vIndianz.com

Women officers in Indian Defence

Staff — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:48:07 +0000

vIndianz.com (12 Mar, 2010) — NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to grant permanent commission to women officers in all three wings of the Armed forces.

The bench directed the government to extend the tenure of SSC officers including women officers from 10 years to 14 years to reinstate their rank as well as those who retired during the case are also eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lt Col after 2, 6 and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. Commission except Medical, Nursing and Dental Services .Justices S K Kaul and M P Garg ordered the defence forces to reinstate all the women officers who had approached the court seeking permanent commission and asked the government to provide all consequential benefit to them. One retired women officer of Navy has lodged a complaint for the same Women are inducted in the Army as officers under the Short Service of maximum 14 years. At the same time their male counterparts are eligible to permanent commission after five years. The number of women officer who left the three services during the last three years is 141, 37 and 111 in Army, Navy and Air Force respectively.

Who is seeing whom? The Carla-Carlos Bruni fairytale

Staff — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:20:49 +0000

vIndianz.com (11 Mar, 2010) — Something has started smelling rotten in Paris’s most influential corner. And it has some thing to do with extra marital affairs. Prez Carlos Bruni, the flamboyant husband of the beautiful Carla Bruni, is said to be in love. So is Carla. But not with each other!

The grapevine has some interesting tales to tell on the Prez and his First lady. Sarkozy and Bruni, who wed in February 2008, just three months after meeting in November 2007, are said to be cheating on each other. While the President is said to be romancing his 40-year-old Karate champ Ecology Minister, Carla’s heart aches for pop star Benjamin Biolay, who is six years her junior. Interesting indeed! Is this what we call French liaisons?

Meanwhile First Lady Carla Bruni has claimed that she isn’t sure how long her marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy would last. This has triggered some added speculation as to when they would part ways. She has been quoted as telling a British television channel that her relationship to Sarkozy was a “fairy tale”, but when asked if the marriage is forever, she said: “I guess marriage should be forever but who knows what happens. I wish it was forever, that’s my hope… but we could be dead tomorrow.” We are yet to ascertain whether all the goings on are just sparked by rumors, but it is a known fact that Bruni had been a close friend of Biolay for many years now. More interesting revelations are round the bend.

Priyadarshan signs deal with Percept

Staff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:21:23 +0000

vIndianz.com (11 Mar, 2010) — Director Priyadarshan has signed a deal with Percept Picture Company (PPC). AIDS,a social awareness film is expected to feature Aamir Khan. Priyadarshan’s 2006 comedy caper ‘Malamaal Weekly’ is also coming up with its second part . ‘Malamaal Weekly had starred Om Puri and Paresh Rawal and this is the first time Priyadarshan is making a sequel to any of his films The screenplay and story sequence is ready. As of now, the project is waiting for release.

Meanwhile, Grrr is a horror movie which tells the story of a ghost in jungle that attacks from the darkness.

Priyadarshan, who has been in the industry for over 25 years had earlier made two other films with Percept, including the national award winner Kanchivaram and Bumm Bumm Bole. Bumm Bumm Bole, features child actor Darsheel Safary, Atul Kulkarni and Rituparna Sen Gupta.. The filmmaker is currently busy shooting an action film ”Garam Hawa” with actor Ajay Devgan.

Mittal, Ambani among top 10 in Forbes’ billionaire list

Staff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:37:08 +0000

vIndianz.com (11 Mar, 2010) — Laskhmi Mittal and Mukesh Ambani and four more prominent Indian businessman have found their slots among the world’s top 50 billionaires as listed by Forbes. While Ambani and Mittal figured among world’s top ten billionaires in a list where Mexican tycoon Carlo Slim Helu beat Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person in the world. While Ambani was ranked fourth, Mittal came fifth.

The 2010 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires has a total of 49 Indians in the array of 1,011 richest people.

Significant is the fact that Carlo Slim Helu pushed Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who we all thought was unbeatable and had been holding the title of world’s richest for 14 of the past 15 years. Gates, worth $53 billion, has been ranked second with a rise of $13 billion in assets compared to the figures of last year.

India has reasons to rejoice owing to the fact that it has doubled the number of billionaires from last year’s numbers.Other nations who have doubled the figure are China, Turkey and South Korea.

Mukesh Ambani is worth $29 billion while Lakshmi Mittal is worth $28.7 billion. Others in the list include Azim Premji ($17.0 billion – rank 28), Ruia brothers ($13.0 billion – rank 40), Savitri Jindal ($12.2 billion – rank 44). Other names such as Kushal Pal Singh (rank 74), Kumar Birla (86), Sunil Mittal (87), Anil Agarwal (113), Adi Godrej & family (148), Shiv Nadar (201), N.R. Narayana Murthy & family (616), Rahul Bajaj (880) and Vijay Mallya (937) complete the Indian presence.

Pakistan Cricket Board action

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:51:12 +0000

vIndianz.com (10 Mar, 2010) — Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board has put an end to the international careers of former captains Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, besides imposing a one-year ban on Shoaib Malik in the wake of the team’s disastrous tour of Australia.

Pakistan were whitewashed in all three formats of the game in Australia and the PCB had set up an inquiry committee headed by Wasim Bari. The committee recommended that former captain Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were handed out a one-year ban to each of them. The inquiry committee had recommended that Yousuf and Younis should no longer be part of the national team. Malik and Rana be banned for 12 months and fined Rs 2 million. The statement also said that the Akmal brothers Kamran and Umar and Afridi have been put on probation for six months, besides being fined between Rs 2-3 million for indiscipline during the tour. This is the first time in Pakistan’s cricket history that the Board has taken such strong disciplinary action against so many players at one time.

The punishments are set to impact the composition of Pakistan’s World Twenty20 Championships. PCB chairman Ejaz Butt with the national selection committee will discuss the issue on Monday as part of the selection process for the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies. There were mixed reactions to the strong recommendations keeping in mind that upcoming Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies where Pakistan defends its title. The captain, coach and manager had reported Malik and Rana for misbehavior and not cooperating with the management.

Bebo opts for Hirani

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:47:00 +0000

vIndianz.com (10 Mar, 2010) — Mumbai: Bubbly actress Kareena Kapoor is showing her liking for her ‘3 Idiots’ director Rajkumar Hirani and now wants him to shoot her even for an ad commercial.

Kareena Kapoor, who will soon feature in cosmetic cream ad, has suggested Hirani’s name to direct the commercial. Kareena has confirmed the buzz that she is very particular who directs her as the comfort factor is important. According to a report, Prahlad Kakkar was to direct the commercial, but the actress rooted for Hirani saying that he would be the best bet to make the ad, whose theme is ‘Aal Izz Well’.

It may be recalled that Kareena, after the success of ‘Jab We Met’, had pulled in director Imtiaz Ali to direct her for her Kurkure commercial.

Get set for the Nissan Micra

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:43:34 +0000

vIndianz.com (10 Mar, 2010) — Geneva: Auto Major Nissan has announced that it will bring to the Indian tarmac its new and ultra modern car christened Micra soon.

The Geneva Motor Show was witness to Dan Thompson, CEO of Nissan Australia, announcing that this plan would be the key driver for Nissan as part of its five-year growth plan, which ends in 2012.

The car is built on the V-Platform with a curved shape along with an accented waistline. Already tested in Japan, the model comes with 5-speed manual transmission and will be available in the CVT segment.

To be powered by an 80 HP 1.2-liter engine with an alternative 1.2 direct-injection three-cylinder engine to generate 98 HP, the car will sport engines designed to be ultimately fuel-efficient.

The car will come in the price range of Rs 3.8 lakh – Rs 5 lakh. To compete with models such as the Maruti Alto, Wagon R, Chevy Beat, Ford Figo and Hyundai Santro in the Indian markets, Nissan would look at pushing sales of the car by three-fold. Nissan will also take its Micra to China, Mexico and Thailand for higher growth.

R. Shivaraman Chennai nanotechnology research scholar gets Rs 1.4-cr job offer!

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:37:58 +0000

vIndianz.com (10 Mar, 2010) — Chennai: Chennai-based nanotechnology research scholar R. Shivaraman is on cloud nine. He has been hired by hardware manufacturer Seagate Technology at an annual pay packet of a whopping Rs 1.4 crore!

Though the patent under the US law is still being awaited for his innovative ‘polymer templated lithography process which allows fabrication of patterned magnetic media with density of around 30 TB’, the offer from Seagate promises to take him places.

The new technology for ultra-high data storage is already available. His innovation scores over others in the time taken to fabricate the hard drives. Shivaraman holds an Indian patent jointly with C. Gopalakrishnan, who like him is also with the Nanotechnology Research Centre at the SRM University, for an innovation that enables a hard drive to hold a large amount of data of up to 30 terabyte (TB) as against the current storage capacity of 500 gigabyte. Shivaraman plans to join Seagate in December by which time he will get his doctorate in nanotechnology.

Blast: 3 kids perish

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:23:18 +0000

vIndianz.com (10 Mar, 2010) — Kangra (HP): Three children were killed when abandoned ammunition exploded in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district near an Army firing range . The children were trying to remove scrap from the used mortar shells when the tragedy struck.

The victims are Shail, Rahul and Chandan from the Kohala village near Matour village, on the outskirts of the district headquarters of Kangra.

Two of the victims were brothers. According to police sources, the kids had tried to break the used shells of mortars near the Army firing range and perished. Three more shells have been recovered from the spot.

A search launched for the kids after parents lodged a complaint when their children did not return home from school on Tuesday evening led to the information about the incident. Their bodies were found in forests adjoining the firing range around 9 pm.

RS nod for Women’s Bill

Staff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:15:00 +0000

New Delhi: In a gesture that could bring cheers to millions of women in the country, the Rajya Sabha, on Tuesday, passed the Women’s Reservation Bill that provides for 33 per cent representation to women in Parliament and state assemblies. The final vote read 186-1.

The session saw much din and bustle forcing three adjournments. The session also saw seven members being suspended for disruptive action. Finally, when the House took up the debate at 3 pm, the path was cleared. Before the discussion began, the Chairman put the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, granting 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, to voice vote but later called for a debate on it. Chairman Hamid Ansari put the bill to voice vote and then called for division of votes. Disruptive elements in the form of Subhash Yadav (RJD), Sabir Ali (LJP), Veerpal Singh Yadav, Nand Kishore Yadav, Amir Alam Khan and Kamal Akhtar (all SP), and Ejaz Ali (Unattached) made proceedings tough, but normalcy was restored after they were evicted.