N.L. Dalmia ~ N.L. Dalmia College ~ N.L. Dalmia MBA College Mumbai at nldalmiamgmt.org

N.L. Dalmia ~ N.L. Dalmia College ~ N.L. Dalmia MBA College Mumbai at nldalmiamgmt.org

N. L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research (N. L. Dalmia) was formed under the aegis of N. L. Dalmia Educational Society. Late Shri. Niranjanlal Dalmia, a visionary, philanthropist and industrialist is the founder chairman of the society. N. L. Dalmia

Established in 1995, N. L. Dalmia commenced its academic programs in July 1997, offering Master’s in Management Studies (MMS), a two year full-time course affiliated to the University of Mumbai and three year Part-time Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management approved by AICTE.

The Institute also has its esteemed Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), a two year full-time course approved by AICTE.

In the year 2003, the Institute commenced three year Part-time Programs (MMM, MFM and MHRDM) affiliated to the University of Mumbai.

Visit NL Dalmia Management College, Mumbai website www.nldalmiamgmt.org for information on courses offered, Admission dates & results and latest News & Events at the MBA Institute.

NL Dalmia Management College Website – http://nldalmiamgmt.org/

Palestinian officials obstruct dialogue – Zahar

Leading Hamas member Mahmoud Zahar said on Tuesday some Palestinian officials, backed by the United States, were obstructing the dialogue due to open between Palestinian groups in Cairo on Wednesday.

“There are people who want this dialogue not to take place because they will lose their positions and their privileges,” he told Reuters in an interview in the Egyptian town of Ismailia, where he was visiting his wife’s Egyptian relatives.

Zahar repeated Hamas complaints that the Fatah movement, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, has detained dozens of Hamas members in the West Bank in the past week. “These matters (the arrests) do not serve dialogue,” he added.

The arrests have added to the tension between the two largest Palestinian groups during preparations for the dialogue.

Zahar, who was Palestinian foreign minister in the government Hamas formed after winning elections in 2006, said U.S. intervention was behind the tension. “There are U.S. (intelligence) agencies working in the West Bank,” he added.

He also rejected Fatah complaints about arrests by Hamas in Gaza, where the Islamist movement is in control.

“We have published pictures of what they call political detainees in Gaza. These are people who have confessed that they provided the enemy (Israel) with information about where fighters were stationed and the tunnels (to Egypt) and the type of weaponry,” he said.

Zahar said Hamas had asked the Egyptian government to let it import 1,000 containers into Gaza for use as temporary housing for Palestinians displaced during Israel’s three-week assault on the coastal strip, which ended in mid-January.

A group of Hamas engineers arrived in Cairo on Monday to study the purchase of the 1,000 containers.

Hamas has also asked Egypt to press Israel to let wood, glass, aluminium, steel and electrical supplies into Gaza to rebuild what was destroyed in the offensive, he said.

Israel has restricted supplies of building materials to Gaza, saying some of them might help Hamas rearm and earn the movement credit with Palestinians living in Gaza.

Zahar declined to give any commitment that Hamas would cooperate with U.S. and Israeli attempts to stop the movement receiving money and weapons from abroad.

“It’s our right to bring in everything — money and arms. We will not give anyone any commitment on this subject,” he said.
Yusri Mohamed

Annan warns Kenya over delays setting up tribunal

Delays in setting up a tribunal on post-election violence last year threaten Kenya’s stability, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.

The issue of justice for the killings of at least 1,300 people and uprooting of more than 300,000 is straining the coalition government, established last year to end the worst blood-letting in Kenya since independence from Britain in 1963.

Unity government leaders President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga — whose dispute over the presidential election triggered the crisis — have so far failed to push the creation of a special tribunal through parliament.

That means, under the terms of a government-accepted inquiry, mediator Annan should hand a sealed envelope holding the names of 10 top suspects to the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) when a March 1 deadline passes.

In a statement, Annan said the failure to create a local tribunal would “constitute a major setback in the fight against impunity and may threaten the whole reform agenda in Kenya”.

He said his panel of “Eminent African Personalities”, which mediated in Kenya’s crisis, remained convinced a Kenyan-owned and Kenyan-led process would be best for the whole country.

He welcomed promises of further efforts by Kibaki and Odinga to win over their supporters in parliament.

“It is the panel’s view that such an effort should be encouraged and carried out within the shortest possible timeframe,” he said.

The legislation setting up the tribunal must meet international legal standards, Annan added, and it should be broadly debated by Kenyans to ensure the process was credible.

The sealed list of 10 suspects who could face any local court — or ICC prosecutors in The Hague — includes prominent politicians and businessmen, Kenyan political sources say.

A rump of rank-and-file legislators have opposed the government’s push to set up a local court, saying it was doomed to go the way of past inquiries and fail to prosecute anyone.

Many Kenyans are frustrated at the government’s lack of progress, and allegations of new multi-million dollar graft scandals in the maize and oil sectors have fuelled the dismay.

A survey released on Monday by pollster Steadman said only 31 percent of those questioned expected the coalition to hold together until the next election due in 2012. A staggering 70 percent listed “none” as the government’s main achievement since it was formed in April 2008.

Only 33 percent thought any political or business leader responsible for organising the violence would ever be convicted.
Daniel Wallis

Mayawati to be next Indian PM: pollster

London, Feb 23 (IANS) The coming Indian general elections are likely to lead to a Left-leaning government led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and supported from the outside by either the Congress or the BJP, a leading pollster predicted Monday.

Yashwant Deshmukh, who runs the Team Cvoter polling firm and has covered more than 100 state and national elections in India, will tell leading British politicians this week that neither the Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be able to win a majority in elections to the Lok Sabha.

In fact, he believes that both parties will see their number of seats dramatically reduced.

“I am looking at the possibility of Mayawati leading a government of an assortment of political parties, barring the Samajwadi Party,” he told IANS ahead of Wednesday’s House of Commons briefing for British MPs, members of thinktanks and businessmen and investors.

“This government would be formed with either inside- or outside-support from the Left parties. But it will need the support of either the Congress or the BJP from the outside.

“In the current scenario either of them will do it because no one wants to be seen as trying to stop a Dalit woman from becoming prime minister. Coming in her way would be committing political harakiri.”

Deshmukh said the post-election scenario was less clear than in previous years, but predicted: “This time round the Congress party will be the loser and the BJP will be the even bigger loser. Both will all need to give away a lot of power if they’re going to even come close to a majority.”

Vikas Pota, managing director of the public relations firm Saffron Chase, which is organising the briefing, said the elections were expected to lead to a slowdown in the process of liberalisation in India.

‘It seems that the current world recession is leading to protectionist language from all nations. It will be difficult to grow the insurance, retail and banking sectors as a result,’ he told The Guardian newspaper.

Loyalists praise Mugabe as he turns 85

Johannesburg/Harare, Feb 22 (DPA) State media and party loyalists in Zimbabwe praised President Robert Mugabe as he turned 85 Saturday, with a lavish party and banquet planned for next week.

Zimbabwe’s defence ministry paid for an advertisement eulogising Mugabe – who has been ostracised by the international community – saying: ‘Like a mighty crocodile, you have remained resilient, focused and resolute against all the odds … ‘

The state-owned daily The Herald said: ‘We should never forget that 50 of the 85 years, comrade Mugabe has been in the trenches slaving so that you and I could live a life of dignity.’

Mugabe is Africa’s oldest leader, and has been at the helm in Zimbabwe since leading the country to independence from Britain in 1980.

An extravagant party is planned for Feb 28, with Mugabe’s Zanu PF party hoping to have raised around $300,000 to fund the celebrations, and have received pledges of cattle, goats and pigs to feed guests – despite around half of the population of Zimbabwe not being able to adequately feed itself.

On Saturday state-owned radio and television were awash with advertisements praising Mugabe.

‘Long live comrade Mugabe we shall ever remember and never forget,’ according to the lyrics of one song played repeatedly on air.

Another song said: ‘God bless our leader, one day he shall liberate the whole continent of Africa.’

Cabinet chief secretary and Mugabe loyalist Misheck Sibanda paid for an advertisement describing his Mugabe’s ‘visionary leadership, selfless dedication to the ideals of national unity and empowerment of the indigenous majority’.

A deadly cholera epidemic has afflicted Zimbabwe, whose bankrupt national economy is currently suffering from hyperinflation.

The cholera epidemic has claimed around 4,000 victims, whilst the UN says more than five million people need urgent food aid. A five-member UN team is expected in Harare in the next few days for a five-day visit to find ways of curbing the cholera epidemic and

alleviating the food crisis.

The team is made up of experts from the World Health Organisation, the UN Children’s Fund, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Food Programme.

Absolom Sikhosana, Zanu PF’s youth leader, admitted earlier this week that raising funds for this year celebrations of Mugabe’s birthday have been more difficult, although around $110,000 had already been pledged.

Once a hero to Zimbabweans and Africans for leading his country’s struggle for independence from Britain, Mugabe has seen his domestic popularity wane over the past decade, and his international reputation hit rock-bottom as his security services used violence to repress political opposition and his people went hungry.

Last year he lost a presidential election to Morgan Tsvangirai, a defeat Mugabe’s allies attempted to reverse in a second round of voting by killing dozens of opposition supporters and injuring hundreds of others.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai have since formed a coalition government, with Tsvangirai as prime minister.
DPA

German woman tells of “horror house” stay with creepy internet friend

German woman tells of Wellington – A German woman who flew to New Zealand to meet a man who wooed her on the internet with eloquent emails and poetry told a newspaper Tuesday of her time in a “horror house” with a stranger who was nothing like her online friend.

“He was quite intellectual and he knew the way to my heart,” the 36-year-old musician and drama teacher from Leipzig, who identified herself only as Maja, told the Otago Daily Times.

She said she realized her mistake as soon as she landed at Dunedin airport to meet the man she had formed an internet relationship with in October through his MySpace page. He was not the 33-year-old PhD student he had pretended to be, but an unkempt, unemployed man of 54 years.

“He had such a creepy aura,” she said. “I was in shock.”

Not knowing what to do, and having spent all her money on the fare to New Zealand, she went with him to his house.

“His home was really a horror house, I would say,” she told the paper. “Little roosters, cats and chickens lived in the house. There were a lot of cartons and dust and rubbish. You could not walk up the stairs and there was an ugly smell, a dead animal smell, and an ugly smell of old clothes.”

Maja said she stayed at the house because the man would not allow her to take her passport when they went out and she became more afraid as he listened in on her telephone calls and shouted at her.

She was rescued by police on Saturday after she had phoned a man she met on the plane and said she was not well. She said she couldn’t speak too much because her online pal was listening, but the man she called contacted police when she failed to meet him in the city on Thursday as arranged.

“I put much energy in keeping him calm to make him not nervous,” she said of her internet romancer. “He was really afraid that someone would come in and that I’d tell someone I was not okay.

“He was really out of reality. He lived in a complete fantasy world. I was totally afraid because he said there was no electricity there so we only had the candles at night.”

She said at night he took off his clothes and lay down in the same bed with her. “I had all my clothes on and these dirty sheets around me – I realised in that moment it was too much.” (dpa)

Nissan lowers full-year forecast due to yen surge, sales drop

Nissan lowers full-year forecast due to yen surge, sales drop Tokyo – Nissan Motor Co revised downward its earnings forecast for the full fiscal year after the yen surged against other major currencies and consumer appetite for cars waned owing to the global recession, the company said Monday.

Japan’s third-largest automaker after Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co estimated it would incur an operating loss of 180 billion yen (1.96 billion dollars) for fiscal 2008 that ends in March, which would be the first operating loss for Nissan in 14 years.

It would also be the first loss since company president Carlos Ghosn took over the management and the company formed a partnership with France’s Renault SA in 1999.

In October, Nissan expected to report an operating profit of 270 billion yen.

For the full year, the automaker projected a net loss of 265 billion yen and sales of 8.3 trillion yen, lowered from a net loss of 160 billion yen and sales of 9.6 trillion yen it had expected in October.

Nissan also plans to cut 20,000 workers worldwide by March 2010.

For the April-December period, Nissan reported an operating profit of 92.46 billion yen, down from 579.08 billion yen a year earlier, and a net profit of 43.18 billion yen, down from 344.64 billion yen.

Sales declined to 6.69 trillion yen for the nine months from 7.83 trillion yen during the same period a year before. (dpa)

Oxfam fears for Congolese civilians as fresh fighting looms

Oxfam fears for Congolese civilians as fresh fighting looms Nairobi/Goma – International charity Oxfam said Wednesday it was concerned for the safety of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Rwandan troops entered the country to hunt down Hutu militia formed after the 1994 massacre in Rwanda.

Several thousand Rwandan soldiers entered eastern DR Congo on Tuesday under an agreement with the Congolese government.

The soldiers headed north from Goma, the provincial capital of the unstable North Kivu province, to find the militia.

“Fighting three months ago, saw a quarter of a million people flee from their homes, and civilians killed, raped, and looted by all armed groups,” Juliette Prodhan, the head of Oxfam in DR Congo, said in a statement.

“This new twist … has the potential to result in similar abuse and significantly swell the 1 million people already displaced,” she added.

Congolese Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) in October launched a major offensive that sent over 250,000 people fleeing.

The CNDP, which is allegedly backed by Rwanda, says it is fighting to protect the Tutsi population from the Hutu militia.

The Congolese government has promised to tackle the Hutu militia on several occasions, but has failed to do so. The CNDP says this is one of the main reasons it was forced to take up arms again.

Many of the Hutu fighters fled over the border from Rwanda in 1994 after taking part in the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Hutu groups were also involved in the 1998-2003 war in DR Congo, which has led to the deaths of over 5 million people and displaced over 1 million.

The 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force MONUC is playing no role in the operation, which will be carried out by Rwandan and Congolese army forces.

MONUC struggled to contain the outbreak of violence last year and Oxfam said it was worried this situation would be repeated.

“The UN peacekeeping force is already overstretched and the 3,000 extra troops promised months ago have yet to arrive,” Prodhan said. “MONUC was not able to keep civilians saf … and without reinforcements, it is unclear that it will be able to now.” (dpa)

Global business slump hits BMW, Metro

Global business slump hits BMW, MetroBerlin – Further signs of the impact on German industry of the world economic slowdown emerged Tuesday when two of the nation’s leading companies announced tough measures aimed at facing up to the rapid deterioration in global growth.

While the world’s leading luxury carmaker BMW AG announced plans to introduce shorter working hours for 26,000 employees at four plants, giant German retailer Metro AG said it wanted to cut 15,000 jobs from its worldwide workforce over the next three years.

The job cuts formed part of a 750-billion-euro (970 billion dollar) cost-cutting program announced by the company.

Metro’s shares surged by 6 per cent to 25.85 euros in the wake of the announcement by the company, which has operations in 32 nations including in Asia, the Middle East as well as Central Europe and a combined global workforce of 300,000.

The Dusseldorf-based retailer announced on Monday it was launching the big restructuring programme called Shape 2012 to boost corporate operating profit by 1.5 billion euros by 2012.

German companies have been announcing layoffs and production cuts as the global slump has tightened its grip on Europe’s biggest economy.

Announcing the move to shorter hours, BMW said that about 38,000 less vehicles would be produced in February and March as previously planned.

BMW rival Daimler AG, the manufacturer of Mercedes Benz luxury cars announced last month that it was placing part of its workforce on shorter working hours as global orders shrank. (dpa)

Microsoft violated law with IE on Windows, says EU

Microsoft violated law with IE on Windows, says EU Recently it was it formed by the European Commission that European competition law has been violated by Microsoft by including Internet Explorer with Windows.

It was also informed by the Commission that since Windows includes Microsoft’s own browser; the other browsers are prevented from competing with IE.

It should also be noted here that under the European law, IE’s inclusion is not made by the remedies put in place under the US government’s landmark 2002 antitrust settlement with Windows lawful.

Microsoft had agreed to separate IE from Windows and permit users to de-select IE as their chosen browser under that ruling.

The company received this ruling in a Statement of Objections from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission, which was issued following browser specialist Opera’s complaint with the Commission a year ago.

It was supposedly complained by Opera that Microsoft continued to abuse its leading position by tying its browser to Windows and by not following web protocols.

As of now a time period of two months has been given to Microsoft in which it has to issue a written response to the directorate general and can request a hearing.

“The company is studying the statement of objections and is committed to conducting its business in full compliance with European law,” said the company via a statement. IE with Windows has been included by Microsoft since 1996.

Mugabe offers one last meeting to opposition on forming government

Harare – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has set a Monday meeting with opposition leaders as the last chance to present concerns before a government is formed, with or without them.

“This is the occasion when it’s either they accept or it’s a break,” said Mugabe, quoted in the state-owned Sunday Mail. “After all, this is an interim agreement. If they (the opposition) have any issues them deem outstanding, they can raise them after they come into the inclusive government.”

Regional leaders from neighbouring countries are expected to attend the meeting as observers.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition MDC, has previously threatened to pull out of a power-sharing deal with Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, saying that Mugabe’s party is unfairly trying to hold onto the majority of the most-powerful ministries, despite the MDC’s wins in last year’s elections.

The MDC won a majority of legislative seats in elections last year. Tsvangirai won the most votes in a presidential election last year, but not an outright majority. He pulled out of a run-off election, citing unfair and violent tactics by the Zanu-PF.

Tsvangirai has also cited recent abductions and jailings of MDC members as reasons to be wary of any power-sharing deal with the Zanu-PF. He blames the abductions on supporters of Mugabe and said at least 11 members of his party are still missing while 32 are in police custody facing charges of toppling Mugabe.

But, upon returning to Zimbabwe on Saturday, he said he was committed to a power-sharing deal with Mugabe. However, he vowed not to be rushed into joining an inclusive government.

“I am very conscious of the plight of the people of this country and I hope that the meetings that are going to take place may actually find a lasting solution to the crisis,” he said Saturday. “I must emphasize that the MDC will not be bulldozed into an agreement which does not reflect the aspirations of the people.”

Tsvangirai is expected to meet his party’s top leadership Sunday ahead of the Monday meeting.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a power sharing deal in September, but they have not formed a government of national unity. The agreement would keep Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president, with Tsvangirai becoming prime minister

The once-prosperous nation is facing its worst-ever economic and humanitarian crisis. Acute shortages of all essentials have pushed inflation to the highest levels in the world – officially at 231 percent as of last July.

The United Nations says more than 5 million face starvation if there is no food aid. Additionally, a cholera outbreak has claimed more than 2,200 lives as the country fails to import adequate stocks of water-treatment chemicals.

The raging epidemic coincides with a strike, now in its fourth month, by doctors and nurses demanding a review of their salaries. They are demanding that hospitals replace archaic equipment and that medicines be available in hospitals. dpa

Bangladeshis protest against Israeli “crimes against humanity”

Bangladeshis protest against Israeli Dhaka – Several Islamist parties in Muslim-dominated Bangladesh staged demonstration Friday protesting the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, with rights groups calling for an end to Israel’s “crime against humanity.”

“We believe the atrocities in Gaza clearly constitute a crime against humanity by the Israeli state,” read a statement issued by Odhikar, a Bangladeshi coalition of human rights groups. It expressed deep concern over continued attacks by the Israeli military that have killed more than 1,100 people, many of them civilian women and children.

The coalition called for the Bangladeshi government to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to force it to immediately agree to an unconditional ceasefire and withdraw its forces from Palestine.

The group also requested United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon to deploy a high-level commission to investigate what it calls gross violations of human rights currently being perpetrated in Gaza.

Several hundred member of Islamist parties paraded through the streets of Dhaka, chanting slogans against Israel and the United States, charging them with attacking Muslims in the Middle East.

In separate rallies after the marches, Islamist leaders called upon Muslims across the world to unite to protest atrocities on the Muslim population.

Karamajibi Nari, a non-governmental organization of working women, formed a human chain in the city, demanding an immediate end to the killing of the innocent women and children in the Gaza Strip. They also denounced the “imperialist” United States.

The Palestinian envoy to Dhaka, Shaher Mohammad, called upon the Bangladeshi people to stand by the people of Palestine.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Thursday expressed deep concern over the Gaza situation and asked Israel to stop the killing of innocent people. (dpa)

Cosmic radio noise that booms six times louder than expected

Washington, Jan 8 (ANI): A research team from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the US has announced the discovery of cosmic radio noise that booms six times louder than expected.

The finding comes from a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE, which stands for the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission.

In July 2006, the instrument launched from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and flew to an altitude of 120,000 feet, where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

ARCADE’s mission was to search the sky for heat from the first generation of stars. Instead, it found a cosmic puzzle.

“The universe really threw us a curve,” said Alan Kogut of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted,” he added.

Detailed analysis ruled out an origin from primordial stars or from known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy.

The source of this cosmic radio background remains a mystery.

ARCADE is the first instrument to measure the radio sky with enough precision to detect this mysterious signal.

To enhance the sensitivity of ARCADE’s radio receivers, they were immersed in more than 500 gallons of ultra-cold liquid helium. The instrument’s operating temperature was just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.

This is the same temperature as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, the remnant heat of the Big Bang that was itself discovered as cosmic radio noise in 1965.

“If ARCADE is the same temperature as the microwave background, then the instrument’s heat cannot contaminate the cosmic signal,” Kogut explained.

The sought-for signal from the earliest stars remains hidden behind the newly detected cosmic radio background.

This noise complicates efforts to detect the very first stars, which are thought to have formed about 13 billion years ago – not long, in cosmic terms, after the Big Bang.

Nevertheless, this cosmic static may provide important clues to the development of galaxies when the universe was less than half its present age.

Unlocking its origins should provide new insight into the development of radio sources in the early universe. (ANI)

Scientists find first ever evidence of asteroids with Earth-like crust

Washington, Jan 8 (ANI): A team of scientists has found the first ever evidence of asteroids with an Earth-like crust.

A research team, primarily composed of geochemists from the University of Maryland, US, estimated that two rare meteorites found in Antarctica two years ago are from a previously unknown, ancient asteroid with an outer layer or crust similar in composition to the crust of Earth’s continents.

This is the first ever finding of material from an asteroid with a crust like Earth’s. The discovery also represents the oldest example of rock with this composition ever found.

These meteorites point “to previously unrecognized diversity” of materials formed early in the history of the Solar System, according to researchers.

“What is most unusual about these rocks is that they have compositions similar to Earth’s andesite continental crust – what the rock beneath our feet is made of,” said first author James Day, who is a research scientist in Maryland’s department of geology. “No meteorites like this have ever been seen before,” he added.

According to Day, his team focused their investigations on how such different Solar System bodies could have crusts with such similar compositions.

“We show that this occurred because of limited melting of the asteroid, and thus illustrate that the formation of andesite crust has occurred in our solar system by processes other than plate tectonics, which is the generally accepted process that created the crust of Earth,” he said.

The two meteorites (numbered GRA 06128 and GRA 06129) were discovered in the Graves Nunatak Icefield during the US Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) 2006/2007 field season.

Day and his colleagues immediately recognized that these meteorites were unusual because of elevated contents of a light-colored feldspar mineral called oligoclase.

“Our age results point to these rocks being over 4.52 billion years old and that they formed during the birth of the Solar System. Combined with the oxygen isotope data, this age points to their origin from an asteroid rather than a planet,” said Day.

“Our studies of the GRA meteorites suggest similar crust compositions may be formed via melting of materials in planets that are initially volatile- and possibly water-rich, like the Earth probably was when if first formed,” said Day.

“A major uncertainty is how evolved crust formed in the early Solar System and these meteorites are a piece in the puzzle to understanding these processes,” he added. (ANI)

Satyam’s Raju untraceable, Sebi begins probe – Video News

NEW DELHI: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which has ordered a probe into the Satyam scam, on Thursday swung into
action despatching its investigation team to Hyderabad, PTI reported.

The committee, headed by Sebi’s southern region general manager A Sunil Kumar, has reached Hyderabad and will start the investigation soon, a senior official said.

Sebi formed the special team following the confession by the IT-major’s disgraced ex-chairman B Ramalinga Raju on Wednesday admitting gross manipulations in the company’s balance sheets in the past several years.

Raju could face arrest and serve 7-10 years in jail. He currently remains untraceable.  ( Watch )

Amid mounting speculation over his whereabouts, Satyam management has said that it has no idea where Raju is.

Sources in the Hyderabad police have said that Raju had left for Texas on Wednesday morning from Hyderabad airport. Raju has not been seen in public ever since his confession, but TV reports suggest that he could have left for Texas.

There is a petition pending over his Maytas deal for which British Telecom’s Solutions firm – U-paid had demanded presence of Raju and senior directors of Satyam for questioning by its lawyers.

According to another TV report, Raju could also have left for Dubai, however, there is no confirmation.

Satyam’s former chairman is not reachable on his mobile phone.

Ramalinga Raju on Wednesday admitted to a Rs 7,000-crore fraud in the Hyderabad-based company and revealed that the balance sheet of Satyam had been inflated and that he would subject himself to the laws of the land.

On its part, the Hyderabad police said they would take action against him only if a shareholder or the regulator lodges a complaint. Raju had written a letter to the board giving details of the company’s balance sheet which has serious financial irregularities including inflated cash balances running into several crores of rupees.

The 54-year-old US MBA Raju’s letter of guilt and resignation to the Satyam board and Sebi on Wednesday morning sledge-hammered India Inc, dumbfounded regulators, pummelled the company’s stock, knocked the bottom out of the market, and cast a long shadow over industry in general and the IT sector in particular.

Satyam stocks took a serious beating yesterday with this latest news that has shocked investors. The stocks plunged by almost 80 percent at Rs 39 per share, at day close.

Ram Myanpati is acting as interim CEO of the company, who after expressing “shock”, swung into damage control mode.

Employees, India’s business community tense about Satyam fallout

Employees, India's business community tense about Satyam fallout New Delhi – Employees of India’s software major Satyam, that has been rocked by a 1.45-billion-dollar accounting fraud, were uncertain about their future as business leaders worried about the scam’s impact on corporate India, media reports said Thursday.

Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju quit Wednesday after admitting that the company, India’s fourth-biggest software firm, had been manipulating its accounts over years by inflating cash and bank balances.

The whereabouts of Raju – who faces a 10-year jail term for his role in one of the worst corporate frauds in India in recent years – were unclear, local news channels reported.

Meanwhile, more than 53,000 employees of the company that has operations across the world, faced an uncertain future, the CNN-IBN news channel said in its report.

Although the pink slips have not arrived yet, nearly 14,000 employees have already submitted their resumes to domestic job portals like Naukri. com.

“By today up to 13,800, almost 14,000 employees have circulated their biodatas on Naukri. There will be many who are not on the website,” Kris Lakshmikanth, managing director of Headhunters, a recruitment agency, told the news channel.

“In fact many senior Satyam executives are shocked and have approached me looking for options,” he added.

Employees were seen huddled in small groups outside the company’s corporate office in southern Hyderabad city, discussing the issue.

“We are now worried about our jobs,” Raghu, a Satyam employee told the PTI news agency. The possibility of a takeover looks distant, further compounding the worries of employees.

Until last year, Satyam was among the top three employers in India and there was stiff competition amongst software engineers in the country to make it in the company.

In a letter to Satyam’s employees, interim CEO Ram Mynampati said a team consisting of senior leaders had been formed to steer the company through the challenging phase.

“Let us fight this battle together. I am confident that we will emerge stronger, together,” Mynampati said in the letter.

Trading on India’s bourses was closed Thursday to mark the Muslim month of Muharram but on Wednesday, the news of the fraud pulled down the benchmark Sensex stock index 7.25 per cent – with the company’s shares plunging nearly 78 per cent.

India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) removed the firm from its benchmark index Nifty. Satyam, which means “truth” in the Sanskrit language, also faces a probe by the government’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office.

Indian newspapers said the scam raised questions about the quality of corporate governance in India and made comparisons to the collapse of the US energy major Enron Corp.

Local reports also talked about how the episode would affect global investor and corporate sentiment and the perception of India as a major outsourcing hub.

“Much more than the fate of one company and its investors is at stake here, the scandal could taint the entire edifice of outsourcing,” the English-language Hindustan Times said in its editorial.

“The scale of the scam and the elaborate cover-up is mind boggling. Government has to show to the world that we take corporate malfunctions seriously,” Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Indian software giant Infosys, told CNN-IBN. (dpa)

Shekhawat rejects Rajnath”s advice not to contest general elections

Jaipur/New Delhi, Jan 8 (ANI): Former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has rejected BJP president Rajnath Singh”s advice not to contest in forthcoming general elections.

Shekhawat also said that he is not in the race for prime ministership.

“The present situation is that I am not contesting for the post of Prime Minister. I clearly said I will fight elections if my health permits,” said Shekhawat.

Shekhawat also ridiculed Singh”s suggestion that one who has held a constitutional post, cannot contest elections.

“Rajnath Singh has said that one who once held a constitutional post cannot fight elections. I want to tell him that the first Governor General E. Rajagopala Chari went to Madras, fought elections there, and then became Chief Minister. After that, he also formed an independent party” Shekhawat said.

Rajnath has asserted that since Shekhawat has held the post of Vice President, there is no need for him to contest elections.

“Someone who has served on a constitutional post do not enter electoral fray. It is not in our tradition,” said Rajnath.

Rajnath reiterated the party”s stand that senior BJP leader L. K. Advani remained the “undisputed” prime ministerial candidate. (ANI)

Comet smashes triggered “dry fog” that caused famine 1,500 years ago

London, Jan 8 (ANI): A team of scientists has found evidence that multiple comet impacts around 1,500 years ago triggered a “dry fog” that plunged half the world into famine.

Historical records indicate that from the beginning of March 536 AD, a fog of dust blanketed the atmosphere for 18 months.

During this time, “the sun gave no more light than the moon”, global temperatures plummeted and crops failed, according to Dallas Abbott of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

The cause has long been unknown, but theories have included a vast volcanic eruption or an impact from space.

Now, according to a report in New Scientist, Abbott and her team have found the first direct evidence that multiple comet impacts caused the haze.

They found tiny balls of condensed rock vapour or “spherules” in debris inside Greenland ice cores dating back to early 536 AD.

Though the spherules’ chemistry suggests they did not belong to an impactor, they do point to terrestrial debris ejected into the atmosphere by an impact event.

“This is the first concrete geological evidence for an impact at 536 AD,” said Abbott.

The fallout material was also laid down over several years, and some layers were particularly densely deposited.

This suggests more than one impactor was involved – probably a comet, because they tend to fragment on their way to Earth.

Abbott and her team have identified two possible underwater craters whose age ranges fit the global dimming event.

The first appears to have formed when an object roughly 640 metres wide slammed into the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia, and the other when a smaller object crashed into the North Sea near Norway.

Marine microfossils found with the impact spherules are also consistent with an ocean impact. “There’s clearly stuff that has been transported a long distance,” said Abbott. (ANI)