Techie Adhip Lahiri’s murder cracked; 2 held

Times News Network
Picture: Md Asad

Culprits Wanted To Lead Lavish Life; Police Discount Professional Rivalry

Bangalore:
Motive: Murder for gain
Victim: Adhip Lahiri, a software professional
Accused: J Raju and Venkatesh, former employees of IT companies
Clue: Killers used Lahiri’s credit card to buy a cellphone and SIM card

The Adhip Lahiri murder case has been solved and two former employees of ITPB have been arrested. Adhip Lahiri was found murdered on December 22. He was killed the previous night in his car and the killers had dumped the body near a water tank in Garudacharpalya.

The accused are J Raju, who worked as a transport supervisor and Venkatesh, a security guard. Both of them worked at ITPB premises, Whitefield, in the past. The police have discounted the theory of professional jealousy as alleged by Lahiri’s family. Police commissioner Achutha Rao on Saturday said Lahiri’s killers were working for two different IT companies. Thirty-two-year-old Lahiri, worked for i-2G software and as an outsourced project person for Infeneon at ITPB.

The killers were caught based on the transactions they had made on a credit card belonging to Lahiri. They had snatched credit and debit cards along with a laptop and a cellphone from Lahiri before killing him. The killers used the credit card to buy a cellphone and SIM card. This helped the police to trap them.

The police, who had kept a close watch on the transactions made on Lahiri’s cards, learnt about this purchase. Acting swiftly, they monitored the calls made and received on the cellphone. The police team, led by joint commissioner Gopal B Hosur, laid the trap. Achuta Rao said: “After work on December 21, Lahiri, a native of Kolkata, left ITPB at around 9 pm in his car. The killers followed him in another car from the ITPB gate. Lahiri was not their specific target and he was picked up randomly. Initially, they wanted to rob him and they had no intention of killing him. The duo wanted to lead a luxurious life by targeting techies.”

“After following him up to some distance, the killers created a scene of accident near Sri Sathya Sai general hospital on Varthur road and forced Lahiri to stop his car and get down in an isolated place. They sprayed pepper powder on Lahiri’s face and shoved him on the back seat. They overpowered him, tied his hands and legs and gaged him using a scotch tape. The killers left their car near the hospital and drove Lahiri’s car after robbing credit cards, cellphone and other valuables. They forced Lahiri to reveal the PIN numbers of the cards.”

“When the car reached Whitefield railway level-crossing, Lahiri tried to shout for help. The killers smothered him to death and took his body to Garudacharpalya through narrow lanes, avoiding police picket points on the main road. The duo threw Lahiri’s body near a water tank and sped away.”

“Later, they planned to sell the car outside Bangalore and drove towards Tumkur. However, on seeing heavy police presence on the roads, they abandoned the car near Yeshwantpur and took an autorickshaw to reach Varthur road near their car which they had borrowed from a friend. The killers used the stolen debit cards to withdraw cash from ATM counters and make some purchases in Bangalore and Kolar.”

In the early hours of December 22, Lahiri’s wife Aparna went to Airport road police station and lodged a complaint that her husband had not come home. Later, an unidentified body was found at a water tank near Garudacharpalya and Aparna identified the body as Lahiri’s. Though Aparna had tried to block the card transactions, the cards remained active for some reason and the killers made purchases worth Rs 1 lakh.

According to the police, Venkatesh, who worked as a guard at an IT firm, was removed from his job recently due to misbehaviour. The police have recovered the laptop robbed from Lahiri and also the items which they had purchased using credit cards.

Companies go on a recruitment spree at IIT Bangalore

Times News Network

Bangalore: As many as 25 companies hit the International Institute of Technology, Bangalore, to recruit the seventh batch of students this year. Despite lucrative offers, nine students declined offers, opting to pursue higher studies.

Another 64 students are pursuing the research option in industrial research laboratories like ABB Corporate Research, HP IMS, IBM Software Labs, Motorola Research, Microsoft Research, Nokia and Siemens Research.

IT majors like Amex, SAP, EMC, GE, Novell, BEA, Web Methods and Intel who have been the major recruiters continued their drive at IIIT-B recruiting 52 students.

Another interesting feature of the placement this year is that 26 students joined startup companies like Ziva, Tyfone and niche firms like Techvoyant, Kodiak Networks Fiberlink and Allgo.

Three students will spend their internship of six months at University of Kaiserslautern in Germany and one student, Megha Saini, is going to University of Trento at Italy.

Another student, Abhishek S, will be spending six months in UK working with a company and Kingston University.

Family suspects sinister motive in Techi's Murder

Times News Network

Bangalore: The Lahiris and Mukherjees are still in a state of shock following the robbery and murder of 32-year-old software engineer Adhip Lahiri.

The family feels it was not murder for gain and suspects a sinister motive as Adhip was gagged and bound with ropes and scotch tape. Adhip’s father Arun Chandra Lahiri, a retired deputy chief engineer with LIC, says his son was not the kind of person who was foolish to stop his car while driving through lonely stretches. His office was in ITBP and he lived near Manipal Hospital. He was to leave for Germany on Monday from Kolkata.

Adhip’s credit cards were also robbed at the time of the murder. On Sunday, when the family called the bank to block his credit cards they found that his HSBC card was already blocked. The bank said an attempt was made to use the card around 3 pm on Sunday. After a few unsuccessful attempts at guessing the PIN it may have got automatically blocked, they suspect.

On the fateful night, Adhip’s wife Aparna called him at 11.30 pm. The cell rang for some time. When she tried again later it was switched off. It was then that she panicked and called the police.
Picture 1: File photo of Adhip Lahiri and his wife Aparna
Picture 2: The car in which Adhip was driving back home on Thursday night

Chidambaram fractures toe in Bangalore incident

S. Rajendran, The Hindu

BANGALORE: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram fractured a toe after he tripped and fell off a granite step leading to Koshy's, a restaurant on St. Marks Road here, on Saturday. This followed an incident involving a photographer of The Times of India.

An official press release said Mr. Chidambaram and some members of his family (wife, son, daughter - in - law and grand-daughter) were dining out with some friends when the photographer of a newspaper approached them repeatedly and asked for permission to take photographs. Each time, his request was turned down as the family was on a private visit.

Police sources said there was a scuffle when the photographer of The Times of India attempted to take pictures as the family came out of the restaurant. An attempt was made to snatch his camera and in the melee the Minister tripped and fell.

The press release said that when the family came out, the photographer began clicking away. "Mr Chidambaram's son and his friend objected. In order to avoid the photographer, Mr. Chidambaram moved to the right, but missed a step, tripped and fell down. He suffered a fracture of the toe and a plaster cast has been put on the right foot."

The release said the photographer, and subsequently the Resident Editor of the newspaper apologised to Mr. Chidambaram and his family.

The Minister and his family members arrived here on a private visit two days ago and they were said to have planned a visit to Melkote in Mandya district.

Police sources said that being on a private outing, Mr. Chidambaram was in an attire different from his usual white dhoti and white shirt.

The family was perturbed on noticing the photographer waiting outside and there was a scuffle.

The Minister was thereafter taken to the Manipal Hospital on Airport Road. He has been advised rest for a fortnight.

After long wait, Archbishop tells CM not to come for Xmas party

Times news Network

Bangalore: Politicians religiously come late to functions, whether they are related to religion or not. Archbishop Bernard Moras, who had organised a Christmas get-together for important personalities of Bangalore on Friday, got tired of waiting for the chief minister and told his office that Kumaraswamy need not come.

The Christmas party was to start at 5 pm on Friday. After waiting for the CM, the Archbishop got it started around 5.30 pm, but still waited for him. The CM’s office told the Archbishop that Kumaraswamy was stuck in Sira, Tumkur district, and would join the party after landing at Jakkur by a helicopter. Political leaders, the Chief Justice, bureaucrats, the police commissioner and others were already there. Though the governor could not make it as he is in Hyderabad undergoing an eye surgery, he sent two representatives from Raj Bhavan with bouquets to greet the Archbishop.

But no such courtesies from the CM, and the wait continued. The CM’s office kept saying Kumaraswamy was coming by road and would reach the party around 8.30 pm. It was revised to 10.30 pm. By then, it was time for the Archbishop and other priests to leave the venue to attend to their prayers.

On Saturday morning, the Archbishop called the CM’s office at 8.30 am to check if the CM could come over for the occasion. The CM’s office confirmed he would be there at 9.30 am, and revised it to 10.30 am. Again, there was no sign of him till noon, the Archbishop’s office said.

Around 12.30 pm, a frustrated Archbishop started moving out his chambers, when a couple of policemen came running to inform him that the CM was on his way.

It was again the same story. When the Archbishop’s office checked with the CM’s staff, they said Kumaraswamy was attending some function at the Vidhana Soudha Banquet Hall and would be with the religious head in a little while.

The Archbishop, whose patience had already been tested to the limit, conveyed to the CM’s office that he need not come.

“The CM should not always look to capture votes, but also participate in social and cultural gettogethers. He has been late to arrive in virtually every function and he has never apologised. His father H D Deve Gowda too used to come late, but at least he used to apologise,’’ the Archbishop’s office said.

CM clarifies
Kumaraswamy said, “There was some communication gap and I will meet the Archbishop on Sunday morning.”

Of Late...

• Kumaraswamy was to inaugurate a water tank at Ramnagaram at 10.30 am last week. When he landed, it was 6.15 pm.
• For signing an MoU at Oracle for networking 100 polytechnics, he came so late that four corporate honchos finished speaking and then asked the audience to sing to pass time. He came two hours late.
• At the Rajyotsava function where top honchos like Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Toyota Kirloskar Motors chairman Vikram Kirloskar among others were present, the CM arrived late.

Techie Adhip’s kin in Bengal shocked by the murder

Times News Network

Kolkata: Relatives and neighbours of slain Bangalore-based IT employee Adhip Lahiri’s family in Salt Lake’s Laboni Abasan are shocked. To neighbours, the murder of the ‘amiable, polite and humble’ young man is unbelievable.

Adhip’s father Arun Chandra Lahiri flew to Bangalore on Friday on hearing of his son’s death. The rest of the family, including Adhip’s mother, brother Ayanand and an uncle left for Bangalore in the wee hours of Saturday.

Adhip’s father is a retired employee of an insurance company. He was also president of Laboni Abasik Samiti a few years ago. Adhip’s mother Aparna is an assistant headmistress at Dum Dum Motijheel Girls’ High School. Ayan is a second year mechanical engineering student at Jadavpur university.

Adhip’s aunt Sanjukta Maitra, who lives at Skyline Apartment near Bidhan Sishu Udyan, said Adhip was supposed to arrive in Kolkata on Sunday and fly to Germany on December 26 on an official assignment. “Adhip was a brilliant student. He passed out of IIT Kharagpur and first joined American Express. He did his MBA in New Delhi and got married in November 2000. We cannot even imagine that somebody could kill such a boy,” she said.

The relatives are clueless about the motive behind the murder. “We learnt that Adhip’s laptop as well as his cellphone was lost,” said Sanjukta. “We have heard that there was a deep injury mark on the right side of Adhip’s face,” said a relative.

Known persons may have killed engineer

Police Rule Out Murder-For-Gain Theory

Times News Network

Bangalore: The police suspect some known persons were involved in the murder of software engineer Adhip Lahiri, who was smothered between ITPB and his house on Airport Road on Thursday night.

The police had earlier said it could be murder for gain, but are now ruling it out. The crucial clue is that Adhip’s hands and feet were tied. If the attackers were interested only in money, they would not waste time finding a rope to bind his hands and feet which would take up precious time. The murderers had also placed the body beside the Mahadevapura tank and not thrown it into a ditch or into the tank, the police say.

They are also working on the theory that Adhip was smothered by some known persons at a place known to him, because there were no “major signs” of struggle, except a small injury on his head. Joint commissioner of police (crime) Gopal B Hosur said the victim was bound using cloth, ropes and adhesive tape. The cloth was part of an old dupatta used to clean his car, but the ropes and tapes were possibly carried by the attackers.

“The attackers, possibly three of them, could have stopped him, gained entry into the car and murdered him. The post-mortem report indicates death due to asphyxiation. It also states that there were signs of struggle as his shirt button was torn,’’ Hosur says.

The autopsy was conducted at the Bowring Hospital on Saturday morning. Details of the report were not available. The body was cremated at the Kalhalli crematorium in Cox Town.

Adhip’s wife Aparna, who works for TCS in the city, preferred not to speak to the media and refused to part with her husband’s photo, saying: “That will not be necessary.’’

Other family members, including her father Rear Admiral S S Mukherjee, were present at their residence behind Manipal Hospital.

BSNL broadband goes high speed, to offer 2mbps at Rs.250 a month

Times News Network & Agencies

New Delhi: State-run BSNL will invest up to Rs 2,000 crore to augment its broadband infrastructure in urban and rural areas to aggressively capture subscribers.

"We’ll invest Rs 1,200-1,500 crore for expanding our broadband network in urban areas, while about Rs 500 crore would be invested in rural areas,” BSNL CMD A K Sinha said here, adding that BSNL is already in the process of launching triple play services over broadband in Pune and subsequently in Chennai and Bangalore.

BSNL will provide broadband up to 2 mbps at Rs 250 a month. The speed has been increased eight times, whereas the download has been increased by 2.5 times at almost half the cost. Under the new plan, all the existing 8.2 lakh customers are also being upgraded for the speed up to 2 mbps, depending upon technical feasibility.

With 2007 being declared the Year of Broadband, BSNL will add the 5 million port capacity to existing network of 1 million ports. BSNL at present has a market share of 44% in this segment. BSNL also holds the prime position as the largest internet service provider of the country. More than 1,000 cities and towns and 20,000 villages will come under the broadband map. Nearly 10,000 exchanges in urban areas and 20,000 exchanges in rural areas would be broadband enabled.

The telecom major would start an online gaming service very shortly under two categories — standard and premium packages with monthly fixed charges of Rs 100 and Rs 200, respectively.

IT engineer robbed, killed

Body Found Off Mahadevapura Tank; Murder For Gain Suspected
23 Dec 2006, Times News Network

Bangalore: In yet another crime against IT professionals, a software engineer, Adhit Lahiri (32), was waylaid, abducted and smothered to death on Thursday night. His body was found at an isolated stretch near Mahadevapura tank in Bangalore’a eastern suburbs early on Friday.

The police said software engineer’s wife Aparna Lahiri (in her late twenties), who was waiting for her husband, started getting anxious when he did not return even by midnight. He normally came home around 10 or 10.30 pm.

Aparna rushed to the nearby Airport police station and lodged a complaint about her missing husband. She told the police that her husband was wearing a checked yellow shirt, a ‘sacred’ thread and red ‘sacred’ band around his wrist. Immediately, the police wireless sets started crackling across the city with the description of the missing man.

The police found the body dumped near Mahadevapura tank early on Friday. Adhit had been smothered — prevented from breathing by pressing a cloth or some other object against his mouth and nose. His hands and legs were bound and the police are wondering why the attackers went to such lengths, when they could have just dumped the body.

The police suspect that Adhit, who was commuting by car, may have been waylaid somewhere between ITPB and his house by at least three attackers. There was no sign of struggle at the spot. Initial suspicion was that it could be a murder for gain; Adhit’s car, ring, watch, cash and mobile phone have been robbed. After examination by sleuths and forensic experts, the body was taken to the Bowring Hospital mortuary. The post-mortem will be conducted on Saturday.

Additional commissioner of police Bipin Gopalkrishna, joint commissioner of police Gopal Hosur and deputy commissioner of police P Muniswamy visited the spot where the body was found.

Aparna has been inconsolable and her father, Rear Admiral S S Mukherjee, flew down in the evening to be with his daughter at their residence near Manipal Hospital.

Dental student glitters with seven medals

Swati Anand | Times News Network

Bangalore: When you ask Sharanya Ajit Kumar how she managed to get seven gold medals from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), she smiles modestly. “I’ve always focussed on doing my best. Ranks and medals are just a byproduct,” she says.

By the looks of it, this student of Government Dental College (GDC) has quite a few ‘by-products’ to accommodate. She has been topping her college through the four years and secured first ranks in at least two subjects every year, making it a tally of 13. Sharanya has stood first on two occasions in RGUHS through the four years.

And while she dominated the awards ceremony at her college convocation on Wednesday, at the university convocation to be held in early 2007, she will walk away with medals for oral anatomy, oral pathology, dental materials, community dentistry and conservative dentistry, apart from overall merit for third and final year.

That’s not all. The Indian Association of Periodontics recently commemorated her at Pune for academic excellence in the subject.

“She’s been a firstranker all through school,” says her proud father Ajit Kumar, an ISRO employee. Sharanya graduated from Kendriya Vidyalaya, NAL, with an impressive score of 93 per cent.

Her mother, insurance agent Shakina, doesn’t recall a single day of prodding their daughter to study. “I think it was an inborn trait in her to be organised,” she says.

It’s this trait that has been Sharanya’s key to success. “I study bit by bit every day. So I’m never tensed or overworked when it’s exam time,” she says.

Focus is evidently another strong point. “I began weighing my career options seriously after my 10th and zeroed in on dentistry because I thought it was an upcoming field,” she says. So while she could opt for a medical seat with a CET rank of 1,100, she went ahead with dentistry. “At least half the people in my class are here because they did not get a medical seat. But the step-sisterly treatment towards BDS is changing.”

When not studying, Sharanya’s a regular mallrat, who loves watching movies. “I saw Umrao Jaan recently — it was so slow and weepy,” she frowns. A trained Bharatanatyam dancer, she’s been dabbling with salsa recently. At college, she was the cultural secretary and general secretary of the student body council. And she usually curls up in bed with a racy novel by John Grisham.

Next on cards is a post-graduate degree. “I would like to get into any government college, hopefully back to GDC.” And while she plans to work in a multi-speciality hospital and then, in a private clinic, she eventually wants to teach. “It would be great if I could be a faculty member in a dental college by the day and run my practise in the evening."

Land worth crores gobbled

S Kushala | Times News Network

Bangalore: It cannot be more timely. The ordinance bringing land grabbers and erring officials under the ambit of law has come at a time when government has identified thousands of acres of its land that has been encroached upon.

Sample this: Of the 1.18 lakh government lands in Bangalore Urban, 13,614 acres have been encroached upon. The value of these lands, taking into consideration the guidance value of stamps and registration department, has been estimated at Rs 27,377.75 crore.

The legislature committee for land encroachment survey has identified largescale encroachment of government lands under the purview of 15 departments. Departments occupying top slots are revenue, BDA, forest and wakf, says an interim report prepared by the committee, headed by MLA A T Ramaswamy, which will be released on Thursday.

According to the report, a copy of which has been made available to TOI, information on government lands was obtained from 28 departments and a survey done. Bangalore Urban deputy commissioner M A Sadiq carried out the exercise with 250 surveyors.

The revenue department tops in both murky deals and the quantum of land encroached upon. The committee found that over 3 lakh bogus possession certificates were issued to encroachers of government lands in connivance with revenue department officials.

Housing societies have played a major role too. A large number of societies violated all norms and went ahead with layout formation. Some of these are Shantinagar Housing Society, Vishwa Bharati Housebuilding Co-operative Society and Aircraft Employees Society.

The Pollution Control Board has also come under the scanner. It has been pulled up for renewing licences for stone-crushing units around TG Halli reservoir which has been declared environmentally sensitive. While the government has banned stone crushing activities around 1,493 sq km area of TG Halli, the authorities have still been renewing licences.

In a Nutshell:

• Since stringent action has been initiated in other states to prevent encroachment, land grabbers are migrating to Bangalore who find it easy to lay their hands on government properties.
• Prime temple properties are being grabbed; Muzrai and endowments department has not acted.
• 3.5 acres of NIMHANS property grabbed by a private developer who has constructed an apartment for which BMP has given khata

Top 3 departments:

• Revenue: 9,294 acres valued at Rs 18,588 crore
• BDA: 2,878.2 acres, Rs 5,236.25 crore
• Forest and lakes: 938.54 acres, at Rs 1,877.08 crore

Principal arrested for harassment, released on bail

Times News Network

Bangalore: St Claret’s School principal, Fr Mathew, was arrested and released on bail late on Wednesday night.

The principal has been under the scanner for his alleged misbehaviour with two schoolgirls as reported in city newspapers.

According to the police, their officers were sent to apprehend the principal.

The Archbishop of Bangalore, Bernard Moras, said the principal will not return to the school. “I have contacted Fr Mathew’s superiors and they have assured me that he will be transferred. He will not come back to the school as principal,” he assured.

According to the police complaint, which was filed on Sunday, Fr Mathew had used “suggestive language” and had “thrown his arms around their shoulders” at a school excursion three months ago. It’s reported that the girls spoke about the incident at a private party recently.

School responds
School authorities responded on Wednesday: “Principal Fr Mathew was never alone with the students during this school trip. He was accompanied by other students and teachers and nothing could have gone unnoticed. “We are surprised that such a complaint was made after three months. We have enquired with the staff and other students and they all claim that nothing happened. He has been principal for six years and no such case has been registered against him.

“We suspect that the principal’s uncompromising stand on discipline and admonishing students for immoral behaviour could have led to this.’’

Related post:
Tension over harassment of schoolgirls

Doctor held for obscene e-mails

Times News Network

Bangalore: A woman received an obscene e-mail on November 19: “Hello Preeti (name changed) u r so beautiful, met u 1st time 3 days back, u r so sexy I don’t know whether u r married? Lovely eyes, lovely **, lovely **, u r sexy.”

She ignored the e-mail in disgust. However, the mails didn’t stop.

On November 21, she received another obscene e-mail. Though she was angry, she decided to ignore it again.

When the e-mails didn’t stop, she approached the cyber crime sleuths on November 23.

Once the complaint was lodged, the sleuths managed to track down the e-mails to raaj-sv@yahoo.co.in. They then hunted down the sender, who was surreptitiously sending these mails from a dingy e-mail parlour in J P Nagar.

The Cyber Crime sleuths registered a case against the sender, Dr Saravanan E. Initials investigations revealed that he sent five anonymous obscene e-mail messages from the cyber cafes to this woman.

Additional director general of police S Mahapatra said a case has been registered against Dr Saravanan E under Section 67 of Information Technology Act 2000.

Dacoits strike at petrol bunk

Times News Network

Bangalore: Five armed hoodlums attacked the Shell petrol bunk on Hosur Road and decamped with Rs 17.5 lakh and seven cell phones on Monday morning. The gang threatened the 11 employees with an air pistol and choppers and locked them inside the office.

South east DCP Soumendu Mukherjee said, “These men escaped in their twowheelers.” Police suggested the gang could be novices, who lived nearby. Although they carried out the operation in 15 minutes flat, they dropped two bundles of currency notes in their hurry to escape. They stuffed the money in their pockets and a small cloth bag.

This dacoity comes 24 hours after three armed men abducted a jeweller on Airport Road and forced him to open his own jewellery store for them to loot. They escaped with 2.5 kg of gold jewellery. Later, the owner was blindfolded, sedated and abandoned.

Tension over harassment of schoolgirls

Times News Network

Bangalore: An angry mob gathered outside St Claret High School, Jalahalli village, on Monday to protest school principal Fr Mathew’s alleged misbehaviour with two girl students.

It is reported that the principal of St Claret High School allegedly used “suggestive language and even put his hands around the shoulders” of two students.

According to the police, parents of the students lodged a complaint with the Jalahalli police on Sunday evening. Around 11.15 pm the same day, a mob attacked the church and school.

Fr Mathew, who has been part of the school for the last six years, was unavailable for comment on Monday.

The archbishop of Bangalore, Bernard Moras, who visited the school at about 8.15 am on Monday in a private car, bore the brunt of the mob’s ire. The mob smashed the car’s windshield.

Later, the archbishop met the protesters and heard their grievances. Health minister R Ashok rushed to the spot and pacified the crowd.

DCP North Malini Krishnamurthy will probe the case.

Exams have been put forward by a week because of the incident. Christmas vacation starts from Thursday.

Picture: Archbishop Bernard Moras hears out protesters outside St Claret School in Jalahalli village on Monday

Related post:
Principal arrested for harassment, released on bail

Salary cut for late pizza delivery illegal: Labour dept

Times News Network

Bangalore: Labour commissioner has warned the pizza outlet managements of penal action if they are found deducting wages of pizza boys for late delivery.

Reacting to a report in The Times of India “Delivery boys pay for our free pizzas,” labour commissioner has stated: “Deduction in the salary of pizza boys for not delivering pizza on time to consumers is illegal.

The management’s doing so is liable for penal action under labour laws. The aggrieved delivery boys may approach the department for redressal of grievances if any.”

Contact commissioner of labour, Karmika Bhavan, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore.

'Neelakanta' starring Ravichandran and Namitha

Kannada Movie Neelakanta, scheduled to release on December 22, stars Ravichandran and Namitha

Neelankanta's director Sai Prakash already has hugely successful films like Anna Thangi, Tavarige Baa Thangi and Rama Krishna to his credit.

Neelankanta, apparently, is inspired from Aranmanai Kili, a Tamil film featuring Raj Kiran and Meena. It was also remade in Telugu as Mansunna Maaraaju, with Arjun in the lead.

Neelakanta stars Tamil glamour doll Namitha, who is making her first foray into Kannada cinema. It also stars Malayalam actress Sree Devika.

Namitha says that, though glamour is her USP, she wants to expand her repertoire. That's when she got the offer to act in Neelakanta where, she says, she portrays a woman of substance.

Lightspeed invests $29.5m in Bangalore net cos

Times News Network Dec 19, 2006

Bangalore: US-based venture capital fund Lightspeed Venture Partners has announced that it has invested a total of $29.5 million in two internet companies, primarily operating out of Bangalore — Mercantila and TutorVista.

Lightspeed has invested $22.5 million in Mercantila, which is a collection of hundreds of online speciality stores catering to the US and Canadian markets, with a captive Bangalore operation with over 100 people. The VC firm has invested $7 million in TutorVista, an online tutoring and test preparation company.

Ravi Mhatre, general partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners, said: “Internet technology companies across a spectrum of sectors, including retail and education, are in the key focus set of global VCs.

We are scouting for Indian entrepreneurial ventures which could be candidates for early and growth stage equity investments.”

The VC firm, which is betting on India as a strategic market, is also planning to set up an office in the next 12 months. Lightspeed recently raised a $475 million fund of which one third is allocated for investments outside the US.

This means the company has set aside about $158 million for the three countries it is active in — Israel, China and India — outside the US. Market sources say that the investment basket for India could be in the range of $50-100 million.

Serena Williams to play Bangalore Open

December 19, 2006 12:02 IST, Rediff.com

Former world number one Serena Williams will play in the WTA Bangalore Open event in February, organisers said on Monday.

The 25-year-old American winner of seven grand slam singles titles has struggled due to injury and poor form since her Australian Open triumph in 2005 and has slipped to 95th in the world rankings.

FlickrPhoto: Scene at Bangalore Railway station

india_1106_0068, originally uploaded by curreter.

Model displaying bluetooth device studded with crystals

A model displays a bluetooth device studded with crystals at Osmosis, a technology event organised by MindTree Consulting, in Bangalore on Thursday. MindTree showcased all its IP (intellectual property) in bluetooth technology at the event. The company has a 72-member team that's dedicated to this technology.

Source: Times of India

IT, ITeS drive demand for office space in Bangalore

Sujit John | Times News Network

Bangalore: Demand for commercial property space in Bangalore this year remains strong and the city is likely to end this year too as the Indian city with the highest office space absorption. But the place that has seen the most remarkable growth in this segment is the National Capital Region (NCR).

As per office space absorption estimates made by property consultancy DTZ Debenham Tie Leung for the first nine months of 2006, Bangalore has crossed 8.9 million sq ft, an increase of 25% as compared to 7.1 mn sq ft in the same period of 2005. Total absorption for the city is expected to cross 11 mn sq ft by the end of the year. Last year it was 9.5 mn sq ft, making it the city with the third highest office space absorption in the world, after Tokyo and London.

But it's Delhi, or rather the NCR (including Gurgaon and Noida), that stands out this year. DTZ estimates NCR's absorption at 6.36 mn sq ft for the first nine months, and expects this to be 8 mn sq ft for the whole year. That's nearly 3.5 times the absorption in 2005 (2.36 mn sq ft). In both Bangalore and NCR, the office market absorption continues to be driven by the IT and ITeS sectors. In Bangalore, they account for over 70% of the space absorbed, and in NCR, the figure is about 59%. A notable change in NCR is the growing share of Noida in absorption. In the third quarter of this year, Noida accounted for almost 48% of the total absorption, against the 27% it had in the first two quarters. Gurgaon seems to be losing ground.

Bangaloreans thirst for broadband

R Raghavendra | Times News Network

Bangalore: Tech-savvy Bangaloreans can't seem to have enough of the worldwide web. A huge rush for broadband connectivity is making service providers go back to their drawing boards in an attempt to bridge the demand-supply gap.

Not long ago, BSNL was almost pleading with customers to sign up for their broadband service and even offered a free threemonth trial period. Today, 96,000 Bangaloreans have already signed up for its broadband services, and the stateowned communication service provider is fast approaching its full capacity for connections. Those asking for connections now are being told there would be a two/threemonth waiting period.

The capacity constraint has arisen due to non-availability of ports. Each user gets one port and BSNL is currently in the process of adding 2-3 lakh ports nationally, which could provide some relief.

For the medium term, BSNL has issued orders for supply of 2.66 million ports worth Rs 800 crore to UT Starcom, Siemens and ZTE. As part of the national expansion plan, BSNL plans to add six million ports across its network. These new ports, however, would take about two months to arrive.

"The present infrastructure is designed to add 2-3 lakh lines across India. But we expect another two lakh customers to sign up for broadband in Bangalore alone. By March, we would have built up additional capacity for 2.25 lakh lines in the city," A N J Aradhya, general manager (network co-ordination), BSNL, said.

BSNL's Bangalore office has been entrusted with the responsibility for the national rollout, where it decides all aspects of procurement and deployment of new lines.

Private service providers too are under pressure. Airtel, which claims it has a broadband customer base of over one lakh in Bangalore, says most of its wireline customers are signing up for broadband. "But since it is not easy to get permission to dig up roads for enabling new fixed line connections, there could be some difficulty to cater to new connections,'' said Prem Pradeep, CEO-South (broadband and telephone services), Airtel.

He says the usage of broadband is very high in Bangalore, with more and more people working from home.

Also read
BSNL broadband will soon be at 2 mbps in India

Internet service provider to pay for lowering speed

New Delhi, Dec 11: A consumer forum has directed Internet service provider Sify limited to pay a compensation of Rs 7,000 including litigation cost to a customer for its failure to provide the minimum internet speed despite the promises.

"It appears to us that promising for providing a connection having minimum speed of 256 kbps... And then reducing it to 14 kbps, cannot be said providing proper service in any manner," the North West District consumer forum bench headed by President K S Khurana said.

"Moreover, concealing the hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant who made complaints with regard to poor customer service on number of occasions, in our considered opinion, amounts to deficiency in service and indulging into unfair trade practice," it held in a recent order.

Ankur Raheja of Lawrence Road here, who subscribed to Sify for broadband service since July 16 to September 16, 2004 after paying Rs 600 per month, had made a complaint alleging the service provider failed to provide the minimum speed of 256 kbps as per the definition of broadband.

He found that after downloading 750 mb data, the broadband speed was lowered to 14 kbps.

To his utter surprise, Raheja also discovered that though the service provider had sold their packages as "unlimited" but it had some "hidden conditions".

"If a customer download more than 150 mb data in a day, H was penalized in the form of reduction of package by one day," he said alleging that such hidden conditions had not been brought to the notice at the time of entering into agreement.

Bureau Report

Supervalu comes shopping for IT professionals

Times News Network

Bangalore: Following the likes of Tesco and Target, the $44-billion, US-based grocery retail and pharmacy giant Supervalu is opening a centre in Bangalore to provide IT functions for its US operations.

Supervalu Services India (SSI) is planning to hire 300 people over the next 12-18 months. The investment it has planned is $50 million over the next five years. This is the first time that this retail giant has come out of the US for its IT operations. It has three such centres in the US, employing 1,800 people. Every year, the company spends close to $500 million on IT, operations and support.

Supervalu is a Fortune 50 company with a store network across 2,500 locations, along with in-store pharmacy in 900 locations in the US. Grocery retail and pharmacy services contribute 80% of its revenues, while the rest comes from its supply chain services. It employs 2 lakh people.

According to Paul Singer, chief information officer of Supervalu and chairman of SSI, the Bangalore centre would complement teams in the US in developing IT applications on Java and other emerging technologies. It will specifically help in application development, technical operations, quality assurance and testing to support overall corporate IT functions including the company's retail and supply chain operations.

"In the long term, we are even looking at work on business intelligence (BI) in the retail space to be done from here. The Bangalore facility will also look at providing technical support to over 3,000 grocery stores who are our customers,'' said Singer.

Singer visited India about three years ago as part of retail major Target, where he was looking at hiring 200 people for that company's IT outfit in Bangalore.

However, he managed to convince his Board to hire some 2,000 people. Little wonder then that Supervalu has chosen him to roll out its operations in Bangalore.

Supervalu is already working with top Indian vendors like TCS, Wipro, Satyam and Infosys, and this relationship is expected to continue. "We have over 400 projects for the next year. We will look at how to distribute this between our partners and us,'' added Singer.

• Supervalu Services India (SSI) is planning to hire 300 people over the next 12-18 months
• An amount of $50 million will be invested over the next five years
• Supervalu is a Fortune 50 company with a store network across 2,500 locations, along with in-store pharmacy in 900 locations in the US

FlickrPhoto: City Autos

india_1106_0080, originally uploaded by curreter.

4-in-one device for easy geometry invented by Bangalorean

Rakesh Prakash
10 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: It's an instrument set to change the way in which school students solve geometrical problems.

From drawing circles to cutting arc angles, this 'multi-touch' four-in-one (compass, divider, scale and pencil) instrument can help one draw in four to five seconds flat. Its inventor is 20-yearold Bangalore-based student-cum-entrepreneur N Praveen.

The instrument weighs 17 grams as against 40 gms of those available in the market and is touted to be a timesaver for students while writing exams.

"Unlike the traditional compass where one has to fix the pencil to it and take measurements from a scale before drawing geometrical figures, this instrument does everything in one shot. It will make geometrical devices less cumbersome," says Praveen.

The invention has not only been certified by national scientific organisations but also been patented under the title 'Technology method of compass'.

Like other success stories, the invention was also fuelled by necessity and backed by perseverance. "I started working on this compass when I was in the tenth standard and had to answer a lot of theorems. It was then I began thinking of simplifying geometrical instruments. One day I was playing with a scale and it suddenly struck me why I shouldn't start with it," Praveen says.

Four years of labour bore fruit. The youngster is now preparing to market his invention. "So far, I have interacted with over 2,000 students in 25 schools and got their feedback. I have started a production unit in a hired shed at Peenya. It will be launched in January," he says.

Finances for the project did not flow easily. Having lost his parents in a road accident when he was 18 months old, Praveen had to do a lot of coaxing and convincing to get funds. He also disposed of a site that was purchased by his parents in Hiriyur.

Praveen proposes to route the proceeds to Aryabhatta Astronomy Explore and Exhibitors Institute — a centre he started with friends to encourage youngsters pursue research. He also plans to distribute the compass among rural students free of cost. "I don't want to stop with this. I'm interested in astronomy and aerospace technology," he says.

The dark side of IT outsourcing in Bangalore - IT women suffer infertility due to sexual dysfunction

Media Release
Dec 10, 2006

The IT lifestyle has wreaked havoc in Bangalore’s bedrooms. A large number of IT women engage in sex only once in 120-180 days as against alternate days among normal couples. The result: Many of them are suffering from infertility due to sexual dysfunction.

Doctors say that this is common due to psychological implications and hormonal imbalances, which are interrelated, leading to anovulation. Long and irregular hours of work and intake of fast food have led to the change in lifestyle. The other most common factor is non-consummated marriages, leading to absence of sexual activity among IT professionals.

On an average, 20-25 infertility cases are reported in a week across various sexologist clinics in the city. Gynaecologists are of the view that since most of the cases are due to the hectic lifestyle, women can conceive, if they get back to their normal stable lifestyle. But, because these women approach sexologists after 5-10 years, chances are bleak.

Consultant gynaecologist and sexologist Dr Padmini Prasad gets at least 10-15 cases of infertile women on the weekends, and about 5-10 cases on weekdays.

“The long hours of work are intervening normal sexual activities among these professionals. In women, infrequent menstruation and ovulation disturbances are increasing,” she said.

Infosys Technologies to become 1st Indian company on Nasdaq-100

The Associated Press
December 10. 2006

Software maker Infosys Technologies Ltd. was set to become the first Indian company to join an elite Nasdaq grouping when the U.S. stock exchange opens for trading Monday.

The Nasdaq Stock Market is including Infosys among its top 100 companies as part of an annual revision to the Nasdaq-100 index.

In a statement issued Sunday, Infosys - headquartered in the southern Indian city of Bangalore - said its listing on Nasdaq's benchmark index would bring more global visibility to the company, which already is one of India's best known brands abroad.

Other Nasdaq-100 names - chosen mostly on the basis of their market worth - include Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Dell Inc.

Infosys' inclusion follows the company's secondary offering of 30 million American Depository Shares worth $1.6 billion. The offering, which was closed last month, involved the sale of shares held by investors on Indian stock exchanges to investors in the U.S.

About 19 percent of Infosys shares are now traded on Nasdaq.

Infosys, which writes software for companies such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J. C. Penney Corp., was the first Indian firm to be listed on the Nasdaq when it was initially offered in 1999.

Long-haul telecommunications carrier Level 3 Communications Inc. of Broomfield, Colo. and biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., are also joining the index on Monday.

Leaving the index are: JDS Uniphase Corp., a maker of optical telecommunications gear based in San Jose, Calif.; respiratory services provider Lincare Holdings Inc. of Clearwater, Fla.; and retailer Urban Outfitters Inc. of Philadelphia.

Racing buffs ransack Bangalore Turf Club

8 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: An angry crowd of over 2,000 railbirds ransacked the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) premises, damaged 23 TV sets, windowpanes and flowerpots worth over Rs 10 lakh on Friday evening, accusing a jockey of indulging in race-fixing.

The trouble started around 5 pm after Hidalgo from trainer Hidayath Khan's yard upset the applecart of the two top fancies — Simply Spectacular and Appoint — in the Bugs Bunny Cup. Immediately, all hell broke loose as angry railbirds hurled stones and soda bottles at the members' enclosure before storming the bookmakers' ring and stalls.

DCP (Central) G B Chebbi said jockey Christopher Alford astride Appoint,which was in command and looked set to win the race, "deliberately" relaxed and, in fact, looked back twice at the trailing horses. "The crowd saw it as race-fixing."

But the BTC chose to ignore the rising anger of the mob, which felt further incensed that the turf club, instead of ordering a probe into the incident, went ahead with awards presentation. "As a result, the crowd went berserk," Chebbi said.

They went on an attacking spree for over 30 minutes — damaging furniture and hurling chairs in the paddock area and weighing room — until the police intervened and brought the situation under control.

Late in the night, BTC directors decided to suspend jockey Alford from Dec 19 to March 31, 2007. An inquiry has been ordered into the last race. The High Grounds police have taken up a case of rioting on a BTC complaint.

FlickrPhoto: vidhana soudha at night

vidhana soudha, originally uploaded by peevee@ds.

Rs 15 crore unused funds of the dept. of Woman & Child welfare

Seethalakshmi S.
6 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: Rs 15 crore accrued but no beneficiaries. This is what the department of women and child development has discovered.

After religiously depositing funds for several years under the Namma Magalu Namma Shakti scheme, to be disbursed to girls from poor families once they attain 18 years, the government has found that the girls who enrolled as beneficiaries for the scheme have disappeared!

"Of the 44,000 cheques that the government readied to be distributed to the girls, 25,000 cheques came back because the families had migrated.We could not trace the girls.With absolutely no tracking system, the scheme was being continued without keeping a check on the movement of beneficiaries. The money was saved but majority of the girls may never benefit from the government's noble intentions,"official sources told TOI.

The Department of Women and Child Welfare has now begun a head-hunt for the girls to disburse the Rs 15 crore that has accrued for the last several years and lying in the government account.

Having learnt a bitter lesson, the department is not taking any chances with the Rs 234-crore Bhagyalakshmi Scheme, where the government deposits Rs 10,000 for girls from BPL families, born after March 31, 2006.

On an average, four lakh girls are born every year in Karnataka of which two lakh belong to the below poverty category.

"It is imperative that we evolve a child-tracking system, so that the scheme benefits the girls. We will involve 10 departments to keep track of the girl right from her birth till she attains 18 years,"Ranjani Srikumar, principal secretary, women and child development department said.

As a first step, the department will create a unique identification number for each of the girl child enrolled in the scheme.

"The partner financial institution will develop a bio-metric system, so that there is no duplication when the girl attains 18 years of age. A central database will be created so that respective departments update the girl's progress from time to time,"she said.

Besides the lumpsum amount when they attain 18 years, the girls will be paid Rs 300 from class one to three per annum, Rs 500 (class four), Rs 600 (class 5), Rs 700 (class 6 and 7), Rs 800 (class 8) and Rs 1,000 (class 9 and 10) "We will lay down guidelines for parents who enroll under the scheme.

They must give an undertaking that the girl will not be married off before she attains 18 years and will not dropout of the school midway. The maturity amount will be forfeited if we find that the girl has been married off,"she said.

A Swiss holiday for Rs 25,000

Swati Anand
5 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: The Swiss goodie bag is overflowing — and we’re not just talking chocolates, cheese and Swiss knives. With India contributing to only 2.8% of the foreign tourist pie, Switzerland Tourism is offering a five-night vacation to the Alpine country on a shoestring budget of Rs 25,000 — flights, accommodation, et al.

“Most people perceive Switzerland as an expensive holiday because it’s in Europe. But the truth is that the free individual traveller (FTI) can enjoy almost a week in our country for as little as Rs 25,000,’’ Switzerland Tourism director Federico Sommaruga told The Times of India on Tuesday.

No wonder the FTI segment share has doubled to 50% in five years. Thanks to the secure environment, single women, too, take off on trips on their own. While there are no statistics to prove this, Sommaruga firmly believes that thanks to the strong Bollywood patronage — particularly Yash Chopra’s gossamer romance tales — a Swiss holiday is part of the Great Indian Middle Class Dream.

That’s probably why ‘scouting packages’ are being worked out for film industries across the country, wherein a team of 3-5 people can tour the country at reduced prices scouting for film locales.

Despite the romanticism, honeymooners aren’t very frequent from India. “That’s probably because of the mindset that the tourism season is April-July. Marriages largely take place in monsoon and winter. But now, in Switzerland, there is no offseason — anytime is a good time to visit us.’’

UK supermarket chain outsources to TCS

Indo-Asian News Service
London, December 1, 2006

British supermarket major Somerfield has announced the outsourcing of its IT services to India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a move estimated to save the company 2 million pounds ($3.9m) a year.

The move is expected to result in the loss of 115 of 130 current IT jobs with the company. TCS and Somerfield have signed a seven-year agreement. Somerfield, with 1,300 stores, is Britain's fifth-largest grocery chain.

Several of the employees who would be rendered redundant are likely to be offered jobs by TCS in their offices in Britain.

Somerfield was acquired for 1.1 billion pounds in December 2005 by a consortium made up of property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, private equity firm Apax and investment bank Barclays Capital.

The new owners have since then undertaken a major review of the business.

Teacher become whistle-blower, exposes siphoning off foodgrains

2 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: A teacher has become the whistle-blower of the education department to expose schools which are siphoning off foodgrains under the mid-day meal scheme by faking attendance. The modus operandi of the schools is rather simple: If there are 40 students enrolled in a class, the attendance register will have 50 to 55 students. The additional 10 to 15 students do not exist. They are 'enrolled' to get additional foodgrains which are pocketed by the school staff.

P Asha Kumari, an assistant teacher at the government model primary school, Jakkur, in Yelahanka, has told the Lok Ayukta that the principal and teachers were giving attendance to students, who had either left the school or simply did not exist. "When the children remained absent for more than a fortnight, I grew suspicious and checked the address of the students. While some had left the city, some names were just fake. I was asked to mark attendance for them, which I refused," she told TOI.

Subsequently, when the Lok Ayukta conducted a probe, it indicted four persons in the school for misappropriation.

But that's when trouble began for Asha Kumari. She was harassed by her colleagues,who she claimed did not allow to carry-out her routine work. "They would ask students to shout slogans against me and they would unnecessarily find fault with my work," she said. Such was the harassment that Upa Lok Ayukta Justice G Patri Basavana Goud wrote to primary education secretary T M Vijaybhaskar in May 2006 urging him to transfer her to another school.

"It is unfortunate that a teacher who came forward to give information and who was instrumental in unearthing a major scandal is being harassed. I request you to transfer her," the letter said. In June 2006, the department transferred her from the Yelahanka school to the government primary school in Cholanayakahalli.

"It was the same story here too. Fake attendance and students. The school knew that I was transferred because I exposed misappropriation. They began threatening me. I am being harassed again" she said.

Following a complaint on November 17, 2006, the Lok Ayukta has now issued notices to the Cholanayakahalli school too, seeking explanation.

Air Deccan to reach Gulbarga, Hassan

2 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

GULBARGA: The Air Deccan has written a letter to the Karnataka government, dated November 24, expressing its readiness to provide its service in Gulbarga and Hassan, said V. P. Balegar, principal secretary to the infrastructure development department of the Karnataka government,on Wednesday.

Participating in an interactive programme, organised by the Hyderabad-Karnataka CII, Balegar said that the Union government in its letter to the Karnataka government in October,had sought information on which company would provide its air facility if airports were started in Hassan and Gulbarga, for which it was ready to provide a special grant of Rs. 20 crore to the selected company.

He said that 567 acres of land has already been acquired in Srinivas Saradgi village, which is in the outskirts of Gulbarga City and he has asked the Gulbarga deputy commissioner to acquire another 125 acres of land for expanding the proposed Gulbarga airport into an international airport.Balegar said the construction of Gulbarga airport would commence as soon as the Airport Authority of India gave its nod.

more...

Rajasthan CM Raje under fire for 'lip lock' picture!

Indo-Asian News Service

Jaipur, December 1, 2006

Rajasthan Chief Minister has come in for scathing criticism from several quarters for posing with Biocon's Kiran Majumdar Shaw in a "lip lock" position at the India Economic Submit in New Delhi.

The photograph was carried by some of national as well as local dailies.

The Congress has raised strong objections over the chief minister's exchange of pleasantries with Shaw.

"It's a cultural shock to the people of the state," senior Congress leader Raghu Sharma said.

"The chief minister has her own style. She may do whatever she wants in her personal life but she should not forget that she is the chief minister and should maintain the sanctity of her post," said Puja Mathur, a college student.

"Such ways of greeting are not prevalent even in foreign countries. This is not at all acceptable. Moreover, the chief minister is an icon for the state and people follow her. When she behaves in such a manner, then what message is she sending to the people?" asked entrepreneur P.K. Singh.

Meanwhile, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mahesh Sharma said it "is not good to raise such light issues.

"These are non-issues, which should not be emphasised," he said.

2 Gadag girls sold for Rs 2 lakh

30 Nov, 2006 Times News Network

GADAG/HUBLI: The courage shown by a seventh-standard girl could very well lead to her sister's freedom and also give the police a clue as to where many other missing children of Sortur village of Shirahatti taluk in Gadag are.

When this girl, Soumya, and her sister Neelamma, studying in tenth standard, went missing from Gadag bus stand a month ago, few knew that they had been sold by their unscrupulous father.

The pieces started falling into place after Soumya ran away from her captors and sought the help of Gujarat Police who contacted Gadag superintendent of police K V Shridhar.

What's intriguing is that even though for a month the children have been missing, their parents never filed a police complaint.

The mother of the children told a police team that visited the village that the children had gone to Maharashtra. The father, Shenkappa Khannur, is not traceable and is reported to be hiding with his son in Bangalore.

Shridhar, who suspects this to be a case of sale of girls, told The Times of India on Thursday that the help of Bangalore police had been sought.

The incident has now rattled the villagers who suspect that Ramana Tavaknavar of the same village has acted as a middleman in the sale of the girls for Rs 1 lakh each to some people in Gujarat.

They feel that many other children who had disappeared in the past might have also been similarly sold.

A team of police personnel from Gadag is on its way to Surat to bring the two girls back to Sortur village. Once they are back, the police will register a case and begin investigation.

FlickrPhoto: Maruthi Infotech Center

100_2527, originally uploaded by jatinpancholi.

Underworld Wide Web. Social networking? Cops are watching you

November 30, 2006 12:08 IST

Fan clubs, which idolise underworld dons on social networking web sites, have run afoul of the city police who plan to closely monitor the content and the members of these communities.

"Though nobody has complained to us, we fear that the communities would be misused by organised crime syndicates. Moreover, there are thousands of members of communities devoted to dons," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dhananjay Kamlakar.

There are eight fan clubs devoted to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and one each dedicated to Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel and Abu Salem on Orkut.com alone.

"We will have to monitor the material posted and also the members of the networking sites," he said.

Social networking sites, especially the Google-owned Orkut, were in the news recently. The Pune Crime Branch had recently blocked a community, which had posted objectionable remarks against the Maratha warrior king Shivaji.

A public interest litigation has also been filed in the Bombay High Court asking for a ban on Orkut for hosting the anti-Shivaji community. Earlier, while hearing another PIL, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had issued a notice to the government about the presence of a community titled 'I hate India' on the same site.

Google runs out of Answers, announces closure

IbnLive

November 30, 2006 at 12:30

San Francisco: Google has finally run out answers.

Four years after the high-pitched launch of its fee-based Answers service, Google has announced its closure, apparently due to its failure to catch on with the web users.

"Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a project," a Google official wrote on the company blogsite.

Google Answers was based on an idea by the company's co-founder Larry Page and enlisted researchers to find answers to submitted questions at rates ranging from $2 to hundreds of dollars.

It seems Yahoo's free Answers service took away all the traffic from Google, forcing it to admit a rare defeat. On Wednesday, Google went public with its decision, saying that it would stop accepting questions this week and post the last of the answers by the end of the year.

An archive of Google Answers questions and responses will, however, remain available at the Mountain View, California-company's website, company officials said.

Incidentally, the decision comes only months after Microsoft launched a similar no-charge service called Windows Live QnA. The Answers services on the web tap into the online community for responses to queries.

"Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users," software engineers Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher blogged on the company website.

"Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn't drink water emitted by your air conditioner."

Even as the news broke, the blogsphere went wild with speculation that the shutdown was proof that the company has suffered a chink in its armour. Others, however, said Google dropped the programme as Google Answers wasn't contributing to its mission of 'organising the world's knowledge and making it useful'.

Experts also point out that Google Answers had become simply redundant on the face of its hyper-efficient search engine and its sophisticated algorithms, which are now so good that most people no longer need to pay others to answer questions for them. They can do it themselves quickly, and for free.

Biocon CMD lip kisses Rajasthan Chief Minister

Bangalore based 'Biocon' CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (left) with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia (right) at the India Economic Summit organised by World Economic Forum and CII in New Delhi.

Wipro employee's wife withdraws the first case against Premji, would file a separate case

PTI, November 29, 2006
KANPUR: The wife of a Wipro employee has withdrawn the names of company chief Azim Premji and another senior executive from a domestic violence case she had filed against her husband in a court here.

Tripti Nigam's lawyer Nandlal Jaiswal said she would file a separate case against Premji and Wipro for allegedly providing a "dating allowance" to her husband Gaurav. Wipro has denied that it pays any such allowance to its employees.

Tripti had created a flutter by naming Premji and Wipro Vice President Pratik Kumar in her case, in which she had alleged Gaurav had abandoned her because the firm paid him a "dating allowance".

Jaiswal said since the names of direct relations alone could be included in a case under the new domestic violence law, the names of Premji and Kumar were withdrawn on technical grounds. But Gaurav's name still remained in the complaint.

Tripti, a resident of Gwaltoli area here, submitted an application to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, asking him to premit her to withdraw the names of Premji and Kumar from the case. This was accepted by the court.

The court fixed December 13 as the next date for hearing the matter. Gaurav was present in the court and sought copies of the papers filed by Tripti.

Jaiswal said a separate case about Wipro allegedly providing a "dating allowance" to Gaurav would be filed against Premji and Kumar in another court.

In the wake of Tripti's allegations, software major Wipro had said on Friday, "We would like to categorically state we don't have a dating allowance in any form and hence cannot elaborate on this alleged issue."

FlickrPhoto: REaDy to go

REaDy to go, originally uploaded by Subash Chandran.

grocery and vegetable carts ready to go in search of customers

Sushma: 'Stars in Bangalore can't think beyond themselves'

Madhu Daithota
21 Nov, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

B Sushma is unapologetic because she believes her heart is in the right place.

Every other word she utters may be an expletive. But B Sushma is unapologetic because she believes her heart is in the right place. The singer and actress won't say that about some of our local celebrities though. She says they showed little concern when she approached them to be part of her latest album Kash, which has been made to support an orphanage. It's another story that she roped in 18 Bollywood names for the project.

"Our local stars really don't connect to a genuine cause. All they're bothered about is publicity and how much leverage they get out of it. I find them so fake," says Sushma. "None of them was ready to spare half a day because there's no commercial element in my cause! They lack commonsense and concern," she adds.

Sushma says, "Name one person whom I didn't approach. All it required was time and talent, and they kept saying 'next time'. But if it's a filmstar's birthday, they'll go to an orphanage, cut a cake and make sure the press covers it. But what after that? It's all fake and pseudo concern."

She's grateful to Syed Kirmani, Priya Sudeep, Arunachalam, Rockline Venkatesh, Madhu Bangarappa and Pankaj Advani because they were the only people who stood by her. "Kirmani postponed his engagement with a TV channel while Pankaj skipped his practice sessions. It showed they really cared," she says.

Sushma wanted to make the album in Kannada but changed plans after the lukewarm response she received back home. "It has now been made into a Hindi album and it's come out really well," she says. The album stars Sachin Tendulkar, Mandira Bedi, Sharad Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai, Tom Alter and Dolly Thakore, among others.

"Manoj Bajpai was so helpful and all he said was, 'Mention your date and time.' Raveena came down all the way in spite of being a busy mum. Even though they're stars, they behave like humans. Their intentions were true and totally unlike our local celebs who can't think beyond themselves," says Sushma.

It was for similar reasons that Sushma quit the film industry some time ago. "People here lack manners and decency. The industry doesn't know how to treat artistes. They insult you and use such foul language — there's too much filth in here. Each one manipulates you to suit his needs. In the end I had to become like them and then they couldn't tolerate me! Today I'm a very controversial person and I have no regrets," she says. And you can tell she really means that.

Mother, daughter in bowling team

Biju Babu Cyriac,
25 Nov, 2006 Times News Network

BANGALORE: Sana is just out of her teens. And she is itching to beat her mother in tenpin bowling. However, she will admit that it will not be an easy task as her mom, Sabeena Saleem, is a four-time national champion.

Both Sabeena, 38, and Sana, 20, are part of the Indian team which will take part in the Asian Games beginning in Doha next week. They probably would have watched the 15th Asiad on television had the Tenpin Bowling Federation of India (TBFI) not taken the initiative to participate in the Games at no cost to the government.

"We're all aiming for a medal in the Games, but it will be tough.We've had proper training for just a month," Sabeena told the Sunday Times of India. The 12-member Indian team (six women) trained over two sessions for one month under the guidance of Malaysian Lee Poh Choong at the Amoeba Bowling Centre, Bangalore.

"It is tough to practise daily.We end up paying Rs 500 a day and we need to train five days a week," said Sabeena.

But she admits that the cost of playing a game has come down from what it was in 1999 when tenpin bowling was introduced in Chennai.

"Then we'd to pay 150-200 per game. Now professional bowlers (there are about 100 in Chennai) are charged Rs 50 per game," said Sabeena, who has trained under six foreign coaches.

The love for the sport has passed through the genes and Sabeena's daughter Sana is determined to make it big one day.

"First, I want to beat my mom. Then I want to win medals for my country," said Sana, a final-year fine arts student of Stella Maris College (Chennai).

"Tenpin bowling looks very simple for the viewer, but it is not. After undergoing training for the last one month, I'm really serious to make it big," said Sana. At the moment, she is on her mom's trail.

Bangaloreans see dip in property prices

Sujit John
24 Nov, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: The somewhat berserk run that property prices in Bangalore saw for over three years appears finally to have ended. While prices, especially of commercial property, in some areas like Whitefield have actually dipped a little, those in other locations are rising at only a steady clip.

Between 2003 and early 2006, apartment prices rose by 40% to 50% per annum in many locations.And land prices even more. But now, the average price rise is seen to be no more than 5% to 10%. The only exceptions are north Bangalore —towards the upcoming international airport —and the city centre, where end-user buying and investor sentiments are still keeping prices buoyant.

"The buyer response in South-East Bangalore (which saw the biggest jumps in prices in previous years) is now less than enthusiastic," says Manisha Grover, national director in property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India. "This is reflected in lower absorption and flattening growth rate of capital values. The growth in average capital values has reduced drastically to about 5% during the current year."

A Balakrishna Hegde, president, Karnataka Ownership Apartments Promoters' Association (KOAPA), agrees: "Though the number of jobs, as also salaries, are going up, buyers have become cautious and are delaying their purchase. So there is stability in the market, which is good."

The phenomenon of speculative buying — people buying property with the intention to sell it within a few months and make some profit — is seen to have lost momentum, with investors believing that the Bangalore market is peaking. Earlier, when prices were rising at over Rs 50/sq ft a month, such speculative buying would have been rewarded with substantial gains.

"But now builders are unable to raise prices like that. In Whitefield, some developers have been forced to reduce their quoted prices from Rs 2,500-2,600/sq ft to Rs 2,000-2,300," says I Mahabaleswarappa, MD of Ittina Group.

Feroze Abdulla of Feroze's Estate Agency says central Bangalore is still hot, but the general market is not. While the city centre suffers a severe supply shortage, in other parts, supply has increased markedly. KOAPA estimates some 1.4 lakh flats are currently under construction (to be complete in 2.5 years), against the annual demand of 30,000 flats.

The same is true in the commercial property space. Here, while demand continues to be good, supply has kept pace, and in some locations has outstripped demand. Ankur Srivastava, MD of property consultancy DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, says lease rentals in the South-East belt (along outer ring road) has risen just about 5% in the last six months.

Sindhia may quit JD(S), to root for Siddu

25 Nov, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: The already truncated JD(S) is all set to face another split after the Chamundeshwari bypoll in Dec.

For, senior JD(S) MLA and former minister P G R Sindhia is likely to pull the trigger against party supremo H D Deve Gowda. Sindhia is expected to campaign for Gowda's bete noire Siddaramaiah in the last two days of the by-poll, sources said.

Unhappy over JD(S) joining hands with the BJP, Sindhia had decided to maintain a low profile for some time. He was also planning to revive the Janata Party by bringing together all the disgruntled members in the JD(S) and those who had left it for various reasons.

But for now, Sindhia appears to side with Siddaramaiah, he recently taunted Gowda by describing Siddaramaiah as a pro-farmer leader.

Going a step further, Sindhia along with party's national executive members M P Veerendra Kumar and Surendra Mohan have convened a meeting of the party's national council by December-end in Thiruvananthapuram to decide on expelling Gowda for having joined hands with communal forces.

In a joint statement, they appealed to all the members of the national committee, state unit presidents and members of the state committees to join hands against Gowda for having betrayed the party.

Though Gowda chose not to react, his supporters maintained that the ‘expulsion drama' was being staged in the backdrop of the by poll. JD(S) spokesperson and MLC Y S V Datta said: "There is no legal sanctity to such statements."

I was beaten by my wife: Wipro man

25 Nov, 2006 Times News Network
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: Does Wipro give dating allowance to its employees or not? The issue that got a wide news coverage after an employee's wife filed a case that her husband started neglected her after Wipro started the allowance has taken a new turn.

The Wipro employee in question, Gaurav Nigam, on Saturday alleged that it was his wife, Tripti, who was actually beating him and he was not the guilty party.

Gaurav narrated his side of the story to the Sunday Times of India over phone from Delhi. He said he is not paid any dating allowance by the company and that his wife is drawing the name of his company chairman Azim Premji just to "harass me".

Gaurav (32) has been working with Wipro for six years as a technical consultant. He has taken a temporary transfer to the Gurgaon office, to fight the case, which has been filed by his wife in the Kanpur Magistrate's court.

Gaurav alleged that his wife used to hit him and push him when they got into an argument. "She also used to pressure me to transfer the ownership of my Sarjapur Road house and car into her name. When I would refuse, she would beat me."

Gaurav said Tripti had complained that he, his father, mother, sisters and brothersin-law had gone to her Kanpur house to kill her. Based on her complaint, the police arrested his parents and he had to get them released after filing a plea in the court.

But, he says, he can prove that she was still in Bangalore on that date. "She got a Reliance phone connection installed and activated that day." "But why is she dragging Premji's name into the case, when there is no such thing as dating allowance in our company" he asked. "All I have is the basic salary component, a transporation allowance, a special allowance and Wipro Benefit Plan."

Tripti and Gaurav, who are married for four years now, are living separately for the last 18 months. Gaurav filed for a divorce in April, and she filed a case against him under the Domestic Violence Act this October after the law came into force.

Gaurav said the problem started soon after he got married in December 2002. "She wanted everything on her terms and often threatened to book me under Section 498 of the IPC," he said.

"When I was going to the US on a long-term assignment, she said she was accompanying me. But on the last day, she refused to come with me and left for her parent's house in Kanpur," he said.

"When I was still in the US, she came back to Bangalore and started complaining to my employer, Vanitha Mahila Sahayavani and to the US Consulate in Chennai. When I came back in January, I filed for a divorce in Lucknow.

"She filed a case in the family court, saying that the apartment which I have in Bangalore was funded by her father and she took an injunction on Feb. 22. She took up a job in Bangalore, she worked for oneand-a-half months and then went off to Kanpur," Gaurav explained.

In her petition, Tripti has alleged that Wipro's dating allowance "showed their (company's) complicity in encouraging his extra-marital affairs".

She has claimed that Gaurav started neglecting her and the home after he started getting the allowance. Gaurav denied that he had any affair with any woman.

The Kanpur Magistrate's court has issued summonses to Premji and company human resources head Pratik Kumar, asking them to appear before it on November 29.

FlickrPhoto: Office Building and City Volvo Bus

dollar-money1, originally uploaded by peevee@ds.

Trouble ahead for Deve Gowda? Expulsion from party ?

Rediff.com November 25, 2006 13:32 IST

Trouble is in store for former prime minister H D Deve Gowda with moves being made by senior leaders of Janata Dal (Secular) for his expulsion from the party for his continued support to the coalition government in Karnataka in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

M P Veerendra Kumar, leader of the Parliamentary Party, Surendra Mohan and Karnataka MLA P G R Sindhia, all National Executive members, have now convened a meeting of the National Council, the party's supreme policy-making body, by the end of December or January in Thiruvananthapuram.

This is to be followed by a national conference to take the 'logical decision' to expel Gowda from the party.

The three leaders said in a joint statement that this would be a follow-up to a decision of the February 20 meeting of the National Committee, presided over by Gowda, which suspended the MLAs, including Chief Minister H D Kumaraswami from the primary membership of the party for his decision to ally wih BJP.

In that meeting it was also recommended to the disciplinary committee for their expulsion which still stood, they said.

The three leaders appealed to all the members of the National Committee, state unit presidents and members of the state commitees who oppose Gowda to join hands to make the National Council a great success.

"We have to strengthen the platform of secularism, democracy and socialism," they said.

Venkatachala in and as Ayukta

Rakesh Prakash, Times News Network
23 Nov, 2006, SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

BANGALORE: Attention greasy palms, former Lok Ayukta Justice N Venkatachala is back in action.

Only this time, he is launching a crusade on the silverscreen, enacting the role he was known for in real life in a forthcoming Kannada movie — Lancha Samrajya (Corrupt empire).

The plot of the movie was conceived a year ago when Venkatachala was making headlines with his raids on corrupt officials.

Directed by Boodhal Krishnamurthy and produced by health department employee Mahadevappa of Tumkur, it is likely to hit the screen either in the second week of December or during Sankranti. About his new assignment, Justice Venkatachala said: "Cinema is one of the powerful mediums to create awareness among people against graft."

Playing the protagonist, is Master Hirannaiah, also known for his theatrical campaign against bribery in the hugely popular Lanchavatara. Hirannaiah plays an aged man fighting the scourge of corruption. It is here that Justice Venkatachala walks in as Lok Ayukta.

"There is a scene where he raids a hospital and pulls up the authorities for fleecing the common man," Krishnamurthy said. Portions of the movie were shot in Lok Ayukta's office in Bangalore. Director Krishnamurthy says, Venkatachala's presence is a 'plus point'.

"He is popular not only in Karnataka, but also across the country. Since this is a message-oriented movie, Justice Venkatachala's words would make a lot of difference," he added.

How did the former Lok Ayukta fare in front of the camera? The director says: "He was at his natural best, all we did was to explain the sequence to him."

But would Justice Venkatachala take to full-time acting? His firm reply: "I am not interested in acting. Post-retirement, I am into alerting people against corruption through other means like giving lectures."

IIM-B pays, but won't say

Geetha Rao, Times News Network
23 Nov, 2006

IIM-B has said it will not disclose the pay packets of its students. What's the funda behind big buck salaries?

The fat pay packets IIM graduates get after placement at various companies always attract a lot of attention. However, recently, IIM-B decided not to divulge salaries of students since it could make them vulnerable to unscrupulous elements; also because it says it's not a placement agency.

It can be unsafe
V Ravichandar, management consultant, and alumnus of IIM-A says there may be a little concern because opportunists might hit at highsalary employees like in the case of Adobe CEO Naresh Gupta.

"Who gets how much —there is a vicarious kind of pleasure in knowing that, and that's really trouble. One must stay below-radar in today's times."

Brand expert and alumnus of IIM-B Ramanujam Sreedhar feels there may be something in that: "I have promoter-clients who are Indians settled in the US drawing huge salaries who insist on invisibility because they feel vulnerable."

Privacy please
HR trainer-consultant CVK Maithreya, who's been on the admission panel for IIM-K, says besides concern for safety, there's the aspect of personal privacy: companies may not want employees to divulge salaries; and the employee himself may not want his friends or relatives to know how much he earns.

Why tell?
On the other hand, says Maithreya, the high salaries can be an incentive for people to take up management. Plus, irrespective of publicity, the demand for managers is high and the supply is low, which means that there will be more management institutes coming up.

And there's always the feel good factor: it feels good to know an Indian earns so well. V Ravichandar says it helps to have such info, since HR managers need to know what people are being paid, they must know competitive levels. And the high salary has a positive rub-off on the institute.

Why not tell?
But Ramesh Venkateswaran, alumnus and visiting faculty, IIM-B, says he sees no logic in not revealing high salaries. And he doesn't believe employees' lives are at stake if salaries are revealed.

Also, he thinks salary levels are not a measure of the performance metric of an institute. So it can give rise to the quality being decided by the salary, while in reality, there are other parameters for quality.

Besides, the institute policy may want to keep the focus on academic excellence. Though the salaries can make students aspire to belong to such institutes, Ramanujam Sreedhar also says mentioning salaries can create inequity among those who have landed plum jobs and those who haven't, or even between IIM batchmates.

Also, it puts pressure on students who don't make it to an IIM. It also puts pressure on quality second-rung management colleges, which do produce quality students.

At the same time, one must understand that only a few IIM students get super-huge salaries, adds Sreedhar.

Negative impact
Experts say that the emphasis on salaries has had its impact on second and third-rung management colleges. They too have begun to quote salaries as an indicator of how good they are.

Placement agency?
When asked why IIM-B said it was not a placement agency, Rajeev Gowda, professor, IIMB, says probably because it meant, "we are in the business of educating people. That is, the focus is on academics. It just so happens that the students do well in the market."