Windows 7 free ride over on August 20

Silicon India
Bangalore: August 20th is the last date to download the "release candidate" version of Windows 7, after which its free downloading will be discontinued. Microsoft, which has been providing free, unlimited downloads of the candidate version till now, plans to put Windows 7 on sale in about two months, reports CNET News.
This is a last chance for users who have failed to upgrade from Beta Build 7000 to the RC Build 7100 bits. Microsoft's announcement to halt the download of Windows 7 RC came during the second half of June 2008.

Windows Communications Manager, Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog posting this week, "After that date, you will still be able to register your product and get registration keys, but the media will no longer be available for download."

However the release candidate will only work through early next year. On June 1st, the software will entirely expire and, starting March 1st, it will begin shutting down every two hours to remind users that the end is near.

A move from the release candidate to the final version requires a clean installation of the operating system, meaning backing up one's data, reinstalling Windows 7, and then restoring the data and reinstalling any applications.

Yahoo Mail still king, Gmail to catch up soon

Silicon India
Bangalore: Yahoo mail continues to be the most popular web mail service, while Google's Gmail which is the fastest growing email service, has surpassed AOL to become the third most visited email service.

As per comScore's latest figures in July, Yahoo added almost 20 million users last year, growing its share of the market by 22 percent from 87.2 million users to 106.2 million users in June. Gmail with its climbing growth rate is on track to pass Windows Live Hotmail, which is the second most widely used email with 47.1 million users, up three percent from last year. In the July 2008 to July 2009 period, Gmail grew at a growth rate of 46 percent with 37 million unique visitors. On the other hand, during the same period AOL's monthly visitor total declined by 19 percent from 45.1 million to 36.4 million.


It's tough competition with all these services stepping up their marketing efforts and making noteworthy upgrades. For instance, Hotmail added the feature of offline access through standard email programmes. Gmail however has been gaining, thanks to its constant upgradation and enhancement. Google apart from getting corporations, organizations and schools to adopt its web services for their own e-mail, scheduling and productivity needs, has also been encouraging businesses to start using Google Apps, which includes Gmail as well as online applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites, and Google Video.

IBM to build next-generation chips with DNA

Silicon India
Bangalore: Scientists from IBM and California Institute of Technology are trying to build the next generation chips- smaller and more powerful, with the combination of DNA and nanotechnology. The experimental breakthrough can be a step towards developing a new technique for making smaller microprocessors beyond the traditional manufacturing processes

In the past few years, chipmakers have been able to make tinier and powerful products, but this advancement has pushed the limits of manufacturing techniques. According to IBM, The revolutionary method, developed at its Almaden Research Center in California and the California Institute of Technology, can help it to make computer chips from the molecule, by arranging DNA structures on the surface of manufactured semiconductor material. Microchips are mainly used in computers, mobile phones and a broad range of electronic devices and, as chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.

Spike Narayan, Research Manager, IBM said, "The biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes. The combination of this directed self-assembly with today's fabrication technology for high-resolution positioning of nano-objects eventually can lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip making process." This combination can also help processor designers to keep pace with Moore's Law - the 40-plus-year-old prediction by Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years.

The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore's Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry. Currently, the semiconductor industry is able to make processors using 22 nanometer manufacturing technology. IBM is also looking for the DNA to act as scaffolds or miniature circuit boards for the highly precise assembly of chip components, like nanotubes, nanowires and nanoparticles. After using this technique, manufacturers are likely to build 'significantly smaller' chips than has been possible with current semiconductor fabrication technology.

India ready with Chandrayaan-2 design

Silicon India
Bangalore: National space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has completed the design of Chandrayaan-2, with the collaboration of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). Chandrayaan-2 consists of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover, which can collect samples of the lunar soil and analyze them and send back the data. India will be building the orbital flight vehicle, while the 'Lunar Craft' will be supplied by Russia
On completion of the design, G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO said, "Right now, the design has been completed. We had a joint review with Russian scientists." According to the Bangalore-headquartered space agency, the Chandrayaan-2 mission would have an orbital flight vehicle comprising an Orbital Craft (OC) and a Lunar Craft (LC) that would carry a soft landing system up to Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT).

Nair said, "The landing of the rover would be decided after we analyze the data sent by Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Now we are set to build a prototype of Chandrayaan-2 and this would happen next year. We will build upon our success with Chandrayaan-1."

ISRO had gained lot of positives from the first lunar mission and received valuable inputs on heat radiation on the moon's surface. The ISRO Chief said that 95 percent of the scientific objective of Chandrayaan-1 mission had been achieved and the remaining five percent of what was left out would be taken up during the next season starting this October.

"The redundancy factor would be the utmost on the minds of the scientists working on Chandrayaan-2 after their good experience with the first mission," said Nair

Microsoft, Nokia to take on RIM

Silicon India
Bangalore: Microsoft and Nokia have formed an alliance to bring Microsoft (MS) software applications on the Nokia phones and to counter the dominance of the Research in Motion's (RIM)Blackberry. This is for the first time that Microsoft will make Office applications for non-Windows mobile phones

The latest versions of the Microsoft's Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and messaging, will be available on the Nokia phones, which makes up 45 percent of the global smartphone market with 200 million users. The companies expect to offer Nokia phones running on the Symbian operating system and having Office sometime in the next year, initially targeting enterprise customers integrated into Nokia's E Series phones.

"This is giving some of our competitors; let's spell it out, RIM, a run for their money. I don't think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now." said Robert Andersson, Executive Vice President, Nokia.

Research in Motion's BlackBerry has created the market for mobile e-mail, and has a dominant position in the corporate sector, especially in North America.

"RIM should be reasonably safe in the near-term because Nokia's presence in the U.S. is relatively small. Partnering more closely with Microsoft will help to raise Nokia's profile in the U.S." said Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics.

The alliance is also looking to counter Google recent move into free online software, targeted at Microsoft's business customers and the growing popularity of Apple's iPhone device.

Microsoft's new Office suite of applications could be available to large numbers of users as compared to the users of Windows Mobile phones, which make up nine percent of the smartphone market

Hacked Company: Breach exposes nearly 6,00,000

Silicon India
Bangalore: Hosting company and domain registrar Network Solutions has disclosed the data security breach of nearly 6,00,000 credit card holders by malware on a server. The company has notified 4,343 of its nearly 10,000 e-commerce merchant customers about the breach, said Roy Dunbar, Chairman and CEO of Network Solutions.
As reported by CNET News, Network Solutions is investigating this breach that may have led to the theft of credit card data of 5,73,928 people, who made purchases on Web sites hosted by the company. It affects 573,928 cardholders whose name, address, and credit card number were exposed between March 12 and June 8, said Susan Wade, a spokeswoman for Network Solutions.

Network Solutions informed the merchant customers in an e-mail that the credit card transactions were intentionally diverted by an unknown source from certain Network Solutions servers to servers outside. "Mysterious code was discovered in early June on servers hosting e-commerce customer sites during routine maintenance," Susan said. The company called in a third-party forensics team to help with the investigation, and the team was able to crack some of the code on July 13, determining that it could be related to credit card data, she added. According to Susan, it is unknown how the malicious code got onto the system and where it came from.

The hackers left behind malicious code, which allowed them to intercept personal and financial information for people who made purchases at the stores hosted on those servers, said Susan. "So we have notified law enforcement and began the process of notifying our customers. At this point, we don't have a reason to believe that (the data) has been used, but we are working with the credit card companies," she added.

According to the Network Solutions, "Assuring the security and reliability of our services to customers is our most important priority. We store credit card data in an encrypted manner and we are PCI compliant. Unfortunately, any company operating in our business could have become a victim of this type of invasion. In this situation, the unauthorized code appears to have transmitted information about credit card transactions as they were being completed; it did not involve vulnerability in the way we store data in our systems."

But in a prepared statement,Bob Russo, General Manager of the PCI Security Standards Council urged the company to be more cautious about its statements regarding PCI compliance until an investigation is completed. "Until a forensics investigation is completed, an organization cannot comment accurately on its compliance status," Russo said.

However, with this breach of Network Solutions' servers, an unanswered question revolves in the consumers' mind asking, "Do you think it is safe to make transaction on the Internet?"

Bangalore techies settle for low-paying jobs

Silicon India
Bangalore: Till a few months ago, IT professional T.V. George was earning Rs.70,000 per month, plus perks. But after losing his high-paying job, and being unemployed for three months, George, 31, has started giving tuitions in mathematics and physics to aspiring engineering students in his neighbourhood
"Now, I am earning Rs.15,000 per month. It's been hard. I got married only a few months before losing my job. So, when I lost my job, I was in a difficult position. Thankfully, I had some savings. With the savings, I am paying my rent and for a few other necessities," George, who was employed with a top U.S. IT company, told IANS.

"After losing my job, I tried my best to get a new job. But I remained unlucky. So to help run my home, I decided to give coaching classes to aspiring engineering students."

George is not alone. Recession has hit the IT sector in Bangalore, with scores of techies losing their jobs. Some have been forced to take up low-paying jobs as they wait to bounce back when the recession ends.

Dipankar Dutta, 27, working with an Indian IT company as software engineer, lost his job almost eight months ago.

Today he has a job, but as a content writer in a tech firm.

"Thankfully, writing has been my forte. So, I landed this job of a content writer. Otherwise I would have been in a soup. Since I cannot afford to stay in Bangalore without a job, I compromised and settled for the new job with a much lower pay package," said Dutta.

Scores of IT and ITES professionals in Bangalore have lost their jobs in recent times, an effect of the global economic meltdown. But there is no precise count of the numbers.

According to the latest employment and business outlook report by Bangalore-based staffing firm Teamlease, at 23 percent the attrition rate in this city is higher than in any other city in India.

The report was based on interviews with HR heads, CEOs and senior executives of 495 companies in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

"The city accounted for the highest attrition rate. IT accounts for over 80 percent of the city's total labour pool. The attrition rate was 23 percent in the last quarter, against the previous quarter's 16 percent. Much of the attrition could be involuntary attrition (or layoffs)," Teamlease General Manager Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi said.

India's Silicon Valley has seen thousands of people getting pink slips in recent months. And many more are under the threat of losing their jobs.

"It's painful to lose your job, in today's expensive world. Those who have lost their jobs are desperate now, thus they are settling for low paying jobs," Karthik Shekhar, General Secretary of UNITES-Professionals, an unrecognised union of IT/Call Centre/BPO employees, told IANS.

"Every day we meet young men and women who have lost their IT jobs recently. All they want is a job. But getting a job in the IT sector is very difficult. So, they have no option but to settle for jobs outside their fields and that too with low paying packages," Shekhar added.

"It's encouraging that today's youths are ready to move ahead in their lives. Instead of waiting for the economy to revive, IT professionals have started exploring other fields and this is a positive sign," said B.N. Gangadhar, professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), Bangalore

Mohammed Khan, a trained software engineer, told IANS: "Initially it was difficult, but I am happy with my choice. After losing my job with an IT firm, now I am working as a sales executive. I am hoping the economy will recover soon and all the techies who have lost their jobs will get new jobs in their field."

An engineer kills himself over lost 4G iPhone

Silicon India
Bangalore: A Chinese engineer killed himself after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for disappeared. Sun Danyong, 25, was a recent graduate in engineering who worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn is a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong
The Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported that his property had been seized and was held in solitary confinement, where he faced "unbearable interrogation techniques" for having lost one of 16 "4G" prototypes.

Apple issued a statement this afternoon in response to a report by CNET. An Apple spokeswoman said, "The Silicon Valley firm is saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

AppleInsider notes that it's the second piece of bad news for the company recently. Last week an investigation found that 45 of the 83 factories that built iPhones and iPods in 2008 weren't paying valid overtime rates, and that 23 weren't even paying some of their workers China's minimum wage.

IT Professionals give thumbs down to Microsoft

Silicon India
Bangalore: Microsoft has received some awful feedback from its customers with regard to its services. In a study conducted by VendorRate, all the products of the software giant have received poor ratings by IT professionals for customer satisfaction, integrity, reliability and more
The online survey was conducted by the market research firm on IT professionals of 347 hardware, software, telecom and service vendors during the second half of 2009. VendorRate asked the participants to rate vendors in 10 categories, including integrity, timeliness, communications, customer service, expertise, effectiveness, and whether they would recommend the vendor to others. It then added all the categories for each vendor to come up with a total.

For Microsoft, the ratings were generally miserable. Three different Microsoft businesses were given separate ratings, including operating systems, applications, and infrastructure. Looking at the poor ratings received by Microsoft for this quarter, Rick Schaefer, CEO of VendorRate says, "Microsoft's ratings simply fell off a cliff in this quarter."

IT professionals rating vendors in April, May and June has hit Microsoft with poor customer satisfaction scores for the company's server and infrastructure software (55 out of 100, down nearly 17 percent), operating systems (67, down 9.5 percent) and applications (64, off nearly 18 percent).

The survey also saw some of the other major technology companies take the bottom positions. Verizon was at the bottom of the list, with a 61 rating, followed by Sprint Nextel with 64, and Microsoft applications with 64. Microsoft operating systems was tied with AT&T Wireless for the next worst rating with a 67. That means Microsoft took two of the bottom five spots. IBM Informix, meanwhile, took the top spot for vendors with a 96. After this poor performance by Microsoft, all eyes are now on Windows 7, to see if that can bring some respite to the company.

India to be among top three mobile-net nations: Google

Silicon India
Bangalore: According to the internet search giant Google, India is likely to be among the top three markets with highest number of mobile internet users in less than two years.

"Factors like affordable smartphones, cheaper telecom data plans and customized applications have doubled India's mobile internet users, reaching to two crore over the past year," informed Vinay Goel, Country Head, Products, Google India.


"When I came to India two years back, I thought none of the applications Google has invested in will work in the country. With the launch of 3G services enabling better bandwidth, India could be among the top three countries with maximum mobile Web users by end of next year, ahead of U.S. and Japan," said Goel.

Currently India is among the top 10 markets in the world behind countries like China, U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K. and France. The company is entering the spheres of web based applications like voice search, maps and social networking, as Google owned Orkut has a strong presence in India

Nearly 700 employees laid off by Cisco

Silicon India
Bangalore: Due to slow sales, computer networking giant Cisco has laid off between 600 and 700 employees in an attempt to cut costs. The majority of layoffs were made at the company's headquarters in San Jose, California, The Wall Street Journal reported
Chief Executive Officer, John Chambers had said in February that around 2000 positions would be cut during this fiscal year, which ends this month. As of the end of April, Cisco employed about 66,560 people. According to a company official, the company has also laid off employees at its other branches in the U.S. But, the total number was not immediately clear.

"We are doing everything possible to minimize the impact on employees affected," spokeswoman Kristin Carvell said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Cisco also laid off dozens of its employees from its development center in Israel, where it employees around 700 people. Most of those fired in the first wave of layoffs at the beginning of the year were from the development departments of Riverhead and Actona, two Israeli software companies acquired by Cisco.

Cisco has reported back-to-back quarters of declining sales. It will report its fiscal fourth quarter earnings August 5.

Job security concerns rise in India

Silicon India
Bangalore: A survey conducted by a research firm reports that 52 percent of people, who were surveyed last month, say that there has been decrease in Job security. "In the June survey, approximately 52 percent of surveyed respondents observed (compared to 12 months ago) a decrease in job security compared to 48 percent in the May survey," according to Boston Analytics' monthly Consumer Confidence Survey, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. The survey was conducted on 10,000 respondents across 15 Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

The survey further claimed that the job market in India has been sending some mixed signals in the recent months. Sentiment related to job security on an observed basis has fallen again in the last month, reaching its lowest level since August 2008.

Sectors such as information technology, construction, aviation, financial services and real estate, which contributes to almost nine percent of the nation's GDP growth also faced severe cutbacks. While export oriented sectors like gems, jewelery, textiles and leather has also seen large scale layoffs due to global economic crisis.

However, many companies are optimistic that business condition and domestic demand to grow will improve soon. "On the expectations front, about 22 percent respondents (surveyed last month) feel unemployment will decrease in the next 12 months compared to 19 percent in the May survey," Boston Analytics said.

Sectors such as FMCG, food and beverages, banking, retail, energy, infrastructure, and pharmaceuticals have started hiring more people. About 24 percent respondents observed a decrease in unemployment in June compared to 21 percent in the previous month.

The most positive factor pointed out by survey is the growing optimism. "Positive sentiment about the nation's macro-economic outlook has translated into optimism about creating alternative means of employment," survey said. About 43 percent respondents felt it would be easy to create alternative means of employment in the event of a job loss

China to attack India by 2012: Defence Expert

Bangalore: China will attack India by 2012 to distract the attention of its own people from "unprecedented" internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country, according to a leading defence expert.
"China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century," said Bharat Verma, Editor, Indian Defence Review.

According to Verma, the recession has "shut the Chinese exports shop", developing an "unprecedented internal social unrest" which in return, was severely jeopardizing Communists grip over the society. Rising unemployment, flight of capital worth billions of dollars, depletion of its foreign exchange reserves and growing internal dissent are several other reasons for this assessment.

"The growing irrelevance of Pakistan, their right hand that operates against India on their behest, is increasing the Chinese nervousness," he said adding that the U.S. President Barak Obama's Afghan-Pak policy was basically a Pak-Afghan policy that has "intelligently set thief to catch the thief".

"Beijing was already rattled, with its proxy Pakistan now literally embroiled in a civil war, losing its sheen against India." The assessment also states that China is worried over the India's growing alliances with the U.S. and the West, because it has the potential to create a technologically superior counterpoise.

"All these three concerns of Chinese Communists are best addressed by waging a war against pacifist India to achieve multiple strategic objectives," said Verma.

As China allowed North Korea to test underground nuclear explosion in a hidden manner, and carry out missile trials, it was also "increasing its naval presence in South China Sea to coerce into submission those opposing its claim on the Sprately Islands," the expert said.

It would be inexpedient for recession-hit China to move against the Western interests, including Japan, at this point of time. "Therefore, the most attractive option is to attack a soft target like India and forcibly occupy its territory in the Northeast," said Verma.

On ground, India is least prepared to face the Chinese threat, he says. Verma puts a series of questions on India's response to repulse the Chinese game plan or whether Indian leadership would be able to "take the heat of war".

"Is Indian military equipped to face the two-front wars by Beijing and Islamabad? Is the Indian civil administration geared to meet the internal security challenges that the external actors will sponsor simultaneously through their doctrine of unrestricted warfare? "The answers are an unequivocal 'no'. Pacifist India is not ready by a long shot either on the internal or the external front," he opined.

Google's new OS could hit Microsoft where it hurts

Silicon India
San Francisco: It's the ultimate showdown in the technology world, the clash of giants that has been eagerly awaited for years. Web giant Google is taking its clearest aim yet at Microsoft with its plan to produce its own operating system that would optimise the way computers work on the Internet

The Chrome operating system is due to be out in the second half of next year and will initially be used in netbooks, company executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson said in a blog posting. The operating system would be released as free, open-source software, which would allow anyone to use or modify it.

At the core of Google's vision is the most important trend in the networked world: the move from running applications on a desktop computer to running them through a web browser.

From Gmail to Facebook and Picassa to Twitter, the most popular uses for computers are no longer the disc-churning software programmes like Microsoft Office, which have clogged up hard drives for years. The new paradigm is cloud-based computing, where all the heavy lifting and storage is done on companies' server farms, which people access over their broadband connections.

According to Google, it's time that computers reflected the change.

"The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web," Google executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson wrote in a blog posting announcing the move.

The Chrome operating system is Google's "attempt to re-think what operating systems should be", based on three key attributes: "speed, simplicity and security".

"We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you on to the web in a few seconds. We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

That vision sounds like digital heaven for computer users who have wrestled forever with bloated software and computers that progressively get slower and slower.

"People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them," the Google blog said.

"They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware or have to worry about constant software updates."

As enticing as that prospect may seem, it's not guaranteed to work, says Don Retallack, vice president of research at Directions on Microsoft - a company that tracks the software giant.

"Google may or may not have the experience and capability of actually producing an operating system and getting it deployed," he said. "It may not realise how hard it is."
Microsoft still sells between 80 and 90 percent of PC operating systems and is convinced that users, especially businesses, still want their data and programmes to be stored locally, Retallack said.

"People want their information under their own control," he says

"I think it's going to be harder than people think."

For example, users who opt for a Chrome-powered PC will have to give up their old software, and may find much of their data impossible to transfer. For computer-game players, video editors or any other users who need raw computing power, Chrome might be significantly underpowered.

Still, the influential blog Techcrunch called Google's move a "genius play".

"Microsoft has a very serious competitive threat to the core of their revenues," said site founder Michael Arrington. "Every Chrome computer bought won't have Windows and won't have Office. That must send chills down the spine of the guys up in Redmond."

Job-hopping engineers hinder India's R&D ambitions

Silicon India
Bangalore: Job-hopping these days is a frequent occurrence among engineers in India. This is limiting the scope of development of cutting-edge technology and cranks the R&D operations in the country.
"The job-hopping tendency of Indian engineers is a stumbling block in the path of gaining deeper technical knowledge," said Rick Steffens, Head of Hewlett Packard's Systems Technology and Software Division. As reported in Reuters,he also opined that the country should make it attractive for the engineers to stay within rather than shifting to tech multinationals.

The absolute value of the engineers in the country is low though the talent pool is large. "If you look at experienced talent, the people who have spent 15-25 years in product development, that bench is still thin in India," said Noshir Kaka, Director at McKinsey & Co, a global consultancy firm.

However, some researchers say that the curriculum followed by most of the engineering schools in the country is neither industry oriented nor made for R&D needs. The country's educational system does not support academic or research excellence and lacks good faculty and infrastructure. "The total output of Ph.Ds in India is probably about the same as that of a single good university in the U.S.," said Guruduth Banavar, Head of IBM's India Research Laboratory. "And the best folks who could potentially go on for Ph.Ds end up taking jobs because there are so many good jobs available," he said.

The lack of educational standards in India limits not only the scope of collaboration between the Indian counterparts of the technology companies but also higher-value R&D efforts. Vivek Mansingh,Country Manager, Dell India said, "I think in the future a lot of that interaction will move here and standards bodies will form here."

All top five Indian funds part of the Lipper's top-100 list are infrastructure or property funds. The list has been lead by Naya Bharat Property Compa

Silicon India
Bangalore: In 2008-09, the government lost $87 billion (Rs 418,095 crore) of potential revenue due to the various exemptions and rebates given to individuals, corporate and non-corporate firms. This year, the finance minister has refused to reduce the tax rates for the corporate sector citing the loss of revenue because of such schemes.
Although there was an increase of 2.4 percent in the total tax collection in 2008-09 as compared to 2007-08, the loss of revenue also saw an increase of 46.7 percent. This amounts to 69 percent of the aggregate tax collected in 2008-09. The loss is excluding export related exemptions and exemptions given to neutralize customs duties of importing countries. If included, the total revenue foregone will amount to more than two-third of the total collection.

The lost revenue also called tax preferences reflects the policies of the government. The biggest contributor to this loss has been the different exemptions given to customs duty which came to around Rs 2.3 lakh crore. Excise duty rebates led to Rs 1.3 lakh crore as loss. Exemptions in personal income tax and corporate tax meant a loss of Rs 39600 crore and Rs 6,900 crore respectively.

51 Indian MFs in world's top-100 stock funds

Silicon India
MUMBAI: "51 India-focused funds were among the world's top 100 performing stock funds in the quarter to June," reports Lipper, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, which provides mutual and hedge fund information, analytical tools, data and commentary. This growth seems to be the result of leap in domestic shares by nearly 50 percent during April-June'09. After Vietnam, this is the fastest growth in Asia on signs of economic recovery and hopes for market-friendly policies by the re-elected Congress-lead government.

All top five Indian funds part of the Lipper's top-100 list are infrastructure or property funds. The list has been lead by Naya Bharat Property Company fund, domiciled in the Isle of Man, which gave a return of nearly 135 percent, followed by JM Core 11 Fund, a concentrated 11-stock portfolio, which rose more than 100 percent. Fund houses JM Financial Asset Management and Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund have four funds each in the list, while Benchmark, India's passive fund manager, DBS Cholamandalam, SBI Funds Management and Taurus Mutual Fund had three schemes each.

The Lipper's list of 29,942 world stock funds with a track record of at least a quarter showed India funds recording an average 50.45 percent jump in their net values in three months to June as compared to just over 18 per cent gain for the fund group.
Rajeev Baddepudi, a Senior Research Analyst for ASEAN at Lipper says, "Stocks in India were spurred on by a steady diet of positive macro data and the strong victory of the incumbent Congress party in national elections mid-May."

The gain was the biggest rise for the benchmark in any quarter since it soared 124.5 per cent in January-March in 1992 when Manmohan Singh, the then finance minister, kicked off reforms to open up the economy.

Chandrayaan-II to be launched by 2013

Kolkata: India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-II is likely to be launched by 2013, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said Saturday.
"Chandrayaan-II should take place by 2013. Our first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I, has given us a substantial understanding about entering the moon's orbit. But ensuring the safe landing of the rover on the lunar surface is still an obstacle," Nair told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony here.

He said: "The moon doesn't have any atmosphere so utilising parachutes will not be possible. We are now exploring other alternatives."

Nair, who was in town to receive M.P. Birla Memorial Award, 2009 for exceptional achievement in the field of astronomy and space science said the biggest impediment to the proposed Chandrayaan-II project was the impact management of the rover.

He said that ISRO would also launch a geostationary satellite to cater to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to record the changing monsoon pattern and cloud shifts.

"This satellite will be handed over to IMD within next 2-3 years. It'll help to track the reading of cloud shifts and changing monsoon patterns," he said.

Nair said that India's Mars mission was suffering due to lack of qualified manpower available.

"The Mars mission could be delayed as we don't have enough scientific ideas coming through. In India, there is a requirement for more students to take up pure sciences and undertake research activities," he said.

India loses six lakh jobs in four months

Silicon India
Bangalore: More than six lakh Indians have lost their jobs in the duration of just four months after the economic crisis has hit Indian shores in the month of Oct'08.

According to the Economic survey, about five lakh people lost their jobs in the October-December 2008 period, while over one lakh were shed in January this year, the Economic Survey said.
In September, the crisis turned severe following the bankruptcy of American financial services major Lehman Brothers. Since then, millions of jobs have been shed worldwide, as companies resorted to massive layoffs as part of their cost cutting measures.

According to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, during the three months from October to December 2008, there was a decline in employment of about half a million workers. Among the sectors, the most hit by the financial turmoil are gems and jewellery, transport and automobiles.


"The most affected sectors were gems and jewellery, transport and automobiles where employment has declined by 8.58 percent, 4.03 percent and 2.42 percent, respectively during the period (October to December 2008)," report said.

However, the survey conducted by the Labour Bureau for the January-March period showed improvement in the employment scenario in selected sectors. The Labour Bureau survey, which covered 3,192 units, indicated improvement in the selected sectors with employment rising by a "quarter million".

"Sectors registering increased employment were gems and jewellery (3.08 percent), textiles (0.96 percent), IT-BPO (0.82 percent), handloom-powerloom (0.56 percent) and automobile (0.10 percent)," the Survey said quoting the Labour Bureau.

In the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), about 58 million employment opportunities are projected to be created and the unemployment rate is anticipated to fall below five per cent

Tech M asks World Bank to lift ban on Satyam

Bangalore: World Bank is officially approached by Tech Mahindra, to lift the eight year ban on the scam-hit IT services firm Satyam. This move comes after Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam and renamed it as Mahindra Satyam. Satyam was blacklisted last September and a month later the software firm denied reports that its contractors had installed spy software on World Bank computers
"We wrote to the bank a few weeks ago. We don't expect an immediate response as these things take time but we disagree with the claims they've made," said Vineet Nayyar, Vice-chairman, Tech Mahindra. Tech Mahindra also said that it remains committed to developing a $75 million IT facility in Geelong and will continue to service Telstra despite losing a $30 million-plus contract.

The Geelong project was announced more than a year ago with Satyam as the main financial backer, in partnership with the Victorian government, the City of Greater Geelong and Deakin. The software hub was to create 2,000 jobs, a welcome reprieve for a region afflicted by automotive industry job losses.