were wrongly taken from him.
"I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and I didn't mean to steal anything," he said, his husky voice trembling with emotion.
Defense lawyer Yale Galanter insisted Simpson acted foolishly, though not out of criminal intent. But Glass was unmoved, saying, "It was much more than stupidity."
Before his downfall, Simpson had not only been a sports hero in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the very picture of American success and celebrity.
Simpson has been in custody since he was convicted of the hotel room robbery on Oct. 3.
That was exactly 13 years after his controversial 1995 acquittal in Los Angeles of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, who were found stabbed and slashed to death in June 1994.
A civil court jury later found Simpson liable for the deaths and awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that remains largely unpaid.
SIMPSON IN SHACKLES
Goldman's father Fred and other family members, who have pursued Simpson for years in court and in the media, were present for the sentencing and celebrated the decision.
"We are thrilled. It is a bittersweet moment knowing that that S.O.B. (son of a bitch) is going to be in jail for a very long time. It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs," said Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman.
Denise Brown, sister of Simpson's slain ex-wife, added her family had "mixed emotions" about the sentence because of Simpson's two children with Nicole -- Sydney and Justin, who are both in their 20s.
"Our hearts are saddened that they once again face the tragedy of yet another parent absent in their lives," Brown said.
The most serious penalty received by the onetime star was 15 years for kidnapping. He was sentenced to an additional six years for use of a deadly weapon in the commission of that crime, plus 12 years for assault, bringing his total maximum term to 33 years.
Simpson had faced a possible life sentence. His lawyers had asked that he serve no more than six years for storming into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino with five cohorts to hold two sports merchandise dealers at gunpoint, then making off with thousands of dollars in collectibles.
The four other men originally charged in the case all pleaded guilty and took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of testimony.
Neither Simpson nor co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart, who was sentenced to spend 7 1/2 to 27 years in prison on Friday, testified during the trial.
Galanter has said his client's past as a notorious murder defendant, widely seen as having eluded justice in Los Angeles, was a factor in Las Vegas jurors' guilty verdict.
And prosecutors told jurors during opening statements that the Las Vegas case grew out of grudges Simpson had nursed since his murder trial and civil case, and suggested they could right a wrong by convicting him.
But Judge Glass, known for her tough sentences, said she was not influenced by Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago.
"There are many people who disagreed with that verdict but that's not what matters to me," she said before sentencing him. "I'm not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else."
(Additional reporting by Damon Hodge)
Dec 5, 2008
India - Ratan Tata can be India's Obama
NEW YORK: Who could be India's Obama who could unite the country and march the nation forward at a traumatic time?
"While it (India) has the sympathy of the world (after the recent attacks), India could have an Obama moment -- one in which a leader, whose personal history epitomises the country's principles, marches forward to unite the country during its very moment of trauma. India has a chance now to get it right, but it needs a strong, credible leader to step up," Forbes said in a report.
"As an American, I don't get a vote in India, but if I did, mine would go to Ratan Tata," added the report written by Forbes magazine' Senior Editor (Asia) Robyn Meredith.
"He is not a politician, but he is the country's most respected business leader. His Tata Group owns the Taj hotel that was just attacked, but his family is just as connected to India's proud history as its shell-shocked present," Meredith wrote in a weekly column published online.
Posing the question whether should there be not a way to involve Tata at the highest level in the government, the report noted that "a fractured India" would immensely benefit from his acumen and constructive patriotism.
Meredith pointed out, "Should there not be a way to involve him in government at the highest level? A fractured India would benefit immeasurably from his acumen, his managerial skills, and his very obvious--but always constructive--patriotism."
Wondering what if the nation leapfrogged America's approach, the magazine pointed out that the political leap could be as successful as the country's technology jump
"While it (India) has the sympathy of the world (after the recent attacks), India could have an Obama moment -- one in which a leader, whose personal history epitomises the country's principles, marches forward to unite the country during its very moment of trauma. India has a chance now to get it right, but it needs a strong, credible leader to step up," Forbes said in a report.
"As an American, I don't get a vote in India, but if I did, mine would go to Ratan Tata," added the report written by Forbes magazine' Senior Editor (Asia) Robyn Meredith.
"He is not a politician, but he is the country's most respected business leader. His Tata Group owns the Taj hotel that was just attacked, but his family is just as connected to India's proud history as its shell-shocked present," Meredith wrote in a weekly column published online.
Posing the question whether should there be not a way to involve Tata at the highest level in the government, the report noted that "a fractured India" would immensely benefit from his acumen and constructive patriotism.
Meredith pointed out, "Should there not be a way to involve him in government at the highest level? A fractured India would benefit immeasurably from his acumen, his managerial skills, and his very obvious--but always constructive--patriotism."
Wondering what if the nation leapfrogged America's approach, the magazine pointed out that the political leap could be as successful as the country's technology jump
Mktg - Cyber Monday Web Traffic Up 10%
NEW YORK Web traffic from home and work to sites included in Nielsen Online's Holiday eShopping Index increased 10percent year over year on Cyber Monday, per data compiled by Nielsen Online.
Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13 percent increase over this year's Black Friday Web traffic.
Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay drew the largest unique audience (10.6 million), while Amazon and Wal-Mart claimed second and third places, with 9 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively.
Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears' site saw the fastest growth (+58 percent year over year).
Beauty was the fastest-growing product category on Monday, increasing 151 percent over the previous Monday, Nov. 24, 2008.
Toys/videogames ranked second, growing 112 percent Monday over Monday, while apparel rounded out the top three with an increase of 58 percent.
"The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales," Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted. "It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15 will be the peak day for online shopping traffic."
Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13 percent increase over this year's Black Friday Web traffic.
Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay drew the largest unique audience (10.6 million), while Amazon and Wal-Mart claimed second and third places, with 9 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively.
Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears' site saw the fastest growth (+58 percent year over year).
Beauty was the fastest-growing product category on Monday, increasing 151 percent over the previous Monday, Nov. 24, 2008.
Toys/videogames ranked second, growing 112 percent Monday over Monday, while apparel rounded out the top three with an increase of 58 percent.
"The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales," Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted. "It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15 will be the peak day for online shopping traffic."
Entertainment - Oprah drops hint on Syndie plans
Andrew Krukowski
Oprah Winfrey, asked about her plans for 2011 after the contract for her current syndicated show ends, told “Access Hollywood” Wednesday night that she’s “not done” with her show.
"I'm not done," she told “Access” at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's 50th anniversary gala in New York. "I'm a very multi-dimensional woman. I can do a show, I can have OWN [Oprah Winfrey Network], I can have a magazine, I can do radio."
Questions have swirled regarding the post-2011 future of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in syndication after Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in early November that “the expectation is that after that, her show will go off [in 2011] of ABC in syndication and she will come to OWN.” Discovery and Ms. Winfrey are co-owners of OWN.
Mrs. Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions, today reiterated the comment it made after Mr. Zaslav’s comments.
“While David Zaslav's comments are true that Oprah's current contract to produce 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' will expire in 2011, she has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that,” said Lisa Halliday, chief spokesperson for Harpo, said.
Mrs. Winfrey made similar statements regarding the future of her show during a Tuesday night fundraiser in New York.
“I'm a girl that keeps her word. I have a contract till 2011, so right now that's what I have until someone writes me another one....I'm going to fulfill my contractual obligations and fulfill them happily.” the Chicago Sun-Times quoted Ms. Winfrey as saying.
Both CBS Television Distribution and OWN declined comment.
AccessHollywood.com and TVWeek.com provide content for one another through a content syndication agreement.
Oprah Winfrey, asked about her plans for 2011 after the contract for her current syndicated show ends, told “Access Hollywood” Wednesday night that she’s “not done” with her show.
"I'm not done," she told “Access” at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's 50th anniversary gala in New York. "I'm a very multi-dimensional woman. I can do a show, I can have OWN [Oprah Winfrey Network], I can have a magazine, I can do radio."
Questions have swirled regarding the post-2011 future of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in syndication after Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in early November that “the expectation is that after that, her show will go off [in 2011] of ABC in syndication and she will come to OWN.” Discovery and Ms. Winfrey are co-owners of OWN.
Mrs. Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions, today reiterated the comment it made after Mr. Zaslav’s comments.
“While David Zaslav's comments are true that Oprah's current contract to produce 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' will expire in 2011, she has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that,” said Lisa Halliday, chief spokesperson for Harpo, said.
Mrs. Winfrey made similar statements regarding the future of her show during a Tuesday night fundraiser in New York.
“I'm a girl that keeps her word. I have a contract till 2011, so right now that's what I have until someone writes me another one....I'm going to fulfill my contractual obligations and fulfill them happily.” the Chicago Sun-Times quoted Ms. Winfrey as saying.
Both CBS Television Distribution and OWN declined comment.
AccessHollywood.com and TVWeek.com provide content for one another through a content syndication agreement.
Mktg - PepsiCo ropes in Jill Beraud as chief marketing officer
MUMBAI: PepsiCo has appointed Jill Beraud to the newly created position of chief marketing officer (CMO), worldwide. She will report to PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer Indra Nooyi.
Beraud comes to PepsiCo after spending 13 years with Limited Brands, where she was most recently chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret.
At PepsiCo, Beraud will be responsible for developing global marketing strategies for PepsiCo's portfolio of brands to drive long-term growth and innovation.
Her responsibilities will include:
Uncovering consumer insights through the most current approaches to give the company's brands a jump on the latest consumer trends.
Providing leadership in determining the style and functionality of packaging based on consumer needs.
Further developing the capabilities of PepsiCo's marketing organisation.
Coordinating marketing efforts across agencies; and working closely with functional leads in research and development, finance, sales, operations and the company's business sectors.
"Never have we integrated our marketing efforts in a holistic, global and disciplined fashion across the PepsiCo enterprise. Jill has a proven track record of building brands and delivering profitable sales growth through innovative marketing," said Nooyi.
Prior to her role as CMO of Victoria's Secret, Beraud was EVP and COO of marketing for Limited Brands' portfolio including Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel, Express, Limited Stores and Victoria's Secret.
Beraud comes to PepsiCo after spending 13 years with Limited Brands, where she was most recently chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret.
At PepsiCo, Beraud will be responsible for developing global marketing strategies for PepsiCo's portfolio of brands to drive long-term growth and innovation.
Her responsibilities will include:
Uncovering consumer insights through the most current approaches to give the company's brands a jump on the latest consumer trends.
Providing leadership in determining the style and functionality of packaging based on consumer needs.
Further developing the capabilities of PepsiCo's marketing organisation.
Coordinating marketing efforts across agencies; and working closely with functional leads in research and development, finance, sales, operations and the company's business sectors.
"Never have we integrated our marketing efforts in a holistic, global and disciplined fashion across the PepsiCo enterprise. Jill has a proven track record of building brands and delivering profitable sales growth through innovative marketing," said Nooyi.
Prior to her role as CMO of Victoria's Secret, Beraud was EVP and COO of marketing for Limited Brands' portfolio including Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel, Express, Limited Stores and Victoria's Secret.
Entertainment - WWE launches online social network
MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has announced the launch of “WWE Universe, an online social networking site hosted at WWE.com.
In addition to connecting with the millions of other WWE devotees from around the globe, WWE Universe allows its members to:
- Connect with larger-than-life WWE Superstars, most of whom have their own official profiles on WWE Universe.
- Exclusively experience WWE.com Live Blogs featuring interactive commentary during live WWE programming, special events and pay-per-view broadcasts.
- Create message boards, blogs and discussion groups, upload images (and soon video), have live chats and interact with other members of the WWE Universe.
WWE GM digital media Brian Kalinowski says, “WWE Universe is the first social networking site specifically designed and developed for the WWE online community. We are very excited to provide an online destination that WWE fans can call home”.
In addition to connecting with the millions of other WWE devotees from around the globe, WWE Universe allows its members to:
- Connect with larger-than-life WWE Superstars, most of whom have their own official profiles on WWE Universe.
- Exclusively experience WWE.com Live Blogs featuring interactive commentary during live WWE programming, special events and pay-per-view broadcasts.
- Create message boards, blogs and discussion groups, upload images (and soon video), have live chats and interact with other members of the WWE Universe.
WWE GM digital media Brian Kalinowski says, “WWE Universe is the first social networking site specifically designed and developed for the WWE online community. We are very excited to provide an online destination that WWE fans can call home”.
Business - India;Govt issues norms for publishing foreign mags in India
NEW DELHI: The government has issued guidelines for foreign news and current affairs magazines publishing Indian editions, prescribing key editorial and executive positions to be filled up by Indians.
According to the guidelines announced today, 75 per cent of the boards of directors of the publishing companies should be resident Indians.
The magazines have been allowed to reproduce their foreign editions entirely, while permitting them to add local content and advertisements, an official statement said.
According to a ministry source, the government's decision will provide Indian readers access to foreign magazines at cheaper rates in comparison to the same magazines imported at much higher rates. He added that it would help the Indian reader to keep abreast with the latest events and happenings on the global platform.
Foreign magazines that are publishing continuously for at least five years are eligible to get approval for Indian editions.
The proposed publication should have been published continuously for a period of at least 5 years, and the publication must have had a circulation of at least 10,000 paid copies in the last financial year in the country of its origin.
The period of continuous publication and circulation must be certified by the respective Governmental authority of the country. If there is no such Governmental authority regulating such matters, the certificate should be from respected and recognised agencies engaged in the business of certification.
The guidelines also directed that Indian companies that form joint ventures with foreign magazines for royalty or other payments will have to abide by the rules and regulations framed by the government from time to time.
Moreover, the guidelines stated that the foreign magazines must allow government agencies to inspect their facilities at any time.
The Indian companies would be allowed to enter into financial arrangements (such as royalty payment arrangements, etc.) with the owners of the foreign magazines subject to the rules and regulations of the Government of India issued on the matter from time to time.
The mandate states that the publisher/owner of the foreign magazine proposing to have Indian edition would be granted only to those entities/publishers which are registered as an Indian company with the Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956.
The Government has reserved the the right to suspend/ withdraw/ cancel the permission of the company for a specified period or for whole time, if the conditions specified in the grant of permission is violated or in public interest or in the interest of national security. The company shall immediately comply with the directives issued in this regard.
The government allows 26 per cent in news and current affairs sector in the print media.
According to the guidelines announced today, 75 per cent of the boards of directors of the publishing companies should be resident Indians.
The magazines have been allowed to reproduce their foreign editions entirely, while permitting them to add local content and advertisements, an official statement said.
According to a ministry source, the government's decision will provide Indian readers access to foreign magazines at cheaper rates in comparison to the same magazines imported at much higher rates. He added that it would help the Indian reader to keep abreast with the latest events and happenings on the global platform.
Foreign magazines that are publishing continuously for at least five years are eligible to get approval for Indian editions.
The proposed publication should have been published continuously for a period of at least 5 years, and the publication must have had a circulation of at least 10,000 paid copies in the last financial year in the country of its origin.
The period of continuous publication and circulation must be certified by the respective Governmental authority of the country. If there is no such Governmental authority regulating such matters, the certificate should be from respected and recognised agencies engaged in the business of certification.
The guidelines also directed that Indian companies that form joint ventures with foreign magazines for royalty or other payments will have to abide by the rules and regulations framed by the government from time to time.
Moreover, the guidelines stated that the foreign magazines must allow government agencies to inspect their facilities at any time.
The Indian companies would be allowed to enter into financial arrangements (such as royalty payment arrangements, etc.) with the owners of the foreign magazines subject to the rules and regulations of the Government of India issued on the matter from time to time.
The mandate states that the publisher/owner of the foreign magazine proposing to have Indian edition would be granted only to those entities/publishers which are registered as an Indian company with the Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956.
The Government has reserved the the right to suspend/ withdraw/ cancel the permission of the company for a specified period or for whole time, if the conditions specified in the grant of permission is violated or in public interest or in the interest of national security. The company shall immediately comply with the directives issued in this regard.
The government allows 26 per cent in news and current affairs sector in the print media.
Entertainment - VH1 brings Big Brother to India
MUMBAI: Vh1, the international music and lifestyle channel from Viacom18 stable, is set to launch the format reality show Big Brother on Indian television.
After the success of Bigg Boss2 on network channel Colors, Vh1 is bringing the international version of Big Brother for Indian audience starting 14 December. The show will be aired every Sunday-Wednesday at 10 pm.
The season - Till Death Do You Part Season 9 USA – is claimed as the “Most Explosive” Big Brother season of all time, the company said in a release.
The launch episode will see 16 houseguests entering the house to compete for the prize sum of $500,000 and to find their true love.
Vh1 India associate GM Ferzad Palia said, “We are excited about bringing Big Brother to the Indian screens. Indian audiences have loved Bigg Boss2 on Colors. With the launch of Big Brother on Vh1, we will take reality experience to a newer high.”
After the success of Bigg Boss2 on network channel Colors, Vh1 is bringing the international version of Big Brother for Indian audience starting 14 December. The show will be aired every Sunday-Wednesday at 10 pm.
The season - Till Death Do You Part Season 9 USA – is claimed as the “Most Explosive” Big Brother season of all time, the company said in a release.
The launch episode will see 16 houseguests entering the house to compete for the prize sum of $500,000 and to find their true love.
Vh1 India associate GM Ferzad Palia said, “We are excited about bringing Big Brother to the Indian screens. Indian audiences have loved Bigg Boss2 on Colors. With the launch of Big Brother on Vh1, we will take reality experience to a newer high.”
Business - Honda to sell 100 jets a year from 2010
TOKYO: Japanese auto major Honda, which has announced a foray into aviation, plans to sell 100 jets a year, after it begins commercial production in
2010.
"We will manufacture 100 HondaJets every year beginning in 2010. We will sell them in the US, European, Canadian and Mexican markets," Honda Motor Company General Manager (Overseas Operations, Asia and Oceania) Satoshi Matsuzawa said.
He, however, did not divulge the amount of investment to be made in the manufacturing facility in North Carolina, US. Earlier in 2007, the company had announced an investment of USD 40 million for constructing the new headquarters and hangar, and another USD 20 million for equipment.
The auto major's subsidiary Honda Aircraft Company Inc has received orders from personal buyers for 100 jets. This does not include corporate orders.
The jets would be fitted with HF120 engines, jointly developed by Honda and US conglomerate GE, through a deal signed in 2004. The engine is an advanced 2000 lb thrust class turbofan propulsion system.
The HondaJet is a lightweight business jet with an extra large cabin, high fuel efficiency, and high cruise speed compared to existing small business jets. It can accommodate 14 people including the pilot.
Major ground tests such as those on structural proof, systems function, and ground-vibration have been completed. Flight testing is currently under way and expected to be completed before 2010.
2010.
"We will manufacture 100 HondaJets every year beginning in 2010. We will sell them in the US, European, Canadian and Mexican markets," Honda Motor Company General Manager (Overseas Operations, Asia and Oceania) Satoshi Matsuzawa said.
He, however, did not divulge the amount of investment to be made in the manufacturing facility in North Carolina, US. Earlier in 2007, the company had announced an investment of USD 40 million for constructing the new headquarters and hangar, and another USD 20 million for equipment.
The auto major's subsidiary Honda Aircraft Company Inc has received orders from personal buyers for 100 jets. This does not include corporate orders.
The jets would be fitted with HF120 engines, jointly developed by Honda and US conglomerate GE, through a deal signed in 2004. The engine is an advanced 2000 lb thrust class turbofan propulsion system.
The HondaJet is a lightweight business jet with an extra large cabin, high fuel efficiency, and high cruise speed compared to existing small business jets. It can accommodate 14 people including the pilot.
Major ground tests such as those on structural proof, systems function, and ground-vibration have been completed. Flight testing is currently under way and expected to be completed before 2010.
Entertainment - Movie Review;Dil Kabaddi
Gaurav Malani
Dil Kabaddi takes a look at the urban relationships in the most casual manner and more or less represents the present-day youth couples prone to instability in marital life.
Samit (Irrfan Khan) and Mita (Soha Ali Khan), married for a couple of years, are mutually hitting towards separation. Desperate for some sexual gratification, Samit shifts with his yoga instructor Kaya (Payal Rohatgi) and his experimentation includes everything from wearing sports bra to g-strings.
Rishi (Rahul Bose) and Simi (Konkona Sen Sharma) are a contented couple but still each one is lured to look outside their relationship. Rishi is infatuated with his student Raga (Saba Azad). Simi introduces Mita to a common friend Veer (Rahul Khanna) but subsequently herself falls for him. As each person exhibits the inherent tendency to go beyond their permissible relationship zone, things get intricate and intertwined.
The adulterous acts are redolent of Anurag Basu’s Life in a Metro though the treatment over here is more humorous and light-hearted. Rahul Bose’ close encounter with his student is evocative (though not inspired) of the Shilpa Shetty – Shiny Ahuja intimacy from the original. However, thematically the film is more reminiscent of the less-known offbeat film Kabhi Socha Bhi Na Tha that released earlier this year. Even the talking-to-camera approach of storytelling is common to both.
Director Anil Senior sketches the central characters very convincingly and rather plays with their psyche to spice up the screenplay. The treacherous temptation on each ones mind is credibly conveyed. It’s amusing how Simi tries to draw parallels and find flaws in her own marriage on learning about the Samit-Mita split.
The comic timing of the script is impeccable. Some adult humour is smartly incorporated without making it sound vulgar. The scene where Irrfan Khan goes bra-shopping is hilarious and the ‘Sweety Bopara’ gag is too funny. The peppy background score adds to the amusement. The narration branches into frequent flashbacks in different time zones.
Sadly the graph falls down considerably in the second half. The story somehow strays to subplots, beats around the bush, becomes repetitive and even drags at instances. Payal Rohatgi’s deafening act after the party scene is utterly irritating and absolutely avoidable. Moreover the director attempts to be deliberately different in the climax by trying to unite the less compatible couple and separating the more stable pair. This synthetic variation acts more as disbelief than surprise.
Other than the witty writing, the humour in the film should be credited to the efficient performances of the cast. Konkona Sen Sharma capably highlights the traits of her typical female character who carries mental baggage, constantly compares life with other couples, is easily provoked and is on a constant bickering mode. Soha Ali Khan is one grossly underrated actress and its high time she got due recognition for her confident act. Irrfan Khan continues to portray his character with an informal approach and casual comic timing. Rahul Bose is in elements after a long time and is especially expressive with his reactions to the silly situation he lands into. Saba Azad appears calm and confident. Payal Rohatgi should quit acting.
Dil Kabaddi takes a sporty look at the game of hearts. Watch it for some ‘hearty’ laughs.
Dil Kabaddi takes a look at the urban relationships in the most casual manner and more or less represents the present-day youth couples prone to instability in marital life.
Samit (Irrfan Khan) and Mita (Soha Ali Khan), married for a couple of years, are mutually hitting towards separation. Desperate for some sexual gratification, Samit shifts with his yoga instructor Kaya (Payal Rohatgi) and his experimentation includes everything from wearing sports bra to g-strings.
Rishi (Rahul Bose) and Simi (Konkona Sen Sharma) are a contented couple but still each one is lured to look outside their relationship. Rishi is infatuated with his student Raga (Saba Azad). Simi introduces Mita to a common friend Veer (Rahul Khanna) but subsequently herself falls for him. As each person exhibits the inherent tendency to go beyond their permissible relationship zone, things get intricate and intertwined.
The adulterous acts are redolent of Anurag Basu’s Life in a Metro though the treatment over here is more humorous and light-hearted. Rahul Bose’ close encounter with his student is evocative (though not inspired) of the Shilpa Shetty – Shiny Ahuja intimacy from the original. However, thematically the film is more reminiscent of the less-known offbeat film Kabhi Socha Bhi Na Tha that released earlier this year. Even the talking-to-camera approach of storytelling is common to both.
Director Anil Senior sketches the central characters very convincingly and rather plays with their psyche to spice up the screenplay. The treacherous temptation on each ones mind is credibly conveyed. It’s amusing how Simi tries to draw parallels and find flaws in her own marriage on learning about the Samit-Mita split.
The comic timing of the script is impeccable. Some adult humour is smartly incorporated without making it sound vulgar. The scene where Irrfan Khan goes bra-shopping is hilarious and the ‘Sweety Bopara’ gag is too funny. The peppy background score adds to the amusement. The narration branches into frequent flashbacks in different time zones.
Sadly the graph falls down considerably in the second half. The story somehow strays to subplots, beats around the bush, becomes repetitive and even drags at instances. Payal Rohatgi’s deafening act after the party scene is utterly irritating and absolutely avoidable. Moreover the director attempts to be deliberately different in the climax by trying to unite the less compatible couple and separating the more stable pair. This synthetic variation acts more as disbelief than surprise.
Other than the witty writing, the humour in the film should be credited to the efficient performances of the cast. Konkona Sen Sharma capably highlights the traits of her typical female character who carries mental baggage, constantly compares life with other couples, is easily provoked and is on a constant bickering mode. Soha Ali Khan is one grossly underrated actress and its high time she got due recognition for her confident act. Irrfan Khan continues to portray his character with an informal approach and casual comic timing. Rahul Bose is in elements after a long time and is especially expressive with his reactions to the silly situation he lands into. Saba Azad appears calm and confident. Payal Rohatgi should quit acting.
Dil Kabaddi takes a sporty look at the game of hearts. Watch it for some ‘hearty’ laughs.
World - India, Russia sign deal on nuke, space cooperation
India and Russia on Friday signed an agreement covering the building of four new nuclear energy reactors in southern India, as well as a cooperation accord on manned space flight.
Russia becomes the third country to sign an atomic energy agreement with India after a decision in September by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to waive its ban on trade of nuclear technology with India.
The United States and France are the other powers to have signed agreements with New Delhi.
The nuclear agreement covers the building of four atomic reactors at Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The value of the deal was not given.
Moscow is already building two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors at the site.
The two sides also signed an accord that envisages Russia sending an Indian cosmonaut into space in 2013 and then launch a manned Indian spacecraft in 2015, officials said.
The signing ceremony, attended by reporters, coincided with a visit to New Delhi by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Russia becomes the third country to sign an atomic energy agreement with India after a decision in September by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to waive its ban on trade of nuclear technology with India.
The United States and France are the other powers to have signed agreements with New Delhi.
The nuclear agreement covers the building of four atomic reactors at Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The value of the deal was not given.
Moscow is already building two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors at the site.
The two sides also signed an accord that envisages Russia sending an Indian cosmonaut into space in 2013 and then launch a manned Indian spacecraft in 2015, officials said.
The signing ceremony, attended by reporters, coincided with a visit to New Delhi by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
India - Ashok Chavan appointed new Maharashtra CM
Maharashtra chief minister-designate Ashok Chavan said that the security of his state, whose capital Mumbai saw a vicious terror attack last week, would be his "top priority".
Chavan, the son of former union home minister SB Chavan,said "the aam aadmi (common man) is not concerned with who is chief minister or the deputy chief minister. They just want the administration to be strong."
"It's a challenge, and I accept this challenge," Chavan, in his early fifties, said after his name was announced in New Delhi by senior leader Pranab Mukherjee on behalf of the Congress leadership.
He said it was important for his government "to deliver".
He takes over from Vilasrao Deshmukh, who resigned in disgrace following the terror outrage in Mumbai.
Saying "this is not the time to celebrate", he said "security will be the topmost priority" and he will do everything to strengthen the state police force so that carnages of the kind that occurred last week were not repeated.
"The government will take all steps necessary to ensure safety of the people."
Chavan was one of the names that were doing the rounds since it became clear two days ago that Deshmukh would step down following charges of ineptitude against his government over the terror attacks that killed 172 people.
Chavan pipped Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, who had thrown his hat into the ring, and made his displeasure known when his claim was overlooked.
Chavan, the son of former union home minister SB Chavan,said "the aam aadmi (common man) is not concerned with who is chief minister or the deputy chief minister. They just want the administration to be strong."
"It's a challenge, and I accept this challenge," Chavan, in his early fifties, said after his name was announced in New Delhi by senior leader Pranab Mukherjee on behalf of the Congress leadership.
He said it was important for his government "to deliver".
He takes over from Vilasrao Deshmukh, who resigned in disgrace following the terror outrage in Mumbai.
Saying "this is not the time to celebrate", he said "security will be the topmost priority" and he will do everything to strengthen the state police force so that carnages of the kind that occurred last week were not repeated.
"The government will take all steps necessary to ensure safety of the people."
Chavan was one of the names that were doing the rounds since it became clear two days ago that Deshmukh would step down following charges of ineptitude against his government over the terror attacks that killed 172 people.
Chavan pipped Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, who had thrown his hat into the ring, and made his displeasure known when his claim was overlooked.
World - CIA analyst debunks Pakistani claim on LeT
Washington: Picking holes in Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s claim that Mumbai terror strike was executed by “non-state actors”, a veteran CIA analyst says Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba(LeT) blamed for the unprecedented attack has links with Pakistan’s ISI.
“If there’s anything that is a 64 million dollar question today,” it is finding out the “extent of its [LeT] current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service [ISI],” said Bruce Riedel at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on “Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: A Challenge for India and the World.”
Contesting the Pakistani government’s denials that its intelligence agency has no links to LeT, Mr. Riedel said it was difficult to believe the Pakistani government’s assertions “given the size of its [LeT] activities in Pakistan.”
The Mumbai terror plot was carried out by “professionals, who were trained by professionals who were given a professional plan,” said Mr. Riedel. There was clearly considerable planning involved over a protracted period of time and that the attacks “were not a plot by amateurs or by a pick-up group.”
“This was an extraordinarily sophisticated and complex plot that had numerous moving parts and which was executed with — one has to admit — a tremendous amount of skill by very well trained terrorists,” said Mr. Riedel. He said the Mumbai attack was the most significant terrorist incident since 9/11,” and that in many ways, was akin to 9/11 “in the training and the execution.”
Mr. Riedel, an adviser on foreign policy to the campaign of Barrack Obama, said it is for certain they were influenced by the Al-Qaeda ideology. — PTI
“If there’s anything that is a 64 million dollar question today,” it is finding out the “extent of its [LeT] current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service [ISI],” said Bruce Riedel at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on “Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: A Challenge for India and the World.”
Contesting the Pakistani government’s denials that its intelligence agency has no links to LeT, Mr. Riedel said it was difficult to believe the Pakistani government’s assertions “given the size of its [LeT] activities in Pakistan.”
The Mumbai terror plot was carried out by “professionals, who were trained by professionals who were given a professional plan,” said Mr. Riedel. There was clearly considerable planning involved over a protracted period of time and that the attacks “were not a plot by amateurs or by a pick-up group.”
“This was an extraordinarily sophisticated and complex plot that had numerous moving parts and which was executed with — one has to admit — a tremendous amount of skill by very well trained terrorists,” said Mr. Riedel. He said the Mumbai attack was the most significant terrorist incident since 9/11,” and that in many ways, was akin to 9/11 “in the training and the execution.”
Mr. Riedel, an adviser on foreign policy to the campaign of Barrack Obama, said it is for certain they were influenced by the Al-Qaeda ideology. — PTI
Science - You can smell fear,says scientists
James Randerson
The smell of fear, one of the most terrible cliches of pulp fiction, is actually founded in fact, scientists claimed on Thursday.
People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers.
The team found that the smell of fear triggered a heightened response in brain regions associated with fear when inhaled by volunteers in a brain scanner. The research suggests that, like many animal species, humans can detect and subconsciously respond to pheromones released by other people.
The research was funded by DARPA, the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the Pentagon’s military research wing, raising speculation that it is a first step to isolating the fear pheromone for use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops. But DARPA denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to fund further research into the field.
Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in New York State and her team taped absorbent pads to the armpits of 20 novice skydivers — 11 men and nine women — on their first tandem jump. The pads soaked up sweat before they leapt from the plane and as they fell.
For comparison, the team collected sweat from the same individuals as they ran on a treadmill for a similar duration at the same time of day they had made their jump.
New Scientist reports that the volunteers’ amygdala and hypothalamus — brain regions associated with fear — were more active in people who breathed in the “fear” sweat. The volunteers in the brain scanner were unable consciously to distinguish between the two types of sweat.
Most researchers do not believe that humans can detect pheromones. In other mammals this is done using a structure in the nose called the vomeronasal organ. Although humans have one of these it is not connected to the brain. However, human pheromones could still be detected elsewhere and some small studies have suggested that human behaviour can be modified by an alarm pheromone. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008
The smell of fear, one of the most terrible cliches of pulp fiction, is actually founded in fact, scientists claimed on Thursday.
People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers.
The team found that the smell of fear triggered a heightened response in brain regions associated with fear when inhaled by volunteers in a brain scanner. The research suggests that, like many animal species, humans can detect and subconsciously respond to pheromones released by other people.
The research was funded by DARPA, the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the Pentagon’s military research wing, raising speculation that it is a first step to isolating the fear pheromone for use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops. But DARPA denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to fund further research into the field.
Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in New York State and her team taped absorbent pads to the armpits of 20 novice skydivers — 11 men and nine women — on their first tandem jump. The pads soaked up sweat before they leapt from the plane and as they fell.
For comparison, the team collected sweat from the same individuals as they ran on a treadmill for a similar duration at the same time of day they had made their jump.
New Scientist reports that the volunteers’ amygdala and hypothalamus — brain regions associated with fear — were more active in people who breathed in the “fear” sweat. The volunteers in the brain scanner were unable consciously to distinguish between the two types of sweat.
Most researchers do not believe that humans can detect pheromones. In other mammals this is done using a structure in the nose called the vomeronasal organ. Although humans have one of these it is not connected to the brain. However, human pheromones could still be detected elsewhere and some small studies have suggested that human behaviour can be modified by an alarm pheromone. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008
World - Obama & Europe's foreign policy
President-elect Barack Obama’s election to the American presidency does not solve western Europe’s conundrums over foreign policy but instead throws them into sharp relief. The issues are familiar enough. They include the role, possible expansion and general future of NATO, relations with Russia, all the problems arising from the war in Afghanistan and the continuing occupation of Iraq, and the challenge of global warming. Mr. Obama’s general approach to European foreign policy issues is likely to be far more thoughtful and nuanced than the Manichaean, good-versus-evil, attitude that has permeated the Bush administration for all its eight years in office. Mr. Obama has also taken recent steps to counter criticism of his comparative neglect of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that he used to chair. He has maintained a high international profile since his election and worked hard to master the details of a range of international issues. Nevertheless, the major western European states are no nearer to a judicious and united foreign policy than they were at the start of the Bush administration.
The first obstacle to a united foreign policy is the United Kingdom, mainly because Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not want to give his electoral opponents any hint of a surrender of British sovereignty. Criticism that British foreign policy has been made in Washington since 1945 has made little difference. Secondly, although the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has criticised the planned deployment in Europe of a U.S. missile defence system, and although Mr. Obama is known to be willing to consider all options on that, NATO has unanimously supported the deployment. That, together with NATO Ministers’ support for accession by Georgia and Ukraine, has understandably exacerbated Russian feelings of encirclement and even victimisation. The third major European state, Germany, goes its own way, forming lasting links with Russia through economic cooperation, ignoring U.S. criticism of European dependence on Russia. On Iraq, the British withdrawal continues. But every western European state bar one will be very concerned about Mr. Obama’s plans to intensify military activity in Afghanistan and about their own likely role there; the U.K., of course, is with Mr. Obama on this. Perhaps the only area of possible western European agreement on an international issue is global warming. Given the current improbability of European agreement on foreign policy, this hypothesis can be proposed: had John McCain won on November 4, western Europe might have moved much more decisively towards a united and distinctive foreign policy.
The first obstacle to a united foreign policy is the United Kingdom, mainly because Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not want to give his electoral opponents any hint of a surrender of British sovereignty. Criticism that British foreign policy has been made in Washington since 1945 has made little difference. Secondly, although the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has criticised the planned deployment in Europe of a U.S. missile defence system, and although Mr. Obama is known to be willing to consider all options on that, NATO has unanimously supported the deployment. That, together with NATO Ministers’ support for accession by Georgia and Ukraine, has understandably exacerbated Russian feelings of encirclement and even victimisation. The third major European state, Germany, goes its own way, forming lasting links with Russia through economic cooperation, ignoring U.S. criticism of European dependence on Russia. On Iraq, the British withdrawal continues. But every western European state bar one will be very concerned about Mr. Obama’s plans to intensify military activity in Afghanistan and about their own likely role there; the U.K., of course, is with Mr. Obama on this. Perhaps the only area of possible western European agreement on an international issue is global warming. Given the current improbability of European agreement on foreign policy, this hypothesis can be proposed: had John McCain won on November 4, western Europe might have moved much more decisively towards a united and distinctive foreign policy.
World - Financing terror: the Lashkar and beyond
Menaka Guruswamy
International law warrants that all nations have a legal obligation to work against the financing of terror by any country. It is time our leadership, both in the government and in the opposition, acted.
The lone terrorist captured alive during the three-day battle in Mumbai is reported to be Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman, a 21-year-old Pakistani national. He is alleged to have admitted that he is an operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to newspaper reports, he is a resident of Faridkot, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He has apparently also stated that he was trained, along with others, at two camps in Pakistan. The first camp focussed on the use of arms and explos ives and the second on marine drills.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the “Army of the Pure” which, like all other purgatory forces with cleansing on their minds, predictably picked a name that involves purity. It is reported to be the military wing of the Markaz Dawa Wal-Irshad, an Islamic fundamentalist organisation of the Wahabi sects in Pakistan. Till 2007 it had a centre in London, among other places. In late-2001, after the United States designated the Lashkar as a banned terrorist outfit, the Markaz Dawa was renamed the Jamaat ud-Dawa, and more recently according to the U.S. State Department, as the Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq. It was till recently possible to donate to the Lashkar from the Jamaat ud-Dawa’s website. Whatever nomenclature the organisation goes by, it formally collects money apparently to deal with natural disasters and provide services such as health care. It is conceivable that the organisation does provide some such services in Pakistan, where the state has clearly abdicated such a welfare role. Unfortunately, it also uses such funds to finance terror through entities such as the Lashkar, the effects of which are felt in India.
The Wahabi brand of Sunni Islam that the Lashkar owes allegiance to is an ultra- conservative version founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792). The Al-Saud dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia professes the Wahabi faith. Fuelled by oil money, and to cloak their own lavish lifestyles, the rulers pump in money for Wahabi missionary activity all over the world. According to The New Yorker’s investigative journalist Seymore Hersh, the Saud regime is “increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country’s religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.” This is a practice that has been referred to as “Petro-Islam.” Muslim Brotherhood chapters all over the world have also been allegedly helped in a similar manner.
The Lashkar is reported to be based in two locations within Pakistan. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in its report on Pakistan and the (American) War on Terror notes that “since the late 1980s, the Pakistani military has financed, trained, armed, and launched the cadres of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, along with the Jaish-e-Muhammad, and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, on their murderous missions into Kashmir and elsewhere inside the Indian union.” Terror teams sent by these outfits are always led and manned by Pakistani nationals. The U.S., which is also paying for Pakistan’s own war mostly on domestic terror, succeeded only in marginally diminishing the consistent support that the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistan Army have been providing to groups that target India. It is more than likely that some of this American funding, unknown or known to the U.S. government, would be used to sponsor groups such as the Lashkar. Perhaps, then, it was for good reason that it was decided at 1-30 a.m. on November 29 in Pakistan, apparently by the President, the Prime Minister and the head of the Army, not to send Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the chief of the ISI, to India. Instead, a representative who can presumably claim to know little and have authorisation for nothing, will visit India, to provide an assurance of his agency’s and his government’s support. It is quite clear that the civilian ruler of Pakistan does not have the ability to exert real control over the ISI or the Army — both of which have consistently supported jihadi activity in India.
How, then, do we strive to strike at the financing of terror; and do we have the legal obligation to do so? Or are we reacting merely as outraged and hurt citizens of a nation that bleeds constantly, but whose toll is usually highlighted by the number of foreigners that are unfortunately killed. If you must know, India ranks next only to Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of the number of people killed by such conflicts. Having said that, it is equally true that it takes less and less money today to build a bomb or plan attacks. The cost of the latest Mumbai terror attacks has been estimated to be in the region of $100,000-$200,000. But it is stable financing that enables organisations such as the Lashkar to recruit operatives, indoctrinate them, train them, provide equipment, and provide compensation to the families of terrorists when they are killed. We know this from documents recovered from groups operating in Kashmir — that terror enterprises are organised in a manner similar to large criminal enterprises. And it takes financing to ensure that these enterprises are able to conduct their business.
International law warrants that all nations have a legal obligation to work against the financing of terror by countries, like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, among others. A few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United Nations Security Council, which rarely agrees on things of consequence in a timely fashion, found that the attacks threatened international peace and security, and warranted a stern resolution. So it ordered states to take specific actions regarding terrorism and its financing.
The resultant Resolution 1373 states some key concepts: states must “suppress terrorism” and enact legislation “by criminalising” the deliberate collection of funds for terrorism. Further, they must freeze the assets of those who facilitate or commit terrorist acts. The Resolution compels states to prohibit persons from directly or indirectly financing those who commit terrorist acts, and forbids the use of their territory as safe haven for those who finance or plan terrorist acts. Resolution 1373 demands that states must ensure that any person who participates in financing, planning, or otherwise supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice, and that domestic legislation establishes such terrorist acts as serious criminal offences, with appropriate punishments. To monitor states’ implementation of these obligations, and to provide assistance to states for this purpose, Resolution 1373 has established a Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC).
Additionally, Resolution 1566, approved by the Security Council in October 2004, states that “criminal acts — including those against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or the taking of hostages, with the purpose of provoking a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidating a population, or compelling a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act — which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.”
Together, these two resolutions set forth some important points, the main one being that states have an obligation to criminalise and prohibit the direct or indirect financing of terrorism. What these terrorist acts are can be found in the second resolution; most obviously, acts committed to cause death or injury, to provoke terror among the public, or to compel a government to do something that is prohibited by international instruments relating to terrorism, will fall in this category. Such acts are presumed to have no justification; ideals like “independence” or “injustice” cannot be used as justification for these actions. Thus, it is not the aims that are indicative of terrorist acts, but the means —violence, intimidation, and tactics of terror, merit classification as “terrorist acts.” Conversely, peaceful acts of resistance, dissent, and opposition of any scale cannot ever be classified as terrorism. By the same logic, financing peaceful movements that challenge the status quo, or in other words, the existing political or social elites, cannot be considered as financing of terrorism.
Likewise, India’s own Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 prohibits the use of funds for, or of, a designated ‘unlawful association.’ The Act states that “any person who has custody of any moneys, securities or credits which are being used or are intended to be used for the purpose of the unlawful association, the Central Government may, by order in writing, prohibit such person from paying, delivering, transferring or otherwise dealing in any manner whatsoever with such moneys, securities or credits or with any other moneys, securities or credits which may come into his custody after the making of the order.” This under-utilised provision can be used against individuals and organisations such as charities as it can be used against those that raise money for terror groups and banks that move these moneys. This law addresses our own home-grown terrorists such as those involved in the Malegaon blasts.
Perhaps, then, it is time for our leadership, both in the government and in the opposition, to act. It is time for the government (and the international community) to press the Saudi and Pakistani governments to stop financing and training terrorists, and for the opposition to allow investigators to do their job without impugning motives as has happened in the case of the Malegaon investigations — unless there is just cause to do so.
(Menaka Guruswamy is an advocate who practises law in New Delhi. She can be contacted at menaka@post.harvard.edu )
International law warrants that all nations have a legal obligation to work against the financing of terror by any country. It is time our leadership, both in the government and in the opposition, acted.
The lone terrorist captured alive during the three-day battle in Mumbai is reported to be Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman, a 21-year-old Pakistani national. He is alleged to have admitted that he is an operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to newspaper reports, he is a resident of Faridkot, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He has apparently also stated that he was trained, along with others, at two camps in Pakistan. The first camp focussed on the use of arms and explos ives and the second on marine drills.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the “Army of the Pure” which, like all other purgatory forces with cleansing on their minds, predictably picked a name that involves purity. It is reported to be the military wing of the Markaz Dawa Wal-Irshad, an Islamic fundamentalist organisation of the Wahabi sects in Pakistan. Till 2007 it had a centre in London, among other places. In late-2001, after the United States designated the Lashkar as a banned terrorist outfit, the Markaz Dawa was renamed the Jamaat ud-Dawa, and more recently according to the U.S. State Department, as the Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq. It was till recently possible to donate to the Lashkar from the Jamaat ud-Dawa’s website. Whatever nomenclature the organisation goes by, it formally collects money apparently to deal with natural disasters and provide services such as health care. It is conceivable that the organisation does provide some such services in Pakistan, where the state has clearly abdicated such a welfare role. Unfortunately, it also uses such funds to finance terror through entities such as the Lashkar, the effects of which are felt in India.
The Wahabi brand of Sunni Islam that the Lashkar owes allegiance to is an ultra- conservative version founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792). The Al-Saud dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia professes the Wahabi faith. Fuelled by oil money, and to cloak their own lavish lifestyles, the rulers pump in money for Wahabi missionary activity all over the world. According to The New Yorker’s investigative journalist Seymore Hersh, the Saud regime is “increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country’s religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.” This is a practice that has been referred to as “Petro-Islam.” Muslim Brotherhood chapters all over the world have also been allegedly helped in a similar manner.
The Lashkar is reported to be based in two locations within Pakistan. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in its report on Pakistan and the (American) War on Terror notes that “since the late 1980s, the Pakistani military has financed, trained, armed, and launched the cadres of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, along with the Jaish-e-Muhammad, and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, on their murderous missions into Kashmir and elsewhere inside the Indian union.” Terror teams sent by these outfits are always led and manned by Pakistani nationals. The U.S., which is also paying for Pakistan’s own war mostly on domestic terror, succeeded only in marginally diminishing the consistent support that the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistan Army have been providing to groups that target India. It is more than likely that some of this American funding, unknown or known to the U.S. government, would be used to sponsor groups such as the Lashkar. Perhaps, then, it was for good reason that it was decided at 1-30 a.m. on November 29 in Pakistan, apparently by the President, the Prime Minister and the head of the Army, not to send Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the chief of the ISI, to India. Instead, a representative who can presumably claim to know little and have authorisation for nothing, will visit India, to provide an assurance of his agency’s and his government’s support. It is quite clear that the civilian ruler of Pakistan does not have the ability to exert real control over the ISI or the Army — both of which have consistently supported jihadi activity in India.
How, then, do we strive to strike at the financing of terror; and do we have the legal obligation to do so? Or are we reacting merely as outraged and hurt citizens of a nation that bleeds constantly, but whose toll is usually highlighted by the number of foreigners that are unfortunately killed. If you must know, India ranks next only to Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of the number of people killed by such conflicts. Having said that, it is equally true that it takes less and less money today to build a bomb or plan attacks. The cost of the latest Mumbai terror attacks has been estimated to be in the region of $100,000-$200,000. But it is stable financing that enables organisations such as the Lashkar to recruit operatives, indoctrinate them, train them, provide equipment, and provide compensation to the families of terrorists when they are killed. We know this from documents recovered from groups operating in Kashmir — that terror enterprises are organised in a manner similar to large criminal enterprises. And it takes financing to ensure that these enterprises are able to conduct their business.
International law warrants that all nations have a legal obligation to work against the financing of terror by countries, like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, among others. A few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United Nations Security Council, which rarely agrees on things of consequence in a timely fashion, found that the attacks threatened international peace and security, and warranted a stern resolution. So it ordered states to take specific actions regarding terrorism and its financing.
The resultant Resolution 1373 states some key concepts: states must “suppress terrorism” and enact legislation “by criminalising” the deliberate collection of funds for terrorism. Further, they must freeze the assets of those who facilitate or commit terrorist acts. The Resolution compels states to prohibit persons from directly or indirectly financing those who commit terrorist acts, and forbids the use of their territory as safe haven for those who finance or plan terrorist acts. Resolution 1373 demands that states must ensure that any person who participates in financing, planning, or otherwise supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice, and that domestic legislation establishes such terrorist acts as serious criminal offences, with appropriate punishments. To monitor states’ implementation of these obligations, and to provide assistance to states for this purpose, Resolution 1373 has established a Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC).
Additionally, Resolution 1566, approved by the Security Council in October 2004, states that “criminal acts — including those against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or the taking of hostages, with the purpose of provoking a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidating a population, or compelling a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act — which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.”
Together, these two resolutions set forth some important points, the main one being that states have an obligation to criminalise and prohibit the direct or indirect financing of terrorism. What these terrorist acts are can be found in the second resolution; most obviously, acts committed to cause death or injury, to provoke terror among the public, or to compel a government to do something that is prohibited by international instruments relating to terrorism, will fall in this category. Such acts are presumed to have no justification; ideals like “independence” or “injustice” cannot be used as justification for these actions. Thus, it is not the aims that are indicative of terrorist acts, but the means —violence, intimidation, and tactics of terror, merit classification as “terrorist acts.” Conversely, peaceful acts of resistance, dissent, and opposition of any scale cannot ever be classified as terrorism. By the same logic, financing peaceful movements that challenge the status quo, or in other words, the existing political or social elites, cannot be considered as financing of terrorism.
Likewise, India’s own Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 prohibits the use of funds for, or of, a designated ‘unlawful association.’ The Act states that “any person who has custody of any moneys, securities or credits which are being used or are intended to be used for the purpose of the unlawful association, the Central Government may, by order in writing, prohibit such person from paying, delivering, transferring or otherwise dealing in any manner whatsoever with such moneys, securities or credits or with any other moneys, securities or credits which may come into his custody after the making of the order.” This under-utilised provision can be used against individuals and organisations such as charities as it can be used against those that raise money for terror groups and banks that move these moneys. This law addresses our own home-grown terrorists such as those involved in the Malegaon blasts.
Perhaps, then, it is time for our leadership, both in the government and in the opposition, to act. It is time for the government (and the international community) to press the Saudi and Pakistani governments to stop financing and training terrorists, and for the opposition to allow investigators to do their job without impugning motives as has happened in the case of the Malegaon investigations — unless there is just cause to do so.
(Menaka Guruswamy is an advocate who practises law in New Delhi. She can be contacted at menaka@post.harvard.edu )
India - HP;Funding a green vision
It is vital to protect the fragile Himalayan region, endowed with glaciers, forests, and rich biodiversity, from climate change and other environmental risks. Otherwise, the well being of its remote communities and the conservation of life forms cannot be guaranteed over the long term. Himachal Pradesh, a verdant State with glaciers covering nearly 17 per cent of its mountains, has notified a green fund. The Himachal Pradesh Environment Fund aims to protect and conserve, t o restore, mitigate. and build. It will be financed by direct contribution from government-nominated sources and donations from individuals, industrialists, NGOs, associations and corporate bodies. Collection by government employees in the discharge of official duties has been barred. Since donations can come in only by way of demand draft or cheque, there is a promise of integrity and transparency. To these instructions, the State can add one more — complete reporting of the fund’s working on a website. The fund has the potential to become a trendsetter for other States, particularly regions that face creeping sea-level rise, disastrous weather events, and high levels of pollution.
Himachal Pradesh has five major perennial rivers that either originate in or pass through the State. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal cites scientific estimates of the annual economic value of environmental services rendered by Himachal’s environment and forests being as high as Rs.150,000 crore. But there is reason to be concerned about the health of these resources. Studies conducted since 1990 record unusual annual rates of retreat of major Himalayan glaciers such as the Parbati, causing worry that future climate change will worsen the trend. Many glaciers feed rivers with precious melt and endow the region with high tourism value. A loss of ecology will have direct economic consequences, above all, on livelihood. Mr. Dhumal has been making the progressive suggestion that India must move to green accounting, which would mean provisioning for environmental losses while calculating the Gross Domestic Product. His government has expressed a preference for run-off river projects rather than disruptive dams and water impoundment, for solar-passive technologies, afforestation, and curbs on coal use. On top of their intrinsic virtue, these policies will help the State earn carbon credits. As an early mover on climate issues, Himachal Pradesh is an invited participant at the forthcoming summit of the Climate Group, a non-profit organisation that coordinates a coalition of governments and business leaders, in Poznan, Poland. The State must now aim for higher levels of environmental performance.
Himachal Pradesh has five major perennial rivers that either originate in or pass through the State. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal cites scientific estimates of the annual economic value of environmental services rendered by Himachal’s environment and forests being as high as Rs.150,000 crore. But there is reason to be concerned about the health of these resources. Studies conducted since 1990 record unusual annual rates of retreat of major Himalayan glaciers such as the Parbati, causing worry that future climate change will worsen the trend. Many glaciers feed rivers with precious melt and endow the region with high tourism value. A loss of ecology will have direct economic consequences, above all, on livelihood. Mr. Dhumal has been making the progressive suggestion that India must move to green accounting, which would mean provisioning for environmental losses while calculating the Gross Domestic Product. His government has expressed a preference for run-off river projects rather than disruptive dams and water impoundment, for solar-passive technologies, afforestation, and curbs on coal use. On top of their intrinsic virtue, these policies will help the State earn carbon credits. As an early mover on climate issues, Himachal Pradesh is an invited participant at the forthcoming summit of the Climate Group, a non-profit organisation that coordinates a coalition of governments and business leaders, in Poznan, Poland. The State must now aim for higher levels of environmental performance.
World - Moment of truth for Pakistan’s transition
Haris Gazdar
Not falling in love with Mumbai betrays a character flaw in my book. Visiting harm upon the queen of cities cannot bring good to anyone, no matter how just the cause or urgent its remit. She sustains millions, keeps hope alive among tens of millions others, nurtures a freedom of the spirit, and retains an original urban charm through the fastest rat-race in Asia. For all this and more she is to be cherished, not brutalised.
It is fitting that the bruised Mumbai of Jinnah should now ask if the state he helped create is willing to pass its sternest test yet. Politically it matters little if Pakistan, its government, its military, rogue elements within the secret apparatus, or jihadi militant groups based there had a hand in the carnage or not. Whether there were ships or boats, satellite phone calls, Punjabi accents, Deccan Mujahideen, a Lashkar-e-Taiba trademark, Al-Qaeda links, or home-grown Indian insurgents are also details. The deed is already done. What matters now is what happens next. Crises are pregnant with opportunities for survivors, and this one is no exception.
Pakistan’s tentative transition to democracy has been under fire from all sides. The focus is on the elected government — not merely for its ability but also on its intent. This is as it ought to be in a democracy, except that the whole point of a transition is that democracy cannot be taken for granted. For the transition to work, two other partners have to be fully and responsibly on board. First, the transition is premised on the willingness of the Pakistani military to hand over office and to share power with elected civilians on a durable basis. For democrats this risky compromise becomes defensible only because revolution is not an option.
Second, the prospects of the transition seem promising only because of the current configuration in regional politics. Foreign powers including the U.S., but not only the U.S., are expected to play a helpful role because they at long last share common ground with Pakistani democrats. This shared goal is that the state in Pakistan must become a genuine factor for ensuring regional stability rather than promoting instability. Elements in the Pakistani state that openly — sometimes under U.S. sponsorship — exported terrorist violence abroad are the same ones that for decades conspired successfully against democracy at home.
But now Mumbai must have urgent answers to her questions. Will the Pakistani military actually share power with the civilians? Will the Pakistani state demonstrably draw a line under jihadi militancy? Will foreign governments share some of the political cost of the transition with Pakistan’s fledgling democrats? The queen will not be denied her answers, but her questions offer rare opportunities for the protagonists to credibly reveal their intent, courage and wisdom.
Pakistan’s elected government has been embattled from the start. It enjoys de jure power, but is cautious about testing its actual authority over the military. An economic crisis inherited from the previous regime has left elected parties with no space to satisfy their constituents. Inflation and currency depreciation threatened to spiral out of control until stabilisation measures and signing up with an International Monetary Fund programme last week eased the crisis somewhat. Better news is expected in the next quarter as pressures subside.
There is mixed news on the war in the north against jihadi militants, too. The civilian leadership publicly praises the military for doing its bit, but party cadres remain privately sceptical. The Awami National Party (ANP) leads the coalition government in the North West Frontier Province, and its leaders and supporters, along with members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), are under constant threat of assassination by jihadi militants. Local ANP and PPP supporters in the north suspect that the military is still in cahoots with the jihadis. The concerted military action in Bajaur suggests that the corner might have been turned, but the distrust on the ground makes it difficult to be sure.
Meanwhile, unmanned U.S. drones routinely violate Pakistani air space to target militants, but inevitably also kill civilians. There is a rising chorus led by the right that the elected government should stop the war against jihadi militants, confront the U.S. frontally over the drone attacks, or simply slink away to make room for more robust Pakistani and Islamic nationalists to take over.
Asif Ali Zardari’s government presents an easy target to an educated elite that substitutes conspiracy theories for analysis. His conciliatory approaches to Afghanistan and India have become anathema to opinion-makers who see jihadi militants as legitimate resistance in Afghanistan, Kashmir and elsewhere. These jihad sympathisers are joined by those on the left who, amazingly, believe that the Taliban-Al-Qaeda will become a normal political party once the American troops go home. A web of right and left conspiracy theories — involving various combinations of the U.S., Israel, and India — creates a comfort zone that hard facts cannot penetrate. Talk-show hosts on private television channels “prove” how India itself was responsible for the attack on Mumbai, and former generals rally people for war with India which jihadi brothers will join.
The rightist campaign is encouraged by the speculation that the military has no intention to go through with the transition, and that “patriotism” will prevail over Mr. Zardari’s diplomatic overtures. Whether the military leadership itself is involved in the propaganda effort to undermine its potential power-sharer is unknown. But sooner or later the question of the military’s willingness to share power was going to be put to the test. The skill with which the elected politicians handled Pervez Musharraf’s departure in August should have alerted the top brass that a stable civilian government will be no walk-over. Senate elections in March will have contributed to consolidation, as would have the administration changeover in the U.S. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are famously committed to bifurcating military cooperation and assistance to the democratic process.
But the test has come sooner rather than later. Who knows if the timing of Mumbai had anything to do with the struggle within the Pakistani state, but it is worth remembering that Mr. Musharraf’s coup followed Kargil, which followed Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s bus yatra to Lahore. Mumbai is relevant to Pakistan’s transition because regardless of any evidence of Pakistani complicity, the policy of reconciliation with India requires that assistance requested should be rendered. The civilian leadership was right to respond positively to India’s request for high-level representation of Pakistan’s secret agencies, and it was wrong to wriggle out of its commitment. The rethink may have been forced by the military’s displeasure.
Nevertheless, the ball is now in the court of the military. By falling in line with the civilian government’s diplomatic effort they will reveal their intention to be on board in the transition. Moreover, they will send out a credible signal that jihad is no longer an option they will support, even against India. If the opportunity is not grasped now, the transition is as good as over even if the civilian government is allowed to limp along for a while. Signals that the military receives from the outgoing Bush administration over the next few days will be critical in shaping its attitude to the current crisis and the transition.
For its part, India might do well to resist the temptation to behave like the U.S. after 9/11. Beating the war drums may or may not distract attention from India’s own security lapses and political failures, but it will certainly corner the civilian government in Pakistan into irrelevance pending execution. A politicised response will allow the culprits off the hook, while a diplomatic, legal and institutional approach can help to pin them down, besides moving the transition along in Pakistan. Why should an angry India care either way? Because it may want to show the world how a responsible and confident power in Asia carries itself even when in pain.
(Haris Gazdar works as a Senior Researcher with the Karachi-based Collective for Social Science Research. A longer version of this article will be published in the Economic and Political Weekly of December 6, 2008.)
Not falling in love with Mumbai betrays a character flaw in my book. Visiting harm upon the queen of cities cannot bring good to anyone, no matter how just the cause or urgent its remit. She sustains millions, keeps hope alive among tens of millions others, nurtures a freedom of the spirit, and retains an original urban charm through the fastest rat-race in Asia. For all this and more she is to be cherished, not brutalised.
It is fitting that the bruised Mumbai of Jinnah should now ask if the state he helped create is willing to pass its sternest test yet. Politically it matters little if Pakistan, its government, its military, rogue elements within the secret apparatus, or jihadi militant groups based there had a hand in the carnage or not. Whether there were ships or boats, satellite phone calls, Punjabi accents, Deccan Mujahideen, a Lashkar-e-Taiba trademark, Al-Qaeda links, or home-grown Indian insurgents are also details. The deed is already done. What matters now is what happens next. Crises are pregnant with opportunities for survivors, and this one is no exception.
Pakistan’s tentative transition to democracy has been under fire from all sides. The focus is on the elected government — not merely for its ability but also on its intent. This is as it ought to be in a democracy, except that the whole point of a transition is that democracy cannot be taken for granted. For the transition to work, two other partners have to be fully and responsibly on board. First, the transition is premised on the willingness of the Pakistani military to hand over office and to share power with elected civilians on a durable basis. For democrats this risky compromise becomes defensible only because revolution is not an option.
Second, the prospects of the transition seem promising only because of the current configuration in regional politics. Foreign powers including the U.S., but not only the U.S., are expected to play a helpful role because they at long last share common ground with Pakistani democrats. This shared goal is that the state in Pakistan must become a genuine factor for ensuring regional stability rather than promoting instability. Elements in the Pakistani state that openly — sometimes under U.S. sponsorship — exported terrorist violence abroad are the same ones that for decades conspired successfully against democracy at home.
But now Mumbai must have urgent answers to her questions. Will the Pakistani military actually share power with the civilians? Will the Pakistani state demonstrably draw a line under jihadi militancy? Will foreign governments share some of the political cost of the transition with Pakistan’s fledgling democrats? The queen will not be denied her answers, but her questions offer rare opportunities for the protagonists to credibly reveal their intent, courage and wisdom.
Pakistan’s elected government has been embattled from the start. It enjoys de jure power, but is cautious about testing its actual authority over the military. An economic crisis inherited from the previous regime has left elected parties with no space to satisfy their constituents. Inflation and currency depreciation threatened to spiral out of control until stabilisation measures and signing up with an International Monetary Fund programme last week eased the crisis somewhat. Better news is expected in the next quarter as pressures subside.
There is mixed news on the war in the north against jihadi militants, too. The civilian leadership publicly praises the military for doing its bit, but party cadres remain privately sceptical. The Awami National Party (ANP) leads the coalition government in the North West Frontier Province, and its leaders and supporters, along with members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), are under constant threat of assassination by jihadi militants. Local ANP and PPP supporters in the north suspect that the military is still in cahoots with the jihadis. The concerted military action in Bajaur suggests that the corner might have been turned, but the distrust on the ground makes it difficult to be sure.
Meanwhile, unmanned U.S. drones routinely violate Pakistani air space to target militants, but inevitably also kill civilians. There is a rising chorus led by the right that the elected government should stop the war against jihadi militants, confront the U.S. frontally over the drone attacks, or simply slink away to make room for more robust Pakistani and Islamic nationalists to take over.
Asif Ali Zardari’s government presents an easy target to an educated elite that substitutes conspiracy theories for analysis. His conciliatory approaches to Afghanistan and India have become anathema to opinion-makers who see jihadi militants as legitimate resistance in Afghanistan, Kashmir and elsewhere. These jihad sympathisers are joined by those on the left who, amazingly, believe that the Taliban-Al-Qaeda will become a normal political party once the American troops go home. A web of right and left conspiracy theories — involving various combinations of the U.S., Israel, and India — creates a comfort zone that hard facts cannot penetrate. Talk-show hosts on private television channels “prove” how India itself was responsible for the attack on Mumbai, and former generals rally people for war with India which jihadi brothers will join.
The rightist campaign is encouraged by the speculation that the military has no intention to go through with the transition, and that “patriotism” will prevail over Mr. Zardari’s diplomatic overtures. Whether the military leadership itself is involved in the propaganda effort to undermine its potential power-sharer is unknown. But sooner or later the question of the military’s willingness to share power was going to be put to the test. The skill with which the elected politicians handled Pervez Musharraf’s departure in August should have alerted the top brass that a stable civilian government will be no walk-over. Senate elections in March will have contributed to consolidation, as would have the administration changeover in the U.S. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are famously committed to bifurcating military cooperation and assistance to the democratic process.
But the test has come sooner rather than later. Who knows if the timing of Mumbai had anything to do with the struggle within the Pakistani state, but it is worth remembering that Mr. Musharraf’s coup followed Kargil, which followed Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s bus yatra to Lahore. Mumbai is relevant to Pakistan’s transition because regardless of any evidence of Pakistani complicity, the policy of reconciliation with India requires that assistance requested should be rendered. The civilian leadership was right to respond positively to India’s request for high-level representation of Pakistan’s secret agencies, and it was wrong to wriggle out of its commitment. The rethink may have been forced by the military’s displeasure.
Nevertheless, the ball is now in the court of the military. By falling in line with the civilian government’s diplomatic effort they will reveal their intention to be on board in the transition. Moreover, they will send out a credible signal that jihad is no longer an option they will support, even against India. If the opportunity is not grasped now, the transition is as good as over even if the civilian government is allowed to limp along for a while. Signals that the military receives from the outgoing Bush administration over the next few days will be critical in shaping its attitude to the current crisis and the transition.
For its part, India might do well to resist the temptation to behave like the U.S. after 9/11. Beating the war drums may or may not distract attention from India’s own security lapses and political failures, but it will certainly corner the civilian government in Pakistan into irrelevance pending execution. A politicised response will allow the culprits off the hook, while a diplomatic, legal and institutional approach can help to pin them down, besides moving the transition along in Pakistan. Why should an angry India care either way? Because it may want to show the world how a responsible and confident power in Asia carries itself even when in pain.
(Haris Gazdar works as a Senior Researcher with the Karachi-based Collective for Social Science Research. A longer version of this article will be published in the Economic and Political Weekly of December 6, 2008.)
India - This is no time to panic
Harish Khare
India must deal with the world in a manner befitting an emerging great power. It must hold its nerve as a democratic nation and make it clear it will deal with the challenge on its own strength.
The modern-day terrorist depends on modern information infrastructure to help achieve his purpose. The terrorist’s objective is to create a sense of defeat and despondency in the ‘enemy’ society and hope that the government of the day will react in such a ham-handed manner that the ‘cause’ finds new adherents and recruits.
The terrorists’ assault in Mumbai has, in part, achieved that objective. The puppeteers must be smirking over the manner in which our mass media reacted: breathlessly manufacturing perceptions of helplessness and anger, of governmental ineptness, of an all-round loss of nerve. Perhaps the terror master-minds were right in their calculations that by targeting upper middle class men and women they can bank on India’s middle-class-centric media to create an anti-politician (and, eventually an anti-democratic) mood.
But this is no time to panic. The terrorists’ long-term objective can be defeated only if the Prime Minister and the Congress President live up to their obligation to govern. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi need to realise that their model of division of labour and authority has produced institutionalised namby-pamby decision-making. The result is a hemorrhage in the efficacy, prestige, and respectability of central governing arrangements. The current standard operative procedure of mutual deference and diffidence has only yielded paralysis, impeded coherence, and ruled out clarity of ideas, purposes, and objectives.
It is for Ms Gandhi more than Dr. Singh to understand that her statusquoist impulses have jeopardised her original May 2004 objective. After the last Lok Sabha elections, when she stepped aside in favour of Dr. Singh, the idea was to reclaim for the Congress its old reputation as the only political instrument of sensible governance, progressive stability, and collective security. Apart from a presumed ideological and personal commitment to restoring to good health the Nehruvian Idea of India, the May 2004 decision was predicated on the assumption that the Manmohan Singh arrangement would eventually pave the way for the not-so-young Rahul Gandhi.
Four-and-a-half years later, that May 2004 mission can only be described as an unmitigated failure. Ms Gandhi’s reluctance to let the Prime Minister be the master of his own Cabinet gradually produced malfunctionalities at the highest level of decision-making. The Prime Minister’s Office collectively settled for a low-key style of functioning that could only elicit minimal compliance and support from the rest of the system for the Prime Minister’s initiatives and agenda. History will record the fact that it took an unprecedented national calamity for Ms Gandhi to agree to move Shivraj Patil out of the Union Home Ministry. And that too only after Prime Minister Singh himself offered his resignation at the Congress Working Committee.
Ms Gandhi can salvage the situation by letting Dr. Singh be the Prime Minister in unencumbered fashion. The presumption of course is that he retains the intellectual integrity, personal stamina, and political acuteness to mobilise the nation’s vast resources to restore a sense of security and confidence in the citizens. Why, for example, should the Prime Minister continue to hold the ministerial portfolios of Coal and Information and Broadcasting, and now take charge of Finance?
Ms Gandhi and Dr. Singh need to act together and lead in a new, purposeful manner. They must enable the country to feel that decisions are being taken in the national – as opposed to narrow political and electoral – interests. The government has lost the Mumbai narrative. Whatever be the outcome of the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, most political parties, including those within the UPA and those not aligned with the BJP, will contrive to make governance an almost impossible enterprise.
The country can ill afford abdication or hesitation at the highest level over the next few months. Mumbai has produced a new mood. The coherent way out of the political bickering will be to demonstrate a hitherto absent willingness to do and say what is right for the country. Neither the reaction of this alliance partner nor the response of that regional chieftain should be a factor. Nor should any security initiative be opposed or proposed because this or that community will be offended or pleased. It is time the Prime Minister and the government demonstrated intellectual spunk and administrative muscle.
If a framework of unhindered leadership can be put in place, there will still be a problem: how to prevent decision-making from being stampeded by the electronic mob? The country paid a huge price in 1999 when the government of the day lost its nerve and gave in to media-induced hysteria over the Kandhar hijacking. The anti-politician nerve was touched to coerce the Vajpayee government into swapping major terrorists for hostages; the same mood is being created today to goad the country into an unfocussed confrontation with Pakistan. The same ambience of ‘public anger’ after the December 13 attack on Parliament House pushed the Vajpayee government into an ‘aar –paar’ (do or die) game with Islamabad. The itch for ‘doing something’ against Pakistan must be avoided.
Secondly, good politics and good governance demand that our response to Mumbai should not aggravate communal tensions at home. It is the duty of the Manmohan Singh establishment to use the next few months to educate the country on the sobering reality that rampant communalism over two decades has not made India a more secure place. Sensitive issues ought to be settled boldly and democratically, irrespective of presumed “political cost.”
Thirdly, a clear message must be sent out that the Indian political system has the innovativeness and the wisdom to rise above petty political considerations. There must be an honest and objective evaluation, by somebody outside the present establishment, of how the central and Maharashtra governments responded to the crisis.
Fourthly, we need to deal with the world in a manner befitting an emerging great power. Terror admittedly is a global business but there is no need to be seen as unduly solicitous of U.S. or Israeli security advice. A big country must be able to deal with the menace of terrorism on its own.
Above all, the political leadership must square with ordinary citizens, without either underestimating or magnifying threats to their lives and liberties. People must get a clear feeling that the government is sincere about ensuring their security – and treats this as its primary duty.
India must deal with the world in a manner befitting an emerging great power. It must hold its nerve as a democratic nation and make it clear it will deal with the challenge on its own strength.
The modern-day terrorist depends on modern information infrastructure to help achieve his purpose. The terrorist’s objective is to create a sense of defeat and despondency in the ‘enemy’ society and hope that the government of the day will react in such a ham-handed manner that the ‘cause’ finds new adherents and recruits.
The terrorists’ assault in Mumbai has, in part, achieved that objective. The puppeteers must be smirking over the manner in which our mass media reacted: breathlessly manufacturing perceptions of helplessness and anger, of governmental ineptness, of an all-round loss of nerve. Perhaps the terror master-minds were right in their calculations that by targeting upper middle class men and women they can bank on India’s middle-class-centric media to create an anti-politician (and, eventually an anti-democratic) mood.
But this is no time to panic. The terrorists’ long-term objective can be defeated only if the Prime Minister and the Congress President live up to their obligation to govern. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi need to realise that their model of division of labour and authority has produced institutionalised namby-pamby decision-making. The result is a hemorrhage in the efficacy, prestige, and respectability of central governing arrangements. The current standard operative procedure of mutual deference and diffidence has only yielded paralysis, impeded coherence, and ruled out clarity of ideas, purposes, and objectives.
It is for Ms Gandhi more than Dr. Singh to understand that her statusquoist impulses have jeopardised her original May 2004 objective. After the last Lok Sabha elections, when she stepped aside in favour of Dr. Singh, the idea was to reclaim for the Congress its old reputation as the only political instrument of sensible governance, progressive stability, and collective security. Apart from a presumed ideological and personal commitment to restoring to good health the Nehruvian Idea of India, the May 2004 decision was predicated on the assumption that the Manmohan Singh arrangement would eventually pave the way for the not-so-young Rahul Gandhi.
Four-and-a-half years later, that May 2004 mission can only be described as an unmitigated failure. Ms Gandhi’s reluctance to let the Prime Minister be the master of his own Cabinet gradually produced malfunctionalities at the highest level of decision-making. The Prime Minister’s Office collectively settled for a low-key style of functioning that could only elicit minimal compliance and support from the rest of the system for the Prime Minister’s initiatives and agenda. History will record the fact that it took an unprecedented national calamity for Ms Gandhi to agree to move Shivraj Patil out of the Union Home Ministry. And that too only after Prime Minister Singh himself offered his resignation at the Congress Working Committee.
Ms Gandhi can salvage the situation by letting Dr. Singh be the Prime Minister in unencumbered fashion. The presumption of course is that he retains the intellectual integrity, personal stamina, and political acuteness to mobilise the nation’s vast resources to restore a sense of security and confidence in the citizens. Why, for example, should the Prime Minister continue to hold the ministerial portfolios of Coal and Information and Broadcasting, and now take charge of Finance?
Ms Gandhi and Dr. Singh need to act together and lead in a new, purposeful manner. They must enable the country to feel that decisions are being taken in the national – as opposed to narrow political and electoral – interests. The government has lost the Mumbai narrative. Whatever be the outcome of the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, most political parties, including those within the UPA and those not aligned with the BJP, will contrive to make governance an almost impossible enterprise.
The country can ill afford abdication or hesitation at the highest level over the next few months. Mumbai has produced a new mood. The coherent way out of the political bickering will be to demonstrate a hitherto absent willingness to do and say what is right for the country. Neither the reaction of this alliance partner nor the response of that regional chieftain should be a factor. Nor should any security initiative be opposed or proposed because this or that community will be offended or pleased. It is time the Prime Minister and the government demonstrated intellectual spunk and administrative muscle.
If a framework of unhindered leadership can be put in place, there will still be a problem: how to prevent decision-making from being stampeded by the electronic mob? The country paid a huge price in 1999 when the government of the day lost its nerve and gave in to media-induced hysteria over the Kandhar hijacking. The anti-politician nerve was touched to coerce the Vajpayee government into swapping major terrorists for hostages; the same mood is being created today to goad the country into an unfocussed confrontation with Pakistan. The same ambience of ‘public anger’ after the December 13 attack on Parliament House pushed the Vajpayee government into an ‘aar –paar’ (do or die) game with Islamabad. The itch for ‘doing something’ against Pakistan must be avoided.
Secondly, good politics and good governance demand that our response to Mumbai should not aggravate communal tensions at home. It is the duty of the Manmohan Singh establishment to use the next few months to educate the country on the sobering reality that rampant communalism over two decades has not made India a more secure place. Sensitive issues ought to be settled boldly and democratically, irrespective of presumed “political cost.”
Thirdly, a clear message must be sent out that the Indian political system has the innovativeness and the wisdom to rise above petty political considerations. There must be an honest and objective evaluation, by somebody outside the present establishment, of how the central and Maharashtra governments responded to the crisis.
Fourthly, we need to deal with the world in a manner befitting an emerging great power. Terror admittedly is a global business but there is no need to be seen as unduly solicitous of U.S. or Israeli security advice. A big country must be able to deal with the menace of terrorism on its own.
Above all, the political leadership must square with ordinary citizens, without either underestimating or magnifying threats to their lives and liberties. People must get a clear feeling that the government is sincere about ensuring their security – and treats this as its primary duty.
World - Kluge Prize for Romila Thapar
CHENNAI: Historian Romila Thapar has been chosen for the 2008 Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity instituted by the United States Library of Congress. Dr. Thapar, who is Emeritus Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, will receive the $1 million prize along with Peter Robert Lamont Brown, Professor of History at Princeton University, in a ceremony on December 10 at the Library of Congress.
Endowed by Library of Congress benefactor John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize is for a wide range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics, as well as a variety of cultural perspectives in the world. Each awardee will receive half of the $1 million prize.
According to a media release from the Library of Congress, both Dr. Brown, 73, and Dr. Thapar, 77, brought “dramatically new perspectives to understanding vast sweeps of geographical territory and a millennium or more of time in, respectively, Europe and the Middle East, and in the Indian subcontinent.”
Dr. Thapar, it said, “created a new and more pluralistic view of Indian civilisation, which had seemed more unitary and unchanging, by scrutinising its evolution over two millennia and searching out its historical consciousness.”
The release noted that the two historians addressed their scholarship not only to specialists, but also “intentionally shared their insights with broader lay audiences.” In re-imagining familiar worlds with eyes unprejudiced by existing paradigms, they each opened large areas of human experience to new historical inquiry.
Endowed by Library of Congress benefactor John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize is for a wide range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics, as well as a variety of cultural perspectives in the world. Each awardee will receive half of the $1 million prize.
According to a media release from the Library of Congress, both Dr. Brown, 73, and Dr. Thapar, 77, brought “dramatically new perspectives to understanding vast sweeps of geographical territory and a millennium or more of time in, respectively, Europe and the Middle East, and in the Indian subcontinent.”
Dr. Thapar, it said, “created a new and more pluralistic view of Indian civilisation, which had seemed more unitary and unchanging, by scrutinising its evolution over two millennia and searching out its historical consciousness.”
The release noted that the two historians addressed their scholarship not only to specialists, but also “intentionally shared their insights with broader lay audiences.” In re-imagining familiar worlds with eyes unprejudiced by existing paradigms, they each opened large areas of human experience to new historical inquiry.
World - East Asia and a ‘vulnerable’ rising power
P. S. Suryanarayana
Several East Asian countries, not immune to terror concerns, want to engage India to draw lessons from its latest tragedy in Mumbai.
For long, the tendency of policy-planners in several East Asian countries was to gloss over the frequent terrorist strikes in India
The death of at least five East Asians at the hands of terrorists has caused unease across the region
Official India, in its current posture as a United States-friendly power, has often been seen across East Asia as a potential player of considerable consequence to the region’s varied interests. However, the latest attacks in Mumbai, with their perceived link to the signature tactics of Pakistan-based international terrorists, have brought India’s ‘vulnerability’ as a rising power into sharp focus.
Not only that. The death of at least five East Asians – a Japanese businessman, an Australian, a Singaporean, a Thai national, and a Malaysian — at the hands of these terrorists has also caused unease across this vast region of much diversity. And, significantly, the geopolitical zone of East Asia Summit (EAS) includes India.
For long, the tendency of policy-planners in several East Asian countries was to gloss over the frequent terrorist strikes in India as a localised phenomenon with or without arguable ‘historical’ links to Pakistan or any other South Asian state. However, some East Asian anti-terror experts have now begun to consider the implications of the conspicuous targeting of a few U.S., British, and Israeli nationals by the terrorists, who ‘invaded’ Mumbai for their latest strikes there. Noted, without any conclusions by the regional experts, is the possibility of an Al-Qaeda hand behind these Mumbai attacks.
Shortly after the terrorist blitzkrieg in the U.S. on September 11, 2001, Singapore detected the existence of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as a burgeoning terror-outfit in Southeast Asia. In this sub-region, the JI is now widely suspected to be an Al-Qaeda affiliate, one of whose leaders, a person of Malaysian origin, is said to be still at large.
Unsurprisingly in this overall framework of anti-terror ‘vigil,’ concern grew in pockets of Southeast Asia over certain Indian media reports. A piece of preliminary information was that a ‘Malaysian address’ was suspected to have been cited by some ‘Pakistani’ terrorists to secure accommodation in Mumbai to plot the latest strikes there. Malaysian credit cards were also reported to have been found at a site targeted by those terrorists. Commenting on the totality of this angle, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said: “It is an unsubstantiated claim. We will contact Interpol for confirmation on the matter, and we will issue a follow-up statement. As of now, there is no proof [of any Malaysian link].”
Muslim-majority Indonesia, quick to empathise with India in a public pronouncement, has had a more recent history of being hit by terrorist attacks from radical ‘Islamists.’ And, a few weeks ago, Jakarta executed three men, all Indonesians, convicted for their role in the 2002 terror-bombings in the Hindu-majority resort-island of Bali, which claimed the lives of many foreigners as well, many of them Australians. And, contrary to the fears in a number of quarters, Jakarta has so far managed to prevent any revenge-killings for these executions.
Elsewhere in East Asia, anti-terror issues do not produce the same kind of resonance as in some parts of the sub-region of Southeast Asia, where several ethnic groups actively adhere to different religions in the same social space. This does not, of course, mean that Northeast Asia is altogether immune to terror issues.
China, often seen to have already left India far behind in their economic competition, certainly remains concerned over ‘Islamist terror’ tendencies in a border province that falls in the social shadow of Pakistan. China has some other terror-concerns as well, but it often projects state power at home and abroad with a great deal of national self-assurance.
Japan, which recently entered into ‘a security pact’ with India on a wide range of issues including those relating to terrorism, does have its own anti-terror agenda at home and abroad. While Japan’s domestic concerns in this domain are not akin to India’s, they share a broad worldview on terror issues, although Pakistan does often seek to project its narrative not only in Beijing but also Tokyo. And, it is an open question whether this narrative will at all be compatible with India’s in the light of heightened international focus on Pakistan following the latest Mumbai attacks.
Australia has, in recent years, grown wary of ‘Islamist terror’ following the 2002 Bali bombings. And some time ago, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told this correspondent in Singapore that his country was keen on engaging India for its anti-terror expertise among other security-related skills.
Overall, a region like East Asia, home to several dynamic economies, often looks beyond the political-security horizon. Unsurprisingly, and even before it became known that a Singaporean woman-lawyer was among those killed by the invading terrorists in Mumbai, the City-State’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, made a definitive comment. Mr. Lee said that the attacks “will have fallout on India’s investment climate and [on the] international confidence [in India] for some time to come.” His reasoning was that India’s “complex environment” was made up of “complicated … politics.” And, India’s racial, religious, and security issues “are difficult to resolve,” he emphasised.
This was, by far, the most forthright comment by any leader from East Asia. The Singaporean woman-lawyer was the City-State’s first-ever victim of a terrorist attack anywhere in the world. And, coincidentally, the City-State is the venue for an ongoing non-official India-Pakistan dialogue, a closed-door Track-II event, which of course was decided upon well before the latest terror strike in Mumbai.
With Singapore having played a crucial role in putting India on the East Asian map, Mr. Lee’s comment can be taken as a well-intentioned plain-speak commentary. On balance, as evident from the comments by regional leaders, several East Asian countries, not immune to terror concerns, want to engage India to draw lessons from its latest tragedy in Mumbai.
Several East Asian countries, not immune to terror concerns, want to engage India to draw lessons from its latest tragedy in Mumbai.
For long, the tendency of policy-planners in several East Asian countries was to gloss over the frequent terrorist strikes in India
The death of at least five East Asians at the hands of terrorists has caused unease across the region
Official India, in its current posture as a United States-friendly power, has often been seen across East Asia as a potential player of considerable consequence to the region’s varied interests. However, the latest attacks in Mumbai, with their perceived link to the signature tactics of Pakistan-based international terrorists, have brought India’s ‘vulnerability’ as a rising power into sharp focus.
Not only that. The death of at least five East Asians – a Japanese businessman, an Australian, a Singaporean, a Thai national, and a Malaysian — at the hands of these terrorists has also caused unease across this vast region of much diversity. And, significantly, the geopolitical zone of East Asia Summit (EAS) includes India.
For long, the tendency of policy-planners in several East Asian countries was to gloss over the frequent terrorist strikes in India as a localised phenomenon with or without arguable ‘historical’ links to Pakistan or any other South Asian state. However, some East Asian anti-terror experts have now begun to consider the implications of the conspicuous targeting of a few U.S., British, and Israeli nationals by the terrorists, who ‘invaded’ Mumbai for their latest strikes there. Noted, without any conclusions by the regional experts, is the possibility of an Al-Qaeda hand behind these Mumbai attacks.
Shortly after the terrorist blitzkrieg in the U.S. on September 11, 2001, Singapore detected the existence of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as a burgeoning terror-outfit in Southeast Asia. In this sub-region, the JI is now widely suspected to be an Al-Qaeda affiliate, one of whose leaders, a person of Malaysian origin, is said to be still at large.
Unsurprisingly in this overall framework of anti-terror ‘vigil,’ concern grew in pockets of Southeast Asia over certain Indian media reports. A piece of preliminary information was that a ‘Malaysian address’ was suspected to have been cited by some ‘Pakistani’ terrorists to secure accommodation in Mumbai to plot the latest strikes there. Malaysian credit cards were also reported to have been found at a site targeted by those terrorists. Commenting on the totality of this angle, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said: “It is an unsubstantiated claim. We will contact Interpol for confirmation on the matter, and we will issue a follow-up statement. As of now, there is no proof [of any Malaysian link].”
Muslim-majority Indonesia, quick to empathise with India in a public pronouncement, has had a more recent history of being hit by terrorist attacks from radical ‘Islamists.’ And, a few weeks ago, Jakarta executed three men, all Indonesians, convicted for their role in the 2002 terror-bombings in the Hindu-majority resort-island of Bali, which claimed the lives of many foreigners as well, many of them Australians. And, contrary to the fears in a number of quarters, Jakarta has so far managed to prevent any revenge-killings for these executions.
Elsewhere in East Asia, anti-terror issues do not produce the same kind of resonance as in some parts of the sub-region of Southeast Asia, where several ethnic groups actively adhere to different religions in the same social space. This does not, of course, mean that Northeast Asia is altogether immune to terror issues.
China, often seen to have already left India far behind in their economic competition, certainly remains concerned over ‘Islamist terror’ tendencies in a border province that falls in the social shadow of Pakistan. China has some other terror-concerns as well, but it often projects state power at home and abroad with a great deal of national self-assurance.
Japan, which recently entered into ‘a security pact’ with India on a wide range of issues including those relating to terrorism, does have its own anti-terror agenda at home and abroad. While Japan’s domestic concerns in this domain are not akin to India’s, they share a broad worldview on terror issues, although Pakistan does often seek to project its narrative not only in Beijing but also Tokyo. And, it is an open question whether this narrative will at all be compatible with India’s in the light of heightened international focus on Pakistan following the latest Mumbai attacks.
Australia has, in recent years, grown wary of ‘Islamist terror’ following the 2002 Bali bombings. And some time ago, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told this correspondent in Singapore that his country was keen on engaging India for its anti-terror expertise among other security-related skills.
Overall, a region like East Asia, home to several dynamic economies, often looks beyond the political-security horizon. Unsurprisingly, and even before it became known that a Singaporean woman-lawyer was among those killed by the invading terrorists in Mumbai, the City-State’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, made a definitive comment. Mr. Lee said that the attacks “will have fallout on India’s investment climate and [on the] international confidence [in India] for some time to come.” His reasoning was that India’s “complex environment” was made up of “complicated … politics.” And, India’s racial, religious, and security issues “are difficult to resolve,” he emphasised.
This was, by far, the most forthright comment by any leader from East Asia. The Singaporean woman-lawyer was the City-State’s first-ever victim of a terrorist attack anywhere in the world. And, coincidentally, the City-State is the venue for an ongoing non-official India-Pakistan dialogue, a closed-door Track-II event, which of course was decided upon well before the latest terror strike in Mumbai.
With Singapore having played a crucial role in putting India on the East Asian map, Mr. Lee’s comment can be taken as a well-intentioned plain-speak commentary. On balance, as evident from the comments by regional leaders, several East Asian countries, not immune to terror concerns, want to engage India to draw lessons from its latest tragedy in Mumbai.
India - Movies;Distraught Rahman off
Prithwish Ganguly
Shocked at the untimely death of his friend H Sridhar, the music maestro packs off for a break in the US.
AR Rahman has been so shaken up by his friend H Sridhar’s death that he has packed his bag and headed off to New York to spend some time away from Chennai. A friend close to the composer says that neither can Rahman enter his recording studio where he has composed several songs in Sridhar’s company nor can he concentrate on any other thing after the sudden demise of the four-time national-award winning 48-year-old sound engineer.
“Rahman has been shattered. Sridhar was absolutely fine, working with Rahman till the last day on the music of Ghajini. Nobody expected him to pass away at such a young age,” said the friend.
He adds: “He can’t enter the recording studio in which they were working. For three days, Rahman hasn’t spoken much. He is completely in a state of shock. They have been dear friends for more than a decade. Rahman has packed his bags and is off to New York. He, it seems, wants to stay away from the place where he has spent so much time with his friend. It is good for him as it will keep him a distracted.”
Rahman and Sridhar have worked in films like Rangeela, Dil Se, Lagaan, Guru, Mangal Pandey, Roja and Bombay.
Shocked at the untimely death of his friend H Sridhar, the music maestro packs off for a break in the US.
AR Rahman has been so shaken up by his friend H Sridhar’s death that he has packed his bag and headed off to New York to spend some time away from Chennai. A friend close to the composer says that neither can Rahman enter his recording studio where he has composed several songs in Sridhar’s company nor can he concentrate on any other thing after the sudden demise of the four-time national-award winning 48-year-old sound engineer.
“Rahman has been shattered. Sridhar was absolutely fine, working with Rahman till the last day on the music of Ghajini. Nobody expected him to pass away at such a young age,” said the friend.
He adds: “He can’t enter the recording studio in which they were working. For three days, Rahman hasn’t spoken much. He is completely in a state of shock. They have been dear friends for more than a decade. Rahman has packed his bags and is off to New York. He, it seems, wants to stay away from the place where he has spent so much time with his friend. It is good for him as it will keep him a distracted.”
Rahman and Sridhar have worked in films like Rangeela, Dil Se, Lagaan, Guru, Mangal Pandey, Roja and Bombay.
India - Movies;Prabhu Deva's son passes away
Parag Maniar
Actor, choreographer and Tamil filmmaker, Prabhu Deva's, 13-year-old son, Vishal passed away at 3.30 am, yesterday. Vishal, who was loving called Basavraj, was the eldest amongst the three siblings; the other two being Rishi and Aditya. Vishal had been diagnosed with blood cancer last year.
The family was aware that Vishal's condition was terminal. A source close to the actor said, "Prabhu Deva did not leave any stone unturned to cure his son. He even consulted doctors abroad. But his condition had become serious."
Prominent actors from the Tamil industry like Vijay, Ajith, Khusboo, Simran, former action hero Arun Pandian, directors SA Chandrasekhar and Tarun Gopi and cinematographer Ravi Varman offered their condolences to Prabhu Deva and his wife Latha, who were inconsolable.
Actor, choreographer and Tamil filmmaker, Prabhu Deva's, 13-year-old son, Vishal passed away at 3.30 am, yesterday. Vishal, who was loving called Basavraj, was the eldest amongst the three siblings; the other two being Rishi and Aditya. Vishal had been diagnosed with blood cancer last year.
The family was aware that Vishal's condition was terminal. A source close to the actor said, "Prabhu Deva did not leave any stone unturned to cure his son. He even consulted doctors abroad. But his condition had become serious."
Prominent actors from the Tamil industry like Vijay, Ajith, Khusboo, Simran, former action hero Arun Pandian, directors SA Chandrasekhar and Tarun Gopi and cinematographer Ravi Varman offered their condolences to Prabhu Deva and his wife Latha, who were inconsolable.
India - DTH players plan high definition content
Ashish Sinha
In order to break the clutter in the 5-player direct-to-home (DTH) market and to create value-added offerings for the consumers, DTH operators such as Dish TV and Sun Direct are planning to add high-definition (HD) content as a seperate bouquet in the next few months.
This means the consumers will have to pay an additional monthly subscription to get these HD channels. Currently, the popular DTH bouquets (80-120 channels) are available at Rs 150-300 a month across most DTH platforms. The HD bouquet of channels (10-15) may cost 20-30 per cent more than the regular bouquet, sources said.
HD channels simply means television content with high resolution pictures and enhanced sound quality.
Several broadcasters having HD channels like Fox, HBO, ESPN, NGC, Discovery and others are waiting for an opportunity and an addressable platform like DTH or digital cable to launch their channels in India.
While Dish TV will add the HD content once it gets additional transponder space on Protostar satellite next month, Sun Direct is launching its own HD channels on the existing transponder bandwidth. Others like Tata Sky, Big TV and Airtel’s Digital TV are also expected to follow suit, sources said.
“We will add the high-definition content to our offerings once we expand our transponder capacity with the launch of Protostar satellite in January,” Jawahar Goel, MD of Dish TV, country’s largest DTH operator, said. Dish TV currently has over 4.5 million subscribers or a little less than 50 per cent market share in the DTH market.
Sun Direct, the regional DTH service provider, having 1.9 million subscribers, recently ventured into north India and is also looking at adding at least 8-10 high-definition channels to its DTH platform.
In order to break the clutter in the 5-player direct-to-home (DTH) market and to create value-added offerings for the consumers, DTH operators such as Dish TV and Sun Direct are planning to add high-definition (HD) content as a seperate bouquet in the next few months.
This means the consumers will have to pay an additional monthly subscription to get these HD channels. Currently, the popular DTH bouquets (80-120 channels) are available at Rs 150-300 a month across most DTH platforms. The HD bouquet of channels (10-15) may cost 20-30 per cent more than the regular bouquet, sources said.
HD channels simply means television content with high resolution pictures and enhanced sound quality.
Several broadcasters having HD channels like Fox, HBO, ESPN, NGC, Discovery and others are waiting for an opportunity and an addressable platform like DTH or digital cable to launch their channels in India.
While Dish TV will add the HD content once it gets additional transponder space on Protostar satellite next month, Sun Direct is launching its own HD channels on the existing transponder bandwidth. Others like Tata Sky, Big TV and Airtel’s Digital TV are also expected to follow suit, sources said.
“We will add the high-definition content to our offerings once we expand our transponder capacity with the launch of Protostar satellite in January,” Jawahar Goel, MD of Dish TV, country’s largest DTH operator, said. Dish TV currently has over 4.5 million subscribers or a little less than 50 per cent market share in the DTH market.
Sun Direct, the regional DTH service provider, having 1.9 million subscribers, recently ventured into north India and is also looking at adding at least 8-10 high-definition channels to its DTH platform.
India - I&B ministry to continue with city based bidding for private FM
In its earlier recommendations, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry) to change the geographical basis for private FM radio bidding from the city to the district. The ministry now says that there are operational problems in following the TRAI recommendation.
The I&B ministry was already in consultation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology over the distribution of frequencies, as reported earlier by afaqs! There is lack of clarity on how a district should be categorised and there is a wide variation in the area, size and shape of each district.
The I&B ministry says that if a city is located in a corner of the district, then the signals will interfere with the signals of the neighbouring district. Even the current city-based model offers only 10-12 frequencies in a city. In the district-based model, the number will dip even lower if the frequencies being used in the neighbouring districts are to be avoided.
The I&B ministry asserts that frequency planning will become a major physical exercise and one that is extremely difficult to conduct. The presence of the high-power transmitters of All India Radio will further reduce the availability of frequencies, thereby exacerbating the problem.
However, the I&B ministry adds that in some cities, which have a population of less than one lakh and where Prasar Bharati infrastructure is available, the district-based model can be taken up. The number of FM channels in such cities is most likely to be kept at two. Similar places in Jammu and Kashmir, in the Northeast and on islands can be taken up irrespective of the availability of Prasar Bharati infrastructure
In its reply, TRAI says that the government has pointed out certain implications of changing the licensing system to district level licensing. The continuation of city level licensing is acceptable to the regulator in the larger interest of expediting the process.
The I&B ministry was already in consultation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology over the distribution of frequencies, as reported earlier by afaqs! There is lack of clarity on how a district should be categorised and there is a wide variation in the area, size and shape of each district.
The I&B ministry says that if a city is located in a corner of the district, then the signals will interfere with the signals of the neighbouring district. Even the current city-based model offers only 10-12 frequencies in a city. In the district-based model, the number will dip even lower if the frequencies being used in the neighbouring districts are to be avoided.
The I&B ministry asserts that frequency planning will become a major physical exercise and one that is extremely difficult to conduct. The presence of the high-power transmitters of All India Radio will further reduce the availability of frequencies, thereby exacerbating the problem.
However, the I&B ministry adds that in some cities, which have a population of less than one lakh and where Prasar Bharati infrastructure is available, the district-based model can be taken up. The number of FM channels in such cities is most likely to be kept at two. Similar places in Jammu and Kashmir, in the Northeast and on islands can be taken up irrespective of the availability of Prasar Bharati infrastructure
In its reply, TRAI says that the government has pointed out certain implications of changing the licensing system to district level licensing. The continuation of city level licensing is acceptable to the regulator in the larger interest of expediting the process.
Entertainment - Star One to create a romantic Apprentice
Sapna Nair
STAR One and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) have come to together to create content around the latter’s age-control cream brand, Pond’s Age Miracle. The show, called Pond’s Age Miracle Salaam-e-Ishq, will give married couples a chance to recreate the magic in their relationship.
This advertiser funded programme, Ravi Menon, executive vice-president and general manager, STAR One, says, will be an Indianised and romanticised version of the world famous reality show, The Apprentice.
“This will be the first time ever that a brand has created programming,” says HUL’s media services head, Dnyanada Chaudhari. The programme was conceptualised by the Pond’s team. HUL approached STAR One because the profile of the viewers of the channel matches that of the consumers for the product.
The experimental show, as Menon calls it, will have couples, married for four years or more, as contestants. They will have to perform various tasks in order to clear each level. The tasks could range from selling a product to organising a party. Nine couples, aged 35+ years, will be judged on various parameters. The winning couple will win a second honeymoon in Paris.
The show, which will commence from December 15, will be spread across 10 weeks and 19 episodes. Menon says that the team deliberately decided on non-celebrity contestants. “We took that call because we wanted the essence of the show to be true. Having celebrity couples diminishes the originality factor,” he explains.
The show is being touted as a nationwide search for the “miracle couple”. It will be promoted along the lines of “reviving romance among couples”, which is the positioning of Pond’s Age Miracle. The cream commands almost 50 per cent share of the anti-ageing segment in India.
“We wanted the brand to express itself beyond 30 seconds and channel the money in a way that engages the consumers and creates an everlasting impression,” Chaudhari states.
“Top-end consumers watch very little television. One has to think of different ways of selling to this target group and bringing saliency into the communication,” adds Govind Rajan, general manager, skin care division, HUL.
STAR is promoting the show across the network. Menon says, however, that heavy promotions are not being undertaken. “We are not going to use conventional media. We will rely on new media such as radio, web and mobile to promote the show, as its target audience can be reached effectively through these vehicles.”
Menon says that one can expect specific columns in newspapers and magazines to be dedicated to the show’s concept. Besides, a website will be created specifically for the show, jointly by STAR and HUL.
In the past, shows such as Jodi Kamaal Ki and several dance reality shows have tested the compatibility of couples. Most of them have had celebrities as contestants. But this route, Menon claims, has never been tried before. “Based on the response we get, we will do it on a bigger scale next season,” he says.
STAR One and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) have come to together to create content around the latter’s age-control cream brand, Pond’s Age Miracle. The show, called Pond’s Age Miracle Salaam-e-Ishq, will give married couples a chance to recreate the magic in their relationship.
This advertiser funded programme, Ravi Menon, executive vice-president and general manager, STAR One, says, will be an Indianised and romanticised version of the world famous reality show, The Apprentice.
“This will be the first time ever that a brand has created programming,” says HUL’s media services head, Dnyanada Chaudhari. The programme was conceptualised by the Pond’s team. HUL approached STAR One because the profile of the viewers of the channel matches that of the consumers for the product.
The experimental show, as Menon calls it, will have couples, married for four years or more, as contestants. They will have to perform various tasks in order to clear each level. The tasks could range from selling a product to organising a party. Nine couples, aged 35+ years, will be judged on various parameters. The winning couple will win a second honeymoon in Paris.
The show, which will commence from December 15, will be spread across 10 weeks and 19 episodes. Menon says that the team deliberately decided on non-celebrity contestants. “We took that call because we wanted the essence of the show to be true. Having celebrity couples diminishes the originality factor,” he explains.
The show is being touted as a nationwide search for the “miracle couple”. It will be promoted along the lines of “reviving romance among couples”, which is the positioning of Pond’s Age Miracle. The cream commands almost 50 per cent share of the anti-ageing segment in India.
“We wanted the brand to express itself beyond 30 seconds and channel the money in a way that engages the consumers and creates an everlasting impression,” Chaudhari states.
“Top-end consumers watch very little television. One has to think of different ways of selling to this target group and bringing saliency into the communication,” adds Govind Rajan, general manager, skin care division, HUL.
STAR is promoting the show across the network. Menon says, however, that heavy promotions are not being undertaken. “We are not going to use conventional media. We will rely on new media such as radio, web and mobile to promote the show, as its target audience can be reached effectively through these vehicles.”
Menon says that one can expect specific columns in newspapers and magazines to be dedicated to the show’s concept. Besides, a website will be created specifically for the show, jointly by STAR and HUL.
In the past, shows such as Jodi Kamaal Ki and several dance reality shows have tested the compatibility of couples. Most of them have had celebrities as contestants. But this route, Menon claims, has never been tried before. “Based on the response we get, we will do it on a bigger scale next season,” he says.
Mktg - Andy,Leela & Tata Indica Vista
Kapil Ohri
Tata Motors is running a website called ChangesEverything.in to promote a new version of the Indica called Tata Indica Vista among young executives.
Ironically, the website is not loaded with information and statistics about the car. Instead, it carries an episodic graphic novel, which tells the story of two virtual characters called Andy and Leela, who meet at an Indica Vista showroom and gradually fall in love with each other.
The car brand plays a supporting role in the story, stepping in at key times to solve Andy and Leela’s problems.
So, what’s the story and how is Indica Vista a part of it? Andy or Anand Sharma is a 28-year-old bachelor and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He runs a digital marketing agency in Mumbai and uses his father’s car to commute. When he is sent to Delhi to set up a branch of his agency, he plans to buy his own car.
Leela Banerjee is 26 years old and has studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology. She works with a leading fashion designer in Delhi and dreams of setting up her own boutique. She is planning to buy a car with her own money.
Speaking to afaqs!, Satish Ramachandran, vice-president, DraftFCB Ulka, says, “Both Andy and Leela are represented as free spirited and ambitious individuals aspiring for the better things in life. They are proud of what they have achieved and unafraid of taking the less-travelled path to success. They are down to earth and fun-loving and value relationships. We think that these are the character traits that the Indica Vista target audience identifies with, thus making the characters more real and identifiable.”
The first two episodes build the background of the story and show the lives of Andy and Leela independently. They highlight the traffic and other problems both of them face while using public transport. Fed up with the commute problems, both decide to buy an Indica Vista.
In the third episode, Andy and Leela arrive separately at a Tata Motors showroom for a test drive of the Indica Vista. But only one car is available for the test drive, so both of them agree to take the test drive together. The fourth episode shows that during the long ride, the two get to know each other, and eventually start dating.
Ramachandran explains why they opted for virtual characters: “The character-based approach is an interesting way to tell the brand story and it also has the potential to involve the prospects and generate consumer dialogue.”
He adds, “The primary objective behind ChangesEverything.in is not to push the brand or generate test drives. The idea is to create an interesting story that the prospect can identify with and to weave the Indica Vista features subtly around it. While the plot revolves around Andy and Leela’s love story, the brand plays the role of a facilitator at key stages. This will lead to a positive buzz and awareness about the brand.”
Saurabh Gupta, chief executive officer, Phonethics, the agency which developed the characters and story, tells afaqs!, “The story does not end here. In fact, it will now move into the consumers’ hands and they will decide where they want to take the story. For this, we will launch a Facebook application which will provide specific tools to its members to create a comic strip around Andy and Leela and decide their fate.”
He adds, “The automobile company will incorporate the best comic strip in the story as the fifth episode and also reward the person who takes the story forward.”
DraftFCB Ulka manages the Tata Motors account.
Tata Motors is running a website called ChangesEverything.in to promote a new version of the Indica called Tata Indica Vista among young executives.
Ironically, the website is not loaded with information and statistics about the car. Instead, it carries an episodic graphic novel, which tells the story of two virtual characters called Andy and Leela, who meet at an Indica Vista showroom and gradually fall in love with each other.
The car brand plays a supporting role in the story, stepping in at key times to solve Andy and Leela’s problems.
So, what’s the story and how is Indica Vista a part of it? Andy or Anand Sharma is a 28-year-old bachelor and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He runs a digital marketing agency in Mumbai and uses his father’s car to commute. When he is sent to Delhi to set up a branch of his agency, he plans to buy his own car.
Leela Banerjee is 26 years old and has studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology. She works with a leading fashion designer in Delhi and dreams of setting up her own boutique. She is planning to buy a car with her own money.
Speaking to afaqs!, Satish Ramachandran, vice-president, DraftFCB Ulka, says, “Both Andy and Leela are represented as free spirited and ambitious individuals aspiring for the better things in life. They are proud of what they have achieved and unafraid of taking the less-travelled path to success. They are down to earth and fun-loving and value relationships. We think that these are the character traits that the Indica Vista target audience identifies with, thus making the characters more real and identifiable.”
The first two episodes build the background of the story and show the lives of Andy and Leela independently. They highlight the traffic and other problems both of them face while using public transport. Fed up with the commute problems, both decide to buy an Indica Vista.
In the third episode, Andy and Leela arrive separately at a Tata Motors showroom for a test drive of the Indica Vista. But only one car is available for the test drive, so both of them agree to take the test drive together. The fourth episode shows that during the long ride, the two get to know each other, and eventually start dating.
Ramachandran explains why they opted for virtual characters: “The character-based approach is an interesting way to tell the brand story and it also has the potential to involve the prospects and generate consumer dialogue.”
He adds, “The primary objective behind ChangesEverything.in is not to push the brand or generate test drives. The idea is to create an interesting story that the prospect can identify with and to weave the Indica Vista features subtly around it. While the plot revolves around Andy and Leela’s love story, the brand plays the role of a facilitator at key stages. This will lead to a positive buzz and awareness about the brand.”
Saurabh Gupta, chief executive officer, Phonethics, the agency which developed the characters and story, tells afaqs!, “The story does not end here. In fact, it will now move into the consumers’ hands and they will decide where they want to take the story. For this, we will launch a Facebook application which will provide specific tools to its members to create a comic strip around Andy and Leela and decide their fate.”
He adds, “The automobile company will incorporate the best comic strip in the story as the fifth episode and also reward the person who takes the story forward.”
DraftFCB Ulka manages the Tata Motors account.
Mktg - Asian Paints;When Saif paints up a storm
Devina Joshi
All work and no ‘Play’ makes Saif’s wall a dull wall.
A new commercial for Royale Play, the special effects textured paint from the Asian Paints family, has brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan getting fed up of his boring walls and painting up a storm. The ad has been created by Contract Advertising.
Colourful story
The concept isn’t altogether new. Last year, Royale Play launched the ‘Masterpiece’ commercial that showed Khan, with his sister, Soha Ali Khan, going through a host of paintings before he realises that the wall he has painted with Royale Play is the real masterpiece.
The new TV commercial, titled ‘Musicians’, opens with Khan waking up to another day and staring at his boring penthouse. An idea dawns upon him and he invites his friends, who are part of a music band, for inspiration. As the band starts jamming at his place, Khan goes crazy with the paints, playing with them as the band cranks out an upbeat, high-voltage track. A ‘jugalbandi’ of the music and painting culminates in Khan painting a beautiful, featured wall, while the band members look on in admiration. ‘Feel the Change,’ goes the tagline.
Playfully yours
Khan has been endorsing Royale since 2004; the popular ‘Guitar’ commercial was the first in the series. He has endorsed Royale Play since its inception in 2007.
Says Amit Syngle, vice-president, sales and marketing, Asian Paints, “Royale Play isn’t just about the end result of achieving a great look, but also about enjoying the process of creating it, which is the core positioning of this brand.” The thought is to appeal to the creative side of the consumer.
Raj Nair, senior vice-president and executive creative director, Contract, tells afaqs! that the challenge this time was to firmly reinforce the fact that with Royale Play, one doesn’t just transform one’s walls and interiors with vibrant textures, “but also uplifts the mood of his home”.
Moods and paints aren’t something that hasn’t been tried before in the category. In fact, every other player is linking the idea of imagination to paints. Syngle admits that this path has been trodden before, but states that the creativity shown in the ad sets it apart.
Nair says, “At the risk of blowing our own trumpet, the youthful exuberance, energy, style and aspiration shown in the ‘Play’ story is distinct from the others, and is relevant for anyone looking to inject their homes with some vibrant colour, panache and pizzazz.”
The idea of playing with paints, according to the Contract team, is inherent in the very name Royale Play. To bring this alive in the storyline, Khan was shown in a contemporary, but almost clinically minimal apartment, so that when the transformation occurs, it is a stark contrast to the earlier dullness.
A palette of paints and music
The film has been directed by Sunil Sippy of Highlight Films. Incidentally, all the musicians cast in the film are band members in real life too, and were selected by Sippy.
“The girl drummer was an inspired find,” says Nair of Contract, revealing that the bassist, the lead guitarist and the men on the slide trombone and the trumpet play those very instruments in their respective bands.
The music, created by Ashutosh Phatak of the Ashu-Dhruv team, was designed to lend breeziness to the storyline.
The film targets urban, nuclear families in the age group of 30-45 years. The other media that are being leveraged include radio, below-the-line and outdoor.
Soha Ali Khan, who came on board for the brand last year, is still endorsing it, but the Contract team explains that this script didn’t demand her presence. The Contract team on the account includes Malobi Dasgupta, Raj Nair, Ashish Bahl and Royston Netto.
afaqs! sought the opinion of Santosh Padhi (Paddy), the exiting executive creative director and national head of art at Leo Burnett, on this film. He says, “It’s a nicely produced one, shot well with a good music track.” He says he appreciates the idea of owning the brand name, ‘Play’, and demonstrating creativity with colour to punctuate it – a thought that was well established by earlier Royale commercials.
“However, while it is subjective, I’m not too kicked about the way Saif notices the paleness of his house one fine morning,” remarks Paddy. “To me, the story could have been a lot more playful, which would have increased its re-watchable quotient significantly.”
All work and no ‘Play’ makes Saif’s wall a dull wall.
A new commercial for Royale Play, the special effects textured paint from the Asian Paints family, has brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan getting fed up of his boring walls and painting up a storm. The ad has been created by Contract Advertising.
Colourful story
The concept isn’t altogether new. Last year, Royale Play launched the ‘Masterpiece’ commercial that showed Khan, with his sister, Soha Ali Khan, going through a host of paintings before he realises that the wall he has painted with Royale Play is the real masterpiece.
The new TV commercial, titled ‘Musicians’, opens with Khan waking up to another day and staring at his boring penthouse. An idea dawns upon him and he invites his friends, who are part of a music band, for inspiration. As the band starts jamming at his place, Khan goes crazy with the paints, playing with them as the band cranks out an upbeat, high-voltage track. A ‘jugalbandi’ of the music and painting culminates in Khan painting a beautiful, featured wall, while the band members look on in admiration. ‘Feel the Change,’ goes the tagline.
Playfully yours
Khan has been endorsing Royale since 2004; the popular ‘Guitar’ commercial was the first in the series. He has endorsed Royale Play since its inception in 2007.
Says Amit Syngle, vice-president, sales and marketing, Asian Paints, “Royale Play isn’t just about the end result of achieving a great look, but also about enjoying the process of creating it, which is the core positioning of this brand.” The thought is to appeal to the creative side of the consumer.
Raj Nair, senior vice-president and executive creative director, Contract, tells afaqs! that the challenge this time was to firmly reinforce the fact that with Royale Play, one doesn’t just transform one’s walls and interiors with vibrant textures, “but also uplifts the mood of his home”.
Moods and paints aren’t something that hasn’t been tried before in the category. In fact, every other player is linking the idea of imagination to paints. Syngle admits that this path has been trodden before, but states that the creativity shown in the ad sets it apart.
Nair says, “At the risk of blowing our own trumpet, the youthful exuberance, energy, style and aspiration shown in the ‘Play’ story is distinct from the others, and is relevant for anyone looking to inject their homes with some vibrant colour, panache and pizzazz.”
The idea of playing with paints, according to the Contract team, is inherent in the very name Royale Play. To bring this alive in the storyline, Khan was shown in a contemporary, but almost clinically minimal apartment, so that when the transformation occurs, it is a stark contrast to the earlier dullness.
A palette of paints and music
The film has been directed by Sunil Sippy of Highlight Films. Incidentally, all the musicians cast in the film are band members in real life too, and were selected by Sippy.
“The girl drummer was an inspired find,” says Nair of Contract, revealing that the bassist, the lead guitarist and the men on the slide trombone and the trumpet play those very instruments in their respective bands.
The music, created by Ashutosh Phatak of the Ashu-Dhruv team, was designed to lend breeziness to the storyline.
The film targets urban, nuclear families in the age group of 30-45 years. The other media that are being leveraged include radio, below-the-line and outdoor.
Soha Ali Khan, who came on board for the brand last year, is still endorsing it, but the Contract team explains that this script didn’t demand her presence. The Contract team on the account includes Malobi Dasgupta, Raj Nair, Ashish Bahl and Royston Netto.
afaqs! sought the opinion of Santosh Padhi (Paddy), the exiting executive creative director and national head of art at Leo Burnett, on this film. He says, “It’s a nicely produced one, shot well with a good music track.” He says he appreciates the idea of owning the brand name, ‘Play’, and demonstrating creativity with colour to punctuate it – a thought that was well established by earlier Royale commercials.
“However, while it is subjective, I’m not too kicked about the way Saif notices the paleness of his house one fine morning,” remarks Paddy. “To me, the story could have been a lot more playful, which would have increased its re-watchable quotient significantly.”
Business - How risky is India ?
Mehul Srivastava & Nandini Lakshman
New Delhi/Mumbai - Until Nov. 26 the strongest force pushing India forward was a mix of good fundamentals and that intangible something that industry calls "sentiment." Forged in the years of 9% growth, this euphoria inspired Indians to economic greatness and lured outside investors eager to be part of the Indian miracle.
Then the shooting started in south Mumbai. The three horrendous days that followed laid bare the gaps between India's image and reality, sparking a nationwide introspection about the nation's future. The fear is that India's mounting problems could drag the country back to its pitiful past. Its governments, despite a manufactured public image, have always been unwieldy; its economy, despite the plenty of the boom years, is premised mostly on future potential; and its much-flaunted stability is no such thing.
India's fragility is revealed by a pattern of diffused violence—a bomb here, a killing there—that goes unnoticed even in India. Most outsiders (and most investors) don't realize how dangerous a place India can be. Since 1993, when 13 bomb blasts in one day killed 257 in Mumbai, just over 29,000 people have died in terrorist attacks, including insurgencies in Kashmir and the Northeast, according to a BusinessWeek analysis of data from the Home Affairs Ministry. Thousands more have died in anti-Muslim riots. At least another 4,500 have perished since 2002 in a Maoist rebellion that simmers, and sometimes boils over, in the mineral-rich region of Chattisgarh, where foreign companies plan to invest heavily.
Just after the Mumbai attacks, three people were killed in a train blast in Assam, a northeastern state that produces more than $2 billion worth of tea each year, most of it exported. "It is not just this one unprecedented attack in Mumbai," says Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, India's most influential trade lobby. "Across the country we see...violence."
It's quite a contrast to the strengths India has used to attract global capital. Engineers and programmers are first class. Skilled, dedicated workers toil for wages much lower than in the West. The nation's blend of entrepreneurial spirit and democratic values has challenged the more rigid China model. A top-notch executive class boasts chief executives like Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group and innovator in categories from autos to hotels. Tata owns the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, which was ravaged in the attacks and which he vows to rebuild.
These strengths still attract investors. But foreign companies are not immune from the violence. In Orissa on the east coast, where billions in foreign investment lie tied up, Korean companies like steelmaker Posco have had executives kidnapped and land promised to them but never delivered: Protesters wield slogans and weapons to keep earthmovers at bay. In New Delhi, the Indian CEO of an Italian company's subsidiary was killed by a mob of employees angry over layoffs. And Patrick Cescau, CEO of consumer-products giant Unilever (UN), narrowly escaped death in the massacre at the Taj Mahal hotel where he was dining with colleagues.
SEEKING PROTECTION—FAST
If south Mumbai is visited by violence again, the 110-plus multinationals with regional offices there could be targets. Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), ABN Amro, HSBC (HBC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM)—all have offices there. "The targets identified demonstrate that the intention is to create panic and shatter the confidence of investors in India and global investors coming to India," says Habil Khorakiwala, managing director of Indian drugmaker Wockhardt. The private equity arms of Morgan Stanley, and Englefield Capital, which have offices in the Oberoi Trident Hotel, are looking for new premises in the city, according to an investment banker.
No wonder Raghu Raman's phone has been ringing nonstop. An ex-Indian Army man, Raman is CEO of Mahindra Special Services Group, which offers security to blue-chip clients like Hindustan Unilever, Merrill Lynch (MER), ABN Amro, HSBC, and others, many of whom want to beef up their security. Prospective clients also want protection fast. Raman says some multinationals have temporarily flown their top expat execs out of India.
Indian executives are even more alarmed than the multinationals. "We virtually handed Mumbai on a platter to the terrorists," says Rahul Mehta, managing director of Creative Group, a textile exporter in Mumbai that supplies clients such as J.C. Penney (JCP) and Target (TGT). Referring to reports that intelligence agencies had predicted an attack, he adds, "[The government] was forewarned, so why didn't they act on it? We've been ravaged by terror attacks since 1993."
In Mumbai, anger courses through the city. "How can I invest more in a city which does not protect me?" asks Abhay Mansukhani, who makes auto parts. Now he's tempted to relocate: He's holding off expanding his plant in north Mumbai as he contemplates a shift to Pune, 124 miles away.
Some executives, undeterred, are staying put. Gautam Patel, managing partner of Battery Ventures, was on a conference call when his window shattered from an explosion outside the Oberoi. He's furious with the government, but he's not budging: "Let's do something to get Bombay back on its feet," he says.
What concerns managers like Patel and Mansukhani is that the government they depend on for so much is so weak. The attacks of the past two years have made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's administration appear incompetent. Inflation has eaten away at the meager gains of the poor, who in India vote far more reliably than the middle class. Promised reforms have either been checked by the necessities of coalition politics or stalled in the Kafkaesque bureaucracy called the Indian Administrative Service, which pretty much runs the country.
And the tentacles of the global credit crunch have spread into India's relatively well-capitalized banks, slowing economic growth to 7.6% this quarter from more than 9% earlier. Exports dropped 12.1% in October, vs. a 51% jump in the same month last year. "It's a crisis situation," says Ananthasubramaniam Prasanna, chief economist at brokerage ICICI Securities. But he adds: "The focus now is on internal security and not fiscal policy." Worse, the prospect of a national election in April has reduced the government to lame-duck status.
Singh's government has promised swift action. At least three senior ministers, including one in charge of security, have quit. Singh has suggested creating a new agency that could react swiftly to an attack and increasing funds for commandoes.
LOYAL TECH CLIENTS
Yet if a conflict with Pakistan ensues, or bombings continue, or economic reforms remain frozen, or a government collapses—all things that have happened to India in the past 10 years—the euphoria could dissipate completely. "Fear of physical danger to employees, executives, and property can muddy the sentiment toward India," says Gunjan Bagla, author of Doing Business in 21st Century India and a consultant to U.S. companies in India. "To me the tipping point would be if foreign executives start to believe that the government is not willing to make changes to correct its inabilities."
Because India's economy is still a pidgin blend of Soviet-inspired socialism and entrepreneur-driven capitalism, business needs government to create a climate where investments can take root. In southern India, especially in Bangalore, strong governance and education helped create the $64 billion outsourcing industry almost entirely from scratch. On Dec. 2, Subramaniam Ramadorai, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, the top tech services outfit in India, left work to join a candlelight service for Mumbai's dead. Then it was back to business-almost-as-usual. "Our customers say they stand by us," he says. "Nobody has said they want to do less in India."
But in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, nearly 500 million people endure in an economic wasteland created by political turmoil, extreme corruption, India's highest crime rate, and its lowest per-capita income. Industry, local and foreign, has fled those states, or never dared venture there. Economic growth is less than half the national average. The people are among India's most illiterate, with a life expectancy worse than that of sub-Saharan Africans.
Not long ago, almost all of India resembled these two states. Even when reforms opened up much of the economy in 1991, real, measurable growth was held back for years as coalition governments collapsed, a border conflict with Pakistan threatened to spread, and scandals eroded faith in the financial markets. Only in 2001, when a stable government focused on the economy with a brand message called "India Shining," did things take off.
Which India will prevail—the India that nurtures global industries and rising affluence or the India of stalled hopes and endemic violence? A year ago the answer was clear: The new India would win. That is probably still true, but India now faces a struggle
New Delhi/Mumbai - Until Nov. 26 the strongest force pushing India forward was a mix of good fundamentals and that intangible something that industry calls "sentiment." Forged in the years of 9% growth, this euphoria inspired Indians to economic greatness and lured outside investors eager to be part of the Indian miracle.
Then the shooting started in south Mumbai. The three horrendous days that followed laid bare the gaps between India's image and reality, sparking a nationwide introspection about the nation's future. The fear is that India's mounting problems could drag the country back to its pitiful past. Its governments, despite a manufactured public image, have always been unwieldy; its economy, despite the plenty of the boom years, is premised mostly on future potential; and its much-flaunted stability is no such thing.
India's fragility is revealed by a pattern of diffused violence—a bomb here, a killing there—that goes unnoticed even in India. Most outsiders (and most investors) don't realize how dangerous a place India can be. Since 1993, when 13 bomb blasts in one day killed 257 in Mumbai, just over 29,000 people have died in terrorist attacks, including insurgencies in Kashmir and the Northeast, according to a BusinessWeek analysis of data from the Home Affairs Ministry. Thousands more have died in anti-Muslim riots. At least another 4,500 have perished since 2002 in a Maoist rebellion that simmers, and sometimes boils over, in the mineral-rich region of Chattisgarh, where foreign companies plan to invest heavily.
Just after the Mumbai attacks, three people were killed in a train blast in Assam, a northeastern state that produces more than $2 billion worth of tea each year, most of it exported. "It is not just this one unprecedented attack in Mumbai," says Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, India's most influential trade lobby. "Across the country we see...violence."
It's quite a contrast to the strengths India has used to attract global capital. Engineers and programmers are first class. Skilled, dedicated workers toil for wages much lower than in the West. The nation's blend of entrepreneurial spirit and democratic values has challenged the more rigid China model. A top-notch executive class boasts chief executives like Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group and innovator in categories from autos to hotels. Tata owns the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, which was ravaged in the attacks and which he vows to rebuild.
These strengths still attract investors. But foreign companies are not immune from the violence. In Orissa on the east coast, where billions in foreign investment lie tied up, Korean companies like steelmaker Posco have had executives kidnapped and land promised to them but never delivered: Protesters wield slogans and weapons to keep earthmovers at bay. In New Delhi, the Indian CEO of an Italian company's subsidiary was killed by a mob of employees angry over layoffs. And Patrick Cescau, CEO of consumer-products giant Unilever (UN), narrowly escaped death in the massacre at the Taj Mahal hotel where he was dining with colleagues.
SEEKING PROTECTION—FAST
If south Mumbai is visited by violence again, the 110-plus multinationals with regional offices there could be targets. Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), ABN Amro, HSBC (HBC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM)—all have offices there. "The targets identified demonstrate that the intention is to create panic and shatter the confidence of investors in India and global investors coming to India," says Habil Khorakiwala, managing director of Indian drugmaker Wockhardt. The private equity arms of Morgan Stanley, and Englefield Capital, which have offices in the Oberoi Trident Hotel, are looking for new premises in the city, according to an investment banker.
No wonder Raghu Raman's phone has been ringing nonstop. An ex-Indian Army man, Raman is CEO of Mahindra Special Services Group, which offers security to blue-chip clients like Hindustan Unilever, Merrill Lynch (MER), ABN Amro, HSBC, and others, many of whom want to beef up their security. Prospective clients also want protection fast. Raman says some multinationals have temporarily flown their top expat execs out of India.
Indian executives are even more alarmed than the multinationals. "We virtually handed Mumbai on a platter to the terrorists," says Rahul Mehta, managing director of Creative Group, a textile exporter in Mumbai that supplies clients such as J.C. Penney (JCP) and Target (TGT). Referring to reports that intelligence agencies had predicted an attack, he adds, "[The government] was forewarned, so why didn't they act on it? We've been ravaged by terror attacks since 1993."
In Mumbai, anger courses through the city. "How can I invest more in a city which does not protect me?" asks Abhay Mansukhani, who makes auto parts. Now he's tempted to relocate: He's holding off expanding his plant in north Mumbai as he contemplates a shift to Pune, 124 miles away.
Some executives, undeterred, are staying put. Gautam Patel, managing partner of Battery Ventures, was on a conference call when his window shattered from an explosion outside the Oberoi. He's furious with the government, but he's not budging: "Let's do something to get Bombay back on its feet," he says.
What concerns managers like Patel and Mansukhani is that the government they depend on for so much is so weak. The attacks of the past two years have made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's administration appear incompetent. Inflation has eaten away at the meager gains of the poor, who in India vote far more reliably than the middle class. Promised reforms have either been checked by the necessities of coalition politics or stalled in the Kafkaesque bureaucracy called the Indian Administrative Service, which pretty much runs the country.
And the tentacles of the global credit crunch have spread into India's relatively well-capitalized banks, slowing economic growth to 7.6% this quarter from more than 9% earlier. Exports dropped 12.1% in October, vs. a 51% jump in the same month last year. "It's a crisis situation," says Ananthasubramaniam Prasanna, chief economist at brokerage ICICI Securities. But he adds: "The focus now is on internal security and not fiscal policy." Worse, the prospect of a national election in April has reduced the government to lame-duck status.
Singh's government has promised swift action. At least three senior ministers, including one in charge of security, have quit. Singh has suggested creating a new agency that could react swiftly to an attack and increasing funds for commandoes.
LOYAL TECH CLIENTS
Yet if a conflict with Pakistan ensues, or bombings continue, or economic reforms remain frozen, or a government collapses—all things that have happened to India in the past 10 years—the euphoria could dissipate completely. "Fear of physical danger to employees, executives, and property can muddy the sentiment toward India," says Gunjan Bagla, author of Doing Business in 21st Century India and a consultant to U.S. companies in India. "To me the tipping point would be if foreign executives start to believe that the government is not willing to make changes to correct its inabilities."
Because India's economy is still a pidgin blend of Soviet-inspired socialism and entrepreneur-driven capitalism, business needs government to create a climate where investments can take root. In southern India, especially in Bangalore, strong governance and education helped create the $64 billion outsourcing industry almost entirely from scratch. On Dec. 2, Subramaniam Ramadorai, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, the top tech services outfit in India, left work to join a candlelight service for Mumbai's dead. Then it was back to business-almost-as-usual. "Our customers say they stand by us," he says. "Nobody has said they want to do less in India."
But in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, nearly 500 million people endure in an economic wasteland created by political turmoil, extreme corruption, India's highest crime rate, and its lowest per-capita income. Industry, local and foreign, has fled those states, or never dared venture there. Economic growth is less than half the national average. The people are among India's most illiterate, with a life expectancy worse than that of sub-Saharan Africans.
Not long ago, almost all of India resembled these two states. Even when reforms opened up much of the economy in 1991, real, measurable growth was held back for years as coalition governments collapsed, a border conflict with Pakistan threatened to spread, and scandals eroded faith in the financial markets. Only in 2001, when a stable government focused on the economy with a brand message called "India Shining," did things take off.
Which India will prevail—the India that nurtures global industries and rising affluence or the India of stalled hopes and endemic violence? A year ago the answer was clear: The new India would win. That is probably still true, but India now faces a struggle
Health - Health 2.0: Patients as Partners (V.G.Read)
Catherine Arnst
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has investigated how patients can find reliable medical advice online and looked at the emergence of medical social networks, in a series called Second Opinion: Medicine Online. You can view these reports at cbsnews.com.
Medicine has always been a top-down affair. Doctors, drug companies, regulators, and researchers are the expert gate-keepers, telling patients what they need to know. Even their own medical records are locked away to protect their privacy. So what would happen if critically ill patients joined together, obtained their personal information, and made it public?
Just such a real-world experiment is under way at a Web-based social network started by the company PatientsLikeMe. The two-year-old venture has already signed up 23,000 participants in five chronic-illness categories—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and mood disorders.
On the company's Web site, PatientsLikeMe members are charting their medical histories in minute detail, sharing their most private information with one another and the world at large, often with photos and real names attached. To make money, the company aggregates these records, stripped of identifiers, and sells the information to drug, device, and insurance companies, all with the consent of its patient-members. The buyers can mine a rich vein of data on a variety of chronic illnesses that is simply not available anywhere else. In return, patients get the hope that they are furthering progress toward cures.
This new patients-as-partners model is often called Health 2.0. PatientsLikeMe and a proliferation of similar startups are building a new business predicated on the belief that the wisdom of crowds of patients will bring insights, solace, and most of all, power.
Power because, as it turns out, patients talking among themselves on a global scale with complete transparency produces all kinds of unexpected results. Drug side effects can be reported to regulators by the patients experiencing them, without waiting for the manufacturers to come forward. Pharmaceutical companies can use social networks to recruit subjects quickly for clinical trials, speeding up the pace of research. For that matter, patients can simply band together and run their own clinical trials, leaving drug companies and physicians out of the loop.
NO TIME TO LOSE
In a development that has caught the worried attention of the medical Establishment, some 250 members of Patients- LikeMe with ALS are testing lithium, a generic drug used to treat mood disorders, with no corporate or academic imprimatur. The patient-run trial was instigated by Humberto Macedo, a 42-year-old systems analyst in Brasilia City, Brazil, diagnosed in March 2007 with ALS, an incurable neurodegenerative disease.
Macedo was confined to a wheelchair, barely able to speak, soon after he was diagnosed. He could still use a computer, though, and he quickly joined the ALS group on PatientsLikeMe. Researching his condition on the Internet, Macedo discovered a report on a small Italian study in which lithium appeared to slow progression of ALS. No company would be willing to finance a confirming trial of a drug that went off patent decades ago, against a disease that strikes only 4 to 8 people per 100,000. So Macedo stepped up, proposing to fellow PatientsLikeMe members that they test it themselves.
In December 2007 he posted a spreadsheet for recording symptoms and vital signs; ALS patients started taking lithium daily and documenting their results. The number of participants in the test quickly reached 250, more than five times as many as in the Italian study. Few doctors are willing to accept the results, nor would any medical journal publish them, since the trial does not meet rigorous scientific standards. "But we can't count on medical experts to get interested in ALS, and we don't have any time to lose," Macedo says via e-mail. "At least we have tried something to help ourselves."
In any event, it looks as though lithium does not slow ALS, and Macedo says he is all right with that. He and his cohort would have always wondered about its efficacy if they hadn't tested the drug. Even the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, though skeptical about the value of the user-generated trial, treated the experiment respectfully in an October editorial: "For patients with limited life expectancy, the ability to participate in a very rough, low-level clinical study on a new treatment is far more appealing and timely than waiting for clinical data to be published in peer reviewed literature."
The desire, and ability, of patients to participate in their own care isn't new. A January 2008 survey by market researcher iCrossing found that 59% of U.S. adults search the Internet for health information. More surprisingly, the study showed that 34% of the searchers visited emerging social media such as patient blogs, message boards, and forums.
For the chronically ill, social networks mean not having to wait idly in between doctor's appointments. Patients can reach out daily to fellow sufferers to find out what treatments work, or don't, what symptoms to worry about, what actions to take. "The health-care system has traditionally delivered care for acute events only," says Matthew Holt, an independent health-care consultant who organizes an annual Health 2.0 conference. "But illness is lived in long, ongoing periods."
Critics worry that bad information will flourish in such forums, even though participants insist they won't fall for quackery. "There is enough information that I can always check out any medicine if someone says it works," says PatientsLikeMe member Leonata Good, a 62-year-old Texan with Parkinson's. Holt acknowledges the dangers, but he also points out that bad information is rife in brick-and-mortar medical settings. In any case "the cat's out of the bag," he says. "This is happening, and the world has to deal with it."
Some of the first patient networks emerged from the nonprofit world, but the newest are commercial, and venture capitalists are willing to finance them. There's sure to be some consolidation, but right now patients have a big buffet to choose from. The options range from networks that encompass scores of diseases, like Trusera, launched in July, to one-disease wonders such as SugarStats, a year-old resource for diabetics.
PatientsLikeMe saw the business possibilities of Health 2.0 early on, in part because the company's founders, brothers James (Jamie) and Ben Heywood, are acutely sensitive to the shortcomings of the current medical system. Their middle brother, Stephen, was diagnosed with ALS in 1998 at age 29.
Jamie, the elder of the three and a computer scientist, quit his job the next year and started the nonprofit ALS Therapy Development Institute in hopes of finding a cure. Progress was achingly slow, however, and by 2004 he decided that a commercial venture would be able to scale up much faster.
He recruited his brother Ben and a mutual friend, Jeff Cole, all engineering graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The three went to work creating a forum that would allow legions of patients in the ALS community to investigate new treatments together, using matching software loosely modeled after online dating sites.
The idea wasn't the easiest sell, says Ben, now president, but the three managed to get $750,000 in combined seed money from CommerceNet, an e-commerce incubator, and from eBay (EBAY) founder Pierre M. Omidyar's investment group. In February 2007 the company raised $5 million more from venture capital firms.
The network launched in March 2006, supporting just one disease, ALS. Stephen Heywood was its charter member, but he died that November when his ventilator accidentally disconnected. "I think if [PatientsLikeMe] had been around earlier, it wouldn't have happened," says Jamie, the chairman, because other patients would have put Stephen on guard against this not-uncommon danger.
Membership is now growing by 35% a month, and Jamie expects the total to hit one million by 2012. At that point, he predicts, the network will encompass 200 different diseases. "We already have 5% of all ALS patients in the U.S. on our site," he says. That's a larger data set on the disease than exists anywhere else.
The site gets patients to participate by offering them free tools for tracking their medications, symptoms, and health outcomes, and storing the data in easy-to-read charts. A sophisticated search engine allows members to find others whose medical profiles most closely match their own, making note-sharing that much easier.
Several pharmaceutical companies, universities, and research labs have purchased data from PatientsLikeMe, and the founders believe the business will turn a profit in the next 12 to 24 months. Drug companies are also paying fees to recruit participants for clinical trials. Novartis (NVS) was one of the first to sign on, in May 2008, in order to speed up the start of a 1,200-patient study of a new medicine for multiple sclerosis. "We were in a real crunch in terms of finding eligible patients," says Trevor Mundel, head of development for Novartis. "We saw an immediate uptick in interest once we partnered with them," accelerating the trial by a few months.
PRIVACY ISSUES
All these deals are part of the Heywoods' overarching mission, to speed research by encouraging collaboration between patients and researchers. Such partnerships are usually difficult to pull off because of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which strictly limits the flow of patient records to insurers, employers, and other third parties. But HIPAA doesn't muzzle the patients themselves. And that opens up a regulatory escape clause.
The PatientsLikeMe Web site explains to members as soon as they sign on that aggregated information will be sold commercially, and that personal records are visible to others—including, inevitably, staff of drug and insurance companies. The fact that so many patients agree to these terms stuns health-care experts. "I am constantly amazed at what patients will put out there," says Jennifer Texada, director for new media at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
And no matter how often participants say they don't care who knows of their illnesses, there is always the risk that patients will be harmed when personal information is exposed. "Discrimination in health care, housing, and employment is a fact of life. The consequences of disclosure can be very serious," warns Susan M. Dooha, executive director for the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York.
Many patients find all this talk of consequences and concerns immaterial and patronizing. "I welcome partnerships with pharma," says PatientsLikeMe member Ryan Rollinson, a 22-year-old Minneapolis resident who is HIV positive. "That's how we can speed up progress." Steven Saling, a 40-year-old ALS patient in Boston, describes a sense of liberation through PatientsLikeMe. "Current HIPAA regulations, while well intentioned, keep researchers from connecting the dots to understand what causes ALS," he says.
The privacy issue could become more fraught as medical networks grow. "It only takes one patient with a bad experience to change the culture," says Texada. Yet even when privacy violations occur, as they surely will, patients who have embraced Health 2.0 are unlikely to give up their freedom to network. As Novartis' Mundel acknowledges, "Patients will keep pressuring all of us in the direction of more openness."
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has investigated how patients can find reliable medical advice online and looked at the emergence of medical social networks, in a series called Second Opinion: Medicine Online. You can view these reports at cbsnews.com.
Medicine has always been a top-down affair. Doctors, drug companies, regulators, and researchers are the expert gate-keepers, telling patients what they need to know. Even their own medical records are locked away to protect their privacy. So what would happen if critically ill patients joined together, obtained their personal information, and made it public?
Just such a real-world experiment is under way at a Web-based social network started by the company PatientsLikeMe. The two-year-old venture has already signed up 23,000 participants in five chronic-illness categories—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and mood disorders.
On the company's Web site, PatientsLikeMe members are charting their medical histories in minute detail, sharing their most private information with one another and the world at large, often with photos and real names attached. To make money, the company aggregates these records, stripped of identifiers, and sells the information to drug, device, and insurance companies, all with the consent of its patient-members. The buyers can mine a rich vein of data on a variety of chronic illnesses that is simply not available anywhere else. In return, patients get the hope that they are furthering progress toward cures.
This new patients-as-partners model is often called Health 2.0. PatientsLikeMe and a proliferation of similar startups are building a new business predicated on the belief that the wisdom of crowds of patients will bring insights, solace, and most of all, power.
Power because, as it turns out, patients talking among themselves on a global scale with complete transparency produces all kinds of unexpected results. Drug side effects can be reported to regulators by the patients experiencing them, without waiting for the manufacturers to come forward. Pharmaceutical companies can use social networks to recruit subjects quickly for clinical trials, speeding up the pace of research. For that matter, patients can simply band together and run their own clinical trials, leaving drug companies and physicians out of the loop.
NO TIME TO LOSE
In a development that has caught the worried attention of the medical Establishment, some 250 members of Patients- LikeMe with ALS are testing lithium, a generic drug used to treat mood disorders, with no corporate or academic imprimatur. The patient-run trial was instigated by Humberto Macedo, a 42-year-old systems analyst in Brasilia City, Brazil, diagnosed in March 2007 with ALS, an incurable neurodegenerative disease.
Macedo was confined to a wheelchair, barely able to speak, soon after he was diagnosed. He could still use a computer, though, and he quickly joined the ALS group on PatientsLikeMe. Researching his condition on the Internet, Macedo discovered a report on a small Italian study in which lithium appeared to slow progression of ALS. No company would be willing to finance a confirming trial of a drug that went off patent decades ago, against a disease that strikes only 4 to 8 people per 100,000. So Macedo stepped up, proposing to fellow PatientsLikeMe members that they test it themselves.
In December 2007 he posted a spreadsheet for recording symptoms and vital signs; ALS patients started taking lithium daily and documenting their results. The number of participants in the test quickly reached 250, more than five times as many as in the Italian study. Few doctors are willing to accept the results, nor would any medical journal publish them, since the trial does not meet rigorous scientific standards. "But we can't count on medical experts to get interested in ALS, and we don't have any time to lose," Macedo says via e-mail. "At least we have tried something to help ourselves."
In any event, it looks as though lithium does not slow ALS, and Macedo says he is all right with that. He and his cohort would have always wondered about its efficacy if they hadn't tested the drug. Even the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, though skeptical about the value of the user-generated trial, treated the experiment respectfully in an October editorial: "For patients with limited life expectancy, the ability to participate in a very rough, low-level clinical study on a new treatment is far more appealing and timely than waiting for clinical data to be published in peer reviewed literature."
The desire, and ability, of patients to participate in their own care isn't new. A January 2008 survey by market researcher iCrossing found that 59% of U.S. adults search the Internet for health information. More surprisingly, the study showed that 34% of the searchers visited emerging social media such as patient blogs, message boards, and forums.
For the chronically ill, social networks mean not having to wait idly in between doctor's appointments. Patients can reach out daily to fellow sufferers to find out what treatments work, or don't, what symptoms to worry about, what actions to take. "The health-care system has traditionally delivered care for acute events only," says Matthew Holt, an independent health-care consultant who organizes an annual Health 2.0 conference. "But illness is lived in long, ongoing periods."
Critics worry that bad information will flourish in such forums, even though participants insist they won't fall for quackery. "There is enough information that I can always check out any medicine if someone says it works," says PatientsLikeMe member Leonata Good, a 62-year-old Texan with Parkinson's. Holt acknowledges the dangers, but he also points out that bad information is rife in brick-and-mortar medical settings. In any case "the cat's out of the bag," he says. "This is happening, and the world has to deal with it."
Some of the first patient networks emerged from the nonprofit world, but the newest are commercial, and venture capitalists are willing to finance them. There's sure to be some consolidation, but right now patients have a big buffet to choose from. The options range from networks that encompass scores of diseases, like Trusera, launched in July, to one-disease wonders such as SugarStats, a year-old resource for diabetics.
PatientsLikeMe saw the business possibilities of Health 2.0 early on, in part because the company's founders, brothers James (Jamie) and Ben Heywood, are acutely sensitive to the shortcomings of the current medical system. Their middle brother, Stephen, was diagnosed with ALS in 1998 at age 29.
Jamie, the elder of the three and a computer scientist, quit his job the next year and started the nonprofit ALS Therapy Development Institute in hopes of finding a cure. Progress was achingly slow, however, and by 2004 he decided that a commercial venture would be able to scale up much faster.
He recruited his brother Ben and a mutual friend, Jeff Cole, all engineering graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The three went to work creating a forum that would allow legions of patients in the ALS community to investigate new treatments together, using matching software loosely modeled after online dating sites.
The idea wasn't the easiest sell, says Ben, now president, but the three managed to get $750,000 in combined seed money from CommerceNet, an e-commerce incubator, and from eBay (EBAY) founder Pierre M. Omidyar's investment group. In February 2007 the company raised $5 million more from venture capital firms.
The network launched in March 2006, supporting just one disease, ALS. Stephen Heywood was its charter member, but he died that November when his ventilator accidentally disconnected. "I think if [PatientsLikeMe] had been around earlier, it wouldn't have happened," says Jamie, the chairman, because other patients would have put Stephen on guard against this not-uncommon danger.
Membership is now growing by 35% a month, and Jamie expects the total to hit one million by 2012. At that point, he predicts, the network will encompass 200 different diseases. "We already have 5% of all ALS patients in the U.S. on our site," he says. That's a larger data set on the disease than exists anywhere else.
The site gets patients to participate by offering them free tools for tracking their medications, symptoms, and health outcomes, and storing the data in easy-to-read charts. A sophisticated search engine allows members to find others whose medical profiles most closely match their own, making note-sharing that much easier.
Several pharmaceutical companies, universities, and research labs have purchased data from PatientsLikeMe, and the founders believe the business will turn a profit in the next 12 to 24 months. Drug companies are also paying fees to recruit participants for clinical trials. Novartis (NVS) was one of the first to sign on, in May 2008, in order to speed up the start of a 1,200-patient study of a new medicine for multiple sclerosis. "We were in a real crunch in terms of finding eligible patients," says Trevor Mundel, head of development for Novartis. "We saw an immediate uptick in interest once we partnered with them," accelerating the trial by a few months.
PRIVACY ISSUES
All these deals are part of the Heywoods' overarching mission, to speed research by encouraging collaboration between patients and researchers. Such partnerships are usually difficult to pull off because of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which strictly limits the flow of patient records to insurers, employers, and other third parties. But HIPAA doesn't muzzle the patients themselves. And that opens up a regulatory escape clause.
The PatientsLikeMe Web site explains to members as soon as they sign on that aggregated information will be sold commercially, and that personal records are visible to others—including, inevitably, staff of drug and insurance companies. The fact that so many patients agree to these terms stuns health-care experts. "I am constantly amazed at what patients will put out there," says Jennifer Texada, director for new media at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
And no matter how often participants say they don't care who knows of their illnesses, there is always the risk that patients will be harmed when personal information is exposed. "Discrimination in health care, housing, and employment is a fact of life. The consequences of disclosure can be very serious," warns Susan M. Dooha, executive director for the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York.
Many patients find all this talk of consequences and concerns immaterial and patronizing. "I welcome partnerships with pharma," says PatientsLikeMe member Ryan Rollinson, a 22-year-old Minneapolis resident who is HIV positive. "That's how we can speed up progress." Steven Saling, a 40-year-old ALS patient in Boston, describes a sense of liberation through PatientsLikeMe. "Current HIPAA regulations, while well intentioned, keep researchers from connecting the dots to understand what causes ALS," he says.
The privacy issue could become more fraught as medical networks grow. "It only takes one patient with a bad experience to change the culture," says Texada. Yet even when privacy violations occur, as they surely will, patients who have embraced Health 2.0 are unlikely to give up their freedom to network. As Novartis' Mundel acknowledges, "Patients will keep pressuring all of us in the direction of more openness."
Mktg - McDonald's New Look
Matt Vella
McDonald's (MCD) is busily remodeling its U.S. locations, accessorizing interiors with flat-panel televisions and plush chairs—even the exteriors are made of real brick these days (BusinessWeek, 5/15/06). Now the Oak Brook (Ill.) chain is turning to its packaging. In early November the king of cheap eats began rolling out new packaging across its 13,900 U.S. restaurants that aims to make the containers for its sandwiches, french fries, and soft drinks more relevant to today's consumers, and not look like a throwback to the 1990s.
The new packaging is splashed with bold text and crisp imagery. Unlike the previous no-frills white and red box, the new Big Mac container, for example, triumphantly exclaims in heavy block text, "There is only one." On one side, plucky marketing copy extols the Big Mac's height while, on another, the vegetables, cheese, and cooking utensils used in the burger's making are highlighted. The goal, says Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer, is to "create unique personalities for our menu items by telling a story about each one."
McDonald's is also trying to stay ahead of concerns over obesity as well as the healthfulness and safety of food supplies around the world. Full-color photographs of ingredients are intended to remind customers that, for instance, a Quarter Pounder is, indeed, made of real food. The company's iconic red, yellow, and white French fry package now features a partially peeled potato on the front. Smaller sandwiches will retain their simpler paper wrapper, though new versions are adorned with block text similar to boxed products. Says Dillon: "This demonstrates the authenticity of the locally grown ingredients we use."
(The packaging, of course, retains the nutritional information required by food labeling laws cropping up in the U.S. and elsewhere.)
A Global Redesign
True to its global mission, the company plans to introduce its latest design over the next two years in every one of the 118 countries in which it operates. That includes translations into 21 languages. Dillon won't say what the company spent on the redesign. But New York-based brand consultant Dean Crutchfield notes that similar mass branding projects at giants like Unilever (UN) have cost from $50 million to $80 million. Dillon says the launch will be "cost-neutral," since new packaging will roll out as supplies of older materials are used up. McDonald's last redesigned its packaging in 2003, but this is the first time it has attempted to employ a uniform look and feel the world over.
McDonald's started working with Boxer, a branding firm based in Birmingham, England, on the new packaging in August 2007. Paul Castledine, Boxer's chairman and chief creative officer, says designers spent hundreds of hours in focus groups before settling on the concept of provocative headlines bolstered by vivid photography. But a design that relies so heavily on typography proved too much to handle in so many languages. "We would always start with German," jokes Castledine about that language's characteristically long words.
More important, Castledine says the company has developed a template that can be modified to different markets. Boxer created an online style guide and library of images available to franchises around the world. Says Castledine: "There's nothing worse than a global brand that isn't locally relevant." In Australia, for instance, packaging highlights beef sourced in nearby New Zealand. In Argentina, some sandwiches feature images of marinated seasoned onions, a regional delicacy. And throughout Europe, Le Hamburger's ciabatta roll is called out.
Advantages of Continuity
More than merely an aesthetic exercise, McDonald's rollout is one of the most ambitious in the growing number of digital asset-management systems—online repositories of branding materials like logos, images, and video clips that marketers have access to. Advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather built the first such system in 2001 for IBM (IBM). And Coca-Cola (KO) is currently rolling out a similar system (BusinessWeek, 10/13/08). "The scale is hard for most people to imagine," says Aaron Keller, managing principal of Minneapolis-based design firm Capsule. By 2010 nearly 56 million customers a day will be staring at similar if not identical McDonald's packaging designs.
Still, the new packaging forgoes the clever shapes that design-savvy companies routinely show off—think the intricate folding boxes of Apple's (AAPL) iPod or the bulbous shape of popular pomegranate drink POM. Then again, for a company that sells 550 million Big Macs a year in America alone, keeping it simple may have its advantages. And continuity, says the company, will enable 82% of its consumer packaging to continue being made from renewable paper or wood materials. What's more, Boxer's Castledine says, alternative shapes tested poorly with McDonald's employees. "The current box is well loved by the cooking crews," he says.
McDonald's Dillon says the company knows many consumers will end up tossing out the new packaging without giving the design more than a passing glance. Still, she insists the new design presents an opportunity to strengthen the McDonald's brand. "People want to know more and more about the food they're eating," adds Castledine. "And, well, the box is the most intimate touch point with any brand."
Vella is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.
McDonald's (MCD) is busily remodeling its U.S. locations, accessorizing interiors with flat-panel televisions and plush chairs—even the exteriors are made of real brick these days (BusinessWeek, 5/15/06). Now the Oak Brook (Ill.) chain is turning to its packaging. In early November the king of cheap eats began rolling out new packaging across its 13,900 U.S. restaurants that aims to make the containers for its sandwiches, french fries, and soft drinks more relevant to today's consumers, and not look like a throwback to the 1990s.
The new packaging is splashed with bold text and crisp imagery. Unlike the previous no-frills white and red box, the new Big Mac container, for example, triumphantly exclaims in heavy block text, "There is only one." On one side, plucky marketing copy extols the Big Mac's height while, on another, the vegetables, cheese, and cooking utensils used in the burger's making are highlighted. The goal, says Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer, is to "create unique personalities for our menu items by telling a story about each one."
McDonald's is also trying to stay ahead of concerns over obesity as well as the healthfulness and safety of food supplies around the world. Full-color photographs of ingredients are intended to remind customers that, for instance, a Quarter Pounder is, indeed, made of real food. The company's iconic red, yellow, and white French fry package now features a partially peeled potato on the front. Smaller sandwiches will retain their simpler paper wrapper, though new versions are adorned with block text similar to boxed products. Says Dillon: "This demonstrates the authenticity of the locally grown ingredients we use."
(The packaging, of course, retains the nutritional information required by food labeling laws cropping up in the U.S. and elsewhere.)
A Global Redesign
True to its global mission, the company plans to introduce its latest design over the next two years in every one of the 118 countries in which it operates. That includes translations into 21 languages. Dillon won't say what the company spent on the redesign. But New York-based brand consultant Dean Crutchfield notes that similar mass branding projects at giants like Unilever (UN) have cost from $50 million to $80 million. Dillon says the launch will be "cost-neutral," since new packaging will roll out as supplies of older materials are used up. McDonald's last redesigned its packaging in 2003, but this is the first time it has attempted to employ a uniform look and feel the world over.
McDonald's started working with Boxer, a branding firm based in Birmingham, England, on the new packaging in August 2007. Paul Castledine, Boxer's chairman and chief creative officer, says designers spent hundreds of hours in focus groups before settling on the concept of provocative headlines bolstered by vivid photography. But a design that relies so heavily on typography proved too much to handle in so many languages. "We would always start with German," jokes Castledine about that language's characteristically long words.
More important, Castledine says the company has developed a template that can be modified to different markets. Boxer created an online style guide and library of images available to franchises around the world. Says Castledine: "There's nothing worse than a global brand that isn't locally relevant." In Australia, for instance, packaging highlights beef sourced in nearby New Zealand. In Argentina, some sandwiches feature images of marinated seasoned onions, a regional delicacy. And throughout Europe, Le Hamburger's ciabatta roll is called out.
Advantages of Continuity
More than merely an aesthetic exercise, McDonald's rollout is one of the most ambitious in the growing number of digital asset-management systems—online repositories of branding materials like logos, images, and video clips that marketers have access to. Advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather built the first such system in 2001 for IBM (IBM). And Coca-Cola (KO) is currently rolling out a similar system (BusinessWeek, 10/13/08). "The scale is hard for most people to imagine," says Aaron Keller, managing principal of Minneapolis-based design firm Capsule. By 2010 nearly 56 million customers a day will be staring at similar if not identical McDonald's packaging designs.
Still, the new packaging forgoes the clever shapes that design-savvy companies routinely show off—think the intricate folding boxes of Apple's (AAPL) iPod or the bulbous shape of popular pomegranate drink POM. Then again, for a company that sells 550 million Big Macs a year in America alone, keeping it simple may have its advantages. And continuity, says the company, will enable 82% of its consumer packaging to continue being made from renewable paper or wood materials. What's more, Boxer's Castledine says, alternative shapes tested poorly with McDonald's employees. "The current box is well loved by the cooking crews," he says.
McDonald's Dillon says the company knows many consumers will end up tossing out the new packaging without giving the design more than a passing glance. Still, she insists the new design presents an opportunity to strengthen the McDonald's brand. "People want to know more and more about the food they're eating," adds Castledine. "And, well, the box is the most intimate touch point with any brand."
Vella is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.
World - US;Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers
Bob Johnson
For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.
It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."
Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.
"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said.
EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.
Butterfield said the EPA has not taken a position on any of the proposals. But farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the idea, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week.
"It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause, the senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.
"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville in northwest Alabama, said he has spoken with EPA officials and doesn't believe the cow tax is a serious proposal that will ever be adopted by the agency.
"Who comes up with this kind of stuff?" said Perry Mobley, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation's beef division. "It seems there is an ulterior motive, to destroy livestock farms. This would certainly put them out of business."
Butterfield said the EPA is reviewing the public comments and didn't have a timetable for the next steps.
For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.
It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."
Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.
"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said.
EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.
Butterfield said the EPA has not taken a position on any of the proposals. But farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the idea, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week.
"It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause, the senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.
"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville in northwest Alabama, said he has spoken with EPA officials and doesn't believe the cow tax is a serious proposal that will ever be adopted by the agency.
"Who comes up with this kind of stuff?" said Perry Mobley, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation's beef division. "It seems there is an ulterior motive, to destroy livestock farms. This would certainly put them out of business."
Butterfield said the EPA is reviewing the public comments and didn't have a timetable for the next steps.
World - France's Nuclear Power
“WE THOUGHT there was a future in nuclear power when no one else believed in it,” says Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of Areva. The French, government-owned company is building the first nuclear reactors to be constructed in western Europe for nearly 20 years. With “no oil, no gas, no coal and no choice”, France decided to go nuclear in 1974, and today about 80% of its electricity is generated by 59 nuclear plants across the country. But even France became pessimistic about nuclear power: it stopped building new reactors at the end of the 1980s and in 2002 a government report called the industry a “monster without a future”.
How things have changed. Nuclear power is back in favour, thanks to fears about oil supplies, energy security and global warming. France is poised to develop its expertise into a significant export. Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, considers the sale of nuclear power to be central to his diplomacy: it is a badge of France’s technical prowess and a reaffirmation of its status as a global industrial power. Soon after his election 18 months ago, he toured countries from China to Libya to tout France’s nuclear expertise, signing deals to open the way for French firms to sell reactors.
France has two competitive advantages in the field. First, it has the most recent and extensive experience of any country in building and operating nuclear plants. That has given Areva’s “third generation” reactor design, called the EPR, an edge over blueprints from its two big rivals: Westinghouse, now a unit of Toshiba of Japan, and GE Hitachi, a recently formed joint venture. Second, French engineers have developed a novel reprocessing technique, so that nuclear energy produces less waste than in other countries.
Areva’s EPRs are under construction at Flamanville in Normandy, Olkiluoto in Finland and Taishan in China. Areva forecasts that demand for nuclear capacity could bring it orders for 60 reactors, or one-third of the total market, by 2020—each with a price tag of around €5 billion ($6.3 billion). Westinghouse has orders from China for four of its new AP1000 reactors, and GE Hitachi’s ESBWR design is being considered by several American utilities.
The high cost of building new plants, and the uncertainty over the cost of nuclear energy relative to other sources, could delay the nuclear renaissance, especially in the midst of a credit crunch. Luckily for vendors, governments are bent on tackling climate change and securing energy supplies, and are likely to offer big subsidies.
Britain, for one, has given its blessing to France’s nuclear ambitions: in September Electricité de France (EDF), a state-owned energy giant which owns and runs France’s plants (and is thus closely intertwined with Areva), bought British Energy, a troubled utility in which the British government held a big stake. British Energy plans to build four new reactors in Britain and is now certain to choose Areva’s EPR. And this month South Africa is due to say whether it will proceed with a plan to build up to 12 reactors—and whether it will use Areva’s or Westinghouse’s design.
In some markets, the French may lose out to local rivals. This week EDF launched a defensive $4.5 billion bid for half of the nuclear business of Constellation, an American utility. EDF had hoped to use Constellation as a platform to expand in America, and in February this year the two firms’ joint venture, UniStar, agreed to propose Areva’s EPR for construction in America. But in September Constellation agreed to be acquired by MidAmerican, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
This could thwart EDF in America, and could even prompt Constellation to dump the EPR and choose technology from GE, in which Mr Buffett holds a big stake. Westinghouse is Areva’s most formidable opponent for now, but GE “must be the front-runner when America starts to rebuild its nuclear industry,” says Harold Fairfull of Consilium, a utilities-finance advisory firm. He predicts that Areva will be dominant in Europe, and GE in America.
Areva’s rivals must relish the fact that both its new showcase reactors have run into trouble. At Olkiluoto, Areva’s EPR is three years behind schedule and an estimated €1.5 billion over its initial budget of €3 billion. A French nuclear executive says the main reason Areva has had such difficulties was that it bid fiercely to keep GE out. At Flamanville there have also been construction difficulties. Areva and EDF say any firm would have had problems after such a long hiatus in building plants. The delays may also reflect a shortage of nuclear skills that is not unique to France.
France will probably find it easiest to sell nuclear power in emerging markets. Mr Sarkozy’s tour of the Arab world raised concern among non-proliferation specialists. But in reality, only a fraction of the projects announced will lead to the building of nuclear power stations, according to a French official. The country most likely to end up signing a contract is the United Arab Emirates, says an insider; a deal with Libya, though, is “unthinkable”. But France can count on selling dozens of reactors to countries such as Brazil, China and India.
To help Areva expand abroad, Ms Lauvergeon wants to localise the firm in its most important markets. Nuclear power’s capital-intensive nature means the cost of labour is relatively unimportant, so Areva can afford to employ expensive workers in rich countries. “We’ve created more jobs in America than Westinghouse or GE,” she says. In October Areva said it would build a factory for nuclear parts in Virginia. In Britain, Areva plans to revive nuclear-related manufacturing. For that reason, says Ms Lauvergeon, “my dream is that in future we will be helped and defended by Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, as well as by Nicolas Sarkozy.”
Indeed, the big question for the future of French nuclear power is whether Areva will at last break free from the French state. In several markets, such as America, it would be simpler if Areva were a private firm like its rivals, says Nicolas Véron of Bruegel, a Brussels think-tank. In 2005 Ms Lauvergeon suffered a blow when the government abruptly cancelled her plan for a share offering. She has since fought against a government plan to create a three-headed national champion by merging Areva with Alstom, an engineering firm rescued from bankruptcy by the state in 2004, and Bouygues, an industrial conglomerate. Areva wants its customers to be free to choose to buy ancillary components, such as turbines, from whomever they like, rather than having to buy everything from a combined Areva/Alstom/Bouygues.
Such a merger would also mean ending a successful partnership with Siemens, a German engineering giant which owns 34% of Areva NP, Areva’s nuclear-reactor subsidiary. That could hurt Areva’s prospects in Germany. A decision on the matter is expected soon from the government. “The merger is dead,” says an Areva insider, but other nuclear executives say that the outcome is still unpredictable. Perhaps Mr Sarkozy will see that Areva has little need for more government intervention. It is already a national champion.
How things have changed. Nuclear power is back in favour, thanks to fears about oil supplies, energy security and global warming. France is poised to develop its expertise into a significant export. Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, considers the sale of nuclear power to be central to his diplomacy: it is a badge of France’s technical prowess and a reaffirmation of its status as a global industrial power. Soon after his election 18 months ago, he toured countries from China to Libya to tout France’s nuclear expertise, signing deals to open the way for French firms to sell reactors.
France has two competitive advantages in the field. First, it has the most recent and extensive experience of any country in building and operating nuclear plants. That has given Areva’s “third generation” reactor design, called the EPR, an edge over blueprints from its two big rivals: Westinghouse, now a unit of Toshiba of Japan, and GE Hitachi, a recently formed joint venture. Second, French engineers have developed a novel reprocessing technique, so that nuclear energy produces less waste than in other countries.
Areva’s EPRs are under construction at Flamanville in Normandy, Olkiluoto in Finland and Taishan in China. Areva forecasts that demand for nuclear capacity could bring it orders for 60 reactors, or one-third of the total market, by 2020—each with a price tag of around €5 billion ($6.3 billion). Westinghouse has orders from China for four of its new AP1000 reactors, and GE Hitachi’s ESBWR design is being considered by several American utilities.
The high cost of building new plants, and the uncertainty over the cost of nuclear energy relative to other sources, could delay the nuclear renaissance, especially in the midst of a credit crunch. Luckily for vendors, governments are bent on tackling climate change and securing energy supplies, and are likely to offer big subsidies.
Britain, for one, has given its blessing to France’s nuclear ambitions: in September Electricité de France (EDF), a state-owned energy giant which owns and runs France’s plants (and is thus closely intertwined with Areva), bought British Energy, a troubled utility in which the British government held a big stake. British Energy plans to build four new reactors in Britain and is now certain to choose Areva’s EPR. And this month South Africa is due to say whether it will proceed with a plan to build up to 12 reactors—and whether it will use Areva’s or Westinghouse’s design.
In some markets, the French may lose out to local rivals. This week EDF launched a defensive $4.5 billion bid for half of the nuclear business of Constellation, an American utility. EDF had hoped to use Constellation as a platform to expand in America, and in February this year the two firms’ joint venture, UniStar, agreed to propose Areva’s EPR for construction in America. But in September Constellation agreed to be acquired by MidAmerican, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
This could thwart EDF in America, and could even prompt Constellation to dump the EPR and choose technology from GE, in which Mr Buffett holds a big stake. Westinghouse is Areva’s most formidable opponent for now, but GE “must be the front-runner when America starts to rebuild its nuclear industry,” says Harold Fairfull of Consilium, a utilities-finance advisory firm. He predicts that Areva will be dominant in Europe, and GE in America.
Areva’s rivals must relish the fact that both its new showcase reactors have run into trouble. At Olkiluoto, Areva’s EPR is three years behind schedule and an estimated €1.5 billion over its initial budget of €3 billion. A French nuclear executive says the main reason Areva has had such difficulties was that it bid fiercely to keep GE out. At Flamanville there have also been construction difficulties. Areva and EDF say any firm would have had problems after such a long hiatus in building plants. The delays may also reflect a shortage of nuclear skills that is not unique to France.
France will probably find it easiest to sell nuclear power in emerging markets. Mr Sarkozy’s tour of the Arab world raised concern among non-proliferation specialists. But in reality, only a fraction of the projects announced will lead to the building of nuclear power stations, according to a French official. The country most likely to end up signing a contract is the United Arab Emirates, says an insider; a deal with Libya, though, is “unthinkable”. But France can count on selling dozens of reactors to countries such as Brazil, China and India.
To help Areva expand abroad, Ms Lauvergeon wants to localise the firm in its most important markets. Nuclear power’s capital-intensive nature means the cost of labour is relatively unimportant, so Areva can afford to employ expensive workers in rich countries. “We’ve created more jobs in America than Westinghouse or GE,” she says. In October Areva said it would build a factory for nuclear parts in Virginia. In Britain, Areva plans to revive nuclear-related manufacturing. For that reason, says Ms Lauvergeon, “my dream is that in future we will be helped and defended by Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, as well as by Nicolas Sarkozy.”
Indeed, the big question for the future of French nuclear power is whether Areva will at last break free from the French state. In several markets, such as America, it would be simpler if Areva were a private firm like its rivals, says Nicolas Véron of Bruegel, a Brussels think-tank. In 2005 Ms Lauvergeon suffered a blow when the government abruptly cancelled her plan for a share offering. She has since fought against a government plan to create a three-headed national champion by merging Areva with Alstom, an engineering firm rescued from bankruptcy by the state in 2004, and Bouygues, an industrial conglomerate. Areva wants its customers to be free to choose to buy ancillary components, such as turbines, from whomever they like, rather than having to buy everything from a combined Areva/Alstom/Bouygues.
Such a merger would also mean ending a successful partnership with Siemens, a German engineering giant which owns 34% of Areva NP, Areva’s nuclear-reactor subsidiary. That could hurt Areva’s prospects in Germany. A decision on the matter is expected soon from the government. “The merger is dead,” says an Areva insider, but other nuclear executives say that the outcome is still unpredictable. Perhaps Mr Sarkozy will see that Areva has little need for more government intervention. It is already a national champion.
World - Thais mark king’s birthday in sombre mood
BANGKOK, Dec 5 – Thailand marked the king’s birthday on Friday in a solemn mood, concerned for the health of the ageing monarch and worried as well over the country’s debilitating political deadlock.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 81 on Friday, failed to deliver his annual birthday eve address at a time when many Thais had been looking to him to issue a call for unity after protests by People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) activists shut down Bangkok’s main airport for a week.
His speeches in the past three years have been nuanced and focused on the need for national unity, although his calls for clean government were widely read as a swipe at Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup.
Thailand’s caretaker government cancelled next Monday’s special parliamentary session to choose a successor to Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, who was convicted of vote fraud this week and banned from politics for five years.
Seen as semi-divine by many of Thailand’s 65 million people, the king has intervened in politics three times during his six decades on the throne, variously favouring elected and military administrations.
The monarch has been thrust into the centre of the fray by the PAD’s persistent use of his name in their fight with Thaksin, whose popularity with rural voters, based on cheap healthcare and credit, upset Bangkok’s old royal and military elite.
Bringing hope to 230,000 stranded foreign tourists, Airports of Thailand said the $4 billion Suvarnabhumi airport, one of Asia’s largest, resumed full operations on Friday after the week-long shutdown.
”We are up and running and its business as usual,” transport minister Santi Prompat told reporters during a tour of the airport on Friday.
The airport shutdown has already cost the tourism- and export-dependent economy hundreds of millions of dollars.
Despite the return of relative normality at the airport, analysts said more trouble was in store after the brief hiatus of the king’s birthday.
The caretaker government called off a special parliamentary session on Monday to select a replacement for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
Speaker Chai Chidchob told reporters the king had not responded to parliament’s request for an extraordinary sitting. His comments came before news of the king’s illness.
Somchai’s People Power Party (PPP), which the PAD accuses of being a front for the exiled Thaksin, was dissolved in the same ruling but most of its rank-and-file members simply switched to another ”shell” party.
It and the other five parties in the ruling coalition easily have the numbers in parliament to form the next administration, an eventuality that seems bound to lead the PAD to resume its street protests.
On Friday, thousands of loyal Thais qued up patiently at Bangkok’s gold glittering Grand Palace to wish the king a speedy recovery.
Jai Srisom, 87, boarded a train from central province of Nakhon Sawan and stayed overnight at a Bangkok temple and said he had done this for the past 14 years.
”I wish him a quick recovery. I wish him to live as long as possible. I will continue to do this every year until I can no longer walk.”
Five PAD leaders also showed up at the palace and yellow-shirted supporters swamped them for photographs.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 81 on Friday, failed to deliver his annual birthday eve address at a time when many Thais had been looking to him to issue a call for unity after protests by People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) activists shut down Bangkok’s main airport for a week.
His speeches in the past three years have been nuanced and focused on the need for national unity, although his calls for clean government were widely read as a swipe at Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup.
Thailand’s caretaker government cancelled next Monday’s special parliamentary session to choose a successor to Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, who was convicted of vote fraud this week and banned from politics for five years.
Seen as semi-divine by many of Thailand’s 65 million people, the king has intervened in politics three times during his six decades on the throne, variously favouring elected and military administrations.
The monarch has been thrust into the centre of the fray by the PAD’s persistent use of his name in their fight with Thaksin, whose popularity with rural voters, based on cheap healthcare and credit, upset Bangkok’s old royal and military elite.
Bringing hope to 230,000 stranded foreign tourists, Airports of Thailand said the $4 billion Suvarnabhumi airport, one of Asia’s largest, resumed full operations on Friday after the week-long shutdown.
”We are up and running and its business as usual,” transport minister Santi Prompat told reporters during a tour of the airport on Friday.
The airport shutdown has already cost the tourism- and export-dependent economy hundreds of millions of dollars.
Despite the return of relative normality at the airport, analysts said more trouble was in store after the brief hiatus of the king’s birthday.
The caretaker government called off a special parliamentary session on Monday to select a replacement for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
Speaker Chai Chidchob told reporters the king had not responded to parliament’s request for an extraordinary sitting. His comments came before news of the king’s illness.
Somchai’s People Power Party (PPP), which the PAD accuses of being a front for the exiled Thaksin, was dissolved in the same ruling but most of its rank-and-file members simply switched to another ”shell” party.
It and the other five parties in the ruling coalition easily have the numbers in parliament to form the next administration, an eventuality that seems bound to lead the PAD to resume its street protests.
On Friday, thousands of loyal Thais qued up patiently at Bangkok’s gold glittering Grand Palace to wish the king a speedy recovery.
Jai Srisom, 87, boarded a train from central province of Nakhon Sawan and stayed overnight at a Bangkok temple and said he had done this for the past 14 years.
”I wish him a quick recovery. I wish him to live as long as possible. I will continue to do this every year until I can no longer walk.”
Five PAD leaders also showed up at the palace and yellow-shirted supporters swamped them for photographs.
Science - Balls & Brains;Intelligence predicts sperm quality
THERE are few better ways of upsetting a certain sort of politically correct person than to suggest that intelligence (or, rather, the variation in intelligence between individuals) is under genetic control. That, however, is one implication of a paper about to be published in Intelligence by Rosalind Arden of King’s College, London, and her colleagues. Another is that brainy people are intrinsically healthier than those less intellectually endowed. And the third, a consequence of the second, is that intelligence is sexy. The most surprising thing of all, though, is that these results have emerged from an unrelated study of the quality of men’s sperm.
Ms Arden is one of a group of researchers looking into the connections between intelligence, genetics and health. General intelligence (the extent to which specific, measurable aspects of intelligence, such as linguistic facility, mathematical aptitude and spatial awareness, are correlated in a given individual) is measured by psychologists using a value called Spearman’s g. Recently, it has been discovered that an individual’s g value is correlated with many aspects of his health, up to and including his lifespan. One possible explanation for this is that intelligent people make better choices about how to conduct their lives. They may, for example, be less likely to smoke, more likely to eat healthy foods or to exercise, and so on.
Alternatively (or in addition) it may be that intelligence is one manifestation of an underlying, genetically based healthiness. That is a view held by many evolutionary biologists, and was propounded in its modern form by Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico, who is one of Ms Arden’s co-authors (and, as it happens, her husband). These biologists believe intelligence, as manifested in things like artistic and musical ability, is such a reliable indicator of underlying genetic fitness that it has been chosen by members of the opposite sex over the millennia. In the ensuing arms race to show off and get a mate it has been exaggerated in the way that a peacock’s tail is. This process of sexual selection, Dr Miller and his followers believe, is the reason people have become so brainy.
Hitting the g spot
Ms Arden sought to test this idea in a way that excluded intelligent choice and got directly at any correlations between intelligence and health that operate at the physiological level. She chose sperm quality because it is both easily measured and about as far from intelligent choice as it is possible to imagine—and because the relevant data had already been collected.
Her retrospective “volunteers” were former American soldiers enrolled in what was known as the Vietnam Experience Study. In 1985 almost 4,500 veterans of that war volunteered for extensive medical and mental examinations. Some of them gave semen samples that were analysed for sperm concentration (ie, number of sperm per cubic centimetre), sperm count (ie, total number of sperm in the ejaculate) and sperm motility.
Ms Arden found 425 cases where samples had been collected and analysed from unvasectomised men who had managed to avoid spilling their seed during the collection process and had answered all the necessary questions for her to test her hypothesis, namely that their g values would correlate with all three measures of their sperm quality.
They did. Moreover, neither age nor any obvious confounding variable that might have been a consequence of intelligent decisions about health (obesity, smoking, drinking and drug use) had any effect on the result. Brainy men, it seems, do have better sperm.
By implication, therefore, they have fitter bodies over all, at least in the Darwinian sense of fitness, namely the ability to survive, to attract mates and to produce offspring. That is an important finding. Hitherto, biologists have tended to disaggregate the idea of fitness into a series of adaptations that are more or less independent of each other. This work adds to the idea of a general fitness factor, f, that is similar in concept to g—and of which g is one manifestation. To him that hath, in other words, shall be given. Unfortunately for the politically correct, Dr Miller’s hypothesis looks stronger by the day.
Ms Arden is one of a group of researchers looking into the connections between intelligence, genetics and health. General intelligence (the extent to which specific, measurable aspects of intelligence, such as linguistic facility, mathematical aptitude and spatial awareness, are correlated in a given individual) is measured by psychologists using a value called Spearman’s g. Recently, it has been discovered that an individual’s g value is correlated with many aspects of his health, up to and including his lifespan. One possible explanation for this is that intelligent people make better choices about how to conduct their lives. They may, for example, be less likely to smoke, more likely to eat healthy foods or to exercise, and so on.
Alternatively (or in addition) it may be that intelligence is one manifestation of an underlying, genetically based healthiness. That is a view held by many evolutionary biologists, and was propounded in its modern form by Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico, who is one of Ms Arden’s co-authors (and, as it happens, her husband). These biologists believe intelligence, as manifested in things like artistic and musical ability, is such a reliable indicator of underlying genetic fitness that it has been chosen by members of the opposite sex over the millennia. In the ensuing arms race to show off and get a mate it has been exaggerated in the way that a peacock’s tail is. This process of sexual selection, Dr Miller and his followers believe, is the reason people have become so brainy.
Hitting the g spot
Ms Arden sought to test this idea in a way that excluded intelligent choice and got directly at any correlations between intelligence and health that operate at the physiological level. She chose sperm quality because it is both easily measured and about as far from intelligent choice as it is possible to imagine—and because the relevant data had already been collected.
Her retrospective “volunteers” were former American soldiers enrolled in what was known as the Vietnam Experience Study. In 1985 almost 4,500 veterans of that war volunteered for extensive medical and mental examinations. Some of them gave semen samples that were analysed for sperm concentration (ie, number of sperm per cubic centimetre), sperm count (ie, total number of sperm in the ejaculate) and sperm motility.
Ms Arden found 425 cases where samples had been collected and analysed from unvasectomised men who had managed to avoid spilling their seed during the collection process and had answered all the necessary questions for her to test her hypothesis, namely that their g values would correlate with all three measures of their sperm quality.
They did. Moreover, neither age nor any obvious confounding variable that might have been a consequence of intelligent decisions about health (obesity, smoking, drinking and drug use) had any effect on the result. Brainy men, it seems, do have better sperm.
By implication, therefore, they have fitter bodies over all, at least in the Darwinian sense of fitness, namely the ability to survive, to attract mates and to produce offspring. That is an important finding. Hitherto, biologists have tended to disaggregate the idea of fitness into a series of adaptations that are more or less independent of each other. This work adds to the idea of a general fitness factor, f, that is similar in concept to g—and of which g is one manifestation. To him that hath, in other words, shall be given. Unfortunately for the politically correct, Dr Miller’s hypothesis looks stronger by the day.
Business - US;Employers shedding jobs as recession deepens
Jeannine Aversa
WASHINGTON – With the economy sinking faster, employers are giving more Americans dreaded pink slips right before the holidays.
The Labor Department releases a new report Friday that's expected to show the employment market deteriorated in November at an alarming clip as the deepening recession engulfed the country.
After bolting to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, the unemployment rate likely climbed to 6.8 percent last month, according to economists' forecasts. If they are right, that would mark the worst showing in 15 years.
Skittish employers, which have slashed 1.2 million jobs this year alone, probably axed another 320,000 last month, economists forecast. If that estimate is correct, it would represent the deepest cut to monthly payrolls since October 2001, when the economy was suffering through a recession following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the United States as well as in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.
Just in recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to make a pitch to lawmakers for the second straight day for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.
Worn-out consumers battered by job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious circle that Washington policymakers are trying to break.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breath life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the overseer of a $700 billion financial bailout program, is weighing new initiatives, too, even as his remaining days in office are numbered.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature. The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs and provide money toward renewable energy development.
The United States tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.
At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say.
The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.
Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise to as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Projections, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt because all of the uncertainties plaguing the economy. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.
WASHINGTON – With the economy sinking faster, employers are giving more Americans dreaded pink slips right before the holidays.
The Labor Department releases a new report Friday that's expected to show the employment market deteriorated in November at an alarming clip as the deepening recession engulfed the country.
After bolting to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, the unemployment rate likely climbed to 6.8 percent last month, according to economists' forecasts. If they are right, that would mark the worst showing in 15 years.
Skittish employers, which have slashed 1.2 million jobs this year alone, probably axed another 320,000 last month, economists forecast. If that estimate is correct, it would represent the deepest cut to monthly payrolls since October 2001, when the economy was suffering through a recession following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the United States as well as in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.
Just in recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to make a pitch to lawmakers for the second straight day for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.
Worn-out consumers battered by job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious circle that Washington policymakers are trying to break.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breath life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the overseer of a $700 billion financial bailout program, is weighing new initiatives, too, even as his remaining days in office are numbered.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature. The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs and provide money toward renewable energy development.
The United States tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.
At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say.
The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.
Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise to as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Projections, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt because all of the uncertainties plaguing the economy. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.
Business - Mattel wins permanent injunction vs MGA in Bratz case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered MGA Entertainment Inc to stop selling its popular Bratz dolls and banned it from using the Bratz name, finding that "hundreds" of Bratz products infringe on copyrights owned by rival toymaker Mattel Inc (MAT.N).
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson also ordered MGA to recall all Bratz dolls from retailers and to destroy "specialized plates, molds and matrices" used to make the dolls, according to a permanent injunction issued late on Wednesday, but stayed until at least early next year.
The ruling appears to allow MGA and retailers to sell the Bratz dolls through the Christmas holiday season.
Larson rejected the idea of allowing MGA to continue to make the pouty lipped, urban chic dolls that made its name and fortunes while paying Mattel a royalty. Larson set a February 11 hearing on post-trial motions.
"Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties' products -- including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace -- infringe those rights," Larson wrote in the ruling.
Mattel won the rights to the $1 billion-plus Bratz franchise earlier this year in a lawsuit against MGA and former Mattel Barbie designer Carter Bryant, who invented the Bratz concept while under contract to Mattel.
A jury later ruled Bryant had secretly sold the concept to MGA.
In a statement, Mattel said it was pleased with the court's ruling.
"Today's ruling underscores what Mattel has said all along - that MGA should not be allowed to profit from its wrongdoing," the statement said.
A jury awarded Mattel the rights to concept drawings and models created by Bryant but gave the toy giant only a fraction of the $2 billion in damages it had asked for at trial, leaving questions about the extent to which the dolls infringed on those drawings.
In his ruling, Larson said his own side-by-side review of the drawings and dolls left him with no doubts that MGA was infringing on Mattel's copyright.
MGA attorney Thomas Nolan said the company plans to appeal the injunction along with other issues from the trial.
"We will ask the court to continue to the stay until we take the appeal to the 9th Circuit (Court of Appeals)," Nolan said.
The family-owned toy maker has expanded the line since its 2001 debut to include Baby Bratz, Bratz Kidz, and Lil' Bratz, as well as films and TV shows based on the line.
It is not clear whether those products also were found to infringe on Mattel's copyright for the female fashion dolls that compete with its Barbie doll.
(Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Kim Coghill)
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson also ordered MGA to recall all Bratz dolls from retailers and to destroy "specialized plates, molds and matrices" used to make the dolls, according to a permanent injunction issued late on Wednesday, but stayed until at least early next year.
The ruling appears to allow MGA and retailers to sell the Bratz dolls through the Christmas holiday season.
Larson rejected the idea of allowing MGA to continue to make the pouty lipped, urban chic dolls that made its name and fortunes while paying Mattel a royalty. Larson set a February 11 hearing on post-trial motions.
"Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties' products -- including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace -- infringe those rights," Larson wrote in the ruling.
Mattel won the rights to the $1 billion-plus Bratz franchise earlier this year in a lawsuit against MGA and former Mattel Barbie designer Carter Bryant, who invented the Bratz concept while under contract to Mattel.
A jury later ruled Bryant had secretly sold the concept to MGA.
In a statement, Mattel said it was pleased with the court's ruling.
"Today's ruling underscores what Mattel has said all along - that MGA should not be allowed to profit from its wrongdoing," the statement said.
A jury awarded Mattel the rights to concept drawings and models created by Bryant but gave the toy giant only a fraction of the $2 billion in damages it had asked for at trial, leaving questions about the extent to which the dolls infringed on those drawings.
In his ruling, Larson said his own side-by-side review of the drawings and dolls left him with no doubts that MGA was infringing on Mattel's copyright.
MGA attorney Thomas Nolan said the company plans to appeal the injunction along with other issues from the trial.
"We will ask the court to continue to the stay until we take the appeal to the 9th Circuit (Court of Appeals)," Nolan said.
The family-owned toy maker has expanded the line since its 2001 debut to include Baby Bratz, Bratz Kidz, and Lil' Bratz, as well as films and TV shows based on the line.
It is not clear whether those products also were found to infringe on Mattel's copyright for the female fashion dolls that compete with its Barbie doll.
(Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Fun - Man allegedly assaults girlfriend with burger
VERO BEACH, Fla. – A Vero Beach man faces a domestic violence charge after authorities said he assaulted his girlfriend with a cheeseburger. An Indian River County Sheriff's Office arrest report said a 22-year-old man and his girlfriend got into an argument as they sat in a car in front of their home.
The report said the man would not let the woman out of the vehicle, so she threw his drink out of the car. In response, the man allegedly grabbed her arm and smashed the cheeseburger into her face. The pair got out of the car, and authorities say the man again took the McDonald's sandwich and put it on her face.
The man was released on $1,000 bond Wednesday.
The report said the man would not let the woman out of the vehicle, so she threw his drink out of the car. In response, the man allegedly grabbed her arm and smashed the cheeseburger into her face. The pair got out of the car, and authorities say the man again took the McDonald's sandwich and put it on her face.
The man was released on $1,000 bond Wednesday.
World - US;5 best jobs Obama has yet to fill
Ben Smith, Craig Gordon
It's slim pickings left for high-profile White House hopefuls, as bold-face names like Clinton and Gates have taken some of the plum postings. With the inner circle occupied, most of the jockeying now focuses on powerful, lower-profile sub-Cabinet positions.
But there are a few gems left for the taking as Barack Obama fills out his White House roster - including a few that might be uniquely Obama. The father of the Internet - working on a government salary? It could be.
Here's a look at the five best jobs left to be doled out by Obama. There isn't a lot here that would usually make big headlines, but they are jobs that could get a boost in stature given the economic meltdown and Obama's personal priorities.
Secretary of Energy
The list: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Dan Reicher, ex-Clinton renewable energy chief, now at Google; Sonal Shah, who heads Google.org's global development efforts; Obama advisor Jason Grumet; John Bryson, retired chair at Edison International and hybrid car advocate; former Indiana Rep. Philip Sharp, Resources for the Future think tank.
Obama has made the greening of America in all forms - reducing dependence on foreign oil, boosting solar and wind power, increasing auto fuel efficiency, and using green technology to drive the economic recovery - a central part of his pitch for the White House, and the person in this job could ride herd on those activities.
It's true, the president-elect is talking less about energy these days, perhaps for fear of imposing any extra expenses on a staggering economy. But he made clear that he views solving U.S. energy problems as a high priority - and that the auto industry, in particular, needs get greener, so he could want someone strong here.
Obama at times has been vague on this front - he was pushed into a closer embrace of limited offshore drilling during the campaign when gas prices topped $4, but his heart didn't seem into it. Ditto nuclear power. He has backed off plans for a windfall profits tax on oil companies. But he seems strongly devoted to wind farms and solar energy - so much so that he's linked it to his economic recovery agenda, with a pledge to create "green" jobs in these developing industries where American lags behind Europe.
At present, the administration lacks a clear leader on environmental issues, and there's been some chatter about creating a climate "czar" outside the Cabinet system — a good enough job that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to flirt with it over the summer, though he's since demurred. Now former EPA chief Carol Browner is mentioned for climate post, or the cabinet job.
CIA/Director of National Intelligence
The list — CIA: Tim Roemer, a former Indiana congressman who served on the 9/11 Commission; Stephen Kappes, CIA's deputy director; Jane Harman, the one-time top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee; Jami Miscik, ex-CIA under President George W. Bush; John Gannon, former deputy director for intelligence at the CIA under Bill Clinton.
DNI — Retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, Roemer and Don Kerr, No. 2 official in the DNI office now.
The two most powerful, unfilled national security posts are at the top of the nation's intelligence community: The Director of National Intelligence, and the CIA Director. Obama appears to be looking for candidates who can navigate the notoriously treacherous internal waters, while sending a message of change about the Bush administration's interrogation policies. An apparent leading contender for CIA, John Brennan, dropped out last week over his ambiguous stance on torture, leaving it unclear whether Obama had a Plan B.
The DNI job is the top bureaucratic dog, but the CIA director's job of Chief Spy still holds a special stature in American political life. George Tenet managed to serve two presidents in the job - though he'll probably never use the phrase "slam dunk" again, after using it to describe the evidence of Iraqi WMDs.
The new appointees will have to work in the post-post-9/11 world, and figure out how to keep America safe without the wide berth given to the CIA under President George W. Bush. If Obama sticks to his word, gone are waterboarding, tactics that amount to torture and even Gitmo - but everyone will turn to this person on the day of next big attack and say, "How did we miss it?" More than that, however, the people in these posts will have to find ways to improve intelligence gathering and infiltrate terror networks - especially if Obama wants to catch Osama bin Laden someday, something he frequently criticized Bush for failing to do.
Secretary of Labor
The list: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; Granholm; Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work; Ed McElroy, former president of the American Federation of Teachers; former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich; Maria Echaveste, former Clinton White House adviser.
Big Labor always felt a little on the outside looking in under the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The unions went all out for Obama, and they're expecting an ally in the job of labor secretary.
It may be too much to expect of a new secretary that he or she could "get in Larry Summers' face," as some in the labor movement hope, to push pro-union jobs and trade policy. But Obama will have to find a way to keep unions happy, and that task will fall to this secretary. One way will be to revive the enforcement mission of the labor department, moving more aggressively into policing workplace-standards issues than the Bush White House ever did.
Also, the labor secretary could quickly emerge as a key player in bailout negotiations with the auto industry, where unions are coming under growing pressure for givebacks to keep the Big 3 afloat. Look for that role to emerge particularly if Michigan's Granholm gets this post instead of energy.
Still, it could be an uphill battle. Labor right now is divided -- between the traditional AFL-CIO and the new Change to Win unions. And the labor secretary may struggle to be heard on an economic policy team already stacked with appointees who aren't particularly pro-union, like Summers, Tim Geithner, and Paul Volcker.
Chief Technology Officer
The list: Vinton Cerf, Google's "chief Internet evangelist;" Julius Genachowski, a former FCC counsel who helped set up Obama's campaign, and Symantec chief John W. Thompson.
Al Gore took a lot of grief for saying he invented the Internet, but Google's Vinton Cerf can come as close as anyone alive to making that boast with a straight face. And he might be in line for this job.
Obama supporters Facebooked and Twittered him into the White House, with a campaign that harnessed the Internet for fundraising and organizing like never before. So it's no surprise that he wants a top-level tech guy, sort of a mega-IT Desk for the government, as well as a policy voice who could work with a new Federal Communications Commission chair (another hot job) to promote Internet-friendly policy.
There are also hundreds of millions of dollars at stake: Governors on Tuesday told Obama that they want to pour some of the billions he'd spent on job-creating infrastructure improvements not merely on roads and bridges but on IT improvements like medical technology systems and broadband.
Someone from Google would certainly seem to have an inside line on the job - with CEO Eric Schmidt already whispering in Obama's ear on tech issues, and Cerf himself kicking in $2,500 toward the transition. Schmidt has said he doesn't want the job.
It's slim pickings left for high-profile White House hopefuls, as bold-face names like Clinton and Gates have taken some of the plum postings. With the inner circle occupied, most of the jockeying now focuses on powerful, lower-profile sub-Cabinet positions.
But there are a few gems left for the taking as Barack Obama fills out his White House roster - including a few that might be uniquely Obama. The father of the Internet - working on a government salary? It could be.
Here's a look at the five best jobs left to be doled out by Obama. There isn't a lot here that would usually make big headlines, but they are jobs that could get a boost in stature given the economic meltdown and Obama's personal priorities.
Secretary of Energy
The list: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Dan Reicher, ex-Clinton renewable energy chief, now at Google; Sonal Shah, who heads Google.org's global development efforts; Obama advisor Jason Grumet; John Bryson, retired chair at Edison International and hybrid car advocate; former Indiana Rep. Philip Sharp, Resources for the Future think tank.
Obama has made the greening of America in all forms - reducing dependence on foreign oil, boosting solar and wind power, increasing auto fuel efficiency, and using green technology to drive the economic recovery - a central part of his pitch for the White House, and the person in this job could ride herd on those activities.
It's true, the president-elect is talking less about energy these days, perhaps for fear of imposing any extra expenses on a staggering economy. But he made clear that he views solving U.S. energy problems as a high priority - and that the auto industry, in particular, needs get greener, so he could want someone strong here.
Obama at times has been vague on this front - he was pushed into a closer embrace of limited offshore drilling during the campaign when gas prices topped $4, but his heart didn't seem into it. Ditto nuclear power. He has backed off plans for a windfall profits tax on oil companies. But he seems strongly devoted to wind farms and solar energy - so much so that he's linked it to his economic recovery agenda, with a pledge to create "green" jobs in these developing industries where American lags behind Europe.
At present, the administration lacks a clear leader on environmental issues, and there's been some chatter about creating a climate "czar" outside the Cabinet system — a good enough job that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to flirt with it over the summer, though he's since demurred. Now former EPA chief Carol Browner is mentioned for climate post, or the cabinet job.
CIA/Director of National Intelligence
The list — CIA: Tim Roemer, a former Indiana congressman who served on the 9/11 Commission; Stephen Kappes, CIA's deputy director; Jane Harman, the one-time top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee; Jami Miscik, ex-CIA under President George W. Bush; John Gannon, former deputy director for intelligence at the CIA under Bill Clinton.
DNI — Retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, Roemer and Don Kerr, No. 2 official in the DNI office now.
The two most powerful, unfilled national security posts are at the top of the nation's intelligence community: The Director of National Intelligence, and the CIA Director. Obama appears to be looking for candidates who can navigate the notoriously treacherous internal waters, while sending a message of change about the Bush administration's interrogation policies. An apparent leading contender for CIA, John Brennan, dropped out last week over his ambiguous stance on torture, leaving it unclear whether Obama had a Plan B.
The DNI job is the top bureaucratic dog, but the CIA director's job of Chief Spy still holds a special stature in American political life. George Tenet managed to serve two presidents in the job - though he'll probably never use the phrase "slam dunk" again, after using it to describe the evidence of Iraqi WMDs.
The new appointees will have to work in the post-post-9/11 world, and figure out how to keep America safe without the wide berth given to the CIA under President George W. Bush. If Obama sticks to his word, gone are waterboarding, tactics that amount to torture and even Gitmo - but everyone will turn to this person on the day of next big attack and say, "How did we miss it?" More than that, however, the people in these posts will have to find ways to improve intelligence gathering and infiltrate terror networks - especially if Obama wants to catch Osama bin Laden someday, something he frequently criticized Bush for failing to do.
Secretary of Labor
The list: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; Granholm; Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work; Ed McElroy, former president of the American Federation of Teachers; former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich; Maria Echaveste, former Clinton White House adviser.
Big Labor always felt a little on the outside looking in under the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The unions went all out for Obama, and they're expecting an ally in the job of labor secretary.
It may be too much to expect of a new secretary that he or she could "get in Larry Summers' face," as some in the labor movement hope, to push pro-union jobs and trade policy. But Obama will have to find a way to keep unions happy, and that task will fall to this secretary. One way will be to revive the enforcement mission of the labor department, moving more aggressively into policing workplace-standards issues than the Bush White House ever did.
Also, the labor secretary could quickly emerge as a key player in bailout negotiations with the auto industry, where unions are coming under growing pressure for givebacks to keep the Big 3 afloat. Look for that role to emerge particularly if Michigan's Granholm gets this post instead of energy.
Still, it could be an uphill battle. Labor right now is divided -- between the traditional AFL-CIO and the new Change to Win unions. And the labor secretary may struggle to be heard on an economic policy team already stacked with appointees who aren't particularly pro-union, like Summers, Tim Geithner, and Paul Volcker.
Chief Technology Officer
The list: Vinton Cerf, Google's "chief Internet evangelist;" Julius Genachowski, a former FCC counsel who helped set up Obama's campaign, and Symantec chief John W. Thompson.
Al Gore took a lot of grief for saying he invented the Internet, but Google's Vinton Cerf can come as close as anyone alive to making that boast with a straight face. And he might be in line for this job.
Obama supporters Facebooked and Twittered him into the White House, with a campaign that harnessed the Internet for fundraising and organizing like never before. So it's no surprise that he wants a top-level tech guy, sort of a mega-IT Desk for the government, as well as a policy voice who could work with a new Federal Communications Commission chair (another hot job) to promote Internet-friendly policy.
There are also hundreds of millions of dollars at stake: Governors on Tuesday told Obama that they want to pour some of the billions he'd spent on job-creating infrastructure improvements not merely on roads and bridges but on IT improvements like medical technology systems and broadband.
Someone from Google would certainly seem to have an inside line on the job - with CEO Eric Schmidt already whispering in Obama's ear on tech issues, and Cerf himself kicking in $2,500 toward the transition. Schmidt has said he doesn't want the job.
World - Polluted Indonesian river to get major cleanup, says ADB
Stephen Coates
JAKARTA (AFP) – One of the world's most polluted rivers, the Citarum in Indonesia, is about to receive a massive cleanup that will improve the lives of millions of people, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The regional bank said it had agreed to provide a 500-million-dollar multi-tranche loan package to support Indonesian government efforts to rehabilitate the strategic but horribly polluted river on Java island.
The loan, to be delivered in chunks of 50 million dollars over 15 years, is part of the government's 3.5-billion-dollar plan to restore the Citarum and improve the lives of 28 million people who depend on it in some way.
ADB Senior Water Resources Engineer Christopher Morris said pollution levels in the river compromised public health, while the livelihoods of fishing families had been hit by the widespread death of fish.
"The Citarum River basin urgently needs improved management and significant infrastructure investments," he said.
"ADB's initial assistance will provide safe water supply and sanitation facilities for poor families who currently use water from the polluted canal for bathing, laundry and other uses.
"It will also allow the cultivation of an additional 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of paddy, benefitting 25,000 farming families."
He said the loans would bolster local efforts to integrate water management along the river, which stretches from Bandung in central West Java province to the capital Jakarta, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the northwest.
Once it reaches the capital it becomes a canal bubbling with industrial and household waste, but it still provides 80 percent of the surface water supply to the city of 12 million people.
Along the way it is lined with hundreds of small-scale industries, only about 20 percent of which are estimated to have waste water treatment programmes.
Dozens of villages also use the river as a place to dump their untreated sewage and household garbage.
Morris said the ADB and the Indonesian authorities would work together with local communities to try to "stop some of the behaviour" that makes the river a "dumping site for all the household waste."
This would involve small-scale projects to build sanitation facilities in villages along the river, as well as larger wastewater treatment plants.
"There's a direct correlation between a lack of water supply, and a lack of sanitation, and poverty in the Citarum River basin," Morris said.
"The communities with toilets and better water supply and the communities which are protected from flooding ... are wealthier."
A health ministry survey published in The Jakarta Globe daily this week showed that 40 percent of households in the country of 234 million people were not fitted with toilets.
It found that 25 percent of households did not have a septic tank or other system for disposing of human waste, and only 73 percent had garbage disposal facilities.
But not everyone is impressed with the Citarum plan. A local advocacy group, the People's Alliance for Citarum, is protesting over a reported plan to relocate more than 800 families as part of the river's rehabilitation.
The alliance has called on the ADB to abandon the scheme, according to The Jakarta Post newspaper.
But the ADB said the plan to rehabilitate the Citarum would benefit millions of people in Jakarta, where 200,000 more households would receive bulk water supplies, and the wider river basin.
It will also help to reduce the flooding that paralyses Jakarta every wet season by preventing the dumping of solid domestic waste such as plastic bottles in the river, Morris said.
JAKARTA (AFP) – One of the world's most polluted rivers, the Citarum in Indonesia, is about to receive a massive cleanup that will improve the lives of millions of people, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The regional bank said it had agreed to provide a 500-million-dollar multi-tranche loan package to support Indonesian government efforts to rehabilitate the strategic but horribly polluted river on Java island.
The loan, to be delivered in chunks of 50 million dollars over 15 years, is part of the government's 3.5-billion-dollar plan to restore the Citarum and improve the lives of 28 million people who depend on it in some way.
ADB Senior Water Resources Engineer Christopher Morris said pollution levels in the river compromised public health, while the livelihoods of fishing families had been hit by the widespread death of fish.
"The Citarum River basin urgently needs improved management and significant infrastructure investments," he said.
"ADB's initial assistance will provide safe water supply and sanitation facilities for poor families who currently use water from the polluted canal for bathing, laundry and other uses.
"It will also allow the cultivation of an additional 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of paddy, benefitting 25,000 farming families."
He said the loans would bolster local efforts to integrate water management along the river, which stretches from Bandung in central West Java province to the capital Jakarta, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the northwest.
Once it reaches the capital it becomes a canal bubbling with industrial and household waste, but it still provides 80 percent of the surface water supply to the city of 12 million people.
Along the way it is lined with hundreds of small-scale industries, only about 20 percent of which are estimated to have waste water treatment programmes.
Dozens of villages also use the river as a place to dump their untreated sewage and household garbage.
Morris said the ADB and the Indonesian authorities would work together with local communities to try to "stop some of the behaviour" that makes the river a "dumping site for all the household waste."
This would involve small-scale projects to build sanitation facilities in villages along the river, as well as larger wastewater treatment plants.
"There's a direct correlation between a lack of water supply, and a lack of sanitation, and poverty in the Citarum River basin," Morris said.
"The communities with toilets and better water supply and the communities which are protected from flooding ... are wealthier."
A health ministry survey published in The Jakarta Globe daily this week showed that 40 percent of households in the country of 234 million people were not fitted with toilets.
It found that 25 percent of households did not have a septic tank or other system for disposing of human waste, and only 73 percent had garbage disposal facilities.
But not everyone is impressed with the Citarum plan. A local advocacy group, the People's Alliance for Citarum, is protesting over a reported plan to relocate more than 800 families as part of the river's rehabilitation.
The alliance has called on the ADB to abandon the scheme, according to The Jakarta Post newspaper.
But the ADB said the plan to rehabilitate the Citarum would benefit millions of people in Jakarta, where 200,000 more households would receive bulk water supplies, and the wider river basin.
It will also help to reduce the flooding that paralyses Jakarta every wet season by preventing the dumping of solid domestic waste such as plastic bottles in the river, Morris said.
World - Is Pakistan campus educating students or cultivating terrorists?
Saeed Shah
MURIDKE, Pakistan — At first sight, it could be the campus of a tony boarding school, with neatly trimmed lawns and earnest young students walking between classes.
The government of India , however, says the site, just outside the eastern city of Lahore , is the headquarters of the terrorist group that's responsible for last week's Mumbai carnage.
If India decides to take retaliatory military action the sprawling campus, which is marked by orderly rows of trees and includes a farm, a swimming pool and a hospital, might be on a target list.
Pupils were dutifully performing science experiments in the classrooms, peering into microscopes and connecting electrical circuits. They live in spartan hostels on the property.
The organizers of a media tour Thursday said this was the educational and charitable arm of Jamaat ud Dawa, or JUD, an Islamic group that's legal in Pakistan . In fact, the campus was created by Lashkar-e- Taiba , an Islamic extremist group that's reputedly has ties to al Qaida and was banned by Pakistan at American behest in 2002.
Is it an innocent educational facility, doing philanthropic work, or terror-central?
According to the U.S. government, which has declared it a terrorist organization, JUD is an alias for LeT.
The founder of LeT, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed , set up the facility, according to a 2005 paper written for the Hudson Institute , a conservative Washington research organization, by Husain Haqqani, the recently arrived Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
Haqqani, who was an adviser to Benazir Bhutto , the assassinated former prime minister, described the facility as "a campus and training facility" for LeT, which he said follows Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative strain of Islam patronized by the Saudi royal family.
The group has been "backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services," said Haqqani, who wrote the paper while a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution , a center-left policy organization in Washington .
"Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to move" against Lashkar or JUD, he wrote in the paper, "The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups."
Quoting Lashkar literature, Haqqani said the group considers the U.S., India and Israel "existential enemies of Islam," a possible explanation for the Mumbai terrorists' targeting of six Americans and a Jewish center run by an Israel -based organization.
Indian officials Thursday charged that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil , leading members of Lashkar-e- Taiba , were the masterminds behind the Mumbai attack, and one or both have been mentioned in published reports as currently in Pakistan . They identified Lakhvi as the overall operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in the Indian-controlled Kashmir and in other parts of India .
"This is a residential and educational complex," said Abdullah Muntazir , Jamaat ud Dawa's spokesman, taking journalists around the Muridke site. "You can see for yourself. This is all Indian propaganda."
"Jamaat ud Dawa speaks up very loudly against Indian conspiracies, we let the public know that India is the real enemy, that's why they always point at us."
The carefully orchestrated visit took a gaggle of foreign and local journalists to the well-equipped school and a hospital, which provides free treatment for villages from the surrounding area. The media wasn't taken to the madrassa, the mosque, or other facilities. After holding a news conference and providing lunch, reporters were shown the door.
The school follows the national curriculum, headmaster Rashid Mehnaz said, with pupils coming from all around Pakistan . The poor are given financial help, and richer pupils pay fees. He also dutifully condemned violence.
"This suicide bombing is absolutely wrong. It is forbidden in Islam," Mehnaz said.
Although the group had said that anyone was welcome to look around the site at any time, an attempt by a McClatchy reporter to take up this offer was met with a heavy-handed response. Walking around alone and unguided, trying to see the student hostels, burly young men with scraggly black beards appeared on motorcycles, and circled, demanding that the reporter leave.
"The Indian media is creating a hype but I don't think they'll bomb us," said Muntazir, the spokesman, "If they did, it would be up to the government of Pakistan and the armed forces to deal with it."
He said that JUD was a peaceful group but it had "supported" Lashkar-e- Taiba until it was banned. He said that "morally" it would continue to back those who'd taken up arms against Indian rule in Kashmir of which Lashkar is the leading example.
"The (Kashmiri) freedom fighters are doing their job very well. Their cause is just," said Muntazir. "But I can't speak on behalf of Lashkar-e- Taiba ."
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent. Jonathan S. Landay contributed to this article from Washington .)
MURIDKE, Pakistan — At first sight, it could be the campus of a tony boarding school, with neatly trimmed lawns and earnest young students walking between classes.
The government of India , however, says the site, just outside the eastern city of Lahore , is the headquarters of the terrorist group that's responsible for last week's Mumbai carnage.
If India decides to take retaliatory military action the sprawling campus, which is marked by orderly rows of trees and includes a farm, a swimming pool and a hospital, might be on a target list.
Pupils were dutifully performing science experiments in the classrooms, peering into microscopes and connecting electrical circuits. They live in spartan hostels on the property.
The organizers of a media tour Thursday said this was the educational and charitable arm of Jamaat ud Dawa, or JUD, an Islamic group that's legal in Pakistan . In fact, the campus was created by Lashkar-e- Taiba , an Islamic extremist group that's reputedly has ties to al Qaida and was banned by Pakistan at American behest in 2002.
Is it an innocent educational facility, doing philanthropic work, or terror-central?
According to the U.S. government, which has declared it a terrorist organization, JUD is an alias for LeT.
The founder of LeT, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed , set up the facility, according to a 2005 paper written for the Hudson Institute , a conservative Washington research organization, by Husain Haqqani, the recently arrived Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
Haqqani, who was an adviser to Benazir Bhutto , the assassinated former prime minister, described the facility as "a campus and training facility" for LeT, which he said follows Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative strain of Islam patronized by the Saudi royal family.
The group has been "backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services," said Haqqani, who wrote the paper while a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution , a center-left policy organization in Washington .
"Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to move" against Lashkar or JUD, he wrote in the paper, "The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups."
Quoting Lashkar literature, Haqqani said the group considers the U.S., India and Israel "existential enemies of Islam," a possible explanation for the Mumbai terrorists' targeting of six Americans and a Jewish center run by an Israel -based organization.
Indian officials Thursday charged that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil , leading members of Lashkar-e- Taiba , were the masterminds behind the Mumbai attack, and one or both have been mentioned in published reports as currently in Pakistan . They identified Lakhvi as the overall operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in the Indian-controlled Kashmir and in other parts of India .
"This is a residential and educational complex," said Abdullah Muntazir , Jamaat ud Dawa's spokesman, taking journalists around the Muridke site. "You can see for yourself. This is all Indian propaganda."
"Jamaat ud Dawa speaks up very loudly against Indian conspiracies, we let the public know that India is the real enemy, that's why they always point at us."
The carefully orchestrated visit took a gaggle of foreign and local journalists to the well-equipped school and a hospital, which provides free treatment for villages from the surrounding area. The media wasn't taken to the madrassa, the mosque, or other facilities. After holding a news conference and providing lunch, reporters were shown the door.
The school follows the national curriculum, headmaster Rashid Mehnaz said, with pupils coming from all around Pakistan . The poor are given financial help, and richer pupils pay fees. He also dutifully condemned violence.
"This suicide bombing is absolutely wrong. It is forbidden in Islam," Mehnaz said.
Although the group had said that anyone was welcome to look around the site at any time, an attempt by a McClatchy reporter to take up this offer was met with a heavy-handed response. Walking around alone and unguided, trying to see the student hostels, burly young men with scraggly black beards appeared on motorcycles, and circled, demanding that the reporter leave.
"The Indian media is creating a hype but I don't think they'll bomb us," said Muntazir, the spokesman, "If they did, it would be up to the government of Pakistan and the armed forces to deal with it."
He said that JUD was a peaceful group but it had "supported" Lashkar-e- Taiba until it was banned. He said that "morally" it would continue to back those who'd taken up arms against Indian rule in Kashmir of which Lashkar is the leading example.
"The (Kashmiri) freedom fighters are doing their job very well. Their cause is just," said Muntazir. "But I can't speak on behalf of Lashkar-e- Taiba ."
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent. Jonathan S. Landay contributed to this article from Washington .)
Business - Downturn hits Dubai
Stanley Reed
For a year or so, the movers and shakers of the small but oil-rich United Arab Emirates have watched the unfolding of the credit crisis in the West with a mixture of dismay and denial. It won't happen here, was their view. And for a long time it didn't. But now it is. The price of oil, the lifeblood of the Persian Gulf economy, has fallen more than 60% since its mid-July peak. Real estate, the other mainstay, especially in oil-poor Dubai, has been quick to follow. An industry source in Dubai estimates that prices, which rose about 14.4% in the first eight months of this year, have suddenly dropped by 20% to 30%, with some developments seeing 50% declines.
With prices for villas and apartments falling and sales grinding to a halt, big developers such as Nakheel, which is building the iconic palm frond-shaped projects on fill dredged from the sea bottom, are halting construction and laying off staff. Jobs, though on a lesser scale, also are being lost at investment banks such as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News), which have seen the Gulf as one place business was not drying up. They are now trimming staff, to the alarm of the local authorities, who have staked their future on the Gulf's becoming a global financial center.
A chill wind is blowing through the Gulf. Credit has dried up; stock exchanges have crashed; and the region's once-vaunted Sovereign Wealth Funds, set up to save for a future when oil reserves are exhausted, have instead sustained huge losses, potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
War Council
The diciest situation is unfolding in the UAE, where the sheikhs of Dubai -- the second-largest of seven emirates -- are at last realizing that they need to call time on a decade-long, debt-fueled building and acquisition spree. That admission came most explicitly in the recent naming by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, of what looks like a war council composed of nine of the top executives of what is known as Dubai Inc. That's the network of companies such as Dubai World, Emirates Airline, and Dubai Holding that are controlled by the ruling family and the government. "Yes, we recognize the new reality," said the Council's Chairman Mohamed Alabbar on Nov. 24. "Make no mistake."
It has long been assumed that if Dubai got into trouble, it would be bailed out by its neighbor, Abu Dhabi, one of the great oil powers and the deep pockets behind the UAE. Already there are signs of a rescue process beginning. It's being handled at the UAE federal level, with Abu Dhabi likely providing whatever funding is needed. Trading in the shares of two publicly traded but partly state-owned mortgage finance companies, Tamweel and Amlak Finance (AMLK.), was suspended on Nov. 20. The two companies, which account for about 50% of the mortgage market, with $5.5 billion in assets, are to be merged into a little known federal government entity called the Real Estate Bank of the UAE.
In addition, the UAE has guaranteed all bank deposits for three years and has earmarked about $33 billion for support of the banking system. Nominally, the capital is coming from the central bank and the UAE Ministry of Finance, but, as one analyst put it, "All money in the UAE comes from Abu Dhabi."
Rescue Package
What bankers and other executives are trying to work out is how costly the rescue of Dubai is going to be and how it will be paid for. The Dubai elite are hoping they can restructure their businesses largely on their own without major support from next door. Alabbar said that the big Dubai real estate developers, Emaar Properties (which he chairs), Nakheel, and Dubai Properties, which together command 70% of the market, would now work together to control supply. He also promised that there would be no major defaults. "The government can and will meet its obligations," he said.
For the first time, Alabbar provided some disclosure on Dubai Inc.'s debt. He pegged Dubai's state obligations at $10 billion and said the debt of affiliated companies was $70 billion. That's roughly equal to the emirate's $80 billion GDP. He also said Dubai's assets are about $350 billion. Analysts, though, say that only a fraction of that could be quickly turned into cash.
Analysts have applauded the straight talk, though some grouse that there is still little disclosure on matters such as cash flow. "This is precisely what everyone was looking for," said Mushtaq Khan, regional economist at Citigroup (NYSE:C - News).
Some credit analysts are relatively comfortable that Dubai can manage through the downturn. "Our analysis is that their interest payments are covered approximately 10 times by cash flow today," says Farouk Soussa, an analyst at Standard & Poor's (NYSE:MHP - News). Soussa notes, however, that in the current climate those flows could fall.
Going Sour Fast
But the problems in Dubai may be only just beginning -- and could get very expensive. Real estate industry insiders note that the downturn could be especially messy because the property market in Dubai is relatively new and hasn't yet been tested by a slump. The market is turning sour very fast. Many small developers are likely to get in trouble. Speculators, a big factor in Dubai real estate, are likely to walk away from properties they have bought on small deposits with the intention to resell them quickly. It's also not clear that the banks will be able to enforce foreclosures, particularly against property owned by UAE citizens.
Certainly, stock prices and credit metrics are showing signs of distress. Credit default swaps for Dubai Holding, the umbrella company for the ruler's hotels, real estate, financial firms, and other assets, have soared to a point where it would cost $1 million to guarantee $10 million in debt against default, according to financial researcher Markit. Dubai Holding recently said it had paid off $653 million in loans and bonds.
Emaar Properties shares have fallen by about 85% so far this year. Just about all of the big Dubai companies have real estate at their core, so a crash in real estate prices rather than the "healthy correction" Alabbar spoke of on Nov. 24 could be extremely costly.
Billions Lost
And how much money does Abu Dhabi really have? Analysts are coming around to a more conservative figure in the $450 billion to $500 billion range, rather than the much higher numbers circulating earlier this year. Whatever the big number is, it is likely smaller than it used to be. Brad Setser, Geoeconomics Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, estimates that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has lost $100 billion or more in recent months as its global holdings of equities, real estate, and alternative assets have taken big hits.
Of course, Abu Dhabi ultimately has the capital to meet the needs of Dubai and other problems in the UAE, but a massive bailout could be uncomfortable even for one of the wealthiest countries in the world. "It's an interesting question whether Abu Dhabi has sufficient liquid assets to cover all of the emirates' needs next year if oil prices remain low," Setser says.
What will be the cost to Dubai? Sources in the emirates say that sales of crown jewels such as Dubai Aluminum and the port at Jebel Ali have been discussed. While Abu Dhabi heavyweights sometimes criticize Dubai for its fast and loose culture and helter-skelter building, they don't seem to want to humiliate their neighbors or see them fail. After all, a meltdown in Dubai would hurt Abu Dhabi as well. "They don't want to embarrass them," says one financier. "Projects will stop, but they may not say so. That's the way things are in this part of the world."
For a year or so, the movers and shakers of the small but oil-rich United Arab Emirates have watched the unfolding of the credit crisis in the West with a mixture of dismay and denial. It won't happen here, was their view. And for a long time it didn't. But now it is. The price of oil, the lifeblood of the Persian Gulf economy, has fallen more than 60% since its mid-July peak. Real estate, the other mainstay, especially in oil-poor Dubai, has been quick to follow. An industry source in Dubai estimates that prices, which rose about 14.4% in the first eight months of this year, have suddenly dropped by 20% to 30%, with some developments seeing 50% declines.
With prices for villas and apartments falling and sales grinding to a halt, big developers such as Nakheel, which is building the iconic palm frond-shaped projects on fill dredged from the sea bottom, are halting construction and laying off staff. Jobs, though on a lesser scale, also are being lost at investment banks such as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News), which have seen the Gulf as one place business was not drying up. They are now trimming staff, to the alarm of the local authorities, who have staked their future on the Gulf's becoming a global financial center.
A chill wind is blowing through the Gulf. Credit has dried up; stock exchanges have crashed; and the region's once-vaunted Sovereign Wealth Funds, set up to save for a future when oil reserves are exhausted, have instead sustained huge losses, potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
War Council
The diciest situation is unfolding in the UAE, where the sheikhs of Dubai -- the second-largest of seven emirates -- are at last realizing that they need to call time on a decade-long, debt-fueled building and acquisition spree. That admission came most explicitly in the recent naming by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, of what looks like a war council composed of nine of the top executives of what is known as Dubai Inc. That's the network of companies such as Dubai World, Emirates Airline, and Dubai Holding that are controlled by the ruling family and the government. "Yes, we recognize the new reality," said the Council's Chairman Mohamed Alabbar on Nov. 24. "Make no mistake."
It has long been assumed that if Dubai got into trouble, it would be bailed out by its neighbor, Abu Dhabi, one of the great oil powers and the deep pockets behind the UAE. Already there are signs of a rescue process beginning. It's being handled at the UAE federal level, with Abu Dhabi likely providing whatever funding is needed. Trading in the shares of two publicly traded but partly state-owned mortgage finance companies, Tamweel and Amlak Finance (AMLK.), was suspended on Nov. 20. The two companies, which account for about 50% of the mortgage market, with $5.5 billion in assets, are to be merged into a little known federal government entity called the Real Estate Bank of the UAE.
In addition, the UAE has guaranteed all bank deposits for three years and has earmarked about $33 billion for support of the banking system. Nominally, the capital is coming from the central bank and the UAE Ministry of Finance, but, as one analyst put it, "All money in the UAE comes from Abu Dhabi."
Rescue Package
What bankers and other executives are trying to work out is how costly the rescue of Dubai is going to be and how it will be paid for. The Dubai elite are hoping they can restructure their businesses largely on their own without major support from next door. Alabbar said that the big Dubai real estate developers, Emaar Properties (which he chairs), Nakheel, and Dubai Properties, which together command 70% of the market, would now work together to control supply. He also promised that there would be no major defaults. "The government can and will meet its obligations," he said.
For the first time, Alabbar provided some disclosure on Dubai Inc.'s debt. He pegged Dubai's state obligations at $10 billion and said the debt of affiliated companies was $70 billion. That's roughly equal to the emirate's $80 billion GDP. He also said Dubai's assets are about $350 billion. Analysts, though, say that only a fraction of that could be quickly turned into cash.
Analysts have applauded the straight talk, though some grouse that there is still little disclosure on matters such as cash flow. "This is precisely what everyone was looking for," said Mushtaq Khan, regional economist at Citigroup (NYSE:C - News).
Some credit analysts are relatively comfortable that Dubai can manage through the downturn. "Our analysis is that their interest payments are covered approximately 10 times by cash flow today," says Farouk Soussa, an analyst at Standard & Poor's (NYSE:MHP - News). Soussa notes, however, that in the current climate those flows could fall.
Going Sour Fast
But the problems in Dubai may be only just beginning -- and could get very expensive. Real estate industry insiders note that the downturn could be especially messy because the property market in Dubai is relatively new and hasn't yet been tested by a slump. The market is turning sour very fast. Many small developers are likely to get in trouble. Speculators, a big factor in Dubai real estate, are likely to walk away from properties they have bought on small deposits with the intention to resell them quickly. It's also not clear that the banks will be able to enforce foreclosures, particularly against property owned by UAE citizens.
Certainly, stock prices and credit metrics are showing signs of distress. Credit default swaps for Dubai Holding, the umbrella company for the ruler's hotels, real estate, financial firms, and other assets, have soared to a point where it would cost $1 million to guarantee $10 million in debt against default, according to financial researcher Markit. Dubai Holding recently said it had paid off $653 million in loans and bonds.
Emaar Properties shares have fallen by about 85% so far this year. Just about all of the big Dubai companies have real estate at their core, so a crash in real estate prices rather than the "healthy correction" Alabbar spoke of on Nov. 24 could be extremely costly.
Billions Lost
And how much money does Abu Dhabi really have? Analysts are coming around to a more conservative figure in the $450 billion to $500 billion range, rather than the much higher numbers circulating earlier this year. Whatever the big number is, it is likely smaller than it used to be. Brad Setser, Geoeconomics Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, estimates that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has lost $100 billion or more in recent months as its global holdings of equities, real estate, and alternative assets have taken big hits.
Of course, Abu Dhabi ultimately has the capital to meet the needs of Dubai and other problems in the UAE, but a massive bailout could be uncomfortable even for one of the wealthiest countries in the world. "It's an interesting question whether Abu Dhabi has sufficient liquid assets to cover all of the emirates' needs next year if oil prices remain low," Setser says.
What will be the cost to Dubai? Sources in the emirates say that sales of crown jewels such as Dubai Aluminum and the port at Jebel Ali have been discussed. While Abu Dhabi heavyweights sometimes criticize Dubai for its fast and loose culture and helter-skelter building, they don't seem to want to humiliate their neighbors or see them fail. After all, a meltdown in Dubai would hurt Abu Dhabi as well. "They don't want to embarrass them," says one financier. "Projects will stop, but they may not say so. That's the way things are in this part of the world."
Business - iPod Shortage Could Crimp Apple's Christmas Cheer
Jennifer LeClaire
Apple's products are poised to be among the holiday winners. But could the shortages that plagued the Amazon Kindle and Nintendo Wii in their early days of production put a damper on Apple's sales?
According to a research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu on Wednesday, Apple is tasked to keep up with the strong demand for iPods. That could lead to shortages during the holiday shopping season.
Wu isn't merely speculating. He pointed to Amazon.com's recent change for the shipping time of the 8GB second-generation iPod touch from 11 days to five weeks, while the 16GB model is available within three to five weeks. That puts both models out of the range of holiday shoppers.
Spot Shortages
"In addition, from our distribution and channel checks, iPod touch, iPod nano, and even iPod shuffle are seeing spot shortages on different colors and capacities across several retailers, including Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Crutchfield.com," Wu wrote.
"Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is, putting a crimp on consumer spending," Wu continued. "From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low [price] and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides."
Apple Bucks Economic Trends?
Apple introduced a new iPod touch in September. At that time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called it "the funnest iPod we've ever created." The new iPod touch is smaller and lighter than the original, with a new design that features a contoured metal enclosure with integrated volume control buttons and a brilliant 3.5-inch widescreen glass display.
"Even as some analysts were predicting a slowdown in iPod sales, we are seeing these shortages come into play, which may indicate that the iPod is doing better than some folks might have expected for the holidays," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.
Gartenberg is not surprised that there is a possible shortage of iPods, even though the economy is expected to cause consumers to pull back on spending this year. Consumers are still spending, he said, but they are being more careful about how they spend their holiday budget.
"In many cases, being more careful with holiday spending means investing in something consumers perceive as a premium product that they will be able to get a lot of use from over the life of the device and then perhaps even be able to pass off to someone else," Gartenberg said.
Apple Takes a Bite Out of Windows
Wu's assessment is that Apple could sell 21 million iPods this quarter. But Apple may also be losing opportunities from consumers who would have purchased an iPod. Microsoft's Zune and other competing digital media players could be the beneficiaries.
But Microsoft is still losing ground to Apple on another front: Operating systems.
Microsoft's Windows market share has dipped below 90 percent, Wu noted, while Apple's Mac OS X platform has climbed to 9.25 percent. That, he said, further validates his key investment thesis, which is this: "[Apple] is still an early platform adoption story with plenty of headroom for growth, driven by iPhone and Macs."
Apple's products are poised to be among the holiday winners. But could the shortages that plagued the Amazon Kindle and Nintendo Wii in their early days of production put a damper on Apple's sales?
According to a research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu on Wednesday, Apple is tasked to keep up with the strong demand for iPods. That could lead to shortages during the holiday shopping season.
Wu isn't merely speculating. He pointed to Amazon.com's recent change for the shipping time of the 8GB second-generation iPod touch from 11 days to five weeks, while the 16GB model is available within three to five weeks. That puts both models out of the range of holiday shoppers.
Spot Shortages
"In addition, from our distribution and channel checks, iPod touch, iPod nano, and even iPod shuffle are seeing spot shortages on different colors and capacities across several retailers, including Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Crutchfield.com," Wu wrote.
"Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is, putting a crimp on consumer spending," Wu continued. "From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low [price] and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides."
Apple Bucks Economic Trends?
Apple introduced a new iPod touch in September. At that time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called it "the funnest iPod we've ever created." The new iPod touch is smaller and lighter than the original, with a new design that features a contoured metal enclosure with integrated volume control buttons and a brilliant 3.5-inch widescreen glass display.
"Even as some analysts were predicting a slowdown in iPod sales, we are seeing these shortages come into play, which may indicate that the iPod is doing better than some folks might have expected for the holidays," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.
Gartenberg is not surprised that there is a possible shortage of iPods, even though the economy is expected to cause consumers to pull back on spending this year. Consumers are still spending, he said, but they are being more careful about how they spend their holiday budget.
"In many cases, being more careful with holiday spending means investing in something consumers perceive as a premium product that they will be able to get a lot of use from over the life of the device and then perhaps even be able to pass off to someone else," Gartenberg said.
Apple Takes a Bite Out of Windows
Wu's assessment is that Apple could sell 21 million iPods this quarter. But Apple may also be losing opportunities from consumers who would have purchased an iPod. Microsoft's Zune and other competing digital media players could be the beneficiaries.
But Microsoft is still losing ground to Apple on another front: Operating systems.
Microsoft's Windows market share has dipped below 90 percent, Wu noted, while Apple's Mac OS X platform has climbed to 9.25 percent. That, he said, further validates his key investment thesis, which is this: "[Apple] is still an early platform adoption story with plenty of headroom for growth, driven by iPhone and Macs."
Science - Scientists get closer to creating artificial life: study
CHICAGO (AFP) – Scientists have discovered a more efficient way of building a synthetic genome that could one day enable them to create artificial life, according to a study.
The method is already being used to help develop next generation biofuels and biochemicals in the labs of controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter.
Venter has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming, but the prospect is highly controversial and arouses heated debate over its potential ramifications and the ethics of engineering artificial life.
Artificially engineered life is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also stirs deep fears as foreseen in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World" in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown in laboratories.
The J. Craig Venter Institute succeeded in synthetically reproducing the DNA of a simple bacteria last year.
The researchers had initially used the bacteria e. coli to build the genome, but found it was a tedious, multi-stage process and that e. coli had difficulty reproducing large DNA segments.
They eventually tried using a type of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This enabled them to finish creating the synthetic genome using a method called homologous recombination, a process that cells naturally use to repair damage to their chromosomes.
They then began to explore the capacity for DNA assembly in yeast, which turned out to be a "genetic factory," the Institute said in a statement Wednesday.
The researchers inserted relatively short segments of DNA fragments into yeast cells through homologous recombination method.
They found they were able to build the entire genome in one step, according to the study set to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We continue to be amazed by the capacity of yeast to simultaneously take up so many DNA pieces and assemble them into genome-size molecules," said lead author Daniel Gibson.
"This capacity begs to be further explored and extended and will help accelerate progress in applications of synthetic genomics."
Senior author Clyde Hutchison added, "I am astounded by our team's progress in assembling large DNA molecules. It remains to be seen how far we can push this yeast assembly platform but the team is hard at work exploring these methods as we work to boot up the synthetic chromosome."
Venter and his team continue to work towards creating a living bacterial cell using the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes.
In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000.
Using the genetic sequence of this bacteria, the Maryland-based team has created a chromosome known as Mycoplasma laboratorium.
They are working on developing a way to transplant this chromosome into a living cell and stimulate it to take control and effectively become a new life form.
The method is already being used to help develop next generation biofuels and biochemicals in the labs of controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter.
Venter has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming, but the prospect is highly controversial and arouses heated debate over its potential ramifications and the ethics of engineering artificial life.
Artificially engineered life is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also stirs deep fears as foreseen in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World" in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown in laboratories.
The J. Craig Venter Institute succeeded in synthetically reproducing the DNA of a simple bacteria last year.
The researchers had initially used the bacteria e. coli to build the genome, but found it was a tedious, multi-stage process and that e. coli had difficulty reproducing large DNA segments.
They eventually tried using a type of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This enabled them to finish creating the synthetic genome using a method called homologous recombination, a process that cells naturally use to repair damage to their chromosomes.
They then began to explore the capacity for DNA assembly in yeast, which turned out to be a "genetic factory," the Institute said in a statement Wednesday.
The researchers inserted relatively short segments of DNA fragments into yeast cells through homologous recombination method.
They found they were able to build the entire genome in one step, according to the study set to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We continue to be amazed by the capacity of yeast to simultaneously take up so many DNA pieces and assemble them into genome-size molecules," said lead author Daniel Gibson.
"This capacity begs to be further explored and extended and will help accelerate progress in applications of synthetic genomics."
Senior author Clyde Hutchison added, "I am astounded by our team's progress in assembling large DNA molecules. It remains to be seen how far we can push this yeast assembly platform but the team is hard at work exploring these methods as we work to boot up the synthetic chromosome."
Venter and his team continue to work towards creating a living bacterial cell using the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes.
In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000.
Using the genetic sequence of this bacteria, the Maryland-based team has created a chromosome known as Mycoplasma laboratorium.
They are working on developing a way to transplant this chromosome into a living cell and stimulate it to take control and effectively become a new life form.
World - Ghana's 'miracle': Logging underwater forests for exotic timber
Susan Njanji
ACCRA (AFP) – Ghana, which is running short of forests to chop down, is about to turn to the dead trees underneath its Lake Volta as a new source of exotic timber, one of its top export earners.
Lake Volta, one of the world's largest artificial lakes, is expected to yield millions of dollars worth of timber in what is set to be Africa's biggest-ever underwater logging of what was thought to be lost forests.
Experts say Ghana's forest cover has shrunk to about a quarter of its 1960 size due to over-logging and poaching. Underwater logging is seen as a novelty in the quest to save the west African nation's overland forests.
The venture is expected to help fight global climate change by sparing the living trees that are needed to absorb carbon.
Ghana's Forestry Services chief Owusu Abebrese asserts that this harvesting of submarine timber is the first of its kind in Africa.
But some say it may be taking place elsewhere on the continent though on a small-scale basis.
"As far as we know, this is the first for Africa on this scale," said Robert Johnson, representative of a Canadian firm that will dredge the depths of the lake to salvage some of Africa's prized hardwood. The timber was submerged when the lake was built 44 years ago.
Among other countries harvesting timber from underwater are the two South American states of Suriname and Brazil, "but not on this scale," said Johnson.
An inventory, conducted using high resolution sonar -- a technology used to locate objects underwater -- has identified some 100 species of trees, including sought-after hardwoods such as ebony, teak and mahogany, all buried in the lake bed.
Vancouver-based Clark Sustainable Resource Developments (CSRD) has secured a 25-year concession to extract the dead but valuable trees from a zone representing around 40 percent of Lake's Volta's total area.
Lake Volta was created with the construction in 1964, of the Akosombo hydro-electricity dam which feeds power to Ghana and nearby Togo and Benin.
While all parties agree on the financial benefits of reaping the dead wood, there is controversy over whether removing the submerged trees will make the lake safer or not.
"We believe that the venture will significantly reduce the number of accidents on Volta lake related to submerged stumps," said Kingsley Bekoe-Ansah, coordinator of Forest Watch Ghana.
Some fishermen, however, argue that the submerged tree trunks have on occasion saved the lives of people who were able to cling to them and wait to be rescued.
The venture should rake in some 100 million dollars yearly in foreign exchange and create 1,400 new jobs in a country long regarded as a model of stability in west Africa.
The government will earn 20 percent of the net value of the harvested timber.
"What we thought was a resource beyond our reach ... is right here, it's like a miracle," said Abebrese.
CSRD aims to kick off operations by yearend, once outstanding permits are issued.
"It has been a rigorous effort, there is no reference point. We are virtually creating something from scratch," said Johnson.
Johnson said an environmental assessment has been conducted to World Bank standards.
But environmental activists, while acknowledging the positive economic and social gains of the project, warn that its negative impacts should not be ignored.
The advantages should "be weighed against the negative impact on fisheries as well as the increased amount of both industrial and domestic waste that will come from the wood harvesting and processing industry," said Christopher Manu of Friends of Earth.
He said the artificial lake environment "will be drastically altered".
"The effect on fish breeding grounds... has not yet been well established, let alone designing appropriate mitigation measures," said Manu.
But CSRD has promised it will not disrupt fish habitats as it will only saw off trunks leaving the roots intact for the fish to continue breeding.
Reduced oxygen and light levels underwater, greatly slow down decomposition of the sunken logs.
Timber is Ghana's fourth export earner -- after gold, cocoa and tourism, with the majority of the wood heading to Europe.
In September, the European Union inked a landmark deal with Ghana to fight illegal timber exports from the west African country which will see shipments of uncertified timber being turned away from the EU.
ACCRA (AFP) – Ghana, which is running short of forests to chop down, is about to turn to the dead trees underneath its Lake Volta as a new source of exotic timber, one of its top export earners.
Lake Volta, one of the world's largest artificial lakes, is expected to yield millions of dollars worth of timber in what is set to be Africa's biggest-ever underwater logging of what was thought to be lost forests.
Experts say Ghana's forest cover has shrunk to about a quarter of its 1960 size due to over-logging and poaching. Underwater logging is seen as a novelty in the quest to save the west African nation's overland forests.
The venture is expected to help fight global climate change by sparing the living trees that are needed to absorb carbon.
Ghana's Forestry Services chief Owusu Abebrese asserts that this harvesting of submarine timber is the first of its kind in Africa.
But some say it may be taking place elsewhere on the continent though on a small-scale basis.
"As far as we know, this is the first for Africa on this scale," said Robert Johnson, representative of a Canadian firm that will dredge the depths of the lake to salvage some of Africa's prized hardwood. The timber was submerged when the lake was built 44 years ago.
Among other countries harvesting timber from underwater are the two South American states of Suriname and Brazil, "but not on this scale," said Johnson.
An inventory, conducted using high resolution sonar -- a technology used to locate objects underwater -- has identified some 100 species of trees, including sought-after hardwoods such as ebony, teak and mahogany, all buried in the lake bed.
Vancouver-based Clark Sustainable Resource Developments (CSRD) has secured a 25-year concession to extract the dead but valuable trees from a zone representing around 40 percent of Lake's Volta's total area.
Lake Volta was created with the construction in 1964, of the Akosombo hydro-electricity dam which feeds power to Ghana and nearby Togo and Benin.
While all parties agree on the financial benefits of reaping the dead wood, there is controversy over whether removing the submerged trees will make the lake safer or not.
"We believe that the venture will significantly reduce the number of accidents on Volta lake related to submerged stumps," said Kingsley Bekoe-Ansah, coordinator of Forest Watch Ghana.
Some fishermen, however, argue that the submerged tree trunks have on occasion saved the lives of people who were able to cling to them and wait to be rescued.
The venture should rake in some 100 million dollars yearly in foreign exchange and create 1,400 new jobs in a country long regarded as a model of stability in west Africa.
The government will earn 20 percent of the net value of the harvested timber.
"What we thought was a resource beyond our reach ... is right here, it's like a miracle," said Abebrese.
CSRD aims to kick off operations by yearend, once outstanding permits are issued.
"It has been a rigorous effort, there is no reference point. We are virtually creating something from scratch," said Johnson.
Johnson said an environmental assessment has been conducted to World Bank standards.
But environmental activists, while acknowledging the positive economic and social gains of the project, warn that its negative impacts should not be ignored.
The advantages should "be weighed against the negative impact on fisheries as well as the increased amount of both industrial and domestic waste that will come from the wood harvesting and processing industry," said Christopher Manu of Friends of Earth.
He said the artificial lake environment "will be drastically altered".
"The effect on fish breeding grounds... has not yet been well established, let alone designing appropriate mitigation measures," said Manu.
But CSRD has promised it will not disrupt fish habitats as it will only saw off trunks leaving the roots intact for the fish to continue breeding.
Reduced oxygen and light levels underwater, greatly slow down decomposition of the sunken logs.
Timber is Ghana's fourth export earner -- after gold, cocoa and tourism, with the majority of the wood heading to Europe.
In September, the European Union inked a landmark deal with Ghana to fight illegal timber exports from the west African country which will see shipments of uncertified timber being turned away from the EU.
Tech - Second Google Phone 'Agora' Out In January: Available Now for Pre-Sale
The world's second Google phone, based on the Android mobile operating system, is set to launch at the end of January. Manufactured under the Australian Kogan brand, the phone will come in two flavors, for $225 or $295.
The Agora and Agora Pro models are both available for pre-sale now on Kogan's website and are sold SIM-free - that is without a contract or network locking. If your wireless carrier is AT&T or T-Mobile, then you can snap the Kogan Android up January 29 when the units officially go on sale. Check with your carrier first, but migrating to the Agora should be as easy as swapping out the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card in your existing handset with the Agora - no need to renew your contract or pay any extra fees.
The Agora Pro is the more powerful out of the two models available and features a 2.5" touchscreen and an integrated QWERTY keyboard. On the Agora Pro you can browse the Internet and check your email via the phone's 3G connection or via Wi-Fi. The phone also has GPS navigation and features a 2-megapixel camera on the back.
Kogan Agora is the less powerful brother and lacks Agora Pro's extras such as GPS, Wi-Fi and the camera, but comes in cheaper at $225 (including US delivery) in comparison to $295 for the Agora Pro. Both models come with only 256MB of on board memory, but this can be extended via the phone's microSD card slots.
Weighing at 130 grams, both models also bring Bluetooth connectivity and FM radio. Kogan also says that the phone's talk time is up to 400 minutes while the standby time is of 300 hours. MiniUSB is used for charging and connecting to PCs.
Kogan Technologies is an Australian based, online-only enterprise, and was founded two years ago by Ruslan Kogan. Kogan manufacturers all its products in China and aims at selling online high-quality electronics cheaply. Kogan also sells LCD TVs, Blu-Ray players, video cameras and now - mobile phones.
The Agora and Agora Pro models are both available for pre-sale now on Kogan's website and are sold SIM-free - that is without a contract or network locking. If your wireless carrier is AT&T or T-Mobile, then you can snap the Kogan Android up January 29 when the units officially go on sale. Check with your carrier first, but migrating to the Agora should be as easy as swapping out the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card in your existing handset with the Agora - no need to renew your contract or pay any extra fees.
The Agora Pro is the more powerful out of the two models available and features a 2.5" touchscreen and an integrated QWERTY keyboard. On the Agora Pro you can browse the Internet and check your email via the phone's 3G connection or via Wi-Fi. The phone also has GPS navigation and features a 2-megapixel camera on the back.
Kogan Agora is the less powerful brother and lacks Agora Pro's extras such as GPS, Wi-Fi and the camera, but comes in cheaper at $225 (including US delivery) in comparison to $295 for the Agora Pro. Both models come with only 256MB of on board memory, but this can be extended via the phone's microSD card slots.
Weighing at 130 grams, both models also bring Bluetooth connectivity and FM radio. Kogan also says that the phone's talk time is up to 400 minutes while the standby time is of 300 hours. MiniUSB is used for charging and connecting to PCs.
Kogan Technologies is an Australian based, online-only enterprise, and was founded two years ago by Ruslan Kogan. Kogan manufacturers all its products in China and aims at selling online high-quality electronics cheaply. Kogan also sells LCD TVs, Blu-Ray players, video cameras and now - mobile phones.
Tech - Google-Facebook entice websites to join their social circles
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google and Facebook have launched rival technology platforms that can be used to infuse websites with trendy social-networking features.
A Facebook Connect service that was tested for months with selected partners is now available to anyone interested in transforming static websites into interactive communities of users.
Internet colossus Google picked the same day to unveil a beta, or test, version of Friend Connect software aimed at "any webmaster looking to add a dash of social to his or her site."
Online communities and user-contributed content are core aspects of the evolution of life on the Internet and the superstar California companies are evidently jockeying to be the preferred platform for websites.
Facebook Connect lets outside website operators tie into the social-networking website so its more than 130 million users can range the Internet from profile pages taking friends and data with them.
"Our users come to our sites to consume and engage with content around the topics they care about most," said Michael Marquez, executive vice president of strategy and corporate development at CBS Interactive.
"We create active communities around this content, and Facebook Connect makes it easy for our users to share their opinions, ideas and advice with their entire social network."
"We opened Facebook Platform in 2007 to enable hundreds of thousands of developers to create meaningful social experiences for users on Facebook.com," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"With today's launch of Facebook Connect, we're extending that power to millions of entrepreneurs and developers, transforming the Web into a more social place where Facebook's users can engage in trusted social experiences with their friends."
Google Friend Connect provides website operators with computer codes that add social-networking features such as creating personal profiles, finding users with similar tastes, or interacting online with friends.
"Friend Connect's goal is to facilitate an open social Web," Google product manager Mussie Shore wrote in a blog posting.
"This service lets webmasters add social features to their sites by simply copying and pasting a few snippets of code; no advanced coding or technical background required."
Friend Connect lets people log into participating websites using existing Google, Yahoo, America Online or OpenID accounts instead of requiring users to set up new log-in names and passwords.
"Friend Connect makes it simple for people to instantly interact with one another on the sites that they already love to visit," Shore wrote.
"Additionally, websites that use Friend Connect become OpenSocial containers, capable of running applications created by the OpenSocial developer community."
OpenSocial is a set of computer applications developed by Google, MySpace and other Internet firms to serve as a common social-networking platform that breaks down walls between websites.
The Facebook platform program is available to developers at http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php.
A Facebook Connect service that was tested for months with selected partners is now available to anyone interested in transforming static websites into interactive communities of users.
Internet colossus Google picked the same day to unveil a beta, or test, version of Friend Connect software aimed at "any webmaster looking to add a dash of social to his or her site."
Online communities and user-contributed content are core aspects of the evolution of life on the Internet and the superstar California companies are evidently jockeying to be the preferred platform for websites.
Facebook Connect lets outside website operators tie into the social-networking website so its more than 130 million users can range the Internet from profile pages taking friends and data with them.
"Our users come to our sites to consume and engage with content around the topics they care about most," said Michael Marquez, executive vice president of strategy and corporate development at CBS Interactive.
"We create active communities around this content, and Facebook Connect makes it easy for our users to share their opinions, ideas and advice with their entire social network."
"We opened Facebook Platform in 2007 to enable hundreds of thousands of developers to create meaningful social experiences for users on Facebook.com," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"With today's launch of Facebook Connect, we're extending that power to millions of entrepreneurs and developers, transforming the Web into a more social place where Facebook's users can engage in trusted social experiences with their friends."
Google Friend Connect provides website operators with computer codes that add social-networking features such as creating personal profiles, finding users with similar tastes, or interacting online with friends.
"Friend Connect's goal is to facilitate an open social Web," Google product manager Mussie Shore wrote in a blog posting.
"This service lets webmasters add social features to their sites by simply copying and pasting a few snippets of code; no advanced coding or technical background required."
Friend Connect lets people log into participating websites using existing Google, Yahoo, America Online or OpenID accounts instead of requiring users to set up new log-in names and passwords.
"Friend Connect makes it simple for people to instantly interact with one another on the sites that they already love to visit," Shore wrote.
"Additionally, websites that use Friend Connect become OpenSocial containers, capable of running applications created by the OpenSocial developer community."
OpenSocial is a set of computer applications developed by Google, MySpace and other Internet firms to serve as a common social-networking platform that breaks down walls between websites.
The Facebook platform program is available to developers at http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php.
Sport - Tennis;Sampras back in London and relishing life
Tom Pilcher
LONDON (Reuters) – "Did you guys miss me?" asked Pete Sampras when he faced the media at the Royal Albert Hall on his first visit to London in six years this week.
The 14-times grand slam champion is appearing in the final seniors tour event of the year, having recently rekindled his passion for the sport he dominated in the 1990s.
The American's vice-like grip on tennis was at its most destructive in London and especially Wimbledon, where he chalked up seven major titles between 1993-2000.
Sampras, 37, last played in the capital at Wimbledon in 2002, where he was infamously scheduled to play Swiss journeyman George Bastl in the second round on the 'graveyard of champions' Court Two.
It was his final match on the prestigious turf of SW19 and the start of the harsh realization that his career was over.
"Last time I was here was a major low point," said Sampras, who briefly contemplated a return to Wimbledon in 2003 to try to wipe out the memory of the five-set defeat to Bastl.
"Once Wimbledon came and went the year after I won the (2002) U.S. Open I knew it was time for me to move on."
As is common with many retiring athletes, Sampras found that moving on was not so easy.
PLAYING POKER
"(For) three years I didn't do a thing," he said. "I put on some weight. I wasn't feeling too good about myself. Playing golf, playing poker.
"You wake up (and say) 'Okay, what am I going to do today?' To be 31, 32 and retired is great but at the same time I've always been a worker, since I was a teenager.
"So to say 'Cold turkey I'm done', at first it was great but after a few years it felt like I needed something more to do."
The past 18 months have been a rebirth for Sampras, featuring his best-of-three exhibition series against 13-time grand slam champion Roger Federer late in 2007, which the Swiss won 2-1.
More recently, Sampras has joined the seniors tour, something that during his playing days he always maintained he would never do.
In the end, his love of the game proved too strong.
"The last couple of years I've missed it more than when I first retired," he said.
"But it's a brutal sport this one and it took a lot out of me. I needed a few years to decompress and take a deep breath to get to a point where I'd like to play again."
Sampras now seems to be relishing life and that has shown in his tennis. In June he won the first seniors tour event he entered in Brazil, against former world number one Marcelo Rios of Chile.
He is hoping to notch up another victory in London and is not deterred that Alan Mills, the man behind the 2002 Wimbledon scheduling, is the tournament referee.
"I'm over it. But I'll remind him," he joked.
Sampras also said a visit to Wimbledon could be on the cards.
"I'd love to play on that court one more time. There's not a place like it in the world. I'll maybe ask the club if they would let me play a practice set," he said.
TRICKY TIME
While all is good in the life of Sampras, the same cannot be said for American tennis.
The United States has not had a male grand slam winner since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
"It's a tricky time," said Sampras. "Knowing the American fans and the media we expect some Wimbledon champions and our guys to be number one and when you don't have that people start complaining.
"It's a tough comparison for Andy (Roddick) and James (Blake) to be compared to myself and Andre (Agassi), Jim (Courier) and Michael (Chang). That's a pretty unique crew but we need some sort of American presence at the top of the game."
The "unique crew" won 27 of 56 majors between the 1989 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open.
It has been 40 years since the U.S. last had to wait more than five years for a male grand slam champion and Sampras believes it could be a while before his compatriots dominate tennis again.
"It's going to take some years, maybe five, 10 or 15 years for another crew of really good young Americans. It might not ever happen for 40 years. It's hard to say. But there's no doubt we need it," he said.
Despite their father's pedigree, Sampras's two sons, aged two and five, seem unlikely to help the situation in the future.
"My son holds it like this, and I say 'hold it like that', and he just does it his way," he said.
"These kids don't listen to me on the tennis court," he added, a wry smile breaking out on his face.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
LONDON (Reuters) – "Did you guys miss me?" asked Pete Sampras when he faced the media at the Royal Albert Hall on his first visit to London in six years this week.
The 14-times grand slam champion is appearing in the final seniors tour event of the year, having recently rekindled his passion for the sport he dominated in the 1990s.
The American's vice-like grip on tennis was at its most destructive in London and especially Wimbledon, where he chalked up seven major titles between 1993-2000.
Sampras, 37, last played in the capital at Wimbledon in 2002, where he was infamously scheduled to play Swiss journeyman George Bastl in the second round on the 'graveyard of champions' Court Two.
It was his final match on the prestigious turf of SW19 and the start of the harsh realization that his career was over.
"Last time I was here was a major low point," said Sampras, who briefly contemplated a return to Wimbledon in 2003 to try to wipe out the memory of the five-set defeat to Bastl.
"Once Wimbledon came and went the year after I won the (2002) U.S. Open I knew it was time for me to move on."
As is common with many retiring athletes, Sampras found that moving on was not so easy.
PLAYING POKER
"(For) three years I didn't do a thing," he said. "I put on some weight. I wasn't feeling too good about myself. Playing golf, playing poker.
"You wake up (and say) 'Okay, what am I going to do today?' To be 31, 32 and retired is great but at the same time I've always been a worker, since I was a teenager.
"So to say 'Cold turkey I'm done', at first it was great but after a few years it felt like I needed something more to do."
The past 18 months have been a rebirth for Sampras, featuring his best-of-three exhibition series against 13-time grand slam champion Roger Federer late in 2007, which the Swiss won 2-1.
More recently, Sampras has joined the seniors tour, something that during his playing days he always maintained he would never do.
In the end, his love of the game proved too strong.
"The last couple of years I've missed it more than when I first retired," he said.
"But it's a brutal sport this one and it took a lot out of me. I needed a few years to decompress and take a deep breath to get to a point where I'd like to play again."
Sampras now seems to be relishing life and that has shown in his tennis. In June he won the first seniors tour event he entered in Brazil, against former world number one Marcelo Rios of Chile.
He is hoping to notch up another victory in London and is not deterred that Alan Mills, the man behind the 2002 Wimbledon scheduling, is the tournament referee.
"I'm over it. But I'll remind him," he joked.
Sampras also said a visit to Wimbledon could be on the cards.
"I'd love to play on that court one more time. There's not a place like it in the world. I'll maybe ask the club if they would let me play a practice set," he said.
TRICKY TIME
While all is good in the life of Sampras, the same cannot be said for American tennis.
The United States has not had a male grand slam winner since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
"It's a tricky time," said Sampras. "Knowing the American fans and the media we expect some Wimbledon champions and our guys to be number one and when you don't have that people start complaining.
"It's a tough comparison for Andy (Roddick) and James (Blake) to be compared to myself and Andre (Agassi), Jim (Courier) and Michael (Chang). That's a pretty unique crew but we need some sort of American presence at the top of the game."
The "unique crew" won 27 of 56 majors between the 1989 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open.
It has been 40 years since the U.S. last had to wait more than five years for a male grand slam champion and Sampras believes it could be a while before his compatriots dominate tennis again.
"It's going to take some years, maybe five, 10 or 15 years for another crew of really good young Americans. It might not ever happen for 40 years. It's hard to say. But there's no doubt we need it," he said.
Despite their father's pedigree, Sampras's two sons, aged two and five, seem unlikely to help the situation in the future.
"My son holds it like this, and I say 'hold it like that', and he just does it his way," he said.
"These kids don't listen to me on the tennis court," he added, a wry smile breaking out on his face.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
Tech - Koobface virus turns up on Facebook
Facebook's 120 million users are being targeted by a virus dubbed "Koobface" that uses the social network's messaging system to infect PCs, then tries to gather sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
It is the latest attack by hackers increasingly looking to prey on users of social networking sites.
"A few other viruses have tried to use Facebook in similar ways to propagate themselves," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an e-mail. He said a "very small per centage of users" had been affected by these viruses.
"It is on the rise, relative to other threats like e-mails," said Craig Schmugar, a researcher with McAfee Inc.
Koobface spreads by sending notes to friends of someone whose PC has been infected. The messages, with subject headers like, "You look just awesome in this new movie," direct recipients to a website where they are asked to download what it claims is an update of Adobe Systems Inc's Flash player.
If they download the software, users end up with an infected computer, which then takes users to contaminated sites when they try to use search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live.com, according McAfee.
McAfee warned in a blog entry on Wednesday that its researchers had discovered that Koobface was making the rounds on Facebook.
Facebook requires senders of messages within the network to be members and hides user data from people who do not have accounts, said Chris Boyd, a researcher with FaceTime Security Labs. Because of that, users tend to be far less suspicious of messages they receive in the network.
"People tend to let their guard down. They think you've got to log in with an account, so there is no way that worms and other viruses could infect them," Boyd said.
Social network MySpace, owned by News Corp, was hit by a version of Koobface in August and used security technology to eradicate it, according to a company spokeswoman. The virus has not cropped up since then, she said.
Privately held Facebook has told members to delete contaminated e-mails and has posted directions at www.facebook.com/security on how to clean infected computers.
Richard Larmer, chief executive of RLM Public Relations in New York, said he threw out his PC after it became infected by Koobface, which downloaded malicious software onto his PC. It was really bad. It destroyed my computer," he said.
McAfee has not yet identified the perpetrators behind Koobface, who are improving the malicious software behind the virus in a bid to outsmart security at Facebook and MySpace.
"The people behind it are updating it, refining it, adding new functionalities," said McAfee's Schmugar.
It is the latest attack by hackers increasingly looking to prey on users of social networking sites.
"A few other viruses have tried to use Facebook in similar ways to propagate themselves," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an e-mail. He said a "very small per centage of users" had been affected by these viruses.
"It is on the rise, relative to other threats like e-mails," said Craig Schmugar, a researcher with McAfee Inc.
Koobface spreads by sending notes to friends of someone whose PC has been infected. The messages, with subject headers like, "You look just awesome in this new movie," direct recipients to a website where they are asked to download what it claims is an update of Adobe Systems Inc's Flash player.
If they download the software, users end up with an infected computer, which then takes users to contaminated sites when they try to use search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live.com, according McAfee.
McAfee warned in a blog entry on Wednesday that its researchers had discovered that Koobface was making the rounds on Facebook.
Facebook requires senders of messages within the network to be members and hides user data from people who do not have accounts, said Chris Boyd, a researcher with FaceTime Security Labs. Because of that, users tend to be far less suspicious of messages they receive in the network.
"People tend to let their guard down. They think you've got to log in with an account, so there is no way that worms and other viruses could infect them," Boyd said.
Social network MySpace, owned by News Corp, was hit by a version of Koobface in August and used security technology to eradicate it, according to a company spokeswoman. The virus has not cropped up since then, she said.
Privately held Facebook has told members to delete contaminated e-mails and has posted directions at www.facebook.com/security on how to clean infected computers.
Richard Larmer, chief executive of RLM Public Relations in New York, said he threw out his PC after it became infected by Koobface, which downloaded malicious software onto his PC. It was really bad. It destroyed my computer," he said.
McAfee has not yet identified the perpetrators behind Koobface, who are improving the malicious software behind the virus in a bid to outsmart security at Facebook and MySpace.
"The people behind it are updating it, refining it, adding new functionalities," said McAfee's Schmugar.
Business - Infosys has no hiring plans for next year
This is perhaps the clearest indicator of the state of the Indian IT industry amidst the global turmoil. India's second largest software firm, Infosys Technologies, has decided to freeze all recruitment for the next fiscal after it meets its target of hiring 25,000 people this year. Speaking on the sidelines of a CII summit, S Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Infosys, said, "We will freeze fresh recruitment, and will hire only for meeting specific skill needs".
The IT industry is expected to hire 2 lakh people this fiscal and the industry's revenues are highly linear in nature, which means proportionate to the number of employees. This is why the hiring guidance of companies is very central to the state of affairs and considered a better indicator of their confidence in the market situation. "The freeze in hiring was expected as there is no demand, not even the visibility of demand in the near term," said Harshad Deshpande, IT research analyst with Ambit Capital.
So far this year, Infosys hired 16,000-17,000 personnel, taking its total employee strength to over 1 lakh people. In terms of employees, Infosys is only second to TCS, India's largest software exporter, which had close to 1.21 lakh employees at the end of the second quarter. India's top five IT companies in terms of revenues also rank in the same order of their employee base.
Earlier, Satyam cut its hiring guidance to 8,000-10,000 people this fiscal against the earlier projections of 15,000. It has taken 5,200 on board in the first two quarters of the financial year. Infosys, however, has no plans to prune its hiring plans.
Industry experts say companies are trying to raise the utilisation rate of employees and re-locate them between departments. As attrition is low, fresh hiring could be low. "Next year could see very little hiring from the campuses as companies are delaying the joining offers made this year. Moreover, they will also save on the huge cost incurred on training the new hires," said an analyst with a brokerage firm. For instance, Infosys spends about $170 million a year on training alone.
As a spiral effect of the financial meltdown, the IT industry is facing huge pressures on demand and pricing. Industry watchers say pricing would be squeezed by 8-10%. According to Gopalakrishnan, the industry could see its growth rate halving to 15%. Industry body Nasscom had earlier projected a growth of 21-24% this year, lower than last year's growth rate of 30%.
Gopalakrishnan also said some customers are delaying new project allotments, adopting a cautious approach to the market scenario. However, in an interview with FE last month, Gopalakrishnan had said, "I don't think there will be any delays. We have received indications from some companies that they will be reducing their IT budgets for next year. However, some of them are also saying that their off-shoring allocation will increase". End of the year is usually the time when the budgeting season generally kicks off.
The IT industry is expected to hire 2 lakh people this fiscal and the industry's revenues are highly linear in nature, which means proportionate to the number of employees. This is why the hiring guidance of companies is very central to the state of affairs and considered a better indicator of their confidence in the market situation. "The freeze in hiring was expected as there is no demand, not even the visibility of demand in the near term," said Harshad Deshpande, IT research analyst with Ambit Capital.
So far this year, Infosys hired 16,000-17,000 personnel, taking its total employee strength to over 1 lakh people. In terms of employees, Infosys is only second to TCS, India's largest software exporter, which had close to 1.21 lakh employees at the end of the second quarter. India's top five IT companies in terms of revenues also rank in the same order of their employee base.
Earlier, Satyam cut its hiring guidance to 8,000-10,000 people this fiscal against the earlier projections of 15,000. It has taken 5,200 on board in the first two quarters of the financial year. Infosys, however, has no plans to prune its hiring plans.
Industry experts say companies are trying to raise the utilisation rate of employees and re-locate them between departments. As attrition is low, fresh hiring could be low. "Next year could see very little hiring from the campuses as companies are delaying the joining offers made this year. Moreover, they will also save on the huge cost incurred on training the new hires," said an analyst with a brokerage firm. For instance, Infosys spends about $170 million a year on training alone.
As a spiral effect of the financial meltdown, the IT industry is facing huge pressures on demand and pricing. Industry watchers say pricing would be squeezed by 8-10%. According to Gopalakrishnan, the industry could see its growth rate halving to 15%. Industry body Nasscom had earlier projected a growth of 21-24% this year, lower than last year's growth rate of 30%.
Gopalakrishnan also said some customers are delaying new project allotments, adopting a cautious approach to the market scenario. However, in an interview with FE last month, Gopalakrishnan had said, "I don't think there will be any delays. We have received indications from some companies that they will be reducing their IT budgets for next year. However, some of them are also saying that their off-shoring allocation will increase". End of the year is usually the time when the budgeting season generally kicks off.
Business - Isro to enhance capacity to meet DTH demand
With the country's top direct-to-home (DTH) players, including Dish TV and Tata Sky, planning to expand their channel portfolio, Indian Space Research Organsiation (Isro) has decided to increase its satellite transponder capacity in order to provide communication service to DTH players.
Isro will more than double its transponder capacity in the near future, said managing director of Antrix Corporation KR Sridhar Murthy. Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro, is an authorised government agency to offer all Indian and foreign space-related services to local players.
Talking to FE on the sidelines of Word Space Biz 2008, India's first international conference organised by Isro, Murthy said currently the Indian satellites have 211 transponders for communication purpose that include DTH service, telemedicine and tele-education. Of this, he said, 100 transponders are leased to DTH providers. "Another 300 transponders would be added in the next five years for various communication purposes, including DTH. It is to be noted that 50-60% of Antrix revenue comes from transponder service.
India's second largest DTH provider, Tata Sky, managing director and chief executive officer Vikram Kausik told FE, "The company is in talks with satellite providers and specialists to avail the satellite service further in order to expand the company's DTH capacity. We require a large number of transponders in order to transmit 1,000 channels and give our viewers a wide choice. We hope to achieve the target in the next 2-3 years."
The demand for new channels is growing very sharply in India, especially the regional markets are growing very fast. In order to have wider regional presence, we need to have more channels to offer. The country has 400 channels at present. The number is likely to double in the next 3-5 years. Hence, the DTH providers should have the capacity to accommodate these channels, he added.
Currently Tata Sky, which has 3-million subscribers, has hired all 12 Ku-Band transponders on INSAT 4A. The company will make some changes to expand its DTH platform to accommodate 200 channels against the current 167 channels with its current transponder capacity, Kausik said. "We will touch the 200-channel mark in a matter of weeks," he added.
On the other hand, the country's largest DTH provider with 4.8 million subscribers—Zee's Dish TV—also has huge expansion plans. It, however, is waiting for Antrix green signal for transponder rights.
Director (Corporate) of Zee Network Amitabh Kumar said the company's DTH arm has applied to Antrix to provide 10 transponders to help implement expansion plans. He said the company, which currently owns around 11 Ku-Band transponders on NSS-6 foreign satellite, plans to expand its DTH space to 400 channels from the current level of 200 channels. The additional transponders will also serve the company's other planned services like high-definition channels, movies-on-demand, which would require an additional investment of Rs 100 crore, he added. He said the company is confident of getting 10 more transponder by the mid 2009.
Other DTH providers, Sun Direct, Reliance Big TV and Airtel, are also in talks with Antrix for more transponders rights.
Isro will more than double its transponder capacity in the near future, said managing director of Antrix Corporation KR Sridhar Murthy. Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro, is an authorised government agency to offer all Indian and foreign space-related services to local players.
Talking to FE on the sidelines of Word Space Biz 2008, India's first international conference organised by Isro, Murthy said currently the Indian satellites have 211 transponders for communication purpose that include DTH service, telemedicine and tele-education. Of this, he said, 100 transponders are leased to DTH providers. "Another 300 transponders would be added in the next five years for various communication purposes, including DTH. It is to be noted that 50-60% of Antrix revenue comes from transponder service.
India's second largest DTH provider, Tata Sky, managing director and chief executive officer Vikram Kausik told FE, "The company is in talks with satellite providers and specialists to avail the satellite service further in order to expand the company's DTH capacity. We require a large number of transponders in order to transmit 1,000 channels and give our viewers a wide choice. We hope to achieve the target in the next 2-3 years."
The demand for new channels is growing very sharply in India, especially the regional markets are growing very fast. In order to have wider regional presence, we need to have more channels to offer. The country has 400 channels at present. The number is likely to double in the next 3-5 years. Hence, the DTH providers should have the capacity to accommodate these channels, he added.
Currently Tata Sky, which has 3-million subscribers, has hired all 12 Ku-Band transponders on INSAT 4A. The company will make some changes to expand its DTH platform to accommodate 200 channels against the current 167 channels with its current transponder capacity, Kausik said. "We will touch the 200-channel mark in a matter of weeks," he added.
On the other hand, the country's largest DTH provider with 4.8 million subscribers—Zee's Dish TV—also has huge expansion plans. It, however, is waiting for Antrix green signal for transponder rights.
Director (Corporate) of Zee Network Amitabh Kumar said the company's DTH arm has applied to Antrix to provide 10 transponders to help implement expansion plans. He said the company, which currently owns around 11 Ku-Band transponders on NSS-6 foreign satellite, plans to expand its DTH space to 400 channels from the current level of 200 channels. The additional transponders will also serve the company's other planned services like high-definition channels, movies-on-demand, which would require an additional investment of Rs 100 crore, he added. He said the company is confident of getting 10 more transponder by the mid 2009.
Other DTH providers, Sun Direct, Reliance Big TV and Airtel, are also in talks with Antrix for more transponders rights.
India - Rs 25 lakh and below home loans: Plan to cut 2.5%
An extra dose of Rs 17,400 crore in social spending and a fiscal package, spearheaded by an interest subsidy of 2.5 per cent to fix home loan interest at 9.5 per cent, are likely to be announced on Saturday to boost the slowing Indian economy.
At a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary today, it was decided to push for an interest rate subvention on new home loans which would, in turn, provide the stimulus to the housing and construction-related sectors such as steel and cement, said sources.
The subsidy would be available for home loans below Rs 25 lakh but sources said that the cut-off point would be decided by the high-powered committee on economic crisis headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Also being considered is a four-percent excise duty cut on cars, bus and trucks to bring it to 8-10 percent with a possible reduction in licensing controls on steel imports to impart impetus to the automobile sector.
The countervailing duty on cement of Rs 350 per tonne that was abolished last year would be re-imposed to shelter domestic producers facing a lower capacity utilization due to imports from Pakistan that are cheaper by at least Rs 30 to Rs 40 per bag.
Besides the economic reasoning that Pakistan provides a lion's share of India's imports of about 1.5 million tonnes, the second rationale put out was the attack in Mumbai by militants who are sheltered and supported by Islamabad, sources said.
The apex committee is also likely to approve abolishing the 8 percent ad valorem export duty on iron ore fines and reduce the 15 percent export duty on iron ore lumps to improve the prospects of the iron ore exporters as the proposal from the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries has been agreed to by both Commerce and Finance Ministries.
As for social spending, the committee of secretaries has agreed to the Planning Commission's proposal to a second supplementary demand of Rs 17,400 crores for UPA government's key programmes in the coming parliament session due to "highly exceptional circumstances." These, the Commission said, were programmes with the absorptive capacity, and that any new launch would take time in getting off and not get implemented during the current fiscal. The proposal has been reviewed with other ministries, it said.
The Indian economy which maintained a healthy clip of 9 per cent-plus growth rate on an average over the last four years has lost steam and slipped to 7.9 per cent and 7.6 per cent in the first two quarters of the current fiscal.
At a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary today, it was decided to push for an interest rate subvention on new home loans which would, in turn, provide the stimulus to the housing and construction-related sectors such as steel and cement, said sources.
The subsidy would be available for home loans below Rs 25 lakh but sources said that the cut-off point would be decided by the high-powered committee on economic crisis headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Also being considered is a four-percent excise duty cut on cars, bus and trucks to bring it to 8-10 percent with a possible reduction in licensing controls on steel imports to impart impetus to the automobile sector.
The countervailing duty on cement of Rs 350 per tonne that was abolished last year would be re-imposed to shelter domestic producers facing a lower capacity utilization due to imports from Pakistan that are cheaper by at least Rs 30 to Rs 40 per bag.
Besides the economic reasoning that Pakistan provides a lion's share of India's imports of about 1.5 million tonnes, the second rationale put out was the attack in Mumbai by militants who are sheltered and supported by Islamabad, sources said.
The apex committee is also likely to approve abolishing the 8 percent ad valorem export duty on iron ore fines and reduce the 15 percent export duty on iron ore lumps to improve the prospects of the iron ore exporters as the proposal from the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries has been agreed to by both Commerce and Finance Ministries.
As for social spending, the committee of secretaries has agreed to the Planning Commission's proposal to a second supplementary demand of Rs 17,400 crores for UPA government's key programmes in the coming parliament session due to "highly exceptional circumstances." These, the Commission said, were programmes with the absorptive capacity, and that any new launch would take time in getting off and not get implemented during the current fiscal. The proposal has been reviewed with other ministries, it said.
The Indian economy which maintained a healthy clip of 9 per cent-plus growth rate on an average over the last four years has lost steam and slipped to 7.9 per cent and 7.6 per cent in the first two quarters of the current fiscal.
Health - Leg pain could signal peripheral vascular disease risk
Washington, Nov 16 (ANI): The irritating pain in your legs after climbing the stairs could reveal more than just your age-it could indicate that you might be suffering from peripheral vascular disease (PVD) - a disease of the blood vessels outside of the heart and brain.
PVD occurs when fatty deposits known as plaque build up in the inner lining of artery walls, causing a narrowing of the vessels that carry blood to the legs.
Symptoms of PVD include pain, numbness, aching or heaviness in the leg muscles when walking or climbing stairs. Symptoms may also include cramping in the legs, buttocks, thighs, calves and feet.
"Factors that can cause plaque buildup include smoking, high amounts of certain fats in the blood, high blood pressure and high amounts of sugar in the blood due to diabetes," said Thomas Livingston, M.D., radiologist on the medical staff at Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth.
However, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) revealed that almost fifty percent of PVD sufferers don't have any signs or symptoms of it.
NHLBI suggested that it is necessary to have an accurate diagnosis of PVD is because PVD elevates the risk for coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke and transient ischemic attack ("mini-stroke") by six to seven times, than the risk for those who don't have PVD.
PVD is diagnosed based on a person's medical and family histories, a physical exam and test results.
Usually, a simple test of ankle-brachial index (ABI) is used to diagnose PVD. The ABI compares blood pressure in a person's ankle to blood pressure in their arm. The test shows how well blood is flowing in the limbs.
Treatment for PVD includes lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, lowering blood pressure and getting regular exercise; medications; and surgery and procedures, including bypass grafting and angioplasty.
"Making lifestyle changes is not only one of the best ways to treat PVD, it's also the best way to prevent it in the first place," said Livingston. (ANI)
PVD occurs when fatty deposits known as plaque build up in the inner lining of artery walls, causing a narrowing of the vessels that carry blood to the legs.
Symptoms of PVD include pain, numbness, aching or heaviness in the leg muscles when walking or climbing stairs. Symptoms may also include cramping in the legs, buttocks, thighs, calves and feet.
"Factors that can cause plaque buildup include smoking, high amounts of certain fats in the blood, high blood pressure and high amounts of sugar in the blood due to diabetes," said Thomas Livingston, M.D., radiologist on the medical staff at Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth.
However, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) revealed that almost fifty percent of PVD sufferers don't have any signs or symptoms of it.
NHLBI suggested that it is necessary to have an accurate diagnosis of PVD is because PVD elevates the risk for coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke and transient ischemic attack ("mini-stroke") by six to seven times, than the risk for those who don't have PVD.
PVD is diagnosed based on a person's medical and family histories, a physical exam and test results.
Usually, a simple test of ankle-brachial index (ABI) is used to diagnose PVD. The ABI compares blood pressure in a person's ankle to blood pressure in their arm. The test shows how well blood is flowing in the limbs.
Treatment for PVD includes lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, lowering blood pressure and getting regular exercise; medications; and surgery and procedures, including bypass grafting and angioplasty.
"Making lifestyle changes is not only one of the best ways to treat PVD, it's also the best way to prevent it in the first place," said Livingston. (ANI)
World - Poor in India, China have limited access to cardio-treatment
Sydney, Dec 4 (IANS) Cardiovascular epidemic is making inroads in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) like India and China, but the poor have limited or no access to treatment facilities.
Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death globally in 2005 with more LMICs alone accounting for more than 80 percent of these deaths from cardiovascular disease in 2005.
India, for example, has twice the mortality rate from cardiovascular-related deaths among people of working age between 39 and 59 years, compared to the USA.
In China, stroke, chronic obstructive airways diseases, cancer and heart disease are the four highest contributors to the country's total disease burden. Almost half of these are due to cardiovascular disease, according to a release of George Institute of International Health, Australia.
The paper reveals that cardiovascular disease risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, tobacco smoking and diabetes, are on the increase in LMICs.
China's obesity rate, for example, has increased fourfold over the past two decades. In addition to the disease burden, there is a large economic burden from loss of family income and loss of long term productive working years because people of working age in LMICs are most disease-prone.
These findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death globally in 2005 with more LMICs alone accounting for more than 80 percent of these deaths from cardiovascular disease in 2005.
India, for example, has twice the mortality rate from cardiovascular-related deaths among people of working age between 39 and 59 years, compared to the USA.
In China, stroke, chronic obstructive airways diseases, cancer and heart disease are the four highest contributors to the country's total disease burden. Almost half of these are due to cardiovascular disease, according to a release of George Institute of International Health, Australia.
The paper reveals that cardiovascular disease risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, tobacco smoking and diabetes, are on the increase in LMICs.
China's obesity rate, for example, has increased fourfold over the past two decades. In addition to the disease burden, there is a large economic burden from loss of family income and loss of long term productive working years because people of working age in LMICs are most disease-prone.
These findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Science - Excess nitrates in water would benefit crops
Toronto, Dec 4 (IANS) High nitrate levels in water makes it unfit for drinking, but it would benefit crops, according to a study.
Texas AgriLife Research scientists John Sij, Cristine Morgan and Paul DeLaune have studied nitrate levels in irrigation water and aquifers over the past three years.
'When you get more than 10 parts per million (ppm), it exceeds the... limit,' Sij said. 'Our water (at Chillicothe) is around 20 parts per million, so we don't give it to the babies, but adults can drink it.'
'We don't know what percentage of the nitrate is geologic in nature or what percentage is due to farming operations,' Sij said. 'But if we take it into consideration in our fertility programs, we can mine the nitrogen and use it as a resource,' according to Texas AgriLife release.
Mining the water for nitrates, instead of putting in additional and sometimes unnecessary nitrogen, may also have the potential to improve water quality from the Seymour Aquifer, he said.
Assuming a 20 ppm nitrate concentration and just 12 inches of applied irrigation water per acre over the growing season, approximately 20 kilos of usable nitrogen per acre can be applied to a cotton crop, DeLaune said.
Of course, other nutrients like potassium and phosphorous must be adequate to take advantage of nitrates in the irrigation water as well as any applied fertiliser nitrogen, he said.
Texas AgriLife Research scientists John Sij, Cristine Morgan and Paul DeLaune have studied nitrate levels in irrigation water and aquifers over the past three years.
'When you get more than 10 parts per million (ppm), it exceeds the... limit,' Sij said. 'Our water (at Chillicothe) is around 20 parts per million, so we don't give it to the babies, but adults can drink it.'
'We don't know what percentage of the nitrate is geologic in nature or what percentage is due to farming operations,' Sij said. 'But if we take it into consideration in our fertility programs, we can mine the nitrogen and use it as a resource,' according to Texas AgriLife release.
Mining the water for nitrates, instead of putting in additional and sometimes unnecessary nitrogen, may also have the potential to improve water quality from the Seymour Aquifer, he said.
Assuming a 20 ppm nitrate concentration and just 12 inches of applied irrigation water per acre over the growing season, approximately 20 kilos of usable nitrogen per acre can be applied to a cotton crop, DeLaune said.
Of course, other nutrients like potassium and phosphorous must be adequate to take advantage of nitrates in the irrigation water as well as any applied fertiliser nitrogen, he said.
Business - Nokia sees cellphone sales shrinking faster
Sales of mobile phones are shrinking faster than expected as consumers are cutting spending, the world's top cellphone maker Nokia said on Thursday in its second warning in three weeks.
"Consumers are continuing dramatically to cut back their spending," Nokia Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson said at the company's investor day in New York, adding that he was under "no illusions" that the market would recover any time soon. "We're facing it across the world. What's recently accelerated is the slowdown in emerging markets," he said.
Nokia said handset market volumes are expected to fall by at least 5 percent next year, something many analysts were already expecting. But it sees its market share rising, helping to lift its stock 4 percent to 11.02 euros in Europe. Nokia's U.S. shares were up 54 cents or 4 percent at $13.84 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading.
Some analysts are worried, however, that handset sales could fall a lot further next year, as even Nokia acknowledged that it does not have very good visibility of the market for 2009.
"We're surprised they didn't cut (its forecast) more for 2009," said Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. "I don't think we'll see February 1 without another cut."
Nokia said it does not plan to give any more financial updates or estimates until it reports earnings in January.
It said that its key devices and services unit operating profit margin should be 13-19 percent next year, with the help of the cost-cutting to which it alluded throughout the analyst day.
"This would obviously be good news if met; investors have started to prepare for worse," said analyst Tero Kuittinen from Global Crown Capital.
In addition to ailing consumer demand, operator and retail distributors will go through a period of destocking, resulting in lower sales volumes of manufacturers than purchase volumes by consumers in the first half of 2009, Nokia said.
TOUGHEST YEAR AHEAD
The cellphone market has grown at well over 10 percent for years, having dipped only in 2001, amid that year's economic downturn; but it will face a new challenge next year.
"Next year will be the most challenging year the mobile industry has ever faced," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.
But Nokia said it was in a good position to weather the downturn because of the large scale of its global business.
"2009 will be challenging for our industry; however we have a strong, enviable base to build on, and I believe we will continue to strengthen our position on many fronts," Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.
"Building on our operational flexibility, Nokia is acting to reduce costs appropriately in the current slowing environment," he said.
But the company said that in the meantime fourth quarter earnings will suffer, as it has not been able to cut costs quickly enough in response to the rapid deterioration of the handset market in the last few weeks.
Analysts expect Nokia to fare better than its smaller rivals in the downturn.
"Despite the challenging environment, Nokia remains best positioned ... thanks to their economies of scale and channel strategy," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
Nokia cut its forecast a day after the world's fifth and sixth largest handset makers, LG Electronics Inc and Research in Motion Ltd, warned on sales and profit growth.
"The smaller handset manufacturers in general have it more difficult -- Motorola, Sony Ericsson and smaller players -- and it is not surprising that Nokia sees its market share increasing," said Michael Schroder, head of research at FIM in Helsinki.
"If the weakness continues past summer, it is probable that some would get out of the business," he said.
Motorola Inc and Sony Ericsson, a venture of Japan's Sony Corp and Sweden's Ericsson, are already struggling to make a profit.
Nokia said it expects also to win back market share in smartphones, where it has lost ground to RIM and Apple Inc. Simonson said that the smartphone market should grow in 2009, but he did not give a specific estimate.
Nokia also lowered its forecast for the 2009 telecommunications network equipment market, saying it would fall in euro terms 5 percent or more. Shares in the world's largest mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson closed 1 percent lower on the news.
(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen)
"Consumers are continuing dramatically to cut back their spending," Nokia Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson said at the company's investor day in New York, adding that he was under "no illusions" that the market would recover any time soon. "We're facing it across the world. What's recently accelerated is the slowdown in emerging markets," he said.
Nokia said handset market volumes are expected to fall by at least 5 percent next year, something many analysts were already expecting. But it sees its market share rising, helping to lift its stock 4 percent to 11.02 euros in Europe. Nokia's U.S. shares were up 54 cents or 4 percent at $13.84 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading.
Some analysts are worried, however, that handset sales could fall a lot further next year, as even Nokia acknowledged that it does not have very good visibility of the market for 2009.
"We're surprised they didn't cut (its forecast) more for 2009," said Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. "I don't think we'll see February 1 without another cut."
Nokia said it does not plan to give any more financial updates or estimates until it reports earnings in January.
It said that its key devices and services unit operating profit margin should be 13-19 percent next year, with the help of the cost-cutting to which it alluded throughout the analyst day.
"This would obviously be good news if met; investors have started to prepare for worse," said analyst Tero Kuittinen from Global Crown Capital.
In addition to ailing consumer demand, operator and retail distributors will go through a period of destocking, resulting in lower sales volumes of manufacturers than purchase volumes by consumers in the first half of 2009, Nokia said.
TOUGHEST YEAR AHEAD
The cellphone market has grown at well over 10 percent for years, having dipped only in 2001, amid that year's economic downturn; but it will face a new challenge next year.
"Next year will be the most challenging year the mobile industry has ever faced," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.
But Nokia said it was in a good position to weather the downturn because of the large scale of its global business.
"2009 will be challenging for our industry; however we have a strong, enviable base to build on, and I believe we will continue to strengthen our position on many fronts," Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.
"Building on our operational flexibility, Nokia is acting to reduce costs appropriately in the current slowing environment," he said.
But the company said that in the meantime fourth quarter earnings will suffer, as it has not been able to cut costs quickly enough in response to the rapid deterioration of the handset market in the last few weeks.
Analysts expect Nokia to fare better than its smaller rivals in the downturn.
"Despite the challenging environment, Nokia remains best positioned ... thanks to their economies of scale and channel strategy," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
Nokia cut its forecast a day after the world's fifth and sixth largest handset makers, LG Electronics Inc and Research in Motion Ltd, warned on sales and profit growth.
"The smaller handset manufacturers in general have it more difficult -- Motorola, Sony Ericsson and smaller players -- and it is not surprising that Nokia sees its market share increasing," said Michael Schroder, head of research at FIM in Helsinki.
"If the weakness continues past summer, it is probable that some would get out of the business," he said.
Motorola Inc and Sony Ericsson, a venture of Japan's Sony Corp and Sweden's Ericsson, are already struggling to make a profit.
Nokia said it expects also to win back market share in smartphones, where it has lost ground to RIM and Apple Inc. Simonson said that the smartphone market should grow in 2009, but he did not give a specific estimate.
Nokia also lowered its forecast for the 2009 telecommunications network equipment market, saying it would fall in euro terms 5 percent or more. Shares in the world's largest mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson closed 1 percent lower on the news.
(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen)