Asia / All Themes
Music Reviews : Fashion
24.09.2008 16:17
bollyvista.com
The name Madhur Bhandarkar brings to mind hard-hitting and in touch with reality, low budgeted movies ...
India
Show Business
Movie Previews : Golmaal Returns
24.09.2008 16:17
bollyvista.com
Golmaal Returns, the much-awaited follow-up of the uproariously comic smash-hit Golmaal, arrives ...
India
Show Business
Civil nuclear deal strongly in India''s interest: Indra Nooyi
24.09.2008 08:32
b4uindia.com
Chief executive of US based beverage giant PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi on Wednesday hailed the India-US nuclear deal calling it strongly in country''s interests. A U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday voted to approve the U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 19-2 in favor of the deal, which would end the three-decade ban on U.S. nuclear trade with India and is seen by the White House as the cornerstone of a new strategic partnership with New Delhi. Indian born chief of the soft drink giant said the deal would be extremely beneficial for country''s economic prosperity. “India''s energy also can be clearly met by nuclear power. On civil nuclear power I really believe this is strongly in India''s interest. India''s economic prosperity depends on access to reliable electric supply. In all these fields United States can be a tremendous partner to India. Of the 400 nuclear reactors around the world, 104 are located in United States,” said Nooyi. PepsiCo entered India in 1989 and has invested more than 700 million dollar in the country so far and expects its revenue from the country to triple in next five years. Indian American Indra Nooyi has been ranked as the world''s third most powerful woman by Forbes in its 2008 list of the top 100 business women of the world. (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
Cleartrip launches online train bookings in partnership with IRCTC
24.09.2008 08:32
b4uindia.com
Cleartrip, in partnership with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), announced the launch of online train bookings today. With over 17 million passengers travelling daily by train, Cleartrip becomes India''s first online travel agency to tap this burgeoning market by enabling customers to book their train tickets online. Cleartrip launched a search-only service in February this year and has steadily improved the offering based on feedback from thousands of users the search results from 3000 scaled up to 15000 in six months. As customer feedback poured in, Cleartrip added maps for stations and train routes, dateless searches to enable checking of railway schedules, connecting journeys where no direct train is available between stations. Registered users can even save their train searches, letting them conduct their regular searches again without having to re-enter information. Cleartrip has created the easiest and fastest method for customers to purchase railway tickets online. Instead of having to check aspects of the booking separately, a single search provides users with train fares, schedules and availability simultaneously. Cleartrip lets users select the stations most convenient to them by offering multiple stations from a city instead of forcing users to specify a station and also allows the comparison of fares from multiple stations. In addition, users can instantly review fares from multiple classes such as AC two-Tier and AC three-Tier, letting them upgrade to a higher class of travel if they choose. Detailed information is provided for each train including arrival and departure times, number of stops and the train''s route with all stops. In addition, a wide variety of payment options are supported, including credit cards, debit cards and net-banking, so virtually anyone can use this medium. All railway bookings made on Cleartrip are permanently stored in each user''s account, Users can also cancel their bookings online at any time. “Cleartrip has always been very focused on making travel simple and with that mission we have designed the rail booking engine. The amount of data on railways is vast and we wanted a system that kept things simple, while delivering search results in under a second, and we''ve reinvented the wheel to create that system,” said Hrush Bhatt, founder and Director, Product and Strategy. The government-owned Indian Railways boasts one of the largest and most trafficked railroad networks in the world-over 18,000 trains operate daily, plying across over 60,000 kilometres of railroad tracks and over 6,800 railway stations. “The sheer size and scale of the Indian Railways, made offering online railway bookings a high priority for Cleartrip,” said Stuart Crighton, Cleartrip''s founder and CEO. “Developing a unique train product has been a priority and we are very excited to launch India''s fastest and easiest way to book Indian Railways trains online.” (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
Berkshire to invest at least 5 billion dollars in Goldman Sachs
24.09.2008 08:32
b4uindia.com
Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to invest at least 5 billion dollars in Goldman Sachs Group, with billionaire investor Warren Buffett backing a Wall Street firm that’s begun transforming itself into a more-stable banking business. In addition to buying 5 billion dollars in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another 5 billion dollars in Goldman’s common stock. Goldman said on late Tuesday that it would raise another 2.5 billion dollars in its own public stock offering. The news sent shares of Goldman Sachs and stock index futures soaring in electronic trading, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a triple-digit decline for the second day in a row, CBS News reported. It also could lead to new probing questions from lawmakers for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs. He and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress hours earlier that quick action on a 700 billion dollars bailout measure for financial services firms was needed to prevent economic havoc. The legislation that the Bush Administration is seeking would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other troubled assets held by endangered banks and financial institutions. Goldman Sachs'' shares had been tumbling ahead of the announcement of the government rescue plan last Friday as investors feared it could face the same kinds of funding squeezes as Bear Stearns and Lehman. Now members of Congress have to deal with a plan while it looks to many taxpayers like Wall Street is already cashing in. Buffett, one of the most successful investors in history, made no mention of what is happening in Washington, but he did heap praise on the New York-based company. (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
Dasmunsi condoles Ram Awtar Gupta’s death
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting P. R. Dasmunsi has condoled the death of veteran journalist and Editor-in-Chief of ‘Sanmarg’ Ram Awtar Gupta. He said, “In his death, we have lost an accomplished and prolific writer who had dedicated his entire life for the cause of journalism and maintained the highest journalistic ethics in his writing.” The Minister added that Gupta’s death is an irreparable loss to all of us in general and to the media fraternity in particular. The nation will always remember him for his contribution in the field of journalistic writing for which he was conferred upon the ‘Matushree’ award and also for his yeoman service for communal peace between Hindus and Muslims. Dasmunsi said besides, his journalistic contributions, Gupta will also be remembered for his social service. Gupta, who died on Tuesday at the age of 85 after brief illness, is survived by his wife Savitri Devu Gupta and his grandson Vivek Gupta, managing director of Sanmarg, a Hindi daily. Gupta was the president of INS Kolkata chapter. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Volatile oil prices put aviation industry in a fix
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
The sharp rise in fuel prices has pushed global aviation industry in crisis with 5.2 billion dollar losses this year and forecast of 4.1 billion dollar next year, says International Air Transport Association (IATA). Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IATA, Giovani Bisignani, while addressing an interactive session in New Delhi today, said that one dollar increase per barrel of oil costs 1.26 billion dollars to the aviation industry. “First the global industry is in crisis. You know you have seen the figures, 5.2 billion dollar losses this year, a forecast of 4.1 billion dollar next year. Keeping in mind, 5.2 billion dollar losses, this was a forecast on price of fuel of 113 dollar a barrel. This could logically change if the fuel changes. Just to keep in mind one dollar increase per barrel means 1.26 billion dollar in the cost,” said Bisignani. Bisignani called for urgent action to help Indian carriers to weather away the storm of high costs and falling demand as the global crisis resulting from high oil prices is hitting India hard. Indian carriers could post 1.5 billion dollar in losses in 2008, the largest outside US. Indian aviation industry''s growth has slowed from 33 per cent in 2007 to 7.5 per cent for the first six months of this year. And for the last two months it has been negative. “September is not looking very good. We have now couple of months with decline - August was 70 per cent and September will not be much better. So actually from a very fast growing industry we have turned into an industry with negative growth rates,” said Wolfgang Prock Schauer, CEO of Jet Airways Limited. Aviation industry sources at the conference said that the 2008 fuel bill would be 186 billion dollar. That''s a 50 billion dollar increase in just one year. The demand is already falling. Global international passenger growth in July was 1.9 per cent compared to 7.3 per cent in 2007. And freight traffic declined by 1.9 per cent. The situation is in no way rosy, added aviation experts. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Secessionists cannot be allowed to redraw India’s geography: Fernandes
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
Criticizing columnists for suggesting that certain sections of Indian society should be encouraged to dismember the country because of some so called “adverse” administrative decisions, former Defence Minister George Fernandes has said that India’s geographical boundaries cannot be redrawn because of the desires of such secessionists. In an article that appears in “The Other Side”, a journal of socialist though and action, Fernandes said: “A few feature articles in newspapers and magazines cannot redraw the geography of India overnight just to show that we are radical and fashionable.” Admitting that Jammu and Kashmir has seen bad times, especially with Pakistan stoking the Kashmiri separatist cause, Fernandes said it does not mean that “ we should be prepared to tear our country apart.” “We need instead to tear open our chests and see whether our own hearts beat for a better India, whether it be Bihar, Bengal, Orissa or, Gujarat,” he added. Indians needed to make a choice on whether they still wanted a unified India or be part of the “stokers’ of trouble for political ends or for a few minutes of fame,” he added. Describing India as being in a permanent crisis zone, he said: “We need an alert and competent government at the center to monitor the pulse of each state of the Union and be ready to trouble shoot before things go out of hand. We need leaders with not just wisdom, but stature and moral authority to handle sensitive issues, and know what is needed to bring people of different communities together.” He suggested that the latest terror strikes across the country were aberrations that did not require an atmosphere of mutual recrimination. Instead, all parties should stand together, look beyond elections and at the suffering people. “Once this happens, fashionable writers encouraging secessionism, will not get the attention they so desperately seek,” he concluded. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Scarlett Keeling murder accused released on bail
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
A suspect in the rape and murder of a British teenager Scarlett Keeling was released on bail after investigators failed to submit charges against him, a lawyer for the Keeling family has said. Samson D''Souza is facing a number of accusations, including raping the 15-year-old and assisting in her murder. According to The Telegraph, D’Souza was freed after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not submit a list of charges against him. The paper quoted Vikram Varma as saying that the CBI has applied to cancel the bail and that the application should be heard in court on Friday. Varma is representing Scarlett and her mother Fiona MacKeown. He said: "I can confirm that D''Souza was released on bail. The CBI has moved to cancel the bail. Hopefully they will also file a charge sheet within a couple of weeks." (ANI)
India
Social Life
Cerlikon incident not part of Indian culture: Kamal Nath
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said here today that the violence at the Greater Noida-based MNC -- Cerlikon–Graziano Transmissions India Pvt. Ltd. --was unfortunate and completely at variance from Indian culture and the tradition of peace. In the statement, Nath said that in our society, labour unrest has abundant legal forms of expression as also the pursuance of grievances “This terrible incident is very unfortunate and we strongly condemn it. The legal course will be followed and all culprits brought to book,” he added. He said that this stray tragic occurrence would not be allowed to mar India’s position as an investment-friendly destination where our states compete with each other to be investor-friendly. Sacked employees of the car-parts maker Graziano Transmissioni on Monday attacked Chief Executive Officer Lalit Kishore Chaudhary at the company’s office in Greater Noida, when discussions over a long-running labour dispute turned violent. About 200 former employees were present inside the office premises when the incident occured. The assailants were dismissed two months back for some reasons. They have been protesting against their dismissal since then. (ANI)
India
Social Life
New ''suicide gene'' delivery approach may pave way for pancreatic cancer treatment
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
Scientists have developed a novel method to effectively kill pancreatic cancer cells - using nanoparticles to successfully deliver a deadly diphtheria toxin gene. The study, led by researchers at the Department of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, was the first one to test this unique strategy in pancreatic cancer cells And the success of this method offers hope for future pre-clinical animal studies, and possibly, a new clinical approach. It was found that delivery of a diphtheria toxin gene suppressed a basic function of pancreatic tumour cells by over 95 percent, which in turn caused significant cell death of pancreatic cancer cells six days after a single treatment. The researchers also showed that the treatment targets only pancreatic cancer cells and leaves normal cells alone, thus providing a potential ''therapeutic window.'' Also, they are targeting a molecule that is found in over three-quarters of pancreatic cancer patients. "For the pancreatic cancer world, this is very exciting. There are no effective targeted treatments for pancreatic cancer, aside from surgery for which only a minority of patients qualify. We are in great need of translating the plethora of molecular information we know about this disease to novel therapeutic ideas," said the study''s lead author, molecular biologist Jonathan Brody, Ph.D. The approach was originally developed in ovarian cancer cells by study co-author Janet Sawicki, Ph.D. The strategy is based on the fact that both ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells significantly over-express a protein found on the cell membrane, called mesothelin. The function of mesothelin is unknown, but it is found in the majority of pancreatic tumors and ovarian cancer tumors. Other solid tumors also express mesothelin, but not at such a high rate. "We don''t know completely why cancer cells repeatedly turn on mesothelin genes to produce these membrane proteins, but it gives us a way to fool the cell and hijack its machinery, to trick it into making other more potent genes that will be detrimental to the cancer cells," said Brody. For this, the researchers devised an agent that consists of a bit of mesothelin DNA connected to the gene that produces the toxin from diphtheria, a highly contagious and potentially deadly bacteria, which is now controlled through childhood DPT vaccination. Then, "naked" DNA is coated in a polymer to form nanoparticles which get transferred to the cancer cells. Inside the cells, the nanoparticles biodegrade and the cell machinery senses genetic material from mesothelin. Brody said that it activates the diphtheria toxin gene, which then turns on production of the toxin which allows the toxin to then do its work on the cancer cells. Before completing 24 hours of delivery, the toxin disrupted production of protein machinery by over 95 percent, and within six days, a number of cancer cells die or are arrested. "The cancer thinks it is turning on mesothelin and once it gets started reading that genetic code, it can''t stop. So it will read the bacteria''s DNA and produce the toxin which shuts down protein production in the cancer cells," he said. "It worked well in our cell culture models and now we are moving into pre-clinical experiments," said Brody. The study will be published in the October issue of Cancer Biology & Therapy. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Lung disease-inhalers can cause heart attacks
24.09.2008 08:31
b4uindia.com
Inhalers prescribed for a lung disease can cause heart attacks, a shocking new research has found. According to the study, anticholinergic drugs contained in the inhalers could increase the risk of a heart attack, cardiovascular death or stroke by more than 50 percent. The inhalers are helpful for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, to breathe. They open up the airways by relaxing muscles, which allows air to get in and out of the patient''s lungs more easily. To reach the conclusion, the researchers looked at the inhalers ipratropium (Atrovent) and tiotropium (Spiriva). The meta-analysis examined at 17 medical trials involved a total of 14,783 patients who were using the inhalers for more than 30 days. The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Inhaled anticholinergic use for more than 30 days significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction (heart attack), or stroke in patients with COPD by approximately 58 percent,” the Daily Express quoted the researchers, as saying. The research was carried out by experts from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina and Dr Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia in Norwich. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
News & Gossip : Biggest war film planned?
24.09.2008 04:32
bollyvista.com
So, you thought J.P. Duttas Border or L.O.C. was biggest ever war film made in Indian Cinema? ...
India
Show Business
News & Gossip : Genelia in same role as original
24.09.2008 04:32
bollyvista.com
Genelia D’souza has a rare achievement. She debuted in Bollywood with Tujhe Meri Kasam few years ...
India
Show Business
Twenty petrochemical companies to be privatized in Iran
24.09.2008 02:33
b4uindia.com
Gholamhossein Nejabat, Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran, has said that 20 subsidiaries of NPC have been earmarked for privatization. He added that so far Carbon Iran, Farabi, Abadan, Kharg, Isfahan, Arak, Shiraz, Razi and Polika Karaj have been wholly privatized and that 52 of the 81 subsidiaries of the National Petrochemical Company have been semi-privatized. Nejabad told journalists that more companies would be privatized if Iran Privatization Organisation approved the transfer of other petrochemical companies as a single block or holding companies. The question of privatization has become a hotly debated issue in Iran, as there are frequent complaints about the lack of efficiency in the multitude of state-owned companies. Recently the Head of Iran’s Expediency Council, former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has stressed the need for wide scale privatization in the real sense of the world. Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani considered proper management as the most important factor for sound economic foundations and added: "There is a wide gap between the private sector and the government in this respect and we need to move towards real privatization and move towards free market economy in Iran." The head of the Expediency Council has said that the main objective of privatization is taking maximum advantage of the country''s human and material resources, adding, "Providing an appropriate atmosphere for the performance of the private sector would solve two major problems of the country, namely lowering unemployment and inflation." (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
English