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HE DOES NOT FORGET WHERE HE BELONGS TO,.....MR.LAKSHMI NARAYAN MITTAL

2011-09-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

Mittal may donate Rs 18 cr to Xavier's

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, the illustrious alumnus of St Xavier's College and currently the chairman & CEO of theArcelorMittal group, has promised a hefty grant to his alma mater as a tribute for making him what he is. He is likely to pay nothing less than Rs 18 crore to help his college build a swanky hostel for at least 500 students. The new hostels will come up on a plot that the college already owns on AJC Bose Road.
Mittal visited the college twice in the past three years and had shown keen interest in sponsoring any "key project" related to the college's expansion. Recently, the college authorities have been in touch with him over whether he wished to sponsor a modern hostel that could house more than 500 boys and girls. The hostel has become a necessity because the college is in an expansion mode but the hostel capacity has remained stagnant at less than 200 seats.
This first autonomous college of the state has five post-graduate departments at the moment, but it plans to add at least 10 more by the next academic session. The number of under-graduate departments is also slated to increase while a management institute on the lines of the XLRI Jamshedpur and XIMB Bhubaneswar has also been planned.
"If we bring about such expansion, we will naturally get students from across the country. Since we will have to provide hostel facilities to them, we have decided to build two towers to house boys and girls separately on the AJC Bose Road plot. We already have an old building housing under 200 boys there, but times have changed and we need to upgrade these facilities," said Father Felix Raj, principal of the college.
If things go according to plans, the old building will be pulled down and two swanky towers will come up in its place. Design for the two towers has already been approved and this will be sent to Mittal along with the cost estimates needed to build them. The latter has invited Father Raj to hisLondon residence on October 22 to discuss the project and how he could be of "financial assistance."
"The project would cost Rs 18 crore and we are expecting him to sponsor the entire amount. We are about to come up with two new campuses - one at Eastern Bypass off SRFTI and another at Rajarhat. For the latter, we have asked for 25 acre from the government in addition to the five acre that have been given to us by the state government. We would need our alumni to help out with the two new campuses also," Father Raj said. A large number of alumni has already assured of financial assistance.
Mittal was a BCom student of the college in the 1970s. He was a bright scholar and after passing from the college, he was offered a teaching position in the commerce department by the then vice-principal of the college, Father Joris.

SOURCE:THE TIMES OF INDIA

Tata Nano car worth Rs 22 crore!

2011-09-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

The Tata Group on Monday unveiled a Nano car - made with gold and silver, and studded with precious stones - worth an astronomical over Rs 22 crore.

But, it's not for sale - the valuable and fully functional car is a unique branding and promotional initiative by Goldplus Jewellery, part of Titan Industries, a Tata Group company, an official said.

The mega-value Goldplus Nano Car was unveiled on Monday evening by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata.

The Goldplus Nano Car pales the average Rs.1.40 lakh Nano, which started with a Rs.1 lakh price tag at its launch.

The Goldplus Nano Car is billed as the world's first ever gold jewellery car and celebrates the 5,000 years of jewellery making industry in India.

The car's body is made with 80 kg 22 carat solid gold, 15 kg silver, precious stones - including diamonds, rubies - and other expensive gemstones, the official said.

"As many as 14 techniques of jewellery making have gone behind the effort -- from the intricate filigree work to the delicate and colourful meenakari work, the stunning kundan to the traditional naqashi...marking the convergence of diverse and culturally distinct jewellery making techniques from around India," the official told IANS.

Titan Industries managing director Bhaskar Bhat said that since eternity, jewellery made with gold and precious stones has been an integral part of the Indian woman's life.

"Indian jewellery has been an epitome of innovation and creativity, and carved a niche worldwide for itself for the intricacy of the designs crafted out of the precious metals and stones," said C.K. Venkataraman, COO, jewellery division.

After its glittering launch in Mumbai on Monday evening, the Goldplus Nano Car will travel to all the Goldplus showrooms at 29 locations around the country.

The car incorporates beautiful designs, made with the precious stones of different colours, set on the gold and silver body of the car.

SOURCE:THE TIMES OF INDIA

Complaints dominate messages for Narendra Modi on Day 3

2011-09-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

If day one and two was all about good wishes for Narendra Modi and his Sadbhavana fast, day three was dominated by anguish and complaints poured out on the visitors' books at the venue.

People who came in large numbers from villages on day 3 to the ground, expressed their anguish and anger in the messages they penned in the visitors' books. This was in sharp contrast to the birthday wishes and good tidings which were showered on Modi and his fast on the first couple of days. In the three days of his fast, thousands of messages were written in the books for the CM.

Quid pro quo was the mood reflected in the visitors' books with many wishing Modi success only if he increased the salary of those on contract with the state government, while others wanted regular school bus services for their children.

The Gujarat lokrakshaks and the vidhyasahayaks wrote messages without revealing their names, signing simply as vidhyavayaks and unarmed lokrakshaks. Most of the messages written by this group urged the CM to increase their paltry salaries. They are forced to work for meagre monthly salaries ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500 for five years before they get a chance to become permanent government employees.

Dharmendra Bhatt, a resident of Nadiad, wrote a long message in the visitors' book after he was not able to meet Modi. "I wanted to meet you, but I needed a VIP connection, which I did not have. If I could not meet you today, I promise that in some other mission, I will definitely meet you." He then went on to say how he helped BJP leaders and candidates in the elections. Bhatt however said that he would continue to support the party in the forthcoming elections too.

SOURCE:THE TIMES OF INDIA

Madhur Bhandarkar faces trial for rape

2011-09-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

Three times national award winning filmmakerMadhur Bhandarkar may have to face the trial in a rape case lodged against him by small time actress Pretti Jaiin seven years back.

A metropolitan magistrate's court in Andheri, ruling against Bhandarkar on Monday, observed that a case was made against him and that he can take a defence against the case at an appropriate stage. The court has issued summons to Bhandarkar for October 18.

Metropolitan magistrate B B Pantawane observed that before lodging the FIR, Jain had sent a legal notice to Bhandarkar in July 2004. The filmmaker however, chose not to reply, thus showing that he did not refute the allegations at the first available opportunity.

Referring to the B-summary report (a report wherein the police categorise a given case as false) filed by the Investigating Officer, the court also observed that the officer should not have reached to any conclusion on his own.

Jain, needless to say was visibly happy after the order. The aspiring actress who was present in court said that she had full faith in God and the judiciary.

Jain had filed a case of rape and criminal intimidation against Bhandarkar at the Versova Police station over 7 years back - in July 2004. She had alleged that Bhandarkar had intercourse with her 17 times between 2000 and 2003, making false promises of marriage and a big role in a good film.

In November 2009, the police had filed a report in the Andheri court stating that the relationship between Bhandarkar and Jain was by mutual consent. The report also stated that Jain had filed the complaint "only to teach him a lesson as he didn't give her a role of the leading actress in his film".

This report was strongly contested by Jain through her advocate Sushan Kunjuraman. They had argued that there were enough precedents from the Supreme Court about testimony of the victim being enough to convict an accused in a rape case. Based on his submissions, the Magistrate rejected the report and ordered an inquiry in November 2009.

During this inquiry, Jain's statement was recorded by the court and compared with statements of other witnesses recorded by the police, after which the order was passed on Monday against Bhandarkar, who was represented by advocates Shrikant Shivade and Shreyansh Mithare.

Talking to Mumbai Mirror, Madhur Bhandarkar said that after going through the order in detail he would challenge it in higher courts. "As the lower court has issued a process against me for a case which has been going on for 7 years, I would like to say that after reading the judgment, we will challenge this order in higher courts to seek justice," stated the filmmaker.

Talking about the case, Madhur revealed, "Initially, on 12th July 2004, Pretti Jaiin had sent a legal notice to me stating that if I do not cast her in my film as the leading lady within the next 48 hours, she would adopt necessary criminal and civil legal proceedings against me. There was no mention of rape charges in that notice. On July 9, 2004, we came to know that she had sent a legal notice to a certain Mr Sohail Khan, an upcoming music director, stating that she is pregnant with his child. On July 22, the same year, she filed a complaint with the police alleging me of rape."

The filmmaker further added, "I would like to mention that Pretti Jaiin was arrested for hatching a plot to eliminate me in 2005, with the help of the underworld. She was arrested by Agripada police station and was behind bars for almost a month. I have full faith and respect for the judiciary and I am confident of proving myself innocent."

SOURCE:THE TIMES OF INDIA

Flying Machine's new advertisement draws controversy

2011-09-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI It was meant to transport the brand into the consciousness of India's youth, but a new advertisement by Flying Machine has flown into a storm of controversy instead. A welcome controversy! One of India's early home-grown jeans brands, Flying Machine, over the weekend, released a print advertisement that shows the picture of a female model wearing tight fit jeans around her buttocks, with the catchline in big, bold font screaming: 'What an Ass!' It was probably meant to highlight the oomph and cool quotient in an old brand, perhaps even mimic the edginess of the 'All asses were not created equal' tagline in an advertisement last year by larger rival Levi Strauss & Co. While the jury is out on whether Flying Machine's latest campaign has found resonance with the cool set, the advertisement is generating heat in some quarters.

Women rights activists are certainly not amused. "It's outrageous and vulgar," says women rights activist and director of Centre for Social Research Ranjana Kumari. "Such sexually suggestive and titillating advertisements are responsible for creating the image of women as sex objects." Kumari plans to take up the matter with the National Commission for Women and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

However, Flying Machine, owned by Ahmedabad-based Arvind Mills, the world's fourth-largest producer of denim and a supplier to some of the biggest brands in the planet, does not find anything vulgar in the ad. "There is a sensational headline," says Alok Dubey, chief operating officer of the youth, denim and sportswear division of Arvind Lifestyle Brands. "But if you read the headline and body copy harmoniously, there is humour."

Dubey says the Flying Machine advertisement reflects a strong attitude of a mature and aware girl who "doesn't care about those who mock her existence or physicality".

Ankit Fadia, a 26-year-old who acquired fame and fortune after he published a book on ethical hacking at the age of 15, also can't seem to understand why there is so much fuss around the advertisement. "This is modern India and women dress up the way they want to," says Fadia, adding that this advertisement is not at all vulgar when compared with the kind of advertisements aired on TV and what appears in movies.

Fadia is one of Flying Machine's brand ambassadors along with cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan. Some branding experts say the advertisement was designed to be controversial, with the ensuing brouhaha aimed at making it a talking point that could improve the product's visibility.

"Once a familiar brand, Flying Machine is now trying hard to get back into public consciousness," says Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer of ad agency BBDO India. "Sensationalism makes even a small-size ad look bigger."

Branding expert and CEO of brand consultancy firm Brand-comm, Ramanujam Sridhar, says: "Young would love it, activists would hate it, but nobody can ignore it."

In Arvind's case, given what is at stake - India's denimwear market, according to Technopak Advisors, is expected to double to Rs 14,000 crore by 2015 from around Rs 7,000 crore last year - any controversy can only be good for business.

In a nation of more than a billion people, over 70% of whom are less than 35 years old and fast westernising, branding experts say Flying Machine, whose tagline is 'I'm Sexy When I Am Me', knows too well it needs a new, edgy language if it has to connect effectively with this demographic.

It's not the only one using what can be considered provocative language. A host of marketers are pushing the envelope of decency with edgy advertisements these days, hoping to stand apart from other competing products and nursing hopes that some controversy can yield collateral benefits.

A very fine line separates the sensational from the vulgar, and campaigns that fall in the latter category have found themselves on the wrong side of public decency - and with it, law. Recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting cracked the whip on some men's deodorant commercials for being overtly sexual and against good taste and decency because they depicted women as sex-starved.

SOURCE:THE TIMES OF INDIA

Dumped on Facebook, IIM Bangalore student commits suicide

2011-09-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

BANGALORE: An MBA student hanged herself in her hostel room in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on Monday evening. Malini Murmu, 22, was a first-year MBA student and a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.
Investigation officers said she found out from Facebook on Sunday that her boyfriend had dumped her. Depressed, she did not attend classes. When her classmates noticed her absence, they went to her room, No. 421 in the college hostel, and called out to her. Malini did not open the door so they called the security guard and broke open the door. They found her hanging from the ceiling fan.
She had left a suicide note on her laptop, saying her boyfriend had left her and she was killing herself over it. She'd also scribbled 'He ditched me' on a board in her room. She had no roommates, police said.
Police said her boyfriend was in town and the couple had had an argument, which resulted in the breakup. Later, her boyfriend had left a post on Facebook saying, "Feeling super cool today. Dumped my new ex-girlfriend. Happy independence day."
Malini's body was shifted to a mortuary. Police are waiting for her parents to reach Bangalore before carrying out an autopsy.
IIM-B officials refused to comment.

SOURCE:TIMES OF INDIA

US scientists testing earthquake early warning

2011-09-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

CALIFORNIA:Elizabeth Cochran was sitting in her office when her computer suddenly sounded an alarm.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

A map of California on her screen lit up with a red dot, signaling an earthquake had struck. A clock next to the map counted down the seconds until shock waves fanning out from the epicenter north of Los Angeles reached her location in Pasadena: 5-4-3-2-1.

Right on cue, Cochran felt her chair quiver ever so slightly from a magnitude-4.2 that rumbled through Southern California on Sept. 1.

"If I hadn't known it was an earthquake, I would have thought it was a truck going by," she said.

After years of lagging behind Japan, Mexico and other quake-prone countries, the U.S. government has been quietly testing an earthquake early warning system in California since February. Cochran belongs to an exclusive club of scientists who receive a heads up every time the state shakes.

The alert system is still crude and messages are not yet broadcast to residents or businesses.

With more testing and funding, researchers hope to build a public warning system similar to the Japanese that has been credited with saving lives during the March 11 magnitude-9 disaster.

Since earthquakes are unpredictable, supporters of early warning say it's the next best thing to prepare people and the commercial sector before the ground rocks. Even a 5-second advance notice can be precious, they contend.

"You want to get under a sturdy table before things start falling off the wall," said University of California, Berkeley seismologist Richard Allen, a project participant. "We don't want people to start running out of buildings."

Early warning is designed to sense the first pulses of energy after a fault breaks and estimate the magnitude based on limited information. This is possible because of the different speeds at which seismic waves travel.

A sprawling web of underground sensors can detect the faster-moving and less damaging primary or "P'' waves before the secondary "S'' waves that can cause buildings to pancake. A warning is issued ahead of the arrival of the stronger waves.

How much warning — a few seconds to tens of seconds — depends on the distance from the epicenter. The farther away, the more lead time.

Project chief Doug Given of the U.S. Geological Survey ticked off actions that can be taken: Trains can be slowed or stopped. Air traffic controllers can halt takeoffs and landings. Power plants and factories can close valves. Schoolchildren can dive under their desks and cover their heads.

Early warning is useless at the quake's origin because the tremors radiate out almost simultaneously.

Japan invested in a public alert system after the deadly 1995 magnitude-6.9 Kobe earthquake. Development began in 2000. Seven years and $500 million later, Japan unveiled the world's first early warning network. Parts of Mexico, Taiwan and Turkey also have embraced early warning, but their systems are less sophisticated.

The Japanese got their big test in March when a massive quake hit off the northeast coast and spawned a tsunami. A public emergency announcement was sent out 8 seconds after sensors detected the first inkling of the quake, interrupting regular TV and radio programming, and buzzing cell phones.

Millions received 5 to 40 seconds of warning depending on how far they were from the epicenter. Tokyo — about 230 miles away — got about 10 to 30 seconds of notice before high-rises swayed. A dozen trains were stopped in their tracks without derailing.

There were glitches. Sensors underestimated the quake at a magnitude-8.1 when it was actually 22 times stronger. Because of the error, warnings were not sent to certain cities. The jolt was so violent that it knocked 55 seismic stations offline and there were no warnings sent for aftershocks for several hours.

Still, in a hearing before a House subcommittee a week after the disaster, USGS director Marcia McNutt told lawmakers the Japanese early warning system saved thousands of lives. McNutt also acknowledged the financial cloud surrounding the U.S. effort.

"Shame on us if we do not learn from their misfortune," she testified.

Since 2006, the U.S. has been testing three alert systems and launched a prototype internally known as "ShakeAlert" in February, a month before the Japan devastation. For now, messages are only blasted out to about 30 scientists at the USGS, California Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley, where they are working out software bugs on a shoestring budget.

Where possible, the U.S. has borrowed aspects of Japan's warning system. Researchers said it's not possible to just replicate it because of differences in the countries' seismic sensor networks.

"It's not perfect," said Berkeley's Allen of the U.S. effort. "Frankly, it's stuck together with duct tape, but it's operational."

The next steps are to partner with businesses to test the system in the real world later this year and work on a more robust network. The Southern California Earthquake Center, made up of 55 research institutions worldwide, has been chosen to independently rate how it's working.

Technology hurdles aside, the work suffers from lack of funding. The USGS has spent $2 million on the project and is seeking help from private foundations and industry groups. Scientists estimate it will cost $80 million over five years to create a statewide public alert system and millions more annually to maintain it.

"That's tough in this budget environment when there are lots of trade-offs that have to be considered," said David Applegate, associate director for natural hazards at USGS headquarters, adding that he remained hopeful.

It's been a long wait for Caltech engineering professor Tom Heaton, who has studied early warning for more than three decades and finally got it running in his house on his 60th birthday.

"My hope is that it happens before I die. That's my goal," Heaton said.

To date, the alerts only pop up on the selected scientists' computers, which is an impractical way to warn because it depends upon being online. Scientists envision eventually broadcasting messages through TV, radio and cell phones.

Since the prototype went live, users have hardly felt any shaking because the quakes are either too weak or too distant. Occasionally, they get notice of a jolt that they care about like the magnitude-4.2 centered near Newhall, a bedroom community about 25 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Though a mild tremble by seismic standards, it rattled nerves across a wide swath.

Cochran, who recently left the academic world to join the USGS in Pasadena, has been running the program in the background for about a month before the Newhall rumble. She has grown used to the constant pinging whenever the ground heaves. The Newhall quake caught her interest because the countdown was short — a sign that it occurred close by.

So Cochran sat still and waited for the shaking. Had it been stronger, she would have ducked under her desk.

"It was the first time that I had gotten a warning and actually felt it," she said.

Are richpeople taxed less than their secretaries?...-OBAMA

2011-09-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama makes it sound like there are millionaires all over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries.

"Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama said Monday. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that."

The data tells a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That, however, was less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

In his White House address Monday, Obama called on Congress to increase taxes by $1.5 trillion as part of a 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion. He proposed that Congress overhaul the tax code and impose what he called the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The rule says, "People making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay."

"Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it," Obama said. "It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million."

Buffett wrote in a recent piece for The New York Times that the tax rate he paid last year was lower than that paid by any of the other 20 people in his office.

This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent.

The latest IRS data is a few years older — and it's limited to federal income taxes — but it shows much the same thing. In 2009, taxpayers who made $1 million or more paid on average 24.4 percent of their income in federal income taxes, according to the IRS.

Those making $100,000 to $125,000 paid on average 9.9 percent in federal income taxes. Those making $50,000 to $60,000 paid an average of 6.3 percent.

Obama's claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15 percent. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35 percent, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

With tax rates that high, why do so many people pay at lower rates? Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official scorekeeper on revenue issues.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

"People who are doing quite well and worry about low-income people not paying any taxes bemoan the fact that they get so many tax breaks that they are zeroed out," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "People at the bottom of the distribution say, but all of those rich guys are getting bigger tax breaks than we're getting, which is also the case."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressed at a White House briefing on the number of millionaires who pay taxes at a lower rate than middle-income families. He demurred, saying that people who make most of their money in wages pay taxes at a higher rate, while those who get most of their income from investments pay at lower rates.

"So it really depends on what is your profession, where's the source of your income, what's the specific circumstances you face, and the averages won't really capture that," Geithner said.

SOURCE-YAHOONEWS.COM