Petrol Prices to go up by Rs 3-5 Per Litre!

The state-owned oil firms are pushing the government for price hike in petrol by at least Rs 3 to Rs 5 per litre from April 1. The decision is likely to be taken today.

According to the oil firms, they are bearing the loss of Rs 6.43 per litre on petrol. However, the government is in dilemma to approve a hike in petrol during the political turmoil.

Meanwhile, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) would meet for fortnightly price review to pay the refineries on the 1st and 16th of every month.

If the government does not approve the proposal, the oil firms would bear a huge loss as the international price of gasoline have increased from  $109 a barrel to $133-134 per barrel.

Earlier, the petrol prices were cut by Rs 0.78 per litre on December 1 last year. The government had not approved the oil firms' proposal due to elections in five states including Uttar Pradesh.

BlackBerry's Prices slashed upto 26% in India

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has slashed prices of its handsets by up to 26 per cent in India after its revenue declined in its homeland Canada as compared to Apple's iPhones.

RIM’s products are heavily equipped with security features. However, in the ongoing competition, Apple has ousted RIM from the top list in Canada for the first time.

According to this new price tag, BlackBerry Torch 9860, which was priced at Rs. 29,990, will now be available at Rs. 21,990 and the Curve 9380, which earlier was priced at Rs. 20,990 will now cost Rs. 16,990.

Decision for the massive reduction apparently has been taken to win the Smartphone market in India and to uphold BlackBerry’s previous position as now Nokia and Samsung are the top sellers of Smartphone in the country.

RIM had earlier slashed prices of its 7 inch tablet Playbook almost up to 50 per cent. As a result sales were positively affected and also the company’s image was upgraded.

According to RIM India MD Sunil Dutt, the models Torch (9860) & Curve (8520, 9360, and 9380) compromised over 60% of sales in India.

The move will now allow the youngsters also to own a Blackberry. Earlier it was more or less only a businessman’s device.

RIM informed that the company has adopted new policies to give equal weightage to both the Consumer segment as well as Enterprise segment.

BMW to recall 3,422 Cars in India to fix Fault

German Luxury Car maker BMW has made a recall of around 3,422 cars from its previous generation E60 5 and E60 6, which were sold within 2007 to 2010 in India. The recall has been made to fix a possible battery issue.

Recall is not a regular process as the companies fear that the same will put a negative impact on the brand and its sales. Hence they prefer to keep quiet in such type of circumstances. For the same reason most of the Car makers do not have an official Recall policy too.

Fortunately, this time the scenario is something different which provides a win-win situation to the consumers. Within last few months many auto makers including Tata Motors, Nissan, Rolls Royce, Honda and Maruti have opted recall. In this sequel, BMW has also adopted the same policy now in India, which is part of its global recall exercise.

Of course,  BMW claims that this is only a preventive recall even though no accidents or injuries have been caused due to this issue and also not all the units sold in Indian comes under this current recall exercise. Also the present generation of BMW, the F10 BMW 5 Series, which is being sold now in India, has nothing to do with this recall.

"In some remote cases, the battery cable cover inside the boot of these vehicles may be incorrectly mounted. This can result in the electrical system malfunctioning, the vehicle failing to start and, in some cases, to charring or fire," BMW said.

BMW has informed that the part replacement will be done free-of cost and should take about 30 minutes.

Kolaveri Di crosses 50 million hits on YouTube

Popular song ‘Kolaveri Di’, which had created a buzz on the web as well as in the music industry in the recent days, crossed 50 million hits on YouTube.

Tamil star Dhanush's unusual song recorded 50,197,162 hits on YouTube till Tuesday morning, which is the biggest achievement for the debutant director Aishwarya, wife of Dhanush, ahead of the release of the film "3", which boasts of ‘Kolaveri Di’ soundtrack.

Particularly, the song impressed the youngsters with its bilingual lyrics with Tamil accent. It had received more than a million hits within a day of its release on the web.

Dhanush, the son-in-law of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, has penned the lyrics in English and Tamil and lent his unique voice.

The word Kolaveri Di means murderous rage. The song has been composed by the 21-year-old music director Anirudh Ravichander. The pronunciation of the words by Dhanush with Tamil accent and an innocent voice, adds much to make it a soothing song.

Even the song has been composed in various languages depicting different types of situations and touching youngsters' hearts.

Wishtel launches Tablets at Rs 4k-5k

IT products manufacturer Wishtel has launched a low-cost tablet computers, which feature support for native Indian languages, to compete with World's cheapest Tablet Aakash.

For the first time, Indians will be able to enjoy rich computing, entertainment, and internet experience in their own native languages. The 'IRA' and 'IRA Thing' offered by Wishtel are now available at prices between Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,500.

The low-cost Tablets have been designed to meet the computing needs of Indian users. The devices are powered by VIA WonderMedia PRIZM WM8650 ARM SoC. These come with various apps including social media, education, communications and entertainment targeting the youngsters and corporate users.

The Tablets come with special feature like eBook reader app, which will allow users to enjoy eBooks in Hindi and other Indian regional languages on their devices. The app also offers content for ICSE, CBSE and state boards plus engineering, medical, and other higher education.

GIVE YOUR PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED

Traditional leaders see the employee - boss relationship as a transaction: money in exchange for labor. Transformational leaders know and recognize that employees want much more than that. Here are the four things your people need to succeed: 

- Love: This may sound touchy-feel, but love simply means concern that is focused exclusively for that person's good. Show your employees you care about them and their future.

- Growth: No one wants to stay exactly where they are forever. Create a culture that allows your people to grow and expand.

- Contribution: To feel fulfilled, employees must know that they are contributing to the whole. Emphasize the ways that their work manners to the organization.

- Meaning: People seek meaning in their work. Share a vision that demonstrates how all of your employees are engaged in a larger purpose.

Apple sells 3 Million iPads in Three Days

The technology giant Apple Inc made another record by selling three million of its latest version of iPads within just three days of launching in the global market.

The California-based company Apple confirmed the report on Monday that it has sold three million new iPads, the device, which is the latest version of its tablet PC. It was launched on last Friday.

The device comes with boasts of enhanced features with a sharper screen and faster processor. It comes with advanced features as compared to iPad and iPad 2. It features a new retina display with 2048x1536-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch.

The new iPad supports for AT&T's and Verizon's fourth-generation LTE cellular networks. It is powered by Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and runs on iOS 5.1. It has a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad comes with 44% increased colour saturation as compared to previous tablets offered by the company.

The new iPad is available in two models - Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 4G. Both the models are available in black and white colours at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model and $699 for the 64GB model, iPad Wi-Fi + 4G will be priced at $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.

Akhilesh Yadav announces Free Laptops, Freebies

Hours after taking oath of office on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced the implementation of the promises made during election campaign.

As per the promises, the government led by Samajwadi Party announced an unemployment allowance, free laptops, and tablets to students. The government announced to give Rs 30,000 each to all Muslim girls who have passed class 10.

The new government decided to pay Rs 1,000 per month to youths as unemployment allowances. The decision will benefit around nine lakh unemployed youth over 35 years of age.

The cabinet has also decided to give free laptops to students who have passed class 12 and tablets who have passed class 10 in this academic session. In order to fulfil the promises, the government will spend Rs 3,000 crore to purchase 25 lakh (each) laptops and tablets.

Muslim girls who have passed class 10 will be given financial assistance of Rs 30,000 for their further education or wedding. One lakh Muslim girls will be benefited from this scheme. UP Chief Secretary Anoop Mishra said that the government will spend Rs 300 crore on the scheme.

Talking to the media persons, Mishra said that the boundary walls will be constructed near the Muslim graveyards in the state to prevent encroachment of the Waqf properties.

The government will bring modification in the decision taken during Mayawati government. There was a restriction in posting of police constables and head-constables near their home districts will be changed. As per the new government's decision, all the constables and head-constables will be posted near their home districts.


The traffic system will also be changed in the state capital. The government has decided to install CCTV at all crossings for better security. The funds will be allotted for the construction of boundary in the Muslim graveyards and purchase of the CCTV cameras in the next financial year.

Apple slashes iPad 2 Prices in India

In a significant development, Apple has slashed the price of iPad 2 in India by Rs 5,000. The Apple iPad 2 will now be available for Rs 24,500. In the US, the iPad will be cheaper by $100.

Apple has slashed the iPad2 prices worldwide in a bid to compete with the tablet PCs that have stormed the market these days in large numbers.

In India, the 16-GB base model of the iPad 2 (Wi-Fi) is now priced at Rs 24,500. The 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model will cost Rs 32,000.

Ice Cream as "addictive" as Drugs, says Study

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has described that people can be addicted to certain foods like drugs. It can also be ice cream, from the dessert recipes.

Researchers at the Oregon Research Institute concluded that longings for dessert - ice cream in particular – were similar to those experienced by drug addicts.

The mechanism explained in the study is – overconsumption of high-fat or high-sugar foods is expected to change the normal functioning of the brain and makes it to think that the same food should be consumed more.

This process is seen with frequent drug use, where the more an individual uses the drug, the more he wants to have. The user repeats the consumption to avail the previous satisfaction level and in this way he becomes an addict to it.

The recent study reveals that like the drug, the same formula works in case of an ice cream also. The scientists choose 151 healthy weight teenagers, aged 14 to 16, for this study. The teenagers were given chocolate milkshakes made with Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Their brains were scanned with a Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) machine while being shown a picture of a milkshake, and then given a milkshake.

They found that all the teens wanted the real shake, but those who ate the most ice cream over the previous few weeks enjoyed it less.

Dr Kyle Burger explains that this is similar to drug addiction because despite wanting the milkshake, pleasure that should be sent to the brain was dulled, possibly due to low levels of dopamine being released in the brain.

The diet scientists prescribe for more research in this context but make it certain that food addiction is real.

Who will form Govt in Uttarakhand?

As both the BJP and Congress are in a neck-and-neck fight to gain power in Uttarakhand, it is quite unpredictable that who will rule the state. The recent trends indicated that the state is heading towards a hung assembly.

While the BJP won 7 seats and leading in 24 seats, the Congress won 5 and is leading in 24 seats in Uttarakhand. The polls will decide the fate of Chief Minister BC Khanduri, who is struggling to gain Kotdwar seat from his close rival Surendra Singh Negi.

According to latest reports, BJP's Surendra Singh Jeena defeated sitting Congress MLA Ranjit Singh from Salt seat in Kumaon region. CM Khanduri is leading with 500 votes against Negi.

Congress candidate Indira Haridayesh is leading with 4000 votes from Haldwani constituency against BJP's Renu Adhikari. Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat is seen as one of the hot cntenders for the post of CM if Congress returns to power. The results are being watched with curiosity as he is contesting the polls from Rudraprayag constituency in Garhwal region against his brother-in-law and Irrigation Minister Matbar Singh Kandari

The BSP is also leading in 6 seats. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-Panwar (UKD-P) is leading in one seat, while others were leading in five seats.

What Makes a Powerful Woman

When we talk about a powerful woman, the things come into our mind is her capability to win a battle and a fighter who knows how to surmount a male opponent or the whole world.

Though, women power is not only about winning the physical battles, but it is all about winning the battle of mind, her distinctiveness and life. There are many traits that make a woman powerful in this male-dominated world. Let us look at some of these:

Never Renounce

A powerful woman knows how to face the challenges of life. She never renounces and tries her best to get what she wants. She goes after what she desires in life and doesn’t quit, no matter how difficult the going may get.

Respects Herself and Others

For women, giving and earning respect is the biggest asset of life. They are respectful in all situations. She respects those with full heart, who deserves it. Respecting others and herself matters a lot to her and a character trait of a powerful woman.

Stand-Up for What She Trusts and Believe In

A powerful women stands for everything, she believes and trust in. She has a powerful mind to think about twist and turns of life. She raises her voice against the injustice happening in the society. She follows the path of truth and never steps back, when it comes to fight for her or for others.

Verbalizes Her Mind

When it comes to verbalizing her mind, powerful women never step back. She knows where, why and how to speak of her mind. The words comes out from a powerful women has an influential impact on the person.

Motivates Herself and Others

Motivating herself and others is yet another important trait of a powerful woman. At the times when anyone needs support and encouragement, the powerful women motivates them in such a way that she becomes an inspiration for them.

There are many men in the society who still think that they are powerful and dominant, but if they assume for a minute without taking it as a gender issue, they will get the answer in favor of women.

Every woman is powerful in her own ways; on the one side, she knows how to deal with the social brutalities; and on the other side she knows well how to live in men ruling world. She knows how to earn and give respect, and how to put the discreditable person under her feet.

Google's Siri to be known as 'Assistant'

Google is reportedly in the final stage of developing its own voice assistant for Android to compete with Siri, the most thrashed out voice assistant of Apple.

‘Assistant’ is believed to surpass ‘Siri’ in many ways, most importantly in that the search company will retain complete control of all the layers involved.

Techcrunch, which first reported the news, has said that the new assistant of Google would be called just “Assistant”. It has also described that Google is planning on extending this service to developers so they can build novel things.

‘Assistant’ is expected to be launched towards last quarter of 2012.

Aakash Tablet – a Dream or Reality?

After the huge success of tablet PCs incorporating the best technology in the market, a new cheap tablet Aakash has been recently launched in India.

Aakash, allocated as the world’s cheapest tablet PC, has evinced a lot of attention among several world leaders and international organizations. A 7-inch device running on Google android 2.2 platforms and offering multiple touch screens, accelerated graphics, connexant CPU with HD video, Wi-Fi connectivity at an unbeatable price was indeed a dream of many.

The touch screen is resistive. Possibly this will be the issue of apprehension for many. The device lacks a camera but the most important point is that students can access lectures, simulations, animations, notes, study materials  instantly over the internet and download them.

The product is actually branded as Ubislate Netbook. It is a light weighted device and so convinient that it may be simply carried along anywhere and everywhere.

With preliminary spotlight on wide-ranging education, the Indian government is literally accomplishing its venture for e-empowerment. Though it doesn't have a hard drive, a memory card can be used to store data. The tablet has been designed and manufactured by Datawind, a UK based company, which a developer of wireless web access products and services.

DataWind has developed and offers a series of wireless web access devices and the related web delivery platform. Their products are offered by the world’s largest national level stores and most prestigious Cellular distributors.

In a country like India where majority of the population is still working towards making ends meet a tablet that comes as low as price as Rs. 2200/- is a dream for many. Kapil Sibbal, the Telecom and education minister has unveils this cheap tablet last year for those who cannot meet the expense of an expensive tablet.

The price was to be subsidized by the federal government so that students will undeniably need to spend just half of the cost. The hardware was actually sourced from South Korea, China as well as from the US. Datawind, revealed a contest for the IIT students to provide applications for the Aakash tablet.

This device is set to bring a change in the way people see and use the technology in their every day lives. Not only the cost, but the function providing by the company in such cost is remarkable and noteworthy for the medium section and less privileged people of the society. In such a less cost, this tablet is no doubt an attention grabber.

In today’s world when every gadget with latest technology is expensive, this cheap tablet has proved its worth with its cost. The ultra-low cost tablet giant procures more than 20 components from China, 35 from Korea besides others from the US and India.

Aakash tablet is no doubt a dream of many which turns into reality. With the launch of this unique computing device, every scholar in India would have a compact computer access which is like a trance turning into veracity. It is the latest and advance innovation and the new tablet PC for today’s generation. The tablet has gained massive publicity and managed to catch eyes of people even just before the official launch.

However there many detractors too, who are questioning the usability of tablet Aakash.  So now the government of India has decided to launch the upgraded version of Aakash, the Aakash 2 also called as Ubislate 7+ which will have better specifications than current aakash. With 1.5 lakh online pre-orders, the Aakash 2 is all set for a launch in early March, 2012, not in January as proclaimed.