• Schwarzenegger Appoints Indian American as Judge
• Animal Excreta Hot Property for Curing Ailments
• India Rising: PM Chosen to Lead Asia
• Little Tribal Girls Rise Up Against Marriage
• Legislation for Diwali Stamp Introduced in US Congress
• 104 Varieties of Dosa to Stir Taste Buds!
• Wipro's Vivek Paul Among World's Most Respected CEOs
• A Replica of Taj Mahal in US
• Brit Gentleman gets to Roots of Indian Culture
• Sabeer Bhatia's 'Next' is a Net Sharing Editing Tool
• India Turning Healthcare Hub for Foreigners
• China has Designs on Indian Saris
• Saffron Meets Red: China Invites Advani

• Indian Girl on People Mag List
• Houston Celebrates 'Incredible India'
• Going Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem
• A-I Exp: A Flying Banner for Cultural India
• NRI to Chair Canadian Rights Panel
• Lipstic? It's Luvstik and More...
• Road Named After India
• A Pleasant Surprise for Advani
• Indians Dominating Europe's B-School
• Techies of India Unite
• 2 Indians in Most Influential CTOs List
• Azim Premji Richest Indian: Report
• Mobile Gaming in India Races Ahead

Nineteen-year-old Harvard freshman Meghan Pasricha has been selected as one of the "Top 20 Teens Who Will Change the World" by TeenPeople magazine. She is profiled in the April issue of TeenPeople . TeenPeople's "20 Teens Who Will Change the World" is an annual look at a select group of teens who aren't only the best and brightest, but are also taking action - often on a global level - to make the world a better place, according a press release from the magazine. "This year's group comprises 15 extraordinary 'real' teens and five celebrity teens - passionate activists and creative thinkers - who are literally changing the world by doing things such as scientific research, fighting for health care in Africa, and lobbying for foster kids," the release added. L'Oréal Paris is providing each honoree with a USD 1,000 scholarship. Pasricha was recognised for her efforts as a youth leader and tobacco control advocate in the US and in India. She plans to change the world by protecting children from second-hand smoke and for encouraging youth...

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 28, 2005

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Indian American Sanjay T Kumar has been appointed to a judgeship in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 40-year-old Republican was among three people appointed to the bench. The other two appointees were Craig J Mitchell and Alex Ricciardulli, both Democrats. Kumar, who will have a salary of $139,784, has served since 2001 as court commissioner in the court where he is assigned to the criminal court. Prior to that, he was supervising deputy attorney general for 11 years when he handled many high profile appeals, including the securities fraud case against financier Charles Keating, and the Menendez brothers' murder case. A native of Chicago, Kumar is a product of the public school system. He went on to graduate from Loyola University in Chicago and then moved to California to Pepperdine Law School, and was admitted to the State Bar in 1990. Before being made commissioner, he was a state criminal appeals attorney. The judicial panel that reviewed commissioner applications four years ago ranked Kumar as the No. 3 candidate from the list of more than 200 who applied for the position. He is a member of the California Judges Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the South Asian Bar Association, and the California Asian Peace Officers Association.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 26, 2005

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A Taj Mahal in downtown Houston? Sudarsan Patnaik, an accomplished sand artist from Orissa, has just created one, working with 25 tons of Texas sand. Patnaik's 20-foot replica of the Taj is a big draw at the famed Houston International Festival, which this year showcases India. So is a 20-foot replica of a gopuram (tower) created by the Sri Meenakshi Temple. Houston, the US' fourth largest city, has chosen India as the "spotlight" nation in this 34th year of the festival. The reason? "Because India is emerging as a major economic player," says festival president Jim Austin. The sights, smells and sounds of India dominate the "Incredible India Zone" at the centre of the 16-acre complex that came alive on Saturday after a joint inauguration by Houston's Mayor Bill White and Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen. Visitors were treated to the "Royal Indian Parade", a replication of sorts of Mysore's famous Dusserah procession. On view was a 17-foot tall decorated chariot with over 250 dancers from the local Indian community performing to the beat of drums. With over 100,000 Indian Americans in the Greater Houston area, the festival authorities could all along count on immigrants' enthusiasm. Members of a Hindu temple in Houston chipped in to put into shape an elaborate "swan gate" that graces the festival's India zone. The pull of Bollywood is obvious from the special place accorded to it by the organisers. Mock filming of dance sequences, musical extravaganzas, Bhangra beats, classical dance performances, fashion shows and Indian culinary delights will all be there on both weekends of the festival, say the organisers. The showcasing of India at the festival was said to be the result of two years of preparations initiated by Indian Consul General Skand Tayal along with the festival officials.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 26, 2005

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It is not only exotic birds, animals and their ilks that attract people from across the city to National Zoological Park (NZP). The zoo officials have come across a number of visitors who are more interested in their excreta and other things, given their "medicinal qualities and healing power." If the urine of rhinoceros is the most sought after thing, the excreta of elephant is equally important. Rhino urine is taken as a panacea to asthmatic ailments, while elephant excreta is considered useful in appeasing the "malignant stars" to realise one's cherished dreams. A Nagar couple from Gurgaon on Monday afternoon came to the office of an official, seeking his permission and co-operation in procuring the excreta of elephants and soil from beneath their feet. "A kind of ritual has to be performed to set the stars right," Suresh Nagar, a businessman from Gurgaon, said. Mr Nagar was not alone in requesting the official for obligations. Mrs Nagar and her two young daughters too joined him only to be told by the official that elephant excreta could be lifted from near the gate of the elephant's enclosure. "So far as the soil is concerned, you lift the same from the same place," the official told Mr Nagar. "Rhino urine is the most sought after thing in the zoo. It was even sold for Rs 500 per bottle. Some time back an animal keeper was caught, collecting the urine.

Courtesy The Pioneer, April 26, 2005

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An Indian mathematician, Chandrashekhar Khare, is poised to make a significant breakthrough in the field of number theory: with his solution of part of a major outstanding problem in algebraic number theory. In a paper posted on the Mathematics Arxiv on the web in April 2005 and subsequently sent for publication to a leading mathematics journal, the 37-year-old mathematician based at the University of Utah has proved what is known to specialists in the field as the `level-1 case of the Serre conjecture.' In earlier work done with the French mathematician, J.P. Wintenberger, in December 2004, Dr. Khare outlined a two-part general strategy to prove the Serre conjecture fully. The present result is a first key step. According to Professor Dipendra Prasad of the Department of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, the result is "one of the outstanding results in recent times in this field." He added that before the joint work of last year and Dr. Khare's current result, "it was unclear to the experts in the field that the conjecture would become a theorem in the near future." Before he moved to the United States in 2004 to take up a position on the University of Utah faculty as Associate Professor, Dr. Khare was on the TIFR faculty for nearly a decade. Experts in the field emphasise that the attempt to prove the Serre conjecture - named after the eminent French mathematician, Jean-Pierre Serre, who originally formulated it in the early 1970s - has been the driving force behind many recent developments in number theory. As Professor Serre himself noted many years ago, his conjecture, if proved in generality, would imply the proof of Fermat's last theorem. Dr. Khare's work reaps the harvest of seeds sown by Andrew Wiles and his co-worker, Richard Taylor, en route to proving Fermat's last theorem. Speaking to this correspondent after outlining his results at a TIFR seminar, Dr. Khare recounted that little progress had been made towards the proof of the conjecture till Professor Wiles' great work, and the realisation by Dr. Taylor that their methods could be used to tackle the solution of this outstanding problem. Asked about the reaction of experts to his proof, Dr. Khare said that Professor Serre himself was "excited and happy" to see his result, and that others also had reacted positively. As to the time frame of the final result, he noted that the present result had emerged earlier than he had originally anticipated. According to Dr. Khare, the full proof of the Serre conjecture will provide a new impetus to the advance of the `Langlands Programme.' This is one of the central themes of modern research in number theory and is devoted to the study of the relation between the symmetries of number theory and geometry. Together with Professor Wiles' earlier work, in his view, the full proof will open new lines of research not explored so far.

Courtesy: The Hindu, April 25, 2005

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In yet another evidence of India's rising eminence on the global stage, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Sunday chosen to speak for the whole of Asia at the signing ceremony of a historic Asia-Africa strategic partnership agreement at Bandung, Indonesia. The New Asia-Africa Strategic Partnership (NAASP), which aims at enhancing economic and political relations and counter threats of globalisation, was signed by 106 countries from the two continents after a two-day summit -- marking the 50th anniversary of the historic Bandung Conference that gave birth to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The Prime Minister also led the Asian leaders in the symbolic walk to the hall where the 1955 conference took place.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 25, 2005

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Air-India Express, the budget airline promoted by flag carrier Air-India, dons the colours and style of a culture ambassador for India, when it begins operations on April 29. Air-India Express would be a flying banner for the country with Indian art, music and symbols depicted all over the body of the three aircraft in the fleet. "The design of the aircraft is striking and contemporary, and reflects the rich Indian heritage," an airline official said. "The design concept envisages the aircraft's role as a cultural ambassador of India." Recognised cultural symbols adorn the tails of all three planes. One aircraft has popular Indian festivals as its theme, with images of the caparisoned elephant from Kerala on one side and a resplendent camel from the Pushkar Mela of Rajasthan on the other. The second aircraft shows off typical Indian motifs such as a colourful kite and a dazzling Rangoli design on either side of the tail. The third plane would advertise Indian music, with its tail sporting a tabla on one side and a sitar on the other. A red sash with golden streaks on the fuselage of the aircraft depicts a vibrant India and its flow indicates smoothness. "It is virtually like a red silk scarf taking to the skies," said the official. The sash merges with the colours and visuals on the tail of the aircraft, giving it the appearance of a large seamless design. Air-India Express seeks to provide connections on short routes. With a fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft, it begins its operations with the Gulf and will subsequently add more destinations.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 22, 2005

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Call them rebellious or defiant, but these children have a lesson or two for their parents. Over 1,000 minor girls in this district of Chhattisgarh have turned against their elders, saying they are too young to be married off. Amita, a Class VII student, now heads a band of girls, scampering around, getting signatures for a petition against child marriages. And they acted just in the nick of time, days ahead of the teej festival, when every year dozens - often hundreds - of young girls barely into their puberty are dragged to the altar by their parents. "My marriage was fixed to a boy from Mandla. I am in Class VII only and want to continue my studies. Hence, I protested," said Amita. Some of the young rebels motivated other minors to resist the wedding plans made by their parents on teej. In a unique initiative, the girls have formed a "Kishori Vahini" and are visiting villages, urging their "sisters" to reject marriage proposals. They have also collected over 1,000 'oath papers' from minor girls saying they would not marry till they are 18. The oath papers are authenticated by the area sub-divisional magistrates and prominently displayed in their "drawing rooms". The girls approached Rajnandgaon district magistrate GS Mishra and district child and women development officers and informed them about the child marriages in their villages.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 22, 2005

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Navdeep Singh Bains, an Indo-Canadian MP, has been elected chairman of a Canadian subcommittee on human rights. Bains, the MP for Mississauga-Brampton South constituency has been election chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, reports the South Asian Observer. Reacting to his appointment Bains said, "I am honoured to have been elected as the new chairman. It has always been my personal passion to further the cause of human rights in Canada and abroad. "I consider human rights a non-partisan issue and I look forward to working with my colleagues from all parties," he added. The subcommittee is mandated to study various cases of human rights abuses around the world.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 21, 2005

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Legislation was introduced on Wednesday in the House of Representatives urging the US Postal Service to issue a postage stamp honouring Diwali, India's festival of lights. Introducing the bill, Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, founder of the India Caucus, said an estimated 1.5 million Indian Americans celebrate Diwali, which traditionally takes place for five days during the early fall months of September and October. The holiday is observed by Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Muslims and Buddhists and is considered a time for communal gatherings and spiritual enlightenment. "Diwali is one of the most important and colourful of the Indian festivals and is celebrated enthusiastically by Indians all over the world," Pallone said. "The rich culture and spirit of Diwali has survived political, economic and social vicissitudes throughout history, while always carrying the universal symbolism of the triumph of light, goodness, knowledge and truth." Pallone noted that the Diwali stamp has received widespread community support. To date, approximately 115,000 people have signed an online petition to the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Commission in support of the stamp. "I feel that Diwali is truly a marvellous holiday that deserves recognition," Pallone continued. "As the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee continues its plans for issuing new stamps, I hope that it will consider issuing a Diwali stamp to honour this culturally significant holiday celebrated in the United States and abroad." The Commission under the US Postal Service currently issues many stamps with holiday themes, including Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Eid.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 21, 2005

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This one is for women. On second thoughts, maybe men too. The National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, has developed purely natural herbal colourants for lipsticks. But more lipsmacking is the institute's claim it has added 'mood-altering functional attributes' to them. The aroma accompanying the lipstick can be mood-enhancing, refreshing, stimulating, soothing, fragrant, anti-depressant, anti-stress, provide sensual pleasure, induce creative thinking, reduce anxiety and also anti-microbial. And the technology, called Luvstik, is up for grabs for Rs 15 lakh plus 2.5 per cent of sales as recurring royalty. The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), the technology-transfer arm of the Department of Science and Technology -- says this has been possible through a selection of blended formulations of natural colours and essential oils and aromas. "Since it is developed by the government, the licence is non-exclusive in nature and can be sold to multiple buyers," NRDC regional manager (Bangalore) V. Raghuram said. And no gender bias here. The NRDC has something in store for men too: another range has been developed without colours but with a moisturising effect with the same mood altering functions. Both groups of lipsticks have promotive, protective and beautifying attributes. They prevent darkening of lips, moisturise and add lustre and texture. Lipsticks for women also have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory effects as well. In addition to lipstick, it has extended the technology to develop eye shadow, glowglitters and rouges as well, using a mixture of bees wax, castor oil and safflower oil as the base.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 21, 2005

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The Indian cuisine has been as diverse as its culture, languages, regions and climate. A long range of dishes has evolved over time. Working on this philosophy, a food plaza in Hyderabad has recently introduced 104 different varieties of Dosa. They have already patented 27 of them. The food plaza introduced this new concept in Hyderabad after a successful trial in Mumbai. A brilliant blend of flavours, colours, seasoning, nutritional balance, fragrance, taste, and visual appeal, these special Dosas boast of an innovative variety of fillings. "Focal point of the Dosa Plaza is we have created more than 104 varieties of Dosas out of which 27 are patented, nobody can copy it. The difference between other Dosas and these Dosas are the fillings. We have the international flavour like Mexican dishes are filled in the Dosas or there are American fillings," said Jagdish Khorwal, Project Head, Dosa Plaza. Dosa lovers in the city who were bored with the usual onion and potato fillings in the Dosa, are extremely thrilled at the idea of these new and fresh fillings. "There are 104 varieties of Dosa here. It's different...people should try it. The taste is very good," said Aarthi Aggarwal. Poonam Aggarwal, another food lover, said, "I have not seen it in Hyderabad earlier. In fact, wherever we have been, we have not seen anything like this. So it is good that they have a lot of varieties in Dosas and Idlis." The menu includes Dosas with unusual fillings such as the Palak. Schezwan Dosa, the American Delite Dosa with the filling of mayonnaise, cheese, spring onion and cabbage, the Paneer Salad Roast Dosa with the filling of Russian salad and fried cheese, and the Mexican Roast Dosa having the filling of iceberg lettuce, cashew gravy and mayonnaise being the most popular ones. Apart from Dosas, the food plaza also caters in other south Indian delicacies like Vada (a form of fried Idli) and Idli.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, April 21, 2005

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Sri Lanka has decided to name a street after India for its support during the deadly tidal wave disaster, which hit the country on December 26 last year killing thousands. The southern provincial council decided to name a street in the village of Peraliya as "India-Sri Lana Maitri Road" in recognition of the work done by the Indian teams.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, April 20, 2005

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Barron's, the Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly, has named Vivek Paul, vice-chairman, Wipro Ltd as one of the 30 of The World's Most Respected CEOs. In the list, Barron's has identified 30 top-flight corporate leaders from across the world. Barron's noted, "The 30 CEOs on our list have one thing in common: They make a big difference to shareholders."Barron's acknowledges Vivek Paul's contribution in transforming Wipro Technologies from a $150 million software developer into a $1 billion force in offshore outsourcing, handling IT and customer service for companies. It attributes that because of Vivek Paul, Wipro could pose the greatest long term threat to the world's IT providers. In the honoree list for 2005, Vivek Paul joins the elite company of renowned global business leaders as Steven Reinemund, CEO, PepsiCo and Terry Semel, CEO Yahoo! Under Vivek Paul's leadership Wipro is one of India's largest and fastest growing IT services companies. Vivek Paul stated, "At Wipro we always strive to provide greatest value to our stakeholders, both internal and external. This recognition is testimony to all at Wipro who have worked with a zeal and passion to make Wipro a leader in global IT services."

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, April 19, 2005

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The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on Sunday had a pleasant surprise for the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani. The General presented the BJP leader with an album containing photographs from Mr. Advani's school days till his last visit to Pakistan. Mr. Advani, who had studied in the same school as the Pakistan President, said they had a hearty discussion for ``quite some time'' on their alma mater. He said the President had come with a ``precious gift'' of a photo album containing pictures of his home, his school and the then Principal. Mr. Advani said he would ``probably'' visit Pakistan in June.

Courtesy: The Hindu, April 18, 2005

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Sudarsan Patnaik, an artist from Orissa, has been invited to the US to create a replica in sand of the Taj Mahal during a festival there later this month. According to Patnaik, he will make the sand model at the Houston International Festival in Texas, to be held from April 23 to May 1. "I will create on sand a replica of the 17th-century monument built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal near the festival venue," he said. Patnaik, who has won awards for his sand sculptures, teaches the art to 50-odd students in his open-air school in Puri. He has been creating sculptures on the city's beach since the past 15 years.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 15, 2005

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Indians dominating the campuses in US and UK is old hat now. But what comes as a surprise is that INSEAD, Europe's premier B-school in Fontainebleau, France, now has more Indian students in its graduate programme than those from the country itself. In less than five years, the proportion of Indian students in INSEAD has trebled to 12.3%, and Indians now form the largest chunk of graduate programme students from a single country. In a batch of 850 students in the January 2005 term, around 100 hold an Indian passport, Gabriel Hawawini, the school's dean - currently touring India - said. Now the bad news: In the days to come, this number may not rise because of the school's policy to achieve a well-balanced regional and country-wise representation among its pupils. ''Our policy is to usually restrict students from one country to around 10%,'' he said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, April 15, 2005

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David Gentleman is a British artist and writer with a passion for India. With a distinctive body of work in stamps, posters, wood engravings and lithography under his belt, Gentleman was in the capital recently for the release of his book David Gentleman's India. The book, published 11 years ago in London, deals with his impressions about India. "While writing this book I made three trips to India because every part of this country is uniquely different," says Gentleman. He admits that affection for this country combined with a feeling of curiosity and a spirit of adventure prompted him to write the book. "I have also been inspired by the works of many stalwarts who have written about the artistic history of India," he adds. David plans to start work on lithographic prints of landscapes around his cottage in East Anglia as soon as he lands home. However, his association with India is far from over. As he puts it, "With my daughter based here, it feels right at home, and I certainly want to come back."

Courtesy: The Asian Age, April 15, 2005

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Techies, can now have some fun online. Offering them respite from their routine work, is Azealots.com. This is India's first Techies-for-Techies forum which aims to bring together the nation-wide technical community on a common platform. It was launched recently and the first of the fun events will start on Monday, April 18. The forum combines fun with technology and intends to bring entertainment and fun value to the life of working IT professionals. The brainchild of a group of techies at Aztec Software in Bangalore, azealots.com, started off as a fun event within the organisation in 2001. Based on the success of the forum internally, this group decided to share this with their peers in the industry and build a community of software professionals, who can build future events that combine technology with fun for the benefit of the entire community. There are eight lakh techies in the country. Four thousand and seventy members are already showing interest as membership is free. The first event in this forum, called "Back to Basics" is open to all employed software professionals in India and commences on Monday and will run for ten weeks. The winners will be announced every week on the official website www.azealots.com and there will be grand prizes at the end of the ten week period. The grand prizes include a Bose home-theatre system, a Dell laptop and an Apple iPod, along with a lot of cash awards to be won every week.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, April 15, 2005

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In one of the ironies of the computer age, the Indian who pioneered the concept of free e-mail on the Internet is helping launch another compelling product whose main plus point is that it overcomes many of the drawbacks of existing mailing options. Sabeer Bhatia, long known as "Mr. Hotmail'' after he launched the Web's first "free for all'' mail service a decade ago (before selling it to Microsoft for $400 million), has assisted a small Bangalore startup to launch what he calls "the killer application for collaboration on the Net.'' "InstaColl'' - short for INSTAnt COLLaboration - takes the widely used Microsoft "Office'' tools such as "Word'', "Excel'' and "Powerpoint'' and adds a layer of collaboration on top. InstaColl's founder-CEO, Sumanth Raghavendra, and co-founder, Kaushal Cavale, said the product, completely conceived and developed by Indian engineer, had already attracted wide interest worldwide.

Courtesy: The Hindu, April 14, 2005

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When it comes to technical prowess and IT skills, Indians come at the top. Recently Ravi Arimilli of IBM and Pradeep Sindhu of Juniper Networks figured in the list of 25 most influential senior IT managers who have been awarded by InfoWorld's CTO forum. The main objective of CTO Awards is to highlight the achievements of those who reflect brilliant minds behind corporate IT across various industry verticals viz. BFSI, government, manufacturing and ITeS. The coveted award has so far featured the who's who of corporate India, where the achievers are recognised and felicitated amongst their peers making it the most sought after recognition by the Indian CTO. While Ravi Arimilli of IBM bagged the first slot, the other top five winners included CTOs from companies namely Citadel Security, CollabNet, Emulex, LogicLibrary and AT&T. Here's a profile of the IT stalwarts from India who have made it to this year's list of CTO 25. Ravi Armilli is currently the chief scientist of IBM. He joined the company in 1985 to work on the team that was developing the first RISC microprocessor for the IBM RT/PC, a system that ran IBM's version of Unix, AIX 1.0. He was IBM's most prolific inventor of 2002 and led the Power4 and Power5 server project since 1996. He shot to fame for leading IBM from No 4 position to No 1 in Unix server market share and his career includes work on the Blue Pacific supercomputer for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. During his time, the company's patent portfolio generated an average of more than $1 bn in intellectual-property royalties during each of the past 10 years.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, April 14, 2005

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India is being recognised as a destination for high quality healthcare made available at affordable rates with more and more overseas patients coming here for treatment, an expert has said. "Medical services offered in this part of the globe are on par with the best of facilities especially in the western world... more and more patients now come to India for we have even better healthcare delivery system at about one-fifth of the cost they would be asked in the West," Director, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC), Dr Naresh Trehan told reporters after successfully treating a 54-year-old patient from Canada. Richard Johnson, who suffered chest pain early January this year, came across EHIRC's website and got in touch with the Hospital and flew to India, he said. Johnson was diagnosed for unstable angina and single vessel disease for which he was operated and discharged from the Hospital on April 8, Trehan said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, April 12, 2005

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Azim Premji, the Chairman of Bangalore-based software giant Wipro, is the richest Indian with a wealth worth Rs 31,198 crore. Premji is the richest Indian while Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Reliance Group respectively, are the second richest in India with a combined wealth of Rs 24,172 crore, according to Success 2005, a new business magazine launched by Eastern Eye group of publications. Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Tele-Ventures, is third in the list with a wealth worth Rs 12,552 crore. He is followed by Shiv Nadar, Chairman, President and CEO, HCL Technologies (Rs 7,929 crore).

Others listed are:

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Embroidered saris have wooed women for centuries with its intricate patterns painfully embroidered by hands. However, with the passage of time, hand-embroidery is gradually dying and getting replaced by machines or computer embroidery. And strange as it may sound, China has now captured the Indian embroidered sari industry. Although embroidery machines first made their appearance in India about 15 years ago, with the export houses buying them from Germany, the US and Japan, they were, however, beyond everyone's reach because of their high costs. The advent of Chinese machines in the market has changed the scenario. Not only are they cheap, but their performance is at par with the German and Japanese machines. "These machines are from China. They also come from Japan, Korea and Germany, but Chinese machines are cheaper and therefore everybody prefers them. "We are really happy to invest money on these machines. Their performance is also good and can be used to make a number of designs," said Subhash Aggarwal, a machine owner.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 07, 2005

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Mobile gaming industry has undergone a major shift in the past couple of years. In the mid-1990s, a cell phone game meant just one thing: a digital snake scrolling across a monochromatic screen. Later new games like Bantumi, Space Impact, Pairs, Hexa, Mole and Casinos were added to the newer versions of Nokias and Samsungs. Today, such embedded games are passe, with users going for newer downloads on high end mobile platforms. According to AT Kearney, around 10% of 1.7 billion mobile phone users in the world are downloading mobile games. "According to ACNielsen, India's mobile users will double to 80 million by December 2005. It is estimated that Indian mobile gaming market generated $26 million in revenues in 2004 and will increase to $336 million by 2009," said Anurag Khurana, CEO, Paradox Studios Ltd. As the market expands, content also changes. Now one can download Tower of Hanoi, Ten Pin terror, Air Attack, 21 black jack, Shatranj, Battledust and Bomberbabe on their mobile phones. According to industry estimates, around 7,50,000 unique gaming downloads are happening on mobile platforms daily. "Now gaming has shifted to single player to multi-player and cross platforms. Currently, over 100 gaming titles available across J2EE and BREW platforms. 2D and 3D content (games) are the latest addition to the mobile phones," said Mr Khurana.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, April 07, 2005

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China has invited BJP president L K Advani for a visit, in what is seen as an attempt by it to reach out to quarters which have not been considered close to the Communist state, at a time when it intends to resolve border issues with India. If the right wing leader of the Opposition accepts the invitation which reached him a few days ago, he is likely to make his first trip to China in May. The visit could be finalised after Chinese PM Wen Jiabao calls on Advani, as scheduled, during his visit to India next week. Since the border dispute is moving towards a resolution, it is believed that China wo-uld like to prevent any hitch that could come in the way of sorting out the issue and ensure a political consensus, by engaging the Opposition. The Chinese move also substantiates Wen's eagerness to sor out the border tangle, so China can move ahead with other domestic and diplomatic issues.

Courtesy: The Times of India, April 06, 2005

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