I News India - Empowering Ideas!

The Union cabinet had issued the much awaited notification for implementing revised recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) on Friday night and approved the recommendations made on 14 August. Giving a relief to over 50 lakh government employees, including the armed forces personnel, an enhanced pay packet will be received by them beginning from September 1.

There had been made several improvements over the original suggestions made by the central pay panel. On payment of arrears, the government has modified to the extent that the arrears would be paid in cash in two installments - first installment of 40 per cent this financial year (2008-09) and the remaining 60 per cent in the next financial year (2009-10).

The CPC recommendations and the subsequent government decision with regard to revised scales of pay and dearness allowance for civilian employees of the central government would be made retrospectively effective from January 1, 2006, the notification said.

Experts say that approval of recommendations will require require huge amount of money. It is being said that modification of the Pay Commission award will cost the exchequer an additional Rs 5,000 crore towards annual wages and Rs 6,000 crore towards arrears, said Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath. The financial implications in 2008-09 on account of the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission as modified by the Cabinet will be around Rs.15700 crore on the Central Budget and Rs.6400 crore on the Railway Budget.

On August 14, the Union Cabinet had approved an improved version of the Sixth Pay Commission award with effect from January 1, 2006.

Tags: arrears, CPC, Notification, pay commission, Pay Hike, Salary Hike, Sixth Commission, Sixth CPC, Sixth Pay, sixth pay commission, sixth pay notification

The recent Forbes report awarded the tag of world’s most powerful woman of the year 2008 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is the third straight year when Merkel topped the Forbes magazine list of top 100 women based on their career, economic impact and media coverage.

Sheila Bair, who chairs the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that insures bank deposits, debuts at No. 2 due to her increased prominence amid a stumbling US economy. The other ladies in top 10 included the chief executives of PepsiCo, WellPoint, Anglo American, Kraft Foods, Temasek Holdings, Areva, Xerox and Condoleezza Rice.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi is ranked No. 21 while Democratic US senator and former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton dropped three spots to No. 28 but gained the most media attention of any woman on the list this year.

“Certainly she had been the Democratic nominee that probably would have catapulted her higher. She’s still an incredibly powerful force, she’s way more powerful than any other female senator.” said Forbes’ associate editor Chana Schoenberger.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only other government official in the top 10, although she dropped three spots from last year to No. 7 as the Bush administration prepares to leave office in January after the US election in November.

According to Forbes report, 45 per cent of the women are based outside the United States.

There are 54 business executives and 23 politicians on the list, with media personalities and heads of non-profit organizations rounding out the top 100.

Gail Kelly, head of Australian bank Westpac, lands at No. 11 as Westpac is making a $15.6 billion takeover of St George Bank in Australia’s biggest-ever bank deal.

French Minister for Economy, Finance and Employment Christine Lagarde is at No. 14

While talking about the enlisted women in the interview, Chana Schoenberger said, “It’s inspiring to look at what some of these women have done and to listen to some of their life stories.”

One third of the women are new to the list, including Argentina’s first popularly elected president Cristina Fernandez and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. While the women who drop off the list this year included Zoe Cruz, former president of Morgan Stanley, Patricia Russo, former head of Alcatel Lucent and Meg Whitman, who stepped down as eBay’s chief executive.

“A lot of the women who dropped off the list this year were for job-related reasons,” Schoenberger said.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the US House of Representatives, ranked at No. 35 while talk show host Oprah Winfrey nabbed No. 36. Yahoo President Susan Decker is No. 50 and Queen Rania of Jordan is No. 96.

For complete details visit www.Forbes.com/women.

Tags: Angela Merkel, Anglo American, Areva, Condoleezza Rice, Forbes, Forbes Report, Hillary Clinton, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Powerful Women, Sheila Bair, Sonia Gandhi, Temasek Holdings, WellPoint, Woman, Women, World, Xerox

India defeated Sri Lanka in 3rd ODI by 46 runs today and won the five day match series by 3-1 with one match still to go on. India won the first ever One Day Series against Sri Lanka on Sri Lanka ground creating an historical record.

India won the toss and set a respectable target of 259 but the hosting team was all out in 46.2 overs at a score of 212 only. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian youth brigade done a fabulous job. Dhoni (71), Raina (72) and Kohli (54) are those who made their half century and contributed most to the victory.

Opener Gautam Gambhir (17) was the first one who was sent back to pavilion by Kulasekara. yuvraj singh was struck off by Chaminda Vaas before opening his account. Yuvraj became his 400th victim when he flicked a simple catch at short mid-wicket to Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene for a duck.

Virat Kohli, the Delhi lad was seemed in form but was departed after making 54 runs giving a big blow to India. But soon the India skipper MS Dhoni walked in to take charge with Suresh Raina. Both have been cracked their half centuries scoring 71 and 72 respectivily before departing. The duo powered the Indian total past 202 runs in 38 overs.

Among other players Rohit Sharma scored 18, Harbhajan Singh soon departed after making only 2 runs, while Badrinath gave 6.

In Sri Lankan team, only Jayasuriya (60) cracked his half century and added some good runs to the scores. Thushara and Kapugedera devoted 40 and 30 runs respectively. Others are departed back to pavilion one by one. After 30 overs, Lankans were 132/5. After 33 overs, they were struggling at 142/6. And after 42 overs, Sri Lanka was tottering at 194/8.

Suresh Raina was awarded Man of the Match. For complete score card, please visit Cricket Updates.

Tags: Badrinath, Cricket, Dhoni, Gambhir, Harbhajan, India, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Kapugedera, Kohli, MS Dhoni, ODI, ODI Cricket, Raina, Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka, Thushara, Vaas, Yuvraj

What are the first few words you said when you was a baby or what will be your baby’s first few words? Of course you will guess “Mummy”, “papa”, “Daddy”, “mom” and other such words. Why it is so? A recent Canadian study shows why these are the only first words new-born babies understand.

Led by Judit Gervain of Vancouver’s University of British Columbia, her team conducted their research on 44 newborn babies. Using the latest optical brain imaging techniques, they exposed the babies to the recordings of made-up words and then documented brain activities

Their reports stated that babies are born with an innate ability to recognize these words. It concludes that the human brain is hard-wired to recognize certain repetition patterns and decipher languages.

The study published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science’s online Early Edition revealed that the babies are divided into two groups to carry out two sets of experiments. They are exposed to about 22 minutes of recordings of the above-mentioned words.

It was found that whenever the repetitious words were played, the temporal and left frontal areas of the newborns’ brain shows increased brain activities. Words with non-adjacent repetitions elicited no distinctive responses from the brain.

“While they were exposed to the recordings, we monitored the oxygen levels in blood in their brain areas. We found that when the babies heard the words `papa’, `daddy’, and `mommy’, the blood oxygen level in certain brain areas went up. It showed those brain areas became active on hearing these words (papa, mommy), and thus needed more oxygen,” she added

This is one of the first studies on a newborn infant’s innate ability to decipher structural patterns in language.

Tags: Baby, British Columbia, daddy, Judit Gervain, mom, Mummy, papa, Vancouver's University, word

Giving an end to the duel war, the former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has declared her rival Barack Obama as her candidate for US Presidency. She appealed for unity in her much-anticipated speech to the Democratic convention.

“Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president,” she said to 15,000 delegates at the Democratic National Convention supporting her opponent in the hard-fought and bitter contest.

“This is a fight for the future. And it is a fight we must win together,” she said as a raucous crowd in the 18,000 capacity arena chanted “Hillary” and held up white signs bearing a stylized version of her signature.

In an appeal to join America’s first black Presidential nominee, Clinton said, “Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.”

“No way, no how, no McCain,” she said, referring to Republican White House candidate John McCain.

The New York Senator’s speech was the first of a one-two punch from the Clintons — former President Bill Clinton will address the convention on Wednesday — after fighting a barely disguised feud with the Obama campaign.

The first woman Presidential nominee in US history praised on Senator Joseph Biden as Senator Obama’s running mate. She said Senator Obama was a strong leader and a good man who understood economic stresses at home and challenges abroad.

Hillary Clinton’s 18 million Primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with McCain has tightened to a dead heat, and the rivals are slugging out a desperate battle for swing states like Ohio.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic, Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton, McCain, Obama, President, Presidential Elections, US Elections, US Presidential Elections

The most prestigious sports show of the year- Beijing Olympics 2008 is over with lots of ping pong. The hosting country, China is at the top with 51 Gold medals, 21 Silver medals and 28 Bronze medals.  USA followed China with 36 Gold medals, 38 Silver medals and 36 Bronze medals. Although, India far away from these winning countries but this years Olympics had created historical records with first ever individual Gold and 2 Bronze medals.

This can be considered best performance by India. Abhinav Bindra won the first gold in Olympics in Shooting, Sushil Kumar catch Bronze in Wrestling while Vijendra Kumar gets first Bronze in Boxing.

Comparative to earlier performances India has recorded good points in Olympics but why we never get good number of medals in Olympics? India, the biggest democracy of the world and second largest populated country has very few medals at the name of Olympics. A lone gold till now at the Olympics makes one wonder, Can India ever match China and USA when it comes to winning medals at the Olympics? What are the reasons? May be the following points are responsible to some extent behind our failure:

Infrastructure: A proper infrastructure is needed to encourage any sports. Most of our concern remain on cricket which is nowhere in Olympics. Other games of interest in Olympics remain ignored like shooting, Athletics, Gymnastics etc. These players need support to have an enthusiastic spirit. How medals can is expected without proper infrastructure to these sports? Proper utilization of funds is required for different sports to flourish.

Cricket: Cricket is the most adored and played sports not only in India but all over the world. Cricket is played on every street in India. People got crazy when it comes to cricket and left everything to watch the battle between two teams on cricket ground. It gives everything from money and fame to respect. That is why every person who loves sports wants to make his career in cricket. This is one of the biggest factor because of which we are lacking in the major sports events. Other sports get hide behind cricket and get less value comparatively.

Politics in sports organization: we try to dominate in all the sports and due to this the focus shifts from the player to the authorities in these games. This is because of politics in sports organization which lads to a failure in Olympics and hence no medals.

Lack of efficient government and legislation: India does not lack in talent. Indians have lots of buried talent which needs to dig up. But government is not providing adequate facilities and finance needs which make the talent lost. Without these efforts India can not organize a team to lead in Olympics, bureaucratic and in-efficient democratic system and poor lead ship makes India unable to coordinate all interests behind the game.

Our Will Power: Lack of will power makes the sports dull and there become no chance of winning any medal. Will power is a must and must thing to achieve success. Sushil Kumar, Vijender Kumar, is those who win medals this year by their strong will power.

Encouragement from Schools: Children learn from their schools. Their sports play list enlists mostly cricket, football, hockey and tennis. Other games like shooting, boxing, gymnastics are given little or no importance. No good facilities are provided for these games. But these games are included in Olympics and hence enough talent is not created in youngsters for these games which makes India avoid of any good number of medals in Olympics.

Tags: Bronze Medal, China, Cricket, gold medal, India, Infrastructure, Medals, Olympics, Politics, Silver Medal, USA

The Bollywood most popular super star Amitabh Bachchan remarked India as a developed country. While in a press conference promoting the latest leg of his “The Unforgettable Tour” in London Amitabh Bachchab said : India should no longer be dismissed as a “Third World” country but should henceforth be given due respect as a “developed nation”.

He made this statement replying the question - what it meant to be an Indian today and about the nature of the relationship between India and the diaspora, increasingly third or even fourth generation, scattered across the world?

Bachchan stated: “India today is a recognized force and I hope to see that India is no longer referred to as a Third World country or a developing nation – it should be referred to as a developed nation and a first (world country).”

He said: “Primarily we are very proud of our country, we are proud of our history, we are proud of our culture – it goes back thousands and thousands of years. We are proud that we fought for our independence, we are proud that we are the largest democracy in the world and we are very proud now of the way India is progressing after the economic liberalization.”

Bachchan is on world tour with his wife, Jaya, his son, Abhishek, and daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai. With other stars, including Preity Zinta and Riteish Deshmukh, have entertained Indian audiences in Toronto on July 18, Port of Spain in Trinidad on July 20, Los Angeles, on July 26, San Francisco on July 27, Houston on August 2, Atlantic City on August 9, Chicago on August 10, and New York on August 15. Shilpa Shetty is going to join the latest leg of “The Unforgettable Tour” by Bollywood actors which is to take place on Sunday at the 14,000-seat O2 Arena in London.

The current reports said that the tour will end after concerts in Amsterdam on August 29 and in Oberhausen in Germany on August 30.

Tags: Abhishek, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya, Aishwarya Rai, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Amitabh, Amitabh Bachchan, Bachchan, Bollywood, Developed Nation, Entertainment, India, Preity Zinta, Riteish Deshmukh, Shilpa Shetty, Third World, Unforgettable Tour

US-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up Sen Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday. Biden, an influential Congressman supporting landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, has not only served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee across the last 30 years but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

Obama, the first black candidate to lead a major US political party’s presidential ticket disclosed his choice after a long political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away, media reports said.

Biden, 65, who had suggested that helping India to meet its growing energy needs will be in the interest of the US is currently serving out his sixth term. He also ran for the 1988 and this year’s Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out. He was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29.

But he has tolerated severe criticism from his Republican rival John McCain, a veteran Arizona senator, combat pilot and former Vietnam prisoner of war, over what Republicans contends is his lack of national security experience and his calls for a 16-month withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq. His choice of running mate clearly is intended to counter some of that criticism.

Biden will make his first big speech as the vice presidential candidate on Wednesday, the third night of the Democratic convention.

Tags: Barack Obama, biden, joe biden, N-deal, Politics, US, US democracy, US presidency, vice president

Do you take your laptop when you go for a holiday with your family? If yes, avoid this habit in your future as it is warned by psychologists that these new age wireless tools are spoiling holidays and can be a reason to ruin family relationships.

“People simply should not take laptops on holiday with them. They are taking their office with them and they just shouldn’t do it,” said Cary Cooper, professor at Lancaster University management school’s department of psychology and health.

Wireless tools are the demand of today’s tech world but the same thing should be used intelligently. These tools are becoming inseparable part of life and a large mass of people take their laptops and wireless internet connections on holidays with them. The psychologist considers the laptops as a hindrance in the holiday. People find it difficult to switch off their laptops and spend most of their hard-found leisure time in working on laptops; news daily quoted a psychologist as saying.

“The rise in mobile phone and Internet technology has already affected our weekends and now it is invading annual holidays. Sensible bosses and workers should insist that holidays are computer free,” he suggested.

Cooper warned the problem as “mushroomed with the spread of wireless hot spots”.

People used to monitor their e-mails during vacations and instead of spending time with family they feel insecure about their jobs and keep stick to their systems for a long time during free hours. All this is possible because of existence of wireless tools. Hence the later can be considered as a hindrance in a relaxing vacation of a family.

“People worry about a backlog and that things will be missed while they are away. They feel a need to be constantly online and checking their emails. This insecurity is endemic to the service-based industries,” said Cooper.

Survey reports also agree with us. According to a survey by IT security company Credant Technologies, almost two-thirds of brokers in London said they were contacting their offices through phone or emails while on vacation. A whopping 83 % admitted to taking their office mobile phone or Blackberry with them while they are away. The survey said that more than a quarter said they check emails daily and 14 % admitted to doing so more than once a day.

“I can understand why people take mobile phones, but they should only be used sparingly, as a ’security blanket’. They should be kept switched off most of the time,” he stated.

According to him, taking work on holidays could deprive people of “much needed rest and recuperation” from demanding jobs and it could also lead to family break-ups.

He also said those who show that they can work for their organization even on holidays are actually cheating themselves. It may lead to exploitation as they are showing that they are available for the organization 24*7.

People should understand the needs of their family and should remember that a vacation is not just a resting time but to attach more closely with the family and your kids. Work should be done honestly but do not make it over to avoid your family.

Tags: backlog, E-mail, Family, Future, Health, Holiday, Internet, Internet Technology, IT, IT Security, Laptop, Mobile Phone, Office, People, Systems, Technology, Wireless Technology

Investigatory officers claimed that Mufti Abu Bashir, the mastermind behind the Ahmadabad serial blasts has reportedly admitted his involvement in the Ahmadabad blasts on July 26.

Bashir who was arrested from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday by the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad and Gujarat Police, was interrogated which revealed many other things along with his involvement in blasts. He admitted his part in plotting the Ahmedabad blasts which killed 55 persons and left many injured.

“He is an important member of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and many other names are coming out in the investigations. He has revealed many things and there are clear cut indications of his involvement in the Ahmedabad blast,” says DCP crime branch Adhay chudasama.

“He was involved in the planning and training of the people,” he added.

According to the reports Bashir claimed that mere Rs 75,000 were required for killing 57 people and a SIMI activist sold his house in Kutch to get the amount.

Crime branch officials found out during his interrogation that Bashir, the alleged mastermind of the blasts, was present in the city on the day of the blasts.

Bashir was sent to 14-day police custody on Sunday along with the nine accused arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts case.

The other names include Zahid Sheikh, Imran Sheikh, Sajid Mansuri, Iqbal Sheikh, Samsudin Sheikh, Yunus Mansuri, Gyasuddin Ansari, Arif Kadri and Usman Agarbattiwala, all in the age group of 20-25 years.

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad Police has raided Imrans flat and sealed his two-room flat in the communally sensitive Bawamanpura locality that was allegedly used for providing shelter to SIMI activists and assembling of bombs prior to the July 26 terror attack. Police has taken his wife in custody.

The flat, located in the third floor of the four-storied Akmal Complex, was reportedly visited by another blast mastermind Abdul Subhan alias Taufique four days ahead of the blasts in Ahmedabad.

Tags: Abu Bashir, Ahmadabad, Ahmadabad Blasts, Anti Terrorist, Crime, Crime Branch, Investigation, SIMI, Terror, Terrorism, Terrorist, up