Aishwarya's grand baby shower

MLA asset details on web !!

The Bihar state government today moved ahead with its policy for "transparency" in public life by making declaration of movable and immovable assets mandatory for legislators by December 31 every year.

Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary made the announcement today, the final day of the monsoon session of the Assembly.

"There is a need for maintaining transparency in public life and therefore, this year onwards, all MLAs would be required to submit their returns to the Assembly secretariat by December 31. These will be displayed on the official website of the Assembly," Choudhary said. The members of the state legislative council (MLCs) would also have to submit their yearly returns.

Choudhary said persons contesting elections for the Assembly and the council have to submit a list of their assets to the Election Commission (EC).

"MLAs will be required to submit their declaration in the same format they submit to the EC," the speaker clarified amid thumping of desks by the ruling party MLAs.

Incidentally, Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui had asked the government to clarify during the Question Hour if the land allotted by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority to the kin of VVIPs was mentioned in the returns submitted by them. The chief minister, however, refused to give any statement on the land issue till the chief secretary submitted his report. ( )

When the Nitish government had returned to power, one of the first decisions taken by NDA-II government was getting members of the ministry to submit their annual returns and post it on the website.

The NDA-II government has followed this step by asking all its officials and employees, right from Grade I to Grade III, to declare their assets by February 28 and threatened to suspend salaries of those employees who failed to submit their declaration. Despite strong objections by a section of IAS officers on the pretext of violation of privacy, the government uploaded the asset declarations of all its employees and put it on the official web.

"Yearly declaration of assets by legislators was just a logical step," said chief minister Nitish Kumar.

In the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections though the Election Commission put the declarations of candidates on the web, questions were raised at the sudden steep rise of wealth of certain politicians.

Triple eclipse to be seen in a month !

A triple eclipse treat -- two partial solar and one total lunar eclipse in a month beginning from tomorrow, is in store for sky gazers.

The first of the three, which will be a partial solar eclipse will be seen on June 1.

The eclipse, however, will not be visible from India.

It will be visible from high latitudes in the Northern hemisphere, starting at sunrise time over Siberia and Northern China, Alaska, Nova Scotia. In fact, the eclipse begins at 00 55 18 IST on June 2.

Eclipse chasers in the country should not be a disheartened lot as a total lunar eclipse will be visible on June 15.

The eclipse will be visible from the Indian region, Middle East, East Africa, South America, Australia.

During the lunar eclipse the moon will be completely covered by Earth''s shadow from 11.52 PM on June 15 to 2.32 AM on June 16.

The last of the triple eclipse will be another partial solar eclipse on July 1.

It is the first of the two total lunar eclipses in 2011, the second occurring on December 10. Earlier on January 4, a partial lunar eclipse was seen.

The last of the three eclipses is another partial solar eclipse.

This partial solar eclipse will also not be visible from India. It will be visible from southern latitudes, Antarctica. Its magnitude will be 0.097.

Source: http://goo.gl/6ie6e

Five Fruits to keep you Cool this Summer

These are time of scorching heat. Sun is ruthless and the heat wave unsparing. But these are also the time when exotic fruits bloom in plenty.

And these fruits can have an immensely chilling effect on us. But the problem comes when an entire generation falls for Coke and Pepsi and gets estranged with the bounties of nature. People are quite oblivious about the health properties of these fruits. And even if they know, few care about procuring them.

MensXP recommends these five summer fruits to beat the heat this summer:

Black Plum or Jambul

The fruit is useful in spleen enlargement. The seed of the fruit is well-known diabetes. It reduces the quantity of sugar in the urine and quenches the maddening thirst. The fruit is also a good source of antioxidants.
Litchi

The luscious litchi/lychee or Chinese Hazelnut is a very delicious fruit. People eagerly wait for its arrival during the summers. May-June is the best season for the fruit. This sub-tropical fruit has very good cooling, demulcent and aphrodisiac properties. It is also a good thirst-quencher.
Mango

It's not for nothing that Mango is called the 'King of Fruits' in India. The vastly delicious fruit is a storehouse of vitamins A and C. The ripe mango tones the heart, improves complexion, stimulates hunger, improves vision and is greatly helpful in liver disorders, loss of weight and physical abnormalities. The popular mango powder (amchur) made from green/unripe mango is very beneficial in scurvy and pyorrhea.
Muskmelon

Muskmelon is a popular tropical fruit which is readily available during the summers. The fruit contains Vitamin A, B, C and minerals like magnesium, sodium and potassium. It has zero cholesterol and is safe for blood cholesterol patients. When consumed with jaggery, it helps in the curing of skin diseases. It greatly reduces the body heat when consumed regularly.
Watermelon

The succulent, scarlet-red watermelon is a delicious and health-building fruit. It contains large quantities of easily assimilable sugar. Being an alkaline fruit, it can be easily enjoyed by persons with acidosis. Its juice quench the thirst like anything. Rich in vitamin A,B, and C, products based on its juice can serve as wonderful cooling drinks. The fruit is also beneficial for combating hypertension.
Source: http://goo.gl/mrnYR

Mamata Banerjee created history in West Bengal !!

The 34-year-old regime of the Left front has finally crumbled. Mamata Banerjee has created history by winning a majority in West Bengal. It's goodbye to the world's longest serving communist government in a multi-party democratic set-up. Bengal is all set for its first woman chief minister.

Firebrand Mamata impressed West Bengal's poverty-weary citizens with a call for change. Bengalis wanted their state to prosper like the other states of India. Tired of strikes and lockouts, they rejected the red symbolism that had burdened them for decades. They were desperate for some of growing India's shine to rub off on them.

People were so fed-up of Left rule that they blamed the Communists for every malady in Bengal. Left Front rule allowed Bengal to stagnante in agriculture and industry.

So how did Mamata manage a landslide? Not all credit goes to Mamata. The Communists made some huge mistakes. They banned computers, saying it would take away jobs. They also banned English in schools, a step that pushed the state back at least 20 years from where other states stand today. The World Bank in 2009 said Kolkata was the worst major city in India to do business in.

As a result of these blunders, the Bhadralok were fed up with the administration, and many Bengalis felt that they were not equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Today's Calcutta... ooops Kolkata... is a pale shadow from what it was in its glory days. Voters saw the government caught in a time warp, with no intention of moving ahead.

Cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore surged ahead, attracting India's new breed of entrepreneurs. And what happened in Bengal is baffling: it produced only 16,000 engineers every year, as against a lakh in Tamil Nadu. What was worse, Bengal had no industries to employ them. So it was only natural that Bengal suffered a brain drain.

Clad in a white sari and rubber slippers, Mamata has managed what many in Bengal thought was impossible: bring down the deeply entrenched Left government. Her angry denunciation of the Left's admistration made her an instant hit with the struggling Bengali. She systematically mounted protests against forced land acquisitions.

Once a campaigner against Tata projects in Nandigram and Singur, Mamata today promises Bengal that industry will be a priority. Her manifesto includes some romantic promises: introducing cruises on the Ganga on the lines of what is offered on the Thames in London, converting West Bengal's tea-growing Darjeeling district into the 'Switzerland of the East', and so on.

Let's remember these are not promises that powered her to victory. What brought her to power are (a) the follies of the Communists; and (b) the people's desire for change.

As railway minister, she has showered Bengal with projects. That gave the people a glimpse of what she could do in Bengal if they gave her a chance.

In 2011, Mamata gifted new trains and projects to the six districts of north Bengal. She then proclaimed: "The Railways have invested more funds in these six districts than the State has for the development of all of north Bengal".

With her fiery speeches, she got the Kolkata public on her side. She decried economic stagnation, slammed corruption, and accused the communist government of perpetrating political violence.

'Didi', or Big Sister as she is fondly called, strategised her campaign against the Communists with an emotionally charged slogan -- Maa, maati, maanush (mother, motherland, and people). She positioned herself as a crusader against all that is wrong in Bengal today: wrongful land acquisitions, bad infrastructure, and corruption and stagnation. She went to the aam janta with these issues and promised to set things right.

Read more: http://goo.gl/ltkKR

Curruption issues in Indian Politics !!

Consider this man: He runs a village in rural Maharashtra as if it is his personal fiefdom, like an authoritarian feudal lord. He is a fan of Shivaji, and admires him for once chopping off the hands of a man who committed a crime. In that vein, he passes an order that anyone found drinking alcohol will be tied to a pole in front of the village temple and publicly flogged. Several men undergo this, one of whom, a vice sarpanch of the village, says: "I was drinking. I was ... tied to the pole and flogged two-three times. It is normal. [He] will try to make you understand once or twice and thereafter, he will beat you badly." He believes in "rigid implementation" of family planning, including forced vasectomies. Male labourers in his village are paid Rs 50 a day, while female labourers get just Rs 30. He supports Narendra Modi, and is politically active, routinely resorting to a form of blackmail known as threatening to fast unto death until his demands are met. He believes that corrupt people should be hanged -- literally hanged to death. He is Anna Hazare.

In the last month or so, the 71-year-old Hazare has become a middle-class hero and a "youth icon" in India. This is baffling, given the biographical details in the above paragraph. (I got them from Hartosh Singh Bal's article for Open magazine and Mukul Sharma's piece in Kafila.) Hazare is popularly described as Gandhian, but, as Bal points out, if the forced vasectomies are anything to go by, he brings Sanjay Gandhi to mind more than Mahatma Gandhi. Sure, he is fighting against corruption, but both his method (of blackmail via the hunger fast) and his remedy (creating an alternative center of power and discretion instead of tackling the root causes of corruption) are dubious. Then why has middle-class India turned him into such a hero?

I believe it is because we are lazy. It is true that we are disgusted by corruption. We are sick of reading about the telecom scandal, the Radia tapes, the Commeonwealth games. More than that, corruption has become a virus that plagues our everyday lives, and we're appalled by it. But we're too damn lazy to go out and vote and actually participate in our democracy. We're apathetic, and believe, perhaps correctly, that our feeble middle-class vote won't make a difference. And yet, we want to express our disgust at the way things are, take the moral high ground, and feel like we really are doing something, because hey, that helps our self esteem. Then along comes this venerable activist who wears khadi, lives a spartan life, speaks out against corruption in high places, and goes on a hunger strike to influence the implentation of a bill that aims to tackle corruption. Naturally, we make him the repository of our hopes and our values, speak out in his defence at parties and cafes while hanging out with friends, and even light candles in his support. And there, our job as citizens is done.

The intellectual laziness here is obvious. We make him our hero though we know little else about him, and when his weird history comes to light, we rationalise it away. We ignore the fact that the Lokpal Bill, which he is fighting for, does nothing to tackle the root causes of corruption, and might actually be a step in the wrong direction. We treat attacks on our new hero -- if the behaviour of some of his defenders on TV is anything to go by -- as personal attacks on us. We start dealing in absolutes, as if anyone against Hazare must, by default, be a supporter of corruption and the status quo.

The Anna Hazare phenomenon is what one could term the Rorschach Effect in Politics. A couple of years ago, Barack Obama wisely pointed out, "I am like a Rorschach test." During his presidential campaign, his supporters saw in him whatever they wanted to: an anti-Bush, a liberal messiah, a pragmatic and non-partisan moderate, and suchlike, some of it without any evidence, some of it contradictory. (Similarly, his opponents projected their fears or fantasies onto him.) Needless to say, when he did come to power, he disappointed many who had voted for him, because hey, he couldn't possibly live up to being everything to everybody. (For example, lefty pacifists were disappointed that he stepped up the war in Afghanistan, even though that's exactly what he said he'd do while campaigning.) He was a blank slate no more.

Hazare is a similar beneficiary of the Rorschach Effect. Although he has been an activist for decades, he's exploded into the national consciousness in just the last few weeks. And a politically powerless middle class has projected its hopes, its self-righteousness and its sense of moral superiority onto him. But Hazare is no Mahatma Gandhi, and I think disillusionment, both with the man and the Lokpal Bill, is bound to set in sooner or later. Unless indifference and apathy precede it.

* * * *

Another of Rorschach's children is Rahul Gandhi. He's been hailed as a youth icon and the face of new India, and Page 3 celebs routinely describe him as one of their favourite politicians. But apart from the fact that he's good looking and belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi family, we know very little about him. What are the values that he stands for? What are his views on economic freedom and the license raj? What are his views on freedom of speech? (If he supports it, is he then in favour of repealing the ban on Satanic Verses?) What does he feel about reservations? (He has spoken out against the caste system, and reservations do, after all, perpetuate discrimination on the basis of caste.) He has spoken out for inner-party democracy, which India needs so badly, but is he doing anything to drive the Congress towards a system where party leaders are elected from below, not anointed from above? Does he hope to be prime minister one day? If so, why? What kind of a person is he, really?

Gandhi is as blank a slate as you can get, in the sense that he won't address any of these issues, and most of the public pronouncements we hear from him are platitudes that express good intention, which is meaningless. If that is a deliberate political strategy, it is masterful. Whether it will work, in this age of identity politics when votebanks are fragmented and all politics is local, is uncertain. But I guarantee you one thing: he'll have middle-class support.
Read more: The Rorschach Effect in Indian Politics

Indian Cricket Team wins Glorious World Cup after 28 yrs !!

First of all, Congrats ! Indian Cricket team for winning the world Cup 2011, Well done !
Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni's stellar partnership paved the way for India to end its 28-year wait for a World Cup title even as Mahela Jayawardene's century and Muttiah Muralitharan's swansong ended in hurt and despair.

Chasing a target of 275, India were pegged on the back foot as early as the second ball of their innings when Lasith Malinga trapped Virender Sehwag plumb in front, and though the Indian opener asked for a referral, it was upheld. Malinga then struck again in the seventh over when he had Mumbai's icon Sachin Tendulkar caught behind in the seventh over. But, the title was sealed when Dhoni hit the first ball of the 49th over for a massive six to put the icing on the cake and send a billion people into raptures.

And, to make things even sweeter for India, Yuvraj Singh was named Man of the Series for his 15 wickets and 362 runs. This win has also completed the career CV of Tendulkar, who didn't contribute to the final as much as he may have liked to, but his innings in the lead-up to the final, not least in the semi-finals against Pakistan, It was also the perfect send-off for coach Gary Kirsten, who has now ended his tenure with the Indian team.

Coming back to the loss of those two early wickets, Gambhir and Kohli got the run chase back on track with a 83-run partnership as the Delhi boys got India right back into the match taking minimal risks and milking the Sri Lankan bowling to the fullest. And, even after Kohli was caught off his own bowling by Dilshan, Dhoni and Gambhir took the chase forward.

Dhoni has not been in the best of forms with the bat in the World Cup, but he potentially played the knock of his career in the final as he remained unbeaten on a 79-ball 91 and shared in a 109-run partnership with Gambhir as they snuffed the fight out of the Sri Lankan attack and broke their spirit with each run they made. And, even though Gambhir was bowled going for a massive hit when on 97, India wasn't denied to be a win and it was fitting that Dhoni and Yuvraj, who have shared in so many monumental partnerships were in the middle, when the mission was finally achieved.

Malinga (2-42) made the early dents, but wasn't able to make any more inroads in his subsequent overs. But, however, the most telling blows was felt by the Sri Lankan spinners, Suraj Randiv and Muralitharan, who bowled 17 overs for 82 runs without taking a wicket; and that's really where Sri Lanka lost the match and plot.

Earlier, Jayawardene scored his 14th one-day international century as his unbeaten 103 helped Sri Lanka set India a target of 275 to win the final of the 2011 World Cup at Mumbai's packed Wankhede Stadium.

Jayawardene was the anchor in Sri Lanka's innings as he scored at more than a ball without taking too many risks and he also strung together important partnerships with his skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera to negate the good work done early in their innings by Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who bowled three maiden overs on the trot at the start of the match.

Sreesanth, who shared the new ball with Zaheer, bowled reasonably well in his first two overs, but Tillakaratne Dilshan it him for a couple of boundaries over midwicket and to the midwicket boundary to break the shackles the left-arm pacer had sprung on the Sri Lankan opening batsmen. In between, Zaheer had Upul Tharanga caught by Virender Sehwag at first slip. Tharanga was all at sea against Zaheer and was beaten on more than one occasion; in fact the Sri Lankan opening batsman was unable to score a single run off the 18 deliveries he faced of Zaheer before he was put out of his misery. Zaheer's first spell figures read 5-3-6-1 and he was the main reason Sri Lanka scored only 31 for 1 in their mandatory power play, their lowest score in this spell of play in the entire tournament. Zaheer's bowling apart, exceptional fielding by Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina at point and cover point respectively further shackled the Sri Lankan top-order.

Earlier, Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat. However, there was some controversy as the toss took place twice as no one including match referee Jeff Crowe had heard Sangakkara's call first time round. India made only one change with S Sreesanth coming in for the injured Ashish Nehra; but Sri Lanka made four changes as Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Suraj Randiv and Nuwan Kulasekara replaced Chamara Silva, the injured Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath.

Dilshan was kept uncharacteristically quiet thanks to Zaheer and with Munaf Patel also keeping things tight at the other end it was tough going for the Sri Lankan opening batsman and Sangakkara. Dilshan did all the hard work and just when he looked as though he would play yet another big innings in the 2011 World Cup, he was unfortunate to get a glove as the ball lobbed back and ht the stumps as he was out for a 49-ball 33. Dilshan though ended the World Cup on exactly 500 runs, and became only the fifth batsman to score so many runs in the mega-event after Sachin Tendulkar (twice), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Jayawardene. Sangakkara and Jayawardene then looked untroubled during their 62-run partnership for the third wicket in just over 11 overs before 'golden arm' Yuvraj Singh had the Sri Lankan captain caught behind by Dhoni for a well-made 48 in 67 balls.

Jayawardene, who continued to look as though he was batting on another pitch, was in full control even as Samaraweera led a charmed life in his 34-ball 21 before he was trapped in front by Yuvraj, who finished the 2011 World Cup with 15 wickets. And, though, Zaheer dismissed Kapugedera with a slower ball soon after, Jayawardene continued on his merry ways and was well supported by Kulasekara and the pair added 66 runs for the sixth wicket in quick time.

Jayawardene got to his half-century off 49 balls and then accelerated thereafter bringing up his ton off 84 deliveries. Sri Lanka also took maximum advantage of the batting power play scoring 63 runs for the loss of only Kulasekara's wicket with Jayawardene getting to his century in the space of three deliveries in the 48th over bowled by Zaheer including back-to-back boundaries. Perera then finished the Sri Lankan innings off in style scoring 16 runs including two boundaries and a six as he finished unbeaten on 22 off only 9 balls.

India will attain total literacy in the next 10 years: Sibal !!

With the literacy level in the country climbing to 74 per as per the provisional 2011 census, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today exuded confidence that India will attain total literacy next 10 years.

He said the Census figures have shown that India would be able to achieve education for all in the age group of 6-14 by 2015 and "I am confident that if we progress at this pace India will have total literacy in the next 10 years".

Releasing a report on the completion of first year of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, Sibal said the Census has also silenced critics including international organisations who said India will not achieve its millennium development goals.

"They said that literacy rate will be 72 per cent in 2015. We have proved the world wrong by achieving 74.4 per cent literacy," he said.

Sibal, however, expressed concern about eight million children who are still out of school, saying a lot of effort has to be done in this regard to reduce the number.

During the last 10 years, roughly 21 crore literates were added to the population while the country also saw a 12 per cent jump in female literacy level, he said expressing happiness.

During the last one year after the implementation of the RTE, he said 15 states have notified state rules while notification of academic authority has been done by 20 states.

He said 11 states have constituted state child protection council while 20 states constituted the academic authority and 28 states have enacted policies on eight year elementary education.

Similarly, 28 states have done away with corporal punishment and 18 states have banned private tuition.

Importantly, he said 18 states have banned screening procedure and capitation fees.

He said some of the provisions of RTE would be implemented in the next two years while the provisions related to teacher qualification would be implemented within five years time.

The financial commitment for RTE is 2.31 lakh crore between 2010-11 to 2014-15, which includes Rs 24,068 crore of the 13th Finance Commission.
Read more: India will attain total literacy in the next 10 years: Sibal

Cabinet approves five more pacts to bring back black money !!

India can now sign treaties with five more countries in its pursuit to bring back black money stashed abroad with the Cabinet today approving such pacts.

Under the agreements, India can seek information regarding secret bank accounts. The five countries include Malta, Georgia and Uruguay, sources said.

India has already signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with 79 countries and modifications in such pacts were needed in 74 of them to broaden the scope of article of exchange of information to include exchange of banking information.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month said negotiations for a total of 23 pacts in line with international standards have been completed and 10 for Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs).

Government has been under attack from the Opposition which has been alleging that it was not doing enough to retrieve the black money.

Government has been insisting that it has been making all efforts to bring back the black money but it was going to be a long haul.

Detailing the steps being taken, Mukherjee recently said that government has formulated a five-pronged strategy to combat the menace of illicit funds generated both as a result of tax evasion and corruption.

He said during the last 18 months, the government had collected tax on black money to the tune of Rs 34,601 crore and detected undisclosed income of about Rs 15,000 crore.

Source: Cabinet approves five more pacts to bring back black money

Arushi murder case: The untold story !!

A disturbing sexual angle has emerged in the murder of Aarushi Talwar, 14. Crucial facts left out from her post-mortem report suggest that her private parts were "extraordinarily dilated". But there were no signs of rape. These facts, established by the CBI after they questioned the doctor who performed the post-mortem, give a new twist to the case."The vaginal orifice of the deceased was unduly large and mouth of cervix was visible," says the CBI's closure report.

Her private parts were cleaned. This caused water stains on the bedsheet. There was no semen on the bedsheet. But the pyjamas Aarushi wore did not have water stains on it. This shows that the crime scene was dressed up. The CBI believes Aarushi may have been killed elsewhere and the body placed on her bed.
parallel investigation by Headlines Today reveals that the chairperson of the National Commission on Women (NCW) Girija Vyas allegedly scuttled a probe into the Aarushi's murder by a two-member NCW committee. Soon after the killing, this committee visited the Talwar house in Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, to investigate. Former NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh alleges that as soon as they stepped into Hemraj's room, she got five calls from Vyas, asking her to stop the probe. Vyas initially denied there was an inquiry and that a committee was formed. She later admitted that there was, but said the report was not made public because the CBI was about to investigate.

These sensational revelations fly in the face of the CBI's closure report. Last month, the CBI sought the special court's permission to close the double murder case because it could not solve it.

Though the CBI has been unable to nail the accused, its investigations have completely ruled out the possibility of outsiders having killed Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj Banjade. Circumstantial evidence points to the complicity of those inside. The crime scene was methodically "dressed up"or cleansed of all evidence which could implicate the Talwars. An expert from the forensic science laboratory, Gandhinagar, who inspected the crime scene, says that the crime had been committed by someone "very close to Aarushi".

Nobody except the killer or killers, of course, knows what exactly happened in the Talwar residence during the six crucial hours between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. on May 16, 2008, when both Hemraj and Aarushi were brutally murdered within an hour. Aarushi was bludgeoned on her forehead and her throat slit with a small, sharp object. So was Hemraj.

A reconstruction of the crime, however, increasingly points to an inside hand. The assailants had gained easy access to the flat because there were no signs of forced entry. They killed Aarushi and Hemraj, moved their bodies around the flat and even stayed behind for drinks. The parents of Aarushi, Nupur and Rajesh Talwar, seem to have slept through an incredible amount of activity in their small flat. They claimed their bedroom door was shut and the air-conditioner turned on.

The murderer dragged Hemraj's body to the terrace using a sheet. The body was cursorily covered with a cooler lid and a bedsheet on a clothesline. The murderers then locked the terrace door and re-entered the house. They even seemed to know where the Talwars' mini-bar was-behind a wooden panel near the dining table. They drank from a bottle of whiskey and left it on the dining table. The bottle had bloodstains of both victims.

At around 3.43 a.m., the Internet router in Aarushi's room was switched off. That means that somebody entered her room nearly three hours after her murder. Whoever it was, failed to raise the alarm or even spot her body.

At 6.01 a.m., housemaid Bharti arrived. She rang the doorbell four times. Normally, Hemraj, the domestic help, would open the door, but this time Nupur opened it. Rajesh was also awake. This was unusual because the couple were late risers. The iron grill door at the entrance was locked from outside, so Nupur threw the keys from the balcony to Bharti. Three minutes later, when Bharti entered, she found the couple sobbing. "Dekho Hemraj ne kya kar diya (look what Hemraj has done)". Aarushi was found on the bed in a pool of blood. Bharti rushed out to inform the neighbours. Hemraj's room had an independent entry and opened into the flat from inside.

Another strange incident happened around this time. Nupur called Hemraj's cellphone from her landline at 6.01 a.m. The call was immediately disconnected. This means the dead servant's phone was attended by someone near the crime scene. Inexplicably, both Hemraj's and Aarushi's cellphones disappeared. Hemraj's phone was never found but Aarushi's Nokia N72 was found on a dirt track by a housemaid near Noida's Sadarpur area a fortnight later. Its memory was wiped clean. The cellphone was a crucial piece of evidence.

Aarushi would usually be up chatting with her friends until well past midnight. On the night of May 15, her cellphone was inactive after 9.10 p.m. At around midnight, her friend Anmol called on the Talwar landline because he could not get through her cellphone. There was no response. Anmol then sent an SMS to her cellphone at around 12.30. This SMS was not received by Aarushi's phone.

What were the Talwars doing before the murders? According to the CBI closure report, after reaching home at 9.30 p.m., they dined with Aarushi, then took a few pictures on a new digital camera they bought for Aarushi as a birthday gift and retired by around 11 p.m. Around this time, Nupur came to Aarushi's room to switch on the Internet router. Aarushi was reading a book.

The parents controlled access to Aarushi's room by locking it; the keys to her room would usually lie by Nupur's bedside. Nupur told the police that she was not sure whether she locked Aarushi's door the last time she went to her room. Rajesh received a call from the US on his landline at this time. This indicated that his ringer was not silent. He surfed the Internet, sent some emails, surveyed stock market sites and some dentistry sites. He sent his last email at 11.57 p.m. before presumably going to sleep.

The following morning, the bunch of keys to the flat and terrace were found on the bed in Hemraj's room by Nupur. Aarushi's bedroom keys were found in the living room. It was the only set of house keys, so it is still not clear how the Talwars were locked from the outside. The police arrived an hour later, at 7.15 a.m. They were met by a crowd inside. There were 15 people in the living room and five-six people in the Talwars' bedroom. Only Aarushi's room was empty. The crime scene was completely trampled upon.

The "Hemraj killed Aarushi" theory was gospel for a full day. Rajesh repeatedly told the police officers to pursue Hemraj and not to waste time in his flat. He dissuaded them from opening the locked terrace door and even offered the policemen Rs 25,000 to rush to Hemraj's village in Nepal.

The CBI and police mention they saw the concerted efforts by the Talwars to put the blame on Hemraj as a diversionary tactic. Meanwhile, doctors visiting the Talwars saw bloodstains on the handle of the locked terrace door. They also saw wiped bloody footmarks and blood stains on the upper staircase. Rajesh was asked for the keys but he went inside his residence after seeing the blood-stained door handle. The police failed to open the door for a full day.
Aarushi's body was taken for a post-mortem in Noida at about 9 a.m. and her last rites performed late in the evening. The Talwars' domestic staff showed undue haste in thoroughly cleaning up floors and walls of Aarushi's room with soap and water. Aarushi's blood-stained mattress was dumped on the terrace belonging to neighbour Puneet Tandon.

Meanwhile, when the post-mortem report was being written between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on May 16, a telephonic loop was created between Rajesh's elder brother Dinesh Talwar, family friend Dr Sushil Chaudhury, K.K. Gautam, a retired deputy superintendent of police, and an unidentified number. Dinesh would call Chaudhury who would call Gautam. The latter would dial an unidentified number. This sequence was then reversed. This loop was created six times that evening. The CBI claims that it was done to delete references to "rape" in Aarushi's post-mortem report.

Some 28 fingerprint samples were lifted from the scene of crime and handed over to the CBI on May 20. This was 10 days before the case was formally handed over to the CBI. Most of the fingerprints, especially those on the whiskey bottle, were smudged.

Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on May 17, this loop was repeated twice. Soon after these calls were made, Gautam arrived at the Talwar house and asked for the terrace door to be opened after examining the site of crime. Before calling the local police to open the door, he called a top Uttar Pradesh police officer and then his journalist friends so that the door is opened in media glare. Gautam told them that there was likely to be an interesting discovery.
When the local police arrived at the Talwar residence, the media was already there. The keys to the terrace were still missing, so the lock was broken to enter the terrace. Hemraj's body was discovered. However, vital clues were missing-the blood-soaked clothes of the perpetrators, the cloth used to clean the floor and the sheet on which Hemraj's body was dragged.

Source: Arushi murder case: The untold story

Happy New Year 2011 !!

Very Happy New year 2011 !!

Mahatma Gandhi has maximum quotes on Internet !!

Mahatma Gandhi is known for many things but he has to his name the maximum number of quotations by any Indian on the Internet.

The Internet has a large number of sites which offer quotations on a variety of topics ranging from friendship, love, destiny, life, death, peace and politics. But the net has one site which gives quotations from people from all walks of life all over the world.

The site address is http://www.quotationsbook.com and it features 106 quotations from the Mahatma.

One quotation attributed to him says "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Another quotation says "It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."

The Mahatma is also quoted as saying, "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

He has also said "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

Apart from Mahatma Gandhi, there are a number of other Indians from whom quotations can be seen on the site. These people include the Nation's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president S Radhakrishnan, Swami Vivekanand and Indira Gandhi.

These people do not match the Mahatma as individually they do not have even 20 quotes to their credit.

One Indian whose name comes as a surprise on this site is that of Oscar award winning music composer, A R Rahman.

He has got only one quote which reads simply, "All my life I have had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I am here."

Among world politicians, those who surpass the Mahatma are former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill with 183 quotes and former US President John F. Kennedy with 146 quotes.

Noted English writer Oscar Wilde have got 432 quotes and he is followed by William Shakespeare with 420 quotes.

Among religious texts the Bible leads with 370 quotes, The Bhagavad Gita has 45 quotes while the Quran nine quotes.
Read More: Mahatma Gandhi has maximum quotes on Internet

Each Unique ID number costs Rs.100: Nilekani !!

It costs the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Rs.100 to generate each 'aadhaar' number, which will help address the challenges of inclusion, the authority's chief Nandan Nilekani, said here Thursday.

Ideally It costs the authority Rs.50 to enrol each individual for the Unique ID (UID) and another Rs.50 on back-end costs, he said.

In his address at the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture here, Nilekani said that the aadhaar number will help in making public expenditure more equitable and in building new services for the people.

Nilekani, who took questions after speaking of benefits of the UID, said the country needed well-defined privacy laws to prevent any malicious use of data.

Answering queries about the demand by social activists like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze against linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) to the UID, he said that the number should not be used in a way that it denies benefits to anyone.

'Aadhar should not be a basis of discrimination,' he said.

The social activists had, in a statement, said plans to link MGNREGA to Aadhaar should be revoked as it 'threatens to cause havoc' in the fragile structure of the scheme that provides for 100 days of jobs a year to rural households.

Nilekani said the UID can be sufficient identity to open a bank account or get a mobile phone SIM card. Pointing out that penetration of banks was quite low in rural areas, he said the UID can facilitate extending banking to every village.

The UID number will also be beneficial for people who migrate from one part of the country to the other, he added.

Answering queries about possibility of data being misused, he said that the only service provided by the UIDAI was authentication.

'UID is one part of privacy issue. We need a larger privacy and data protection law,' he said.

Nilekani said he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue in May and the government has come out with an approach paper to elicit the people's viewse.

Read more Each Unique ID number costs Rs.100: Nilekani

SUV owners should pay full market price of diesel: Ramesh !!

Continuing with his attack on diesel-guzzling cars like sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked the users of such cars to pay full market price for the fossil fuel which is being sold at subsidised rates for farmers.

"Why should they get subsidised fuel meant for farmers," Ramesh asked while speaking at a conference on 5th Sustainability Summit organised by CII.

"We introduce the (diesel) subsidy for a certain economic purposes but have ended up with a wholly different purpose...," he said while favouring incentives to the firms aiming at sustainable development.

However, he made it clear that his "deliberate" criticism of the vehicles, which had created some-what of a controversy recently, need not be seen as being anti-automobile sector.

"I am not knocking the growth of the automotive industry but those who want to use diesel cars must pay the full market price for the fuel. Why should they get subsidised fuel meant for farmers?" he said.

Ramesh said there was a need for creating an incentive structure from a fiscal point of view particularly which rewards and added that stimulating sustainable development at the producer-end is absolutely important.

The remarks by Ramesh, who had earlier called SUVs as criminals and Socially Useless Vehicles for being bad emitters, has raised a storm in the auto sector with BMW manufacturer Germany taking a serious exception to it.

The Minister also called for an incentive structure which has to be skewed in favour of sustainable development choice as far as consumers are ready to embrace such mechanism.

Read More: SUV owners should pay full market price of diesel

Citing deficit, Obama freezing federal worker pay !!

President Barack Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees Monday, and warned the American public that the move is the first of many difficult decisions that must be made to reduce the nation's mounting deficits.

"The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government," Obama said.

The freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military personnel. The freeze is expected to save more than $5 billion in savings over two years, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years, White House officials said.

Congress is not covered by Obama's executive branch order. But lawmakers voted last April to freeze their pay, with the House and Senate opting to forgo an automatic $1,600 annual cost-of-living increase.

While Obama said the federal employee salary freeze was necessary to put the nation on sound fiscal footing, he also said that he didn't reach the decision lightly.

"This is not just a line item on a federal ledger," he said. "These are people's lives."

Read More: Citing deficit, Obama freezing federal worker pay

Five Dilemmas That Managers Face !!

Being a manager is a heady position. But this role also comes with certain responsibilities and many anxieties.

Young managers may not have all the right skills needed to fulfill their managerial duties. If you’ve been a manager for a while, you may be getting frustrated that your company hasn’t yet promoted you further. At various stages of your managerial tenure, different types of questions and doubts may linger in your mind.

Often, a frank conversation with your superiors, your peers or even your team members — depending on the situation — can help resolve your quandaries. Here are some other ways to tackle five common dilemmas that managers face in their jobs or in their careers.

1. Poor people skills

As a manager, one of your most important jobs is to communicate with and motivate your team members and also to deal with other team heads and higher-ups in your organization.

To do this effectively, it’s essential that you have the ability to work and communicate with various types of people, including those junior and senior to you. That could be a challenge, particularly for someone who is an introvert.

One way to get more comfortable around people, especially your team, is to spend more time with them. Consider setting up a weekly lunch or coffee with your team members and use the opportunity to ask about their work and how it can be improved. Remember, you don’t have to become their best friend.

At the same time, check if your organization has any programs to help out people in your situation. For instance, some organizations have programs in which the manager is “assigned a buddy, mentor or can be coached on the skill he needs,” says Neetasha Joshi, senior vice president and head of human resources at Tata AIG Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

2. The challenge of decision-making

A manager’s decisions can have an impact on an entire team, so your decisions are more important than ever before. But not all of us are born with good decision-making skills. How do you acquire them?

One way could be by observing your superiors in situations where they have to make decisions, says Alpana Sagar, vice president of human capital at Feedback Ventures, a infrastructure-service provider.

For tough decisions, ask your boss for specific guidance. It might help to read books on management and leadership skills, or maybe even take a leadership course.

When it comes to important decisions which will affect the entire team, try to canvass opinion from various parties including team members. What do they think would be the solution to a particular problem, you might ask? This can make them feel included in the decision-making process and may throw up some factors for you to consider which you might not have thought of yourself.

3. Career fatigue

After a few years on the job as a manager, there might come a time when you feel like you have stopped learning in your role and are stagnating. To counter this career fatigue, try to take on more responsibility or new initiatives to make your existing role more exciting.

If that’s not a possibility, it might be time to consider another role in the company that you would like to take on. Figure out what skills would be needed for that role and “then create a plan for how you want to build them,” said Praful Bhat, executive vice president of human resources at Godrej Agrovet Ltd, in an email response.

Sign up for company programs that train managers “on new facets of the business or best practices,” says Inasu George, senior manager of business planning and transition at Fidelity National Financial India, a financial services company.

4. The money question

This dilemma haunts professionals at various levels of their career.

You are ambitious and want to fatten your paycheck as soon as possible. You know there might be competitors who would pay you more and give you a better designation than you currently have. When does it make sense to jump ship?

Experts caution against being too hasty in changing jobs because in today’s times it can leave a bad impression that you are money-hungry.

“First, look for a change in the same place and climb the ladder as much as (you) can,” says Ashesh Amin, director of apparel and retail at S. Kumar Nationwide Ltd. “Improve yourself by managing and learning multiple roles.”

That will improve your market value within the organization, helping your chances for a better salary. If that doesn’t happen, with your improved skills, you can get an even better job outside the organization at a later point.

5. Unmet expectations

You have been managing a team for a while and you feel ready to step up to the next level. Perhaps your company or boss had suggested a period of time after which you might be promoted and that has not happened. This may lead to restlessness and doubts.

To resolve this situation, first conduct an honest introspection of what you have achieved. Have you met the targets expected of you and gained the experience necessary?

Organizations often care more about the manager’s depth of knowledge, rather than the number of years he or she has spent in the role, says Ms. Joshi of Tata AIG Life.

Consider having a frank discussion with your boss. What else do you need to do to move to the next level? If he or she is not approachable, ask for feedback from peers, senior managers and even your team about how you are performing.

Read More: Five Dilemmas That Managers Face

Mumbai, Delhi put on high alert ahead of 26/11 anniversary !!

The Centre has put Mumbai and Delhi on high alert following "specific inputs" from a western intelligence agency of a terror attack in the two cities during the 26/11 anniversary.

In advisories to the Maharashtra and Delhi Police, the Union home ministry has asked them to step up vigilance in crowded public places as well as around important public buildings and sensitive installations.

Sources in the ministry said that the western agency informed New Delhi that Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba may launch spectacular strikes in crowded places in Mumbai, similar to the one carried out two years ago. Another intelligence input suggested that Kashmiri terror outfits may strike in three markets, including the popular underground Palika Bazar, in New Delhi, they added.

"The high alert, sounded in Delhi in the wake of specific inputs for Wednesday (November 17), continues," an official said, adding the level of deployment has also been increased in both Delhi and Mumbai in the past two days.

The Centre has also asked the two police forces to install CCTV cameras and other electronic gadgets in crowded places to monitor the movement of people, and metal detectors for a thorough check of people.

Read More:- Mumbai, Delhi put on high alert ahead of 26/11 anniversary

Anil Ambani profited the most from 2G scam !!

Many corporate houses booked windfall profits from the 2G spectrum scandal, it has now come to light.

The opposition continued to stall both houses of Parliament on Thursday, demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the scandal, but elsewhere, questions were being asked about businessmen who made money from ousted telecom minister A Raja’s scandalous deals.

The CAG report tabled in Parliament earlier this week said Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group benefited the most from improper allocation of licences. The Hindu reported:

The CAG has found that Mr. Ambani’s companies were given undue advantage over other players in at least three ways: first, the fact that Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB Telecom), one of the 2G beneficiaries, appeared to have been acting as a front company for ADAG’s Reliance Telecom was ignored by the Department of Telecom; second, it got the spectrum before others in the queue; and third, Reliance Communications was favoured in the spectrum allocation while getting access to a dual technology licence for offering both CDMA and GSM services…

The CAG also pointed out that the e-mail address of the corporate as well as registered office of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd was shown as hari.nair@relianceada.com, and the same e-mail ID was also given for the correspondence address and the authorised contact person of the applicant company.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain why he looked the other way when Raja was signing away the nation’s wealth for a pittance. BJP leader L K Advani said the Supreme Court had, for the first time, pointed fingers at a prime minister, and it was high time Singh made a statement.

On television, Subramaniam Swamy, president of the Janata Party, said Singh was not corrupt but weak. Swamy has filed a case in the Supreme Court against Raja’s deals. He spoke to reporters in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday, and asked why Singh had remained unresponsive to his plea for permission to proceed against Raja. He alleged the government was “embroidering the truth”.

Gopikrishnan, whose hard work as a reporter led to the unearthing of the scandal, believes telecom licences issued illegally will eventually be cancelled. Chandan Mitra, editor of The Pioneer, praised Gopikrishnan and revealed how he had grown into a reporter with a formidable reputation for digging out hidden information.

I don’t know how much pressure he came under and from which quarters. But I faced more pressure over these reports than anything else in my 27 years of journalism, of which nearly 20 have been spent in senior editorial positions. I am proud to have withstood them. But even more proud that I gave a dynamic young man from Kerala a break in the national media, a break he used to do the nation a sterling service. J Gopikrishnan has made history and The Pioneer basks in his achievement.

In an interview Mitra ran with his article, titled The Man Who Felled a King, Gopikrishnan reveals that a whistleblower within the telecom ministry helped him unravel the complexities of the scandal.

Read More: Anil Ambani profited the most from 2G scam

Astronomers find giant extragalactic planet !!

Astronomers have for the first time spotted a planet that originated outside the galaxy.

Till date, about 500 planets have been discovered. This is the first known planet to have been born elsewhere.

The gas planet, at least 25 percent heavier than Jupiter or 400 times heavier than Earth, orbits a star that started life in a dwarf galaxy, according to the journal Science Express.

Known as HIP 13044b, the hydrogen and helium planet sits in a solar system belonging to a group of stars called the Helmi stream, some 2,000 light years away from Earth, the Telegraph reports.

Between six and nine billion years ago, the Helmi merged with the Milky Way in an act of 'galactic cannibalism'. It is now in a southern constellation of the Milky Way called the Fornax or Furnace.

Because of the vast distance, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, Chile, could not detect the planet visibly, using the 2.2 metre-diameter telescope.

Instead, they inferred its existence from tiny telltale wobbles of the star.

These are caused by the gravitational tug of its large orbiting companion, which the astronomers detected with a high-resolution spectrograph attached to the telescope.

Rainer Klemen, of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said: 'This discovery is very exciting. For the first time, astronomers have detected a planetary system in a stellar stream of extragalactic origin.'

The planet is orbiting a star which is approaching the end of its life, having exhausted its hydrogen fuel and gone through a stage of massive expansion - called the red giant phase - in which it probably consumed the inner planets in its solar system.

Read More: Astronomers find giant extragalactic planet

TCS plans to recruit 50,000 Employees in 2011 !!

The country's largest IT services provider, Tata Consultancy Services, plans to recruit about 50,000 employees in 2011, the same figure as this year's, a top company official said today.

"This year we will add 50,000 people and next year we will add the same (number)," Tata Consultancy Services Managing Director and CEO N Chandrasekaran told reporters here. He said 30,000 of the 50,000 persons recruited were in the first quarter of this year.

Stating that there are good prospects in the overseas market, he said that TCS would recruit more number of candidates for overseas operations, but did not give exact numbers. "We plan to increase the number everywhere (in the world)," he said. Currently, TCS has a presence in the US, Latin America, China, the Middle East and European countries.

"In the first year of our operations in China we quickly recruited 1,000 candidates but it took us two years to add 200 more," Chandrasekaran said.

He said the company preferred to maintain the attrition rate at the industry lowest rate of 14 per cent. "Last two-three years it was 9-9.5 per cent. I would not like to see any kind of escalation (in 14 per cent..)", he said.

Chandrasekaran was here to announce the first batch of candidates for TCS Research Fellowship Programme launched by them to promote research.

He said TCS planned to fund about 200 doctoral candidates over five years to take up PhD programmes in academic institutions across India. However, he declined to comment on the funds they planned to spend for this programme.

On future plans, Chandrasekaran said they would soon make an official announcement of a new product in Small and Medium Enterprises. A similar launch was also planned in Business Process Outsourcing platform. Plans are also on to launch services in healthcare platform globally.

"We have launched the health care service in three top notch hospitals and they are already gone live. We want to launch it internationally...", he said.

Chandrasekaran termed the exchange rate as a major challenge and market volatility as a "big problem."

On the Rs 1,000 crore Passport Seva Project joint venture with External Affairs Ministry,he said it was doing very well. "It is being rolled out in phases and we will roll out in 77 sites. I hope in another 5-6 months we will cover pan India".

On implementation,TCS would offer end-to-end services, after which the Ministry expects issuing passports to be completed in three working days and passports under Tatkal scheme to be dispatched he same day.

TCS has about 1.77 lakh employees globally.

TCS plans to recruit 50,000 Employees in 2011