Hindustan Times: February 2009

Campus placements go bust

As the placement season peaks, final-year students at the country’s top business schools are coming to terms with a new reality — a cut in offers and salaries from prospective employers, and the chance of not landing a job at all.

At the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, where placements begin on Friday students said , they would be happy to get as much salary as their seniors got a year ago. Their apprehension is not without reason.

Sample this: investment banks that in the past flocked to IIM Ahmedabad were missing in action as placements at the top-rated business school opened on Wednesday, only 49 companies showed up in the first phase of placement at IIM Calcutta earlier this week — down from 107 last year

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Labels: Campus placements, first phase of placement, IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Bangalore, jobs, placement season, students, top business schools

Mutiny in Bangladesh

Bangladesh border guards launched a dramatic mutiny on Wednesday taking, officers hostage and sparking a gunbattle that left at least three people dead and 21 wounded.

The army was called in to surround the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), who took up arms against their superiors over low pay .

Following hours of panic, PM Sheikh Hasina met with renegade troops and offered a general amnesty, her spokesman Nakibuddin Ahmed said.

He said the mutineers had told Hasina that the troops “would lay down their arms” and return to barracks.

Sporadic gunfire, however, could still be heard into Wednesday evening, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

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Labels: Bangladesh, Bangladesh border guards, Bangladesh Rifles, dramatic mutiny, gunbattle, PM Sheikh Hasina

Nasa Carbon dioxide satellite lands in ocean after launch

A US Satellite to monitor global carbon dioxide emissions failed to reach orbit early Tuesday and crashed into the ocean near Antarctica, an official said at a Nasa press conference.

“The vehicle... landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean,” announced John Brunschwyler, program director for the Taurus launch rocket at the private company Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Nasa said the satellite launched successfully from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Taurus XL rocket, at 1:55 am (0951 GMT), but a fatal mission error occured minutes after liftoff when a clamshell like fairing that protects the satellite during its ascent failed to separate properly.

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Labels: Antarctica, CO2, John Brunschwyler, NASA, Nasa CO2 satellite, satellite launched, Taurus launch rocket, Taurus XL rocket, US Satellite, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

Women to be on navy 5 warships

The last symbol of male supremacy in the Indian navy could soon be consigned to history. The navy is laying the groundwork for putting women on warships, a role they have never been considered fit for.

The government is yet to give its approval,but the naval headquarters is thinking ahead. A senior navy officer, requesting anonymity, said all future warships would have exclusive berthing facilities for women.

There are only 258 women among 7,336 officers in the navy Some could find themselves serving aboard the largest warship to be ever built in India - the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC). Once commissioned, the Rs 3,260-crore warship will carry 1,600 sailors and 30 embarked aircraft

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Labels: combat aircraft, Indian Navy, indigenous aircraft carrier, largest warship, MiG-29 fighters, sailors, warships, women on warships

Jaya seeks Congress hand

They were friends once, and then they were foes. AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa wants to be friends again with the Congress, and on Thursday urged it to dump its Tamil Nadu ally — and her sworn enemy — the DMK.

Jayalalithaa said the DMK regime in Tamil Nadu was like a person “mired in quicksand” amid mounting charges of corruption and lawlessness against it. If the Congress stayed with the DMK, she warned “it too will go under”.

The AIADMK chief recalled her “cordial relations” with the Congress leaders including late Rajiv Gandhi and said she considered Indira Gandhi as “my mother”.

The Congress reacted cautiously “We have not decided . (on joining any) front with any body including Jayalalithaa,” , said Congress’s M. Veerappa Moily “Our alliance with the . DMK is quite strong.”

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Labels: AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, charges of corruption, Chennai, Congress, DMK, Indira Gandhi, late Rajiv Gandhi, Tamil Nadu, Veerappa Moily

After 7 years, hope for Gujarat

There's a secret report “hundreds of pages long” that is now with the Chief Justice of India in New Delhi, and when its contents emerge — perhaps in the course of a trial next month — it will reveal India’s resolve to bring justice to one of its most divisive carnage's: The Gujarat riots of 2002.

“I am satisfied with what I have done,” R.K. Raghavan (68), head of the Supreme Court’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) — set up in April 2008 due to Gujarat’s reluctance to investigate and prosecute officials, politicians and rioters — told Hindustan Times.

After seven years of delays, often deliberate, and attempts to hide evidence, slow and hard-fought progress is evident:

ON MARCH 6, the Supreme Court will start hearing a plea for the registration of a first information report (FIR) against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 70 others for allegedly “helping rioters”.

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Labels: Chief Justice of India, Gujarat, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat riots of 2002, Special Investigation Team

Sania's singles campaign ends

Sania Mirza crashed out of the $2 million Dubai Tennis Championships after losing her second round match 5-7, 26 to world number 24 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia here on Tuesday.

Sania, who was playing her third match in as many days, squandered a 4-2 lead in the opening set and never recovered after being broken in the eighth game.

Sania converted second break point in the third game to break the world number 24 and surge ahead.

The Hyderabadi was down 0-30 in the next game but won four points in a row to make it 3-1, not allowing her dangerous opponent to break back.

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Labels: Dubai Tennis Championships, Hyderabadi, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, Sania Mirza, singles campaign ends, Tennis players

'Taliban a common threat to India, Pakistan, United States'

India, Pakistan and the United States face a common threat for the first time ever in the Taliban, US special representative Richard Holbrooke said in Delhi as he wound up a fact-finding trip to the region.

"For the first time in 60 years, your country, Pakistan and the US all face an enemy that poses direct threats to our leaderships, our capitals and our people," he said after meeting Pranab Mukherjee.

"I do want to underscore the fact that what happened in Swat demonstrates a key point and that is that India, US and Pakistan all have a common threat now."

In a meeting at the US ambassador's residence, Holbrooke wanted to know what India would do in case it faced another Mumbai-style attack.

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Labels: India, Mumbai-style attack, Pakistan, Pranab Mukherjee, Richard Holbrooke, Swat demonstrates, Taliban threat, United States

United States military to offer fast track to citizenship

The US military faced with a , skills shortage, will open its doors to immigrants on temporary visas, enticing them to enlist with an offer of fast-track citizenship, the New York Times reported on Saturday .

Knowledge of a foreign language such as Arabic, Pashto, Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and Nepalese is among the skills the military is looking for. Doctors and nurses are also needed.

Immigrants who are permanent residents — those with green cards — have long been eligible to enlist, the Times said. But this is the first time since the Vietnam War that the military will recruit temporary immigrants.

Only legal immigrants , including students and refugees who have lived in the US for at least two years, will be eligible.

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Labels: Arabic, Chinese, fast-track citizenship, green cards, Hindi, immigrants, Knowledge of a foreign language, Pashto, refugees, Tamil, temporary visas, US military, Vietnam War

Vajpayee death rumour leads to goof-ups

Rumours of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s death were taken too seriously in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday An official function was cancelled and a two-minute silence was observed “in memory of the departed leader”.

However, on a visit to Delhi on Thursday Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made light of the incident, admitting that there had been a “human error”.

In the tribal dominated Jhabua district, a CD showcasing the town was to be formally inaugurated at a function at the district magistrate’s office. But just when the deputy collector was about to launch the CD, someone received a phone call . that Vajpayee had passed away .

Taken aback by the news, the deputy collector — an IAS probationer — announced a two minute silence and then can celled the programme without verifying the information.

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Labels: cancelled, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh, Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vajpayee death rumour

Taliban stage mini-Mumbai in Kabul

Eight Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked three Afghan government buildings on Wednesday in a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul. All eight attackers also died.

The assailants sent three text messages to the leader of their terror cell in Pakistan before launching assault, said Amrullah Saleh, chief of Afghanistan's intelligence agency underlining the links between militants in the two countries.

Five men armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the Justice Ministry in late morning, shooting at workers and temporarily trapping the minister and scores of others inside, witnesses said. The gunmen appeared to hold the building for about two hours before Afghan security forces regained control about midday, according to an AP reporter on the scene.

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Labels: Afghan government buildings, Afghan security forces, attack in Kabul, Kabul, mini-Mumbai in Kabul, Pakistan, Taliban gunmen

Great railway ripoff

" Never mind the rats," the ticket collector said, reclining on his seat as passengers settled in for the night. "We have no choice but to get accustomed to having them as our fellow passengers."

As the Mumbai-bound Golden Temple Mail left New Delhi and made quick progress through Rajasthan's dry terrain, a foul stench from the bathrooms wafted through the train car, mingling with the smell of leftover food on dinner trays piled up near the bathrooms.

At a time when the Indian Railways' profits have peaked, an HT reporter made a 38-hour, 2,800-km train journey on one of the country's busiest routes to investigate if services had improved on the world's second largest train network.

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Labels: Country's busiest routes, Golden Temple Mail, Indian Railways profits, Lalu Prasad Yadav, passengers, Railway budget, world's second largest train network

Air India pilot averts collision with chopper on presidential duty

A helicopter that was part of a fleet carrying President Pratibha Patil just missed colliding with an Air India plane with 150 people on board on Monday morning, airport and government officials said.

Just before the Air India pilot was about to take off for Delhi from the Mumbai runway he saw the chopper about , 200 metres in front of the plane.

The Mumbai airport’s air traffic control also asked the Air India pilot to apply the emergency brakes.

When the pilot slammed the brakes, a tyre burst. But all the passengers and crew on board the helicopter and plane emerged unscathed from the incident. The President flew back to Delhi in the evening, officials said.

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Labels: Air India pilot, g President Pratibha Patil, helicopter, Indian Air Force chopper, Mumbai airport’s air traffic control, Mumbai runway, passengers

On a day India become No. 2 ODI team, foreign players rake in the moolah

On Friday, India became No. 2 in world ODI rankings, on the strength of a nine-match winning streak and a decline in Australia’s dominance.

On the same day, India, the cricketing nation, seemed to laugh at the global meltdown at an auction where crores were spent buying the services of 17 overseas players.

Former England skippers Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen went for about Rs 7.5 crore apiece ($1.55 million), making them jointly the highest valued players in the Indian Premier League (IPL), more than M.S. Dhoni, bought for Rs 6 crore last year.

Bangladesh’s paceman Mashrafe Mortaza would not know how to react to the Rs 2.93 crore the Kolkata Knight Riders have paid for his “commercial value”.

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Labels: Australia’s dominance, cricket, Deccan Chargers, highest valued players, India, Indian Premier League, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, ODi, Preity Zinta, world ODI rankings

2 Indian journalists beaten up in Lahore

At a time when India and Pakistan are involved in high pitched rhetoric on 26/11, unidentified persons roughed up two Indian media persons in Lahore on Thursday They . snatched their camera, mobile phones and credit cards before leaving. The incident is expected to further fuel tensions between the two neighbours.

Significantly the two News , X journalists — Jujhar Singh and Tilak Raj — had run an investigative story on Wednesday where they had traced the shop from where engines for the boats used in the Mumbai attacks were reportedly purchased. They had also gone up to the barricades guarding the house of Jamat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on Wednesday night, where they were questioned by the security.

Immediately after the attack, the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), a body of journalists from South Asian countries, swung into action to help the assaulted media persons.

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Labels: Indian journalists, Indian media persons, Jujhar Singh and Tilak Raj, Lahore, media persons, Mumbai attacks, South Asian Free Media Association

Obama ‘screwed up’ on cabinet

He new US administration hit its first bump on Tuesday as a flap over unpaid taxes prompted two key nominees, including Barack Obama’s Washington mentor, to withdraw from consideration. The president admitted he had “screwed up”.

“I’ve got to own up to my mistake,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News. “Ultimately, it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”

The two who withdrew were former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, who had been nominated for health and human services secretary, and Nancy Killefer, who was to be the federal spending watchdog as chief performance officer.

Obama tried to contain the damage in five network television interviews.

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Labels: Barack Obama, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, new US administration, nominees withdraw, unpaid taxes, US President, Washington mentor

China Television shows man throwing shoe at Prime Minister

Chinese state television on Tuesday aired in full footage of a man hurling his shoes at China’s premier Wen Jiabao during a trip to Britain — an unusual departure from official media’s practice of suppressing embarrassing events as print and broadcast outlets had done earlier in the day .

CCTV along with the official , news agency and newspapers, initially reported the event obliquely referring only to an , “incident” or describing Britain’s apology without giving details of the protest.

But unedited footage of the event was shown on CCTV’s main evening news report.

China tightly controls its media and often suppresses news seen as unflattering to the Communist Party and state leaders.

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Labels: Britain trip, CCTV cameras, china, China Television shows, China’s premier Wen Jiabao, Chinese PM, Chinese state television, embarrassing events, media, throwing shoe at PM

China crisis: 20 million migrants have lost jobs

Twenty Million. That's the official number of out-of work migrants — more than the population of Beijing or Mumbai — who are back in villages in the fallout of slumping global demand for made-in-China products.

An average of six million workers enter China’s rural labour market every year, so this year’s migrant job losses could top 25 million.

“About 20 million of China’s migrant workers have returned home after losing their jobs as the global financial crisis takes a toll on the economy said state media Xinhua, ,” quoting a senior planning official on Monday .

This estimate was released a day after the government issued a document warning that 2009 would be China’s toughest year since 2000.

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Labels: china, China’s migrant workers, China’s rural labour market, global financial crisis, jobs, made in China products, Mumbai, work migrants

Tense Delhi flies into high alert

Delhi got a hijack scare on Sunday evening after an Indigo flight with suspected hijackers on board made an emergency landing at the city’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Flight operations at the airport came to a standstill after the pilot of Indigo’s Delhi-Goa flight (6E 334) informed air traffic control at 5.15 pm that there were suspected hijackers on board. This sent the country’s security establishment into a tizzy The flight made a priority landing at 5.29 pm and was taken to an isolated bay where , a team of NSG and Central Industrial Security Force personnel surrounded the aircraft and cordoned off the area.

The 169 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A-320 aircraft were not allowed to disembark for over two hours. A meeting of the Committee of Secretaries on Anti–Hijacking (COSAH) chaired by the Cabinet Secretary was immediately called.

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Labels: air traffic control, Airbus A-320 aircraft, COSAH, Flight operations, hijack scare, IGI, Indigo flight, New delhi, pilot

Hindustan Times

Friday, February 27, 2009

Campus placements go bust

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mutiny in Bangladesh

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Nasa Carbon dioxide satellite lands in ocean after launch

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Women to be on navy 5 warships

Friday, February 20, 2009

Jaya seeks Congress hand

Thursday, February 19, 2009

After 7 years, hope for Gujarat

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Sania's singles campaign ends

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

'Taliban a common threat to India, Pakistan, United States'

Monday, February 16, 2009

United States military to offer fast track to citizenship

Friday, February 13, 2009

Vajpayee death rumour leads to goof-ups

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Taliban stage mini-Mumbai in Kabul

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Great railway ripoff

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Air India pilot averts collision with chopper on presidential duty

Saturday, February 7, 2009

On a day India become No. 2 ODI team, foreign players rake in the moolah

Friday, February 6, 2009

2 Indian journalists beaten up in Lahore

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Obama ‘screwed up’ on cabinet

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

China Television shows man throwing shoe at Prime Minister

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

China crisis: 20 million migrants have lost jobs

Monday, February 2, 2009

Tense Delhi flies into high alert

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