Afghanistan: Pakistan Had To Know Bin Laden There

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says Pakistan must have known Osama bin Laden was living in the military garrison town near the capital Islamabad.

The statement makes Afghanistan the latest in a series of countries throwing suspicion on Pakistan following the deadly strike against the al-Qaida leader.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said Wednesday the powerful Pakistani intelligence service had to have known bin Laden was living in the house in Abbottabad, because of its proximity to military installations.

Azimi says bin Laden's house was close to the gate of the Kakul Military Academy, where top Pakistani officers train. And many neighboring houses are home to military officials.

Read More

New Rocket Launched By ISRO

The new rocket launched today by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) comes with three satellites and costs Rs 230 crores. One of the satellites - the ResourceSat-2 will help map forests glaciers, and monitor crop yields.

But is this what India really needs? Experts point out that India already has the largest constellation of 10 civilian remote sensing satellites in the world. And the government's auditor has reported that almost 90% of the photographs and images delivered by ISRO's satellites are not used. Many of these images are needed both by the government and private sector especially for development of infra-structure like roads, airports and town planning.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) highlights that despite the abundance of data available via satellite images, a wasteland mapping project undertaken by ISRO had been delayed by 14 years. The project was to help in rural development.

The auditor has also found that the place where data from the satellites is processed - the National Remote Sensing Center in Hyderabad - is showing worrying levels of inefficiency as images are not being processed fast enough.

At a press conference today, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan admitted that `the findings of the CAG were one hundred percent correct.'

The criticism directed at ISRO is boosted by a comparison to two similar American remote-sending satellites - Geoeye and Digital Globe - both of which use as much 90% of all the images they collect.

Read More

HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies , India's fourth largest software services firm, on Wednesday posted a better-than-expected 33 per cent rise in net profit for Jan-March, boosting its shares nearly 10 per cent to their highest in more than a decade.

The company reported a net profit of about Rs 4.68 billion in Jan-March, while revenue rose 31.5 per cent to Rs 41.38 billion.

Profit was expected to rise 25 per cent to Rs 4.3 billion, according to a Reuters poll of 17 analysts. Revenue was seen at Rs 40.79 billion.

Shares of the company, which the market values at $7.34 billion, rose as much as 9.8 per cent to a 11-year high of Rs 522.35, in a Mumbai market that was up 0.77 per cent. The BSE IT index was up 1.6 per cent.

At 10:15 a.m, the stock was at 7.95 per cent at Rs 513.4. HCL's business outside Europe and the Americas grew as much as 81 per cent. All its service offerings also showed strong growth of 34-43 per cent.

Net employee addition -- a key parameter of the IT sector's health -- stood at 1,153 for the period, taking the total headcount to 73,420.

HCL also said it bought certain software assets from Citibank International Plc during Jan-March for $26 million, revenues from which are expected to come from the middle of its fourth quarter this year.

Through the deal, HCL is also taking over 41 employees from Citi and an "assured revenue stream" of $135 million spread over 10 years, HCL said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Infosys Technologies Ltd , the No.2 player in the Indian IT sector, sparked worries about the sector's growth after it forecast annual sales lower than expected on slower client spending.

A slew of brokerages downgraded the target price of the Infosys shares, citing concerns over its earnings and annual forecast that came in below expectations.

Jan-March is a seasonally weak quarter, as clients generally finalise their budgets for the next fiscal during this period, leading to a spurt in spending in the first two quarters of the upcoming fiscal year.

A slight depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, making up for a dip in utilisation rates, somewhat aided HCL's core operating (EBITDA) margins for the period, improving by about 1 per centage point from the December quarter to 17.3 per cent.

The rupee weakened about half a per centage point against the dollar during Jan-March.

Indian software companies, which get most of their earnings in foreign currency, hedge some of the risk, but with a chunk of their costs being in rupees, currency appreciation tends to squeeze margins.

Read More

Anna Hazare Fasts Unto Death Starting 5th April 2011

Anna Hazare is demanding enactment of a strong anti-corruption law - Jan Lokpal Bill - to ensure swiftness and certainty of punishment to the corrupt.

Will his fast have any impact on the deaf Government of India?

Yes, it certainly would. Because, last time when Anna sat on fast -

• 6 corrupt ministers in Maharashtra had to resign

• 400 corrupt officers were dismissed from job

• 2002 - Maharashtra RTI Act was passed

• 2006 - Central Government withdrew its proposal to amend Central RTI Act

Now Anna is fasting to demand Jan Lokpal Bill.

JAN LOKPAL BILL will act as deterrent and instill fear in the minds of corrupt people.

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, this Bill has been refined on the basis of feedback received from public on website and after series of public consultations. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, J M Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare etc. It was sent to the PM and all CMs on 1st December.

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in amonth’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through acompletely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

Read More

Schools And Colleges To Check Tobacco Sale

Tobacco usage by students not only creates health hazards but also develops criminal instincts in them. The Delhi high court said this on Wednesday, asking all educational institutions in the capital to check the sale of tobacco in their vicinity.

The division bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said passive smoking is as dangerous as active smoking and can cause serious health hazards among children. The court also asked Delhi University to issue directions to its colleges to appoint nodal officers to ensure no tobacco outlet is found within a 100-yard radius of the campuses. HC made it clear that the order extends to professional colleges, too.

The court directed the commissioner of police to comply with its earlier order to initiate a departmental inquiry against officers concerned if any shop was found selling tobacco products near any school or college.

"The nodal officer may intimate area SHOs and concerned DCPs if anyone sells tobacco in violation of the Control of Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and the police to take action," said the bench.

"We would like the commissioner of police to take action in compliance with the provisions of the Act in larger public interest. The commissioner shall collect action taken report from the task force once a week and may depute an officer to analyze the reports. If required, more task forces may be constituted," the bench said.

To create awareness among sellers about the law, and to educate students about the diseases caused by tobacco consumption, the court directed the chief secretary of Delhi, in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare to give wider publicity in print and electronic media.

The HC directions came after an NGO, World Lung Foundation, petitioned the court, alleging that COTPA was not implemented in true spirit. It told the bench that it had recently conducted a survey in 1,023 of 5,106 schools and 28 of 323 colleges under the Delhi University and found outlets selling tobacco near them.

The Act covers prohibition of advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution of tobacco products, the NGO said.

Read More

Glenmark Discovers Cancer Drug, Gains To Reflect Long Term

Shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rose nearly 2.5% on Thursday after the pharma giant announced discovery of a blood cancer drug GBR 401, which falls under biologic category of medicines. Athough discovery of the drug is a positive development, its impact on the company’s financials is a long term story, analysts said.

Biologics include a wide range of medicinal products such as vaccines, blood and blood components created by biological processes.

“It is a positive development for the company,” said Deepika Jain, senior analyst at KR Choksey. “We need to see when the company goes for out-licensing the product and file further trials of the drugs, which is currently under processing mode. The company has total of 10 molecules in pipeline out of which two are in-licensed and one-out-licensed. It's progressing well and the launch is expected in Q4FY12 and post FY15, respectively. All these discoveries hold future potentials.”

Good amount of funding is required in carrying out research to discover drugs. Hence, companies out-license the product to other companies, who also enjoy rights to the medicine. In turn, the former gets an upfront payment from the latter. KR Choksey has given a buy call on the stocks with a target price of Rs 379 while FirstCall set a target price of Rs 400. The stock is trading at a price to book value of 4.38x, which looks attractive. It has generated a positive return of over 14% in the last one month.

“Glenmark Pharmaceuticals S.A. (GPSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited India (GPL), announces the discovery and initiation of IND enabling studies of a Novel Biological Entity (NBE) lead candidate, GBR 401, an anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody. GBR 401 is developed completely in-house by Glenmark’s Biologics Research Centre located in Switzerland,” reads the press release sent by the company.

Read More

What A Way To Run Health Care 'Reform'

A complex series of mandates goes in search of the relevant facts

As West Virginia state government tries to follow the federal mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - the old adage looks truer and truer.

Haste makes waste.

A year after Democrats passed the law, state officials still have basic questions as they try to comply with the mandates of the more than 2,000-page measure.

At issue is a Health Insurance Exchange, under which, starting in 2014, the state would regulate the benefit packages insurance companies can offer, and private health insurers would offer plans.

No one seems to know how many uninsured people would use such an exchange to buy their mandated health insurance.

Officials face a number of options, all of them dizzying.

Medicaid would cover families with annual incomes of as much as 133 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that figure would be $29,300.

But some people will make too much for that. So West Virginia could create a whole new basic state-run program to cover people whose income is 133 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That would cover families of four whose annual household income is between $29,300 and $44,100.

[Source]

Read More

Now, SSIs Can Bank On Life Cover

Now a small-scale industrialist can avail of a bank loan on the strength of a term insurance plan. Farmers can now bank on a social security net, provided they have a Kissan credit card.

Not only can a farmer provide for his retirement but can also look after his family interests in the unlikelihood of his demise. All this follows SBI Life Insurance Company’s launch of SBI Life Swadhan and SBI Lifelong pensions-group Kisan credit card (KCC) holders’ scheme today.

The former is a term insurance cover, which offers the benefit of a refund of premium facility.

Under the KCC insurance product, farmers have the option of earmarking a regular amount for their old age requirement in addition to enjoying life insurance cover till the age of 60.

“We have customised the international bancassurance model to suit the local environment as India is unique and needs to offer tailor-made solutions to the masses,” said SBI Life managing director and CEO R Krishnamurthy.

Today, the banking sector is adverse to give credit to SSIs due to the lack of collateral. “We hope that having capped the maximum coverage under the Swadhan product at Rs 1 crore, banks will be more open to offer loans to SSI units,” said Krishnamurthy.

He however, dismissed the argument that the product would act as an aid for banks to bring down their non-performing assets. “It is not aimed at NPA orientation, but rather helps improve credit perspective as a small industrialist can take a loan and the term insurance cover can act as a collateral for the bank,” said Krishnamurthy.

The KCC scheme targeted to offer a social security net to farmers, will initially be rolled out in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where State Bank of India (SBI) has issued maximum gold Kisan cards. It will then be extended across the country by the year end.

Within four years of launch, there are 24 million Kisan cards today, of which 30 per cent have been issued by commercial banks. SBI alone has issued over 1.9 million cards to date and the numbers are increasing monthly.

In addition to pension saving, the Kisan cardholder could choose to take life insurance protection by paying a nominal amount as premium, said Krishnamurthy.

SBI Life has emerged a leader in the group life insurance business with a 30 per cent market share of the aggregate premium income of Rs 35 crore private sector players generated through the sale of group products, said Krishnamurthy.

SBI Life posted a 391.55 per cent rise in premium income at Rs 72.75 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003, compared with Rs 14.8 crore last year.

The total business undertaken has crossed Rs 4,000 crore while the total number of lives covered have exceeded five lakh, said Krishnamurthy.

Read More

India-Pakistan - Cricket Not Always A Winner

Cricket can bond both India and Pakistan together. But, going by the past, using cricket diplomacy to cement the ties between the two countries has not gone too far. But a high-level India-Pakistan meeting with cricket as the primary context has a saving grace, reckons many — the expectations that ride high on formal summit-level meetings can be brought down, and leaders get an informal environment to understand each other’s mind.

So, will Manmohan Singh become luckier in his second stint with cricket diplomacy?

Also, for the first time, a democratically elected prime minister from Pakistan is being part of the cricket diplomacy, though many in the Indian system doubt the power of the present-day government in Islamabad to push ahead the dialogue process with India.

"I think, Manmohan Singh is very serious and has the intentions to take the peace process forward. The meet coincides with the resumption of the dialogue process," says former foreign secretary Salman Haidar, who helped in the dialogue process between the two countries that had been abandoned after the 26/11 attack.

Though there is always an opportunity to begin afresh, the cricket diplomacy of the past has not been so inspiring.

Past imperfect
When he had come to Jaipur in February 1987 to watch the second day’s proceedings of an India-Pakistan test match, President Zia-ul-Haq had drummed up the visit as part of his "cricket initiative"and his trip came after many years of suspended cricketing ties.

But by 1989, things had gone terribly wrong with Kashmir situation going from bad to worse.

Musharraf magic
In March 2004, when India toured Pakistan, ties were on an upswing.

In January that year, President Musharraf reassured the then PM Vajpayee that Pakistan will not permit any territory under it's control to be used for terrorism in any manner against India, laying the ground for composite dialogue.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi watched a match in Karachi and then national security advisor Brajesh Mishra was seen during a match in Lahore.

In 2005, Manmohan Singh invited Musharraf to watch an India-Pakistan one-day match in New Delhi, which again created the right atmospherics and statements, including the resolve the terrorism should not have hamper the peace process.

"If some thing goes wrong, the peace process can go wrong, too. It doesn't mean India and Pakistan shouldn’t engage each other,"

[Source]

Read More

Different Ways To Quit Smoking Naturally

Many people would like to learn how you can of course smoking to stop. There are actually many different tips with the smoking to stop and that includes the use of herbs and other forms of alternative medicine. To learn how should stop smoking with the course one the effects be aware, smoking on the life of smokers and non-smoking.

The need to stop smoking course

There is a reason, why should it naturally without the aid of drugs and other synthetic drugs smoking. The main reason is to avoid any dangerous side effects, which can be fatal by the user. When you stop smoking course, is there a certain security in the fact that the most natural herbs that help to give up smoking at all little or even no dangerous side-effects have. Most of the herbs that help, stop smoking naturally are also mild and smoking can be cheaper than most drugs to inhibit.

Forms of herbs in how to quit smoking naturally

The use of herbs stop smoking is somewhat controversial, since many of the herbs also technically \”\” smoked will give smoking up to you to get. Other forms of herbs are in tea form or other forms of drinks. Most of these herbs have a calming effect, which can facilitate the separation anxiety, the you in the resolve of not to more smoke can have.

Other herbs are chewed to stop the tension and increase the nervousness that one can believe if you try, ways to learn, to help in the form of chewing gum, ease. Most people use the nausea and the nervousness to facilitate you sometimes feel smoking. An another habit can be if not as bad as smoking, such as chewing gum, an alternative to smoking.

Some herbs are used also in the form of tea to suppress the nervousness, which sometimes requires a cigarette to help. This naturally smoking stop can be really beneficial as many herbal substances, which not only help to suppress the need for cigarettes, but also other beneficial substances and have to be loaded.

Acupuncture is also another form of alternative medicine, which can be counted as one of the many natural ways to quit smoking. There are certain nerves and spots in the body, actually to demand, if made exactly can stop. There are certain points that can help to reduce, nervousness and other tics, the, where appropriate, the reassurance of a cigarette. These methods are almost certain to stop smoking naturally to help.

To have an effective way to stop should accompany also the determination to do with the support of your family and friends. This allows your family and friends to take part at watches over you and support you in your weak moments.

Read More