New Indian army chief Bikram Singh takes over

Friday, 1 June 2012

General Bikram Singh has taken over as the chief of India's army promising to modernise the 1.1 million-strong force.

Gen Singh takes over at a time when the army has been involved in a series of controversies with the government.

The outgoing chief, Gen VK Singh, was involved in a row with the government over his retirement age.

And a controversial letter he wrote to the prime minister complaining that much of India's defence equipment was "obsolete" was leaked to the press.

The appointment of Gen Bikram Singh as the army chief was also challenged in court.

A group of retired armed forces officials and bureaucrats alleged that he was involved in a staged killing in 2001.

Gen Bikram Singh denies the allegation.

In April, the Supreme Court rejected the petition and said it saw no reason to intervene in the matter.

On Wednesday, a day before taking over as the army chief, Gen Bikram Singh said he would work to "strengthen army's work culture and core values".

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Few problems don't make IPL bad

(ESPNSTAR.COM) India batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Friday said that a few small issues don't make the entire Indian Premier League questionable.

"I think there are one or two problems in every organisation and it does not make the entire organisation bad," responded Tendulkar to a query on allegations of spot-fixing surrounding the BCCI's lucrative Indian Premier League.

Tendulkar, who is set to take oath as Rajya Sabha member on June 4, advised young players to follow the people who set the right example and absorb their good qualities.

"I would definitely say this (spot-fixing) is not a good example (to set). My advice would be to follow the people who set the right example. Follow the right direction and absorb all the good qualities," he said.

A TV sting operation recently showed five players connected to the IPL purportedly indulging in questionable behaviour, prompting the BCCI to suspend them besides launching an inquiry.

The cricket body has asked its new anti-corruption chief Ravi Sawani to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

The suspended players are TP Sudhindra (Deccan Chargers), Mohnish Mishra (Pune Warriors), Amit Yadav (Kings XI Punjab), Shalabh Shrivastava (Kings XI Punjab) and first-class cricketer Abhinav Bali.

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Krishna to write to PM on Team Anna charges

IANS By Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private Limited
New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) Rebutting charges hurled at him by Team Anna, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Thursday he will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reject all the "motivated allegations" against him.

Krishna, however, remained non-commital on filing a defamation suit against Team Anna, saying he reserved the right to react in an appropriate manner if anybody made personal allegations against him.

"I will reply in detail to all these motivated allegations in a letter to the prime minister," Krishna told reporters here.

He was reacting to Team Anna's charges that Krishna, during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister, dereserved five forest blocks, comprising at least 10,000 hectares, for mining by private companies against the suggestions of the state forest secretary and forest minister.

"It is highly improper for the members of Team Anna to accuse me of something that is untrue. The matter is before the Supreme Court and the truth will come out soon," he said.

Krishna also asserted that he was not afraid of any probe and underlined that N. Santosh Hedge, the then Lokayukta of Karantaka, conducted a detailed investigation and exonerated him of all the allegations. Subsequently, the high court quashed the allegations, he said.

"I have no reservation for any kind of inquiry against me," he said. He, however, added that it was highly improper of anyone to ask for another investigation.

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Swing bowling not due to humidity, research suggests

Thursday, 31 May 2012

(BBC NEWS) The phenomenon of swing bowling, in which a cricket ball veers sideways during flight, is not influenced by humidity, researchers say.

Cricketers and sport scientists alike have long hypothesised that high humidity may increase the swing effect.

But precise 3-D studies of cricket balls under varying humidity showed no effect on the balls' shapes.

A report due in Procedia Engineeringinstead suggests that cloud cover increases swing by stilling the air.

Much like the path of a "curve ball" in baseball or a looping corner kick in football, the swing effect comes from setting up different kinds of air flow on opposite sides of the ball - smooth or "laminar" flow on one side and chaotic "turbulent" flow on the other.

But why the effect is more noticeable during some matches, and even some days in the same match, has had researchers and players stumped.

"Lots of scientists have always tried to discuss this idea around cricket ball swing and the effect of atmospheric conditions, and people talk about humid days being really important," said study co-author David James of Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Sport Engineering Research.

"The leading hypothesis as to why cricket balls swing was around the fact that the seam on the cricket ball will swell on a humid day, becoming more pronounced, and that might lead to more swing," he told BBC News.

Wasim Akram was one of the all-time great exponents of swing bowling

Dr James and his colleagues John Hart at Sheffield and Danielle MacDonald at AUT University in New Zealand made use of the centre's "climate chamber", in which atmopheric conditions can be tightly controlled.

They used a 3-D laser scanner to monitor differently conditioned balls reacted under varying humidity, but found humidity had no detectable effect on the ball's geometry.

Instead, they have pitched in another idea: that bright sunshine - or the lack of it - is to blame for variation in swing.

"When the ground heats, it makes convection currents which make the air rise off the cricket pitch - that creates turbulence in the air on a sunny day," Dr James explained.

"On a cloudy day you get stiller air, because you don't get these convection currents coming off the ground."

Stiller air does less to affect the imbalance of smooth and chaotic flow on either side of the ball that leads to swing, so cloud cover could indirectly be the culprit.

Dr James concedes that the team's hypothesis must now be put to a test under controlled conditions, but they are convinced that humidity is not the variable that should put batters on the back foot.

"We fairly rigorously went through every possible thing around humidity and debunked it," he said.

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Cricket: Pietersen retires from limited overs cricket: board

(Yahoo News) England star Kevin Pietersen retired from all forms of international limited overs cricket on Thursday, a decision which took the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by surprise.

Pietersen, who will continue to be available for Test selection, said in a statement he wished to step aside in order to give the next generation of players a chance to bed in before the 2015 World Cup.

"After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I am today announcing my retirement from international one-day cricket," said Pietersen, who turns 32 next month.

"With the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, approaching 32, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the ICC World Cup in 2015," added Pietersen, who has scored 4,184 runs at an average of 42 in one-day internationals and averages 38 in international T20 cricket.

Pietersen's decision comes less than four months before England are due to launch the defence of their Twenty20 World Cup crown in September.

The South Africa-born batsman was man of the tournament when England won the title in the West Indies in 2010, and had indicated a willingness to remain part of the T20 squad in Sri Lanka this year.

However ECB rules dictate that centrally-contracted players must make themselves available for all forms of limited-overs cricket.

"I am immensely proud of my achievements in the one-day game, and still wish to be considered for selection for England in Test cricket," Pietersen said.

"For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20."

However Pietersen's decision was greeted with dismay by ECB managing director Hugh Morris.

"The ECB is disappointed by the timing of Kevin's decision less than four months before we defend our ICC World Twenty20 title," he said.

"Kevin is a world-class player and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and we look forward to his continued contributions to the Test match side."

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Strike that: Whose loss is it anyway?

(Reuters.com)A few buses have been torched, a few trains have been stopped, a few people failed to get to work, a few shops were shut, a few lost their daily wages and the exchequer will register a big loss. Someone is telling India’s “common man” that this strike is in his interest.

The transportation shutdown that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and several left-leaning parties called for as a protest against a steep rise in petrol prices is seen as a means to exploit popular anger against the ruling Congress-led government, though political parties insist that they won’t benefit at election time.

A 12-hour ‘Bharat Bandh‘ (“India shutdown”) to protest against inflation in 2010 cost the exchequer 130 billion rupees, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). This time it can only be more. Given all of India’s other problems, can the country afford such losses?

For many autorickshaw drivers, rickshaw pullers and daily wage labourers, a strike means no earnings for the day. That’s good enough reason to look for alternate ways to protest.

A strike does register dissatisfaction with the government, but it is difficult to understand how it would help in the rollback of petrol prices or in providing an alternate economic strategy.

Thursday’s strike was not as peaceful as promised. Local media reported that strike supporters stopped trains in Delhi, set fire to two buses in the city of Pune and stoned about a dozen others. Incidents of violence have been reported from other states.

Such protests let smaller parties and factions make their presence felt. In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, said residents “should not venture out of their houses“. A strike is ideally a voluntary exercise, but fear can push some people into cooperating in a more involuntary way.

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Katrina, Anushka or Deepika, who'll bag HIMMATWALA remake?

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Glamsham Editorial

While it is confirmed that actor Ajay Devgn will be playing the male lead in Sajid Khan's next directorial venture i.e. HIMMATWALA remake, it is still a mystery whether who'll bag the female lead role in the film.

According to media reports, director Sajid Khan apparently wants to rope in one among the three Bollywood's leading actress viz. Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma and Deepika Padukone.

Reportedly, Sajid has also bought the rights of the famous song 'Naino Mein Sapna' featuring Jeetendra and Sri Devi from the original film to retain in the remake. Besides, Khan is also planning to rope in his sister Farah Khan to choreograph the song.

It's going to be a tough task for Sajid to decide as to who will play Sri Devi's part. Moot reason being as till now, none of the three actresses have been paired with Devgn. So, this will be an altogether fresh pairing. However, Deepika has an advantage as she has worked with the director in HOUSEFULL before whereas Anushka and Katrina haven't.

Now, only time will tell who'll bag the role.

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Viswanathan Anand wins World Chess Championship

(Yahoo! India News ) MOSCOW: Viswanathan Anand has been crowned the World Chess Champion after he beat Israel's Boris Gelfand 2.5-1.5 in a tense tie-breaker at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

This is Viswanathan Anand's fifth crown and fourth in a row and he a prize money of approximately $1.4 million as prize money. He has been the world champion since 2007.

In the tie-breaker, Anand went ahead after winning the second game in 77 moves following a draw in the first in 33 moves. The remaining two games also ended in a draw for a result of 2.5-1.5 as Anand defended his world championship title for the third time in a row.

"Game one was a tense start. It was a long and tough match. The match was very intense, I am relieved. I was better for most part in the second game. It was a back and forth game," Anand said.

A humble Anand admitted that Gelfand was a tough competitor.

"I am too tense to be happy, right now now I am relieved. Gelfand was playing well, the match was very even," he said.

The 42-year-old Indian said losing the seventh game had put him on the back-foot and he felt fortunate to defend the crown.

"It was a huge blow for me to lose the seventh game. It was very critical moment for me. I was extremely fortunate that I was able to come back the next day. Given that we drew our first 12 games, deciding the match by tie-break is quite a reasonable situation," he said.

With both the players tied at 6-6 in the 12 classical games, they had to play four games under rapid chess rules with 25 minutes to each player and a ten seconds increment after every move.

The two met in a mini match in the 2000 FIDE World Cup in Shenzhen (China) which was decided in an Armageddon game after two classical, two rapid and two blitz games had all ended in draws. Anand won the mini match and went on to win the title.

The World Chess Championship match too has been a close affair, mainly because they have shunned risks and played safe. Most of their games ended within 30 moves via quick exchange of pieces, causing much disappointment among their fans.

The two have prepared extensively and thus have not only anticipated their rival's tactics but have been ready with their responses. They have played safe, avoiding complications and only a couple of games have been exciting enough to create a buzz in chess circles.

Anand, world champion since 2007, won the junior title in 1989 and became India's first Grand Master at the age of 16.

Anand became the first Asian to win the FIDE world chess championship after defeating Spain's Alexei Shirov in Tehran in 2000. His title win on Wednesday was his fourth in a row -- he also won in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

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Facebook Adds New Analytics Tool for Brands

Facebook stock, as of now, sits at $33.03, and some speculate that there truly is no limit on how low it can go. One of several factors that might’ve contributed to the sensational IPO’s less than stellar performance is a possible fear regarding the company’s future, especially since the mobile version of the site, which more and more users are accessing, offers even less ad content than the desktop version. Some have even speculated that Facebook was aware of this, and may have issued a reduced earnings guidance on the eve of its IPO, which is a company’s forecast of how good business will be in the future. Either way, Facebook stock has essentially tanked, and the social network is scrambling to figure out how to make more money from ads, especially after GM discontinuing their campaign with the company, which made headlines.

Yesterday, the social network made a change which allowed advertisers to bypass Facebook sales reps while purchasing ads – Facebook home page and news feed ad space can directly be set up through Ads API and Power Editor tools, without having to consult with a Facebook ad representative. The platform continues to roll out new features related to ad content sans any official announcements, most recently adding a tab that displays the percentage of brand page fans who were reached as well as ‘liked’ posts. Here are some screen grabs of these new feature:

Page owners now have an extra analytical tool to get a better handle on how well their brand is doing on the social network. Facebook told Mashable that the new feature is available for the old-style pages, as well as the newer timelines, but adds that “we are slowly rolling this back to Page owners with a slightly updated design.” It can be assumed that the “updated design” is the timeline, which seems to be slowly be taking over the entire site.

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Facebook plans to raise $10.6 bln in mega IPO

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc aims to raise about $10.6 billion in Silicon Valley's largest IPO, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google Inc and granting the world's largest social network a market value close to Amazon.com's .

The eight-year-old social network that began as Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room project indicated an initial public offering price range of between $28 and $35 a share on Thursday, which would value the company at $77 billion to $96 billion.

The size of the IPO reflects the company's growth and bullish expectations about its money-making potential as a hub for everything from advertising to commerce.

"We certainly haven't ever seen a tech IPO on this grandiose a scale," said Lise Buyer, a principal with the IPO advisory firm Class V Group.

Buyer, who worked on Google's 2004 IPO, said the question about a company "that's already this big and that is raising this much money is how many of the glory days of growth are in the past versus how many are ahead."

Facebook stands to raise as much as $12 billion at the upper end of its planned range. If an over-allotment or "greenshoe" option is triggered, the company could sweep up a maximum of $13.6 billion, according to a Thursday prospectus.

Facebook is only getting about half, or $5.6 billion, of the estimated $10.6 billion that it would raise at the midpoint of its planned IPO range. About $4.9 billon will go to some existing shareholders.

Facebook's stock could begin trading as soon as May 18, according to a road showschedule obtained by Reuters. The offering's price range can be adjusted depending on Wall Street's response during the road show.

Investors are expected to flock to the highly anticipated IPO, although there have been growing concerns about the social network's longer-term growth and Zuckerberg's majority control.

Facebook will trade at 13 to 16 times the revenue that GreenCrest Capital analyst Max Wolff believes it will generate this year. By comparison, Google, the world's dominant Internet search engine, currently trades at 5.5 to 6 times expected 2012 revenue, he said.

Google's valuation was higher when it went public in 2004, though Facebook's IPO valuation is still higher than Google's was back then, Wolff noted.

But some observers said the rich premium was unlikely to deter investors.

"People are going to be very comfortable with this valuation," said Sam Schwerin of Millennium Technology Value Partners, which owns Facebook shares worth roughly $200 million. The firm is not selling in the IPO.

"A price range of $28 to $35 will be a relief to some people who are concerned that they may try to take the highest possible price because of high demand," he said.

"The amount being raised is noteworthy. Selling stockholders are raising about $5 billion in the IPO, which is a lot."

Facebook executives are due to hit the road on Monday, presenting their investment case to audiences. They will start in New York, go to other major cities such as Chicago and Boston, and end up on Facebook's home turf in Menlo Park, California, according to the schedule.

Zuckerberg is expected to participate in the two-week road show, a source has said, although Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Finance Chief David Ebersman will lead the briefings.

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