India Says

Chak De India!!!

India crushed Pakistan by 5 runs to take home the Twenty 20 World Cup trophy on 24 September, almost after 24-years. The match was scheduled at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. Mahendra Dhoni’s team gave its best shot in the field with bowlers and fielders hitting at the right call. It’s a matter of prestige for India and thus BCCI has announced a reward of $2 million for the deserving team.

India bowled fabulously with RP Singh, Joginder Sharma and Irfan Pathan, breaking the heat against Pakistan. Shielding a diffident total of 157 runs, Indian bowlers were hostile from the beginning. RP Singh marked the first burst through by hitting hard in his first over. While Pakistan lost their first wicket after making mere two runs on board.

India crushed Pakistan by 5 runs to take home the Twenty20 World Cup trophy on 24 September, almost after 24-years. The match was scheduled at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. Mahendra Dhoni’s team gave its best shot in the field with bowlers and fielders hitting at the right call. It’s a matter of prestige for India and thus BCCI has announced a reward of $2 million for the deserving team.

India bowled fabulously with RP Singh, Joginder Sharma and Irfan Pathan, breaking the heat against Pakistan. Shielding a diffident total of 157 runs, Indian bowlers were hostile from the beginning. RP Singh marked the first burst through by hitting hard in his first over. While Pakistan lost their first wicket after making mere two runs on board.

Followed by this, Kamran Akmal bid farewell as RP struck the right eye of the fish in his second over. Singh swung the ball into the right armer Akmal that was missed by him and thus Pakistan lost their second wicket at 26 for 2 in 2.3 overs. Now it’s Imran Nazir on board. His very entry knocked Indian bowlers’ upside-down and soon Pakistan started crushing as they touched 50 runs in 6th over minus 2 wickets.

Nazir’s period also came to end on a short notice with a score of 33 runs from 14 balls. All thanks to the grand entry of Robin Uthappa. Younis Khan was the next victim to the artful Indian bowling as together with Joginder Sharma and Yusuf Pathan, he cannot stand for a long and preferred to part from the game with a score of 24 runs off 24 balls. Then Irfan Pathan struck on 3rd and 5th ball and directed Shoaib Malik (8 runs), Shahid Afridi and Yasir Arafat (clean bowled) towards the exit with Pakistan marking 104 for 7 in 16 overs.

India-Pakistan match became more interesting as Pakistan was craving for 13 runs from the last over. After hitting 6 of Joginder Sharma’s last over, Misbah-ul-Haq now has a target of making 6 runs from 4 balls. But the unfortunate player couldn’t reach his target and the catch by Sreesanth was a perfect Kodak moment.

Things came to an end or rather the actual celebration started. With Pak team all out for 152 runs, fortunate India managed to post a modest total of 157 runs against Pakistan. Not to forget the hard fought innings of 75 runs from Gautam Gambhir, which was a real energy booster to reach such a modest victory.

Facts: The good sign of India’s victory was the winning of toss and the very decision of batting against its rival. Yusuf Pathan replaced Sehwag and Yasir Arafat replaced Fawad Alam in the squad.

Jump further for a deeper glance of Chak De India:

Read

India won the his first 20-20 cricket match. India has done first bating and they give the target of 141 runs, the Robin Uthappa has made 50 runs in 39 balls and the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has made 33 runs in 31 balls and Pakistani bowler Asif has taken 4 wickets. This match is very interesting at the end, When Pakistan need 1 run in 1 ball in the last over of Sreesanth and in last ball player of Pakistan are run out.After the draw of the match in 20-20 world cup sports rule, like tiebreaker their five-five bowler are done balling first ball are thrown by Shewag and he hit the stump and from Pakistan Yasir has unable to hit the stump, second is harbhajan was also hit the stump and umar was also unable to hit the stump, third from India Uthappa was also hit the stump from India and Afridi was unable to hit and India win the match. Now India is qualifying for super 8.

[Source: Criket Highlights]

Braving the recent terror strikes, the city of pearls and biryani is gearing up for the festivals of Ramzan and Ganesh Chaturthi under the shadow of unprecedent security measures.

Hundreds of shoppers thronged the markets all over the city, particularly near historic Charminar, to make last- minute purchases as the Muslim Holy month of Ramzan also began today.

Dry fruit sellers made brisk business at busy markets at Mozamzahi, Mehdipatnam and Dilsukh Nagar. Restaurants made special arrangements for preparing Haleem, the Hyderabadi meat delicacy of Iranian origin, a favourite dish after Ramzan fasting.

Devout Hindus have crowded the markets selling Ganesh idols of various hues and sizes for the nine-day Ganesh Chaturthi, known in Andhra Pradesh as Vinayaka Chavithi, commencing tomorrow.

Puja items like ‘pathri’ (22 types of leaves to be used for worship of Ganesha) have flooded the markets.

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated on a massive scale in the city culminating in a centralised procession to immerse the idols, the tradition called as ‘Nimajjanam’. Large-sized idols of the elephant-headed God are installed at pandals.

A massive security blanket has been thrown around the city with as many as 15,000 policemen deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Paramilitary personnel were also drafted in.

Jump further to see more pictures:

The average Rs6.2 lakh per annum salary was significant, considering the 30-40% annual increase in the talent pool of the top 50 companies, a nation-wide survey by IDC India for Cybermedia’s flagship publication Dataquest said.
Software R&D firms Cadence, Sun Microsystems and Honeywell Tech were rated as the best paymasters, while seven multinational companies, including IBM, Capgemini and CSC, found place among the top 10 firms.
A typical Indian software professional got an average salary increase of 18.7% increase in 2007, an improvement over the 18.3 increase last year.
The survey, which covered 2,806 IT professionals in 31 companies, did not find big disparities in salary levels in IT services players, R&D centres of software vendors, MNCs, hardware players and systems integrators and resellers.
It found that there is virtually no correlation between ‘salary levels´ and ‘satisfaction with salary´.
HCL infosystems was way down at No. 23 in salary rank, but it has topped the charts on employee satisfaction with salary.
While TCS employees ranked their company at No. 4 in terms of ‘satisfaction with salary´, it was ranked at No. 13 in terms of salary. Infosys was ranked at No. 12 in terms of salary but No. 28 in terms of ‘satisfaction with salary´.
Dataquest Chief Editor Prasanto Kumar Roy said, the sheer ‘extent of disconnect´ in salary and ‘satisfaction with salary´ was amazing. There has been less than 8% correlation between both, he said.
The survey found that professionals with less than five years of work experience form 70% of the 1.6 million strong Indian software work force. Just one out of five professionals has between five to 10 years of experience and less than one in 10 professionals has over 10 years of experience.
While Cadence and Sun are the top paymasters for all employees with up to 10 years of experience, industry bellwether Infosys is more generous towards its senior and experienced employees. Infosys is one of the best paymasters for professionals between 10-15 years and more that 15 years of experience.
As much as 40% of the professionals who were polled for this survey had obtained their qualifying degrees from the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry.
Those qualified from western Indian States of Maharashtra Gujarat and Goa made up about 20 per cent of the professionals Educational Institutes from New Delhi contribute 6.5% of the professionals.

The premium income of India’s life insurance market is set to double by 2012 on better penetration and higher incomes, consultancy firm McKinsey & Co said in a report.

The total premium could go up to $80-100 billion by 2012 from the present $40 billion as higher per capita income increases per capita insurance intensity, the report released on Monday said.
The average household premium will rise to 3,000-4,100 rupees from the current 1,300 rupees as will penetration by the existing and new players, McKinsey said.

India’s ratio of life insurance premium to its GDP is around 4% against 6-9% in the developed world. But, the report said, it could rise to 5.1-6.2 by 2012 in tandem with the country’s demographic profile. That Indians rank life insurance higher than other investment options for tax benefits and protection will also help, it noted. India has 17 life insurers and the state-owned Life Insurance Corp of India dominates the industry with over 70% market share, though private players have been growing aggressively.

Foreign holding in Indian insurance companies is limited to 26%. The government wants to increase the cap to 49%, but such a move is opposed by its communist allies. The report said the market should move beyond single-premium policies and unit linked insurance products which are easier to sell.

The agency model is the dominant sales channel accounting for more than 85% of fresh premiums but overall inactivity and attrition is much higher at 50-55% than the global average of 25%, McKinsey said. Opportunities include health insurance and pensions, the report said, adding only 1.5-2% of total healthcare expenditure in India was currently covered by insurance.

What made India retain its ace position in the list of World’s favorite Outsourcing Destination? Or before that what is the criterion to become world’s favorite in outsourcing category? The answer is Turn Around Time (TAT). It is the desired time-span to meet the assigned requirement starting from receiving, implementing and giving back the finished product.

Besides evolving cost-friendly destinations and whopping unfavorable pressure of the employee-salary segment, India still enjoys the reputation of being the first choice to serve the outsourcing demand of corporate world globally. With an annual growth rate of 40%, India leads the outsourcing industry by being the obvious choice of the industrialists followed by China rising at growth rate of 25%.

Elixier Solutions’ Partner, Vipul Prakash believes it is the availability of resources in India that is enabling it to deliver outsourcing trade more than four-times than any other nation. Experts are hopeful about the bright future of the industry and estimate the present $1,000 billion market to reach $1.43 trillion by 2009 end.

The study also finds out that the much-available resources and prospects in the market are an invitation for other countries viz. Philippines, Vietnam, Romania, Kenya, Sri Lanka and North America market to try their hand in this business.

Someone has rightly said ‘Better late than Never’. Finally the beauty of India has got the recognition from the right eyes. India has been voted as the travellers’ favorite country, and the credit for it goes to its rich culture, array of attractions and worth for money.

According to the 2007 Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Travel Awards, India topped the list pursued by Italy, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. If number can add value to your belief, then I have that. Having scored above 89 in all the ten principles, the country is celebrating this precious moment with scores 97.17 out of 100 for culture, value for money (94.78) and variety of attractions (96.30).

This achievement would surely help country raise its position in the World’s Top 100 List where it enjoys fourth rank at present. If you can recall then last year ‘Italy’ was blessed with this recognition and till today it is in the limelight, voted for having the best food and climate across globe.

“I’m pleased that India scored so well in our Readers’ Travel Awards - to achieve the honor of our astute readers’ favorite country in the world,” Sarah Miller, Editor of Conde Nast Traveller shared.

The insights of the recognition given to other countries is as under:

New Zealand: Beautiful scenery
Italy: Best food and climate in the world
Thailand: Healthy friendliness.
Maldives: Readers’ number one Island
Sydney: Favorite overseas city.

It’s time when Indians should exhibit their talent across globe and let others know that they are no less than the developed nations. Considering this, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Ministry of Tourism has organized ‘India60’, a brand promotion programme in New York. The highlight of the event would be Indian music, folk dances and art exhibitions and is scheduled for 23 September-28 September.

Known as the Big Apple, the city is bathed with posters and visual art fittings. Initiated by CII and the Tourism Ministry, the idea is to carve an impression of the contemporary India on the minds of New York residents.

“The event concurs with the UN General Assembly and thus its target audience is the world,” mentioned CII representative. By portraying its potency — egalitarianism, diversity and demographics, the aim is to gather the attention of the global Inc to India.

The word about the publicity of the event is in its full swing. Want figures?

CII alone takes the charge of targeting 265 street banners across Manhattan, 200 around near Grant Central, 150 phone booth board across Manhattan, 125 panels on MTA Super King Buses, besides electronic signage at Port Authority and Nasdaq and at Reuters office on Times Square. Following this, the Tourism Ministry has also made an effort and hung street banners, hoardings in the required vicinity.

Inviting artists from across the country, the move is to celebrate India’s novelty and artistic strength. Fusions bands by Shiva Mani, Colonial Cousins and Remo Fernandez will be harmonized by live display of by Indian craftsmanship, fashion shows and cultural dances.

Breaking the monotony, Business-networking meets also forms the part of the agenda. The event will witness an active participation from the India-born Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi as an arbiter of a session. Other Indian dignitaries expected to participate in this event include Kamal Nath, Commerce and Industry Minister and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman.

The talk about BIG BROTHER is not yet old and it was this hunt of mine that put me across Critics Rant. They say the entry of the serial to Season 8 takes the series into a postmodern mode. Elaborating this, French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard believes unlike other TV Shows, BIG BROTHER is going away from its goals and expedition as it is losing its protagonist. It is still alive because of its story plot, which is narrative and expressive. These words of Lyotard portray a complete review of the serial, beating all the movie-reviews I have ever-read.

I believe all the residual contestants are the creatures of chance and not destiny. To console this poor pity of the contestants, there are viewers who watch this serial thrice in a week. Rest Wait and watch.