Hindustan Times

Chhetri ends India's 24-year wait

On the eve of the AFC Challenge Cup final against holders Tajikistan, India coach Bob Houghton had stressed on the importance of a vociferous crowd support in big games. Understandable because with a place in the Asian Cup finals in Qatar on line, India were undoubtedly playing their biggest game in over two decades.

The Nehru Cup champions were given a standing ovation by an over 20,000 crowd at the Ambedkar stadium before kick-off and the inspired men in blue scored thrice before the clock touched the 30-minute mark to lead India to a comprehensive 4-1 win.

The second title in under a year in the capital also catapulted India into the continent's highest championship after 24 years.

Sunil Chhetri scored a hattrick (9th, 23, 75) - the first by an Indian ever in a final - and Bhaichung Bhutia added another in the 19th minute to end the contest even before their opponents warmed up.

Fatkhullo Falkuloev found the consolation goal in the 44th minute with a superb 25-yard pile driver but the early deficit proved too much for the defending champions.

Supporters had started throng- ing the stadium since noon for a match that was to start at 7pm since the organisers could only get tickets printed late on Tuesday night.The long queue outside would have pleased Houghton and his wards no end when they reached the ground a couple of hours later.

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Labels: AFC Challenge Cup, Ambedkar stadium, Asian Cup finals, hattrick, India, India coach Bob Houghton, Nehru Cup champions, Qatar, Sunil Chhetri, Supporters, Tajikistan, tFatkhullo Falkuloev

Information Technology firms slow campus hires

From Matrimonials to swank offices, software engineers have been much sought after since the information technology boom brought thousands of lucrative jobs into India. Times are changing, though.

As the US economy goes from bad to worse, India's biggest outsourcing customer is getting stingy about placing new orders.

The result: IT firms are hiring less and offering less as they pick talent from campuses. In some cases, they are even refusing to go through with offers they've already made.

This is the first time since the outsourcing boom began a decade ago that IT companies are dragging their feet on campus hiring, placement officers at colleges across India told Hindustan Times.

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Labels: campus, colleges, customer, hiring, India, IT, IT companies, outsource, placements, Software engineer, talent, US economy

Good News

After 34 years of nuclear isolation, India on Friday will be within striking distance of dissolving the sanctions the world imposed on New Delhi against buying nuclear reactors and fuel from abroad.

A first transformational step will be taken at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. The atomic watchdog will debate and clear an inspection arrangement for the nuclear plants that India says are for civilian purposes and important to Indian efforts of bridging the annual electricity shortfall of 14,000 mega watts, enough to power three cities the size of Delhi.

A diplomatic effort similar in scale to the one launched during the 1999 Kargil war has been mounted by India, as envoys criss Cross the world in support of the civil nuclear deal.

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Labels: American Congress, civil nuclear deal, fuel, IAEA, India, New delhi, NSG, nuclear deal, nuclear isolation, nuclear reactors, Pakistani opposition, President Bush, support, Vienna

In a year's time, you could ride the lovable bug

It's official. All those who've desired to drive the lovable bug needn't wait too long now.

The Volkswagen Beetle will be in India before 2009 ends. "We should see the car in India within a year," Joerg Muller, managing director, Volkswagen Group India, said on the sidelines of the launch of the Jetta, a sedan aimed at the well heeled youngster and businessman.

The German automaker is waiting to put in place a network of sales, service and quality before the car, made famous in such memorable Hollywood films as Herbie and The Love Bug comedy series, is brought to India.

"It is a car that instantly brings a smile to whoever sees it, and since it is one of our best vehicles, we need to ensure we give customers the best quality and service," Mueller said.

For the uninitiated, the Beetle, which made Volkswagen a household name, is a two- or four door mini-car with a distinctive, rounded appearance.

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Labels: drive, German automaker, Herbie, Hollywood films, India, lovable bug, mini car, quality, service, vehicles, Volkswagen Beetle, youngster

India profile tanks, Foreign Institutional Investors pullout sinks Sensex

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIS) pressed the panic button as global agency Fitch downgraded India's credit profile to "negative". Sensex, BSE's 30-share benchmark index, dropped to lowest levels in 15 months as foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 702.50 crore on Tuesday alone.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, two of India's three largest banks, tumbled. Sensex fell 654.32 points, or 4.9 per cent, to 12,676.19. All stocks dropped on the index. The NSE Nifty dropped 178.60 points, or 4.4 per cent, to 3,861.10.

"Money is flying out of emerging markets and inflows into India have been negative so fax:" said Madhavi Vora of ULJK Securities, a broking firm. "There is a major liquidity crunch along with other external factors like political uncertainty that are ailing markets."

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Labels: Bank, BSE, FIIS, foreign funds, HDFC, ICICI, India, Nifty, NSE, panic, Sensex, shares, stock market, tumbled

Trust vote 'as early as possible'

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will seek a vote of confidence "as early as possible" in response to the Left's withdrawal of support to the UPA on the India US civil nuclear agreement.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued after the PM called on President Pratibha Patil on Thursday evening, the PM told Patil that "he and his cabinet colleagues (were) keen to seek a vote of confidence as early as possible." The PM spent 30 minutes with the President. The communique was based on a letter he handed to her.

The PM will communicate the exact date of the trust vote to the President on Friday. There was speculation on Thursday that the government may choose a date around July 22 to call a special Lok Sabha session for the vote. Though the date will be finalised only after meetings of the UPA and the Congress Working Committee (CWC), coalition MPs have been asked to be in Delhi by July 22. This will be the first time since the beginning of the coalition era in 1989 that a PM will seek a trust vote after four years in office- six PMs before Singh faced trust votes inside their first couple of years.

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Labels: cabinet colleagues, civil nuclear agreement, CWC, delhi, India, Manmohan singh, Pervez Musharraf, president Pratibha Patil, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sonia Gandhi, trust votes, UPA, US

Red flag up, but UPA may push ahead

In the face of the Left's unrelenting opposition to the India-US nuclear deal, the Congress, in a major shift of stance, is seriously evaluating the political fallout of sewing up the India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA without their consent.

The postponement of the schedu1ed UPA-Left meeting on the issue on Wednesday saw hectic consultations in both camps. After being closeted with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Union Minister Kapil Sibal, a member of the panel for nuclear talks, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee conferred with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Others present at the meeting were Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel.

Congress sources confirmed to Hindustan Times the possibility of the government signing the agreement despite the Communists' rigid opposition. But the final call would be taken after the UPA-Left committee meeting now slated on June 25.

The urgency in the government's moves was explained to the tight deadlines for completing the next three stages in the deal: the IAEA safeguards pact, the NSG waiver and the up and down vote in the US Congress on the 123 agreement. There was some relief, however, after the US State Department's public assurance that Washington would push for the deal till January 20, the day the new President would take oath in that country.

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Labels: American Congress, Bush administration, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, India, Indian government, nuclear deal, UPA, US

Job prospects best in India

Despite fears of an economic slow down at home and a slump worldwide, the country's employers are looking for workers actively. India has topped a global employment outlook survey, powered mainly by service industries such as IT, realty and financial services.

The latest quarterly survey of about 5,636 employers - part of a global sample of 55,000 - by multinational human resource firm Manpower Inc says that India's Net Employment Outlook for the July-September quarter stands at 45 per cent, the highest in the world.

"The strongest hiring intention is seen in sectors such as the services, finance, insurance, real estate, media and tourism," said Naresh Malhan, managing director of the Indian unit of Manpower .

Hiring intentions are weakest in the whole sale and retail trade industry sector and the manufacturing sector where employers have indicated a decline in their hiring plans.

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Labels: call centers, china, hiring, human resource, India, India's Net Employment Outlook, IT, ITES, Job, MNC, prospects, Singapore, survey

Top Naxal leaders now have faces

They are two of India's most wanted and between them they command up to 20,000 trained Maoist guerrillas with a presence in nearly 200 districts of the country.

For years Ganapathi, the general secretary of the feared Communist Party of India (Maoist) and his deputy Kishenda, a politburo member, were faceless. Today, Hindustan Times brings them to the public for the first time (see box).

The Maoists, described by PM Manmohan Singh as the country's single biggest security challenge, are accused of hundreds of knings, kidnapping and looting in the vast swathes they control. Home Ministry says they were responsible for the killing of 418 civilians and 214 security personnel in 2007. In 2006, the numbers were 501 and 133 respectively.

Ganapathi and Kishenda have been living secret lives for decades, though not always in the huge expanse of jungles under their complete control. Police in different states have had inputs about having spotted them in Cochin, Rourkela, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Raipur.

The security agencies acquired the photographs of the two six months ago either through a mole in the Naxal hierarchy or from a seized computer disk from a hideout in Bastar forests. The nearly 40,000 sq km expanse of forests on Chhatisgarh's border with Orissa and Andhra Pradesh is home for most number of Maoists an estimated 10,000.

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Labels: CPI, Ganapathi, India, India's Most Wanted, Kishenda forests, Maoists, Naxal hierarchy, secret lives, security, security challenge, Top Naxal leaders

Gas pipeline deal soon, says Iran President

Iran, Pakistan and India would soon give final shape to the proposed three nation gas pipeline, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday night. But he placed a question mark on the implementation of the June 2005 gas-by-ship contract.

The Iranian President conceded there was a clear link between the gas by ship deal to sell 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to lndia and New Delhi's decision to vote against Tehran at the IAEA governing board in September 2005.

Talking to the press after talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said: "Each vote has its own impact." But he added that the India-Iran relationship was "deeper than a vote". India's vote against Iran at the IAEA "related to the past", he said. "We are now looking forward."

The IAEA votes took the Iranian nuclear issue from the domain of the atomic watchdog to the UN Security Council. Ahmadinejad was pleased that Indian officials had given a "good and appropriate response" to Washington when it came forward with words of advice for Iran before his brief visit to Delhi.

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Labels: decision, Gas pipeline deal soon, IAEA vote, India, India-Iran relationship, Iran, Iran President, New delhi, Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Tehran

For Putin successor, yoga the best pill

Yoga is set to get a huge push in Russia, where the Indian art was banned and lessons were passed on secretly during the Soviet era.

Dmitri Medvedev, who will take over as Russia's new president next month, is a known yoga man and is expected to do what his predecessor Vladimir Putin did to judo.

"Little by little, I'm mastering yoga," Medvedev, who takes pride in his ability to perform shirshasana, a headstand pose, recently told the weekly news magazine Itogi. "The responsibility (of my job) is huge. To prevent headaches, I needed to practice yoga more intensively than before."

Yoga was banned in the Soviet era as the art, with its Hindu spiritual underpinnings, was seen as against the prevailing philosophy of MarxismLeninism. Today, it sweeps through Russia's physical culture studios, which until recently were dominated by body building and martial arts.

"Ten years ago there were only three yoga schools in all of Moscow, now there are several hundreds," said Inna Assekritova, a Moscow business executive who got hooked to yoga 30 years ago, when it was strictly banned. "In Soviet times, it was almost impossible to find a teacher; and all information about it had to be secretly passed from hand to hand," she said.

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Labels: India, Indian art, Russia, Russia's new president, Soviet era, Vladimir Putin, Yoga

US dream lost in packed dorms, stink of stale food

When Kurian David sold his home, he believed he was doing so to seek a better life in the US for him and his family He was promised good wages, decent accommodation, a green card and permanent residency for him, his wife and two sons.

He paid $20,000 (Rs 8 lakh) in exchange for a job at the Signal International shipyard in Orange, Texas.

When he arrived at the facility there was no opportunity for his dreams to come to fruition. Instead, he lived in a room with 23 other men, sleeping in bunk beds and sharing two bathrooms. David, 41, said he worked 10-hour days in the hull of a ship where he inhaled fumes and smoke. He was served stale bread for breakfast and forced to eat lunches left in the elements for hours.

When he and fellow workers at the plant complained, they were told they would be deported, a paralyzing possibility because of the debt he incurred getting the job.

"I decided to gamble everything," David said. "We felt bonded. We felt like we were in prison. None the less, we ate their rotten food and stayed in their degrading conditions because they promised us green cards."

David is one of about 120 workers brought to the US from India to work for Signal International in their two shipyards who walked off the job last week in protest of the conditions.

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Labels: bunk beds, India, Kurian David, Signal International shipyard, stink of stale food, US

Brown wants India to be a bigger global player

BRITISH PRIME Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday he hoped that India would join a proposed standby, rapid response international team to provide both civilian and military support to help failing states get back on their own feet. In an exclusive interview to the Hindustan Tirnes, Brown said when dealing with a broken-down state or a conflict zone, there was need not only for peace, but also for reconstruction and development. Supporting India's case for the lifting of restrictions imposed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group on civilian nuclear commerce, Brown said Britain would also back India's entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-led Financial Action Task Force to combat terrorism funding. Brown hinted that the West, which had backed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the war against terrorism, would look at the country closely after the February 18 general elections. "We have see how the polls are conducted," he said. "We're always...

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Image and Article source: Hindustan Times
Article taken from the issue: 22 Jan 2008

Labels: british, election, India, Pakistan, Prime Minister, terrorism, war

Shame: Rape is India's fastest growing crime

RAPE IS the fastest growing crime in the country, shows government data, even as reports of sexual crimes, including those against foreign tourists, continue to pour in from across India. The latest statistics, pertaining to 2006, released by the Home Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently, show that every hour 18 women become victims of crime. The number of rapes a day has increased nearly 700 per cent since 1971 - when the NCRB started recording such cases. It has grown from seven cases a day to 53. It was 5.5 per cent more than the number of rape cases registered in 2005. In comparison, all other crimes have grown by 300 per cent since 1953, when the NCRB started keeping records. And these are just the cases that have been reported; the number of unreport- ed cases is far higher. There have been at least a dozen cases of molestation and rape of foreign tourists so far in 2008. The latest was reported on Saturday - a British woman alleged she was raped in Panaji (see more cases in box). Worried over the sexual assaults on tourists, which has the potential to damage the tourism industry and the country's image, the...
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Article taken from the issue: 14 Jan 2008

Labels: crime, crime rate, India, largest, molestation, molested, rape, raped

Kirsten set to be next coach

FORMER South Africa opener Gary Kirsten is set to take over as India's next coach later this winter, over seven months after Greg Chappell left the post.

Kirsten, who secretly met top BCCI officials, the coach selection panel (comprising former cap tains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S. Venkataraghavan) and Test skipper Anil Kumble on Monday night in New Delhi, has been offered a two-year contract. "We have offered him a copy of the contract," said BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty "He . will let us know whether he's joining us or not latest by December 3." The South African seemed quite comfortable with the way things had worked out. "The inter view went well, but I haven't signed anything yet," said Kirsten.

HIS SCORECARD ¦ The former South African opener has played 101 Tests and 185 ODIs. He made his debut against Australia in Melbourne in 1993. He has a Test average of 45.27 and an aggregate of 7,289 runs. ¦ He was South Africa's batting coach after his retirement in 2004...

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Article taken from the issue:28 November, 2007

Labels: BCCI, coach, cricket, gary Kirsten, India, Indian cricket team, South Africa

Hindustan Times

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Chhetri ends India's 24-year wait

Monday, August 11, 2008

Information Technology firms slow campus hires

Friday, August 1, 2008

Good News

Thursday, July 17, 2008

In a year's time, you could ride the lovable bug

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

India profile tanks, Foreign Institutional Investors pullout sinks Sensex

Friday, July 11, 2008

Trust vote 'as early as possible'

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Red flag up, but UPA may push ahead

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Job prospects best in India

Friday, June 6, 2008

Top Naxal leaders now have faces

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Gas pipeline deal soon, says Iran President

Monday, April 21, 2008

For Putin successor, yoga the best pill

Monday, March 10, 2008

US dream lost in packed dorms, stink of stale food

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Brown wants India to be a bigger global player

Monday, January 14, 2008

Shame: Rape is India's fastest growing crime

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Kirsten set to be next coach

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