Defence Panel backs Army Chief VK Singh's Stand

The parliamentary standing committee on defence tabled its report, which backed Army Chief General VK Singh's stand revealing that the army aviation lacks helicopters.

The committee has found that there is a huge shortage of helicopters in the Army Aviation unit. There is a gap between the sanctioned and existing machines with the Army.

The report tabled in Parliament on Monday said that the Indian Army faces shortage of 18 Cheetah, one Chetak, 76 Advanced Light Helicopter and 60 Advanced Light Helicopter with weapon systems.

The report confirmed General VK Singh's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the shortage of weapons in the Army and poor state of Army's war preparedness.

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister dated on March 12, General Singh had written that the Army lacked tanks to defeat the enemy, the air defence was almost obsolete and the infantry falling short of critical weapons.

However, the panel said that the report published by "The Hindu" on the suspicious movement of troops towards New Delhi in January, was not true. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma clarified that the movement of the army units was for training purposes.

Madhuri Dixit to play Gangster in 'Gulab Gang'

Madhuri Dixit will soon be seen in the role of a gangster in Anubhav Sinha's home production 'Gulab Gang'. After ‘Devdas’ she had left Bollywood in 2002 to retain her conjugal life.

Madhuri will play the character ‘Gulab’ in the film, who is the leader of a women gang fighting against social injustice.

The story is not a biographical saga but it is believed to be based on certain women centric social issues. As per Anubhab Sinha, the film is although a work of fiction, it has been inspired by some social events that had taken place in Uttar Pradesh.

Madhuri is very much excited with the story. After returning to Bollywood in 2011 this is the second film that the actor has signed after Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Dedh Ishqiya'.

The film will have six female characters and the main antagonist woman has not been finalized yet.

'Gulab Gang' will be produced under the banner Benaras Media Works and has been scheduled to release on March 8 2013 on the eve of Women’s Day.

Big B ready to work with Rekha Again

The fans of Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha may have another chance to see them together on screen, as Big B has hinted that he is willing for such a pairing again.

In a clear signal to the directors and producers in Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan said that if there is a good story and they both like it, he and Rekha are willing to work together.

He was talking to the reporters at a promotional event held for his upcoming movie, 'Department'. Amitabh and Rekha's on-screen romance is considered as unforgettable in the Hindi Film Industry history.

Sonali Achrjee makes Guinness World Record in Dance

A dancer from Assam has found a place in the prestigious Guinness World records making the entire community and country proud. Sonali Achrjee achieved the glory performing Rabindra dance for a mammoth 25 hours and 25 minutes.

Sonali created the record, which was never attempted before in this category. She hails from Hailakandi district of Assam. Along with 125 other artists, she performed four dance ballets and 150 musical compositions of Rabindranath Tagore.

The entire dance was choreographed and presented by Sonali to mark Bengal's Renaissance man's 150th birth anniversary. The event had been held at Rabindra Bharathi, Hyderabad, on February 1 and 2.

However, it was not an easy task for her to achieve the pinnacle. She has sold her gold ornaments to raise the money for the dance festival event titled "Rabindra Nrityotsav" to pay her tribute to Tagore. The event was organised by Sonali Academy of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, South Zone Cultural Centre, Thanjore and South-Central Zone Cultural Centre, Nagpur.

She took 8-9 months for preparation for the event and approached other artists from northeastern states, France, Japan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The artists had taken only 18 seconds break to change their costumes.

Being impressed by her performance, an official from the Guinness Records, who is also a member of the London Olympics Committee, invited her to perform and showcase her skills at this year's summer Olympics, which will be held in London.

Sonali broke the previous record, which was created by MTV for the longest dance performance of 24 hours and one minute.

Nandita Das back in Action with Hindi, Tamil Films

The award-winning Indian film actress and director Nandita Das is back in action with two films this year after her maternity break. She will be seen in a Hindi and Tamil films.

The actress was last seen on-screen in Onir's national award winning film 'I Am' (2011). Nandita is all set to impress the audiences with her performance in an untitled Tamil film directed by Seenu Ramaswamy. The actress has also signed for a Bollywood film directed by Devashish Makhija. Nandita, who was much appreciated for her performances in 'Fire' (1996), 'Earth' (1998), 'Bawandar' (2000), 'Kannathil Muthamittal' (2002) and 'Aamaar Bhuvan' (2002), is excited to be seen on-screen once again.

She revealed that she has signed two films after her baby was born. "I am doing one Tamil film by Seenu Ramaswamy and a Hindi film with Devashish Makhija who is a new director. Seema Biswas is also in that film. Both are very interesting stories with rural characters but there are no songs", she said.

Talking about the theme of the films, Nandita said that the Tamil film is based on fishermen life that how they are caught in sea and how they are shot for crossing the sea border.

The Hindi film is about Maoists, the emotions of innocent villagers, who are passing their lives in fear, the war between the CRPF and red rebels. Both the films are based on contemporary subjects.

The actress is expected to start shooting for both the films in May.

Samsung releases Teaser Website for Galaxy S III

Samsung has released the teaser website on Monday for its upcoming flagship Smartphone, presumed to be the Galaxy S III. The teaser came with a countdown and something like this “tgeltaayehxnx” which has been decoded as an anagram for “The next Galaxy” by experts.

But as per our information, Galaxy S III is going to be released next month. So there should be some other big mysterious event that can be expected at the final point of this countdown clock.

Again, the teaser video, which tells little about the upcoming device, rather advocates “Truly smart technology becomes a part of natural life,”, “Your view of the world grows even larger.”

Towards the climax a herd of sheep are shown to probably tell that if we are using the upcoming device of the company we are out of track and so special. Whatever it may be, all fog will be cleared once the device will be launched on 3rd May in London.

The Indian release of the device is expected one or two weeks after its international release, seeing the trend of Samsung.

Mufti Shameen Kazmi sacked from Team Anna

In a significant development yesterday, Team Anna member Mufti Shameen Kazmi was sacked from the Core Committee of the group for allegedly recording the proceedings of the discussions.

Kazmi was reportedly secretly recording the proceedings of the core committee meeting using his mobile phone. It was alleged that he recorded the events to send them to journalists.

Kazmi has refuted all the allegations and alleged that there is a rift within Team Anna on various issues. He also claimed that Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan wanted to contest elections. Kazmi further alleged that Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Biswas had a heated altercation at a meeting.

Earlier yesterday, Kazmi had moved out of the core committee meeting yesterday and announced his resignation. He accused Team Anna of being "anti-Muslim". Later, Team Anna clarified that he was sacked, not resigned on his own.

Mamata advises People to stop Watching News channels

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit the headlines once again for her bizarre advises to people. She advised people to stop watching certain news channels and switch to entertainment channels.

Addressing a public meeting in North 24 Parganas district on Thursday, Mamata advised people not to watch some TV channels, which are spreading false propoganda against her Trinamool Congress government.

She advised people to listen to music instead of watching certain news channels. She also criticised a section of media for being biased and putting her government in a bad light.

She indicated two to three news channels of the opponent CPI-M and advised people not to watch those, but listen to songs on other channels.

"I do not care about fingers pointed against me. I do not care for anybody. I only care for Ma, Mati, Manush of Bengal," Banerjee told a rally after a government function.

She said that the criticism will not deter her from her goal in giving a good governance to people of Bengal.

"No one can deter Mamata Banerjee in serving you. I will prove to those who are out to tarnish our government through a campaign of lies, wrong. No amount of browbeating or propaganda will help," she said.

The statement came after she banned certain English dailies and high circulation Bengali newspapers from the state-funded and state-aided libraries.

Fans Disappointed at Closure of Imagine TV

All the fans of Imagine TV are extremely upset and disappointed about the recent closure of the channel. Even a huge number of fans have urged to telecast the popular serials online.

Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Inc. announced the decision to shut down Imagine TV and Imagine Dil Se last Thursday stating that the channels did not perform along the lines of the expectations.

"Dharam Patni", "Zor Ka Jhatka", "Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo", "Chandragupta Maurya", "Gyan Guru", "Dwarkadheesh - Bhagwaan Shree Krishn", "Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan", "Mahima Shani Dev Ki" etc. are the popular serials/shows of Imagine TV.

It is too hard for the fans of Imagine TV to believe that their favorite channel has been wiped out. While TRP is the most deciding algorithm for the producer of a channel or serial, the fans have nothing to do with this. But at the end they become the biggest prey of the TRP competition.

When it comes to Indian viewers across the world, they love to develop a relationship with the fictional characters of the serials. Gossiping about the problems of the characters of the serial is part of many Indian viewers’ daily life. They get involved so much with this fiction.

Hence, any harsh business decision makes them really unhappy. In Imagine TV’s context also the same thing has happened. Many people, including the fans, artists and crews of different serials are waiting for a positive miracle in favor of their favorite serial/channel.

Even Some people have doubts regarding the reason of closure that the channel has officially shown. They believe that controversial serials related to social institutions (like Veena Ka Vivaah) might have also confused the owners to make a decision to stop all the odds.

Fans of ‘Chandragupta Maurya’ (CGM), the serial about the great ancient emperor of India have apparently received the biggest setback with this closure. They have even launched a face book page titled ‘Save Chandragupta Maurya Show’ to save their favorite serial.

Millions of fans of this serial have provided huge number of comments to convey their likeness. They hope that this online exhibition of their patronage may attract some other channel to take up the serial to be broadcast. Till writing of this news, the number of members of this group was 28,084.

The group is available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/118377024961561/

A huge number of fans of Imagine TV and its popular serials have urged Turner Broadcasting System, the owner of the channel to reconsider their decision of shutting down.

Take the Extreme Question Challenge

A leader, especially a smart one, might be tempted to provide her team with all the answers. However, a smarter leader knows that allowing her team to contribute ideas is not only good for the team, but makes for better results. To counter your tendency to do all of the talking, pick a meeting or conversation and commit to leading it by asking questions. Start by presenting a query that will spark discussion. Ask clarifying questions to dig deeper and better understand the ideas. Then use questions to determine next steps. you might find it difficult to avoid chiming in with a statement or suggestion, but holding your tongue ensures that others will use theirs.

Aamir Khan set for debut TV Show

Following the footsteps of some other Bollywood biggies, this time Aamir Khan has stepped into the small screen with his debut TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’. Khan is appearing as an anchor here.

‘Satyamev Jayate’ is an upcoming TV Talk show to be aired on Star Plus since 6th May this year. The show is reported to go air simultaneously in eight languages. From the teaser videos it seems that the serial is based on social issues relating to the common man. The teasers of the show were made public on YouTube on April 2, 2012.

Everybody is aware of the dedication of Aamir. Whether it’s for the big screen or small screen, he leaves no stones unturned to make justice to his projects. Needless to say, ‘Satyamev Jayate’ has also received the same frequency of devotion from the director of ‘Taare Zameen Par’.

Star Plus had apparently blocked all the 2,000 slots for the broadcaster's promos in 27 hours -- totally valued at Rs 6.25 crore. This is the highest amount of money spent on any star show of its kind. So far the highest amount even for shows with Salman Khan and SRK, the initial promotion costs haven't been over Rs 2.5 crore.

Indian Rupee declines to 51.64 vs US Dollar

The Indian rupee declined to Rs 51.64 against the US dollar on Wednesday. The level was last seen on January 16 when the European countries were struggling to overcome the economic slowdown.  

The US currency was seen on the upside paving a way for the investors. The domestic currency opened declining by 13 paise at Rs 51.60 against dollar on Wednesday morning.

Most of the Asian shares fell today prompting investors to continue their risk. Meanwhile, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Indian shares worth Rs 328.66 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The BSE Sensex is down 117 points at around 17126 while S&P CNX Nifty is lower by 36 points to be at 5207.

Create a Mentoring Culture

Encouraging older and younger employees to share  knowledge, ideas, and advice makes sense. But old-school, top-down programs in which mentors and proteges are assigned to each other don't work as well as relationships that come about organically.

Help mentors and proteges find each other by starting with specific work needs, when one person can contribute to another's project or goal. This establishes the initial relationship in a comfortable, useful way. Later, if the chemistry between the two proves strong, the relationship may evolve into a broader discussion of career goals and personal aspirations.

Women Smokers find hard to quit Smoking

It has been observed that women smokers usually find it hard to quit smoking. A new study has found the reason behind it. The study was published in the April issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine in the US have provided the reason that because women brains respond quite differently to nicotine than male smokers, they find it difficult to give up smoking.

Nicotine receptors in the brain are responsible to enhance the desire of smoking more. When a person smokes, the number of these nicotine receptors in the brain increases, for which the more a person smokes the more he wants to smoke.

However, the researchers noticed a strange behavior in this context during the study. They found that while male smokers had a greater number of nicotine receptors compared to nonsmokers, women smokers had about the same number of nicotine receptors as nonsmokers. The study observed this gender effect.

The study also suggests that besides the effect of nicotine, other factors such as the smell and act of holding a cigarette may also play a greater role in enhancing the habit of smoking. In this aspect also women exhibited a stronger habitual behavior.

Nicotine replacement therapies are applied to make someone quit the habit of smoking. However, the study suggests that if we are on our way to make a woman quit smoking, we need to adopt other therapies, such as exercise or relaxation techniques along with the nicotine therapy.

In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 52 men and 58 women, about half of whom were smokers. They examined nicotine receptors in their brain by using a radioactive marker. Then the Smokers in the study were asked to abstain from smoking for a week.

When after a week they were again tested, the researchers found that male smokers had about 16 % more nicotine receptors in the striatum, 17 per cent more in the cerebellum, and 13 to 17 per cent more in the cortical region of the brain compared with male nonsmokers. But interestingly, Female smokers had similar numbers of nicotine receptors in these regions of brain as in male nonsmokers.

Hence, the study suggested that besides nicotine therapy some other therapies are also needed.

Art of Living to hold Yogathon Challenge on May 11

A ‘Yogathon’ organised by the spiritual Guru  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation is going to be held in the Middle East on May 11 as part of the Yoga for Health Festival.

The event includes teaching and training participants the 12-pose yoga sequence, which will begin from 7th April, the World Health Day.

There will be four sessions each day with a special one at 8 P.M. especially for the office goers to allow them attend the programme without troubling their normal office routine. The Yogathon will be held at the Art of Living Centre in Mosaic Towers, near Zakher Mall, in Al Khuwair.

Yogathon is an ‘entry-free’ event about dropping stress and bringing in freshness. It involves a 12-pose yoga sequence that can be done in 15 minutes to provide a good cardio-vascular workout to keep the body and mind in a perfect condition.

The 12 poses further normalizes the heart, liver, intestine, stomach, chest, throat, and legs, purifies the blood, improves blood circulation and ensures proper functioning of the stomach, bowels, and nerve centers. It improves posture, flexibility, enhances concentration and intuition and burns excess calories and tones the body – said Rajiv Ahuja, head of corporate communications, Khimji Ramdas.

At the end Participants of this programme will get the certificate of ‘The Spirit of Yoga’. Those who complete 54 sets of the sequence will be awarded the ‘Gold Certificate’ and the Organizations taking part will be awarded an institutional certificate by Art of Living.

‘Art of Living Foundation’ is a voluntary organization having its presence in 151 countries. The foundation, accredited to the UN, aims to create a stress-free and violence-free society.

Don't Just Communicate, Explain

Good Communicators know they need to use energy and enthusiasm to persuade their audience. Great Communicators know they also need to explain what all the excitement is about. Next time you need to share something important, be sure you

convey enthusiasm, but also clearly explain what is at stake and answer the question, "What does it mean?" 

Lay out what the issue, initiative, or problem is - and be clear about what it isn't. Use metaphors only if they are helpful to your point and share details that support your claims. Then, define what you want people to do by establishing clear expectations. Don't lose or confuse your audience with too many details, though; save those for written communications.

50% Cancer Cases can be Prevented: Study

A recent study has claimed that 50% of the Cancer cases can be prevented. Interestingly, the research has given stress to the preventive measures rather than treatment.

The report was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine claim that the society itself possesses the required knowledge to prevent cancer.

Lead author (of the study) Graham Colditz, an epidemiologist at the Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri stressed on exercising, balanced diet and abstaining from smoking as the key ways to prevent cancer.

The study has described smoking to be the chief reason for cancer. It gives the statistics that about one third of the US Cancer cases are due to smoking.

The research also prescribes some vaccination like the vaccination against cancer-causing viruses such as the human papilloma virus can do well but still it is true that treatments focus only on a single organ but behavioral changes reduce cancer and death rates from many chronic diseases.

The study says that humans are impatient and this characteristic itself is an obstacle to cancer prevention.

Pollution and crime, poor public transportation, lack of open fields for play and exercise and absence of nearby supermarkets for fresh food obstructs the adoption of a perfect lifestyle which actually leads to the risk of cancer in many cases.

Along with the other medical preventions the study has also prescribed for a policy change to provide all a perfect atmosphere and lifestyle to throw away cancer and other diseases.

Forgive but Don't Forget

Common wisdom holds that failure is inevitable, especially when innovating. If you want people to take risks and try new things, failure must be an option. 

But few organizations have actually created cultures that accept gaffes. To show your support for failure, encourage your people to make the most of their blunders. Try adopting a "forgive but don't forget" approach. Forgive honest mistakes, but make sure employees learn form past failures so they don't repeat them.

Do Matrimonial Sites help in Match-Making?

It is said that marriages are made in heaven but finding the match on Earth can be quite a task. Thanks to numerous matrimonial sites that make this task easy with a click of a button.

Over the years many of Indian Matrimonial websites has augmented three-fold. Indian Matrimonial websites has been quiet practical as they offer services that are most obligatory in a marriage in India including marriage horoscope matching etc.

Though there are some sites that ask for payment before it is listed in it, in this case you can pay the money on the line itself. There are various free Indian Matrimonial websites are available.

Matrimony in India is acquiring an outstanding place in the hearts of the Indians and over the world. Organizing and setting up a marriage had been a restless work to do. This includes the commotion in search of a matchmaking life partner in the form of a Bride or a Groom, from the various different obtainable sources.

But in present, the authentic circumstances have changed a lot with the upcoming of new marriage or matrimony sites. Such matrimonial sites manage a mass data of matchmaking grooms and brides from various castes, religions, community, or various other part of the world and one can easily search their life partner requirement on such marital sites.

Registering your profile on an online marriage portal can be very rewarding. It may get a little confusing at first as you may not know where to start, but if you move toward this challenge with an open and creative mind, a marriage website can provide you with instant results.

All Indian Matrimonial websites ensures complete privacy of your information. Once you choose a profile of your choice that will offer an opportunity for you and your family to discuss with them. You may simplify your research, religion, educational qualifications, or mentioning caste.

Currently, most of the matches occurring in the network and it seems widely accepted by society in the coming days you may see an increase in the use of possibly even up to hundred percent.