E-PrepTalk Apr 2011

Contents
Simplifying knowledge dissemination
Managing Editor
Sandeep Manudhane Manisha Manudhane Mitesh Sanghvi Kapil Dev Upadhyay
Cover story:
q Make it a better place for YOU and ME .............................. 05
Senior Editor
Executive Editor Manish Saraf Editorial Correspondents Vinay Goyal Correspondents

Manish Saraf - 97555-99509
Current events
q q q India ........................................................................................
World ......................................................................................
12 20 28
Business and economy ..........................................................
Marketing and Sales :

Editorial Office
Tarin Mehta Nimesh Upadhyay
PT Panorama
q q q Effective Internet Security .................................................... Important facts....................................................................... Phrases coined by William Shakespeare ...... ...................... 46 48 50
Volume 9. Edition 10. April 2011

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Profiles
q q q Pratip Chaudhuri ................................................................... Oprah Gail Winfrey................................................................ Duncan Fletcher.................................................................... 42 46 68
Published by Manish Saraf on behalf of PTETSL, Yeshwant Plaza, Opp. Railway Station, Indore 452001.
Regulars
q q q q q q q q Guest room............................................................................. Brand icon: Bank of America ................................................ Brand icon: Volkswagen......................................................... Business Trivia....................................................................... General knowledge ............................................................... Henry Ford ............................................................................. Seven Facebook tricks ........................................................... Book review: How the mighty fall......................................... 36 38 40 52 54 65 70 72
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The information given in this magazine is true to the best of our knowledge. However, PT or any of its associates will not be responsible in any manner for inadvertent errors that may have crept into this publication. PT does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material.
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Dear Readers, The month has turned out to be eventful and historic. The US finally nailed Osama-bin-Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, after weeks and months of strategizing and executing, in a prudent yet perseverant way. That Pakistan, the country that had sheltered and protected him, had no scent of operation Geronimo reflects highly of the US way of moving things. Finally, every hubris has its nemesis. Pratip Chaudhuri has been given the mantle of State Bank of India, India's largest bank, a prestigious and a challenging assignment. The saga of Oprah Winfray is inspiring, it being the story of a person who confronted life's terrible odds to become a celebrity in her own make. The profiles of both these great people find presence in this issue. Internet has become an indispensable tool for man in the modern age. Internet security is the burning issue in today's times, with a spate of cyber crimes that keep being committed all too frequently. However, with little precautions, much of the internet mishap can be avoided the issue comes out with some inputs on the subject. Volkswagen has become a household name among many Indians. Not many would be aware of the origin and rise of the brand, down the years. The issue covers Volkswagen elaborately so that the reader will have a firm idea of what the brand stands for and what effects it casts on the Indian automobile market. For lovers of English language, idiomatic expressions and proverbial sentences, which are attributed to William Shakespeare, would be useful in their communication. They have been complied and explained. Friends, many among you would have made up your mind about belling the CAT 20011, and other allied examination conducted by B-schools. Starting from fundamentals, what matters is appropriate strategy-making and implementation, with reviews based on feedbacks. With good wishes for your prosperity and progress. Manish Saraf COO, PT education
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. Harry Truman Character is much easier kept than recovered. Thomas Paine A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all he's walking on them. Leonard Louis Levinson I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. John Locke God sells us all things at the price of labour. Leonardo Da Vinci Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice. Henry Ford When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired. Pablo Picasso When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. Confucius
PTs PrepTalk April 2010 03
Letters to the editor

March 2011 was filled with gory and glory
Japan was troubled by the twin disasters of tsunami and radiation leak. How much suffering the Japanese must have experienced can not be imagined. Yet the Japanese should be congratulated for showing bravery and restoring normalcy in a short period. Nature identifies people who are strong to face disasters, it seems PrepTalk was vivid in its handling of the subject. The coverage of World Cup Final is appreciable. The ball-by-ball account of the grand event made me re-live those moments. I had heard of Thanjavur but it was only on reading PrepTalk that I could get a good idea of the city, its culture, traditions and glorious heritage. Thanks for the good stuff provided. Manavendra Guruswamy, Kurnool and skilful handling of the subject, I enjoyed every bit of reading. On the serious front, the disaster in Japan shook me. Indeed, that country has been struggling since World War II and is struck by calamity when it seems to make progress. Yet the Japanese are an undaunted lot. They show an amazing capability to bounce back to normalcy within a very short time. The article on Thanjavur and Harley Davidson fed my intellectual curiosity. The heritage value whether it be of a place or brand has to be felt for its value and appeal. Jagtap Singh Khullar, Amritsar
It takes time to have brand values

Harley Davidson is a brand unto itself. PrepTalk opened before me vital ideas about the brand. We get carried away by the present state of the brand but do not devote much thought to the pain and struggle that to go establishing brands. Similarly, the issue discussed threadbare the events and situations that led to the unfortunate disaster in Japan during
04 PTs PrepTalk April 2011
March 2011. Such catastrophes shake the nation on all fronts. Yet the Japanese should be complimented for applying themselves to talks. The World Cup final was beautiful, relived each moment. PrepTalk deserves to be complimented for such wonderful coverage. I was impressed that Galileo was remembered. In this world of today, such people are on oblivion. Jayant Kocher, Pune
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Kapils Devils and Dhoni's Daredevils

I was one among the several proud Indians on April 2, 2011, when India won the World Cup 2011. On reading the last issue of PrepTalk, feelings of patriotism resurfaced. Thanks to good
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Cover story
Make it a better place for YOU and ME

n a layman's language, terrorism is a sort of violence that is aimed to achieve some goal. These goals are generally those, which the government denies to the perpetrators of the terror activities. These monstrous activities have been ramped up. This calls for a strident response on the part of the government and the world government. Terrorism is more awful than the war. When there are the indications of war, we have the room for the tackle mechanisms. But the terror attacks leave no room for such mechanisms. Moreover, the response of the government and the world government has not been to the extent that it can be ensured that such activities are the past story.
TERRORISM - THEN AND NOW

Terrorism is both an old and a new phenomenon. The contemporary use of the word dates from the French Revolution, when Robespierre inaugurated what he called 'la regime de terreur'. His words were picked up by the British parliamentarian Edmund Burke, who described Robespierre's Jacobin party as terrorists. It is significant that this early example denotes terror as an instrument of state policy. In reality, the history of state terrorism goes back much further. The Assyrian empire used terror tactics to intimidate subject people 3000 years ago, and left memorial inscriptions, recording occasions of mass slaughter. The Roman Empire used similar methods, including their special contribution of mass crucifixion. After the slave revolt led by Spartacus in 73 BCE, hundreds of captured slaves were crucified along the Appian Way. Assassination is another word derived from the history of terrorism, which entered English usage in the 17th century. The original Assassins, who flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries, were the direct precursors of the suicide bombers of today. The word derives from hashish, which was used to intoxicate the would-be assassins in order to produce dreams of paradise.
The Assassins were actually agents of the Ismaili sect, a schismatic branch of Shi-ite Islam, whose activities were directed partly against the established Sunni sultanates, but mainly against the Crusaders. There is a considerable historic irony in George W. Bush's use of the term 'crusade' against the latter-day assassins. Following the French Revolution, terrorism became associated with radical and revolutionary groups plotting to overthrow established governments. The unification of Italy in 1860 was preceded by a number of terrorist assassinations. In France, there was an outbreak of anarchist bomb outrages in the 1880s and 1890s. The most notorious instance was the bomb thrown into a crowded restaurant by Emile Henry in 1894, which killed and injured a number of innocent bystanders. At his trial, Henry declared that there were no innocents, thus anticipating the slaughter of more than 3,000 people in the assault on the World Trade Centre. The activities of the French anarchists inspired H.G. Wells to write his famous story, 'The Stolen Bacillus', which also anticipates the anthrax scare in the United States. Other science fiction writers since Wells have in fact anticipated many actual instances of terrorism, including the use of aircraft to crash into buildings. Aldous Huxley in 'Brave New World' anticipated the use of anthrax.
Terrorism is designed to intimidate through violence and the threat of violence. The Russian terrorists who assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1880 described their actions as the 'propaganda of the deed'. Such propaganda, in the shape of suicide bomb attacks on American installations in Lebanon in the 1980s, persuaded Ronald Reagan to withdraw American forces from the area. Other attacks on American embassies and military bases in the Middle East have been clearly designed to persuade the United States to put pressure on Israel. Although terrorism is an old-established phenomenon, it has developed some novel features, many of which are due to technological developments. Remote controls and delayed action devices make it possible to carry out mass murder, even at a distance, as in the case of the Lockerbie disaster in 1988. Electronic links via satellite, mobile phone and computer networks, make it possible to stage several incidents at the same time, as we saw on September 11. The television screen greatly enhances the possibility of spreading the propaganda of the deed. An Australian lawyer and criminologist, Mark Wardlaw, who wrote an extremely useful book on political terrorism some years ago, describes this use of the mass media as 'live action spectaculars'. The only thing that would be more spectacular than the attack on the World Trade Center is a nuclear explosion, and a number of experienced officials, like the American negotiator, Richard Holbrooke, foresee this as a strong possibility. President George W. Bush's picture of a war on terrorism owes a great deal to the work of a Harvard political scientist, Samuel Huntington. Huntington's book, 'The Clash of Civilisations', was one of a number of books published in the 1990s which attempted to predict the shape of international relations following the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its message was described by one critic as 'the West versus the Rest'. It is this conflict, argues Huntington, which has become 'the central axis of world politics'. And following Huntington, President Bush has picked up the use of the term 'axis', to describe 'the axis of evil'. Huntington acknowledges however that this is not a simple conflict between liberal democracy and obscurantist fundamentalism. In fact he observes that 'the West is using international institutions, military power and economic resources to run the world in ways that will maintain Western predominance, protect Western interests and promote Western political and economic values.'
Huntington's book has become a best-seller in the United States since September 11, reaching the Top 20 in the Amazon.com list. In the process, his analysis has been vulgarised into the rhetoric of a war on terrorism. The original use by President Bush of the term 'crusade' is an indication of the way in which the idea of a clash of civilisations has seeped into American political culture. Although the President's spin doctors quickly realised the negative implications of the word 'crusade' as though it were a gigantic Freudian slip, the original message has continued to reverberate. The Australian philosopher, Raimond Gaita, describes President Bush's rhetoric of a war on terrorism as bizarre and unreal. It paints the world in colours of black and white, which is of course the intention of the terrorists. Operation Enduring Freedom, which has replaced the earlier rhetoric of a crusade, is seen as a conflict between good and evil. God help us, says Gaita, if Americans do not think this is absurd. Use of concepts such as good and evil in this oversimplified way betrays a blindness to complexity and a tendency to arrogant judgmentalism.
AN OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS TERRORIST GROUPS ACROSS AGES:
TheReignofTerror(1793-1794)
The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of eleven months during the French Revolution when the ruling Jacobins employed violence, including mass executions by guillotine, in order to intimidate the regime's enemies and compel obedience to the state. The number killed totalled approximately 40,000, and among the guillotined were Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Putting an end to the Terror, on July 28, 1794, its most well known leader, Maximilien Robespierre, was guillotined by other members of France's ruling National Convention. The Jacobins, most famously Robespierre, sometimes referred to themselves as "terrorists," and the word originated at that time.
19thCentury
McKinley shortly before his assassination, felt that terrorism was associated with the Reign of Terror in France until the mid19th century. Anarchism, often in league with rising nationalism, was the most prominent ideology linked with terrorism. Attacks by various anarchist groups led to the assassination of a Russian Tsar and a U.S. President.
The 19th century saw the development of powerful, stable, and affordable explosives; dynamite, in particular, inspired American and French anarchists.
TheUnitedStates
In the 1850s, John Brown (18001859) was an abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed opposition to slavery and led several attacks between 1856 and 1859, the most famous in 1859 against the armory at Harpers, Ferry was later tried and executed for treason. His purpose was "to force the nation into a new political pattern by creating terror. After the Civil War, on December 24, 1865, six Confederate veterans created the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK used violence, lynching, murder and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress in particular African Americans, and created a sensation with its masked forays' dramatic nature. The group's politics were generally perceived as white supremacy, antiSemitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, and nativism. The KKK had, at times, been politically powerful, and at various times controlled the governments of Tennessee, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, in addition to several legislatures in the South.
The Irish Republican Army campaigned against the British in the 1910s and inspired the Zionist groups Hagannah, Irgun and Lehi to fight the British throughout the 1930s in the Palestine mandate. Like the IRA and the Zionist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood used bombings and assassinations to try to free Egypt from British control.
Europe
Political assassinations continued into the 20th century, its first victim Umberto I of Italy, killed in July 1900. Political violence became especially widespread in Imperial Russia, and several ministers were killed in the opening years of the century. The highest ranking was prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, killed in 1911 by a leftist radical. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot and killed in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins. The assassinations produced widespread shock across Europe, setting in motion a series of events which led to World War I.
Europe
In 1867, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a revolutionary Irish nationalist group, carried out attacks in England. The group is considered a precursor to the Irish Republican Army. Fo u n d e d i n Ru s s i a i n 1 8 7 8 , Narodnaya Volya was a revolutionary anarchist group inspired by Sergei Nechayev and "propaganda by the deed" theorist Pisacane. The group developed ideassuch as targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression'that were to become the hallmark of subsequent violence by small non-state groups, and they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age such as the invention of dynamite, which they were the first anarchist group to make widespread use of. Attempting to spark a popular revolt against Russia's Tsars, the group killed prominent political figures by gun and bomb, and on March 13, 1881, assassinated Russia's Tsar Alexander II. The assassination, by a bomb that also killed the Tsar's attacker, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, failed to spark the expected revolution, and an ensuing crackdown brought the group to an end.
MiddleEast
Following the 1929 Hebron massacre of sixtyseven Jewish settlers in the British Mandate of Palestine, the Zionist settlers formed militia Haganah, which transformed itself into a paramilitary force. In 1931, however, a more militant Irgun broke away from Haganah, objecting to Haganah's policy of restraint toward Arabs fighting Jewish settlers. Founded by Avraham Tehomi, Irgun sought to end British rule by assassinating police, capturing British government buildings and arms, and sabotaging British railways. Its tactic of attacking Arab communities, including bombing a crowded Arab market, is considered among the first examples of terrorism directed against civilians. Irgun's most famous attack was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel, the British Military headquarters in Jerusalem.
GermanyandtheSovietUnionofthe1930s
The 1930s saw the rise of totalitarian regimes in Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany. Both regimes employed terror on an enormous scale. However, and unlike some of the Jacobins who ruled France during its Reign of Terror, the regimes never applied the words 'terror' or 'terrorist' to the ruthless actions of their police, nor to the NKVD in the Soviet Union or the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, but only to those who opposed the two dictatorships. "What is now defined as ruthless state terror was viewed by Hitler and Stalin as state protection against the enemies of the people." Effectively establishing and reinforcing obedience to regime and national ideology, both
Early20thCentury
Michael Collins, IRA leader, strengthened Revolutionary Nationalism which continued to motivate political violence in the 20th century, much of it directed against the British Empire.
regimes used surveillance, imprisonment (often in Soviet gulags or German labor or concentration camps), torture, and executions against enemies of the state- real and imagined.
On October 5, 1970, the FLQ kidnapped James Richard Cross, the British Trade Commissioner, and on October 10, the Minister of Labor and Vice-Premier of Quebec, Pierre Laporte.
MID-20TH CENTURY
Asia
Founded in 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (also called "LTTE" or Tamil Tigers) was a militant Tamil nationalist, political and paramilitary organization based in northern Sri Lanka. From its founding by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a secessionist resistance campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka. The conflict originated in measures which the majority Sinhalese took, that were perceived as attempts to marginalize the Tamil minority. In 2009, the Sri Lankan military launched a major military offensive against the secessionist movement and claimed that it had effectively destroyed the LTTE.
MiddleEast
Founded in 1928 as a nationalist social-welfare and political movement in British-controlled Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1940s began to attack British soldiers and police stations. Founded and led by Hassan al-Banna, it also assassinated politicians seen as collaborating with British rule, most prominently Egyptian Prime Minister Nuqrashi in 1948. British rule was overthrown in a 1952 military coup, and shortly thereafter the Muslim Brotherhood went underground in the face of a massive crackdown. Though sometimes banned or otherwise oppressed, the group continues to exist in presentday Egypt. The Front de Liberation National (FLN) was a nationalist group founded in French-controlled Algeria in 1954. The group was a large-scale resistance movement against French occupation, with alleged terrorism only part of its operations.
Africa
Founded in 1961, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was the military wing of the African National Congress; it waged a guerrilla campaign against the South African apartheid regime and was responsible for many bombings. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. MK's first leader was Nelson Mandela, who was tried and imprisoned for the group's acts. With the end of apartheid in South Africa, Umkhonto we Sizwe was incorporated into the South African armed forces.
Europe
Founded in 1959 and still active, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, evolved from an advocacy group for traditional Basque culture into an armed Marxist group, demanding Basque independence. Many ETA victims are government officials, the group's first known victim being police chief killed in 1968. In 1973, ETA operatives killed Franco's apparent successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, by planting an underground bomb under his habitual parking spot outside a Madrid church. Efforts by Spanish governments to negotiate with the ETA have failed, and in 2003, the Spanish Supreme Court banned the Batasuna political party, which was determined to be the political arm of ETA. The Red Brigades were a New Leftist group founded by Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini in 1970, that sought to create a revolutionary state. The group carried out a series of bombings and kidnappings until Curcio and Franceschini were arrested in the mid-1970s.
Late20thCentury
In the 1980s and 1990s, Islamic militancy in pursuit of religious and political goals increased, many militants drawing inspiration from Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the 1990s, well-known violent acts that targeted civilians were the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo and the bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building.
TheAmericas
In 1985, Air India Flight 182 flying out of Canada was blown up by a bomb while in Irish airspace, killing 329 people, including 280 Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian birth or descent, and 22 Indians. The incident was the deadliest act of air terrorism before 9/11.. Evidence from the explosions, witnesses and wire-tapes of militants pointed to an attempt to actually blow up two airliners simultaneously by members of the Babbar Khalsa Khalistan movement militant group, based in Canada, to punish India for attacking the Golden Temple.
TheAmericas
The Front de libration du Qubec (FLQ) was a Marxist nationalist group that sought to create an independent, socialist Quebec. Georges Schoeters founded the group.
MiddleEast
Explosion at U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, 1983 by Hezbollah ("Party of God") which is an Islamist movement and political party founded in Lebanon shortly after that country's 1982 civil war, has long fought for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. The group kidnapped Israeli soldiers and carried out missile attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli military and civilian targets. Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a.k.a. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya) was a militant Egyptian Islamist movement dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt. The group, formed in 1980 as an umbrella organization for militant student groups formed after the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, renounced violence.
Europe
The Moscow theatre hostage crisis was the seizure of a crowded Moscow theatre on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War. The siege was officially led by Movsar Barayev. After a two-and-a-half day siege, Russian Spetsnaz forces pumped an unknown chemical agent (thought to be fentanyl, 3-methylfentanyl), into the building's ventilation system and raided it.Officially, 39 of the attackers were killed by Russian forces, along with at least 129 and possibly many more of the hostages (including nine foreigners). All but a few of the hostages who died were killed by the gas pumped into the theatre, and many condemned use of the gas as heavy handed. Roughly, 170 people died in all. Osama bin Laden , closely advised by Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, founded Al-Qaeda (in Arabic meaning "The Base"), an Islamic jihadist movement to replace We s t e r n - c o n t r o l l e d o r dominated Muslim countries with Islamic fundamentalist regimes. In pursuit of that goal, bin Laden issued a 1996 manifesto that vowed violent jihad against U.S. military forces based in Saudi Arabia. On August 7, 1998, individuals associated with Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad carried out simultaneous bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, which resulted in 224 deaths. On October 12, 2000, Al-Qaeda carried out the USS Cole bombin, a suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. The bombing killed seventeen U.S. sailors. The group's most well-known attack, however, took place on September 11, 2001. On September 11, 2001, nineteen men affiliated with alQaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon. As a result of the attacks, the World Trade Center's twin towers completely collapsed, and 2,973 victims and the 19 hijackers died. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror. Specifically, on October 7, 2001, it invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored alQaeda terrorists. On October 26, 2001, the U.S. enacted the Patriot Act, anti-terrorism legislation that expanded the powers of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Many countries followed with similar legislation.
Asia
Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, was a Japanese religious group founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984 as a yogic meditation group. Later, in 1990, Asahara and 24 other members campaigned for election to the House of Representatives under the banner of Shinri-t (Supreme Truth Party). None was voted
in, and the group began to militarize. Between 1990 and 1995, the group attempted several apparently unsuccessful violent attacks using the methods of biological warfare, using botulin toxin and anthrax spores. On June 28, 1994, Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas from several sites in the Kaichi Heights neighborhood of
MiddleEast
Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200 in what became known as the Matsumoto incident. Later on March 20, 1995, Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas in a coordinated attack on five trains in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 commuters and damaging the health of about 5,000 others In May 1995, Asahara and other senior leaders were arrested and the group's membership rapidly decreased.
Europe
Hostage crisis victim photos, on the walls of the former School Number One Chechnyan separatists, led by Shamil Basayev, carried out several attacks on Russian targets between 1994 and 2006. In the June 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, Basayev-led separatists took over 1,000 civilians hostage in a hospital in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk. When Russian special forces attempted to free the hostages, 105 civilians and 25 Russian troops were killed.
21stCentury
Major events after the September 11, 2001 attacks include the Moscow Theatre Siege, the 2003 Istanbul bombings, the Madrid train bombings, the Beslan school hostage crisis, the 2005 London bombings, the October 2005 New Delhi bombings, and the 2008 Mumbai Taj Hotel Siege.
On Israel's northern border, after its unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah launched numerous Katyusha rocket attacks against non-civilian and civilian areas within northern Israel. Within Israel, the 19932008 Second Intifada involved in part a series of suicide bombings against civilian and non-civilian targets. A 2007 study of Palestinian suicide bombings from September 2000 through August 2005 found that 40% percent were carried out by Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and roughly 26% by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah militias. Also, between 2001 and January 2009, over 8,600 rocket attacks were launched from the Gaza Strip into civilian areas and non-civilian areas inside Israel, causing deaths, injuries, and psychological trauma.
FUTURE OF TERRORISM
In order to assess the future threat posed by terrorism, one must bear in mind the changes which have made terrorism as a new force in analyses of world order. The main areas in these changes are transport and communication, weaponry, the effects on society of concentration of vital functions, on a decreasing number of critical nodes, and changes in social structure and attitudes. With the advancement of science and technology, developments in these areas have made terrorism a different and more sinister threat than it was in the past. The question for the future is will these developments continue and will they magnify the threat which we already recognise as posed by terrorism? The transport and communications sectors are unlikely to see significant improvements, at least in the near future, which may have major implications for the scope and incidence of terrorism. Whilst particular targets in these areas may become more attractive, the changes which gave terrorism greater impact have already taken place. The ease of movement around the world, made possible by the expansion of the airline industry, in particular, and the spread of ideas and ease of relaying news of terrorist incidents made possible by communications advances, are now everyday features of our existence. There are no foreseeable changes in these areas of a sort such as will enable a quantum leap in the leverage which terrorism can exert or the ease with which operations can be conducted.
Asia
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamic terrorists from Pakistan. The attacks, which drew widespread condemnation across the world, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308.
TERRORISM IN INDIA
Terrorism in India is a World Problem. The terror attack in Mumbai was condemned severely by various governments across the world. What has been the effect of this attack? Well, financially India lost Rs.50,000 crores and the foreign inflow of funds had reduced, which included the tourism that was affected to a great extent because of this and an article said that Taj on which the attack was done has to shell out Rs.500 crores to bring back the lost beauty but on top of this, there is lost the important element, which is the precious human lives. There were some who did a brave act including Major UnniKrishnan and NSG Chief who lost their lives in order to protect innocent tourists. Terrorism is something which all over the world is a major problem at the moment. Its effects are very much that it can detoriate a country's economy and can cause hatred between the countries. Terrorists were not born but they were made in the name of religion. None of the religion preaches terrorism nor asks the followers to take the lives of other people but it was preached by wrong leaders and innocent people fall as a prey and lose their lives and kill other people as well. The attack on our own Indian Parliament was also one which again checked our patience. Terrorists dont understand that by acting in the name of terrorism, they are bringing disgrace to their own religion and at the same time, ruining their own country and people, when they are no more.
Availabilityofweapons
The same cannot be said, however, in the case of the development and availability of weapons. The rate of turnover of conventional weapons by the world's military forces has increased dramatically in recent times and many of these weapons are finding their way into the open market. It is inevitable that in the future, any group which is determined to do so will be able to purchase or steal powerful, conventional weapons. Given the rate at which weapons now become obsolescent, the arms which will find their way into the hands of a large number of terrorist outfits will be very sophisticated by past standards, capable of operation at a considerable distance from the target and with significantly increased destructive power.
The fact that states are more involved in backing terrorist groups than in the past also means that it is easier for the latter to gain access to sophisticated arms in significant quantities. The increasing involvement of states with terrorist groups means increasing availability of various forms of high explosives which are extremely powerful in relation to their bulk and which can be moulded to fit any shape or cavity, thus making them easy to conceal, and which are difficult to detect by conventional screening methods. Some counter-measures are now available or being developed to counter this particular threat. However, though more sophisticated detection devices are being evaluated, the reality is that as detection capability becomes more refined, the composition of explosives is altered with the consequence that totally successful screening will never be possible. Similarly, while there is a strong case to be made for responsible governments to legislate to mandate the inclusion of microtaggants (tiny chips conveying information about the type, manufacturer, batch, seller, etc.) in explosives at the time of manufacture which would facilitate their detection, tracing and identification, the reality again is that many countries will continue to supply explosives not so treated to those who use terrorist tactics.
such a weapon. Theoretically, more likely is the theft of a nuclear device from a military storage point. The fact that a U.S. rocket could be smuggled out of West Germany, as occurred some years ago, indicates that subterfuge sometimes may also be successful. Probably the most controversial possibility is that of terrorists being able to construct their own crude nuclear device. Experts differ as to the feasibility of such a project. However, much of the data needed to design a nuclear bomb are now freely available, as was documented by a highly publicised television science programme which in March 1975 featured a 20-year-old undergraduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who had designed a technically conceivable nuclear bomb. It would appear, then, that a sufficiently dedicated terrorist group could overcome the technical difficulties and construct a credible nuclear bomb. In all probability, the capability already exists. There can be little doubt, then, that it will be soon possible (if not already) to mount a credible terrorist attack involving nuclear, biological or biochemical agents. The one factor which holds this eventuality in abeyance would appear to be a rational calculation concerning what would be achieved by such an act. It is generally conceded that terrorists make rational calculations and that these show the use of mass destruction weapons to be counter-productive. Will this be so in the future? The future looks bleak as far as forms of political violence in general, and terrorism as a specific technique, are concerned. Many of the factors that have led to the elevation of terrorism as a serious threat to open societies will be exacerbated in the future. To fail to respond firmly to the threat would be to give up a cherished way of life without fighting for it.
FrighteningProspect
To many people, the most frightening prospect for the future is that terrorist groups might gain access to and use weapons of mass destruction, specifically, nuclear, biological or biochemical weapons. Most attention to date has been directed to the possibility of some form of nuclear material falling into terrorist hands. There are a number of readily conceivable scenarios. One would involve the terrorist seizure of a nuclear facility under threat of having the facility sabotaged, thus releasing radioactive material over a large area. Given the level of security that has been shown to exist at some nuclear power plants in the past, it is not inconceivable that a determined group of well-equipped and well-organised terrorists could assault and take over a nuclear facility. If Al Qaeda could make an assault on the Pentagon, seizure of a nuclear power plant is comparatively a much easier job. Other scenarios involve the acquisition of a nuclear weapon by a terrorist group. A number of possibilities exist here. One is that a nuclear weapon state may supply a terrorist group with
Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that peoplerememberistheonethatgetspastyou.
Current events
India
SC STAYS ALLAHABAD HC VERDICT ON AYODHYA TITLE SUIT
The Supreme Court has stayed the Allahabad High Court's verdict of dividing in three parts the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, terming as "something strange" the judgement although the parties had not asked for trifurcation of the land. The court, while staying the 30th September 2010 judgement of the Lucknow bench of the high court, ordered status quo at the site. A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, while terming the high court's judgement "as something strange," said the partition of the land was ordered despite none of the parties to the dispute seeking it. While directing that there shall be no religious activity on the 67 acre land, acquired by the central government adjacent to the disputed structure, the apex court bench said the status quo shall be maintained with regard to the rest of the land. In the wake of the court's order, prayers at Ram Lala's makeshift temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya would be going on as usual. The Lucknow bench of the high court had in September last year passed the verdict directing partition of the 2.77 acre on which the disputed structure once stood, into three parts among Muslims, Hindus and Nirmohi Akhara. "A new dimension was given by the high court as the decree of partition was not sought, by the parties. It was not prayed by anyone. It has to be stayed. Its a strange order," the bench said. Expressing surprise over the high court's verdict, the bench observed, "How can a decree of partition be passed when none of the parties had prayed for it.
"Court has done something on its own. It's strange. Such kind of decrees cannot be allowed to be in operation," the bench said while staying the high court's verdict. "It is a difficult situation now, the position is that it (the high court verdict) has created litany of litigation," the bench observed. Although the appeals filed by various Hindu and Muslim religious organisations pertained to only 2.77 acre of disputed land, the bench, however, also ordered status quo on the 67 acre of land adjacent to the disputed site. The bench was hearing a batch of appeals filed by Nirmohi Akhara, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Jamait Ulama-I-Hind and Sunni Central Wakf Board, besides the one filed on behalf of Bhagwan Ram Virajman. The Wakf Board and Jamait Ulama-I-Hind have submitted that the high court's verdict should be quashed, as it was based on faith and not on evidence. They have contended that the court has committed an error by holding that the demolished Babri mosque stood at Lord Ram's birth place. They have contended that claims of Muslims, Hindus and the Nirmohi Akhara over the disputed site were mutually exclusive and could not be shared. "It was nobody's case in the high court that the Muslims, Hindus and Nirmohi Akhara were in joint possession of the disputed premises. The claims of the three sets of plaintiffs were mutually exclusive in the sense each set of the plaintiffs claimed the entire property as its own and no one sought a decree for partition of the property," the appeals have said. The Hindu Mahasabha, on the other hand, has sought only partial annulment of the majority verdict of the high court, which ruled handing over one third of the disputed site to Muslims. It has sought the apex court's endorsement of the 30th September minority verdict by Justice Dharam Veer Sharma who favoured handing over of the entire land to the Hindus.
"The judgement dated September 30, 2010 by Justice S U Khan and Justice Sudhir Agarwal should be set aside to the extent that one third of the property in dispute has been declared in favour of Muslims and to allot share to them in the decree," the Hindu Mahasabha had said in its petition. It appealed to the apex court "to maintain the judgement passed by Justice Dharam Veer Sharma" as the effective verdict. A three-judge bench of the High Court's Lucknow bench had passed three separate judgements on 30th September, with the majority verdict holding that the area covered by the central dome of the three-domed structure, where the idol of Lord Rama is situated, belonged to Hindus. While justices Khan and Agarwal were of the view that the entire disputed land should be divided into three parts - one part each to Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the parties representing 'Ram Lalla Virajman', Justice Sharma had held that the entire disputed area belongs to Hindus. tututu
Underscoring his commitment to the revival of Viswa Bharati "which stands as a living symbol of the poet's enduring faith in the learning ability and creative power of the young mind and free spirit", he said a special grant of Rs 95 crore would be given to the varsity. The Prime Minister said that a wide range of projects are being undertaken as part of the celebrations to make Tagore's works more accessible to a wider audience and preserve his work for posterity. He said that the digital collection of Tagore's paintings released by Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been put together for the first time and some important material on Tagore that is on celluloid restored and packaged for national and international dissemination, after the sub-titling in English. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tagore, who penned the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh, gave new interpretations and new meanings to all traditional ideas. He said the joint celebrations of Tagore's 150th birth anniversary by India and Bangladesh has "unique significance" and first of its kind in cultural exchanges with our neighbour. He said under the re-named Tagore Culture Complex Scheme, a number of culture complexes will be built to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the internationally acclaimed poet. Speaking on the occasion, Culture Minister Kumari Selja noted that the joint celebrations were planned in January last year itself by the Prime Ministers of the two countries and appreciated the enthusiasm of the Bangladesh government. tututu
INTERNATIONAL AWARD TO BE INSTITUTED IN TAGORE'S NAME: PM

Describing Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as a "multi-faceted genius", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced that a prestigious international award will be instituted in his name. "Government of India has decided to institute a prestigious international award in the name of Rabindranath Tagore to recognise very distinguished contributions towards the promotion of international brotherhood and fraternity," he said inaugurating the 150th anniversary celebrations of the poet in New Delhi. He said a jury headed by the Prime Minister will select each year from across the globe a citizen of outstanding public eminence who, in his or her life and work, "epitomises the high universal ideals that Tagore stood for." The first award, he hoped, would be presented by the end of the commemoration period. Noting that the poet was a multi-faceted genius, Singh said a wide range of projects are being undertaken as part of the anniversary celebrations to make Tagore's work more accessible to a wider audience and to preserve his works for posterity.
SUPREME COURT RESERVES ORDER ON SETTING UP SIT TO TRACK BLACK MONEY

The Supreme Court reserved its order on a plea to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to track the black money stashed away by some Indians in Swiss banks A bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar also reserved its verdict on a petition seeking directions to the government to make public the names of persons who have kept black money in the Liechtenstein Bank.
The Centre opposed the plea and contended before the bench that a committee comprising top officers from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other departments has already been formed to deal with the black money cases. The Swiss banks are said to have the highest deposits by Indians. This fact was exposed after the banks were forced by the US and other Western countries to disclose details of their nationals who maintain accounts with them. According to the data provided by the Swiss bank, India has more black money than the rest of the world combined. The UK has 390 billion dollars in black money, Russia has 470 bn dollars. India tops the list with almost 1,500 bn dollars. tututu
Joong Keun, who proposed the idea of a model village, said that the project based on New Village Movement Initiative in South Korea envisages developing a model village in India where the villagers choose their leader, get trained and then decide what could be the best way to develop the village. "The basic material support and assistance is proposed to be provided by the Government and or the collaborating agencies," Keun added. Korean Chambers of Commerce is reported to have expressed their willingness to assist financially in the pilot initiative under which one model village would be identified as a pilot project. Based on its success, the model can be replicated in a larger area. The whole process would be assisted and monitored, in consultations with different stakeholders. tututu
DESHMUKH ASSURES SUPPORT TO SOUTH KOREAN MODEL VILLAGE PROJECT

Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Vilasrao Deshmukh, assuring support to the model village project by South Korea in India, said that it will further strengthen co-operation between the two nations. During the meeting with Ambassador of South Korea in India, Kim Joong Keun, Deshmukh welcomed the idea and said that the model village would be identified in consultation with the State Government. "A nodal person would be identified by the Ministry of Rural Development to design and implement the project, in collaboration with the partners and the South Korean counterparts. South Korean Ambassador also mooted the idea that vocational training centres can be developed to hone the skills of the people and the workers, in and around the identified village," he added. Deshmukh said that such initiatives are a reflection of growing cooperation between India and South Korea and hoped that the initiative will gather momentum, in times to come. " Both India and South Korea are members of Afro-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO), an intergovernmental agency which helps share the expertise in rural development among the member countries from Asia Pacific and African Region," he added.
RAMDEV TO FAST UNTO DEATH IN NEW DELHI AGAINST CORRUPTION

Demanding that the black money deposited in foreign banks be brought back, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev vowed to fast unto death in New Delhi on June 4, as part of the ''Bhrastachar Mitao Satyagrah'', a drive to remove corruption. "From 4th June, I, along with more one lakh people, will sit for a hunger strike in the Bhrastachar Mitao Satyagrah till our demands are accepted. As a protestor, we will take part in this movement," Ramdev told a news conference in Mumbai. Ramdev said that his main demand from the government was to bring back the 400 trillion rupees of black money that was deposited in foreign banks. "We are demanding three things from the government in the Bhrastachar Mitao Satyagrah, which is starting on 4th June. First demand is the 400 lakh crore rupees that is the black money and which has been looted from the country; it belongs to India and should be brought back to the country," he added. The Yoga Guru further said that his movement seeks the early establishment of a neutral and empowered Jan Lokpal Bill, which has the authority to recover black money and send offenders to prison.
"The black money that is deposited in the foreign banks should be declared national property by the government, and no Indian citizen should be allowed to deposit money in foreign banks with illegal methods. If anybody does that, he should be declared an anti-national," he added. Ramdev also demanded the signing of a United Nations Convention on anti-corruption, and said that it should be passed in the Indian Parliament. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the legally binding international anti-corruption instrument that requires governments to implement a range of anti-corruption measures with the aim to promote the prevention and criminalisation of corruption, as well as law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange, and mechanisms for implementation. Ramdev also called for demonitising high-value currency denominations to stop illegal activities carried out with black money. tututu
"We are of the opinion that this is wholly illegal and has to be ruthlessly stamped out. There is nothing honourable in honour killing or other atrocities and, in fact, it is nothing but barbaric and shameful murder. Other atrocities in respect of personal lives of people committed by brutal, feudal-minded persons deserve harsh punishment," Justice Katju said. The apex court asked the administrative and police officials to take strong measures to prevent such atrocious acts. "If any such incidents happen, apart from instituting criminal proceedings against those responsible for such atrocities, the State Government is directed to immediately suspend the district magistrate/collector and SSP/SPs of the district as well as other officials concerned and chargesheet them," the bench said. The apex court said that the government should proceed against such officials departmentally if they do not prevent the incident despite having prior knowledge. "If they failed to promptly apprehend the culprits and others involved and institute criminal proceedings against them, in our opinion, they will be deemed to be directly or indirectly accountable in this connection." The apex court said that the copy of the judgement shall be sent to all chief secretaries, home secretaries and director generals of police in all states and union territories for circulating the same to the district magistrates and SSPs for compliance. tututu
STAMP OUT 'BARBARIC' KHAP PANCHAYATS, RULES SC

Terming 'khap' panchayat as illegal and honour killing as "barbaric and shameful", the Supreme Court said these should be stamped out "ruthlessly" and asked states to suspend district magistrates and SPs concerned if they failed to act against the offenders. A bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said in a judgement that the new trends of kangaroo courts, honour killings, "khap" panchayaths in northern India and "katta" panchayats in Tamil Nadu, were barbaric and illegal, the perpetrators of which required the harshest punishment. "We have in recent years heard of 'khap panchayats' (known as katta panchayats in Tamil Nadu) which often decree or encourage honour killings or other atrocities in an institutionalised way on boys and girls of different castes and religion, who wish to get married or have been married, or interfere with the personal lives of people," the ruling noted.
ISRO BUILDS INDIA'S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER

Indian Space Research Organisation has built a supercomputer, which is to be India's fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 TeraFLOPS (220 Trillion Floating Point Operations per second). The supercomputer "SAGA-220", built by the Satish Dhawan Supercomputing Facility, located at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, at a cost of about Rs 14 crore was inaugurated by K Radhakrishnan, Chairman ISRO at VSSC, ISRO said in a statement. The new Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) based supercomputer, "SAGA-220" (Supercomputer for Aerospace with GPU Architecture-220 TeraFLOPS), is being used by space scientists for solving complex aerospace problems.
"SAGA-220 is fully designed and built by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre using commercially available hardware, open source software components and in-house developments. The system uses 400 NVIDIA Tesla 2070 GPUs and 400 Intel Quad Core Xeon CPUs supplied by WIPRO, with a high speed interconnect. With each GPU and CPU providing a performance of 500 GigaFLOPS and 50 GigaFLOPS respectively, the theoretical peak performance of the system amounts to 220 TeraFLOPS, the statement said. The present GPU system offers significant advantage over the conventional CPU based system in terms of cost, power and space requirements, it said. The system is environmentally green and consumes a power of only 150 KW. This system can also be easily scaled to many PetaFLOPS (1000 TeraFLOPS). tututu
Among those who briefed the Prime Minister were S. Banerjee, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy; S.K. Jain of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India that will operate the plant at Jaitapur and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. The meeting reviewed the current status of the Jaitapur project as well as safety concerns arising out of the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan and their impact on India's overall nuclear energy programme, Mr. Narayanasamy said. All factors that led to the Fukushima disaster had been factored in, he said. The Prime Minister was apprised of the doubts and concerns expressed by the local people in Jaitapur about the project, and the measures being taken to address these concerns, Mr Narayanasamy said. The first two units, proposed to become operational in 2019, will have their own stand-alone safety and operational system. Describing the ongoing protests at Jaitapur as politically motivated, Mr. Chavan accused outsiders of instigating the opposition, adding that these were based on misconceptions and rumours. We have engaged with the local community and assured them that safety will never be compromised, he said. The meeting reiterated that India's nuclear energy needs were vast and growing and nuclear energy was an important clean energy option, which would be pursued with full regard to the safety, livelihood and security of the people. tututu
GREEN SIGNAL TO JAITAPUR

On a day when the world marked the 25th anniversar y of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, India reaffirmed its commitment to an ambitious nuclear energy plan by pushing ahead with the first phase of the controversial nuclear power plant project at Jaitapur, in Maharashtra, with additional safety measures and a generous new compensation package to be announced soon. But in a concession to heightened public awareness of the need for proper regulation and overseeing, the government promised to introduce a bill in the next session of Parliament, creating an independent and autonomous Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India that would subsume the existing Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). The AERB has been criticised for being administratively subordinate to the very atomic energy establishment, whose operations it is meant to regulate. The decision to clear the decks for setting up two 1,650MWe reactors at Jaitapur was taken at a meeting convened in New Delhi by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy and Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.
FROM NEXT YEAR, NEW IIMS MAY HAVE COMMON ADMISSION CRITERIA
Seat selection on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology, common admission criteria and single-location group discussion and personal interviews: these are some key reforms which the new bunch of Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) could usher in next year, while picking candidates through from one of the toughest B-school admission tests in the world. At a meeting with the ministry of human resources development in Bangalore, directors and chairpersons of the six new IIMs proposed common admission criteria where sectional cut-offs in the Common Admission Test and other weightages will be equal among them. IIMs at Rohtak, Trichy and Raipur already had such criteria for the 2011-13 batch. Other IIMs at Ranchi, Udaipur and Kashipur will join this system next year.
On the anvil is also an IIT-like system of seat selection, where new IIMs hold counselling for prospective students to aid admissions. "Since we'll have common interviews and group discussions, we felt the idea should be taken forward and centralised counselling could be held to allow candidates to pick the IIM they want to join,'' said M J Xavier, director, IIM Ranchi. For the next year, IIMs have favoured a single-location interview so that candidates with multiple offers needn't hop from one city to another. This year, interviews were held at Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. The HRD ministry will ask all 13 IIMs to follow the single-location interview system for next year, allowing older IIMs the autonomy to hold separate Personal Interviews and Group Discussions. The older IIMs have in the past rejected the idea of having a common GD/PI. "This year's experiment of having common interviews has worked very well. The idea has been appreciated by the ministry and even the mentoring IIMs. This helped us save manpower and time. It is up to the older IIMs to join us the next year,'' said IIM Trichy director Prafulla Agnihotri. tututu
Official sources said that three bodies were charred beyond recognition. The crash site is located in the Mukto constituency, which is represented by the Chief Minister. Union Minister for Development of the North East Region B.K. Handique, who is camping in Itanagar to oversee the search operations, said that a panchayat leader, Thupten, identified the body of the Chief Minister. On April 30, the ill-fated helicopter took off from Tawang at 9.56 a.m. and was scheduled to reach the helipad at Itanagar at 11.30 a.m. but radio contact was lost after about 20 minutes and after it had just passed over the Sela Pass, which is located at an altitude of 13,700 feet. Although seven locations were identified based on satellite data of the Indian Space Research Organisation and mapping of the probable crash sites done by the Sukhoi-30 meant for focussed search and rescue missions, the actual crash site did not figure among them. While the Indian Air Force deployed Mi-17 and Cheetah helicopters for the search, about 3000 Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Sashastra Seema Bal personnel and over 1000 local villagers scoured the high altitudes. Search operations were stalled from day one, as several of the locations were covered with snow and inclement weather prevailed. A pall of gloom descended on Itanagar, with shops and business places spontaneously downing the shutters. tututu
ARUNACHAL CM DORJEE KHANDU KILLED IN CHOPPER CRASH

A r u n a c h a l Pr a d e s h C h i e f Minister Dorjee Khandu was found dead in the remote and inaccessible Luguthang village, about 30 km from Tawang near the India-China border. His relatives and villagers reportedly identified the body. The sad news came after five days of intense search operations since the Pawan Hans A350-B3 helicopter carrying Mr. Khandu and four others went missing near the Sela Pass on April 30, while flying from Tawang to Itanagar. All five bodies have been traced. The four others were the pilots, Captains T.S. Manik and J.S. Babar; Khandu's personal security officer Yeshi Chodak and Yeshi Lhamu, sister of Tsewng Dhundup, Congress MLA from Tawang. The breakthrough in the search came when some villagers spotted the bodies and the helicopter wreckage and informed a control room. Immediately, search teams were mobilised to trek to the crash site. There is no road to Luguthang and the porter route is also now reportedly snow-covered, delaying retrieval of the bodies.
ISRO TO BUILD ORBITER FOR NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to build an orbiter that will provide the communication between the soil samples collected from the far side of the moon and the earth, according to ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. This joint venture between the ISRO and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, would be part of the Moonrise missions planned by the NASA. This project is in the planning phase, alongside India's lunar mission programme centred on Chandrayaan-2, he said.
The ISRO would provide an orbiting communicator to the NASA for this mission, scheduled for 2016. Chandrayaan-2 would be put in an orbit around the moon by a Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in 2013 and the project would cost Rs.462 crore, Mr. Radhakrishnan said. It would be a joint mission with Russia: while the spacecraft and the rover would be built by India, the lander would be from Russia. The two-member committee which the Centre had appointed to go into the allocation of the S-band spectrum to private company Devas by ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation had submitted its report. The government would give it to the ISRO, which would act on it, Mr. Radhakrishnan said. tututu
Detailing about the project, the Minister said that temporary barricades, 'Green bridges', fortified with microbial consortia would be erected at regular intervals depending upon the flow and quantum of water in the Nallah. There would be reduction in 'biochemical oxygen demand' (BOD) and 'chemical oxidation demand' (COD) levels in the water passing through the green bridges. The project would be closely monitored not only by the Ministry but also by experts, public representatives and the media. He hoped that the Punjab government would implement other projects too which were proposed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, when they met him in New Delhi. tututu
GREEN TECHNOLOGY TO TACKLE WATER POLLUTION POVERTY RATE DECLINES FROM 37.2% TO 32%
Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has launched a bioremediation technology project to curb pollution caused by sewerage and industrial effluents in the Buddah Nallah of Ludhiana in Punjab. The project is estimated to cost Rs. 16 crore in the initial phase and it will be borne by The National River Conservation Directorate of the Union government. It is expected to take one year for completion. The project will provide relief to thousands living along the Sutlej river and canals off the Harike barrage in Punjab and Rajasthan. Water pollution has caused severe disorders among them. Flowing parallel to the Sutlej, the 31-km-long Buddah Nallah, of which about 14 km falls in Ludhiana, has, for decades, been polluted by industrial effluents, sewage water, solid waste from dairies, leather and electroplating industries and dumping of garbage. It merges with the Sutlej near Moga, from where the polluted water is carried downstream. In September last, on the invitation of Ludhiana MP Manish Tiwari, Mr Ramesh travelled along the Nallah to make an assessment of the pollution levels. After laying the foundation for the project near Haibowal, Mr. Ramesh expressed concern over the environmental degradation in Ludhiana district. Ludhiana is among the richest districts of the country but it is not as clean as it should be. He sought more attention to overall cleanliness of the city and its surrounding areas.
The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty has declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago. The preliminary estimates are based on the formula suggested by the Tendulkar Committee for computing the number of poor. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the 2009-10 data showed a decline in poverty from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 32 per cent in 2009-10, as the per the preliminary data worked out by the Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. The Tendulkar Committee had suggested that poverty be estimated on the basis of consumption based on the cost of living index instead of caloric intake. It said that the basket of goods should also include services such as health and education. The new poverty line, as suggested by the Tendulkar Committee, is different for rich and poor States, and for rural and urban areas within a State. These are preliminary data. Mr. Sen has worked on them. He has reported that the 2009-10 data showed a decline in poverty from 37.2 per cent in 2004 to 32 per cent in 2009. I agree with him, Dr. Ahluwalia said. He said the National Sample Survey, which conducts large sample surveys every five years, will launch its next round in 2011-12. Estimates of poverty are important because cheap grains under the proposed Food Security law will be provided, based on these numbers.
Dr. Ahluwalia also raised doubts over the feasibility of achieving 10 per cent average economic expansion in the 12th Plan (2012-17), and said that the next plan would target GDP growth of 9 to 9.5 per cent in the next five years. Our assessment is that the international situation is full of uncertainty. I feel that if we are looking at a five-year period (2012-17), we can do much better than we did in the 11th Plan. I don't think that there should be much difficulty setting a target of 9 per cent, he said. A major area of focus would be on increasing agricultural productivity. In the 10th Plan, agricultural growth was around 2 per cent; in the 11th Plan, it looks as if it will be 3 per cent. It won't be 4 per cent that we had targeted. My view would be that in the 12th Plan, we must make sure that we can get to 4 per cent, Dr. Ahluwalia said. tututu
In 1996, a two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by the then Chief Justice A H Ahmadi had diluted the charges against the accused from Section 304 Part II of the IPC providing for a maximum of ten years imprisonment to Section 304(A) that deals with rash and negligence act, with a maximum punishment of two years. The CBI and the MP government have filed revision petitions in the sessions court against the judgement of the CJM, Bhopal, which had awarded two years jail term to various accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. In April month, the apex court had questioned the CBI for approaching it 16 years after it had diluted in the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. Then, a five-judge special bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia had raised the question on delay and asked the CBI as to why it had not filed the review petition during all these years. Attorney General G E Vahanvati, appearing for the CBI, said, "I don't know why it was not filed by the CBI but a review petition was filed in the case by someone else and it was dismissed." The bench was then hearing a petition filed by the CBI, seeking to recall the apex court's 14-year-old judgement that had diluted the charges against the accused who were prosecuted just for the offence of being negligent. The CBI petition sought restoration of the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder instead of death caused due to negligence against the accused. The Supreme Court had on August 31 last year reopened the Bhopal gas leak case and issued notices to all the accused on the basis of a petition filed by the CBI seeking to restore against them the stringent charge of culpable homicide, which attracts a maximum punishment of ten years jail term. In in-chamber proceedings, a bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Altamas Kabir and R V Raveendran sought response from the accused on the curative petition filed by the CBI, which wanted a reconsideration of the 1996 judgement, which diluted charges against former Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others. In December 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. The government says around 3,500 died because of the disaster. Activists however calculate that 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed.
SC REJECTS HARSHER PUNISHMENT FOR BHOPAL TRAGEDY ACCUSED

The Supreme Court turned down a government demand to reopen the case into the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and hand harsher sentences to seven men convicted of negligence. The court dismissed CBI's curative petition seeking restoration of stringent charges against Bhopal tragedy accused, saying it was filed 14 years after the 1996 judgment, which was only a prima facie view of evidence that had come on record till that time. A five-judge constitutional bench, headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, however, left a window of opportunity open, saying that the pending proceedings before the sessions court against the Chief Judicial Magistrate's judgement awarding two years sentence to the accused, including Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub Mahindra, will not be influenced by any order passed by it, media reported. The unanimous order was passed by the bench that included Justices Altamas Kabir, R V Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam. The CBI and the Madhya Pradesh government filed the curative petitions after a public outcry over what was considered as a mild punishment for a tragedy that claimed over 15,000 lives in December 1984 and had left several thousands maimed by the leakage of deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas.
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SINGAPORE'S RULING PARTY SWEEPS ELECTIONS
Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) retained power with an absolute majority winning 81 of the 87 seats in a "watershed" general elections, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged that opposition gains had marked a "distinct shift" in the city-state's political landscape. Though the PAP in power for over 40 years, won 81 of the 87 , parliament seats as it captured 60 per cent of the 2 million votes cast in election, the Workers Party won six seats, the most ever captured by the opposition. "It marks a distinct shift in our political landscape," Lee told. "Many (Singaporeans) wish for the government to adopt a different style and approach," he said. "Many desire to see more opposition voices in parliament to check the PAP government. He said that his party would undergo some "soul-searching" and expressed willingness to work with lawmakers from the opposition. Lee said that he was disappointed over PAP's defeat in Aljunied GRC, which cost the government two ministers and failed to win back the Hougang from WP . Although the PAP won the great majority of seats, the party's share of the popular vote slipped to around 60 per cent from around 67 cent at the last election in 2006, the results showed. Rival Workers' Party (WP) took the other six seats, winning for the first time a Group Representation Constituency (GRC) of five members, and retaining a single member parliamentary seat of Hougang under the leadership of veteran opposition politician, Low Thia Khiang. The PAP had faced issues related to influx of foreign workers, higher cost of housing caused by high net worth expatriates, housing affordability, rising cost of living for the locals, the slower progress on transportation, and the high salaries for the ministers in the prosperous city state. Though the PAP had a strong mandate, Lee noted frustrations, grievances and unfulfilled aspirations of Singaporeans during the nine-day campaigning by political parties for 82 of the 87 seats. PAP took the Tanjong Pagar on nomination day on April 27, when the opposition failed to file their papers in time, winning five seats led by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore and also Prime Minister Lee's father. Lee also assured that the government would work hard on its own with "a population of passive but engaging Singaporeans in the more difficult decisions and trade-offs which governing Singapore involves". Foreign Minister George Yeo, along with cabinet minister Lim Hwee Hua and senior Minister of State Zailnul Abidin Rasheed, a sitting Member of Parliament Cynthia Phua and newcomer Ong Ye Kung, lost the Aljunied GRC by a margin of 9.4 per cent to WP . WP leader Low led party chairman Sylvia Lim, and first timers Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap, corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, and postgraduate law student Pritam Singh in defeating PAP for the first time in the GRC, a unique grouping parliamentarians in electing minority representation from the pre-dominantly Chinese population in Singapore. Overall, PAP received 60.14 per cent of the total votes from the 2.05 million voters and WP took 12.82 per cent. The rest of the votes were taken by the other contesting parties - National Solidarity Party, which took 12.04 per cent, Reform Party 4.28 per cent, Singapore Democratic Alliance 2.8 per cent, Singapore Democratic Party 4.83 per cent, Singapore People's Party 3.1 per cent.
A total of 2.057 million or 93.06 per cent of the 2.21 million Singaporeans voted. The PAP in power since 1959 under the stewardship of Lee , Kuan Yew, held 82 of the 84 seats in the last parliament elected in 2006, with vote support of 67 per cent. Singapore, rated among the world's top commerce, trade and financial centres, is projected to post an economic growth of between four per cent and six per cent this year, a follow on to last year's 14.5 per cent, having rebounded strongly from the global economic meltdown of mid-2008 and 2009. Singapore got independence in 1965 from Great Britain. tututu
He said that the response by the Indian government left a lot to be desired. Mr. Assange also dismissed its contention that accords on double taxation were coming in the way of tracking the trail of black money. Double taxation does not have anything to do with asset hiding. It doesn't simply cover asset hiding, he said. Mr. Assange said that the issue of stashing black money away in foreign banks was much worse than just local corruption, as money is pushed offshore. He had earlier claimed that he was handed over documents of bank accounts by a former banker Rudolf Elmer and the whistleblower also claimed that the names in the documents came from the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia from all over, and include business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates from both sides of the Atlantic. tututu
INDIAN NAMES ON SWISS BANK LIST

In comments that could fuel a fresh controversy over the black money issue, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said there are Indian names in the Swiss bank data list that are going to be made public. Yes, there are Indian names in the data that we have already published or are going to publish. I can't remember specifically whether there are Indian names in the coming publication. But I have read Indian names, Mr. Assange told a news paper. He indicated that there are bigwigs among the Indians with accounts in Swiss banks, as you need at least a million dollars, which is a significant amount of money...not [possible for] an average Indian... Asked whether the names would come at any point, he said on that, you should absolutely not lose hope. He, however, declined to reveal anything more on the issue at that stage. Noting that he had come to know through a report that there are more Indian deposits in the Swiss banks than that of any other nationality, he said: There is no reason why India should not be aggressive. Praising the German government for its aggressive approach to unearth black money stashed away offshore, he said that India should be more aggressive because India seems like it is losing per capita tax much more than Germany. Mr. Assange alleged that the Indian government's response to the WikiLeaks cables was one of the worst in the world and a clear attempt to mislead the nation on what the cables were.
OUATTARA TAKES OATH MONTHS AFTER IVORY COAST VOTE

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara took the oath of office, five months after the election that nearly ripped the African nation in two and left hundreds dead, when the country's strongman Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat. Ouattara spent much of that time barricaded inside a hotel, surrounded by troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who used the army to terrorize the population. Gbagbo was removed militarily last month (April) and is now under house arrest in a remote town 420 miles (700 kilometers) north of Abidjan. The price of installing the country's democratically elected leader was steep. More than a 1,000 civilians were killed, first by the army controlled by Gbagbo and later by a former rebel group allied with Ouattara that seized control of the country and toppled Gbagbo. I solemnly swear on my honour to respect and faithfully defend the constitution, Ouattara said. He also praised the constitutional council headed by N'Dre a long-time friend of Gbagbo - for finally accepting its error.
I salute first of all the members of the constitutional council for the courageous decision they have taken in saying what is right, he said. According to international observers, Ouattara won the November election with 54 percent of the vote. Gbagbo loyalists on the country's electoral body tried to stop the results from being published. In all, more than half a million votes were chucked out in order to declare Gbagbo the winner. Gbagbo held a shotgun inauguration, where he was sworn in by N'Dre in a ceremony that was boycotted by nearly the entire diplomatic corps. Human rights groups have detailed massacres by the forces backing Ouattara, who swept the country coming in from the north, east and west. In the village of Duekoue, the United Nations estimates that more than 400 people were killed and U.N. investigators saw another 40 bodies in one village and 60 in another, as they flew over the area in a helicopter. Ouattara has promised an investigation into killings by both sides. Gbagbo is under house arrest in Korhogo, a town in the interior. He is facing possible charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the army under his control, in the post election period. tututu
MYANMAR ROW, THAI-CAMBODIA SPAT CLOUD ASEAN SUMMIT

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) met in Indonesia under the cloud of conflict on the Thai-Cambodia border and ongoing rights abuses in Myanmar. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the twoday summit in his country's capital, which is expected to focus on longterm efforts to create a closely integrated regional economic zone by 2015. Other issues expected to be addressed include the scourge of human trafficking in the region, food security, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and East Timor's membership bid. But even before the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the disparate 10-nation bloc sat down in Jakarta's cavernous convention centre, their discussions had been framed by negative news from troubled member states. Myanmar stole the headlines when it was announced that the military-led country and serial human rights abuser had asked to chair the group in 2014. US-based Human Rights Watch said that Asean, already struggling for credibility, would become the "laughing stock of intergovernmentalforums"ifitgavethechairtosuchapariahstate. Asean leaders are also facing mounting pressure to help end a bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, which has claimed 18 lives and temporarily displaced 85,000 people in recent months. "We realise that to ensure a peaceful and stable East Asia region, we must ensure stability and security in our region," Yudhoyono said in his opening speech. Until now, conflict resolution has been alien to a tradefocused group that works on a principle of non-interference in members' internal affairs, despite criticism over the years that it is nothing but a talking shop. Its halting efforts to negotiate an end to the Thai-Cambodian conflict a move described by Asean chief Surin Pitsuwan as a "great leap forward" are being closely watched as a litmus test of its lofty ambitions to create a more integrated regional economic and security community in just four years' time.
RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS BALLISTIC MISSILE

The Russian militar y successfully test launched a Sineva ballistic missile from a submarine in the Arctic, the Interfax news agency quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying. "The launch was carried out from underwater in the Barents Sea from the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine. At the expected hour, the payload of the Sineva missile arrived at the Kura range in Kamchatka" in Russia's Far East, said spokesman Igor Konashenkov. The Sineva is an intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missile that entered service in 2007 and has a range of more than 11,000 kilometres (6,800 miles).
Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa met his counterparts from both countries in Jakarta and said that they had agreed to accept 15 Indonesian military observers on each side of the disputed frontier. But he said that the modest observer mission, which would have no power to police a ceasefire, had yet to be dispatched because of disagreements over troop locations. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a ceasefire and said that the neighbours should launch "serious dialogue", while backing Asean's mediation role. Washington has also said it supports Asean's efforts. Asean groups comprise Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar skipped its turn to chair Asean in 2006 due to international pressure for democratic reforms, but only on condition that it could ask to lead the group when it felt it was ready. The militar y-led nation is a constant source of embarrassment for Asean's more democratic states, trumping other problem members such as communist Vietnam and Laos, which have significant human rights issues of their own. Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November shortly after an election, the country's first in 20 years, that led to the handover of power from the military to a nominally civilian government. Her release was welcomed worldwide, but Western governments, which imposed sanctions on Myanmar, wanted the new government to do more to demonstrate its commitment to human rights. In his opening speech, Yudhoyono warned fellow Southeast Asian states that rising food and energy prices could drive more people into poverty and urged coordinated action to fight inflation. "History shows that the rise of food and energy prices has always caused the increase in the number of people living in poverty," he said.
PRANAB MUKHERJEE CALLS FOR BETTER GOVERNANCE IN ASIA

Emphasizing the need to enhance regional cooperation for development, I n d i a n Fi n a n c e M i n i s t e r Pr a n a b Mukherjee said that countries within Asia should strive for better governance and transparency in policy making. Addressing the Governors' Seminar on "ASIA 2050" at the Annual Meeting of Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Hanoi, Vietnam, Mukherjee said, "The Asian countries should transform their economies into knowledge and skill-based economies over the next 40 years, to ensure high sustained growth.' He highlighted the need to increase the agricultural productivity by building forward and backward linkages, efficient credit delivery, water management, improved farming practices and rural infrastructure. He said that if Asia has to reach the level of an affluent region, achieving broad-based, inclusive and sustained growth would be a paramount necessity. Mukherjee said that the regional cooperation has to become a major development agenda, as it has the potential to create synergies between the fast growing major economies and the neighbouring economies and push the region into a higher growth orbit. During the meeting, Mukherjee said, India and Vietnam have a very old political and cultural relations dating back to the times of former Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and President Ho Chi Minh. This relationship was further nurtured during the time of Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India and Pham Van Dong, former Prime Minister of Vietnam." "The strategic partnership, which was started in 2007, is a landmark in the development of our relations. It is based on mutual trust and convergence of interests including in the field of defence," he added. Trong said that Vietnam and India's relations have strengthened through exchange of visits at higher levels and there is lot of scope for further strengthening especially in the field of economic and financial matters. He said that Vietnam wants to become a strong and modern industrial country by 2020 and sought India's support in meeting this challenge.
Mukherjee also said that he met Vietnamese Prime Minister and requested him to resolve all the pending issues including setting up of a steel project in Vietnam by Tata Group of Industries. Trong said that he will discuss all the pending issues with the Prime Minister of Vietnam in order to get them resolved. Mukherjee invited Trong to visit India in near future, which will help in further boosting the relationships between the two countries. tututu
GCC heads of state discussed the bloc's mediation efforts, which were stalled this month in the face of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to sign up to proposals which would require him to stand down. He has been insisting that any transfer of power should be in line with the constitution which would allow him to serve out his term until 2013. The GCC plan proposes the formation of a government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and resigning after 30 days, a day after parliament passes a law granting him and his aides immunity. GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani travelled to Sanaa last week to invite members of the government and the opposition to sign the transition plan in Riyadh and to obtain the president's signature but he returned empty-handed. At the summit, the Gulf monarchies also criticised Iran's "continued interference" in their internal affairs. Relations between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbours have deteriorated sharply, with the bloc accusing Tehran of seeking to destabilise Arab regimes by stoking the unrest that has rocked the region. tututu
GULF BLOC WELCOMES MORE KINGS, DEMANDS YEMEN DEAL

The six Gulf monarchies have responded to Arab uprisings by agreeing to expand their regional grouping to include pro-Western Jordan and Morocco and urged a quick political deal in Yemen. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) welcomed bids by the two Arab kingdoms to join the sixnation grouping of Gulf monarchies, its secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said. "Leaders of the GCC welcomed the request of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to join the council and instructed the foreign ministers to enter into negotiations to complete the procedures," Zayani said. He said that the same procedure would be followed with Morocco. His remarks came after a summit in Riyadh of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, discussed relations with Iran, the unrest in Yemen the Arabian Peninsula's only republican state and the tensions sweeping the region. The heads of state demanded that all sides in Yemen, which has limited observer status in the GCC, sign a transition plan, brokered by the bloc. "The council urged all parties in Yemen to sign the agreement, which is the best way out of the crisis and spare the country further political division and deterioration of security," the GCC leaders said in a joint statement. It said that their transition plan for Yemen was a "comprehensive agreementthatwouldpreserveYemen'ssecurity,stabilityandunity."
WIKILEAKS FOUNDER ASSANGE AWARDED TOP SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for "exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights". According to a Foundation statement, veteran Australian broadcaster Mary Kostakidis praised WikLeaks as an "ingenious and heroic website that has shifted the power balance between citizen and the state by exposing what governments really get up to in out name". Acknowledging that "exposing secrets can be dangerous business", Kostakidis thanked Assange for his "heroic courage" as a whistleblower to take "great risks for our benefit". In accepting the Gold Medal, Assange said, "The real value of this award, and the Sydney Peace Foundation is that it makes explicit the link between peace and justice.
Although the Peace Prize is awarded annually by the foundation, only three other people in its 14-year history have been awarded the gold award for courage in pursuit of human rights, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, founded by Assange published thousands of cables in which US diplomats gave their often candid views on world leaders, to Washington's acute embarrassment. tututu
Soon thereafter, his speech was interrupted by a group of people attending the fundraising. Through a song they protested against the alleged mistreatment of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning. Earlier, Mr. Obama created controversy by targeting cheap health care in countries like India and Mexico, arguing that Americans should avail of high quality treatment available here. My preference would be that you don't have to travel to Mexico or India to get cheap health care. I'd like you to be able to get it right here in the United States of America that is high quality, Mr. Obama said at a community college in Virginia. Earlier, Mr. Obama's remarks on American companies outsourcing jobs to Indian firms had stirred a controversy in India. tututu
AMERICA HAS TO ADAPT ITSELF TO CHANGING WORLD: OBAMA

U.S. President Barack Obama said that America needs to adapt to a c h a n g i n g w o r l d w h e re i n countries like India and China are rising and areas like the Middle East are becoming less stable. We were seeing changes around the world countries like China and India rising; areas like the Middle East becoming less stable; the world shrinking because of technology, much of it invented right here in this region, Mr. Obama said in his remarks at a fund raising event in San Francisco. So I think we understood that we were going to have to adapt in some fundamental way in order to make sure that our kids and our grandkids ended up inheriting the kind of America that we inherited, he said. Noting that there are moments in history that are inflection points, Mr. Obama said that he understood this in 2008 that the U.S. was entering into one of those periods. Domestically, we had gone through a decade in which the economy was growing but it was growing on top of a bubble. And people at the very top were doing very well, but the wages and incomes of ordinary families had flatlined, and we were starting as a government to live beyond our means with tax cuts and two wars that weren't paid for, he said. So I think people understood even before the recession hit that somehow the way our economy was operating was not conducive to long-term sustained economic growth or making sure that everybody had a chance at the American Dream, Mr. Obama said.
ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTESTERS IN FRANCE, GERMANY MARK CHERNOBYL

Anti-nuclear activists in France and Germany staged mass protests to demand reactors be closed, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl and after Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident. As organisers said, tens of thousands of demonstrators joined nationwide protests in Germany to call for an end to nuclear power, hundreds of activists at the French-German border at Strasbourg staged a dramatic "die in". Nearly 145,000 German protesters took part in demonstrations at 12 different sites in Germany and France, organisers said, as part of the traditional annual peace protest known as the Easter March. Between 6,000 and 9,000 mostly German activists took to different bridges on the Rhine between Germany and France, journalists reported, with the main Easter Monday demonstration involving hundreds in the "die in". The protest at the midway point on the Pont de l'Europe joining Strasbourg in eastern France and Kehl in Germany aimed to show that "radioactivity knows no borders," said organiser Remi Verdet.
The protests marking the worst-ever nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine on April 26, 1986 and Fukushima were also aimed at getting France, proportionally the world's biggest user of nuclear power, and Germany to shut ageing plants. Protesters carrying Japanese and Ukrainian flags dropped to the tarmac as sirens wailed for the "die in", before they threw flowers into the Rhine in memory of those killed by nuclear accidents. A powerful March 11 earthquake, followed by a giant tsunami, cut the electricity to Fukushima's nuclear reactors, shutting down the cooling system and leading to the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. In Germany, more than 10,000 people protested in the northwestern town of Gronau, home to a uranium enrichment facility, to demand the closure of the site, organisers said. Demonstrations also took place at Germany's nuclear power stations, including Biblis in the southwest and Krummel in the north. The German government imposed a three-month moratorium on extending the lifespans of the nation's nuclear reactors, following the Fukushima disaster. Just last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel had granted 12-year extensions to the country's nuclear reactors, which produce about a quarter of Germany's electricity. In France, protesters' demands were focused on getting the country to shut its oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim. tututu
High oil and gasoline prices are weighing on the minds and pocketbooks of every American family, Obama said, adding that while the economy has begun to recover, with 1.8 million private sector jobs created over the last 13 months, too many Americans are still struggling to find a job or simply just to pay the bills. "The recent steep increase in gas prices, driven by increased global demand and compounded by unrest and supply disruptions in the Middle East, has only added to those struggles. "If sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow down the pace of our economy's growth at precisely the moment when we need to be accelerating it," Obama said. "While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps that could be taken to ensure the American people don't fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices" over the long term, he said. "One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," he said. The outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter, Obama said. "As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can't afford these wasteful subsidies and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY'11 and FY'12 Budgets," he said. Observing that the political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step and hoping that Congressmen can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done, Obama said that they need to get to work immediately on the longer term goal of reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil and America's vulnerability to the price fluctuations which this dependence creates. "Without a comprehensive energy strategy for the future, we will stay stuck in the same old pattern of heated political rhetoric when prices rise and apathy and neglect when they fall again," Obama said. Obama said that he recently laid out his approach in a comprehensive blueprint for a secure energy future, which included safe and responsible production of domestic oil and gas resources and doubling fuel efficiency in the transportation sector, while investing in everything from wind and solar energy to biofuels and natural gas.
OBAMA SEEKS TO END TAX SUBSIDIES FOR OIL COMPANIES

US President Barack Obama urged Congressional leadership to take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Obama shot off a letter to the Congressional leadership in this regard after the speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
"None of you will agree with every aspect of this strategy. But I am confident that in many areas, we can work together to help show the American people that we can make progress on an energy policy that creates jobs and makes our country more secure," he said. tututu
Tax deals under strict banking secrecy, which helped Switzerland build a multi-trillion dollar offshore banking industry, has come under heavy fire in recent years. Last year, Switzerland and Germany agreed the outlines of a deal to impose a withholding tax on an estimated 200 billion euros ($296 billion) hidden in secret Swiss accounts, and Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said that she hoped to wrap up negotiations this summer. Switzerland is also working on a similar deal with Britain. In both cases, a crucial element has been whether and at what level the Swiss should introduce a withholding tax meaning Swiss authorities would not automatically share information on individual accounts with foreign authorities, thereby preserving bank secrecy. Asked whether the Swiss banks wanted a particularly low withholding tax, Odier said: "No, Switzerland wants to ensure that the clients have an incentive to declare their wealth. There should be no incentive not to declare money. tututu
SWISS BANKS CAN HANDLE CAPITAL RULES - BANK GROUP

Swiss banks can handle tough new capital standards for big banks proposed by the Swiss government, the head of the banking association was quoted as saying, adding banks should focus on managing declared funds. Switzerland's parliament is set to debate later this year standards that would require UBS and Credit Suisse to hold an equity Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 10 percent, versus the 7 percent minimum set under Basel III new global capital rules. Yet both UBS and the powerful right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) have warned that the plan risks making UBS and Credit Suisse less competitive, raising questions about whether the rules might still be watered down. In an interview with the Aargauer Zeitung, Patrick Odier, president of the Swiss Bankers Association, said that Switzerland needed tougher rules because the balance sheets of its biggest banks exceeded its gross domestic product: "Our banks are strong enough to put into action the tougher regulations." Higher capital adequacy standards, such as the Basel III rules that come into effect from 2013, also made Swiss wealth managers more attractive, Odier said: "That's why capital came to us and not to foreign banks. Both Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann and Swiss National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand have said that tougher standards would help, not hinder, Swiss banks, most of whom focus on managing wealthy people's money. UBS saw the largest amount of inflows since the end of 2007 into its core wealth management arm in the first quarter, but also called for a year's delay to the Swiss capital rules to allow more clarity on international regulation, while striking a more conciliatory note by vowing to keep its base in Switzerland.
MARY KOM STRIKES GOLD IN ASIAN CUP

Five-time world champion M C Mary Kom (48kg) clinched her first gold medal of the year by finishing on top in the Asian Cup Women's Boxing tournament in Haikou, China. The mother-of-two from Manipur claimed the gold after beating Asian champion Kim Myong Sim of North Korea 4-3 in the final. Playing her first tournament since her bronze medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Mary Kom had made a place in the last two of her weight division after drubbing Kate Appari of Philippines. In the title clash, she had to work hard, as her North Korean opponent put up a stiff challenge. In the end though, it was the skill and agility of the world champion that came through, as she went on to clinch the yellow metal, the Indian Boxing Federation said in a statement. However, the other Indian in fray, Pavitra (57kg) had to face defeat in the finals, as she lost 6-11 to Tossamalee Thonalan of Thailand.
Current events
Business and economy

INTERNET GIANT GOOGLE 'TO MAKE BULBS AND DISHWASHERS'
After the Internet, Google is now set to foray into the domain of household appliances - it will produce bulbs, thermostats and dishwashers, and integrate them with wireless technology, the search engine giant has said. According to Google, the new range of "almost anything electrical" household devices would be launched by the end of this year, and wireless technology will help these devices to communicate with tablets, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported. Announcing the new initiative, codenamed Project Tungsten, at a software developers' conference in San Francisco, Google said its aim was to let a range of devices "discover, connect and communicate" with each other. In a series of demonstrations using its Android operating system 'Android@home', Google showed a tablet that could turn lights on and off, send music from the Internet to a hifi and even a "near-field communications" chip that simply had to be touched on speakers to start them playing an album. Although entering the crowded "home automation" market is brave move by Google, the US-based firm highlighted that 400,000 Android devices are now being activated every day. It said that apps integrated into the home environment, such as an alarm clock application that gradually raised the lights and turned on a user's radio. The company already offers 200,000 different apps and they have been downloaded 4.5 billion times on 100 million different devices, mostly mobile phones. Google also announced a service allowing users to rent movies online as well as to store music they already own on the Internet.
NINE PER CENT GDP GROWTH RATE IN 2011-12 DIFFICULT, SAYS MONTEK
Concerned over high headline inflation, Planning Commission raised doubts over clocking the targeted 9 per cent economic growth in the current fiscal. "We may not hit 9 per cent (economic growth rate in 2011-12). 6 per cent is the rate of inflation which we should be willing to accept this fiscal," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in New Delhi. The government and the Planning Commission had earlier projected a growth rate of 9 per cent during 2011-12, up from 8.6 per cent in the previous fiscal. Referring to rise in headline inflation to 8.98 per cent in March from 8.31 per cent in February, Ahluwalia said, "inflation has been a concern. It has not come under control as much as I had hoped. There is need to use fiscal and monetary policy to get rid of supply constraint wherever they exist." Referring to growth prospects in the current fiscal, he said that it may be difficult to achieve 6 per cent farm sector growth, expected to be recorded during 2010-11. "There is no chance for agriculture to grow at 6 per cent this fiscal, it may probably grow at 3 per cent", he said. He pointed out, "Even to stay at 8.6 per cent GDP growth this fiscal, industry will have to do much better. Now industry has done about 7.8 per cent in 2010-11. Exuding confidence of maintaining growth momentum this fiscal, Ahluwalia said, "Between 8.6 to 9% (GDP growth this fiscal) there is no big deal. I think the down side of 9 % is more relevant", he said adding that it will not be "way off" the 9 % mark.
GROWTH ALONE NOT ENOUGH FOR RECOVERY: IMF

The International Monetary Fund called for greater action to be taken to shore up the global financial recovery, stressing that economic growth alone was not enough without jobs. In a communique following its semi-annual meeting, the IMF's policy committee said that the recovery is gaining strength but remains vulnerable. There was a sense in all our discussions that we are still in a fairly fragile situation, said Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who chaired the meeting. We have to be extremely watchful, but we also need to develop the capabilities of the fund to address risk proactively, to anticipate possible scenarios that could turn out to be ugly, and to require that countries, including especially systemically significant countries, take actions early to prevent another major crisis. Of particular concern is slow job creation in developed countries, where unemployment remains high, and the risks of overheating and inflation in developing countries, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. We certainly need macrofinancial stability in order to have growth, but, on the other hand, growth is not enough, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said at the close of the twice-annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington. Growth is not enough because the old paradigm following which, if you had growth the rest will follow doesn't work anymore. We need to absolutely take into account the problem of growth, which is our mandate, but also some ideas in the way growth will become transformed or produce jobs. More international cooperation and surveillance are needed to address these issues, the IMF said, urging nations not to back down amidst a their economies regaining stability. Credible actions are needed to accelerate progress in addressing challenges to financial stability and sovereign debt sustainability, and to ensure timely fiscal consolidation in advanced economies, whilst taking steps to avoid overheating in emerging market countries and dealing with risks from higher commodity prices, the statement said. Among the issues discussed were inflation in food and fuel prices, which is of particular concern in the developing world.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that food prices, which are near 2008 highs, are the biggest threat today to the world's poor, where we risk losing a generation. The IMF addressed concerns about capital flows amid demands from developing countries that capital flows from industrial countries into developing countries must be more closely monitored. Developing nations have complained that inflows from developed countries could hurt their economies. Both capital outflows from rich countries and inflows from developing nations must be addressed, the IMF said. The meetings have focussed both on concerns that the developing world is at risk of overheating and that growth is too slow in the developed world. tututu
TATA STEEL SIGNS PACT WITH RIO TINTO ON HISARNA IRON SMELTING
Tata Steel said it has signed a licensing agreement with mining major Rio Tinto for commercial development of environment-friendly direct iron smelting process, called HIsarna. "The agreement covers how both parties will work together, sharing their existing knowledge of the two technologies that are combined in the new process," it said in a statement. The HIsarna iron-making process consists of cyclone pre-reduction technology (CCF), owned by Tata Steel, and bath smelting technology (HIsmelt), owned by Rio Tinto. "This combination offers excellent opportunities for the collection and geological storage of carbondioxide, ability to utilise lower-cost raw material feeds and the prospect of energy savings through the elimination of stages in the iron-making process," the statement added. The HIsarna technology has long-term potential to replace conventional blast furnaces, coke ovens and sinter plants and to reduce carbondioxide emissions by more than 50 per cent, if combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Funded jointly by the consortium of European steelmakers' ULCOS, the European Commission and the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry, a HIsarna pilot plant is being commissioned at Tata Steel's IJmuiden steelworks in the Netherlands. The six lakh tonne per annum plant is intended to allow the two constituent technologies to be tested in combination.
MERCEDES BENZ LINES UP LAUNCHES

Mercedes Benz India Ltd. (MBIL) is planning at least two launches in the second-half of this year, its director sales and marketing Debashis Mitra said. He said that the luxury car market grew at 48% during the first quarter of 2011 and the West and the South were showing the largest appetite for such cars. The three prominent players in this segment in India are Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. Debashis Mitra said that while two more launches have been lined up for the Indian market in the latter part of this year, he was not in a position to share the details at this stage for strategic reasons. He said that the new Maybach was launched in January and the F 800, a concept car now, may be introduced to the consumer within a couple of years or so. This car is the pinnacle of technology. It emits water vapour instead of noxious gases. Mr. Mitra spoke on the occasion of the Mercedes-Benz Star Drive event which puts to test the key strengths and capabilities of Mercedes-Benz cars under the guidance of qualified experts. He said that the Star Drive event combines essential elements of driving experience with simulation of critical road situations. Mercedes Benz India closed 2010 with sales of 5,800 cars against 3,500 cars in the previous year, marking an 80 per cent growth. While it is not possible to sustain such growth levels which were due to a low-base year in 2009, we are hopeful of high growth rates in 2011, as the first quarter has been good, Mitra said. Between January and March, Mercedes' retail sales stood at 1,800 units against 1,300 units in the same period in 2009. Mr. Mitra said that Mercedes Benz's growth rates were higher than the growth rate of the luxury car market in India, which grew at 48 per cent during the first quarter. He, however, emphasised that at MBIL the stress was on technological superiority and innovation rather than chasing a target of numbers. Mercedes-Benz has always been a pioneer in introducing new technologies globally as well as in India, Mitra said, adding that over the years, the company has introduced several technologies aimed at enhancing passenger-safety. Many of these have created industry benchmarks.
JAIRAM RAMESH CLEARS POSCO PROJECT

The Rs 54,000 crore Posco integrated steel plant got the final clearance from Union environment and forests ministry. Jairam Ramesh gave the nod for the pending forest clearance to the state government, paving the way for the Korean steel giant to acquire the forest land required for the project. In January 2011, Ramesh had put one last condition before the state government to acquire the forest land. He had asked for an assurance from the state that no rights of people existed on the land under the Forest Rights Act. The state sent its assurance but Ramesh, having received evidence to the contrary, asked the Naveen Patnaik government to come back again with clarity. The state government wrote back to the Centre on April 29, claiming that the resolutions of the two villages Govindpur and Dhinkia opposing the plant and claiming community rights over the forests, were illegal. Ramesh moved quickly to decide in favour of the state government, dismissing the village resolutions that he had a copy of. For long under pressure from the PMO on the project, passing the order in favour of the state government, Ramesh noted, "Faith and trust in what the state government says is an essential pillar of cooperative federalism." He decided to pass the buck for adhering to the Forest Rights Act(FRA) to the state saying, "The primary responsibility for implementing the Forest Rights Act is that of the state government." Ramesh had earlier bent backwards to accommodate the project by rejecting the recommendations of three of his own committees, including a statutory one. All three had recommended that the provisions of FRA had not been followed and that the project should be rejected. Orissa, on the other hand, continued to claim that no one had rights over the land, which it wanted to hand over to Posco. Ramesh discarded his own directive which required village councils to pass resolutions in favour of the project when the state government was unable to furnish them. Attempting to pre-empt criticism over his bending rules and regulations, Ramesh said, "The implementation of both the FRA and the August 2009 guideline is learning and evolving process since we are still in largely unchartered territory." The August 2009 order by Ramesh made it mandatory for the state government to submit village resolutions in favour of the project that Orissa failed to.
In his order, Ramesh said, "I would expect that the revised MOU between the state and Posco would be negotiated in such a manner that exports of raw material are completely avoided." Suggesting that an understanding had been built between the Centre, state and the Korean company on the issue, Posco India Vice-president Vikas Sharan reportedly told agencies, "There were no plans for export of iron ore from the project and now also we do not intend to do any exports." tututu
Making a highly ambitious inflation management objective, the policy aims at bringing down inflation to 4 to 4.5 percent for the full fiscal, with a medium term objective of 3 percent. The Governor, however, said, "RBIs baseline inflation projections are that inflation will remain elevated, close to the March, 11 level (8.98 percent) over the first half of FY12, before declining". To contain volatility in the overnight inter-bank rates, RBI has decided to open a new borrowing facility for banks under the marginal standing facility (MSF) to be effective from 7th May. The rate of interest on this facility will be 100 bps above the repo. The banks can borrow up to 1 percent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) from this facility. As per the above norms, the difference between the reverse repo and MSF will be 200 basis points. While the repo rate will be in the middle, the reverse repo rate will be 100 basis points below it, and the MSF rate 100 bps above it,the Governor said, adding the MSF rate gets calibrated at 8.25 percent. On the expected policy outcome, the Governor said that the policy actions are aimed at "first containing inflation by reining the demand side pressures, anchoring inflation expectations and sustaining growth in the medium term by containing inflation...going forward, the RBI will continue with its antiinflationary stance". The RBI will conduct the first quarter review on 26th July. The following are the highlights of the Monetary Policy Statement for 2011-12 by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao: * Short term lending rate (repo) hiked by 50 bps to 7.25 pc. * Repo rate to be only effective policy rate to better signal monetary policy stance from now on. * Reverse repo to be fixed 100 bps lower than the repo rate. * Short-term borrowing rate (reverse repo) up by 50 bps to 6.25 pc. * Cash reserve ratio (CRR) and bank rate left unchanged at 6 pc each. * Interest rates on savings bank deposits hiked to 4 pc from 3.5 pc. * Economic growth projected lower at 8 pc for FY'12.
RBI RAISES POLICY RATES BY 50 BASIS POINTS

In a bid to check inflation, Reserve Bank raised its short term lending (repo) rate by 50 basis points to 7.25 per cent, while lowering the economic growth projection to 8 per cent for the current fiscal. The RBI has also increased the saving bank rate by 50 basis points to 4 per cent to give higher returns to depositors, in the wake of high inflation. RBI Governor D Subbarao announced these measures as part of annual credit policy to contain inflation, which is hovering around 9 per cent, and sustain economic growth in the medium-term. RBI has pegged GDP growth rate for the current fiscal at 8 per cent against the government's projection of 9 per cent. The economy grew by 8.6 per cent in 2010-11. The reverse repo, the rate at which bank park funds with RBI, has been raised by 50 basis points to 6.25 per cent. Factoring in the many headwinds such as the very uncomfortable inflation, which stood at 8.98 in March and the rising crude and commodity prices, the Governor pegged down GDP growth by over 1 per cent between 7.4 and 8.5 percent for the current fiscal. "High oil and other commodity prices and the impact of the Reserve Bank's anti-inflationary monetary stance will moderate growth," Subbarao said. "Based on the assumption of a normal monsoon, and crude oil prices averaging USD 110 a barrel over the full year 2011-12, our baseline projection of real GDP growth for 2011-12, for policy purposes is around 8 per cent," Subbarao added.
* WPI inflation projection lowered to 6 pc. * Objective is to contain inflation by curbing demand-side pressures. * Favours aligning of fuel prices with international crude prices to avert widening of fiscal deficit. * Banks to get a new overnight borrowing window under Marginal Standing Facility at 8.25 pc. * Likelihood of oil prices moderating significantly is low. * Malegam Committee recommendations on MFI sector broadly accepted. * Bank loan to MFIs on or after 1st April 2011, will be treated as priority sector loans. tututu
Jaguar Land Rover will collaborate with Williams F1 for the first time and the production of Jaguar C-X75 will create more than 100 highly-skilled UK jobs. Williams F1 will provide engineering expertise for the hybrid supercar in areas like aerodynamics, carbon composite manufacture and hybrid technologies. Jaguar claimed that the technology used will ensure top speed performance along with incredibly low emissions, with a target of less than 99g/km carbon dioxide emissions. Never before has the company launched such an ambitious, world-beating vehicle programme, Tata Motors CEO CarlPeter Forster said. This is the Jaguar of the future. The opportunity for innovation like this in the UK is part of the reason Tata Motors invested in Jaguar, and it's fantastic that products like the C-X75 can become a reality. Jaguar has started taking expressions of interest via its website and phone numbers. Tata Motors, the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), clarified that no new investment plan of 5 billion for JLR had been announced. The Tata-owned firm had last year revealed plans to invest billions in the UK after it reached a landmark pay and conditions settlement with the trade unions representing its workforce in October. It is this investment that has been calculated to be about 1 billion annually and will be continued for five years, the firm clarified. tututu
JAGUAR PLANS $1.2M HYBRID SUPERCAR

Tata Motors- owned Jaguar announced its plan to build a new hybrid supercar, which can run on both petrol and electricity. The C-X75, which will cost between 700,000 ($1.2 million) and 900,000 ($1.5 million), will have a top speed in excess of 200 miles (320 kmph) per hour. The car, to be built by Jaguar in the UK, in association with Williams F1, will only have limited production just 250 will be built. The exclusive and limited-edition lightweight car with all carbon-fibre chassis will be capable of silent electric running with an extensive EV range in excess of 50 km. The hybrid supercar will have two powerful electric motors and four-wheel-drive and can go from 0-60 mph in less than three seconds and 0-100 mph in less than six seconds, Jaguar revealed. The initial concept design study for the hybrid supercar was revealed at the 2010 Paris motor show. People expect Jaguar to be innovators that is when Jaguar is at its best, Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar brand director, said, The C-X75 received an incredible reception as a concept car. We've been building on that momentum and there is a clear business case for this exclusive halo model. No other vehicle will better signify Jaguar's renewed confidence and excellence in technological innovation than this.
COGNIZANT FIGURES IN FORTUNE 500 LIST

Nasdaq-listed IT major Cognizant has joined the list of Fortune 500 companies ranked by Fortune Magazine. Cognizant, with USD 4.59 bn revenues as of 2010, had been ranked at 484 in the Fortune 500 list, a company statement said. "Since our inception 17 years ago, we have built a new business model for consulting, IT and business process outsourcing services-combining our high-touch approach to client engagement and a depth of industry expertise with high-quality solutions and global footprint", Cognizant CEO and President Francisco D'Souza said. As of March 31, 2011, Cognizant employs 1.11 lakh people globally serving over 700 clients. The company has 50 delivery centres worldwide, the statement added.
MERKEL OPENS GERMAN OFFSHORE WIND FARM

Chancellor Angela Merkel inaugurated Germany's first commercial offshore wind farm, with 21 turbines set to supply electricity to more than 50,000 households. The wind farm, 16 kilometres (10 miles) off Germany's Northeastern Baltic coast, covers an area of around seven square kilometres (three square miles), with each Siemens-made turbine generating up to 2.3 megawatts (MW) of power. "With offshore technology we are all charting new territory," Merkel's spokesman quoted her as saying. The chancellor flew over the wind park in a helicopter before the inauguration in the coastal village of Zingst. "This is an important milestone in the use of German offshore wind power. Onshore, Germany was a pioneer in wind power and now it's important to tap rapidly the huge offshore potential," said Rene Umlauft from Siemens. By 2030, wind farms with total capacity between 20,000 and 25,000 MW will be operating off the country's coasts and delivering "clean" electricity, the German industrial giant added. tututu
"We do not want to set a target for acquisition because we are not doing acquisition for growth. We are doing acquisitions for strategic fit and adding capability at this point of time," he said at the company's sprawling headquarters campus on the outskirts of Bangalore, India's IT hub. Gopalakrishnan said that by investing in new industries and geographies, Infosys was looking to build multiple engines of growth over the next 3-5 years. "There are multiple strategic requirements for acquisition so those are the things we are looking at. Typically a smaller acquisition rather than a large one," he said. Infosys, which is also listed on Nasdaq, announced top management changes linked to the retirement of its billionaire chairman and stuck to its practice of giving its founders a shot at running the firm. tututu
KAMATH, THE FORCE BEHIND ICICI'S RISE

K.V. Kamath, the new chairman of India's second largest IT company Infosys, is a mechanical engineerturned banker, who is best known for turning ICICI into India's largest private bank. Kamath was born Dec 2, 1947, in Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore, on the west coast, a land of bankers from where Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank and Karnataka Bank started decades ago. He spent his early years in Mangalore, completing schooling and pre-college studies from St. Aloysius School. Kamath acquired a degree in mechanical engineering from the Karnataka Regional Educational College, Surathkal. After graduating in 1969, he joined the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to do an MBA. Armed with the two degrees, Kamath began his working career with ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India) in 1971. Kamath had break in service with the ICICI Group, when he went to Asian Development Bank in 1988. He returned to ICICI eight years later as its managing director and CEO.
INFOSYS EYES BUYS IN EUROPE, JAPAN, AND HEALTHCARE SECTOR

Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's No. 2 software services exporter, is on the hunt for acquisitions in Europe and Japan and in industries including healthcare and public services, its chief executive said. S. Gopalakrishnan said that Infosys was also seeking acquisitions in new areas like cloud computing. "Our philosophy has always been that you plan organic growth," said Gopalakrishnan, who is set to step down as chief executive and become co-chairman in August. "You keep your eyes and ears open, you have a dedicated team looking at acquisitions," he said. Infosys would make an acquisition when it found a target that was at the right price with the right strategic fit, he added.
In ICICI, Kamath is remembered for setting up branches, ATMs, selling various kinds of loan products aggressively. He retired in April 2009 and became its non-executive chairman. Soon he was taken on the board of Infosys by the outgoing chairman and founder N.R. Narayan Murthy. Kamath has won many awards, including India's third highest civilian honour Padma Bhushan. He has been named "Businessman of the Year" by Forbes Asia and "Business Leader of the Year" by the Economic Times and CNBC's "Asian Business Leader of the Year" in 2001. He was also the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry in 2008-09. He is also on the board of directors of several companies such Lupin Limited, the Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited and Schlumberger Limited. tututu
Many companies later claimed that they were mis-sold these products by the banks without explaining the risks attached with such instruments and also moved the court to recover the losses. One of the cases pertaining to losses incurred on account of derivatives contract is still pending in the Supreme Court. While a fine of Rs. 15 lakh each was slapped on Axis Bank, Barclays, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Yes Bank, Rs. 10 lakh each was imposed on Citibank, BNP Paribas, SBI, Credit Agricole -CIB, Development Credit Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank. Besides, a fine of Rs. 5 lakh each was slapped on Bank of America, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and J P Morgan Chase Bank. RBI had earlier issued show-cause notices to them. When contacted many penalised banks declined to comment on the RBI action. "On a careful examination of the banks' written replies and the oral submissions made during the personal hearings, the Reserve Bank found that the violations were established and the penalties were thus imposed," the central bank said. tututu
RBI SLAPS RS. 1.95 CR ON 19 BANKS FOR FLOUTING DERIVATIVE NORMS

The Reserve Bank slapped a penalty of Rs. 1.95 crore on 19 banks, including heavyweights SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Citibank, for violating norms on derivatives, an instrument used to hedge financial risks. The fine has been imposed on the banks for selling derivative products to companies and exporters without complying with the instructions issued by the central bank from time to time. "The penalties have been imposed on these banks for contravention of various instructions issued by the Reserve Bank (RBI) in respect of derivatives," the RBI said in a release. The lenders, according to RBI, failed to carry out due diligence with regard to suitability of products and sold derivative products to companies not having risk management policies. They also failed to verify the adequacy of eligible limits before selling derivatives, it added. Banks sell derivatives to help companies to hedge risks against fluctuations in foreign exchange value and interest rates, and earn a fee. However, several companies bought currency derivatives for making quick money instead of hedging their risks and suffered losses because of unforeseen fluctuation in foreign exchange value, in the wake of global financial crisis in 2008.
EXCESS FOREX RESERVES NOT GOOD FOR CHINA: ECONOMISTS

China's exports surplus that pushed its foreign exchange reserves 'beyond the reasonable requirements' to $3 trillion in Januar y-March quarter poses a risk to the country's economy, experts have warned. China should reduce its excessive foreign exchange reserves and further diversify its holdings, Tang Shuangning, chairman of China Everbright Group, said. The amount of foreign exchange reserves should be restricted to $800 billion-1.3 trillion, Tang told a forum in Beijing, saying that the current reserve amount was way too high. China's foreign exchange reserves increased by $197.4 billion in the first three months of this year to $3.04 trillion by the end of March.
Tang's remarks echo the sentiments of China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who was quoted by Xinhua news agency, saying that China's foreign exchange reserves "exceed our reasonable requirement". The government should upgrade and diversify its foreign exchange management using the excessive reserves, he said. Xia Bin, a member of the monetary policy committee of the central bank, said that $1 trillion of foreign reserves would be sufficient for China. China should invest its foreign exchange reserves more strategically, using them to acquire resources and technology needed for the real economy, he said. Tang suggested five channels for using the reserves, including replenishing state-owned capital in key sectors and enterprises, purchasing strategic resources, expanding overseas investment, issuing foreign bonds and improving national welfare in areas like education and health. China, which holds the world's highest forex reserves, is also the biggest holder of spiralling long-term US debt at $1.16 trillion of treasury holdings in December 2010; any credit downgrade as threatened by rating agency Standard and Poor's recently will bring down value of Chinese assets. As the US dollar was on downward trend with Yuan appreciating, China looked to safe investments to reduce its dollar holdings. tututu
The sector has also shown poor performance in the month of March, with meagre growth of 7.9 per cent, compared to 16.4% expansion in the same month last year. The mining sector also saw a decline in growth to 5.9% in 2010-11 from 9.9 per cent in the previous fiscal. For March, the sector's growth was a mere 0.2 per cent, compared to 12.3 per cent in the same month of 2009-10. The capital goods segment was among the most affected, as it grew by just 9.3 per cent in 2010-11, compared to a robust 20.9 per cent in the previous fiscal. In March this year, the growth in capital goods production slowed to 12.9% from 36 per cent in the same month of 2010. During the last fiscal, growth of the electricity sector slowed to 5.6 per cent as against 6 per cent in 2009-10. During March, the sector reported a growth of 7.2 per cent, compared to 8.3 per cent in the corresponding month of 2009-10. Overall, 13 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in March this year. Production in the consumer non-durables segment went up by 2.2 per cent during the 2010-11 fiscal, as against 0.4 per cent in 2009-10. The consumer durables segment grew by 20.9 per cent in 2010-11, down from 24.6 per cent expansion in 2009-10. Overall, consumer goods output reported a rise of 7.5 per cent last fiscal, as against 6.2 per cent in 2009-10. Intermediate goods reported a rise of 8.8 per cent during 2010-11, down from 13.6 per cent in the previous fiscal. tututu
INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT GROWTH SLOWS TO 7.8 PC IN 2010-11

Poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors pulled down overall growth of industry to 7.8 per cent in 2010-11 from 10.5 per cent in the previous fiscal. Factory output in March, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released, also witnessed lower growth of 7.3%, compared to 15.5 per cent expansion in the same month a year ago. However, the performance in March was an improvement compared to 3.6 per cent growth registered in February this year. The manufacturing sector, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of the index, saw its annual growth fall to 8.1 per cent in 2010-11 from 11 per cent in the previous fiscal.
EXPORTS GROW 34.4 PC IN APRIL

India's exports grew by an annualised 34.4 percent to USD 23.9 billion in April, maintaining a tempo of the last financial year, despite a decline, as compared to 44% growth in March. Imports, for the opening month of the fiscal 2011-12, were up 14.1 percent to USD 32.8 billion, leaving a trade gap of USD 8.9 billion. Releasing the trade data in New Delhi, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said that though the growth in April was lower than March, it was not a big concern.
Guestroom
Realizing a Billion Dreams!

Lt. Col P Deogirikar (Retd.) . There are many things which work towards dividing this country (politics, religion (in the sense it is practiced), regionalism, language, caste etc. etc.) but there are only a few things which unite this huge nation. Cricket is one such thing. Cricket is indeed the religion of India. But this religion unites the people! And this fact was very obvious during the Cricket World Cup 2011, which had a billion people dreaming of an Indian victory. After as many as 28 years! And, the amazing part, it REALLY HAPPENED! A billion dreams were realized on 2nd April 2011, when we lifted the coveted cup! It has become a norm in management now to draw lessons from events, movies, persons, etc. Let us explore the lessons the students can extract and learn from this mega success.
Zero to Hero is possible! - India lost to Bangladesh in the very first match in World Cup 2007 which ensured their going out of the tournament. So the entire nation was holding its breath when our first match was against the same nation this time as well. And in their den! But we need not have worried. This time we won the match comfortably making 370 runs against them, the highest in this tournament! Lesson - Do not worry if you did not make it last time, whether in written examination or physical tests or interviews. There is always a next time. And you could be having a thumping victory under your belt next time provided you work smart. A B o l d A p p r o a c h Pa y s Everything was staked against M S Dhoni in the final. Huge score to chase, poor history of teams chasing targets, poor history of host teams and loss of two prime wickets, Sachin and Veeru. And, the most important, his own poor form with the bat in tournament thus far! At the fall of third wicket, he could have played safe but he did not. He promoted himself! And the rest, as is said, is history! Lesson - Luck favours the brave! Offence is the best defence! Death or glory! Name it the way you like it but be bold. Only caution here, take calculated risks, not uncalculated.
Over-dependence Costs! - Sri Lanka depended heavily of a half-fit Murlidharan. He is a champion bowler but was not at his physical best. Hence, he could not deliver that day and they lost. Lesson - Over-dependence on one or two persons (friends, teachers, advisors), institutions, interviews, subjects, even chapters, could cost you dear one day. Do maintain your existing resources but also keep exploring new resources and be flexible to use the winning formula. Not glamour, commitment works Yuvi, the glamour boy of Indian cricket, was almost out of the team because of his indifferent form, and also attitude issues when the team was being selected. But once he collected himself and decided to get committed, the result was there for all to see. The player of the tournament of this maha-tournament! Lesson - Your dress sense and appearance on important occasions like presentations, interview etc. count, but unless you have commitment and passion, success will elude you, even if you have the substance. Local flavour cant be ignored - Australia knew it well that the spinners will have a huge say on this subcontinental wickets but ignored this and depended on their express fast bowlers. Result? They lost not only their 34 match winning streak to Pakistan in qualifying matches but also to India in the quarters.
Lesson - A thorough analysis of strengths and weakness at the individual level is a must. At the same time, opportunities and the threats in the environment are to be scanned. Now a careful comparison must be made between the two sides well in time. The discrepancies, as identified, must be made up as soon as feasible. South Africa also had this problem but had identified a Pakistan born spinner (Tahir) and picked him up. He did quite well eventuality. It is a different thing that they batted very poorly and lost to New Zealand in quarter final. Fun is the name of the game! Zaheer had lost us the final against Australia in 2003 when he had leaked 1516 runs in the opening over. Or at least set the tone of the match then. But this time he was the spearhead of Indian bowling attack and took the maximum number of wickets in the tournament which he shared with Afridi. Lesson - You can achieve wonders only when you are enjoying yourself. Remember why Madhavan and Sharman were not able to score well in 3 Idiots? Former did not have a heart to pursue engineering studies (was going through the motions) while the latter was scared to the brim! I assume that you are in the right direction (i.e. you not a photographer in 4th year of engineering), now you must enjoy whether it is studying or any other activity and you will make a mark. This attitude would help you all your life. Experience must be respected - Sachin proved yet again that there is no substitute for experience, by scoring the highest runs in tournament. Almost! Lesson - Respect your seniors whether in higher class (but, no tohfa please!), teachers, support staff while in college and colleagues while in an organization. Dont criticize them. Look for positives in them; we all have some positives. They have a lot to teach you if your approach to them is positive.
Consistency is a must! - Umar Gul was one of the best Pakistani bowlers till he played against India. He was spraying all over; gave 69 runs in 8 overs and, thus, made his team lose. Lesson - Your yesterdays success does not mean anything today. You must be victorious each day. So, do not rest on your laurels. Deliver in your field first - Sri santh may be a good dancer but our expectations are for him to be a dependent bowler first. He almost turned our victory into defeat by his wayward bowling in final. Lesson - It is good to be of value in other fields but not at the cost of your basic field. So focus on learning now. If you do well in studies, you could still do well in your chosen field; be like an Anil Kumble who is an engineer. Winning on the day counts! - South Africa was one of the best teams in this tournament. They did quite well till quarters but could not achieve a low target against New Zealand and went out with their chokers tag intact! Lesson - You got to be extra cautious on an important day when you are expected to be at your best. This could be examination (I knew the answers inside-out but had not slept all night and blanked out), or interview (I came to the interview in a hurry and could not read the web site of this company) etc. These are some of the lessons that we can draw from this historical victory. Of course, there can be many more. Another aspect here. It may be difficult reaching the top but it is much more difficult to maintain the position at the top! Let us hope that India does manage to remain at the top and then we will have another discussion on the lessons, how to remain on top! At this moment, you may like to introspect how many of these lessons are you following in every day life for you to go to the top!
For seventeen years starting 1860, Walter Bagehot edited The Economist, a magazine founded by his father-in-law James Wilson.
Brand icon
Bank of America
ank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. Bank of America is among the world's leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industryleading support to approximately 4 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in more than 40 countries. Through its banking subsidiaries (the Banks) and various non-banking subsidiaries throughout the United States and in selected international markets, it provides a range of banking and non-banking financial services and products through six business segments: Deposits, Global Card Services, Home Loans & Insurance, Global Commercial Banking, Global Banking & Markets (GBAM) and Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), with the remaining operations recorded in all other. On January 1, 2010, it realigned the Global Corporate and Investment Banking portion of the former Global Banking business segment with the former Global Markets business segment to form GBAM and to reflect Global Commercial Banking, as a standalone segment. In April 2011, the Company merged its corporate and investment banking divisions.
The Company's deposit products include traditional savings accounts, money market savings accounts, certificate of deposits (CDs) and retirement accounts (IRAs), and noninterest and interest-bearing checking accounts. Deposit products provide a relatively stable source of funding and liquidity. It earns net interest spread revenue from investing this liquidity in earning assets through client-facing lending and ALM activities. Deposits also generate fees, such as account service fees, non-sufficient funds fees, overdraft charges and ATM fees. Deposits include the net impact of migrating customers and their related deposit balances between GWIM and Deposits.
Global Card Services

Bank of America's Global Card Services provides an offering of products, including United States consumer and business card, consumer lending, international card and debit card to consumers and small businesses. The Company provides credit card products to customers in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom. It offers a variety of cobranded and affinity credit and debit card products and are one of the leading issuers of credit cards through endorsed marketing in the United States and Europe.
Deposits
Deposits segment includes the results of consumer deposit activities, which consist of a range of products provided to consumers and small businesses. In addition, Deposits includes an allocation of asset liability management (ALM) activities. In the United States, it serves approximately 57 million consumer and small business relationships through a franchise that stretches coast to coast through 32 states and the District of Columbia utilizing its network of approximately 5,900 banking centers, 18,000 automated teller machines (ATMs), nationwide call centers and online and mobile banking platforms.
Home Loans and Insurance

Home Loans & Insurance generates revenue by providing a line of consumer real estate products and services to customers nationwide. Home Loans & Insurance products are available to its customers through a retail network of 5,900 banking centers, mortgage loan officers in approximately 750 locations and a sales force offering its customers direct telephone and online access to its products. These products are also offered through its correspondent loan acquisition channels.
On February 4, 2011, the Company announced that it is exiting the reverse mortgage origination business. In October 2010, it exited the first mortgage wholesale acquisition channel. Home Loans and Insurance products include fixed and adjustable-rate first-lien mortgage loans for home purchase and refinancing needs, reverse mortgages, home equity lines of credit and home equity loans. First mortgage products are either sold into the secondary mortgage market to investors, while retaining mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and the Bank of America customer relationships, or are held on its balance sheet in All Other for ALM purposes.
distribution of fixed-income, currency and energy commodity products and derivatives. GBAM also has equity trading operations in the world and equity-related products.
Global Wealth and Investment Management (GWIM)

GWIM consists of three primary businesses: Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management (MLGWM), United States Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management (United States Trust) and Retirement Services. MLGWM's advisory business provides a client experience through a network of approximately 15,500 financial advisors focused on clients, with more than $250,000 in total investable assets. MLGWM also includes Merrill Edge, a new integrated investing and banking service. Merrill Edge provides teambased investment advice and guidance, brokerage services, a self-directed online investing platform and key banking capabilities, including access to the Corporation's branch network and ATMs. In addition, MLGWM includes the Private Banking & Investments Group. United States Trust, together with MLGWM's Private Banking & Investments Group, provides wealth management solutions for wealthy and ultra-wealthy clients with investable assets, as well as customized solutions to meet clients' wealth structuring, investment management, trust and banking needs, including specialty asset management services. Retirement Services partners with financial advisors to provide institutional and personal retirement solutions, including investment management, administration, recordkeeping and custodial services for pension, profitsharing, equity award and non-qualified deferred compensation plans. Retirement Services also provides investment advisory services to individuals, small to large corporations and pensioners.
Global Commercial Banking

Global Commercial Banking provides a range of lending related products and services, integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients' through its network of offices and client relationship teams along with various product partners. The Company's clients include business banking and middle market companies, commercial real estate firms and governments. Its lending products and services include commercial loans and commitment facilities, real estate lending, asset-based lending and indirect consumer loans. Its capital management and treasury solutions include treasury management, foreign exchange and short-term investing options.
Global Banking and Markets (GBAM)

GBAM provides financial products, advisory services, financing, securities clearing, settlement and custody services globally to its institutional investor clients, in support of their investing and trading activities. The Company also works with its commercial and corporate clients to provide debt and equity underwriting and distribution capabilities, merger-related and other advisory services, and risk management products, using interest rate, equity, credit, currency and commodity derivatives, foreign exchange, fixedincome and mortgage-related products. GBAM is a global
All Other
All Other consists of two groupings, Equity Investments and Other. Equity Investments includes Corporate Investments, Global Principal Investments and Strategic Investments. Other includes liquidating businesses, merger and restructuring charges, ALM functions (which include residential mortgage portfolio and investment securities) and related activities (which include economic hedges, fair value option on structured liabilities), and the impact of certain allocation methodologies.
Shyam Saran Negi, resident of the remote Kalpa village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, was the first to cast his vote in independent India's first elections on October 23, 1951. Elections in snow-bound Kinnaur region were held ahead of other places in India, where the elections were held in January and February of 1952.
Brand icon
Volkswagen
HISTORY OF THE VOLKSWAGEN BRAND
Volkswagen, which means the people's car, was established by Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche in an effort to make a cost-effective automobile for the people of Germany. Porsche went on to achieve later success with a line of luxury automobiles. The original designs for the Volkswagen Beetle were made in 1931; however, it wasn't until 1938 that the car was actually introduced to the public. The factory was based in Wolfsburg, Germany, and all cars were branded with the VW logo. The history of the Volkswagen brand is filled with conflict, and the company nearly closed its doors shortly after its launch.
1. Origins The first vehicles which Volkswagen introduced were noted for their fuel-efficiency, reliability and ease of repair. These were essential qualities during the war, since many consumer resources were allocated to the military. At the end of the war, the factory was heavily bombed and the British took control. 2. Expanse The Volkswagen brand found much success throughout Europe and North America during the 1950s and 1960s. Audi, the Volskwagen wholly owned subsidiary, started up in 1964. Volkswagen's popularity soared in the United States in 1969 when Disney featured a Beetle called "Herbie the Love Bug" in a series of family movies. 3. Going Global In 1974, Volkswagen took on its rivals in Europe and started expanding its consumer line of cars. The company introduced the Rabbit and the Passat, and built a factory in Western Pennsylvania to support its U.S. sales. 4. Quality Control Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the Volkswagen brand was plagued by a number of quality control issues, particularly in its American market. A number of shake-ups throughout the period resulted in a new focus for the company. Volkswagen wanted people to know that driving was fun again. 5. Going Green In the early 21st century, the Volkswagen brand launched a
major ad campaign to stimulate sales and spark growth. Combining a number of humorous ads along with a dedication to create cost-effective green TDI clean diesel cars, worked and the Volkswagen has become a global sales leader in the automobile market.
VOLKSWAGEN GROUP INDIA

The Volkswagen Group continues its forward momentum in India with the year 2011 promising to be a milestone in its India success story. The Volkswagen Group comprising of the three brands- Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen achieved an extraordinary growth in deliveries to customers of 131.9 per cent in the period January to September 2010. The three brands together delivered in total 32,359 vehicles to customers in the first nine months 2010 as compared to 13,956 cars sold from January to September 2009. The Volkswagen brand emerged as the largest selling brand of the group in the year 2010, with impressive sales figures of 15,957 vehicles in the period as against 2,201 cars sold in the corresponding period in 2009, a big leap of 625.0 per cent. Skoda sold 14,224 cars from January to September 2010 as against 10,415 cars sold between in the corresponding period in 2009, a growth of 36.6 per cent. Audi reported a growth of 63.4 per cent percent with 2,178 vehicles sold in nine month period in 2010 as against 1,333 vehicles sold last year.
18 different models, from the high end luxury sedan to the value-for-money compact car. With its headquarters in Pune, Maharashtra, the Volkswagen Group is represented by three brands in India: Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda. The Volkswagen Group is completing 10 years of its India journey, which began with the entry of the Skoda brand in 2001, Audi brand and Volkswagen brand in 2007. Each brand has its own character and operates as an independent entity in the market. With 18 models in India and more than 130 dealerships, Volkswagen Group India is all set to capture the Indian market, with the inauguration of the Pune plant which has an investment of Rs 3,800 crore (580 million Euros) and a production capacity of 110,000 cars annually. Volkswagen India Group is a part of Volkswagen AG, which is globally represented by 9 brands- Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Scania, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge) and Volkswagen Passenger Cars.
In the period January to September 2010, the best-selling car from Volkswagen was the Polo. It was one outstanding model in the Volkswagen Group's exceptional range, making the Polo a benchmark in the compact segment. It is manufactured in the Chakan plant, Pune. Another sought after car from the Volkswagen brand is the Jetta, which was launched in India in 2008. It is assembled in the Volkswagen's Group Aurangabad plant. The best selling cars of Skoda in the first nine months 2010 was the Fabia and the Laura. The Fabia, a supermini, is amongst the popular choices under the hatchback segment. It is manufactured in the Chakan Plant in Pune. Audi A4 and Audi A6 are amongst the list of top luxury cars worldwide and were best selling from January to September 2010. Both are assembled in Aurangabad plant along with the Audi Q5. In the luxury SUV segment too, Audi continues to retain its leadership position with the Q5 and the Q7 registering impressive sales. Volkswagen Group continues to strengthen its presence in India and is moving rapidly towards making a mark in the country. Currently, the three brands of the Group offer in total
Volkswagen: at a glance Industry Automotive Founded 28 May 1937 Ferdinand Porsche Headquarters Wolfsburg, Germany Key people Martin Winterkorn (Chairman of the Board of Management) Ferdinand Pich (Chairman of Supervisory Board) Products Cars Production output 4,591,851 units (2010) Revenue 80.251 billion (2010) ($119 billion USD) Employees 368,500 (2009)
Angela Merkel has been chosen for Nehru Award

Angela Merkel the German Chancellor has been chosen for the highly prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for the International Understanding for her tremendous efforts towards sustainable and equitable development, it was announced in New Delhi. The jury, chaired by Vice-President Mr. Mohammad Hamid Ansari, had decided to confabulate the award for 2009 on Dr. Angela, an External Affairs Ministry release said. It said that The 57-year-old Angela Merkel is known well for her efforts for good governance and understanding and for the creation of a world better positioned to handle the emerging challenges of the 21st century. It also said that she has been benevolent to the developing countries and our own developmental imploring and has led the search for a balanced solution based on the principles of equity and sensitivity to the interests of developing world. The award also carries a cash prize money of Rs.1 crore besides a trophy and citation.Mr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Mother Teresa, Kenneth Kaunda, Aung San Suu Kyi, Hosni Mubarak, Josip Broz Tito and Nelson Mandela are few of the past recipients of the prestigious award.
PT Panorama
Effective Internet Security

nternet security is a critically important issue. The Internet is, by definition, a network; networks are open, and are thus open to attack. A poor Internet security policy can result in a substantial loss of productivity and a drop in consumer confidence. When developing an Internet security policy, keep the followingin mind: r be eternally vigilant: the perfect Internet security system will be out of date the next day. r combine software and human expertise: security software can only do so much; it must be combined with human expertiseand experience. r secure internally as well as externally; many security breaches come from inside the organization.
FAQs
r r r r
What are examplesof best practice in Internetsecurity? Considerthe followingas best practice: have an Internetsecurity policy. if your system has been compromised, seek immediate independentexpert help. for complete safety after an attack, the best course of action is to reformat the hard disk. strip your computer down to its bare essentials. The more features, options, and software your computer has, the more open it is to attack. This is particularly true for Internet-related software and functions. for personal computers, be very careful about always-on connections provided by many broadband suppliers. An always-on connection to the Internet is always open to probing and attack by a hacker. do not download software from the Internet unless you are totally confidentthat it is from a reputablesource.
simply required the opening of the e-mail itself. Be very careful about unexpected e-mails from unfamiliar sources. If in doubt, delete without opening.
MAKING IT HAPPEN
Cookies collect information on how you browse the Web, and are a relatively low security risk. However, cookies can encourage lazy security practices, since they remember user-names and passwords. Yes. It used to be impossible to be infected by a computer virus transmitted by e-mail unless you opened the e-mail attachment. However, more recent viruses such as Nimda
Are cookiesa securitythreat?
Can you get a virus by openingan e-mail?
Keep the following in mind when developing your Internet security policy: r Many security breaches come from within an organization. The fewer people with access to the inner workings of the system, therefore, the better. Those who are allowed access must be recorded and given specific access rights. Immediately delete revoked and inactive users, or users who have left the organization. r A rigorous procedure should be in place for granting and revoking rights of access streamline hardware and software: a complex system is more open to attack. In your server software, for example, strip away as many of the optional features as possible, r Have a password policy. Do not allow simple or obvious passwords. Make sure passwords are changedregularly. r Have procedures for data backup and disaster recovery. r Have procedures for responding to security breaches, be vigilant. The Internet security threat is constantly changing,and constantvigilanceis the best security. r Have your security policy audited by an external professional organization, and have them on call should a major breach occur.
Developan Internet securitypolicy
A firewall is software that polices the space between your computer system and the outside world. The design and management of firewalls has become more complex since the advent of the Web because of the vast increase in activity between computers and the Internet. If the firewall is too stringent, it slows everything down and prevents people from tarrying out certain legitimate activities; if it is too lax, however, it opens the computerup to attack. Computer viruses are becoming more sophisticated and widespread. By September 2001, it was estimated that one in every 300 e-mails contained a virus, up from one in every 700 in October 2000. It is essential to have antivirus software and to keep it up to date. It is equally vital to upgrade your computer with the latest software security patches. The main objective of a hacker is to gain unauthorized access to another computer. This is done by probing for vulnerabilities on the computer, perhaps the result of flaws in the computer s o f t w a re a n d / o r p o o r s e c u r i t y procedures. The Web is more open than a stand-alone computer; so many hackers now focus on web-based applications. Many of these applications are still relatively new and have not developed robust security measures. Security breaches can range from the hacker changing the pricing in a shopping cart to the theft of credit card numbers. The only way to deal with hackers is to implement rigorous security procedures and to monitoractivity on the networkconstantly. After a security breach there arc two basic objectives. First, find out what happened so that you can stop it happening again. Second, find out who did it so that you can prosecute or otherwise deal with them. It is very difficult to prosecute a security breach without hard evidence, and very easy to contaminate or destroy such evidence. "In dealing with security breaches, make sure that: r You get professional advice, particularly if it is the first time your security has been breached. r You protect all log information tracking activity on the system. r The informationcollectedis technicallyaccurate. r Information is collected from various sources to develop an overall picture of what happened. r No informationis tampered with or modified.
The benefitsof firewalls
In monitoringfor security breaches: r Check access and error log files for suspiciousactivity. r Be alert for unusual system commands. r Be alert for repeated attemptsto enter a password. Denial of service attacks do not seek to break into a computer system, but rather to crash a website by deluging it with phony traffic. They are difficult to defend against, and have been directed at some of the best-known web-sites, such as CNN and eBay. Firewalls can be designed to block repeated traffic from a particularsource. A web server is potentially an open door into your network: if someone can break into your server, they are closer to breaking into your entire computer system. Before you set up a web server, you must ensure that you understand and deal effectively with the various security issues. From an e-commerce perspective, a secure server is a prerequisite. A secure ser ver uses encr yption when transferring or receiving data from the Web. Without a secure server, credit card information, for example, could be easily targeted by a hacker. A secure server will encrypt this information, turning it into special code that will then be decrypted only when it is safely within the server environment. Equally important is what happens to the confidential information once it has reached the server environment. Once the information has been acted on, it should be spliced in encrypted form. In the case of sensitive information, such as credit card details, it should be deleted. You can restrict access to part or all of your website in a number of ways. The most common is by implementing a username and password system. However, you can also restrict access by IP (Internet) address, so that only people connecting from a certain address or domain can access information. Perhaps, the most powerful approach is to use public key cryptography, whereby only the person with the assigned cryptographykey can request and read the information. Outsourcing creates an increased security risk. You must establish that the outsource vendor will adhere to your security
Denialof service attacks
Dealingwith viruses
Sittingup a web server
Dealingwith hackers
Reactingto a securitybreach
Restrictingaccessto your website
Securityand outsourcing
policy, and that all work done adheres to proper security procedures. Specific questions that you need to ask your outsourcing vendor include: r What is its security policy? r What are its data backup and disaster-recovery procedures? r How is your data safeguarded from that of other customers? r How is your data safeguarded from the vendor's own employees? r How is it insured with regard to security breaches?
Viruses are becoming increasingly common. If you haven't had one so far, either you are tremendously lucky or you have excellentantivirusprocedures.
Thinkingthat you won't get a virus
Thinkingthat you are anonymouson the Internet
COMMON MISTAKES
There is no such thing as a perfect security system. Without constant vigilance,computersystems become an open invitation for hackers and viruses. An essential part of such vigilance is having the very latest security patches and antivirus software installed.
Not being eternally vigilant
In general, you are not. When you visit a website, you will provide some or all of the followinginformation: r IP address r Time of access r User-name(if a user-nameand password are used) r The URL requested r The URL you were at just before you visited the website r The amount of data you downloaded r The browser and operatingsystem you arc using r Your e-mail address
The Inside Story of the Brands

We buy big brand products without ever knowing how these names made history. Brands have interesting stories of getting their names.
Flogers Coffee:
In 1850, an entrepreneur was looking for a carpenter to build his first coffee mill in San Francisco. He hired a 16 year old young but skilled in the trade of carpentry, carpenter James A. Folger. Later, he became a full partner of The Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills.
Procter and Gamble:

Procter-Gamble William Procter and James Gamble would never have met if had they not married sisters. The father of the brides convinced his new sons-in-law to become business partners and as a result, a bold, new enterprisewas born.
Wendy:
Wendy HamburgersDave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's Hamburgers, dreamt of running the best restaurant in the world, when he was eight and from the age of 12, he started following this dream. In 1969, his dream came true and he opened the first Wendy's Old Fashioned.
Maybelline:
Maybelline T.L. Williams created the Maybelline Company, which was named after his sister Maybel, whose dark lashes inspired him to come up with the idea of producing and selling an easy-to-use product to darken eyelashes.
Baskin Robbins:
As a teen, Irvine Robbins worked in his father's ice cream store and Burton Baskin, was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, who produced ice cream for his fellow troops. They started out in separate ventures but later their separate identities merged into a single ice-cream chain, which the world knows as Baskin-Robbins.
Lacoste:
LacosteRene Lacoste, a famous tennis player, had a winning bet with his team captain over an alligator skin suitcase and after winning the bet, he started wearing an embroidered crocodile on his tennis blazer. He later founded a company to manufacture the shirt, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Profile
Pratip Chaudhuri:
SBI Chairman
BI people's man Mr Pratip Chaudhuri, 57 years, has taken over as the chairman of the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, after working 37 years in the bank. Mr Chaudhuri a B.Sc. (Hons), MBA, joined State Bank of India as Probationary Officer in 1974. Immediately prior to the present assignment, he was posted as Dy Managing Director and Group Executive (International Banking), State Bank of India since April 2009.
In November 2010, SBI raised euro 750 million (about Rs 4,650 crore) through a five-year bond issue in a day, making it the country's first-of-the-kind in the past three years and the first ever Asian issue for 2010. Just before the new assignment, he was working on plans to acquire a second bank in Indonesia. SBI already has a controlling stake in one small bank in this ASEAN country. The stateowned bank is, in fact, looking to expand its international branch network from the current 150, by adding 40 more branches shortly. Chaudhuri, a science graduate, had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1974 and has been handling his present portfolio, since April 2009. He is credited with successfully working on the amalgamation of the State Bank of Saurashtra, an SBI subsidiary, with the parentan exercise that set the stage for merger of the six remaining associate banks. At initial stage after his joining in the bank, in the early part of decade, he had a stint at SBI Mutual Fund, an experience that would help him push capital market products to corporates as well retail customers. During his illustrious career spanning 37 years in State Bank of India, he held several important positions viz.:
r Chief General Manager (Foreign Offices) at Corporate Centre, Mumbai. r Managing Director, State Bank of Saurashtra, r Chief General Manager, Chennai Circle, r General Manager, Mid Corporate Group, New Delhi Region, r General Manager, Commercial Banking, Local Head Office, New Delhi r Chief Investment Officer, SBI Mutual Fund, r Dy General Manager, Merchant Banking, International Banking Group, r AGM & Relationship Manager, Corporate Accounts Group, New Delhi r Vice President (Operations), SBI Canada, Toronto
Known among SBI insiders to be a people's man a quality that came in more than handy while dealing with trade unions while overseeing the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra the selection committee was obviously impressed by the work done by the bank's international banking division, which Chaudhuri headed as Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive (international banking), since April 2009. The posting of Mr Chaudhuri as group executive (international banking), followed a change in the international banking strategy, focusing on creating long-term loan assets a move initiated by him. The country's largest lender has now started providing loans for an average maturity of three-and-ahalf years, against one year in the past. Besides, the bank provides foreign currency loans only if the parent company guarantees the loan availed by its overseas subsidiary. Giving the rationale for a change in the policy, Chaudhuri had earlier said that since the bank has long-term foreign currency liabilities (deposits and bonds raised by SBI) on its books, financing long-term assets helps to reduce asset-liability mismatches. Secondly, returns on long-term assets are much higher, compared with short-term loans. Under Chaudhuri, advances given by SBI's overseas offices crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time. He has been instrumental in raising billions of dollars in the global market and colleagues say that his astute negotiating skills were on full display to get the best rate for SBI overseas bond offerings.
Profile
Oprah Gail Winfrey
prah Gail Winfrey was born at home in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954, her existence the result of what she called "a one-day fling under an oak tree". Her mum, a part-time maid, was 18; her father, 20.
After spending her first years on her grandmother's Mississippi farm, the bright six-year-old went to live with her single mother, who struggled on welfare in a poor Milwaukee, Wisconsin, neighbourhood. She was just nine years old when her life was changed forever when she was raped by a teenage cousin. Over the next five years, she was molested by three other men, all friends of the family. As a young teen, the intelligent girl with butterfly rimmed glasses became a rebel, breaking curfew and stealing behaviour that would have sent her to a detention centre had her father, a Nashville barber, not taken her in. Under her father's disciplined and loving care (he immediately banned her from calling him "Pops" and wearing short skirts), she went from delinquent to honour student. The 5ft 7in pupil was voted the most popular student at Nashville High School and competed in the Miss Black America pageant. She won an oratory scholarship to Tennessee State University in 1971, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in speech and drama. When she was 19, still a college student and living at home, Oprah took a job as a broadcaster at a local TV station. She may have been appearing onscreen nightly as the first black person and first woman hired to anchor the news in Nashville but that didn't stop her dad from insisting she be home by midnight. In 1976, she took a job as an evening news co-anchor in Baltimore, but after breaking into tears when reporting sad stories, she realised hard news was not her forte. Instead, she signed for a stint on a local morning show. Seven years later, having moved to Illinois, the seal was set on her career when the show she presented, AM Chicago, became The Oprah Winfrey Show. Suddenly, the 30-year-old Oprah was competing with silver-haired veteran chat show icon Phil Donahue on Chicago screens. Folksy yet street smart, she was unlike anything TV had ever seen before. In September 1985, The Oprah Winfrey Show made its national debut and trounced rival Donahue in the ratings, addressing a broad mix of human issues, from family disputes to racism.
"I don't think of myself as a businesswoman," said Oprah Winfrey in 2002.Well, Forbesmagazinecertainly does. She's made their rich list every year since 1995. An abuse survivor born to a teenage mum and raised in poverty, the woman now known simply by her first name is today the head of a billion dollarmediaempire.
The same year, Hollywood came knocking. Producer Quincy Jones had spotted her on Chicago TV and asked Steven Spielberg to consider her for a role in The Color Purple. Her powerful acting debut brought her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination in 1986. Throughout her career, she has continued to act, including a role in the screen adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved, which she also produced.
In the early eighties, she met the love of her life, a 6ft 6in PR executive with a graduate degree in education, Stedman Graham. And the answer to the oft-asked question: after nearly 20 years together, why not tie the knot? Says the never-married mogul: "Once we settled we were going to be together, it ceased to be an issue. It just never comes up." One thing that does come up and down is her weight. She once said: "People tell me not to lose weight, I might lose my personality. I tell them, 'Honey, it ain't in my thighs"." A chronic dieter, she lost 67lbs in 1989, and said soon after, "I feel like I've been given wings." Her flight was short-lived, however, as by 1991, she'd gained most of it back. Yet honesty about her weight struggles only brought her closer to audiences. Her programme, currently airing in many countries, has been at number one for nearly two decades, while being included in her Oprah's Book Club show increases the sales of a publication tenfold. Also under the Oprah umbrella are Harpo Productions and O, The Oprah Magazine, the paid circulation of which beats that of US Vogue. She's also ventured into the cable TV game with a stake in women's channel, Oxygen. Such successful ventures led her to become the first black woman to join the ranks of Forbes magazine's billionaires list in 2003. A philanthropist who set up two charitable organizations Oprah's Angel Network and A Better Chance, she donates at least ten percent of her massive income to good causes, mostly anonymously. The girl from Mississippi, who announced in 2002 that she would be quitting her successful show after 20 years, dedicates her success to her black female forerunners: author Maya Angelou (now a close friend), 19th-century abolitionist Sojourner Truth, and entrepreneur Madame C J Walker. "I believe I am the seed of the free," she says. "I believe those women are a part of my legacy and the bridges that I crossed to get where I am today. They are looking out for me. Because her style of talk is that of confessing intimate details about her life and crying alongside her guests, Time magazine credits her in creating a new form of media communication which distinguishes her show from the others. She earned from her show until she became the worlds richest African-American woman in 20th century and is ranked as the most influential woman in the world. She even made her show a legend when she once gave all her 276 audiences a car! She also established the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls which is a girl boarding school in South Africa for providing educational and leadership opportunities to gifted South African girls from poor families.
Quote
The Oprah Winfrey Show
My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. I think that when you invite people to your home, you invite them to yourself. Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you - the first time around. Every one of us gets through the tough times because somebody is there, standing in the gap to close it for us. I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself. I trust that everything happens for a reason, even when we're not wise enough to see it. If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think. You can have it all. You just cant have it all at once. The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work. Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Dont fight them. Just find a different way to stand.
PT Panorama
Important facts: Agriculture in India

1. Agriculture and Allied Sectors contribute nearly 22% of GDP and 65-70% of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Nearly 60% of the area sown is dependent on rainfall. Land utilization statistics are available for 92.9% of total geographical area of 328.7 lakh hectare, among which, the area under forest cover is 695.5 lakh ha. Horticultural crops occupy 10% of gross cropped area that produce 160.75 m tons. Total production of fruits is at 49.36 m tones and vegetables is at 93 m tons. The cultivation of Vanilla (Plantation of crop) in India started in 1990s and was confined mostly to Karnataka and Kerala. India holds 6th place, with 7% world's market share in medicinal and aromatic plants. There are 35 plants Quarantine Station at different Airports, Seaports and Land frontiers. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement) of WTO envisages application of phytosanitary measures as per the international standards. The subject monitoring of pesticide residues has been allocated to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. Indian Seed programme largely adheres to the limited generation system which recognizes 3 generationsbreeder, foundation and certified seeds. 2.
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12. India accounts for 57% of the world's buffalo population and 14% of cattle population. 13. The present availability of human protein in an Indian diet is 10 gm per person per day, as against a world average of 25 gm. 14. Chilly is the most widely grown spice in India.
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15. India's share in the world production of mango is about 39 per cent and of banana is 23 per cent. 16. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. 17. In grapes, India has recorded the highest productivity per unit area in the World. 18. India produces 45 per cent of the global production of cashew. Besides this, India is the largest producer, processor, consumer and exporter of cashew in the world. 19. India leads 90 coconut-producing countries in the world and is the 3rd largest producer of coconuts. 20. India is 100% self sufficient in respect of urea and about 90% in case of DAP .
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10. To encourage export of seeds, seeds of various crops have been placed under Open General Licence (OGL) except the seeds of wild varieties, germplasm, breeder seeds and onion seeds. 11. Animal husbandry output constitutes about 32% of country's agricultural output.
21. The mean of the fertilizer intake in all over India is 96.40 kg/ha of NPK fertilizers. Punjab and Haryana ranks 1st and 2nd in the fertilizer consumption. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, etc., are not even consuming 10 kg/ha 22. Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) is issued under Essential Commodities Act to regulate the price, trade, quality and distribution of fertilizers in the country. 23. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an eco friendly approach, aimed at minimum use of chemical pesticides by employing available methods for pest control like Cultural, Mechanical and Biological methods. 24. Kisan Call Centers have been functioning since 21st January, 2004 and working in 14 different locations covering almost all the states of the country. All KCC locations are accessible by dialing single toll free number 1551. 25. NRAA (National Rain fed Area Authority) Scheme- The Union Cabinet approved the setting up of the NRAA on 10th August, 2006. The authority is a policy making and advisory body. 26. The Livestock Insurance Scheme was implemented during the last two years of the 10th Five Year Plan i.e. 2005-06 and 2006-07 on pilot basis in 100 selected districts across the country. 27. About 25% of the total egg production in the country comes from the Desi poultry. 28. Presently, about 50% of the shrimp exported from the country is from aquaculture. 29. A centrally sponsored scheme on National Food Security Mission has been launched in the country to enhance the production of rice, wheat and pulses by 10, 8 and 2 million tons respectively by the end of the 11th Plan. 30. Pursuant to the resolution adopted on 29/5/2007 by the National Development Council (NDC), to reorient the current agricultural development strategies to meet the rejuvenated agriculture so as to achieve 4% annual growth during the 11th Five Year Plan, a new State Plan Scheme of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) for agriculture and allied sectors, namely, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) was launched during 2007-08 with an envisaged outlay of Rs. 25,000 crore for the 11th Five-year plan. 31. India accounts for the 10 per cent of the production of fruits and 13.28 per cent of Vegetable production in the World. 32. India is the 3rd largest producer and customer of fertilizers in the World after China and USA.
END OF OSAMA'S TERROR

......but devils still dwell End of the Man of Terror Is worth celebrating. But it shouldn't be misunderstood With final end of battling. Though Osama's death has brought Exquisitely expressions of bliss But sufferings of hundreds of thousands Couldn't be lessened with this. USA has kept its commitment to See that justice is done But the fact that there are Clumps of such devils can't be shunned. An alarming concern that has Come into the spotlight is The fact that Pakistan is a haven Of dreadful terrorism and fright. Like America, if each nation Stand up bold with fraternity Our terror haunted world can get Free of such scourge to humanity. Pragya Chaturvedi
Trivia
r r r r r r r r r Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart. Shopper's stop belongs to K. Raheja group. Wal-Mart started its international operations from Mexico country. The full form of EDLP is Every Day Low Pricing. Yum group operates the brands Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. Wadias group owns Go Air. The rural initiative of ITC is called E- Choupal. 'The Power of Dreams' is the slogan of auto brand Honda. K-Lounge is the fashion retail chain of Kewal Kiran Clothing.
PT Panorama
arry Manilow may claim to write the songs, but it was William Shakespeare who coined the phrases. He contributed more phrases and sayings to the English language than any other individual - and most of them are still in daily use. Here are a few from the collection of well-known quotations that are associated with Shakespeare. Most of these were the Bard's own work, but he wasn't averse to stealing a good line occasionally and a few of these were 'popularised by' rather than 'coined by' Shakespeare.
Phrases coined by William Shakespeare Much ado about nothing
A brief introduction of the playwright:

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
A few phrases from the collection, their meanings and origins: 1. A fool's paradise Meaning: A state of happiness based on false hope. Origin: An early phrase, first recorded in the Paston Letters,
1462: "I wold not be in a folis paradyce." Shakespeare later used it in Romeo and Juliet, 1592.
2. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet Meaning: What matters is what something is, not what it is
called.
Origin: From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1600:
A story, much favoured by tour guides, and as such highly suspect, is that in this line Shakespeare was also making a joke at the expense of the Rose Theatre. The Rose was a local rival to his Globe Theatre and is reputed to have had less than effective sanitary arrangements. The story goes that this was a coy joke about the smell. This certainly has the whiff of folk etymology about it, but it might just be true.
3. Brevityis the soul of wit Meaning: There's no briefer way of expressing this thought than Shakespeare's; making further explanation redundant. Origin: From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602
4. Bewarethe Ides of March Origin: From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 1601. 'Beware the Ides of March' is the soothsayer's message to Julius Caesar, warning of his death.
The Ides of March didn't signify anything special in itself this was just the usual way of saying "March 15th." Each month has an Ides (usually the 15th) and this date wasn't significant in being associated with death. Months of the Roman calendar were arranged around three named days and these were reference points from which the other (unnamed) days were calculated: Kalends (1st day of the month). Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months). Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months).
JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
7. Et tu, Brute (You too Brutus) Meaning: Supposedly the last words of Julius Caesar. Literally 'And you, Brutus?'. Origin: In 44 BC, Julius Caesar was murdered by a group of senators. They were led by Marcus Brutus, who had previously been a close friend of Caesar. There's no substantiated evidence to show that Julius Caesar spoke those words. They come to us via Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar which, like many of his history plays, tends to massage historical record somewhat for dramatic effect. In the play Caesar begins to resist the attack but resigns himself to his fate when he sees that his friend is amongst the plotters:
Caesar: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel? Casca: Speak, hands, for me! [They stab Caesar.] Caesar: Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! [Dies.] Cinna: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
5. Love is blind Origin: This was coined by Shakespeare and was quite a favourite line of his. It appears in several of his plays, including T wo Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V and The Merchant Of Venice. For example, this piece from The Merchant Of Venice, 1596:
JESSICA: Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains. I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me, For I am much ashamed of my exchange: But love is blind and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit; For if they could, Cupid himself would blush To see me thus transformed to a boy. Modern-day research supports the view that the blindness of love is not just a figurative matter. A research study in 2004 by University College London found that feelings of love suppressed the activity of the areas of the brain that control critical thought.
8. Pound of flesh Meaning: Something which is owed that is ruthlessly required to be paid back. Origin: This of course derives from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 1596. The insistence by Shylock of the payment of Antonio's flesh is the central plot device of the play:
SHYLOCK: The pound of flesh which I demand of him is deerely bought, 'tis mine, and I will haue it. The figurative use of the phrase to refer to any lawful but nevertheless unreasonable recompense dates to the late 18th century.
6. O Romeo,Romeo!whereforeart thou Romeo? Meaning: Literal meaning. Origin: This is one of Shakespeare's best known lines from, of course, Romeo and Juliet, 1592. The 'wherefore' here means why rather than where. What Juliet is asking, in allusion to the feud between her Capulet family and Romeo's Montague clan, is 'Romeo, why are you a Montague?'. Their love is impossible because of their family names and she asks him to change his allegiance, or else she will change hers.
9. Much ado about nothing Meaning: A great deal of fuss over nothing of importance. Origin: This phrase is sometimes shortened just to 'much ado'. It is of course from Shakespeare's play - Much Ado About Nothing, 1599. He had used the word ado, which means business or activity, in an earlier play - Romeo and Juliet, 1592:
"Weele keepe no great adoe, a Friend or two.
Business trivia
r The sewing machine was patented on August 12, 1851, by Isaac Singer of Pittstown, New York.
Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. Coca-Cola was originally green. Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
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Pepsi spent a lot of money on an advertising campaign in China with the slogan Pepsi gives you life unfortunately, it was translated as Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.
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Inventor Joshua L. Cowen, created the first battery, which spawned American Eveready. He also created Lionel trains. The United States minted a 1787 copper coin with the motto 'Mind Your Business.' The WD in WD-40 stands for Water Displacement. It was invented on the 40th try for a formula that worked. The world's first adhesive postage stamp went on sale in England in 1840. It was the Penny Black, portraying Queen Victoria. The world's first singing commercial was aired on the radio on Christmas Eve, 1926 for Wheaties cereal. The four male singers, eventually known as the Wheaties Quartet, sang the jingle. The yo-yo was introduced in 1929 by Donald F. Duncan. The toy was based on a weapon used by 16th-century Filipino hunters. There are about 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar, while a cup of coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams.
Townsend Speakman of Philadelphia mixed fruit flavor with soda water in 1807, creating the first flavored soda pop, he called it Nephite Julep. VHS stands for Video Home System.
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A can of Diet Coke will float in water while a can of regular Coke sinks. Approximate 7% of Americans eat McDonalds each day.
Colgate faced significant obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself."
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All hospitals in Singapore use Pampers diapers.

Levi Strauss first intended to sell his denim material to the
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miners who were searching for gold in 1850, in order to make tents and covers for their wagons.
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The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
When KFC first translated its advertising slogan "finger lickin' good" into Chinese, it came out as "eat your fingers off."
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In 1921, advertising manager Sam Gale of General Mills created fictional spokeswoman Betty Crocker so that correspondence to housewives could be sent with her signature.
When Scott Paper Co. first started manufacturing toilet paper they did not put their name on the product because of embarrassment.
Wrigley's promoted their new
spearmint-flavored chewing gum in 1915 by mailing 4 sample sticks to each of the 1.5 million names listed in US telephone books.
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Tata Sons executive director R Gopalakrishnan in his
Franklin Templeton's operational
philosophy is this saying by Benjamin FranklinWith money and financial planning prudence comes first.
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book, 'The Case of the Bonsai Manager: Lessons from Nature on Growing', analyzes the human brain into three parts the Cabbage, the Lemon, and the Pea
Sega started as the Service Games of Japan and was
In the U.K., the vehicle G-Wiz, known as Reva in India, is supported by the government where owners are exempt from paying parking fees, congestion taxes, sales and road tax exemptions, 100% depreciation in the first year etc.
r
founded by an American named Marty Bromley to import pinball games to Japan for use on American military bases there.
Dorling Kindersley, an international publishing company
Euronext was formed on September 22, 2000 in a merger
of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Brussels Stock Exchange, and Paris Bourse, in order to take advantage of the harmonization of the European Union financial markets.
r
almost synonymous with beautifully-produced illustrated reference books for adults and children in 51 languages, went bankrupt when it produced 13 million copies of a book on Star Wars in 1999 but failed to sell more than 3 million of the same, and sold out to Pearson Plc
r
Silicon Valley was a term was first used by Don Hoefler in
Fashion TV was founded in France in 1997 by Michel Adam
the January 11, 1971 issue of weekly trade newspaper Electronic News.
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Lisowski The name of Inferno an open-source operating system for creating and supporting distributed serviceswas inspired by the literary works of Dante Alighieri, particularly the Divine Comedy The largest-selling children's author, J K Rowling, has outsold her nearest two rivals combined EnidBlyton and Dr Seuss.
Sicko, a 2007 documentary film by Michael Moore, with the
Media magnate Ted Turner owns the largest private bison
herd, numbering more than 45,000 and seeks to popularise bison meat in his chain of restaurants.
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'Le Mariage de Figaro' is a 1778 play by Pierre-Augustin
Caron de Beaumarchais, which was turned into a famous opera by Mozart. It contains a motto, Sans la libert de blmer, il n'est point d'loge flatteur which translates as Without the freedom to criticise, there is no true praise. This motto inspired the founding of Le Figaro, France's leading newspaper, in 1826.
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catchline This might hurt a little, critically examines and compares to its disadvantage the US Healthcare System with that in Canada and UK. r
Bajaj was founded in 1945 as first Bachraj Trading Corporation Pvt. Ltd. having sold scooters for over five
Bertelsmann, whose punchline is 'Media worldwide', was
founded in July 1835 mainly to publish and sell Christian songs and books. By 1940, it was already a major enterprise with some 400 employees. It profited from slave labor and publication of Nazi propaganda and managed to survive the post-war upheaval. It soon branched into music publishing and other areas and is a media giant today.
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decades.
r In the name of the popular computer iMAC, 'i' stand for Internet.
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In 1981, management guru Peter Drucker said that the best-run organization in the US was 'The Girl Scouts of America'.
Louis B Meyer, founder of MGM, came into the business
Czechoslovakia were the roots of the mobike Jawa later known as Yezdi.
as a theater owner in Massachusetts. He got his first break as a second-tier distributor of D. W. Griffith's blockbuster film 'Birth of a Nation' (1915).
r Mukesh Ambani and Azim Premji are the two Indian businessmen who figure in the TIME list of most influential persons of 2010 in the world. r
Google search engine started its life as BACKRUB.
General knowledge
1. Redistribution polices geared to reduce economic inequalities include (1) progressive tax policies (2) land reforms (3) rural development policies (4) All the above Short-term finance is usually for a period ranging up to (1) 5 months (2) 10 months (3) 12 months (4) 15 months In India, which one among the following formulates the fiscal policy? (1) Planning Commission (2) Ministry of Finance (3) Finance Commission (4) The Reserve Bank of India India is the largest producer of which of the following? (A) Coconut (B) Cashew nut (C) Black Pepper (1) Only A (2) Only B (3) Only C (4) All A, B and C Paper currency first started in India in (1) 1862 (2) 1542 (3) 1601 (4) 1880 The ARDC is now a branch of the (1) RBI (2) (3) IDBI (4) 8. In India, maximum number of newspapers are published in (1) Hindi (2) Bengali (3) English (4) Malayalam The official language of Lakshadweep, a Union Territory of India, is: (1) Tamil (2) Hindi (3) Malayalam (4) Telugu
9. 2.
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10. The largest automobile manufacturing centre in the world is located at (1) Detroit (2) Tokyo (3) Birmingham (4) Berlin 11. Which one of the following statements is NOT correct? (1) The Press Council of India is an Autonomous quasijudicial body established under an Act of Parliament (2) The Press Information Bureau provides accredition to media persons so as to have easy access to information from government sources (3) Among all the states of India, Maharashtra publishes the largest number of newspapers (4) Press Trust of India is the largest news agency in the country. 12. Which one of the following statements is correct? (1) East Timor was a British colony for four centuries (2) The European colonial rulers handed over East Timor to Indonesia in 1975 (3) The United Nations took over East Timor in 1999 to prepare it for independence (4) East Timor finally declared its independence in Dec 2001 13. Indian Railways earn the maximum revenue from (1) passenger fare (2) freight (3) traffic tax (4) passenger tax
4.
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6.
NABARD SDBI
7.
Which one of the following statements is not corect? (1) The largest Buddhist monastry in India is in Assam (2) The language Konyak is spoken in Nagaland (3) The largest river island in the world is in Assam (4) Sikkim is the least-populated State of the Indian Union
14. 'Kavach' is (1) a new safety equipment designed for the soldiers of Indian Army (2) an anti-collision device to prevent collision between trains designed by the Konkan Railway Corporation (3) a new design for earthquake resistant buildings (4) a new device for the Indian airports for the safe landing of aircrafts 15. From where did India introduce cultivation of tobacco/tapicoa/pineapple? (1) Pacific Islands (2) Africa (3) South America (4) China 16. Which of the following is not a part of machinery that settles industrial disputes? (1) Wage Court (2) Works Committee (3) Conciliation officers (4) Board of Conciliation 17. The first telegraph line between Calcutta and Agra was opened in (1) 1852 (2) 1853 (3) 1854 (4) 1855 18. The largest postal network in the world is in (1) USA (2) China (3) India (4) Brazil 19. Which monument in India is the memorial to the unknown soldier? (1) India Gate (2) Shakti Sthal (3) Victoria Memorial (4) None of the above 20. With which country India signed a contract for supply of nuclear fuel for the Koodankulam atomic power plant? (1) Russia (2) France (3) Israel (4) Germany 21. Which among the following is the highest rank in Indian Air Force? (1) Flying Officer (2) Air Commodore (3) Wing Commander (4) Squadron Leader
22. The longest passenger rail route in India links (1) Tiruvananthapuram and Jammu Tawi (2) Tiruvananthapuram and Guwahati (3) Jammu Tawi and Guwahati (4) Kanyakumari and Jammu Tawi 23. National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, replacing Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme, was introduced in the year (1) 1997 (2) 1998 (3) 1999 (4) 2000 24. Fiscal deficit in the Union Budget means (1) the difference between current expenditure and current revenue (2) net increase in Union Governments borrowings from the Reserve Bank of India (3) the sum of budgetary deficit and net increase in internal and external borrowings (4) the sum of monetized deficit and budgetary deficit 25. How banks were nationalized in 1969? (1) 16 (2) 14 (3) 15 (4) 20 26. The accounting year of the Reserve Bank of India is (1) April-March (2) July-June (3) October-September (4) January-December 27. Which among the following island of the Andaman and Nicobar islands contains the only known examples of mud volcanoes in India, called locally as "Jalki"? (1) Baratang island (2) Barren island (3) Car Nicobar (4) Havelock island 28. Which is the longest railway platform in India? (1) Howrah (2) Kharagpur (3) Mugalsarai (4) Mumbai VT 29. Next to Hindi, the language spoken by the largest number of people in the Indian sub-continent is: (1) Tamil (2) Bengali (3) Telugu (4) Urdu
30. The first electric railway was opened in (1) 1853 (2) 1885 (3) 1905 (4) 1929 31. The first Indian satellite to go into orbit is (1) Rohini (2) Bhaskara-1 (3) Aryabhatta (4) INSAT-1A 32. The largest mosque in India is (1) Jama Masjid (2) Bijapur Masjid (3) Moti Masjid (4) None of these 33. The first nuclear explosion in India took place at: (1) Bombay (2) Nellie (3) Pokhran (4) Sriharikota 34. If the level of atmospheric pollution increases, (1) the length of the day will increase (2) the length of the day will decrease (3) the length of the day will remain the same (4) one will not be able to make any prediction about the length of the day purely on the basis of the level of pollution 35. Which of the following countries has the briefest Constitution in the world? (1) Russia (2) U.K. (3) U.S.A. (4) France 36. World's highest airport is located at (1) Chushul in Ladakh (2) Leh in Ladakh (3) Nanjing in China (4) Bangda in Eastern Tibet 37. The largest man-made canal in the world is (1) Rhine Canal (2) Panama Canal (3) Suez Canal (4) None of these 38. The longest optical fibre cable of the world is laid between (1) London and New York (2) Paris and Tokyo (3) Singapore and Marseilles (4) Manila and Toronto
39. What percentage of Indians are Hindi-speaking? (1) 50 (2) 45 (3) 40 (4) 30 40. Which of the following pairs of explorers and discoveries is incorrectly matched? (1) Christopher Columbus - North America (2) James Cook - Australia and New Zealand (3) Marco Polo - India (4) Robert Peary - Greenland 41. The Shimla pact between India and Pakistan stood for (1) abstaining from first use of nuclear weapons (2) bilateral settlement of disputes (3) final resolution of Jammu and Kashmir problem (4) resolution of dispute relating to Rann of Kachchh 42. Which one of the following statements is correct? (1) Alliance Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines (2) The Airport Authority of India manages seven of the country's international airports (3) The Airports Authority of India is the regulatory organisation for enforcing civil air regulations in India (4) It is the function of Directorate General of Civil Aviation to plan and construct runways and termination building and to provide air safety services 43. 'Sagar Samrat' is the name of (1) an island near Port Blair (2) a drilling ship in Bombay High (3) an island near Maldives (4) name of a 5-star hotel in Goa 44. 'Kandla', situated on the Gulf of Kachchh, is well known for which of the following? (1) Ship breaking industry (2) Cutting and polishing of diamonds (3) Traditional art and craft centre (4) Export processing zone 45. When did man first land on moon? (1) 1954 (2) (3) 1965 (4)
1959 1969
46. Consider the following pairs: (1) Dasavatara Temple : Deogarh (2) Trivikrama Shrine : Ramtek (3) Kailasa Temple : Elora Which of the above pairs are correctly matched? (1) 1 and 2 (2) 2 and 3 (3) 1 and 3 (4) 1, 2 and 3
47. The first coffee farms were established by English at (1) Chikmagalur district (2) Coorg district (3) Nilgiri district (4) Vainad district 48. Mac number is associated with (1) Ship (2) Light (3) Sound (4) Jet Plane 49. Consider the following statements about internet facility (1) It serves as the largest on-line information system (2) It provides the most dependable and fastest mode for sending e-mail (3) Recurring expenditure on communicating e-mail is very high (4) It is often misused and has triggered cyber-crimes Which of these statements are correct? (1) 1, 2, and 4 (2) 1 and 4 (3) 2, 3 and 4 (4) 2 and 3 50. BCG vaccination should be done to a new-born baby within (1) 6 months (2) 7 days (3) Immediately after birth (4) 48 days 51. Why did the Government ban the import of 'Terminator seeds? (1) To contain a virus which can destroy local crops (2) These seeds are injurious to human and animal health (3) These seeds contain genetically engineered properties to prevent further multiplication (4) These seeds multiply at very slow rates 52. The first railway line was laid in (1) U.S.A. (2) Europe (3) India (4) North-East England 53. The branch of agriculture which deals with the feelings, shelter, health and breeding of the domestic animals is called (1) Dairy science (2) Veterinary Science (3) Poultry (4) Animal Husbandry
54. Tungabhadra is a tributary of: (1) Krishna (2) Cauvery (3) Periyar (4) Godavari 55. Which one of the following are useful in the detection of landmines? (1) Bee (2) Wasp (3) Butterfly (4) Moth 56. The instrument used to measure the force and velocity of the wind is (1) Ammeter (2) Anemometer (3) Altimeter (4) Audiometer 57. Epigraphy means (1) the study of coins (2) the study of inscriptions (3) the study of epics (4) the study of geography 58. The natural source of hydrocarbon is (1) crude oil (2) biomass (3) coal (4) carbohydrates 59. Who produced the first automobile? (1) Gottleib Daimler (2) Henry Ford (3) Rudolf Diesel (4) Carl Benz 60. Polythene bags are harmful to the environment because they (1) cannot be disposed of by burning (2) cannot be recycled (3) are water resistant (4) are not biodegradable 61. Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a standard criterion for (1) measuring oxygen levels in animals (2) computing oxygen levels in forest ecosystems (3) pollution assay in aquatic systems (4) measuring oxygen levels in blood 62. ORT (Oral Rehydration Therapy) is associated with the treatment of (1) anaemia (2) beriberi (3) cancer (4) diarrhoea
63. The quality of gasoline sample is determined by its (1) iodine value (2) cetaine number (3) octane number (4) mass density 64. Which one of the following types of coal is difficult to light in the open air? (1) Anthracite (2) Bituminous (3) Lignite (4) Peat 65. Consider the following statements (1) Kyoto Protocol came into force in the year 2005 (2) Kyoto Protocol deals primarily with the depletion of the Ozone layer (3) Methane as a greenhouse gas is more harmful than carbon dioxide Which of the statement given above is/are correct? (1) 1 and 2 (2) 1 and 3 (3) 1 only (4) 3 only 66. Which countries were involved in the 100 year war? (1) Turkey and Austria (2) England and France (3) Palestine and Israel (4) Germany and Russia 67. Opium-war was fought between (1) Britain and China (2) Britain and India (3) India and China (4) Britain and Japan 68. Consider the following countries of South Asia (1) Bangladesh (2) India (3) Pakistan (4) Sri Lanka The descending order of literacy status of these countries is: (1) 4, 2, 1, 3 (2) 2, 4, 3, 1 (3) 4, 2, 3, 1 (4) 2, 4, 1, 3 69. The oldest monarchy in the world is that of (1) Nepal (2) Saudi Arabia (3) Japan (4) U.K.
70. Consider the following countries (1) Brazil (2) Indonesia (3) Japan (4) Russia What is the descending order of the size of the above countries, population-wise? (1) 1, 2, 4, 3 (2) 2, 3, 1, 4 (3) 2, 1, 4, 3 (4) 1, 2, 3, 4 71. Which among the following countries was the earliest to give women the right to vote? (1) Iceland (2) India (3) New Zealand (4) U.S.A. 72. Life expectancy is highest in the world in (1) Canada (2) Germany (3) Japan (4) Norway 73. Which country/countries started privatisation of Stateowned enterprises as a major State Policy? (1) U.K. under Mrs. Margaret Thatcher (2) Russia in the C.I.S. (3) Mexico/Argentina/Brazil (4) Italy/France/Malaysia 74. The war criminals of the World War II were put to trial in (1) Nuremburg (2) Petersburg (3) Gettysbury (4) Pittsburgh 75. The country with minimum birth rate is (1) China (2) Italy (3) Sweden (4) U.S.A. 76. Kimono is a dress style of which Asian Country? (1) China (2) Korea (3) Japan (4) Laos 77. How many States of the U.S.A. are not attached to its mainland? (1) One (2) Two (3) Three (4) Four
78. The Parliament of Japan is known as (1) Assembly (2) Key (3) Senate (4) Diet 79. Which of the following pairs is wrongly matched? (1) Pakistan - Crescent (2) Canada - White Lily (3) Australia - Kangaroo (4) USA - Lotus 80. For which one of the following countries is Spanish not an official language? (1) Chile (2) Colombia (3) Republic of Congo (4) Cuba 81. 'Golan Heights' has become a controversial issue between which of the following pairs of nations? (1) Iraq-Iran (2) Israel-Libya (3) Israel-Syria (4) Kuwait-Iraq 82. The five biggest nations, according to size, are (1) Russia, Canada, China, USA, Brazil (2) Russia, China, Canada, USA, Brazil (3) Russia, Canada, USA, China, Brazil (4) Russia, Canada, USA, Australia, Brazil 83. The five biggest countries, according to population, are (1) China, India, USA, Pakistan, Brazil (2) China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil (3) China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Japan (4) China, India, USA, Indonesia, Bangladesh 84. Among the following countries, which one has the largest internet subscription? (1) China (2) Japan (3) Germany (4) India 85. The government has decided to celebrate the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas every year on a day on which Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa. When is Pravasi Bhartiya Divas celebrated? (1) October 30 (2) June 17 (3) January 9 (4) April 27
86. In which country is Bandung, where the Conference of African and Asian nations was held, which led to establishing Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), situated? (1) Thailand (2) Egypt (3) Indonesia (4) Philippines 87. Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched? (1) Seikan Rail Tunnel : China (2) Petronas Tower : Malaysia (3) Appalachina Trail : United States of America (4) Rogun Dam : Tajikistan 88. World Environment Day falls on (1) June 5 (2) Nov. 14 (3) Oct. 2 (4) Nov. 19 89. 23rd January is celebrated as the birthday of (1) Guru Govind Singh (2) Subhash Chandra Bose (3) Devendra Nath Tagore (4) Chandra Shekhar Azad 90. The World Consumer Day is being observed on (1) 20th December (2) 15th March (3) 28th December (4) 31st December 91. In which country is the minimum voting age 16 years ? (1) France (2) Brazil (3) Gabon (4) Togo 92. Which of the following is not among the objectives of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas? (1) Understanding the sentiments of NRIs and PIOs about India (2) To create a policy framework for a sustained and productive interaction. (3) Creating a network of the Indian Diaspora, across 120 countries of the world (4) Acquainting the Indian people with the achievements of the Indian Diaspora and their expectations from India 93. February will have 30 days after: (1) 100 eyars (2) 200 years (3) 300 years (4) 400 years
94. Swami Vivekananda's birthday is observed in India as (1) All Saints Day (2) Hindu Renaissance Day (3) National Youth Day (4) World Religions Day 95. The central banking functions in India are performed by the I. Central Bank of India II. Reserve Bank of India III. State Bank of India IV. Punjab National Bank (1) I, II (2) II (3) I, IV (4) II, III 96. Development expenditure of the Central government does not include (1) defence expenditure (2) expenditure on economic services (3) expenditure on social and community services (4) grant to states 97. Gilt-edged market means (1) bullion market (2) market of government securities (3) market of guns (4) market of pure metals
101. Since independence, both development and nondevelopment expenditures have increased; the increase in the former being a little more than in the other. Nondevelopment expenditure involves I. interest payments II. subsidies III. defence IV. irrigation (1) I, II (2) I (3) I, II, III (4) II, III, IV 102. Depreciation means (1) closure of a plant due to lock out (2) closure of a plant due to labour trouble (3) loss of equipment over time due to wear and tear (4) destruction of a plant in a fire accident 103. Deficit financing leads to inflation in general, but it can be checked if (1) government expenditure leads to increase in the aggregate supply in ratio of aggregate demand (2) only aggregate demand is increased (3) all the expenditure is denoted as national debt payment only (4) All of the above 104. If all the banks in an economy are nationalized and converted into a monopoly bank, the total deposits (1) will decrease (2) will increase (3) will neither increase nor decrease (4) None of the above 105. India changed over to the decimal system of coinage in (1) April 1995 (2) April 1957 (3) April 1958 (4) April 1959 106. The association of the rupee with pound sterling as the intervention currency was broken in (1) 1990 (2) 1991 (3) 1992 (4) 1993 107. On which one of the following is the benefits received principle of taxation to achieve optimality based? (1) Marginal benefit received (2) Total benefit received (3) Average benefit received (4) Ability to pay for the benefit
98. In the last one decade, which one among the following sectors has attracted the highest foreign direct investment inflows into India? (1) Chemicals other than fertilizers (2) Services sector (3) Food processing (4) Telecommunication 99. Devaluation of a currency means (1) reduction in the value of a currency vis-a-vis major internationally traded currencies (2) permitting the currency to seek its worth in the international market (3) fixing the value of the currency in conjunction with the movement in the value of a basket of predetermined currencies (4) fixing the value of currency in multilateral consultation with the IMF, the World Bank and major trading partners 100. In the second nationalization of commercial banks, banks were nationalized. (1) 4 (2) 5 (3) 6 (4) 8
108. One of the reasons for India's occupational structure remaining more or less the same over the years has been that (1) investment pattern has been directed towards capital intensive industries (2) productivity in agriculture has been high enough to induce people to stay with agriculture (3) ceiling on land holdings have enabled more people to own land and hence their preference to stay with agriculture (4) people are largely unaware of the significance of transition from agriculture to industry for economic development 109. Gross domestic capital formation is defined as (1) flow of expenditure devoted to increased or maintaining of the capital stock (2) expenditure incurred on physical assets only (3) production exceeding demand (4) net addition to stock after depreciation 110. The Konkan Coast stretches between: (1) Goa and Daman (2) Goa and Diu (3) Goa and Bombay (4) Goa and Cochin 111. Which of the following is the most appropriate cause of exports surplus? (1) Country's exports promotion value (2) Country's stringent import policy (3) Developments in national and international markets (4) None of the above 112. If the cash reserve ratio is lowered by the RBI, its impact on credit creation will be to (1) increase it (2) decrease it (3) marginal impact (4) none of the above 113. Which of the following items would not appear in a company's balance sheet? (1) Value of stocks of raw materials held (2) Total issued capital (3) Revenue from sales of the company's products (4) Cash held at the bank 114. The currency convertibility concept in its original form originated in (1) Wells Agreement (2) Bretton Woods Agreement (3) Taylors Agreement (4) None of the above
115. In the state of India, the State Financial Corporation has given assistance mainly to develop (1) agricultural farms (2) cottage industry (3) large-scale industries (4) medium and small-scale industries 116. The central co-operative banks are in direct touch with (1) farmers (2) state co-operative banks (3) land development banks (4) central government 117. The first wholly Indian Bank was set up in (1) 1794 (2) 1894 (3) 1896 (4) 1902 118. States earn maximum revenue through (1) land revenue (2) custom revenue (3) commercial taxes (4) excise duties on intoxicants 119. Our financial system has provided for the transfer of resources from the centre to the states; the important means of resource transfer are (1) tax sharing (2) grant-in-aids (3) loans (4) All the above 120. Debenture holders of a company are its (1) shareholders (2) creditors (3) debtors (4) directors 121. Excise duty is a tax levied on the (1) import of goods (2) export of goods (3) production of goods (4) sale of goods 122. In pursuance with the recommendations of Narsimhan Committee, the RBI has framed new guidelines (1) to govern entry of new private sector banks to make the banking sector more competitive (2) to reduce the freedom given to banks to rationalize their existing branch network (3) to setup more foreign exchange banks (4) to lend more easily for industrial development
123. Which of the following is the first Indian private company to sign an accord with Government of Myanmar for oil exploration in two offshore blocks in that country? (1) Reliance Energy (2) Essar Oil (3) GAIL (4) ONGC 124. Non Tax revenues can be increased by improving the working of the (1) State Road Transport Corporations (2) electricity boards (3) commercial irrigation projects (4) All of the above 125. Which of the following is not viewed as a national debt? (1) Provident Fund (2) Life Insurance Policies (3) National Saving Certificate (4) Long-term Government Bonds 126. The condition of indirect taxes in the country's revenue is approximately (1) 70 percent (2) 75 percent (3) 80 percent (4) 86 percent 127. Deficit financing means that the government borrows money from the (1) RBI (2) local bodies (3) big businessmen (4) IMF 128. Revenue of the state governments are raised from the following sources, except (1) entertainment tax (2) expenditure tax (3) agricultural income tax (4) land revenue 129. Since the inception of the co-operative movement, rural credits have been (1) institutionalized (2) rationalized (3) cheapened (4) All of the above 130. If an economy is equilibrium at the point where plans to save and to invest are equal, then government expenditure must be (1) zero (2) equal to government income (3) larger than government income (4) negative
131. The co-operative credit societies have a (1) two-tier structure (2) three-tier structure (3) four-tier structure (4) five-tier structure 132. Regional rural banks I. have limited area of operation II. have free access to liberal refinance facilities from NABARD III. are required to lend only to weaker sections (1) I, III (2) II, III (3) I, II, III (4) I, II 133. The Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) came into existence in (1) 1984 (2) 1986 (3) 1987 (4) 1989 134. Notes on which denomination has the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi printed on them? (1) 1000 rupee (2) 500 rupee (3) 100 rupee (4) All of the above 135. Devaluation of currency will be more beneficial if (1) prices of domestic goods remain constant (2) prices of exports remain constant (3) prices of imports remains constant (4) prices of exports rise proportionately 136. The banks are required to maintain a certain ratio between their cash in the hand and totals assets. This is called (1) Statutory Bank Ratio (SBR) (2) Statutory Liquid Ratio (SLR) (3) Central Bank Reserve (CBR) (4) Central Liquid Reserve (CLR) 137. Reserve Bank of India was nationalized in the year (1) 1935 (2) 1945 (3) 1949 (4) 1969 138. In India, the first bank of limited liability managed by Indians and founded in 1881 was (1) Hindustan Commercial Bank (2) Oudh Commercial Bank (3) Punjab National Bank (4) Punjab and Sind Bank
139. In India, rural incomes are generally lower than the urban incomes. Which of the following reasons account for this? I. A large number of farmers are illiterate and know little about scientific agriculture II. Prices of primary products are lower than those of manufactured products III. Investment in agriculture has been low when compared to investment in industry (1) I, II, III (2) I, II (3) I, III (4) II, III 140. In India, inflation is measured by the (1) Wholesale Price Index number (2) Consumers Price Index for urban non-manual workers (3) Consumers Price Index for agricultural workers (4) National Income Deflation 141. The annual yield from which of the following Union Government taxes is the highest? (1) Custom duties (2) Corporation tax and income tax (3) Inheritance tax, wealth tax, interest tax and gift tax (4) Excise duties 142. Subsidies mean (1) payment by government for purchase of goods and services (2) payment made by business enterprises to factors of production (3) payment made by companies to shareholders (4) payment made by the government to business enterprises, without buying any goods and services 143. National expenditure includes (1) consumption expenditure (2) investment expenditure (3) government expenditure (4) All of the above 144. Kala Handi is a place in: (1) West Bengal (2) Chhattisgarh (3) Uttarakhand (4) Orissa 145. Devaluation of currency leads to (1) fall in domestic prices (2) increase in domestic prices (3) no impact on domestic prices (4) erratic fluctuations in domestic prices
146. The apex body for formulating plans and coordinating research work in agriculture and allied fields is (1) State Trading Corporation (2) Regional Rural Banks (3) National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) (4) Indian Council of Agricultural Research 147. Which of the following is not an undertaking under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways? (1) Container Corporation of India Limited (2) Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (3) Indian Railways Construction Company Limited (4) Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi 148. If the RBI adopts an expansionist open market operations policy, this means that it will (1) buy securities from non-government holders (2) sell securities in the open market (3) offer commercial banks more credit in the open market (4) openly announce to the market that it intends to expand credit 149. The Information Technology Act was passed in the year: (1) 2000 (2) 1999 (3) 2005 (4) 2001 150. Foreign Direct Investment ceilings in the telecom sector have been raised from 49 percent to (1) 74 percent (2) 51 percent (3) 90 percent (4) 100 percent 151. Who among the following was the founder of 'Dev Samaj'? (1) Vallabhbhai Patel (2) Dadabhai Naoroji (3) Sivanaryan Agnihotri (4) Ramakrishna Paramhansa 152. The name of the periodical among the following published by Mahatma Gandhi during his stay in South Africa was (1) Navjiwan (2) India Gazette (3) Afrikaner (4) Indian Opinion 153. In which of the following did Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel play a leading role? (1) Bijolia Movement (2) Dandi March (3) Textile Mill Workers Strike at Ahmedabad (4) Bardoli Satyagraha
154. An air bubble in water will act like a: (1) Convex mirror (2) Convex lens (3) Concave mirror (4) Concave lens 155. The great Asian river Mekong does not run through: (1) China (2) Malaysia (3) Cambodia (4) Laos 156. The Mansabdari System introduced by Akbar was borrowed from the system followed in (1) Afghanistan (2) Turkey (3) Mongolia (4) Persia 157. The first to start a joint stock to trade with India were the: (1) Portuguese (2) Dutch (3) French (4) Danish
158. The caves and rock-cut temples at Ellora are: (1) Buddhist (2) Buddhist and Jain (3) Hindu and Jain (4) Hindu, Buddhist and Jain 159. Which one of the following soil types of India is rendered infertile by the presence of excess iron? (1) Desert sand (2) Alluvial (3) Podzolic (4) Lateritic 160. Where is the Headquarters of NATO located? (1) Amsterdam (2) Brussels (3) Berlin (4) Paris 161. Tides are the highest: (1) When the earth is nearest to the sun (2) When the earth is nearest to the moon (3) In the spring (4) When the sun, the moon and the earth are in line
Answers to General knowledge

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(1) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(1) Ans.(1) 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(1) 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(1) 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. 156. 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(1) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(3) Ans.(1) Ans.(3) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(3) Ans.(2) Ans.(4) Ans.(4) Ans.(2) Ans.(2)
Henry Ford
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1863: BornJuly30 in GreenfieldTownship,Michigan. 1879: Leaves family farm for Detroit to work in machine shops. 1888: Marries Clara Bryant of Greenfield Township and moves to 80-acre farm in what is Dearborn today. 1893: Edsel Bryant Ford, only child of Henry and Clara Ford, born. 1896: Completes his first automobile, the Quadricycle, and drives it through the streets of Detroit. 1899: Made chief engineer and partner in the newly formed Detroit Automobile Company, which produced only a few cars. 1901: Henry Ford Company is setup with Ford as Engineer. Ford resigns over dispute with bankers in 1902 and the company becomes the Cadillac Motor Car Co. 1903: Ford Motor Company is officially incorporated. Ford's first Model A appears on the market in Detroit. 1908: Ford begins manufacturing the famous Model T. 1913: Introduces first moving automobile assembly line at Highland Park. 1914: Announces his plan to share the Ford Motor Company's profits with workers, paying them $5.00 for an eight hour day. 1921: Ford Motor Company dominates auto production, with 55 percent of industry's total output. 1926: Focuses on air transportation and develops the TriMotor airplane. 1932: Builds first V-8 Ford car. 1933:Successfully resists first efforts to unionize workers at Ford plants. 1947: Henry Ford dies at age 83, at Fair Lane, his Dearborn home.
afford one themselves so that they too could go for a spin on a Sunday afternoon. In typical fashion, instead of listening to his backers, Ford eventually bought them out. And that proved to be only the first smart move in a crusade that would make him the father of 20th century American industry. When the black Model T rolled out in 1908, it was hailed as America's Everyman car elegant in its simplicity and a dream machine not just for engineers but for marketing men as well. Ford instituted industrial mass production, but what really mattered to him was mass consumption. He figured that if he paid his factory workers a real living wage and produced more cars in less time for less money, everyone would buy them. Almost half a century before Ray Kroc sold a single McDonald's hamburger, Ford invented the dealer-franchise system to sell and service cars. In the same way that all politics is local, he knew that business had to be local. Ford's "road men" became a familiar part of the American landscape. By 1912, there were 7,000 Ford dealers across the country. In much the same fashion, he worked on making sure that an automotive infrastructure developed along with the cars. Just like horses, cars had to be fed so Ford pushed for gas stations everywhere. And as his tin lizzies bounced over the rutted tracks of the horse age, he campaigned for better roads, which eventually led to an interstate-highway system that is still the envy of the world. His vision would help create a middle class in the U.S., one marked by urbanisation, rising wages and some free time in which to spend them. When Ford left the family farm at age 16 and walked eight miles to his first job in a Detroit machine shop, only 2 out of 8 Americans lived in the cities.
enry Ford was a genius. He was an eccentric. He was no prince in his social attitudes and his politics. But Henry Ford's mark in history is almost unbelievable. In 1905, when there were 50 start-up companies a year trying to get into the auto business, his backers at the new Ford Motor Co. were insisting that the best way to maximize profits was to build a car for the rich. But Ford was from modest, agrarian Michigan roots. And he thought that the people who made the cars ought to be able to
After two unsuccessful attempts to establish a company to manufacture automobiles, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in 1903. The infant company produced only a few cars a day at the Ford factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T in 1908. This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, immediately becoming a huge success. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. To meet the growing demand for the Model T, the company opened a large factory at Highland Park, Michigan, in 1910. Here, Henry Ford combined precision manufacturing, standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and, in 1913, a continuous moving assembly line. The introduction of the moving assembly line revolutionized automobile production by significantly reducing assembly time per vehicle, thus lowering costs. Ford's production of Model Ts made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. The company began construction of the world's largest industrial complex along the banks of the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan, during the late 1910s and early 1920s. The massive Rouge Plant included all the elements needed for automobile production: a steel mill, glass factory, and automobile assembly line. By September 1927, all steps in the manufacturing process from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile took place at the vast Rouge Plant, characterizing Henry Ford's idea of mass production. By World War II, that figure would double, and the affordable Model T was one reason for it. People flocked to Detroit for jobs, and if they worked in one of Henry's factories, they could afford one of his cars. By the time production ceased for the Model T in 1927, more than 15 million cars had been sold, accounting for half the world's output. Nobody was more of an inspiration to Ford than the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison. At the turn of the century, Edison had blessed Ford's pursuit of an efficient, gasoline-powered car during a chance meeting at Detroit's Edison Illuminating Co., where Ford was chief engineer. After the Model T's enormous success, the two visionaries from rural Michigan became friends and business partners. Ford asked Edison to develop an electric storage battery for the car and funded the effort with $1.5 million. Ironically, despite all his other great inventions, Edison never perfected the storage battery. Yet Ford immortalized his mentor's inventive genius by building the Edison Institute in Dearborn.
Ford's great strength was the manufacturing process not invention. Long before he started a car company, he was an inveterate tinkerer, known for picking up loose scraps of metal and wire and turning them into machines. He'd been putting cars together since 1891. Although by no means the first popular automobile, the Model T showed the world just how innovative Ford was at combining technology and markets. The company's assembly line alone threw America's Industrial Revolution into overdrive. Instead of having workers put together the entire car, Ford's cronies, who were great tool and diemakers from Scotland, organized teams that added parts to each Model T, as it moved down a line. By the time Ford's sprawling Highland Park plant was humming along in 1914, the world's first automatic conveyor belt could churn out a car every 93 minutes. The same year, Henry Ford shocked the world with what probably stands as his greatest contribution ever: the $5-a-day minimum-wage scheme. The average wage in the auto industry then was $2.3 for a 9-hour shift. Ford not only doubled that, he also shaved an hour off the workday. In those years, it was unthinkable that a guy could be paid that much for doing something that didn't involve an awful lot of training or education. The Wall Street Journal called the plan "an economic crime," and critics everywhere heaped "Fordism" with equal scorn. But as the wage increased later to a daily $10, it proved a critical component of Ford's quest to make the automobile accessible to all. The critics were too stupid to comprehend that because Ford had lowered his costs per car, the higher wages didn't matter, except for making it feasible for more people to buy cars. When Ford stumbled, it was because he wanted to do everything his way. By the late 1920s, the company had become so vertically integrated that it was completely self-sufficient. Ford controlled rubber plantations in Brazil, a fleet of ships, a railroad, 16 coal mines, and thousands of acres of timberland and iron-ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota. All this was combined at the gigantic River Rouge plant, a sprawling city of a place where more than 100,000 men worked. The problem was that for too long they worked on only one model. Although people told him to diversify, Henry Ford had developed tunnel vision. He basically started saying "to hell with the customer," who can have any color as long as it's black. He didn't bring out a new design until the Model A in '1927, and by then, GM was gaining. In a sense Henry Ford became a prisoner of his own success. Ford was violently opposed to labour organizers, whom he saw as "the worst thing that ever struck the earth," and entirely unnecessary - who, after all, knew more about taking care of his
people than he? Only when he was faced with a general strike in 1941 did he finally agree to let the United Auto Workers organize a plant. By then, Alfred P Sloan had combined various car . companies into a powerful General Motors, with a variety of models and prices to suit all tastes. He had also made labour peace. That left Ford in the dust and its management in turmoil. And if World War II hadn't turned the company's manufacturing prowess to the business of making B-24 bombers and jeeps, it is entirely possible that the 1932 V-8 engine might have been Ford's last innovation. Henry Ford died at his Fair Lane mansion in the spring of 1947. He was 83. It is but for Henry Ford's drive to create a mass market for cars, America wouldn't have a middle class today. Henry Ford's lasting contribution to the world of management and engineering was his 'invention' of the Assembly Line. More than an engineering invention, it symbolised the manager's eternal quest for higher productivity and better resource utilisation. Indeed, a manager is one who can make two blades of grass grow where one would have grown earlier.
QuickFactsaboutHenryFord
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Built and drove race cars early in his career to demonstrate that his engineering designs produced reliable vehicles. Financed a pacifist expedition to Europe during WW-I. Was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1918. Owned a controversial newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, that published anti-Jewish articles which offended many and tarnished his image. Promoted the early use of aviation technology. Sought ways to use agricultural products in industrial production, including soybean-based plastic automobile components. Was one of the nation's foremost opponents of labor unions in the 1930s and was the last automobile manufacturer to unionize his work force. Mobilized his factories for the war effort and produced bombers, Jeeps and tanks for World War-II.
India's first 'Rock Theme Park' in Kerala

A 1000-feet high rocky hill cluster at Chadayamangalam in south Kerala, believed to be connected with mythical character 'Jatayu' in epic Ramayana, will woo tourists as the country's first 'Rock Theme Park'. According to local tradition, the rock, 'Jatayupara' in Kollam district, is the place where the mythical bird 'Jatayu' fell after its wings were slain by the ten-headed Ravana by his lethal sword 'Chandrahasam'. As per the epic, Ravana, who ruled Lankapuri (Sri Lanka), chopped off one of the wings of the bird when it tried to block his airship 'Pushpaka Vimanam' in which he was forcibly taking away Rama's consort Sita. The project is a blend of ecological and epic tourism and the state government, through this public-private partnership venture, is building a high-tech theme park on the rocky terrain, with a mammoth statue of 'Jatayu' as its core. A host of facilities such as 4D theatre complex, cable van, ayurveda resorts and massage parlours, ethnic cottages and a mural painting gallery are also taking shape at the spot, located about 50 km from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The whole site is conceived as a resort where holidayers can relax and have a peep into the culture, heritage and tradition of India through films, paintings in a fitting ambience of panoramic settings, said Rajiv Anchal, noted film maker and sculptor, who is the art-director of the project. A total of Rs 100 crore was expected for this venture. Fifty per cent of the construction of the bird statue has been completed. "We think we can complete the first phase within one year," state Tourism Secretary V Venu said. The bird structure will have three-tiers with a total of 20,000 sq ft utility space. The visitors who enter the sculpture can literally have a bird's eye view, as Jatayu's eyes are designed to be around windows opening to the world. "A telescope will also be installed there to have a closer view of the panoramic scenes of the surroundings," Rajiv, whose film 'Guru' got the official Indian entry at the Oscars in 1997, said. Visitors can view a 4D film on the 'Jatayu' episode of Ramayana in the theatre, designed on Hollywood standards.
Profile
Duncan Fletcher
uncan Fletcher was appointed India's cricket coach to replace the highly successful Gary Kirsten, ending the suspenseon who will take over the high-profile job.
The 62-year-old Zimbabwean, who coached England with mixed results from 1999 to 2007, will take over the job for a twoyear period. The decision to appoint Fletcher, whose name was doing the rounds as a possible successor to Kirsten, was taken at the BCCI's working committee meeting. The announcement came as a surprise, as the BCCI had given no indication that it would name the coach itself. "The contract with Fletcher is for two years. He may not join the team in the West Indies as he has some prior commitments," BCCI Secretary N Srinivasansaid.. Eric Simmons, who was the bowling coach during Kirsten's tenure, will continuein the same position,Srinivasansaid. Fletcher, who captained Zimbabwe during the 1983 World Cup and played just six one-dayers during the African nation's pre-Test days, had mixed fortunesas coach for England. For Duncan Fletcher, the high points of his career was England's Ashes triumph over Australia in the home series of 2005, England's first series win in West Indies in 36 years and taking Englandto the third spot in Test rankings. Fletcher has a tough job ahead of him as he replaces the amiable South African Kirsten, who set a high benchmark for the Indian team and completed his stint with the memorable World Cup 2011 triumph. With Kirsten at helm, India reached the pinnacle of Test rankings and number two in the ODI list after conjuring up memorable wins and draws in series abroad. He relinquished the job to spend more time with his family. Fletcher was the first foreigner to coach England's cricket team, a stint that had its share of highs and lows.
Known to be a strict task-master, Fletcher guided England to eight straight Test wins during his stint. The biggest moment for him came in 2005 when England upstaged a starstudded Australian team to win the Ashes for the first time since 1987. The Zimbabwean was honoured by Britain's Royalty with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) before England's form slid and his position came under the scanner. The Zimbabwe-born Fletcher, 57, took over the reigns at England late in 1999, with the national side ranked as the worst Test nation. Six years and plenty of hard work and heartache later Fletcher's team clinched the Ashes against Australia for the first time since 1987. The victory sparked jubilant scenes around the country and Fletcher's professional pride was boosted by the achievement of a personalgoal. After 15 years of waiting, Fletcher finally received his British citizenship following the intervention of Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary. Fletcher's coaching pedigree came from his time as Zimbabwe captain in the pre-Test era and as a successful coach with South Africa's Western Province and county side Glamorgan.
But it was his partnerships with England captains Nasser Hussain and his predecessor Vaughan that laid the foundations for success. Fletcher always kept a low profile in regards to the media, preferring his captains to shoulder the duty of providing sound bites while he focused on fitness, preparation and manmanagement. His input has been the careful nurturing of talent to help players fulfil their potential and a raft of administrative changes. Central contracts were already on the way when Fletcher joined Hussain at the helm, first suggested by former skipper Michael Atherton, with help from coach David Lloyd. But the concept of Team England, with players belonging primarily to their country rather than their counties, is Fletcher's own. After a career in systems management - he devised Zimbabwe's car registration system - he brought new methods and chains of command to the side. If the captain is the chief executive, Fletcher is a business consultant, always on hand to advise but rarely giving a lead. Fletcher's eye for detail is fabled. He is a firm believer in technology and is often seen crouched over a laptop, poring through facts and figures and the finer detail of the game. Every player's strengths and weaknesses is analysed, and specific plans devised for each member of the opposition. England's use of specialist coaches - most recently Glamorgan's Matthew Maynard with the one-day side and bowling coach Troy Cooley - increased under Fletcher. He had a mountain to climb when he was drafted in to kickstart the revolution after England crashed to an 83-run defeat against New Zealand at The Oval in 1999 - rendering them the worst Test team. Fletcher had seen something in the 25-year-old Nasser Hussain that he thought could be translated to the international arena and his faith was rewarded. Another key factor in Fletcher - and England's - success is his policy of sticking with the same starting XI as far as possible. This formula helped to create a Club England ethos and a team of genuine friends as well as sporting colleagues, who have developed a winning mentality.
Under Hussain's captaincy the XI developed a steely resolve, but under Vaughan they began to play with greater confidence and freedom which was the cumulative result of all that had gone before. With Gary Kirsten having taken India to the pinnacle of cricketing success, Team India's new coach Duncan F l e t c h e r, d e s p i t e h i s mentoring credentials, has a tough act to follow. The appointment of Duncan Fletcher might just be the dawn of a new era, but after the much-loved Gary Kirsten left on a high, its imperative that Fletcher carries on the good work and as expected should do even better. He obviously knows the amount of pressure that comes with being a part of the Indian cricket setup and with the country still basking in the glory of the World Cup, a loss under his tenure which might probably begin with the tour of West Indies, might not go down so well with the country.
Facts About Jupiter

Named after the Roman God known as Zeus in Germany, the planet Jupiter technically has no surface as it is entirely made out of gas. Jupiter can be seen without a telescope because of its huge size. The gravitational pull of the planet is so high that anything and everything that passes the planets gets pulled towards it. Jupiter has 63 moons and one of them is volcanically active and it is the only moon in the entire solar system to be in such a state. The fastest spinning planet of all, Jupiter has clouds that are up to 50 km thick and the average day on Jupiter lasts around 10 hours. After Venus, Jupiter is the second brightest planet in the Solar System (Venus reflects 70% of sunlight). Mars outshines Jupiter only when approached very close to the Earth. Interesting Fact is that Jupiter emits weird sounds or so called "electromagnetic voices" recorded by NASA-Voyager. To hear Jupiter speak listen to the video below.
Seven Facebook tricks

about.
ith over 500 million users, Facebook is not just popular. It's also filled with features and customisation options that most don't even know
Learn a few of the Facebook tricks below, and you can separate yourself from the crowd and increase your productivity at the same time.
Doing so takes you to a screen that lists search filters in the left-hand column. These filters include 'groups,' for narrowing your search result to relevant Facebook groups; 'apps,' for displaying only Facebook apps relevant to a search term; 'posts by friends,' for honing in on relevant posts made by those on your friends list; and 'posts by everyone,' for finding any post on Facebook that includes your search term.
CLASSMATE SEARCH
Facebook also includes a dedicated 'classmate search' feature (http://www.facebook.com/srch.php?classmate), which helps you to locate classmates simply by entering the name of your school, your graduating year, and optionally a specific person you're looking for. Similarly, a co-worker search tool makes it easy to find any co-workers on Facebook by entering the name of your company. You can also search for two things at the same time on Facebook - similar to using an 'or' command in search engines by inserting a vertical line character (|) between your search terms. If, for instance, you're looking for an old friend and you think she might be listed under one of two names, search for both names with the vertical line between them, and you'll quickly get a list of good possibilities.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Sure, Facebook is a website. But it's surprisingly keyboard friendly. For instance, if you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows, you can hold down the Alt key, tap the number 4 (Alt4), release the keys, and press Enter to open your message list (and then Tab through the messages). The same sequence, but using different numbers, accesses other parts of the Facebook screen. Alt-1, Enter goes to your Home page; Alt-2, Enter goes to your profile; Alt-3, Enter lets you view Friend requests; Alt-M, Enter starts a new message; Alt-Enter places your cursor in Facebook's Search box. If you're using Firefox, the same shortcuts apply, but you'll have to hold down both Alt and Shift rather than just Alt.
NAVIGATION GEMS
Knowing how to get around in Facebook can save you almost as much time as knowing the fancy keyboard shortcuts mentioned earlier. If you get buried deep within Facebook and want to get back to where you started when you first logged on, just click the Facebook logo. That'll take you to your public wall, or news feed it's the same as clicking Home in the menu bar of the upper right-hand corner. Clicking Home and then your user name will take you to a page displaying the publicly visible profile information you have provided, including Wall postings you've made, photos you've provided, and any notes you've added.
SEARCH SECRETS
There's a good deal of power hidden behind Facebook's simple search box. Search filters, for example, let you both narrow the results of your searches and refine searches so that you can find information in Facebook that would otherwise be impossible to unearth. To access the filters, first enter a search term in Facebook's Search box, but instead of pressing Enter, click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the Search box itself.
PRIVACY CUSTOMISATIONS
Take charge of what the world knows about your Facebook page. Click the Account link in the upper right-hand corner, and select Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu. On the resulting Choose Your Privacy settings page, look closely at the Connecting on Facebook and Sharing on Facebook sections. Anything that is set to 'Everyone' can be seen or found by anyone who searches the internet. Click the Customise Setting links to determine exactly who sees what on your Facebook page.
REMOVE ADS
If you use the Firefox Web browser, you can download and install the popular Adblock Plus plug-in, which pretty much makes Facebook ads a thing of the past. Occasionally with Adblock Plus installed, you'll still see a section header where ads used to be, but the ads themselves should not appear. To install Adblock Plus, just point Firefox to the Adblock Plus website (http://bit.ly/fKVAIL), and then click the Add to Firefox button.
APPLICATION POWER
One of the reasons Facebook is so popular is that, like the iPhone, there are developers around the world building add-on programs that make Facebook more fun or customisable. These programs are called 'apps,' and you'll find them in the official Facebook Applications Directory. There's also a dedicated search box just for finding apps.
Wells Fargo: Trivia

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1852: Wells Fargo & Co. founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo to provide banking and express services to Gold Rush California and the Pacific Coast. 1858: Wells Fargo helps finance the nation's first cross-country stagecoach line, the (Butterfield) Overland Mail Company, which carried mail and passengers from Missouri to California in 21 days. 1860: The Pony Express shortens mail delivery between east and west to 10 days. 1863: First National Bank of Philadelphia becomes the first national bank in the United States with Charter #1. (Later First Union, later Wachovia Bank.) 1866: "Grand Consolidation" Wells Fargo acquires all major overland stagecoach firms in the West, connecting over 3,000 miles of western territory. 1872: Transcontinental railroad and telegraph completed. 1852: Northwestern National Bank (later Norwest) is founded in Minneapolis, by investors including William G. Fargo. 1879: Wachovia National Bank opens in Winston, North Carolina.
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1888: Wells Fargo's "Ocean to Ocean" express service moves commercial business across the country in four days. 1906: During the San Francisco earthquake and fire, Wells Fargo provides horses and wagons to evacuate residents and deliver supplies.
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1918: Federal government takes over nation's express businessincluding Wells Fargoas a wartime measure. Wells Fargo Bank continues. 1967: Wells Fargo and three other banks introduce Master Charge credit card. 1982: Norwest headquarters building burns on Thanksgiving Day, the costliest fire in Minneapolis history. Weatherball removed in 1984 when site demolished. 1995: Wells Fargo is the first major U.S. Bank to offer secure online payments on the Internet. 1996: Wells Fargo acquires First Interstate Bank and expands into ten western states. 1998: Wells Fargo and Norwest merger of equals creates $186 billion diversified financial services company. 2009: Wachovia Bank joins Wells Fargo.
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Book review
HOW THE MIGHTY FALL

by Jim Collins
ow the Mighty Fall addresses two related questions: Why do good companies fail? And how does management respond once a company gets into trouble? Collins introduces a five stage model to answer these questions, where steps one and two address the roots of corporate failure and steps three through five managements' response. Collins' analysis of management response to declinedenial of risk, grasping for salvation, and capitulation to irrelevance or deathaccurately describes how leaders respond to deterioration in their business. The analysis here is solid, the writing clear, and the tempo brisk. Collins does a particularly good job of describing dysfunctional leadership behaviors of companies in decline. Collins' analysis of why companies get into trouble in the first place is much less compelling. Companies fail, according to Collins, when success breeds managerial hubris, which leads to overreach and ultimately failure. Like many of Collins' findings, this makes intuitive sense. Unfortunately in this case, his core argument runs counter to research on hundreds of companies, conducted over decades by dozens of scholars. There are two major flaws in Collins argument. First, he claims that companies get into trouble because they overreach and expand beyond their core. This is consistent with data showing that diversified companies trade at a discount to focused rivals. Recent research published in the Journal of Financial Economics and the Journal of Finance has established that the companies often diversify to escape decline in their core business. Overreach is a symptomnot a causeof decline and thus cannot explain its roots. Second, Collins ignores a rich body of research that finds that decline sets in not because companies stray from their core, but because they stick too close to it. The competency trap literature finds that companies get locked in by what they do well and struggle to adapt when circumstances change. Hubris and overreach, of course, play a role in corporate decline, but a wellestablished body of research suggests that they are rarely the root causes.
In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course. Collins' research project more than four years in duration uncovered five step-wise stages of decline: Stage 1: Hubris born of success describing the cultural tipping point when hard work and focus to earn the business turns into a sense of entitlement to future success. This is the death of Level 5 Leadership. Stage 2: Undisciplined pursuit of more, building from stage one, is people chasing goals that take them away from their core, their competitive advantage all in the name of growth, or the grand strategy. This leads to thinking what before you think about who and abandoning the hedgehog concept in favour of the rabbit's pursuit of quick gains. Stage 3: Denial of risk and peril now that you are chasing things that are not part of your core, you fail to see the problems or blame the problems on the outside world. In this stage, you are blind to the brutal facts. Stage 4: Grasping for salvation often in the form of the silver bullet, visionary leader, all of which keep your attention away from the core (Flywheel) and lead you into further decline. Stage 5: Capitulation to irrelevance or death the final demise when people throw in the towel and the cause is lost. This is the terminus of the lifecycle and the one place you cannot recover from. By understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

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Contents

Simplifying knowledge dissemination

Executive Editor Manish Saraf Editorial Correspondents Vinay Goyal Correspondents

Business and economy ..........................................................

Marketing and Sales :

Tarin Mehta Nimesh Upadhyay

Volume 9. Edition 10. April 2011

To be a world class training and education organisation

PTs PrepTalk April 2010 03

Letters to the editor

It takes time to have brand values

Kapils Devils and Dhoni's Daredevils

Send feedback to: preptalk@PTeducation.com

Make it a better place for YOU and ME

TERRORISM - THEN AND NOW

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 05

AN OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS TERRORIST GROUPS ACROSS AGES:

06 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 09

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 11

INTERNATIONAL AWARD TO BE INSTITUTED IN TAGORE'S NAME: PM

SUPREME COURT RESERVES ORDER ON SETTING UP SIT TO TRACK BLACK MONEY

DESHMUKH ASSURES SUPPORT TO SOUTH KOREAN MODEL VILLAGE PROJECT

RAMDEV TO FAST UNTO DEATH IN NEW DELHI AGAINST CORRUPTION

STAMP OUT 'BARBARIC' KHAP PANCHAYATS, RULES SC

ISRO BUILDS INDIA'S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 15

GREEN SIGNAL TO JAITAPUR

16 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

ARUNACHAL CM DORJEE KHANDU KILLED IN CHOPPER CRASH

ISRO TO BUILD ORBITER FOR NASA

SC REJECTS HARSHER PUNISHMENT FOR BHOPAL TRAGEDY ACCUSED

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 19

20 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

INDIAN NAMES ON SWISS BANK LIST

OUATTARA TAKES OATH MONTHS AFTER IVORY COAST VOTE

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 21

MYANMAR ROW, THAI-CAMBODIA SPAT CLOUD ASEAN SUMMIT

RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS BALLISTIC MISSILE

PRANAB MUKHERJEE CALLS FOR BETTER GOVERNANCE IN ASIA

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 23

GULF BLOC WELCOMES MORE KINGS, DEMANDS YEMEN DEAL

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER ASSANGE AWARDED TOP SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE

AMERICA HAS TO ADAPT ITSELF TO CHANGING WORLD: OBAMA

ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTESTERS IN FRANCE, GERMANY MARK CHERNOBYL

OBAMA SEEKS TO END TAX SUBSIDIES FOR OIL COMPANIES

26 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

SWISS BANKS CAN HANDLE CAPITAL RULES - BANK GROUP

MARY KOM STRIKES GOLD IN ASIAN CUP

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 27

Business and economy

28 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

GROWTH ALONE NOT ENOUGH FOR RECOVERY: IMF

MERCEDES BENZ LINES UP LAUNCHES

JAIRAM RAMESH CLEARS POSCO PROJECT

30 PTs PrepTalk April 2011

RBI RAISES POLICY RATES BY 50 BASIS POINTS

PTs PrepTalk April 2011 31

JAGUAR PLANS $1.2M HYBRID SUPERCAR

COGNIZANT FIGURES IN FORTUNE 500 LIST

MERKEL OPENS GERMAN OFFSHORE WIND FARM

KAMATH, THE FORCE BEHIND ICICI'S RISE

INFOSYS EYES BUYS IN EUROPE, JAPAN, AND HEALTHCARE SECTOR