Actually the first impression which came in mind after seeing the Railway Budget 2009-10 is that Railway Minister sticks to the basics. The major attraction of the budget is that there will be no hike in the fairs of passengers and goods. It will surely bring smile on the face of common people, many of them were expecting a slight hike in the fairs as the recession time is still going on.

The most important aspect which came from this Railway Budget is in the Tatkal reservation system. New Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee has reduced the period of advance booking under the Tatkal reservation scheme to 2 days now. Earlier it was of 5 days. Another benefit which she gave to the passengers is that now the Tatkal tickets will be booked up to the destination of the passenger not from the beginning station to the end station. It will reduce the charges. She also promised that now the Tatkal charges will also levied as a percentage of the fare. This will also further reduce the fare.

Mamta Banerjee promised 50 world class stations in the cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. These stations includes Howrah, Sealdah, New Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Kolkata, New Jalpaiguri, Puri, Agra, New Delhi, Jaipur and many more. She has the planning of developing these stations with the help of Public and Private sectors partnership.

Mamta Banerjee emphasized the medical, and security facilities on the trains, especially on the trains of the long distance. She will be planning to bring one Doctor in all long distance trains. She will also implement the ambulance facilities in long distance trains.

She has announced 57 new trains while extended 27 trains and increased the journey of 13 trains. She announced to open ATM’s in 200 small and medium stations. Overall we can say that this budget is prepared considering about the common people of India and thus she completed her promise to them.

One of the amazing initiative which Mamta Banerjee took in this budget, is the start of the special AC train for the long distance and especially designed for the young peoples. The name of these trains will be Yuva Train, and these train will cover the distance of around 1000 to 2000 Kilometers. The fairs of these trains will remain too less and these will only have the seating arrangements, not the sleeper facility. As a pilot project Indian Railways has choosen two routes Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata to start with the Yuva Trains. Along with this she has also announced developing Eco-friendly toilets in the trains. Also Mamta Banerjee emphasized on developing the Passenger Reservation System, so that tickets can easily reach to the passengers.

According to Wikipedia Ice Cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients. You can check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream for more detail on Ice Cream.

How many of you are aware from the National Ice Cream Month? Today only I came to know that July is considered as the National Ice Cream Month. As according to Ronald Reagan the President of International Dairy Foods Association, July is treated as the National Ice Cream Month, and this event is following from 1984. You can also watch this video from Youtube:

For me Ice Cream are always a treat, despite of it’s flavor. I always prefer to eat ice cream after the dinner. As I am now aware that July is the National Ice Cream Month so I will eat more and more Ice Cream this month, and I am wishing Happy National Ice Cream Month to you all. Source of the event: http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2009/07/happy-national-ice-cream-month.html

As we got huge comments on our last article, so we can also say that it is a decision which can break thousands of lady hearts in India. Shivangi Dev is originally belong to a Gujrati family and her dad is an Indian Diplomat in Australia. Irfan confirmed today that the parents of the couple are now ready for the marriage and they are ready for the marriage now.

At present time Shivangi is residing in Australia and working there as a CA and also she loves teaching dancing to children. Irfan met with the lady love of his life in 2003, in a match in Canberra. When Irfan was asked about the marriage venue then he said, it was not yet finalized but it will be probably Vadodara.

Irfan today also confirmed that it was he who proposed her three years back, and thus he confirms the news which we published on 11th April 2008 about them. It is true that initially both the families resisted to the idea of the marriage but with time all of them has accepted the relationship. I News India wishes them very best in their life ahead.

Michael Jackson, who was probably the world’s most known person, died at the age of 50. He was the person who undoubtedly changed the world of music. We first came to know about his death via twitter the popular social networking site, many celebrities (actors and musicians) sent there condolences in twitter.

Although Jackson was a controversial personality but his contribution to the world of music can not be overruled. He was the magician, and his loss would never be filled up by any one. I am feeling sad about his parents and fans.

On the other hand Farrrah Dawcett, the best-selling pinup girl in history, lost her battle against cancer. She was 62. She was struggling against Cancer from last three years. It was her brilliant performance as one of the three sexy crime fighters in Charlie’s Angels, which brought her popularity and fame. One of her poster in a red swimsuit sold around 12 millions copies, which is the best record so far for a poster.

My deep condolences for the death of these two mega stars Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

A few day’s back Salman Khan claimed on a TV program that his dad once asked him (when he was a teenager), do you have girl friend? He replied yes, so his dad asked him to take her to the family so that she can meet with them. Salman claimed that since that day he has taken so many girls to his family and now he is really serious to stop all this. It means he is really serious to marry some one now.

It was assumed that Kate is the “would be” wife of the handsome Bollywood star, but with the news of Claudia Ciesla in the life of Salman Khan, this pair is seems to facing some trouble. Although as usual Claudia claims that Salman and she are just friends, but she also claims that Sallu Miyan took her to meet his family.

Claudia Ciesla who is making her debut in the Bollywood in the movie Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation, but she is more in news because of her affair with Salman Khan. Although no one is sure about the news, but Claudia and Salman Khan both has claimed that they are only a good friend and there is nothing wrong in between Kate and Sallu Miyan.

As you all are aware that Team India is the defending champions and other 11 countries are going to challenge them for the trophy. India is placed along with Bangladesh and Ireland in the Group A, while Pakistan, England and Netherlands are placed together in Group B. The most toughest group of the tournament is the Group C which contains Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies, while the Group D is containing New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland.

At the moment Team India is looking highly capable of retaining the Title. The team at the moment is a bunch of some highly talented youngsters along with some multi talented guys and captained by the Mr. Cool M. S. Dhoni. If you look at the top order then dashing opener Virender Sehwag is there with much talented Gautam Gambhir. This opening pair is the best of all the teams which are playing there. If you give an eye on the middle order then you can truly find India as the World Champions. Middle order of team India is having the firepower in the form of the King of Six Yuvraj Singh, most attacking batsman Suresh Raina, very dependable Rohit Sharma and the skipper himself. Along with them the team has the superb all rounders like Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Irfan Pathan. Now if you see the bowling attack then it too have the balance which is very much required for a World Champions team, the seam attack department is there in the hand of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, highest wicket taker in the IPL 2009 Rudra Pratap Singh and much reliable Praveen Kumar, and then the spin attack is there in the hand of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Remember the team has two batsman who can bowl brilliantly at crucial time, I am talking about Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma, Both has shown their talents in the IPL 2009 by taking the hat-trick in the tournament. Yuvraj Singh took 2 hat-tricks while Rohit Sharma took 1. Now if your team is having these type of players how can you assume them not to retain the trophy. Only thing which can damage the performance of the team India is the overconfidence, which they will have to take care of.

So friends, here is the space where you can wish the best of luck to your favorite Team India especially in your own style. You can post the comment here and this will show them how much you love them and how much you care about the world champions.

The Tata is hoping large profits from this venture where as it is a common man’s dream to own the one lakh rupee car. Tata has always been the common man’s company and with its launch of the Tata Nano, it has taken yet another and probably the largest step ever to win the common man’s heart. Especially people who could not earlier afford cars have high hopes from Nano. And what a brain Tata must have got, that he has just hit the bull’s eye with Nano. Nano is basically based on the simple logic to woo the common by slashing the price and size of the product but at the same time giving the luxury of owning a car to the weaker sections of the society. For once, Nano could have been a risky business for Tata as it was really not known how would people react to it, but seeing the response it has got from media and people post its launch on 23rd march 2009, it seems Nano is going to create a sort of history in the Indian automobile industry.

People who earlier owned bikes are looking forward to own a Nano as it would provide them both the status and safety of owning a car. And it’s not that since Nano is small so it’s only a one man car. This machine is a family car and can hold up to a family of four to five. So people with families and less money to afford luxury cars-Nano is your pick.

I am the biggest fan of the Indian cricket team, but still I have a doubt. I am feeling that there is something which this present team is missing. My doubt is getting more strength after seeing the defeat of the Indian team in the practice match against New Zealand. This practice match was played between India and New Zealand at Lord’s, London, on tomorrow 1st of June 2009.

Team India won the toss in the match and asked Kiwis to bat first, with the help of some brilliant knock by McCullum and Taylor Kiwis made 170 runs for 7 wickets in the 20 overs. Although the first wicket partnership between Gambhir and Rohit Sharma was of 42 runs that too in only 5 overs, but once Gambhir became out, wickets of Team India fell regularly and then despite the briliiant knock of 45 by Raina and unbeaten 41 by Ravindra Jadeja, Team india fell short of 9 runs.

Although it was a practice match and the power hitter like yuvraj Singh did not bat in the match, also India gave rest to the dashing opener Virendra Sehwag, still the defeat is causing concern in the mind of the followers. It is also true that Team India will not face many problem in going to the next round as they are in a safe group. Indian team has got the place in Group A along with the weak teams like Bangladesh and Ireland, so they won’t have to worry so much, but this format of cricket is very unpredictable and Bangladesh is a team which has a few times defeated us at a crucial moment.

Another matter of concern for me is the sideeffects of Indian Premiere League. Many international players like Rickey Ponting ignored IPL, but almost all Indian players from the present team were a part of around a month long tournament. Hence, almost all of them are feeling tired. Another big concern is the injury of Zaheer Khan, which is again the outcome of the IPL. Although Indian skipper MS Dhoni is saying that these issues are not going to affect the performance of the Indian team, and even Sachin Tendulkar is having the feeling that India will retain the championship.

So let’s wait and watch how Team India is going to fair in the Twenty 20 World Cup 2009.

Well a little bit about the Indian premier league’s origin- so it’s only in its second season, it was launched by the BCCI in the year 2008. The format of the IPL is much on the lines of English premier league (remember all the flashy names like Knight Riders and Deccan chargers!), and the much controversial cheerleaders are also taken from it. The IPL is basically based on the franchise system where the highest bidder gets to own the team. Also this encourages a lot of betting. That is the reason that IPL has huge stakes involved in it. In fact it is not just a sport now, it’s more of a business and the businesspersons involved are A class celebs. Be it SRK, Preity Zinta or  Ambani, all of them are big time celebrities. They all have huge stakes in their own teams in IPL, amounting to some hundred crores of rupees! And here is the jaw dropping figure- the total base price for auction in IPL was whopping $400 million! Quite a sum I would call it.

Dhoni was the most expensive player in the first season bought by the Chennai super Kings team and now in season two Andrew Flintoff has beaten Dhoni for the most expensive player title. Basically there much more than meets the eye at the IPL. It has graduated from being a sport to being a form of entertainment and currently the IPL is Post Graduating from being entertainment to a big money making industry.

Well I am not trying to make you feel guilty here but just talking about how your days are going to change as our very own national sport hockey is bringing back home the prestigious trophies. Recently our hockey team beat the host nation Malaysia 3-1 to bring home the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, which was the fourth such experience for our hockey team. This just happened at the right time for India would be facing the world cup challenge next year. And all our team needs right now is support from us fans, the media and the government. All three entities can together bring back the game of hockey to life.

Probably hockey needs to learn a lot from its counterpart cricket. So to begin it needs its own well organized federation like BCCI to make the sport more organized and to fill its shortcomings. The next big support has to come from the media be it electronic or print. Our hockey team has been winning in the past as much as our cricket team but still it fails to make it to the headlines, where as even when a cricketer gets married; his photographs are adorned on the front pages. So probably the media can bring about the much needed change and move up hockey as much as cricket. Well I am not saying that hockey should replace cricket, but may be the two of them could co-exist together.

When people will see or read more of hockey then obviously they are bound to get more involved in it. Also our government should not be partial towards cricket and completely ignore the national sport. I mean have you ever thought when our cricket team wins; the government announces flats, lands and huge sums of money for the cricketers whereas when the hockey players win, they barely make it to a page in the newspaper. So basically the system needs to be revamped, like government investing more in hockey, building proper infrastructure and training facilities, people taking a little more interest in the sport, media putting some extra words on the victories and I am sure soon the game can win back its well deserved position.