IIT's offerring better salaries to attract more faculties

MUMBAI: In the latest turn of events IIT has beefed up its infrastructure to accommodate better faculties for its institutes. The procedures include the increased salary for each of its faculties, with an addition of opportunities for spouses to live along with faculties. These are the highlighted changes which are being drawn in, apart from this there are changes being rolled out on R&D, housing, helping create opportunities for the spouses of faculty members, providing lump sum grants for young faculty for research, building new state-of-the-art sports complex for new campuses, providing up to 25% higher salary through donations for new joinees to offering joining allowances for fresh recruits - institutes are leaving no stone unturned.

The results are already showing up for the changes, the phD holders from various institutes across the world are already lining up for the job and are already joined for the venture. Faculties are arriving from some of the best institutes of the world including IITs, Indian Institute of Science and universities and institutes such as University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Max Planck institute, Germany, University of South California, Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College, London, UK.

"Incentives like these do a world of good in attracting best talent. It is a concerted effort over a period of time that shows results. We are already getting ambitious and high potential candidates who want to work with us," says Prof Devang Khakhar, director of IIT-B.

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US H-1B Visas to Indians increased by 24%

NEW DELHI: With regards to the attention brought over by the Indian government over the increased count of rejections on to H-1B visas and resulting in a count much less than the permitted count for India. 

The United States has increased H-1B visas to Indians by 24 percent between 2010 and 2011.The US government on Tuesday said that it had increased H-1B visas from 54,111 issued in 2010 to 67,195 in 2011.

The issue was brought up by Indian Industries in the Indian US CEO forum, India had sought an early resolution to the problems being faced by the IT industry over H-1B visas in the US.


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Malayalam Novelist Kakkanadan Passes away

KOLLAM (Kerala): Renowned Novelist George Vargheese Kakkanadan passed away today at a private hospital here, as reported by his family members. He was among the pioneers of Malayalam literature who brought in the idea of neorealism.

Kakkanadan (76) was battling cancer for the past few years and was survived by his wife Ammini and two sons and a daughter.

His neo-realistic approach had been a major breakthrough in Malayalam literature and had dominated Malayalam novels through 1950's and 60s. The famous works from Kakkanadan was : 'Vasuri', 'Ezham Mudra', 'Ushnameghala', 'Parankimala' and 'Kshathriyan'. He has also penned a variety of short stories and was much appreciated by for the unique narrative style of his.

He was also felicitated with Kerala Sahitya Academy Award and several other honors.

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Indian Army Unhealthy?

NEW DELHI: Alarmingly the news has been flashed as the latest survey done by Indian Council of Medical Research and Defense ministry on 767 army officials including 130 officers showed that one-third of the officials were in overweight category and two-thirds had a low HDL or good cholesterol level which is an indication of low metabolism or exercise.

The research also showed that many of the officers were suffering from pre-hypertension symptoms which was also alarming for the army. The study also revealed that the bad eating habits of the army personnel were increasing the risk as most of them were used to eat pickle or ghee or added salt to their food.

The study also mentioned that 40-60% of Indian population does show the symptoms of pre-hypertension but in the army sample the count was alarmingly 80%. The pre-hypertension factor is calculated by measuring the mildly high blood pressure - 120-139mm Hg systolic pressure and a diastolic pressure of 80-89.

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Narendra Modi the next Prime minister?

NEW DELHI: The wikileaks cables continues to make the ripple through Indian politics. The recent one was for the Gujarat Cheif Minister Narendra Modi and it claims that Mr. Modi is eyeing at higher posts in BJP and would eventually become the Prime Minister to India. The cables mention that Modi is making use of his influence across Gujarat to make a strong influence in the National leadership. 

The recent cable that was released last week says " Modi is using his strong base in Gujarat to position himself for the power struggle in BJP and to crow about Gujarat's investment-friendly ( but not minority friendly) records".

The cable was sent by US Diplomats to the the US government following the rising status of the BJP leader across the country. The cable was sent in  association with the rejection of his Visa in 2005. The assessment from 2005 does show that Narendra Modi is rising as the most powerful and one of the most influential leaders from BJP and could very well be named as the Prime Minister. 

 "In a BJP beset by internal struggle, Modi's revival sets him up nicely to influence the kingmaking when the time comes. Having recovered from the crisis invoked by our visa revocation and his tyrannical management style, Modi is positioning himself as a national leader by reminding people that Gujarat has done a fine job of economic governance, notwithstanding the black stain the (2002) riots left," a cable says. 

Modi did utilize his star image for the 2009 elections but this was the game on for Congress and allies. 

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Soumitra Sen's Resignation Accepted?

New Delhi: The recent turn of events which did lead the way to the first impeachment in the history of India seems to be not happening as there has been news that the resignation of the Soumitra Sen of Calcutta Highcourt. There has been no official confirmations on this yet, but the acceptance will eventually cause the Lok Sabha from dropping the impeachment which was scheduled.

Mr. Sen was impeached by the lower house or Rajya Sabha last month, following which the Justice had submitted resignation from the current post. There was a similar scheduled to be organized at the Lok Sabha in the coming session. Although the legal advice confirm that there wouldn't be a need for further proceedings but there are political voices strong to continue with the proceedings.

The official sources mentioned " The Department of Justice had sent out a notification to the assent of the president for acceptance of resignation of Justice Soumtira Sen and this was signed by her as soon as she was back from Hyderabad".

The notification has been sent to Miera Kumar, the hon'able speaker to Loksabha and she will be consulting with various political and legal advisers before the meeting of Lok Sabha happens on Monday. 

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BJP Leader's sister in jeopardy

Delhi: A sordid drama unfolded as sister of BJP leader Harsh Vardhan's was made to consume hazardous dose of sleeping pills by her daughter-in-law, and was dumped around the campus of AIIMS. The attempt was said to be in the act to eliminate her and to usurp her property.

The accused Reena, 28, who was married to the son of Harsh Vardhan's sister, Asha. She had lodged a man missing complaint on the 24th of August and the police had her arrested based on this complaint. She was trying to dump her body in premises of a hospital where should could be identified dead and was quicker to get  a death certificate that was important to attain property. Mr. Vardhan has now said to the media that his sister is free of any ill effects and also thanked the doctors at AIIMS for their help to bring her back to life.

Reena had allegedly laced milk with sleeping pills and had rented a car to carry her body and dump her. She was found to move in a wagon R with a sack in hand but she had reported to the police that she was away from the city to see her younger son, Prateek Singhal, on August 27th who lives in pashchim Vihar. The police mentions that Asha's murder attempt also included a local tailor who had helped to sack her body.

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DTU students receive 86 job offers in 3 weeks!

Delhi: The Delhi Technological University is still running high when it comes to the count of companies that arrive at hiring their students. In the past 6 weeks there were 83 jobs offered by major 16 firms which includes Microsoft, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Direction, Texas Instruments, Indian Oil, Maruti, TCS and Indian Navy. These firms had visited the college to grab the best students in the country. The news from the recruitment department in the university mentions that there are 30 more visits scheduled with more companies.

The placements for the 2011-12 session started on August 2nd and has been progressing quite effectively. The highest pay offered so far is 16 Lakh per annum. The companies are also providing jobs to third year students and providing them with paid internship. The placement officer at the university, Neeraj Nimwal said "The companies for which the dates have already been booked include Mckinsey, Oracle, Engineers India Limited, NTPC, Wipro, Info Fidelity and foreign companies such as Work Applications of Japan, EPIC of America which offer pay package ranging from Rs 28-37 lakh per annum.". So the pay is definitely increasing each time.

Last year, DTU had 855 jobs offered from 176 companies and this year the university is expecting to cross the 1000 jobs per year mark.

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Military's ULH Deal delayed!

New Delhi: It seems that the ghost of Bofors still seem to be haunting the Indian Military and its deals. Even after 25 years of its controversial corruption case, every official still fears a new gun deal and the anti-corruption shadow still holds strong on the deals. The recent event happened between the Government - to - Government deal of latest Ultra Lightweight Howitzers. 

The deal was set to be in the final stages that the option got delayed due to court order. Purchase of another artillery system, towed guns, too has run into trouble with the government ordering legal vetting if the tender from an Israeli firm was an effort to circumvent its tough anti-corruption stand. Both these deals have affected negatively on the Indian Army agenda, who were planning to finalize the deal by this year and start the field tests by next year start. Both these targets will now be derailed. 

The Bofors deal happened in 1986 when Government of India signed a deal with Bofors, an artillery company from Sweden. A year later allegations arose on corruption in the deal and the whole nation was shook on the no corruption stance and it had also swept Rajiv Gandhi, the prominent leader of congress off his seat in the 1989 elections. Since then there has been no considerable deals happening in the country and all efforts have run aground in past 25 years.

For this year, army was expecting to sign the Foreign Military Sales deal or the FMS deal for ultra light howitzers, also it is mentioned that the government had assigned billions of dollars for the deal in this financial year. 

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I encouraged Dravid - Ricky Ponting

Melbourne: Former caption to the Australian cricket team claims that he had persuaded the veteran cricketer Rahul Dravid from the thoughts of retirement from the test series. The bad form for the cricketer through last year was badly received by the board and media and had almost written off Dravid from the team. Ricky Ponting claims to have met Dravid during the last day of the series and have asked him not to retire. " I remember after our last series in India there were more speculations to the fact that Rahul Dravid was finished" the skipper recalls. "I had talked to him at the end of the series and told him 'Dont even think of retirement, because I just saw few sparks through your innings which does mention that the current phase will pass"

Rahul Dravid was much acclaimed for his accomplishments in the recent tour of England, where the team India had a clean washout of 0-4 series. The 'wall' as Dravid is popularly known had scored 461 runs in the series and this included three centuries to his bag. Where other players failed to show a consistent form it was the one positive that team India could carry back after the series defeat.

Ponting also added that ""I just said 'don't let them wear you down, don't let them get you down'. I received a similar text message before and after the Ashes from him as well," he added. 

The 36 year old cricketer has not scored a century from January of last year and he hopes to regain touch in near future and finds his inspiration from Rahul Dravid

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Manish Tiwary Apologizes to Anna

New Delhi: After the stir which happened across the nation, the spokesman to Congress, Manish Tiwari quoted that he regret his statement that Anna Hazare is 'steeped in corruption from head to toe' and also made an appeal for the activist to end his fast which has been running for 10 days now.

Recently, Tewari had said Hazare himself was involved in corruption. "The Sawant Commission ripped apart the moral core of Hazare as it found him steeped in corruption from head to toe," the Ludhiana MP had said. He had also alleged that Team Anna comprised "armchair fascists, overground Maoists, closet anarchists funded by invisible donors".

Here on thursday, Tewari appealed to Anna "I know some of my recent utterances has hurt Mr. Hazare and I regret this. I, as a common citizen of India will like to appeal to him to end his fast"

He also added that " In the course of political cut and thrust, certain things are inadvertently said that cause pain."

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Baichung Bhutia Bids Farewell

New Delhi: The 34-year old football star bid farewell to his international football career here on wednesday, he was speaking to the media at All India Football Federation Headquarters. The footballer was known as the face of Indian football and had represented the Indian talent through 16 years of his career. Bhutia announced his retirement from International football and mentioned that :

"I did have a splendid 16 year career with football and I enjoyed every moment that I played for the country and the contributions I have made towards the game"

The star was known as 'Sikkimese Sniper' for his talent of shooting the ball. There has been many speculations on the announcement by the star, in light with the upcoming tour of India to England where India was set to play Pakistan and England, Under-23 next month.

But there has also been light shed on the injuries the player had sustained and he was able to play only for 15 minutes in the Asia Cup held at Qatar, the event was marked the most prestigious events in Indian Football in the past 27 years.

"Winning the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008, to qualify for the Asian Cup were the best moments of my career and I thought of retiring after playing in that tournament," he said.

"But I could play only 15 minutes in the Asian Cup and I thought it was not the right way to retire. I wanted to continue playing but the last 7-8 months have been frustrating due to lot of injuries. So I have decided to quit," he added.

The player was recently dropped from the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and training matches, the player was feeling bad about this but mentioned that everything doesn't go according to the plan and he is quitting international football but will still be active in his club 'United Sikkim FC' which he had founded. He also added that his commitment and contribution to the nation will not diminish and he is ready to contribute more to AIFF if it requires any.

Bhaichung captained India for over 10 years and scored 43 international goals, more than any other footballer of the country. He is also the only Indian and one among few international players to have played more then 100 matches for his country.

Under him, India won the South Asian Football Federation Championships thrice, two Nehru Cup titles (in 2007 and 2009) and the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup which gave India the right to play in the Asian Cup this year for the first time after 1984.

The most recognisable face of Indian football, Bhaichung has been decorated with the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri.

After unsuccessful trials with English Premiership side Aston Villa and Championship clubs Fulham FC and West Bromwich Albion, Bhaichung finally signed for Division Two club Bury FC in 1999 to become the first Indian to play in Europe.

He was with Bury FC for three years till 2002.

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Facebook Introduces pre-approval of Photo tags

San Francisco: Facebook to introduce pre-approval for tagging your name on any photos posted by friends, earlier the tradition was that any of your friends could tag a photo of you and you might know it quite late, although you can remove the tag later after viewing the tag.

But there has been continuous requests from users to have this removed, now the users will be provided the option to approve the tag and then have the post published with your name. Speaking on this facebook officials did mention that this wont intercept the option of your friends in adding a photo of you, instead this is effective only for photo tags.

The option will be available to all users without changing any further settings on their fb account.

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Rebels Shatter The Gaddafi Home

Tripoli, Libya: In the recent turn of events the rebels marched in to the head quarters of Gaddafi and had looted the armories and killing the loyalist troops. The rebels also crushed the symbolic statue of Gaddafi set outside the home. The troops did cause destruction to the home and was searching for the man himself if the reports are to be believed. The president was already off the house and according to the pro-Gaddafi channel in Libya, the move was of tactical importance and was done during the hours of NATO attack on to the palace. 

The attack on to Bab Al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gaddafi power marked the end of 42-year old regime of the Gaddafi power, but since the president and the powerful sons are still out of reach, the rebels cannot claim victory. The sources mention that there are still sounds of gun shots heard through the city and the rebels are pretty strong in the fight.

Al-Rai TV quoted that they will be screening the excerpt from the President Gaddafi mentioning that he will be resisting the rebels with full strength and the quote also includes his appreciation to the troops and their resistance. The government spokesman also mentioned that:

"We will be back to take on Tripoli"

The rebel force entered the compound after fighting for five hours with Gaddafi loyalists outside, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.

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Achuthananthan to take Royal Family to court?

The former Cheif Minister of Kerala and a veteran Marxist leader is strong on his claims, earlier this week he had expressed his concern over the smuggling of wealth from the temple. Speaking to media, Mr. Achuthanandan said :

" Dont you know that Marthanda Varma goes to temple daily? When he returns, he holds a box, a tiffin box, which is allegedly said to be payasam, but it is not so, instead it is jewels"

The Supreme Court of India had already mentioned that the wealth should be safeguarded and it will be the responsibility of the Government of Kerala and the royal family lead by Marthanda Varma.

Marthanda Varma, the head of current royal family does visit the temple daily and it is said that he does this at early 7.30 a.m and according to the sources, during this hour the temple doesn't give out 'payasam' or the holy sweet, its only by 8 a.m. in the morning that the payasam gets ready to be served, so this is the cause for this allegation. 

Speaking further on this, Mr. Achuthanandan said that 

"I will move to the Supreme court to have this investigated and I hope the court will formulate a commission to investigate this and stop the smuggling of Jewels and put the details in book."

The temple authorities has denied this claim and mentioned that this is totally untrue. According to the temple executive officer, V K Harikumar, he said that:

" These claims are totally untrue, the false information seems to have been provided by an ex-employee of the temple committee who was sacked recently for his ill conduct and not obeying the temple rules and regulations"

The Padmanabha Swami Temple was recently in news for its priceless wealth that was audited by the government of Kerala following the rule from Supreme Court. The wealth has been sorted and there are few more lockers yet to be opened, for now this temple is gaining much publicity and is back in news with Mr. V.S. Achuthanandan. 

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Jan Lokpal : Talks still on!

Following the talks by Team Anna and Pranab Mukherjee, the ray of light was evident till today morning 11 a.m, when Anna Hazare did declare that the government has to compromise on its demands and it is now afraid of loosing funds if we have a honest nation. Speaking to the public at Ramlila Maidan today at 11 am, the activist said that:

"The venue for sacrifice is already there around the country and I have lost only 6 kilos which is nothing compared to it. Its your power that keeps me strong through the fight"

With the weakening health of the 74 year old activist, the medics are at aid around the maidan. Speaking to the media the doctors mentioned that he had slept through night and this has helped in improving the situation and Anna woke up in the morning to address the public by 11 a.m. Anna also slammed the government for not presenting the bill over the parliament. 

After the talks there has been a lot of issues for which the government of India has compromised on which includes the inclusion of the Prime Minister under lokpal and in return the activists have agreed on excluding Judges from the bill and they will be addressed through the Judicial Accountability Bill which is set to be introduced along with the Lokpal Bill.

The only set of differences that is active is the inclusion of junior bureaucrats under the bill and also whether the individual states should formulate their own version of Lokpal bill, the government is firm on the stand that junior bureaucrats should be excluded from the bill otherwise, there will be an inclusion of 20,000 required for the lokpal commission to work effectively and this might rather slow the process. The activists are also demanding a public charter in each government department which should detail the duties of each official and there should be penalties employed in case of under performance. The talks are still stuck at these issues and we hope that there is the proper solution brought out by 3.30 evening which is the time set by the government to hold an all-party meeting including the opposition to discuss on this topic.

Earlier, the finance minister to India, Pranab Mukherjee, who holds the chair in discussions mentioned that the talks were fruiful and constructive, which did give the light to activists that the hunger fast held by Anna Hazare against corruption might end by today. Prime minister of India, also expressed his concern over Anna's health and wrote to him to allow medics to check his health. The minister also expressed his desire to stop Anna's fast by today before the Iftar party that the minister is due to attend. 

Prime minister also mentioned that he is ready to have the Jan Lokpal Bill, the anna's version of Lokpal bill to be discussed by the parliamentary committee, but team Anna wants this bill to be directly introduced to the parliament and debated there. As the current session of parliament is to end by September 8, the critics believe that this will be an unrealistic demand to keep!

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