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Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs- Jobs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

WASHINGTON: US computer software giant Microsoft said Wednesday that it is cutting 800 more jobs in addition to the 5,000 layoffs announced previously.

"Earlier this year, we announced that in order to reduce costs, increase efficiency and prioritize our focus areas, we would eliminate approximately 5,000 positions by June 2010," a Microsoft spokesman said.

"Today, we are eliminating around 800 positions spread across multiple businesses and locations and have completed our reduction plan sooner than we had anticipated 11 months ago," the spokesman said.

"At the same time, we continue to hire in priority areas, but also understand that continuing to manage our businesses closely, as we always do, can mean additional headcount adjustments," the spokesman added.

[winner_iima]

With easy tool, Indian blurs physical-digital world gap- ET Cetera-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

BANGALORE: Pranav Mistry makes up things as he moves. And if you were him, this newspaper would be feeding you a live video of Wednesday’s top news on a salmon pink backdrop, streamed straight from the studios of ET NOW.

The smartphone in his pocket would capture live feed from the website and a camera would track his finger using computer-vision techniques, while a projector beamed it on to the pink backdrop. All of it made up by devices costing under $350.

“I now realise that many ideas I came across during my IIT-Bombay days are getting done in places like MIT in the US, and everybody is giving a lot of attention,” Mr Mistry, who is in Mysore to talk at the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference, told ET in an interview.

A PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famed Media Lab, Mr Mistry, 28, has come a long way from being the president of the Young Scientists Club at hometown, Palanpur, in northern Gujarat.
“I come from a middle-class family and have always learnt to work with affordable solutions,” he says.

Called SixthSense, the prototype is made of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant-like mobile wearable device, while the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket via bluetooth. Mr Mistry has filed a patent application for the device.
“This was one of my first projects. Some nine years ago, I worked on the idea during my engineering days in Gujarat University,” says Mr Mistry.

SixthSense promises to combine the physical world with digital information, without compromising on the ease of doing an ‘offline’ transaction. Its easy-to-grab applications: walk into a random book store, and see the price, ISBN, and a short review displayed on the cover. Or, draw a circle on your wrist, and check the time.

“When you’re cooking, you are also smelling the preparation and your mind starts working accordingly. What we need is a similar seamless communication with the physical world using this solution,” Mr Mistry says.

According to Mr Mistry, the real power of SixthSense will be to empower people who lack fourth or fifth sense. “There are some organisations talking with me about how to empower the visually-challenged and hearing-impaired using this technology,” he says.
Meanwhile, consumer electronic companies, including Samsung and LG apart from Microsoft and many others, have expressed interest in making SixthSense a commercial reality.

“Most of these companies already sponsor projects at the Media Lab, and they have been working with me,” said Mr Mistry. Some of the potential applications could include real-time surgery using SixthSense, besides, bundling mobile phones with software, which will empower users to try different applications.

Mr Mistry’s other projects include Akshar, to make the Indic script seamlessly palatable to mobile phones, kiosk booths, and PCs. Another one, VET, seeks to improve the efficiency of the Amul cooperative system, while thirdEye seeks to devise a screen where different users can see different visuals at the same time.

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China's Communist Party ropes in Dalai Lama's grandniece - China - World - The Times of India

BEIJING: The Communist Party of China has roped in a grand-niece of the Dalai Lama and in a curiously-timed announcement, the official news agency made it known more than a year after she was accepted into the party.

Deying Drolma, the grand-niece, was made a CPC member in June last year. And while Deying had nothing to say against her grand-uncle, the official Xinhua news agency chose to "break" the news just before Dalai Lama's scheduled visit to Arunachal Pradesh this weekend.

China is worried that the spiritual leader's visit will enhance his influence among Tibetan Buddhists, making it very difficult for Beijing to press its claim on Arunachal.

For her part, Deying, in her interview with Xinhua, said the Dalai Lama was a cousin of her grandmother Khyi Losel and that she hoped he would visit his hometown of Qinghai in northwest China.

"The Dalai Lama left his hometown in Qinghai when he was five and returned only once at the age of 18. He is an old man now. And old people tend to miss their hometown. I wish he can come back to have a visit," she said. Deying said her father had visited the Dalai Lama in India in 1989 and 1993. Her family was still in touch with a brother of the Dalai Lama who resides in Hong Kong, she added. The official media also quoted her as saying that the party membership was a "dream come true".

Deying, who works at a hospital run by the People's Liberation Army, mentioned Tibet in her inspiration to join the PLA. "When I was a child, I often saw PLA doctors who travelled a lot and underwent great difficulties to relieve herdsmen in Tibet from diseases. I was touched and decided to become a PLA soldier ever since."

She said she wrote applications for joining the CPC on two occasions in 1995 and 1998, but did not submit them to the PLA. She felt she may not be accepted because of her "special relationship" with the Dalai Lama, she said in the interview. "Last year and this year, I filed two more applications to the Party as I felt myself a qualified candidate." The 35-year-old also recalled her rather emotional entry into the party. "I'm proud to join the CPC. I had tears in my eyes when I took the oath. I felt myself the happiest one in the world."

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Outsourcing gets a boost as global banks expand captives

MUMBAI: Top multinationals banks continue to set up new back-office units or expand their existing captive operations in India even as the model is under criticism for being high cost and less efficient than third-party vendor operations. Wells Fargo, Ingersoll Rand and Standard Chartered are some of the banks and companies that are setting up or expanding their back-office centres in India.

Standard Chartered, for example, is setting up a new knowledge process outsourcing centre in Bangalore, while Wells Fargo is expanding its captive operations in India for technology services and BPO. The three are among the 11 firms that have set up new units or added more staff to their existing units in India during the September quarter, taking the number of captives being set up globally to an 18-month high, according to MarketVista, a quarterly analysis of outsourcing trends by Dallas-based Everest Research Institute.

In all, around 28 firms set up captive operations in Asia, Europe, Latin America with India being the most popular destination. “The number of new captives being set up are far more than divestures, indicating a revival in the market,” Ameet Singh, vice-president for global delivery, Everest, told ET. German firm Kontron, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of embedded computer technology and a supplier to OEMs, is also setting up a contact centre in Bangalore to provide sale and tech support to its Asia-Pacific operations.

“Near-term economic pressures that were there earlier have been reduced. But organisations that reviewed their global sourcing agenda could still be looking at the same outcome, a modified strategy or a more intensive one,” said Mr Singh. The September quarter also saw four captive divestures — UBS’ captive to Cognizant Technology Services, AIG’s to Mphasis, Schneider Logistics to EXL Services and Kyocera Wireless to Mindtree.

According to Mr Singh, the market for outsourcing transactions is seeing two counter forces — lower business volumes and opportunity to reduce costs.

“Companies are attempting to push the envelope further in terms of costs leading to offshoring and outsourcing,” he said. Based on publicly disclosed transactions, the overall number of transactions have come down to 422 in the September quarter from 467 in the past quarter but contracts from sectors such as financial services have almost doubled from the previous quarter, according to Everest’s research. Apart from financial services, sectors such as healthcare, travel and energy and utilities are also seeing significant rise in demand for offshoring.

“Although there was a marginal decline of 10% in the reported global transaction volumes (BPO volumes decreasing by 14% and IT outsourcing activity reducing by 8%), there were signs of improvement in key geographies and verticals,” Everest said in the study.

[vyomb]

Typhoon Mirinae kills 99 in Vietnam

At least 99 people were killed as typhoon Mirinae slammed Vietnam, according to a report of the government’s website on Thursday. The people’s committee of central province Phu Yen, the hardest-hit province by typhoon Mirinae, said floods and strong winds have claimed at least 69 lives in this single province. The provincial people’s committee of Binh Dinh said that there have been so far 13 deaths and three other missing in the typhoon, making the province the second worst-hit.
The third hardest-hit central province by the typhoon is Khanh Hoa with 12 deaths and one missing, said the provincial people’s committee.
Central highland Gia Lai reported four deaths and central Ninh Thuan province reported one death.
According to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, heavy rain keeps battering central provinces of Vietnam. The forecasting agency also warns of a high risk of landslides and flash flooding as water level in rivers keep rising.

[vyomb]

ArcelorMittal in talks with Jharkhand govt for Chiria ores
Global steel major ArcelorMittal, which has lined up Rs 1 lakh crore investments for India, said today it is in race for a chunk of the mineral-rich Chiria mines in Jharkhand.
“Steel producers are in discussions with the Jharkhand government over Chiria mines. We are also party to such discussions,” ArcelorMittal CEO (India & China) Vijay Bhatnagar said on the sidelines of the CII Steel Summit here.
The Chiria mines, with around two billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore reserves, have been at the centre of a ownership battle for more than four years. The mines were originally allotted to Indian Iron & Steel Company, which was merged with SAIL in 2005.
While SAIL claims the ownership of the Chiria reserves by virtue of the merger, the Jharkhand government disputes it.
The differences pertain mainly to the renewal of 4 leases - out of 10 iron ore mines - in the Chiria and Gua region.
Besides ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and JSW Steel have been eyeing the huge Chiria reserves and want rights to mine these.
Struggling to get regulatory clearances and acquire land, besides iron ore reserves for two steel plants, one each in Jharkhand and Orissa, ArcelorMittal once again said that it would move out of the original sites. “We may look for alternative sites,” Bhatnagar said.
ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO L N Mittal had last week said that options are open before it to shift the 12-Million Tonnes Per Annum projects from the proposed sites in the two states.
It has been allocated Karampada mines in Jharkhand with estimated reserves of 65 million tonnes of iron ore. The company needs about 600 million tonnes of iron ore to feed its steel plant in the state.
The company is still awaiting iron ore mining leases in Orissa.
The Jharkhand government last month gave SAIL in-principle approval for renewal of Budhaburu iron ore deposits in Chiria and Gua region of the state with estimated reserves of 810 million tonnes, nearly half of the reserves in the area.
It was not part of the leases on which SAIL and the Jharkhand government have locked horns.

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Sachin Tendulkar crosses 17000-run mark in ODIs

Sachin Tendulkar crosses 17000-run mark in ODIs - Top Stories - Australia in India, 2009 - Series & Tournaments - Cricket - Sports - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: After completing 17,000 runs in the 50-over format of the game, Sachin Tendulkar scored his 45th ODI century off just 81 balls during the fifth One-Day International against Australia in Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad.

Earlier, Tendulkar finally touched the magical 17,000-run mark in One-Day International cricket, when he completed the formality of scoring seven runs needed to reach another milestone in his glittering career.

Sanath Jayasuriya is second on the list with 13,377 runs while Aussie captain Ricky Ponting has a lot of catching up to do.

The moment Tendulkar attained that mark the packed vociferous Rajiv Gandhi Stadium crowd jumped out of their seats and erupted in jubilation.

Tendulkar's wait to reach the 17,000-run mark in One-dayers continued in Mohali as he missed the milestone by just seven runs after getting dismissed for 40 on a dubious decision in the fourth ODI against Australia.

The 36-year-old scored the requisite seven runs to put another feather in his cap, which is already full of feathers but still managing to have some more. The Indian batting legend has 44 One-day hundreds and 91 ODI fifties under his belt.

The diminutive Mumbaikar, who made his ODI debut Pakistan in 1989, is already way ahead of his contemporaries when it comes to accumulating runs.

Rated as the world's best batsman after Australian legend Sir Donald Bradman, Tendulkar has an awe-inspiring Test record. In the whopping 159 matches that he has played thus far, Tendulkar has scored 12,773 runs at an average of 54.58.

The veteran batsman has scored 42 hundreds and 53 half centuries in the longer format of the game.

One-day cricket's leading run-scorers

Sachin Tendulkar (IND) 17,000
Sanath Jayasuriya (SRI) 13,377
Ricky Ponting (AUS) 12,286
Inzamam-ul Haq (PAK) 11,739
Sourav Ganguly (IND) 11,363
Rahul Dravid (IND) 10,765
Brian Lara (WIS) 10,405
Jacques Kallis (RSA) 10,328

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Sudha Murthy sells 2 million Infosys shares worth $92 million- Software-Infotech-The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software exporter, said on Thursday its chairman's wife sold company shares worth $92 million for setting up a venture capital fund.

Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys co-founder and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, sold 2 million shares, or about 22 percent of her total holding, on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, the company said in a filing.

Narayana Murthy had earlier sold 0.13 per cent of his stake in Infosys for Rs 174.30 crore to set up a venture capital fund. Murthy had sold eight lakh shares of Infosys for an aggregate value of Rs 174.30 crore through market sale on the Bombay and National Stock Exchange.

Murthy said his new venture capital fund will be called 'Catamaran', and will help entrepreneurs across sectors such as healthcare, retail, technology with early stage investments.

The Venture Capital Fund will encourage and support young entrepreneurs having brilliant business ideas. The Fund will primarily invest in India and may on a case-to-case basis consider investing overseas.

In order to ensure the agility of his new venture fund, the Infosys founder will initially hire some 3-4 young, smart individuals to be based in Bangalore.

"We will not be in a hurry to finish the fund, there’s no time limit for spending," Murthy added. Catamaran derived from 'kattumaram' in Tamil is a multi-hulled boat, which moves very swiftly.

The company said the Murthys have confirmed they did not plan to raise further capital for the fund.

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Dollar losing its luster but still reigns globally- Forex-Markets-The Economic Times

SAO PAULO: Until a few years ago, most Brazilians able to hoard cash would rush to buy US dollars to prevent runaway inflation or another economic meltdown from wiping out their hard-earned savings. These days, with the greenback getting trounced around the globe and the Brazilian real soaring, the once almighty dollar is losing its luster in Latin America's largest country.

Instead of stashing dollars under their mattresses, many Brazilians now set aside money to buy euros or invest their savings locally, a sign of the country's newfound confidence in its economic future.

"People here just don't view the dollar as the safe haven it once was," said Joao Medeiros, a partner at Pioneer Corretora in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest currency brokerage. While the dollar still reigns supreme in global commerce, its precipitous decline is tarnishing its allure as an investment or as a safety net among the burgeoning moneyed classes in emerging economies like Brazil and Russia. But in many places, especially those where black markets in currencies are an integral part of the economy, the greenback is still king.

The dollar has dropped about 16 per cent against a basket of currencies since early March, dragged down by worries about the ballooning US deficit. The recovering world economy has also helped push the dollar lower by rekindling appetite for riskier investments such as stocks and corporate bonds.

The greenback's slide is causing headaches for policymakers around the globe, particularly in countries with floating exchange rates, and may be discussed at this weekend's Group of 20 meeting of finance officials in Scotland. Brazil, which last month began taxing foreign capital inflows in a bid to halt the real's surge, wants the G20 to take action to staunch the flow of money into emerging markets as yield-hungry investors shed dollar assets.

Professional investors aren't the only ones dumping the dollar. In Russia, where the dollar was the benchmark after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, residents are increasingly turning to the euro. "I need euros because this is the currency with which I travel to Europe," said Taissia, a 57-year-old architect in Moscow who declined to give her surname.

"I never go to America on holiday, but I still have dollars to balance my savings." Polls show that the euro has overtaken the dollar as the preferred foreign currency for savings in Russia, though most residents now prefer to keep roubles or invest in real estate. "People can't get an adequate rate of returns by investing in dollars. So that's why they tend to leave more of their money in their home countries," said Edmund Phelps, a Nobel Prize winning economist from Columbia University in New York.

WOUNDED, BUT STILL KING

In many places around the world, however, the dollar retains its status. On the streets of Hanoi, Vietnamese looking to save for the future invariably swap dong for dollars or gold, the world's two most traditional safe havens. In China, where the government manages the exchange rate, the yuan is the only currency most people come across. But when the Chinese do seek out a foreign currency, they go after the dollar, betting that Washington's superpower status will guarantee the greenback's long-term strength. "I can live with the dollar at these levels," said Xu Jingchang, a businessman in the southern export hub of Guangzhou.

"The dollar might very well go up in the future, so I'll just wait and see. The economy will recover in the United States sooner or later." In some Latin American countries, the dollar remains an insurance policy of sorts against inflation or a possible devaluation of the local currency -- two perennial threats that have dogged the region for decades. Battered by successive economic crises, Ecuador scrapped the sucre in 2000 and adopted the dollar as its official currency, a move that left-wing President Rafael Correa recently said would be too painful to undo.

In Venezuela, residents and companies alike flock to money changers to stock up on dollars to seek protection against rising prices and a devaluation of the bolivar, which is trading on the black market at more than twice the official exchange rate of 2.15 to the greenback. Argentines, stung by the traumatic collapse of their economy in 2002, distrust the peso and often change their savings into dollars and stash them offshore or in dollar-denominated bank accounts locally. "I'm saving to buy an apartment because here prices are set in dollars and it's going to be like that for a long time," said Soledad Orozco, a 35-year-old telecommunications manager in Buenos Aires who holds her savings in greenbacks.

In Mexico, on the United States' doorstep, the thirst for dollars is even more pronounced. After all, the two countries' economies are so intertwined that the dollar is widely accepted as a parallel currency to the Mexican peso. "If a foreigner wants to pay in dollars, we benefit," said Rene Juarez, a 25-year-old vendor whose family runs a garment shop in Mexico City's famed marketplace, the Ciudadela.

"Some we use to cover expenses. But the rest we save in a mattress to take out whenever there is trouble."

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Google lets users see stored account data

SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Thursday opened a window for users to see what records the Internet giant keeps regarding their activities at YouTube, Gmail, Reader and other accounts.

Dashboard summarizes data kept about use of more than 20 of the California-based firm's services, according to a blog post by Google engineer Alma Whitten, product manager Yariv Adan, and vice president Marissa Mayer.

"The Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use and provides you direct links to control your personal settings," the message said.

"The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we're delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this and we hope it will become the standard."

Only information shared with Google while logged into accounts at its Web properties is included in Dashboard summaries.

People can change settings or delete data, which is viewable by account owners online at google.com/dashboard/.

"We are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data," Adan, Mayer, and Whitten said.

Dashboard does not include information Google records without identifying accounts of users. Data kept independent of accounts includes "server logs" with details of searches, Web browser types and computer IP addresses.

Also separated from accounts is information from snippets of code called "cookies" and search activity data used to target advertising, according to Google.