Indian General election will see the use of the Internet

Taking cue from Gujarat BJP's use of internet to get their message out to the citizens which helped it win the assembly election. Now there is a video on youtube exhorting all to vote for BJP.

NY ex-Mayor to help banned Indian drugs maker

n a severe setback for Ranbaxy Laboratories, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) has banned the entry in the US of over 30 medicines manufactured by the drug maker at two of its Indian facilities. The regulator has also decided not to grant any new approval to Ranbaxy to sell drugs in the US that are manufactured at its facilities in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) and Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh).

The US drug regulator has issued warning letters to the drug major where it has cited cross-contamination problems at the Dewas facility and equipment validation and improper maintenance of inspection re-cords at its Paonta Sahib as reasons for its action against Ranbaxy.

“Because of the extent and nature of the violations, US FDA on Tuesday issued an Import Alert, under which US officials may detain at the US border, API and both sterile and non-sterile finished drug products manufactured at such Ranbaxy facilities and offered for import into the US,” said an US FDA statement.

Indian drug firm Ranbaxy has hired ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as an adviser, the company says.

Ranbaxy said Mr Giuliani's consulting and investment firm will advise it and look into compliance issues.

Who killed the iPhone in India

Samsung Omnia i900 

It has a 3.2-inch display and being a windows mobile phone, it offers a greater variety of softwares and games. It is packed with features like a 5 mega pixel camera, 8 GB / 16 GB internal memory, multi-touch, windows mobile 6.1 Pro etc. FM radio with RDS, geotagging, 3.5 mm audio jack, TouchWiz UI, optical joystick. It has flash and video recording. The audio quality is also excellent. It is a iphone look alike.

HTC Touch Diamond
It is easily the lightest and the thinnest windows mobile phone in the market. Taiwan-based HTC was the first company in India to launch a touchscreen phone. With Touch, HTC debuted touchscreen phones in India (officially). Key features include, a 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with an optical auto-focus lens, video calling capability and auto sensor screen pivoting.
It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, comes with 4GB of internal storage with 256MB flash and 192MB RAM. Other features include Bluetooth with EDR, minUSB, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi.


Asus P320
Based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform, the P320 features GPS navigation, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi for Internet access, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. It comes pre-loaded with ASUS Today suite that includes applications such as Time, Mail Box, Calendar, News, Weather and Music Player available to users via a single window.
Some other key features are a 2.6 inch TFT touchscreen with 65K color, 240 x 320 pixels resolution, OMAP 850 (Texas Instrument's Open Multimedia Application Platform) 200 MHz processor, 128MB Flash ROM + 64 MB DDR RAM and business applications. The phone boasts of 2 megapixel AF camera and microSD support.

Samsung TouchWIZ F480 
The phone, which made its India debut recently, has a 2.8-inch TFT LCD (240x320) touchscreen, integrated FM radio, multi-format video playback (MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, Real), MPEG4 video recording and editing functions.
The phone also comes with face detection technology, image stabiliser, CMOS video lens and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) features. There are also a few customisable features like Drag `n' Drop and Auto Smile Shot coupled with full touch navigation.
TouchWIZ F480 has a 5 megapixel auto-focus-LED Flash camera, equipped with 240MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB. Positioned in the lifestyle segment, the phone come with a host of entertainment features and is compatible with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps) networks and functions on GSM 900/1800/1900, and WCDMA 2100 bands.

LG 1000 
Here's a touchscreen option for CDMA users, LG 1000 CDMA available on Reliance network. The Nokia Communicator look-alike features a 2.8-inch external touch sensitive LCD and an internal display of the same size along with a full QWERTY keyboard.
LG 10000's key features include a media player (playback for MPEG 4 formats), a 2 megapixel camera with video recorder, expandable memory up to 8GB and Office mail applications for corporate users access (Push mail through Microsoft Server, Pull mail - IMAP and POP3).
It also features a full HTML browser. Other media features include a voice recorder and dual stereo speakers. It also supports Bluetooth and external memory via microSD cards. 

The Nokia N96 

The most awaited phone of the lot. Available through pre-Booking. Though not a touchscreen phone, has everything you could ever expect from a phone. A superb 5 MP cam with auto focus and flash, video recording - VGA at 30 FPS, 16 GB internal memory, A-GPS, a DVB - H receiver, a dual ARM 9 CPU, 128 MB RAM, a brilliant 2.8″ 16M colour screen The most popular smart phone OS ever, it features the most user friendly interface.

India to sue Google, Yahoo & Microsoft for sex selection ads

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre, Google India, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation on a petition seeking a ban on popular online search engines promoting sex selection techniques.

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M. Panchal issued notice on a writ petition filed by Dr. Sabu Mathew George highlighting the violation of Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act by the websites.

Counsel Sanjay Parikh submitted that despite bringing the websites to the notice of the departments concerned, no steps were taken to block them. He said the petition was filed for full and effective implementation of the Act.

He sought a direction to the Centre to block all websites, including those of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, that violated the Act.

Dr. George wanted a direction to the Centre to take punitive and deterrent action against these three companies.

It is funny that even though Google's adwords policy does not allows this
advertising when ads are targeted to India, it still shows up.

It is banned because of selective abortion for past centuries have resulted in dip in girl population. The sex ratio in many parts is almost 900 to 1000 men.

England unhappy with India venues,again

Like the last time England visited India, ECB are unhappy at the grounds chosen to host matches on the tour of India later in the year.

Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Mohali have all been excluded from the winter schedule that includes two Tests and seven one-day internationals.
A statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board said: "Fans will not experience the great grounds of India."

BCCI does not much care about English visitors as  Cricket is a religion in India and so filling up the stadium is not a big issue and it does not much cares about economy which will receive a boost if the English come in large numbers.

BCCI might be saving the big venues for the glamorous teams like Australia and Pakistan.

Tour dates:
Nov 6: England arrive in Mumbai
Nov 9: One-day warm-up match in Mumbai
Nov 11: One-day warm-up match in Mumbai
Nov 14: 1st One-day international, Rajkot
Nov 17: 2nd One-day international, Indore
Nov 20: 3rd One-day international, Kanpur
Nov 23: 4th One-day international, Jamshedpur
Nov 26: 5th One-day international, Cuttack
Nov 29: 6th One-day international, Guwahati
Dec 2: 7th One-day international, Delhi
Dec 5: Three-day warm-up match, Baroda
Dec 11: First Test, Ahmedabad
Dec 19: Second Test, Mumbai

BCCI gags cricket coach Gary Kirsten

India's cricket board has told coach Gary Kirsten not to comment on the team on his personal Web site.

Kirsten cannot write post-match comments or columns as per BCCI's policy. Only the team captains are allowed to write newspaper or Web site columns.

On the site (www.garykirsten.com), the South African, who took over in March, said there was a need to introduce a rotation policy, adding that one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was in need of rest.

Minister arrested for being part of a crowd which killed a cop

Sacked Uttar Pradesh Minister Jamuna Nishad was today arrested by the police two days after he was charged with murder of a constable during a violent clash involving his supporters at a Maharajganj police station. Nishad was arrested while he was on his way to Chief Minister Mayawati's residence to attend a meeting.

Nishad, who was sacked by Mayawati on Sunday, was named in an FIR in connection with the killing of the constable, who was killed during alleged firing by his supporters at Kotwali police station in Maharajganj.

Nishad had denied his presence during the violence at the police station and also the charge that the shot was fired from his red-beaconed car.

Bayern Munich Football club scores in cricket crazy India

Bayern Munich, the reigning German soccer champion and four-time European Cup winner, faced more than an Indian club when it played in Kolkata today. It was trying to overcome a cricket culture and England's Premier League.

Bayern won the game 3-0 with Jan Schlaudraff scoring twice and Zé Roberto grabbing the other. A defensive blunder allowed Schlaudraff to score the opener after 18 minutes, before Zé Roberto curled in a free kick on 37 minutes after Mohun keeper Sangram Mukherjee had handled outside the area.
Bayern’s third goal arrived six minutes into the second half when Jan Schlaudraff fired home from close range following good work from Christian Lell.

Bayern, which beat Mohun Bagan 3-0 in front of 120,000 fans, is seeking to convert consumers in India -- the world's second most-populous nation with 1.1 billion people -- to soccer from cricket and overcome a bias to English teams among those who already follow the sport.

Indians have traditionally favored cricket, the game brought there by the British when it was the colonial power. Broadcast rights to a new six-week cricket tournament, featuring some of the world's top players and promoted by Bollywood movie stars, were sold to India's Sony Television Network and the Singapore-based World Sports Group for $1 billion, according to the Australian newspaper.

India tests missile with China in mind

India has test-fired its longest-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-III, officials said.
The surface-to-surface missile was test-fired off the coast of Orissa state in eastern India.
With a range of more than 3,000km (1,865 miles), the missile could hit targets as far off as Beijing and Shanghai, analysts say.

ndia's current arsenal of missiles is largely intended for confronting archrival Pakistan. The Agni III, in contrast, is India's longest-range missile, designed to reach 1,900 miles _ putting China's major cities well into range, as well as targets deep in the Middle East.

The missile is one of a series developed as part of India's deterrence strategy against neighbouring China and Pakistan which also have nuclear weapons, analysts say.
India has shorter-range missiles that analysts say were developed to target long-time rival Pakistan with which it has fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
The two neighbours who launched a slow-moving peace process in 2004 aimed at resolving outstanding disputes including over disputed Kashmir often stage tit-for-tat missile tests.
But the development of the Agni III is aimed at displaying that India's deterrent reach can stretch far beyond Pakistan, analysts say.
In the last few years, however, tensions between India and China, which fought a brief border war in 1962, have eased and there is now direct trade through the Himalayas.
The Agni-III is the country's first solid fuel missile that is compact enough for easy mobility.
India's indigenously developed missile arsenal also includes the short-range Prithvi ballistic missile and the medium-range Akash.

Youtube India is now live

Youtube now offers India specific site. Here is the excerpts from official India Youtube blog

We're very happy to be able to bring you a localised version of YouTube for India, its diaspora and and really anyone who is passionate about India. This site contains all the videos found on YouTube's global site, www.youtube.com, except we've applied an "Indian lens" to the content, meaning that the video charts you see reflect what Indians are watching now, the featured videos are programmed to cater to an Indian audience, and we've signed up dozens of local partners who are proud to distribute their content through YouTube.

Moreover, an Indian version of YouTube allows you to connect with local users like never before –- take a look at the videos being featured on our home page right now and you'll see everything from a non-resident Indian (NRI) family trying to tell folks back home how much they missed their hot cup of morning tea to the merry whistlers from Bangalore to traffic mayhem in Hyderabad.

Like what you see or think you can do better? Comment, share, favourite and upload away...YouTube is a truly democratic platform that can be used by anyone. So get typing or pick up that video camera: tell us what our strengths are, draw our attention to any weaknesses, and give us an idea of how we can improve your YouTube experience.

Indian middle class causes food price rise : Bush

US President George Bush has joined his top diplomat in suggesting that the growing prosperity of India's large middle class is contributing to rising food prices around the world.

"...the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is," he said commenting on the economy during a visit Friday to World Wide Technology, Inc. in Maryland Heights, Missouri. "It also, however, increases demand."

"So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

"And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up," said Bush joining his top diplomat Condoleezza Rice in suggesting India's role in the world food crisis.

I read an interesting post regarding this at bloggernews

What should the Indian middle class do? Should he give up the prosperity and return back to the fold of backward nations? Or should he look for statistics to find out how much food the prospering Indian Middle class gulp down in the form of Pepsis, Coca Colas Mac Donalds.

These Indians drink, on average, nine servings of Coke products per year. Has George Bush forgotten that few years back there was an agitation in India in which it was alleged that the 68 Cola plants in India has caused a water shortage in many parts of India? In Varanasi, alone, Coke draws an estimated 158,503 gallons a day. In fact the Colas have a market of 300 millions of middle class Indian, incidentally equivalent to US population

And what about the expenditure of these middle class Indians who help US economy by buying Levis ,Reebock ,Adidas to name a few.

Indians have right to grow their food and give preference to their own country men instead of selling to countries busy in selling nuclear arsenals ,oil and other things.

Why you will miss The King of fruits-mango this year

Thanks due to non-seasonal rains in February in mango producing regions, all of them have been decayed. There should be no rain during harvesting period otherwise there will be bacterial decay. But it happened and now most of the mangoes are not fit for consumption. The king of mangoes- Alphonso is being sold at very high rate. All the good one are being exported to western countries. I hope by next year they control this global warming and we can relish the God's fruits in this sweltering heat of May.

A new york times link to the topic of mangoes.

India launches record 10 satellites in one rocket

An Indian rocket launched a record 10 satellites into orbit in a single mission Monday, underlining the nation's emergence as a major competitor in the multi-billion-dollar space market.

The PSLV rocket ejected all the satellites within minutes of each other after liftoff at 9:20 a.m. (0350 GMT) in clear weather from the Sriharikota space station in southern India, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

The mission's success demonstrated India's ability to launch multiple payloads into precise orbit as it seeks to reap commercial benefits from its 45-year-old space programme.

It was the 13th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which has "repeatedly proved itself as a reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle," said ISRO.

The rocket's unprecedented payload included an Indian remote-sensing satellite known as the Cartosat-2A, a mini satellite and eight so-called nanosatellites developed by foreign research institutions, including those from Germany and Canada.
The satellites were deployed in orbit within minutes of each other in a rare space feat, with the entire mission lasting about 20 minutes.
High resolution images and data from the satellite will be used to manage infrastructure and natural resources in the country, officials said.

India started its space programme in 1963, and has since developed and put several of its own satellites into space. It has also designed and built launch rockets to reduce dependence on overseas space agencies.

Olympics torch touches down in Beijing amid tight security

The Olympic flame arrived in Beijing for a torch re-lighting ceremony Monday, signaling the start of a round-the-world relay that is expected to be a lightning rod for protests against China's policies and human rights practices.

The flame's arrival in Beijing was shown live on state television, and comes a week after the lighting ceremony for the Olympic torch in Greece was marred by protests. There also were protests Sunday by a pro-Tibetan group when Greek officials handed over the flame to organizers of the Beijing Games in Athens.

Tibetan and rights groups have said they will stage protests along the torch route, which includes stops in London, Paris and San Francisco over the next 10 days.

The relay has especially focused attention on recent unrest in Tibet, the worst in the Chinese-controlled region since 1989.

Dozens of Tibetan exiles burned an effigy of China President Hu Jintao as they reached the Indian capital of New Delhi on Sunday, carrying a symbolic flame which they said was running parallel to the official torch for the Beijing Olympic games.

Beijing's relay was tarnished before it even began when a demonstrator protesting Chinese media curbs grabbed headlines last week by disrupting a Chinese official's opening address at the lighting ceremony in Greece.

That was followed across Greece by a smattering of protests by activists protesting a crackdown on dissent in Tibet and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China.

On Sunday, some two dozen activists in Athens chanted "Save Tibet!" and unfurled a banner reading "Stop Genocide in Tibet" before police intervened, detaining 21 protesters outside the Panathenian Stadium. Most were later freed.

But their main problem will come in India, the last destination before it goes to Beijing. India has many Tibetian refugees. They reportedly are in talks with celebrities who are going take part in carrying the torch to boycott the relay. They are conspiring to prevent the relay. Chinese diplomats have held several talks with the Home Minister to provide adequate security to the torch.

What At&t and other american wireless services must expect from India

At&t and other wireless service providers are trying to get in the exploding market of India. And why not? India added 83 million new connection last year and is set to overtake US as the second largest wireless country after China. But India has always been low cost consumer. The call rate here are at the lowest in the world and most people just ignore value added services like call-back tune,games,etc. For many mobile phone is just an instrument for communication. And with the Telecom Minister Raja predicting Re.0.10 and Re.0.20 local and national calling charges respectively, in near future the the cellular companies can only profit from the volume of subscribers. And with such low rates the subscribers are just going to increase by manifold. With the subscriber base standing at 237 million which will be tripled by 2012, it is the hottest wireless market.

Indian Cricket's unsung heroes-Bowlers

India managed to defeat the Australians today on account of some uperb bowling display by our young Bowlers. In our country, we have always undervalued our bowlers. A psyche has been set that India' only strength is batting. True, Indian batting has always been in limelight due to the fact that batsmen had longer shelf life. Hence, they remain in the eyes of the fans. However, bowlers, especially fast, are retired due to stress and injury or after a bad patch are thrown out of the team, unlike the batsmen.
Good pace bowlers are alway associated in todays' world with Australia,Pakistan and even England. But we tend to forget that our bowlers,too, have won matches for us. Only difference is that due to the nature of team selection one bowler has never been able to stay in limelight for long.

Amitabh Bachchan's house attacked

The north Indian-Maharashtra divide took a another twist when Superstar Amitabh Bachchan's house was attacked. The star is from Uttar Pradesh. The political parties of Maharashtra are against immigrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

US-India ties set to go over the moon

On matters of space flights and exploration, India has put its cards on table for the United States to see - literally.

At a luncheon meeting on Wednesday hosted by a Washington DC think-tank on K-Street, better known as a hang-out for lobbyists than space buffs, the tables were all named after Indian space pioneers – Dhawan, Chandrasekhar, Sarabhai...

It was an audacious display by a country that till recently was banished from the US space business by a rigid sanctions regime that didn't allow the transfer of a screw, let alone its drivers. But this week, a top-flight delegation led by a person who an US interlocutor described as India's "Mr Space" motored into town for talks on India's mission to the moon and beyond, including Washington's involvement in the Chandrayan series of flights.

There will be two US instruments and experiments among the nearly dozen that will go onboard Chandrayan-I, but as India's space chief Madhavan Nair pointed out repeatedly, that reflects only a pittance of the potential for space cooperation between the two countries. Even with regard to supply of components, tight sanctions that are only being relaxed slowly have kept it down to $ 15 million annually when there is scope for $ 100 million.

2 ancient shrines found in Thane,India

The sleepy village of Gunj in Wada taluka, about 60 km from Thane, was charged up after two ancient temples in complete ruins were discovered in the dense forest on Friday.
The revelation was made by senior BJP leader Om Prakash Sharma when he visited the village recently. “I had undertaken the task of renovating the Parshuram temple that is located in the Mandakini Hills. As I was climbing the hill, I came across these two medieval temples. They were in complete ruins. It is said that they were plundered by the Moghuls hundreds of years ago. One of the temples belongs to Shiva and the other to Renukamata, who was Parshuram’s mother,’’ Sharma told TOI.
Sharma has undertaken the task of renovating Parshuram temples in the state. According to him, there are only two Parshuram temples, one of which is at Chiplun in Ratnagiri district. Sharma had also embarked on a Parshuram yatra in November.
Lord Parshuram is revered by Hindus and it is believed that it was he who created the coastal land from Kerala to Gujarat running through Kokan. Kokan is also known as Parshuram bhoomi. There are also mythological references suggesting that Parshuram, who strongly opposed evil, was gifted his bow and arrow by Lord Shiva. ‘Parsha’, a weapon given to him by Lord Ganesh, gave him the nomenclature by which he is known. Parshuram is also known as the sixth manifestation of Lord Vishnu.
According to Sharma, the Shiva temple has carvings on its entrance and also has a ‘pindi’. The temples are located near a lake at the foothills of Mandakini Hills, which is on the border of Wada and Bhiwandi talukas. The idols from the Renukadevi temple were reinstated in 1732 by Chimaji Appa, a warrior from Vasai, who renovated the Vajreshwari temple after it was destroyed by invaders.
Sharma has planned a procession on February 17 to create awareness among villagers about monuments that lie hidden in jungles and other remote places. The village, which has a population of around three hundred people, is gearing up for the event.

What is with the cricket team

I think Dhoni must be rueing the fact that he kept The wall Dravid and Ganguly out of one day cricket team in Australia. India are 98/5 in 24 overs.