Kireedam - Ajith's Crown

The verdict is out; Ajith is at his best in Kreedom. He looks young, fresh energetic and performs from his heart which may steal many a hearts. All the hard work shows on screen and the mood is upbeat in Ajith’s camp. Like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, Ajith has risen from a furrow that fate, destiny or plain bad luck and choice of films got his career into.

This is an appreciation not only of Ajith but also a sincere acknowledgement of the unwavering support of all his fans, the people who never doubted the ability of their favorite star. The reviews are positive; everyone who saw the movie has liked it; there is everything that goes towards the making of the film into a hit. But fortunes at the box office are fickle, so let us not make any premature celebrations that Kreedom is a huge hit. Those celebrations can be held later. For the moment the fact that everyone can revel in is that one of the most promising youth of Tamil cinema has proved all his critics wrong. Varalaaru was a big hit, but Kreedom is even more special because it is the remake of a movie that was and is still Varalaaru (read part of history). This is something about the original Kireedam that was released in 1989 in Malayalam that will give you an idea of what Ajith and the rest of the Kreedom team have pulled off.

When Kireedam was released 18 years back, it was almost instantly proclaimed as a classic film and deservingly so. Mohanlal in the lead role had just given the finest performance that Indian cinema had seen in years and the brilliance just could not be overlooked, it shone so bright. It was at a time when the National Film awards were being announced and unfortunately Kireedam had been released at a date too late to be considered for the awards that year and incidentally Bharath award that year went to Mammooty for his performance in Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha. But Kireedam could just not be allowed to pass by unrecognized and it was one of the very few occasions in the history of Indian cinema that a President’s special medal was given away to an actor. It was nothing less than the national.

Why then, you could ask, was the movie not remade for nearly 18 years? It is not that no one thought about remaking it. It was just that many people considered it and went back realizing the level of mastery that the actor in the lead role had to possess to carry off the role. Also it might not be wrong to say that the movie has been remade many times in bits and pieces. Anyone who has seen the original can notice many scenes of Kireedam being replicated in many movies. This is a fact that has been acknowledged by Chiyan Vikram who once in an interview to a Malayalam channel said that a Kireedam remake would be dream come true for him. What more, the Kireedam level of perfection has not been bettered by Mohanlal himself. It remains to date (in spite of two other national awards) his best performance.
It is this dream of many people that Ajith with director Vijay and Rajkiran has accomplished and that too in a manner that will not make the minds behind the original version feel let down. Yes, there are changes in the script to suit the changed times and the Tamil audience and the duet that was not there in the original, but the soul has been retained and the entire team of Kreedom must be congratulated for not swaying to too many commercial compulsions. They have stuck to their guns and the results can be seen.

What Kireedam did to Mohanlal? It placed him on par with the best in the country. He was no longer just another actor, he was an actor of caliber, of repute, of stature. It started his growth from being just a star to a superstar who can be depended upon to carry out tough roles. It was after Kireedam that Mohanlal really began to get some wonderful roles, both commercial and offbeat ones and now Ajith has opened those doors for himself. There was never any doubt that he can act well, but how well, no one knew. He has delivered good performances in Vaali and more recently Varalaaru, but Kreedom because of the sheer precedent that had to be emulated, should be the best of them all. That is why no one has minced any words in proclaiming Kreedom as Ajith’s best ever performance

Now, Ajith has to tread carefully to keep the standards that he has set for himself in Kreedom because he can be sure of one thing. We are not going to settle for anything less. Kreedom may just be Ajith’s crown.

'Kalam wants to move into his old room'

On July 16 at 9 pm, the Vice Chancellor of Anna University Dr D Viswanathan was pleasantly surprised to get a call from New Delhi. It was from the President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.
Kalam had called to inform the VC that he would be back to where he was when he left for the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, that is, he would be back to Anna University on July 25 when his term as the President of India ended.
Dr Viswanthan had earlier invited the President to Anna University twice when he met him but Kalam then "...did not say anything.
"He said he would inform me later. I am thrilled and surprised to get a call from him," said Dr Viswanathan.
Before Dr Kalam left for the presidential palace in New Delhi, he lived in a one-room guest house at Anna University, teaching students and guiding research scholars.
"He told me he would be in Chennai on the July 25 and wanted to continue teaching at the University. But he would decide what he wanted to teach upon his arrival," the VC said.
The President also told the VC that he preferred to stay in the room at the University guest house where he used to stay earlier. "We offered him an independent bungalow or some other big house, but he insisted that he would stay only in the same room. He also told me that he would like to have the same office as before."
The VC also said that the PhD students who were working under him, such as Father A.K.George would continue their research under him.
With a former President staying inside the Anna University campus, security has to be tight but Dr Viswanathan is hopeful that they would be able to manage the directions of the government.
"I am sure we will be able to provide adequate security to him. He may go for his morning walks like he used to in the past."
The vice chancellor has plans to provide him all the facilities so that students from all over India can get in touch with Dr Kalam. "It will save him a lot of time travelling to interact with children. He can do that from Anna University."Though the vice chancellor wants a grand welcome for the President, there will only be a simple welcome as the President has specifically asked the VC not to have any grand functions. "So, in a very simple way, we will express our happiness for his choosing to stay in our campus."

Zimbabwe drop out of Test rankings list

Zimbabwe, who have been out of Test cricket since January 2006, have dropped out of the International Cricket Council's Test rankings list.
Zimbabwe do not figure in the ICC's [Images] annual list released on Monday because they have played two Tests fewer than the minimum of 10 required for inclusion in the table involving only series completed after August 1, 2004.
"One result of the update is that Zimbabwe has dropped off the main table as it has only played eight Tests since that date," an ICC statement said.
"The update is always scheduled to take place on August 1 each year but as no series are set to finish ahead of that date, it can be carried out now."
World champions Australia stretched their lead to 26 rating points with England [Images] placed second on the list, which is now down to nine teams.
Sri Lanka [Images] and South Africa have jumped two spots to third and fourth respectively, ahead of India and Pakistan.
The Zimbabwe government withdrew the national team from test cricket early last year and the ICC decided several weeks ago that they were not ready to return to the test fold.
They continue to play one-day internationals but have been a depleted side since April 2004, when most senior players retired or opted to further their careers in other countries after a dispute with the board that followed Heath Streak's dismissal as captain

With a poor Test record in England, history is against India

The Indian cricket team is on its 15th Test tour of England [Images]. It may be interesting to go down memory lane and find out how our players have fared in the heavyweight division of cricket in Old Blighty. Sorry to say, they haven't done well, except on a few occasions.
To be precise, of the 45 Tests India has played in England between 1932 and 2002, the hosts won as many as 23. India won only four.
India's tour of England, 1932:
It all began with India's maiden Test appearance at Lord's in 1932 under C K Nayudu.. Besides Nayudu, we had only two other world-class players -- Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh. But for this triumvirate, India would have lost by a staggering margin than it eventually did -- by 158 runs.
Nissar (5 for 93) bowled his heart out and restricted England to 259 in the first innings. He bowled the prolific and dangerous openers, Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe, who had put on 555 runs in their previous first-class match, with just 11 runs on the board. When the score was 19, the great Frank Woolley was run out.
But captain Douglas Jardine (79), wicketkeeper Leslie Ames (65) and Wally Hammond (35), who was bowled by Amar Singh, rescued England. Amar Singh took 2 for 75.
Nayudu, who dismissed Jardine and Eddie Paynter, and then chipped in with a breezy 40, was the top scorer in India's first innings of 189.
Enjoying a vital 70-run lead, Jardine declared England's second innings at 275 for 8 when he was close enough to completing what would have been a brilliant century of his. He (85 not out) was ably supported by Paynter (54). Jahangir Khan (better known as Majid Khan's father) claimed 4 for 60 and Amar Singh 2 for 84.
Chasing a 345-run target, the visitors were sent packing for 187 with Amar Singh scoring India's first ever half-century (51) batting at No 10.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1936
India had a golden opportunity to win the first Test at Lord's on the 1936 tour but, as usual, the batsmen let the team down. After India was bowled out for 147 in the first innings, Amar Singh and Nissar paraded their awesome talents in front of the cognoscenti, including Neville Cardus, who had assembled at the hallowed Lord's.
The two ripped apart England's much-hyped batting line-up and gave India a crucial lead of 13 runs. Amar Singh bagged 6 for 35 and Nissar 3 for 36 as England made only 134. Only Maurice Leyland offered some resistance and made 60.
But India's batsmen, including Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali and Nayudu came a cropper against speedster Gubby Allen (5 for 43) and spinner Hedley Verity (4 for 17) and were dismissed for a meager 93. Needless to say, England romped home with ridiculous ease -- by 9 wickets, to be exact.
However, Merchant (114) and Mushtaq (112) more than made up for their Lord's failure and helped India save the second Test at Old Trafford. They put on 203 for the first wicket in India's second innings. Mushtaq became India's first ever Test centurion abroad.
But India lost the third and final Test at The Oval by 9 wickets and with it the series, too, by 2-0.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1946
Though England won the first Test at Lord's by 10 wickets, India managed to draw the second and third at Old Trafford and The Oval respectively in 1946 under Iftiqar Ali Khan Pataudi.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1952
On the 1952 tour, Vijay Hazare's team lost the first three Tests and saved the fourth and final at The Oval, simply because there was no play on the third and fifth day because of rain. Otherwise Indian players had made all preparation to gift yet another Test to the hosts after getting all out for 98 in reply to England's 326 for 6 declared! So much so, we had lost 5 wickets for 6 runs at one stage.
This was the very series in which Freddie Trueman and Alec Bedser had the measures of most Indian batsmen.
Though Vijay Manjrekar scored a fine 133 in the first Test at Headingley, we lost by 7 wickets.
Vinoo Mankad's heroic all-round show (two innings of 72 and 184 as an opener and, as if that were not enough, marathon spells of 73-24-196-5 and 24-12-35-0) also could not help India save the second at Lord's, which England won by 8 wickets.
In the third Test at Old Trafford, we were reeling at 17 for 5 after England declared its only innings at 347 for 9. The entire eleven was eventually shot out for 58 with Trueman taking 8 for 31. Following on, India fared a bit better and scored 82 with Bedser claiming 5 for 27. England won by an innings and 207 runs.
Polly Umrigar, in particular, had a horrendous series. Trueman and Bedser had literally relegated this giant to a pigmy. Just look at Umrigar's scores in the four Tests � 8, 9, 5, 14, 4, 3, 0.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1959
But England did succeed in winning all the five Tests in 1959 as the Dattaji Gekwad-led Indian side did not appear to make even an effort to avoid humiliation. The hosts won the first Test at Trent Bridge by an innings and 59 runs, second at Lord's by 8 wickets, third at Headingley by an innings and 173 runs, fourth at Old Trafford by 171 runs and fifth at The Oval by an innings and 27 runs.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1967
Never one to learn lessons from the past, India did an encore on the 1967 tour and lost all the three Tests. Even Mansur Ali Khan "Tiger" Pataudi's courageous batting (64 and 148) astute leadership could not change India's fortunes as we lost the first Test at Headingley by 6 wickets.
This was the very Test in which Geoffery Boycott essayed his infamous 246 not out in England's first innings total of 550 for 4 declared. Infamous because the master technician batted unpardonably slowly, as if it were a timeless Test, and bored the spectators to death. The selectors punished him by dropping him from the second Test at Lord's, which England won by an innings and 124 runs.
With nothing to lose, including pride, which had already been lost, India fielded the famed spin quartet -- Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Bishen Singh Bedi and S Venkataraghavan -- together for the first and only time in the third and last Test at Edgbaston.
Though they bowled very well, took 18 wickets amongst themselves and restricted England to 298 and 203 in the two innings, their batting colleagues did not lend them any support. India mustered merely 98 and 277 in the two essays and England won by 132 runs.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1971
Probably the first time India went to England with full confidence and a set of players capable of playing as a team and winning matches consistently was in 1971 under Ajit Wadekar. Wadekar's team had already beaten the West Indies [Images] in the Caribbean the same year and the expectations were obviously very high. On the other hand, Ray Illingworth and company had just won the Ashes in Australia and they, too, were on cloud nine and feeling as if they were world champs.
The first Test at Lord's ended in an exciting draw. When rain forced the umpires to abandon the game, India required 38 runs to win with 2 wickets in hand. But then England, too, could have won as only Bedi and Chandrasekhar were left to accompany Eknath Solkar, who was then batting on 6. After Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan restricted England to 304 in the first innings, Wadekar (85), Gundappa Viswanath (68) and Solkar (67) helped India gain a slender but moral-boosting 9-run lead.
The Unbelievable Upset!
In all probability, India might have lost the second Test at Old Trafford but for rain. England set India a target of 457 in the fourth innings and the visitors were 65 for 3 at the draw of stumps on the fourth day with Viswanath and Dilip Sardesai at the crease. But no play was possible on the final day.
It was, of course, in the third Test at The Oval where India made history, winning by 4 wickets. Not only did India register its first ever Test triumph in England but also its maiden series win there. The chief architect was Chandrasekhar, whose 6 for 38 bowled England out for 101 in the second innings and paved the way for India's famous victory.
Besides Chandrasekhar's match-winning spell, useful contributions with the bat by Sardesai, Wadekar, Viswanath, Farokh Engineer and Solkar could not be ignored. Above all, it was Solkar's breathtaking fielding at the forward short-leg that gave a new confidence to the Indian bowlers and brought the English batsmen under tremendous psychological pressure.
The jubilant Indian cricketers went on to defeat England 2-1 at home in the next Test series, making it three series wins in a row for Wadekar. However, as the subsequent events proved, the success turned out to be as transient as it was dazzling.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1974
Wadekar's squad lost all the Tests of the 1974 series in England -- first by 113 runs at Old Trafford despite Sunil Gavaskar [Images] (101 and 58) and Viswanath (40 and 50) batting superbly under trying circumstances and against heavy odds, second by an innings and 285 runs at Lord's and the third by an innings and 78 runs at Edgbaston.
At Lord's, India was dismissed for 42 (yes forty-two) in the second innings. The humiliation was such that the Fleet Street began to describe India's '74 tour as "the summer of 42". Back home, effigies of Indian cricketers were burnt and Wadekar's house was heavily stoned after India lost the series 3-0. A stunned, disillusioned Wadekar announced his retirement from first-class cricket.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1979
Memories of the 1974 tour began to haunt the Indian cricket lovers when Venkataraghavan's team lost the first Test at Edgbaston by an innings and 83 runs on the 1979 jaunt. Only Viswanath (78 and 51), Gavaskar (61 and 68) and Chetan Chauhan (4 and 56) showed some fighting ability against a rampaging England attack spearheaded by Bob Willis, Ian Botham and Mike Hendrick.
India would have lost the second Test at Lord's, too, but timely centuries by Viswanath and Dilip Vengsarkar (the first of his three hundreds on the trot at the Mecca of cricket) and their 210-run third wicket stand helped achieve an honourable draw.
With rain disallowing second and third days' play, the third Test at Headingley also ended in a draw. Botham, who had already shown glimpses of his liking for the Indian attack by scoring 33 and 36 at Edgbaston and Lord's, hit a hurricane 137 in England's only innings.
India came tantalisingly close to winning the fourth Test at The Oval thanks to Gavaskar playing the innings of his life-time, 221, while trying to make 438 runs to win in the fourth innings. In the end, some unimaginative batting changes by Venkataraghavan show India making 429 for 8.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1982
In 1982, India lost the first Test at Lord's by 7 wickets despite Vengsarkar (157) and Kapil Dev [Images] (89) batting brilliantly in the second innings. The second Test at Old Trafford, where Botham and Sandeep Patil smashed scintillating centuries, ended in a draw. The third, at The Oval, also produced no result. Botham hit 208 in the first innings.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1986
India's best moment came on the 1986 tour, when we won the first Test at Lord's by 5 wickets and the second at Headingley by 279 runs.
Besides the in-form Vengsarkar's centuries in both the matches, collective efforts by medium-pacers Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Roger Binny and Madan Lal and left-arm spinners Maninder Singh and Ravi Shahtri played a significant part in the happy turnaround. The third Test at Edgbaston ended in a draw.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1990
As usual, India lost the first Test at Lord's by 247 runs on the 1990 tour under Mohammed Azharuddin. This was the very Test in which Graham Gooch was dropped by Kiran More on 33. The England opener went on to score 333. He made 123 in the second innings.
Gooch scored yet another hundred (116) in the drawn second Test at Old Trafford. For India, Azharuddin made 179 in the first innings and the teen sensation Sachin Tendulkar [Images] 119 not out in the second. The third and final Test at The Oval also produced no result despite India enforcing the follow-on on England after posting 606 for 9 thanks to Shastri (187) and Kapil Dev (110).
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1996
The 1996 tour saw the rise of Sourav Ganguly [Images], Rahul Dravid [Images] and Venkatesh Prasad. Typically, India surrendered the first Test at Edgbaston by 8 wickets. The only saving grace for India was Tendulkar's masterly 122 out of India's 219 in the second innings (the next highest scorer was Sanjay Manjrekar with 18); and an impressive debut by Prasad, who claimed 4 for 71 and 2 for 50.
Making their maiden appearance for the country, Ganguly and Dravid scored 131 and 95 respectively in the first innings of the second Test at Lord's. Prasad again bowled nicely and took 5 for 76 and 2 for 54 as the Test ended in a draw.
In the third and last Test at Trent Bridge, which also produced a similar result, Ganguly hit his second successive ton (136) while Dravid (84) again missed to score his first. Tendulkar made a grand 177. Ganguly (48) and Tendulkar (77) were very impressive in the second innings as well. In fact, Ganguly was declared not only the Man of the Match but also the Player of the Series along with Nasser Hussain.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
2002
It was again not surprising when England won the first Test at Lord's by 170 runs on our last tour in 2002. The only redeeming feature for India was a century (109 not out) by the unlikely Ajit Agarkar [Images]. Agarkar had every reason to feel proud because he achieved a feat -- scoring a Test hundred at Lord's -- which even Gavaskar and Tendulkar have not managed.
The second Test at Trent Bridge, where Virender Sehwag [Images] and Dravid scored centuries and Tendulkar and Ganguly got out in the 90s, ended in a draw.
But India bounced back and won the third at Headingley by an innings and 46 runs and levelled the series. Tendulkar (193), Dravid (148) and skipper Ganguly (128) enabled India to score 628 for 8 in the first innings. The England innings folded for 273 against some very fine bowling by offie Harbhajan Singh [Images] (3 for 40), leggie Anil Kumble (3 for 93) and seamers Zaheer Khan [Images] (2 for 59) and Agarkar (2 for 59).
Following on, England made 309 with captain Hussain making 110. Kumble, who took 4 for 66, ensured that India did not have to bat again.
The fourth and final Test at The Oval produced no result and England and India shared the rubber 1-1. While Michael Vaughan [Images] made 195 in England's first innings, Dravid scored 217 in India's. Both were jointly declared Players of the Series.
Overall, India's record in England is nothing to be proud about. Will Dravid and company fare well and improve India's record? Let us wait, watch and keep our fingers crossed!

HDFC, Wipro, Infosys among Asia's most admired companies

There's no shortage of Asian companies that have prospered thanks to a laser-like focus on their home markets. But what wins enough fans to land on BusinessWeek's list of most admired companies in Asia is success overseas.

Over the past few weeks, we've been asking visitors to BusinessWeek.com to vote for the Asian companies they most admire. The results now in and one trend is clear. Whether it's Toyota in Japan, Lenovo in China, or Infosys [Get Quote] in India, the companies that have won recognition this year are those that have been pushing to build their businesses globally.

Toyota, of course, has a long history in the U.S. Now the Japanese automaker is beefing up its presence there even more. "We're committed to building cars where we sell them. We've done that, and there's no reason to think we won't be doing that in the future," says Jim Press, head of Toyota's North American operations.

• Slide Show: Introducing Asia's MVPs
• Wipro Goes Outside Outsourcing

Cruise Control? No Way

In North America alone, Toyota is in the process of boosting production by 600,000 units per year at five locations, including a new, 150,000-capacity, sport-utility vehicle plant in Mississippi scheduled to come online in 2010.

3 Indian companies among Asia's 15 best firms
1	Infosys
2	Wipro [Get Quote]
3	HDFC Bank [Get Quote]

Toyota isn't ignoring giant market opportunities closer to home, either. In China it has long taken a back seat to Honda. But this year it looks likely to overtake its rival to become the leading Japanese carmaker in the high-revving Chinese market.

Like Toyota, Nintendo boasts legions of American devot�es. Of the 10 best-selling games in the U.S. in April, the top four were all made by Nintendo. They included Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl, which combined sold almost 1.8 million copies in April even though they only went on sale on the 22nd.

Thanks to the enduring popularity of the Pokemon game series and the runaway success of Nintendo's Wii game console, the company has been a favorite not just among gamers but also among investors. The stock price is up more than 47% this year, and the company now has a bigger market capitalization than Sony, even though Nintendo's sales are less than 12% those of Sony's.

• China Mobile: Everything to Everyone
• Canon's Makeover Miracle

Lenovo's Home-Court Advantage

The U.S. is also a make-or-break market for Lenovo, one of three Chinese companies on our list. Lenovo Group purchased the PC division of IBM in 2005, and since then management has been trying to persuade American computer buyers to embrace the Chinese brand.

It's been tough going, but Lenovo is starting to see some results from its American push. In the quarter that ended Mar. 30, the company reported that it had an operating profit margin of 1.6% in the U.S. That might not sound impressive, but compare it to the negative 3.4% of the previous quarter, and the number becomes more meaningful.

"Lenovo finally achieved profitability in the U.S.," a quartet of Bear Stearns analysts led by Jack Tse wrote shortly after the results came out in late May. "Lenovo clearly has made a good progress."

While Lenovo still faces serious challenges from bigger rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Dell, not to mention Taiwanese competitor Acer, it remains the No. 1 player in its home market by a big margin. Other companies on our list enjoy similar dominance.

Expansive Plans

Consider, for instance, NHN. It's the top portal and search engine in South Korea, far ahead of Google.

And like so many of the other companies on this year's list, NHN is branching out. It is now expanding its business to Japan. In that sense it's similar to Baidu.com, the Beijing company that is the top search engine in China. Baidu also is crushing Google, with the American search giant a distant No. 2 in the Chinese market. And like NHN, Baidu earlier this year set up a subsidiary in Japan.

In tiny Singapore, the need to expand beyond the home market is more obvious than in a gigantic market like China or India. Both of the Singaporean companies on our list have been leading that push.

Singapore Airlines is in negotiations to acquire a 25% stake in China Eastern, one of China's largest carriers. At the same time, the airline is expanding its reach through its subsidiary Tiger Air, a new, lower-cost carrier.

State-backed Singapore Telecom, meanwhile, already derives a big chunk of its profits from its Australian subsidiary, Optus. Now it's expanding in other parts of Asia.

SingTel has a 30.8% stake in Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], one of the world's fastest-growing cellular carriers. And on June 28 the Singaporean company reached a deal to pay $758 million for a 30% stake in Warid Telecom International, one of Pakistan's top operators.

Old-Style Manufacturing

Another factor contributing to the popularity of the companies on BusinessWeek's list is technology leadership and innovation. Companies such as Infosys and Wipro in India have well-established reputations as being top innovators in providing IT services for customers.

And as Korea's Posco demonstrates, tech leadership pays off in old-style manufacturing, too. The Korean steelmaker inaugurated a new plant in May with a new type of technology that uses noncoking coal rather than the more expensive hard-coking coal favored by most steelmakers.

The Posco plant has "first-of-its kind technology," enthused Credit Suisse analysts Hocheol Kim and Seungwoo Hong in a June 21 research report. Thanks to that commitment to new technology, "the company has made a big step towards strengthening its global cost leadership," the two wrote, adding that Posco's tech advantage should come in handy as the company expands beyond Korea to India and other Asian countries.

• In Korea, Naver Trumps Google

Govt clears Mukesh Ambani's SEZ; 27 others get nod

Undaunted by criticism by a Parliamentary panel, the government cleared 28 fresh special economic zone proposals on Thursday, including the Navi Mumbai promoted by Reliance Industries [Get Quote] Chairman Mukesh Ambani, taking the total number of approvals to over 500.

The board of approvals gave formal approvals to 21 special economic zone proposals and seven 'in-principle' cases.

The Navi Mumbai SEZ proposal of Ambani and his close aide Anand Jain was finally given the nod after the Centre received a green signal from the Maharashtra government.

The multi-product Navi Mumbai SEZ has been cleared with the condition that promoters should build, within a year, the infrastructure that would ensure contiguity on the 1,250 hectare land where it is coming up in Maharashtra, Commerce Secretary and Chairman of BoA G K Pillai said.

The Special Purpose Vehicle that is building the SEZ has also been prevented from allowing any unit to come up in the zone before underpasses and over bridges are constructed for meeting contiguity requirements, he said.

The Navi Mumbai SEZ proposal had been deferred twice by the BoA on issues of contiguity and rights of villages in the vicinity of the zone. Thursday's clearance came after all the issues were addressed.

The state government was asked to give its views on the report of Revenue Department, which raised issues that included rights of the villagers in the area.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, had asked the government last week to put a freeze on fresh notifications until the SEZ Act and the rules were changed.

The committee observed that the government was showing 'undue haste' in clearing SEZs, ignoring interests of farmers and other stakeholders.

Rising rupee - Warning ahead

Jahangir Aziz and Kalpana Kochhar of the International Monetary Fund recently argued in this paper (July 5): "The lesson for India is that allowing the rupee to appreciate helps to cool an overextended economy without driving interest rates so high as to kill off much-needed investment.

"Resisting nominal exchange rate appreciation because of concerns over export competitiveness is counterproductive - the resulting higher liquidity and inflation will inevitably erode competitiveness by making domestic goods more expensive.

"A much more sustainable strategy would be to achieve cost efficiencies through urgent infrastructure upgradation and education and labour market reforms."

There are so many unstated but sweeping assumptions in these couple of sentences: that the economy is "over-extended" (one disagrees); that "resisting nominal exchange rate appreciation" is counterproductive (we have managed to do this extremely productively for 15 years); that nominal appreciation of the currency will not erode competitiveness (rubbish); that infrastructure upgrade and education achieve cost-efficiencies (yes, but only over the medium term; by that time, all of us will be dead anyway).

The views are of course in keeping with the illustrious record of the IMF in surveillance of exchange rate policies, one of its primary objectives under the articles of association. It found very little wrong with the policies in the South-east Asian economies, even a few months before the region was engulfed in a series of balance of payments crises, just about a decade back.

It also granted yet another loan to Argentina, a little before the currency board policy became unsustainable, had to be abandoned, and the peso collapsed to a fraction of its earlier value. As for labour market reform, it is a pie in the sky in the current political environment.

Meantime, however, it does seem that the central bank is fully in agreement with the worthy IMF economists, and continues to allow the tail of sterilisation economics to wag the dog of the real economy. Incidentally, even as our central bank keeps articulating the difficulties in managing capital flows, Vietnam, a much smaller economy, is hoping to absorb $150 bn of capital inflows over the next five years - and China probably double that!

But this apart, despite the surprisingly low deficit on the current account for 2006-07, as conventionally calculated, reported by the central bank, there are a few points worth taking note of:

The merchandise trade deficit continued to gallop last year, even before the sharp rise of the rupee in the current year. The position will only worsen significantly in the current fiscal year: the first two months' numbers evidence a rise of 60 per cent in the deficit. And, oil prices have recently crossed $76 a barrel.

The current account deficit, excluding remittances, which are exogenous to and have nothing to do with economic competitiveness, was 4 per cent of GDP. Our complacency on the issue needs to be tempered by the fact that, unlike the US dollar, the rupee is not a reserve currency.

And, quite apart from the growth and jobs lost because of the deficit, there are limits to how much red ink we can continue to sustain in the belief that foreigners are only too ready to finance it forever.

To my mind, the major reasons for the Asian crisis a decade back were overvalued exchange rates, complacency about deficits on the current account, and freedom to residents to transfer savings abroad. All of these are present, in greater or lesser degree, in our case. An additional factor was short-term external credit, supposedly not present in our case - but see the next point.

Ostensibly, our short-term credit is low, $12 bn, as of March 2007, according to the external debt statistics released by the RBI. However, "this number does not include supplier's credits of up to 180 days". It is doubtful whether even supplier credit beyond 180 days is being properly captured. (Authorised dealers have considerable freedom to approve credit up to one year, and even beyond for certain imports: do the RBI data capture this?) What could be the amount?

The aggregate merchandise imports in 2006-07 were $200 billion. From what I know from my corporate clients' position, easily half of this is coming under supplier/buyer credits. In other words, the actual short-term trade credit outstanding could well be of the order of $50 billion plus, a huge number by any standards. (In fact, in today's exchange and interest rate scenario, any treasurer not using credit on imports deserves to be sacked!)

And, the central bank seems to have no data on the changes in flows or stock. It claims to account for leads and lags in exports under "other capital", but seems to gloss over the far bigger leads and lags on the importing side.

The commerce ministry wants to go back to the old era of fiscal subsidies to exports. Surely, the Prime Minister, at least in his old avatar as an economist, knows better than anybody else the importance of a competitive exchange rate?

But such issues apart, many other myths persist: for example, "a stronger rupee is beneficial for...import-dependent exports". The diamond cutters and polishers in Surat obviously do not know this: they are closing businesses!

The fact is that for import-dependent exports, the economics depends on the value added which is, effectively, in foreign currency terms, while costs are in rupees. The margins vanish with an appreciating rupee.

Complacency on the current account just because the deficit can be financed at least for now could prove costly, particularly when many external analysts believe the equity market to be overvalued (Citigroup recently described it as the least attractive in Asia), and the escalation in wage cost, on the one hand, and the sharp rise in the rupee, on the other, are squeezing the margins even in the vaunted services export sector.

Horror!!! Friday the 13th

MBA Schools - Trouble in Paradise?

Things have never been better for business schools. College graduates in every country in the world vie for admissions to business schools, after, in many cases, spending months training for the tough entrance exams. Business schools everywhere have the luxury of picking and choosing among the many who apply.

In the United States, at the top business schools, only a small proportion of the applicants are admitted. In India, the choosiness is even more, with the Indian Institutes of Management admitting less than 1 per cent of the nearly 200,000 who take the admission tests.

The picture gets even rosier at graduation time with employers scrambling for a chance to make their pitch to students. Starting salaries for MBAs from the top business schools in every country beat that of any other profession by miles and have been in an ever-increasing spiral for the last few years.

At the IIMs, during the last few years the placement "season" lasts less than a week, during which the entire graduating class is snapped up. At the top international business schools like the Harvard Business School and INSEAD in Europe, the feeding frenzy is as much.

Why, then, has there been a spate of articles in recent times from respected business school professors with titles like "How Business Schools Lost their Way," "The End of Business Schools," and "Can American Business Schools Survive?" What trouble do these savants see in the future while the rest of the world continues besotted with an MBA degree?

To start with, when lists of business leaders are drawn up, people who really made a difference, people like Bill Gates of Microsoft or Dhirubhai Ambani closer home, MBAs don't figure in them. More embarrassing, many (as in these two cases) do not even have a college degree, let alone an MBA.

When studies are done about the career progression after a few years of work, MBAs do not seem to have made significantly more progress than non-MBAs.

An internal study done by the prestigious US management consulting firm, Monitor, found that "people hired from high-end business schools were no better at integrative thinking than undergraduates...hired from the top-notch liberal arts programs".

Some would-be reformers of the MBA programs, like Jeffrey Pfeffer of the Stanford Business School, believe that much of what business schools teach - analytical tools like statistics and basic disciplines like economics and sociology - are readily learned and imitated by any intelligent person.

On the other hand, things like communication ability, inter-personal skills, leadership and, most importantly, "wisdom", the ability to weave together and make use of different kinds of knowledge, are less easily taught. Paradoxically, these are the very skills that lie at the heart of a leadership role in management.

Others like Warren Bennis and James O'Toole (their article in the Harvard Business Review, "How Business Schools Lost their Way," is much quoted in this debate) say that there is actually a crisis in management education and trace this to business schools attempting to adopt a "scientific model".

This model attempts to treat management education as if it was something like physics or chemistry or biology whereas it is, in their view, more a "profession" like medicine or law. They see this distinction between an academic discipline and a profession as the central issue.

Why have business schools adopted the scientific model of physicists and economists rather than the professional model of doctors and lawyers? They believe this arises from business schools attempting to gain scientific respectability and avoid the stigma of a vocational training centre. The scientific model, says Bennis, "advances the careers and satisfies the egos of the professoriate".

Business schools have always had this conflict: is it their role to impart "training" or is it to impart "education"? This is not a trivial distinction. Training is aimed at equipping students with a set of tools that they can immediately apply in their very first job.

For example, teaching students to do a discounted cash flow analysis, that trusty tool of financial analysts, is "training". "Education," on the other hand, is supposed to be longer-lasting. For example, understanding the nuances of the difference between the law of diminishing returns and the law of increasing returns and more importantly how these two different theories came about may not do much for a student in his first job but would perhaps equip him with a lifelong ability to understand the drivers of business success and failure.

The result of all this debate is a worldwide attempt to reform business school curricula. One direction of this reform is to infuse more humanities into the curriculum. James March of Stanford is supposed to have taught his famous behavioural sciences course using novels like War and Peace as his textbook. There is more to learn about human behaviour in these classics, he believed, than in articles in business journals.

"Business schools," says Bennis, "need a diverse faculty populated with professors who, collectively, hold a variety of skills and interests that cover territory as broad and as deep as business itself."

If paradise has to be regained in this age of specialisation, is a broad-based humanities-oriented curriculum the answer for business schools?

How Friday the 13th Works

Let's look at this objectively for a second:

• In order to organize time, human beings created calendars.
• As part of today's dominant calendar system, every year is divided into 12 periods called months, consisting of roughly 30 days each.
• All days are also grouped into sets of seven, called weeks.
• In the Western world, a significant chunk of the population suspects bad things will happen whenever the 13th day of a month occurs on the day of the week called Friday.

Like many human beliefs, the fear of Friday the 13th (known as paraskevidekatriaphobia) isn't exactly grounded in scientific logic. But the really strange thing is that most of the people who believe the day is unlucky offer no explanation at all, logical or illogical. As with most superstitions, people fear Friday the 13th for its own sake, without any need for background information.

The superstition does have deep, compelling roots, however, and the origins help explain why the belief is so widespread today. In this article, we'll look at some of the interesting stories behind this unluckiest of days.

The Christian Tradition

The fear of Friday the 13th stems from two separate fears -- the fear of the number 13 and the fear of Fridays. Both fears have deep roots in Western culture, most notably in Christian theology.

Thirteen is significant to Christians because it is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper (Jesus and his 12 apostles). Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member of the party to arrive.

Christians have traditionally been wary of Fridays because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Additionally, some theologians hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on a Friday. In the past, many Christians would never begin any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing they would be doomed from the start.

Sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out on a Friday. According to unverified legend (very likely untrue), the British Navy commissioned a ship in the 1800s called H.M.S. Friday, in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage... and disappeared forever. A similar, entirely factual story is the harrowing flight of Apollo 13.

Some historians suggest the Christian distrust of Fridays is actually linked to the early Catholic Church's overall suppression of pagan religions and women. In the Roman calendar, Friday was devoted to Venus, the goddess of love. When Norsemen adapted the calendar, they named the day after Frigg, or Freya, Norse goddesses connected to love and sex. Both of these strong female figures once posed a threat to male-dominated Christianity, the theory goes, so the Christian church vilified the day named after them.

This characterization may also have played a part in the fear of the number 13. It was said that Frigg would often join a coven of witches, normally a group of 12, bringing the total to 13. This idea may have originated with the Christian Church itself; it's impossible to verify the exact origins of most folklore. A similar Christian legend holds that 13 is unholy because it signifies the gathering of 12 witches and the devil.

The number 13 could also have been considered pagan because there are 13 months in the pagan lunar calendar. The lunar calendar also corresponds to the human menstrual cycle, connecting the number to femininity.

Other Traditions

The Christian perspective on Friday and 13 is the most relevant today, but it's only one part of the Friday the 13th tradition.

Some trace the infamy of the number 13 back to ancient Norse culture. In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Balder was killed at a banquet by the mischievous god Loki, who crashed the party of twelve, bringing the group to 13. This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper, led to one of the most entrenched 13-related beliefs: You should never sit down to a meal in a group of 13.

Another significant piece of the legend is a particularly bad Friday the 13th that occurred in the middle ages. On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil. Check out this site to learn more.

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

Ultimately, the complex folklore of Friday the 13th doesn't have much to do with people's fears today. The fear has much more to do with personal experience. People learn at a young age that Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky, for whatever reason, and then they look for evidence that the legend is true. The evidence isn't hard to come by, of course. If you get in a car wreck on one Friday the 13th, lose your wallet, or even spill your coffee, that day will probably stay with you. But if you think about it, bad things, big and small, happen all the time. If you're looking for bad luck on Friday the 13th, you'll probably find it.

For more information about Friday the 13th and other superstitions, check out the links on the next page.

Lots More Information

Related HowStuffWorks Articles

• How Witchcraft Works
• How Halloween Works
• How Urban Legends Work
• How Easter Works
• How Christmas Works
• How Saint Patrick's Day Works
• How Valentine's Day Works
• How Time Works
• Why is April 1 a day to celebrate foolishness?

More Great Links

• Why Friday the 13th is Unlucky
• Do-It-Yourself Numerology
• Friday the 13th: Superstitions
• Number 13, Unlucky as Ever
• paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia

US Senate opens with Hindu prayer

History was created in the United States Senate at 9.30 am on Thursday, when Rajan Zed, the Hindu chaplain of the Indian Association of Northern Nevada, opened the Senate with a Hindu prayer.

This is the first such instance since the formation of the powerful Upper House in 1789.

A few Christian fundamentalists protested and began screaming, while holding the Bible aloft, "Lord Jesus, protect us from this abomination."

Officers from the Sergeant of Arms' office ejected one after the other (three were taken away) from the Senate gallery which looks down on the floor.

The president pro-tem of the Senate, had to beat the podium with his gavel thrice. He requested Zed to halt his prayer just as he was about to begin, and called on the Sergeant of Arms to restore order in the Senate Chamber.

A Senate aide said these people probably had gotten visitor's passes to the Senate gallery through a Senator's office and noted that "disrupting a Senate in the chamber is a criminal offense and they can be arrested."

A few minutes later, Zed delivered his prayer which took no more than 90 seconds, which as per the instructions from the Office of the Chaplain of the Senate had to be delivered exclusively and entirely in English.

"Let us pray," Zed began, "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds.

"Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigor. May our study be enlightening. May no obstacle arise between us."

Seeking the blessings of god on behalf of and for the Senators, Zed declared, "May the Senators strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world, performing their duties with the welfare of others always in mind. Because by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. May they work carefully and wisely, guided by compassion, and without though for themselves."

"United your resolve, united your hearts, may your spirits be at one, that you may long dwell in unity and concord!" he added, and ended with, "Peace, peace, peace be unto all."

Before stepping away from the podium, Zed also said, "And, Lord, we ask you to comfort the family of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson," wife of the former and late President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who died at age 94.

Speaking to rediff.com immediately after he delivered the prayer, Zed said, "I sprinkled some Ganga jal -- the water from the Holy Ganges [Images] on the podium before the prayer."

He also bemoaned the protests, saying, "I believe dialogue is always better," and profusely thanked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, who had arranged for him to deliver the first Hindu prayer in the US Senate.

"The Senator was a very courageous man for standing up and giving us this opportunity. He was very courageous and I appreciate what he did very much," he said.

A few minutes later, when this correspondent accompanied Zed, his wife, Shipa, and four of his friends from Virginia, who were the only Indians present in the gallery to witness this historic chapter in the US Senate, to Reid's office, Zed told Reid, "We appreciate your courage, you stood up to them. We appreciate it very much that you went through with it."

Reid, seeing the conspicuous tilak of Zed's forehead, asked him what it was about, and the latter, who was wearing the saffron robes synonymous with Hindu priests, explained that it is a sign of auspiciousness.

Earlier, before the prayer, Reid told rediff.com, "There has been some criticism that I arranged this, which is true."

Asked if these protests were from other denominations, Reid said, "From other people," and noted, "The Senate Chaplain's office got hundreds of people protesting, by phone, mail and e-mail for allowing this."

But he asserted: "It shows what America is all about. Having real big arms to put around everyone and this is a religion that has been around a long time, which has brought peace and contentment to people over the generations and we are happy to have a (Hindu) prayer."

Before the prayer, Zed told rediff.com he felt honored, humbled and thrilled that he was creating history. "It's a great honor for me, my family, for the great state of Nevada, for all Americans and for us all Hindus. It's is indeed a historic occasion for all of us Indian-Americans also."

Zed said the fact that a Hindu prayer was opening the US Senate for the first time, was a clear indication that there is an acceptance of Hinduism as part of America today. "Slowly we are becoming mainstream. Yoga is very popular already, and through yoga in America, Hinduism is becoming more known. I teach Hinduism classes also in the community colleges (in Reno, Nevada) and I get a very favorable reception."

Each day, when the Senate is in session, the Senate chaplain delivers the opening prayer, before the Senate gets down to the business of lawmaking, which it shares with the US House of Representatives, but occasionally, on the urging of one community of another, particularly those from minority religions, guest chaplains are invited from across the country to deliver a prayer from their faith.

Zed, an alumnus of the Panjab University, from where he received his bachelor of journalism degree, is also the public relations office of the India Association of North Nevada.

After coming to the US for higher studies, Zed received his master of science and master of business administration from San Jose State University in California and the University of Nevada, Reno, respectively.

What’s the theme?

B’day bashes for children are now complete entertainment events. Innovation is the key and we find out how…

You thought organising your child’s birthday party is as easy as inviting a few friends over for a cake cutting ceremony. Children, and many parents, like it when things are spiced up. There’s no ruling out the regular parties that are qu iet family affairs, but there’s a growing tribe that wants their events to be talked about in social circles.

A host of theme parties are doing the rounds in the city. While the girls prefer Cinderella and Snow White and Seven Dwarfs the boys want Winnie the Pooh or Noddy. Universal favourites are Tom and Jerry and Disney. Harry Potter theme has very few takers, owing to the work that goes into making props that recreate the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft atmosphere.

These parties are either put together painstakingly by parents or outsourced to event managers. Once a theme is chosen and budget drawn up, the props (2D and 3D cut-outs, posters, festoons, table clothes and bags for return gifts pertaining to the theme), the menu and the entertainment are worked out. For entertainment, you rope in mimicry artistes, magicians, face painters, caricature artists and others to keep the little ones amused.

“For children between the ages of two and five who are still to form their own friends, it’s the parents who invite their friends with their families over. The children at the party may not know each other. Here, an emcee helps to break the ice and get the children involved in games,” says event manager Archie Paranji, who’s just coordinated a Tom and Jerry party. “We used 3D images showing different stages of Tom chasing Jerry,” she adds. A handful of stores sell props for birthday parties in the city and some parents source them from Mumbai or Bangalore, their budget permitting. “There’s more demand today; we get at least two bookings per day.

Many artists have taken to designing such props. Many mimicry artistes, magicians and face painters specialise in kids’ birthday parties. Some parties use camel rides and horse rides too,” says Sunil Malchandani of Prakash Party Shop, General Bazaar.

Finally, the menu and the venue are thought over. Mini kathi rolls, baby-sized pastries, burgers and cakes with smileys are popular choices.

And for venues, some drive down to resorts in the outskirts. Others who don’t fancy a tiring drive with young children settle for star hotels and clubs within city limits.

“The Sailing Club, Fateh Maidan Club and others are being tapped by members and their friends. A lot of new clubs have sprung up and they charge Rs. 150 to 200 per plate,” says event organiser Kaniza Garari. Now the big question: how much do you need to spend? There are props that can suit budgets from Rs. 1000 to a lakh.

The budget corresponds to the venue, theme and the number of guests. While many spend between Rs. 30,000 and a lakh, there are unusual cases of families having spent a cool Rs. 18 to 20 lakh! “Some even take pride in overstating the amount. If they’ve worked within Rs. 35-40,000, they tell their peers that the party cost them nothing less than Rs. 75,000,” adds Kaniza.

Handling the Nimitz crew on land

A Kerala company was responsible for arranging the tour plans for the Nimitz crew at Chennai. These men and women tell Priyadershini S. about their experiences on board the ship

Take a guess; what can USS Nimitz, a warship with 80 fighter jets and 10 helicopters on board, have to do with Kochi? Farfetched? Not really, when you learn that a Kochi based tour operator, Marvel Tours, was responsible for handling the transport, g uide and tours of the 6,000 crew on board. And the mammoth task was as adventurous as the ship’s docking at Chennai.

Privileged group The Marvel Tours team along with some crew members on board the Nimitz

Top secret

“Tour operators are given very detailed itinerary, months in advance, of the passengers on any cruise liner that docks. Of the places they would like to visit, the cultural shows or any special activities they would like to indulge in, so every bit of their brief stopover is meticulously planned but for the Nimitz we had no clue of what was to be done. Everything was top secret till three days before it reached off Chennai. It was then that the co-ordinator on board contacted us and gave us details of the passenger’s tours, hotels, need for guides and such information. We had exactly three days to get everything organised,” says Sejoe Jose, Director Marvel Tours.

Confusion

After organising with onboard co-ordinator, Jeff, and with all systems in place, Sejoe recalls the confusion that ensued on the arrival of the ship. “Nimitz docked three nautical miles off Chennai. A Singapore company was given the task of ferrying the passengers ashore but of the three boats that were to do so, one developed a leak and sank. That was on the evening of July 2. Another boat too had problems so there was just one boat to bring the passengers across. Two tugs were pressed into service to handle the chaos. Those ashore were the ones who wished to stay on the ship after an outing and those on ship were the ones who had opted for the tours. It had got all mixed up due to the small mishap and so we had to accommodate the stranded passengers, about 800 or so. It was four in the morning by the time we could get our clients in place. The next two days were smooth sailing for us as we had 250 passengers on tour to Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram.” And that’s how an absolutely crazy situation was handled with aplomb.

“But it was wonderful,” gushes Shyamala Kumar, Manager Marvel Tours, Tamil Nadu. “It was such a privilege to be on board the Nimitz. It is an 18 storey ship but we were shown only the top four floors. There is a 50 bed hospital with ICU and all that, a school, classes with semester system…it is really amazing.” It was a customised tours for the passengers.

Says Sejoe, “The life the crew leads on the warship is very hard. They work 12 hours a day. All they yearn for is beer and some fun. The average age of the crew is in the twenties. So they are very young people looking for entertainment. Most of them opted for city tours. Only about 250 of them went visiting outside Chennai. We had initially blocked 25 buses for them with Government of India guides on board. We handled the travel for them in Chennai and also of Pinckney, a ship that sails along with the Nimitz.”

And how did a Kochi based tour operator get to handle a US warship cruise, one wonders? “Oh that’s through our agents in Delhi, Liberty India.” Whatever and however it was a marvellous experience for the Marvel Tours team who can’t stop talking about USS Nimitz and their experiences on board it.

Onboard shopping

“One of the most amazing things I saw on board the USS Nimitz was a touch screen displaying Ford cars, Harley Davidson bikes, Willey Jeeps and lots more. At feather touch appears the details of say a car you wish to know about.

Another touch gives you more details and price and if you wish to buy it you can do so right there. The car is then delivered to you when you step ashore back home.

Buying a car on a ship was something that I found truly amazing,” said Sejoe.

Cognizant to invest $200 million in India

Kochi development centre opened

---

To build

fully-owned

techno-complexes

Kochi centre to focus on media and entertainment

---

KOCHI: Cognizant, a leading provider of IT services, will invest about $200 million to expand its infrastructure in the country. This expansion, to be concretised by the end of next year is mainly for land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishing.

The global company plans to build new fully-owned techno-complexes that would significantly increase Cognizant’s existing campus footprint in the country with the addition of over three million square feet and capacity for over 30,000 new employees.

The company which provides applications management, development, integration and re-engineering, infrastructure management, technology architecture, programme management and change management through its global business model, on Wednesday opened its Kochi development centre at the SEZ at Muthoot IT Park at Kakkanad here.

The company’s expertise spans industry segments such as financial services (including banking, insurance and capital markets), healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing and logistics, telecommunications and media and publishing, the communication said.

It recently became the fourth largest provider of offshore IT services and BPO leveraging in India and is the fastest growing top-tier IT services and BPO company. In 2006, the company’s revenue grew by 61 per cent and its headcount grew by about 14,500 professionals.

The Kakkanad Centre was inaugurated by Scott Henry, Chief Information Officer of Arbitron Inc. In the first year of operations, the centre would be employing about 400 professionals, said Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation. The Kochi centre will focus on information, media and entertainment industry.

15 acres recovered from private firm in Kochi

Officials of the Revenue Department on Wednesday recovered 15.67 acres of land held by a private company for alleged violation of the lease agreement.

A Revenue team led by District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish recovered the land held by Crompton Greaves at Athani, which falls under the Nedumbassery village limits. The property which is in the neighbourhood of the Cochin International Airport is valued at Rs. 100 crore as per the current market rate.

The title deed held by the company was cancelled and the property was attached to the Government.

The buildings on the land were sealed and boards announcing the ownership of the State over the land were placed in front of the main entrance. The recovery was made under Government Order (GOM 259/2007) issued by Revenue Principal Secretary Nivedita. P. Haran on July 9.

The conditions in the title deed specifically stated that the land should be used solely for industrial purposes.

BSNL strike total in State

he strike called by the officers and employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Wednesday was total in the State. When contacted by The Hindu here, BSNL Kerala Circle Chief General Manager (CGM) K.S. Sreenivasan conceded that more than 95 per cent of the employees and officers in the State had abstained from work.

He however said the strike had not affected the working of the exchanges or the transmission system anywhere in the State. But fault repairs, cash transactions and other allied works totally remained suspended.

The call for the strike was jointly given by BSNL Employees Union, National Union of BSNL Workers (FNTO), Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association, All- India BSNL Executives’ Association, NFTE BSNL, Telecom Employees’ Progressive Union and BSNL Mazdoor Sangh, to protest against the alleged attempt of the Central Government and the Union Communication Minister to ‘sabotage the development of BSNL in the mobile sector.’

The leaders of the agitating unions said the strike was total. According to them, only one officer other than the CGM reported for duty in the CGM’s office in the State capital.

The situation was similar in the Principal General Manager’s offices here as well as in the General Manager’s office in the various district headquarters.

The striking unions kept the gates of the offices and exchanges locked in several places. However, they said they had made arrangements to tackle any major breakdown.

The unions alleged that the Communication Minister’s move to re-tender the contract for mobile equipment would derail the proposed expansion plan of BSNL to give 4.5 crore new mobile connections.

Sabarimala temple to open on Monday

The Sabarimala temple will open for monthly pujas at 5.30 p.m. on July 16 and close at 10 p.m. on July 21. In addition to the routine pujas, ‘padi puja,’ ‘udayasthamana puja,’ and ‘neyyabhishekam’ would be held on these days, a release from the Travancore Devaswom Board here on Wednesday said. The temple would open for ‘nirayum puthari’ pujas at 5.30 p.m. on July 28. ‘Nirayum puthari’ fell on July 29, the release said

UAE-Kerala industrial task force formed

A United Arab Emirates-Kerala task force has been constituted to promote industrial investment in Kerala from the United Arab Emirates.

An official press note said here on Wednesday that the task force was formed during Industries Minister Elamaram Karim’s visit to the UAE from April 27 to May 9.

The task force would have UAE Finance and Industries Minister Muhammed Khalfan Khirbash, Finance Secretary Younus Haji Al Khouri, Industries Secretary Jamal Nazar Lutha, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce director board member M.A. Yousufali, economics specialist in the UAE Ministry of Finance Hamad Nazar, Industries Director Syed Abdulla Al Rokan, investment department deputy general manager Ali Hamdan.

Kerala would be represented on the committee by Industries Principal Secretary T. Balakrishnan, Secretary P.H. Kurian, Infrastructures Kerala Limited (In-KEL) Finance Principal Secretary Jose Cyriac, Kinfra Managing Director A.S. Suresh Babu.

First meeting

The first meeting of the task force is proposed to be held in Kerala, the release quoted the Industries Minister as saying.

The Minister said the UAE was interested in making investments in petrochemical complex, power projects and infrastructure development projects. The Emirates Investment Group, a prominent investment firm in the UAE, had also evinced interest to invest in Kerala, he said.

Murali edges closer to 700 as Bangladesh collapse again

The rain finally abated at Kandy, and Sujeewa de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan combined under cloudy skies to bowl Bangladesh out for 131 on the second day of this dead-rubber Test. de Silva, in his first Test for five summers, gave Sri Lanka vital breakthroughs quickly and Muralitharan skittled out the tail to record his 59th five-wicket haul in Test cricket. It was a good day for the local crowd, as their hometown hero crossed 100 wickets at the venue.

Play began half an hour late under overcast conditions, and de Silva and Lasith Malinga didn't give the overnight batsman any room to work with. While Malinga bustled in and mixed the full with the short - Mohammad Ashraful took a lifter on the glove, Tushar Imran on the helmet - de Silva was as accurate as he was on the first day, consistently pitching the ball in that channel outside off stump and making the batsmen play. Two wickets were his reward.

He showed the importance of a tight line, and how a hint of swing could be enough on such pitches. He simply stuck to an outside-the-off-stump line, and was his consistency fetched him the wicket of Tushar early. Having hit a brace of confident boundaries against de Silva, Tushar impetuously chased a wide delivery and edged to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip.

de Silva then grabbed the biggest wicket, that of the Bangladesh captain, in the same manner. Ashraful, committed to going onto the front foot, drove at a full delivery that was moving away and edged to the 'keeper for 26. With the two main batsmen gone, Jayawardene turned to his ace bowler.

As expected, Muralitharan's introduction in front of his home crowd created a buzz. Clearly rankled by a confident shout against Ashraful in his first over - the batsman flashed a cut at a tossed up delivery, there was a noise, but replays didn't show any visible deviation off the bat - Muralitharan fizzed one up to Mashrafe Mortaza and dived full stretch to his left to plucked a one-handed return catch.

A second but much easier one came his way soon after, as Mohammad Rafique slogged one up in the air, and Murali's fifth wicket arrived four deliveries later when Shahadat Hossain prodded an inside edge to forward short leg. Syed Rasel tried to defend one tossed up from around the stumps and offered silly point an easy catch. The innings had folded for 131.

And while his batsmen prepared to pile on another huge total, Muralitharan could sit back and start thinking about that magical figure of 700 wickets - he now has 694.

Irfan Pathan back in the swing after Lillee help

Discarded Indian seamer Irfan Pathan [Images] says he has regained his bowling rhythm after working with Australian pace legend Dennis Lillee and is confident of a quick recall to the national side.

The 22-year-old left-hander was hailed as a future successor to retired all-rounder Kapil Dev [Images] after his impressive debut as a teenager until his bowling form deserted him last year.

His confidence ebbed when he was sent home from South Africa in December and did not make the starting XI at this year's World Cup, where India made a first-round exit.

Pathan was omitted for the current England [Images] tour when he turned to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai to work under chief coach Lillee and former India bowler T.A. Sekhar.

"I've been working for nearly a month at the Pace Foundation and I am feeling pretty good," he told Reuters.

"Lillee worked on my technical flaws, in the use of my non-bowling arm, my run-up," he said. "I'm feeling positive now."

Pathan is hopeful he can prove his form on the India A tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya starting this month. He is also among the probables for the Twenty20 World Cup in September.

SWING BOWLER

He made his debut in late 2003 and his ability to swing the ball as well as bat won him regular berths in both forms of the game. Pathan has 91 wickets in 25 Tests and 115 scalps from 73 one-dayers, averaging around 25 with the bat in both versions.

His finest hour came on the Pakistan tour in January 2006 when he claimed a hat-trick in the first over of the third Test in Karachi, although India lost to concede the series.

Pathan said his slide began soon after.

"I actually began developing these flaws nearly one-and-half years ago when I got the hat-trick," he said. "I knew there was something wrong, but didn't have much time to correct it."

He sought out former pace greats, Pakistan's Wasim Akram and West Indies's [Images] Andy Roberts, but to no avail.

Pathan is confident things would be different this time.

"I haven't played many games in the recent past," he said. "I need to do that to get back into the side."

Jet to fly Mumbai-Newyork from August 5

et Airways, India's largest private airlines, on Wednesday announced its daily transatlantic service between Mumbai and New York, beginning August 5.

Jet Airways [Get Quote] officials, including chairman Naresh Goel, said flights will operate between New York's Liberty International Airport, which is actually located in New Jersey, and Mumbai International Airport on new Boeing 777-300ER wide-bodied jets.

Flights depart New York at 8:25 pm and arrive in Mumbai at 11:30 pm the following day. Return flights will leave Mumbai at 2:10 am and arrive in New York at 11:55 am the same day.

"Just as Jet Airways created unprecedented standards of efficiency and service on flights in India, we are proud to be launching transatlantic service, and bringing the spirit of the New India, into one of the world's most important cities," Goel said in a brief speech at the gala announcement luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

"The burgeoning economy of 'New India' offers American business leaders myriad opportunities, which is why the time is right for us to start flying from new York," he said.

The announcement came a day after Air India, India's national carrier, announced non-stop daily flights between Mumbai and JFK airport in New York beginning August 1.

"Our goals is to be recognised as one of the world's top five airlines by 2010 and having built our reputation in India and six other international destinations, we are confident that the US market is ready to recognise Jet Airways as one of the most exciting and outstanding pioneers of aviation in the world today," he said.

Goel said that with the forging of closer relations between the US and India, two of the world's largest democracies, airline passenger traffic is increasing to and fro almost regularly. "We see that the US is going to be our biggest market," Goel said.

Jet, which is building a major hub in Brussels for all its flights connecting India and the US, will also commence service between Delhi and Toronto beginning September 5. In addition to flights to Brussels from Mumbai and Delhi, direct flights between Brussels and Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad will eventually enable travelers to connect seamlessly from five Indian gateways to six North American airports, including Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Jet did not say how early the flights will take off.

Asked as to how he would compete with Air India which claims to have the emotional loyalty of a large number of members of Indian corporate world, Goel parried a direct reply.

"It is a huge market and as far as Air India is concerned its market share is about 14 or 15 percent. Naturally, the rest of the market is for other carriers. So, it is only fair that customers get a better service on this route," Goel told rediff.com. "We are striving not to be inferior to Singapore Airlines or Cathay for that matter," he said.

Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal at The Waldorf Astoria Grand Ballroom, New York, announcing the launch of the airline's daily service from the United States to Mumbai.

Michael Moore takes on CNN's Sanjay Gupta

It is war, and maverick filmmaker Michael Moore and CNN's resident medical expert and practicing neurosurgeon Dr Sanjay Gupta are fighting it across many platforms.

It started earlier this week, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who hosts the hour-long show Situation Room, turned the spotlight on Sicko, the recently-released Michael Moore documentary that takes a harsh, uncompromising look at America's healthcare industry.

In what an increasingly agitated blogosphere calls an attempt by Blitzer to sandbag the filmmaker, the host opened the segment with a previous prepared piece in which Dr Gupta used certain facts and figures to demolish the film.

Moore was introduced immediately after the segment; clearly enraged by the segment, he rubbished Dr Gupta's arguments, criticised CNN for airing what he called a premeditated hatchet job, and segued into a scathing indictment of the channel and of Blitzer himself.

'Why don't you for once tell America the truth?' Moore demanded at one point. He said, further, that he would post point by point refutations of Dr Gupta's criticisms on his web site.

A day later, the promised refutation was up, and it was extremely detailed; it ended with a demand that CNN apologise for suggesting that Moore had fudged his facts.

Two days later, Dr Gupta and Moore squared off again -- this time, on Larry King Live. Reports suggest that Moore's staff had, prior to the live interaction, provided Dr Gupta with detailed facts, figures and sources substantiating all the points made in the movie, and that Dr Gupta went ahead and trashed those figures anyway, with little or no basis.

Dr Gupta disputes that; he suggests that there was no pre-debate briefing.

Though the live debate degenerated at times into a shouting, slanging match, Dr Gupta reiterated that he personally admired the film and agreed with the basic premise -- that America's health care system is flawed, and needed to be fixed.

'I thought it was a good movie, and I wanted to say that,' Moore tells Dr Gupta on Larry King Live. 'I think it strikes at the irrefutable fact -- it's broken. We get it.' He then goes on to praise the filmmaker for raising awareness of the issue.

The key point of disagreement, during the debate, revolved around Moore's contention, in the movie, that other developed nations such as France [Images] and Canada [Images] have universal health care, and that such health care is largely free, while Americans pay exorbitant sums to underwrite their health care needs.

Dr Gupta said while patients may not pay for services at the doctor's office, they pay high taxes to fund such a system.

Moore in response pointed out that though Americans do not pay taxes to fund a health care system, they end up paying out more by way of copays, deductibles and insurance premiums.

He then asked Dr Gupta if the current system, which requires him to receive approval from an insurance company before performing some procedures, is cumbersome.

'It's a shameful system, especially when I'm dealing with some of my patients,' Dr Gupta said in response.

The film was released in France on May 19, in Canada on June 8 and in the US on June 24; it has been doing impressive business.

Released in the US on one screen on June 24, it has since spread to 441 screens across the country and as of July 1 (the last date for which authentic trade figures are available), it has done $4.5 million worth of business in the US alone.

Messi gem guides Argentina to final

Lionel Messi [Images] scored a breathtaking goal, arguably the best of the tournament, as Argentina beat Mexico 3-0 in the Copa America semi-final on Wednesday.

Collecting a pass from Carlos Tevez, Messi spotted goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez off his line and chipped the ball into the net to score Argentina's second as they set up a final against old rivals Brazil [Images].

- Brazil survive Uruguay fightback

The 61st-minute goal, which came as Mexico were pressing for an equaliser, turned the game and Juan Riquelme Roman added a third from a controversial penalty, his fifth goal of the tournament.

Defender Gabriel Heinze had put Argentina ahead on the stroke of halftime with his second international goal as the favourites kept up an average of over three goals per game.

Mexico, with coach Hugo Sanchez celebrating his 49th birthday, made a fight of it and twice hit the woodwork in an enthralling game.

Mexico, 6-0 conquerers of Paraguay in their quarter-final, made a lively start and nearly went ahead in the 18th minute when Andres Guardado, free on the left, cut inside his marker and hit the outside of the post.

Argentina, meanwhile, looked dangerous whenever Riquelme got the ball.

The elegant number 10 floated over a free kick which eluded goalkeeper Sanchez and found Roberto Ayala, whose shot was blocked. Then he sent Tevez clear but his effort was again saved.

Argentina broke through in the 45th minute when another Riquelme freekick found Heinze, who hooked the ball past Sanchez with his left foot.

Mexico were again unlucky in the 55th minute when Fernando Arce split the Argentina defence and found Nery Castillo, whose shot hit the crossbar.

Argentina struck the killer blow six minutes later when Heinze opened up Mexico's defence with a crossfield pass to Tevez, who laid it off to Messi, who scored his gem.

Five minutes later, Tevez went down in the area and, although replays showed he fell before any contact was made, a penalty was awarded. Riquelme nonchalantly chipped the ball in for his fifth goal of the tournament.

Messi nearly scored again when he forced his way past two defenders but curled his shot wide in injury-time.