Bandh over Petrol Price Hike halts Normal Life

The nation-wide bandh against petrol price hike disrupted the normal life across the country on Thursday. Offices and business establishments remained closed and vehicles were off the road.

The political parties supporting the protest stalled the traffic and public transport services by holding dharnas on the tracks.

Violence was reported in Karnataka as three state-run Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) busses were burnt and 11 others were damaged in the morning when the protest began. Following the incident, the bus operations were suspended till evening.

Pune witnessed similar incident as 13 buses were burnt at various places in the city. Busses were also attacked in Satara. Similarly, 26 buses were damaged by the protesters in Mumbai.

The protesters and political parties like NDA were seen holding meetings to make the strike successful against the UPA government. The women's wing of the JD-U protested the fuel price hike by holding a dharna in Patna.

According to reports, JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav has been detained in Saharsa, Bihar for leading a protest march. The JD (U) have also begun a ‘rail roko’ campaign across Bihar, affecting at least four train services.

The Samajwadi Party workers also stalled the traffic on rail routes in Allahabad. At least two trains have been stopped on Delhi-Howrah route.

In Delhi the auto rickshaw unions have also joined the Bharat Bandh. At least 55,000 autos and 15,000 taxis are expected to stay off the road today.

In Bhubaneswar, the impact was felt in the morning when the protesters were blocking the roads connecting to the National Highway. They burnt tyres and effigies. Police were deployed to avoid unwanted situation in the city. Several CPM and BJD workers were arrested for blocking the roads.

Road blockades were also seen in Kolkata near the Howrah station. NDA blocked roads in some districts and the Howrah Bridge, which connects the metropolis to the Howrah district.

Vidya Balan wants to act in Marathi Films

Vidya Balan, the National award winning star of ‘The Dirty Picture’ wants to act in Marathi Films. She has reportedly signed an upcoming Marathi film by Mahesh Manjrekar.

The talented actor of this year’s blockbuster ‘Kahaani’ has revealed her passion of doing a ‘Lavani’, the typical dance style of Maratha. She admits Madhuri Dixit to be her inspiration in this context, who had performed extremely well in two songs, one in film ‘Shailab’ and the other in ‘Sangeet’ using the typical dance style of Maharastra.

Balan’s lavani number 'Mala Jau De' from the film, directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, is currently topping the music charts.

During an event of cricket oriented movie 'Ferrari Ki Sawaari' on Friday, Vidya conveyed her excitement about Marathi films saying that doing a lavani is her dream. In an attractive red sari, Vidya sizzled on the stage as she performed the item number for the audience. On public demand, she also repeated the performance.

One may not believe that Vidya is not a trained dancer as whatever she has performed till date is commending. But she is confident enough that she can perform well for a Lavani number. She also told about her wish to do a Lavani number for “Ferrari ki Sawaari” during the function.

Pak Doctor jailed for helping US killing Osama

Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who reportedly helped the CIA to hunt down Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, was sentenced to 33 years in jail on treason charges.

Under the British-era tribal laws, Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), Shakil was held guilty. The FCR is still effective in Pakistan's tribal regions.

The Pakistani doctor allegedly ran a CIA-sponsored fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad to obtain DNA samples from any of Osama's family members who stayed in the same compound.

A Commission appointed by the Pakistan Government had sought Afridi's trial on charges of high treason.

Kairi - The Global Orphan stranded in US

Here is a story of an Indian orphan girl Kairi Shepherd, who was adopted by an US national woman in Kolkata 30 years ago and now America wants to deport her to India, a country she had left when she was only 90 days old.

The girl is now facing deportation to India as the US claimed that her papers for US citizenship were not proper as per the US rules of law. Therefore, she is not allowed to live in the US.

Kairi claimed that she is a US citizen as she was adopted by an American mother 30 years back from an orphanage in Kolkata. However, a US court ordered the government to deport her from the country as soon as possible to India, where she has no relatives.

It can be described as a heart-rending story if we will feel the trauma of the girl. Her adoptive mother died of cancer when she was 8-year-old. At the age of 17, she was found with drug addiction and later she was convicted in cheque forgery.

The US court ordered the government to expedite her deportation process when it found her documents for US citizenship were incomplete. It was not her mistake for the incomplete documents. Even she can’t blame anyone as her American foster mother failed to file an application before her death.

She has no option besides leaving the US as the International Mission of Hope - an orphanage in Kolkata, where she was adopted, has been shut down. However, she can approach the US Supreme Court to get justice.

SRK defends himself, seeks Apology from MCA

In a significant development, Bollywood Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) has defended himself against the allegations and demanded an apology from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

"They treated me and my kids in a rude way. If I was rude, they were also equally rude. They manhandled my children. If this is the treatment we are going to get, I don't want to visit Wankhede," said Shah Rukh.

Shah Rukh rubbished the allegations that he was drunk at the time of incident last night. He accused the MCA of high-handedness and aggressive behaviour. "I did not do anything illegal. Yes, I abused them. I was just protecting my children. I stand by what I did. Children were mandhandled in the name of security. That is unpardonable," he said.

"I won't apologise for my behaviour. I will do it again if the MCA treats my children in such a rude manner," he further added. Earlir, the MCA had lodged a formal complaint against SRK accusing him of mishbeaviour and drunken abuse. They also decided to ban Shah Rukh from the Wankhede Stadium.

Book Review: The Elephant, The Tiger and The Cellphone

Over the past 25 years, India has moved from a largely impoverished, underdeveloped country to an innovative, fast-changing society. This entertaining and informative book shows how and why.

Interest in India has never been greater. Here Shashi Tharoor, one of the subcontinent’s most respected writers and diplomats, offers precious insights into this complex, multifaceted land, which despite its dazzling diversity of languages, customs, and cultures remains—more than 60 years after its founding—the world’s largest democracy. He describes the vast changes that have transformed this once sleeping giant into a world leader in science and technology, a nation once poverty-stricken that now boasts a middle class of over 300 million people—as large as the entire population of the United States! 

Artfully combining hard facts and statistics with opinion and observation, Tharoor discusses the strengths and weaknesses of his rapidly evolving homeland in five areas—politics, economics, culture, society, and sports—and takes a fresh look at the world’s second most populous country.

Paperback: 498 pages

Publisher: Arcade Publishing (October 15, 2008)
 

Language: English
 

ISBN-10: 1559708948
 

ISBN-13: 978-1559708944

Source: http://tharoor.in/books/the-elephant-the-tiger-and-the-cellphone/

List of Indian Leaders who died in Aerial Crash

The recent chopper mishap in which Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda was injured, reminds us the aerial crashes in India over the past decades. Many politicians and VIPs have died and several had narrow escapes while they were on board.

The mishap at the Birsa Munda airport in Ranchi on Wednesday is a reminder of the deaths of political leaders like Sanjay Gandhi, Madhavrao Scindia, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, GMC Balayogi, S Mohan Kumaramangalam, Dorjee Khandu, OP Jindal and Surendra Singh.

History says that Subhas Bose was the first Indian political leader to die in a plane crash during freedom struggle on Aug 18, 1945 in Taiwan. He was believed to have survived, but no further information recorded till now.

Next, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi was killed in a plane crash just after taking off from New Delhi's Safdarjung airport on June 23, 1980.

Before Sanjay Gandhi, Congress leader Mohan Kumaramangalam was killed when the Indian Airlines plane crashed near New Delhi on May 30, 1973.

Punjab governor Surendra Nath and 12 others, including nine of his family, were killed when the plane crashed in a mountainous region of Himachal Pradesh, minutes after taking off the airport on July 9, 1994.

Dera Natung, the Arunachal Pradesh education minister, was killed when the Pawan Hans craft crashed near Tawang because of poor visibility in May 2001.

Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia was killed in an aircraft crash on September 30, 2001 while flying to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam leader G M C Balayogi was the victim of a chopper crash on March 3, 2002 in Andhra Pradesh. The crash had occurred when the pilot of the Bell 206 helicopter had mistakenly landed on a pond thinking that a land.

C Sangma, the Meghalaya community development minister, was killed in a chopper crash in September 2004.

Haryana's power minister O P Jindal and state agriculture minister Surendra Singh were killed in a chopper crash near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on March 31, 2005.

Last year, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu was killed on April 30 when a helicopter carrying him and four others from Tawang to Itanagar crashed in a deep forested area.

Khandu's death story resembles the tragedy of YSR, who was on board and the chopper crashed in a dense forest in Andhra Pradesh. His body was found 27 hours after the helicopter went missing on September 3, 2009.

However, some leaders including Jharkhan Chief minister Arjun Munda were lucky and survived having narrow escapes from the air crash.

List of Survivors in Aerial Crash:

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai had escaped along with then Arunachal Pradesh chief minister P K Thungon when his special aircraft crashed in Assam in November 1977.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was also lucky to get escaped from the plane crash in Churu district in 2001.

Politicians including Congress leader Ahmed Patel and union ministers Prithviraj Chauhan and Kumari Selja had escaped from the air crash in 2004 in Gujarat. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had a narrow escape.

BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had an escape when they were flying to Rampur in Uttar Pradesh in 2010.

On May 9, 2012, Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda and five others including his wife Meera miraculously survived when their helicopter crash-landed in Ranchi.

GENERATE YOUR NEXT BREAKTHROUGH

Business leaders can learn a lot from the way that designers solve problems and create new innovations. Successful designers find new ideas in seemingly mundane places. Here are four steps to finding something original in the ordinary:

1. Question: Don't just ask the obvious questions. Look deeper, and don't be afraid to rethink basic fundamentals about your business and products.

2. Care: Caring doesn't just mean giving great customer service. Get to know your customers as intimately as possible. Immerse yourself in the lives of the people you are trying to serve.

3. Connect: Find ways to bring together concepts, people and products. Many great breakthroughs are 'mass-ups' of existing ideas.

4. Commit: Give form to your idea as quickly as possible: create a prototype and begin testing it right away. This is the only way to know if you've touched on something truly promising.

Cipla cuts Cancer Drug Prices in India

Indian Pharmaceutical giant Cipla has throttled the market of its competitors by cutting down the prices of its Cancer drugs by up to 75 percent.

As per the new price while the Kidney cancer drug Nexavar will now be available at 6,840 for a month's supply down from the earlier price Rs. 28,000, the Lung cancer drug Gestinib will cost now Rs. 4,250 down from Rs.10,000 and prices of Temozolamide used to treat brain tumor have been slashed from Rs.20,000 to Rs.5,000.

Cipla chairman and managing director Y K Hamied on Thursday described the price cut to be a humanitarian approach by Cipla to support cancer patients. He said that drugs constitute a significant proportion of the overall cost of cancer treatment and reduction in costs can greatly relieve the financial burden.

India has received the price slash with gratitude. However, some of the people have condemned the statement of Y K Hamied who described the action to be a humanitarian step.

They argue that the move comes on the back of the government allowing domestic firm Natco Pharma to sell generic version of cancer drug Nexavar at nearly 97% lower price than charged by patent-holder Bayer Corporation.

In March, the Indian Patent Controller had cleared Natco's application to sell the drug at Rs 8,880 for a month's treatment, as compared to Rs 2.8 lakh per month charged by Bayer for its patented Nexavar drug. Hence it is less humanity and more business – they advocate.

IndiGo gains, as other Airlines lose out

All the domestic airlines in India are bearing losses except private airline IndiGo, informed the government on Thursday in the Parliament. However, there is no proposal to provide aid to the private airlines.

Replying to the members in Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that the facts are based on returns filed by the airlines with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The total loss of Rs 19,000 crore was incurred for the period 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 and Rs 10,000 crore loss was anticipated in 2011-12.

However, the government would not provide any financial aid to the private airlines. The Minister said that an inter Ministerial Working Group has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation to identify the factors of losses and the group would suggest solutions to them.

Even though, the DGCA has not conducted survey to identify crucial airport in India, around 11 airports were considered as critical airports. However, the aviation body has reviewed to enhance the safety of aircraft operations, airport systems, and facilities at Leh, Kullu, Shimla, Port Blair, Agartala, Lengpui, Calicut, Manglore, Jammu, Patna and Latur airports.

202 Million to be affected by Unemployment in 2012

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) report, the unemployment rate will increase up to 202 million in 2012. This is an alarming trend particularly in European countries, which are struggling to get rid of slow economy.

The organization reported that the trend will go upward in 2013. The unemployment rates have been increasing to almost two-third in European countries since 2010. If the trend will continue, the entire European nations will be worst affected in the coming days.

The organization reported that the labour market suffered a lot in 2011 due to economic crisis.

The experts and analysts predicted that the unemployment rates will increase 6.2 per cent by 2013 and the number of people seeking jobs will grow up to 210 million by 2016.