What is new in Microsoft Bing?

Microsoft is making its Bing search engine more entertaining by
spotlighting music, films, games and television shows.

The US technology giant added an array of features to make it easier
for Bing users to find and play their favorite songs, movies, TV
programs or online games.

"In this release of Bing one of the biggest investments we are making
is in the area of entertainment," Bing senior vice president Yusuf
Mehdi said in a blog post.

"Bing is making a first step today to help make entertainment on the
Web easy and fun, so you spend less time searching for entertainment
and more time doing the stuff you love."

Bing software was modified to improve results to entertainment-related
searches and a page devoted to the content was launched at
www.bing.com/entertainment.

Microsoft tapped into its games divisions, which makes titles for the
company's Xbox 360 videogame consoles, to arrange for people to be
able to play scores of popular online games on Bing pages.

Bing users can search out song lyrics as well as get videos or concert
tour dates of musicians and even sample tunes.

Bing offers new tools to get information about movies along with local
restaurant, parking and other information "you need to get to the
movie stress-free and have a great night out," according to Mehdi.

Microsoft is also tailoring Bing for television lovers.

"We've brought together a very comprehensive collection of full-length
TV episodes and visually organized them so it's easy to find what you
are looking for and start watching," Mehdi said.

"And if you are one of those people who watch TV on an actual TV,
we're pulling in guide information to help you easily find what's on
in your area from your service provider."

RBI cautioned against hawkish monetary policy stance

The country's chief statistician Pronab Sen has cautioned RBI against
taking a hawkish monetary policy stance, saying too many measures to
control inflation can be detrimental to growth.

"Very very strong measures (monetary) can be detrimental to growth,"
Mr Sen said, while inaugurating a workshop on the National
Consultation on Certification of Project Managers on Wednesday.

Core inflation entered provisionally double digits in May, fuelled by
over 16 per cent food inflation.

While the Government has been projecting the economy to expand by 8.5
per cent this fiscal, it has acknowledged inflation as a major cause
for concern.

Asked if the Reserve Bank of India could take some monetary steps, Mr
Sen said: "Yes, it could as core inflation is starting to get
worrying. But it is not just inflation, it is full bunch of other
sectors that RBI need to take into account (before tight ening of the
money supply)."

Factory output grew at a healthy rate of 17.6 per cent in April, but
higher interest rate regime could curtail corporate spending and hit
borrowing for new investment — key to economic growth.

Asked whether RBI will raise the amount of deposit that banks are
mandated to park with the apex bank (CRR) or the short-term lending
rate (repo rate), Mr Sen said, "Whether it is CRR or repo rate, it
depends on the diagnosis of the problem."

Asked when the apex bank should take the monetary steps, he said,
"Anytime, RBI has to take a call on that."

In April, RBI had hiked key short-term rates and CRR by 25 basis
points each to rein in inflation.

The apex bank hiked repo and reverse repo by 25 basis points each to
5.25 per cent and 3.75 per cent, respectively.

UK's new Chancellor sets out his ‘unavoidable' Budget

A new tax on bank assets, a freeze in payments to the Queen, and a
hike in sales tax are hardly the trappings of an easy first budget for
a young Treasury minister.

Yet these were some of the tough measures announced by Mr George
Osborne, Britain's youngest Chancellor, in over a century, as he
pledged to dramatically reduce the nation's deficit, which is now the
second highest in the whole of Europe.

Summing up his measures as "tough but fair", Mr Osborne declared it to
be an "unavoidable" budget, needed to restore confidence in the
economy.

There were few surprises in Mr Osborne's budget, though the most
significant of all announcements was the confirmation that as of next
year, both British banks and banks with the UK operations would face a
levy on their balance sheets – in agreement with France and Germany.

This could generate as much as £2 billion of annual revenues,
estimated Mr Osborne, brushing aside criticisms that it was not
reasonable or fair to introduce it before the rest of the world. The
news received a cautious welcome from the British Banker's
Association.

"We know this is a difficult budget for everyone," it said, adding the
caveat that the levies "must not prevent the industry in the UK from
being able to compete. It is essential that the international banks do
not find themselves taxed multiple times for the same thing."

As if to demonstrate that everyone – absolutely everyone – would be
sharing the burden, Mr Osborne also announced that the so-called Civil
list – received by the Queen from Parliament for her public duties and
currently £7.9 million – will be frozen for the next 30 years.

As of midnight – the highest rate tax payers will see a 10 per cent
increase on their capital gains from the sale of assets such as second
homes or shares to 28 per cent, added Mr Osborne.

However, top earners were far from the only targeted, with child
benefit payments frozen, and a two-year pay freeze for public sector
workers, while the sales – or value-added tax on most consumer goods
will rise to 20 per cent from 17.5 per cent.

One of the few winners were businesses – which will see the current
rate of corporate tax of 28 per cent fall to 24 per cent over the next
four years, while small businesses will also see a small drop in
levies.

Such measures would show that Britain was ready "open for business,"
declared Mr Osborne. The measures announced so far won't be the last
this year – at the end of October, the results of a spending review
will identify even more ways to cut government spending.

Despite heavy criticism and warnings from opposition politicians as
well as economists that fiscal tightening could hamper the economic
recovery, Mr Osborne has gone ahead with the deep deficit cuts, amid
fears that its scale could undermine confidence in the UK. The
severity of Britain's fiscal troubles have recently been highlighted
by ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch, triggering concerns
that the nation's sovereign ratings could be cut

Wipro hiring more locals for overseas operations

With plans to push for more revenues from overseas operations, Wipro
Ltd proposes to add more local hires abroad.

At present, 39 per cent of its employees overseas are local hires, an
official with Wipro said. But it plans to increase that level to about
50 per cent in local geographies over the next few years.

An analyst firm, Janney Montgomery Scott said in its report that on
the sales front too, Wipro – which already gets 50 per cent of its
staff from local geographies – is trying to increase that count to
about 75 per cent. Wipro has about 1.08 lakh employees on its rolls.

Wipro, the report said, wants to hire local talent in the countries it
does business in. A Wipro spokesperson did not give details about the
company's overseas operations stating that their 'silent period' ahead
of their first quarter results had begun. The report said Wipro is
expected to add headcount this year to keep up with the increase in
demand. Attrition rates spiked to 17 per cent (annualised) from 13 per
cent in the most recent quarter. Attrition is expected to climb over
the next few quarters as the demand for talent increases.

The IT firm expects to keep the cost of talent manageable through the
use of its pyramid scheme and plans to hire lower cost freshers to
offset the impact of wage increases and keep the total cost of revenue
consistent as a percentage of overall revenues. The fresher / lateral
recruitment mix is currently 65 per cent: 35 per cent up from 50 per
cent each. Overall, 48 per cent of the company's total employees are
freshers.

The report also pointed out that there are about 1,000 employees who
are in consulting space which is small on a relative basis. For
comparison, Infosys currently has 600 employees in its consulting
practice, between 4,000 and 5,000 overall with consulting functions.
Hence, the challenge is to retain as well as hire more consultants.

The company is also looking to break the linearity between headcount
and revenue growth through cost sharing and reusable IT blocks.
Utilisation rates are expected to be stable in the 71 per cent range
excluding large employee additions.

BSNL broadband @ 24 Mbps

The broadband segment in the country seems to be hotting up. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has launched the fastest broadband connection in the country, offering speeds of up to 24 Mbps. This comes after Bharti Airtel claimed to be offering the fastest broadband after it launched a 16 Mbps line.

BSNL's high-speed broadband is being made available with Very high speed Digital Subscriber Loop (VDSL) Technology. To avail themselves of the service, subscribers will have to pay Rs 4,999 a month for speeds up to 16 Mbps and Rs 9,999 a month for speeds up to 24 Mbps.

However, the service is currently not available for everyone. Only those customers who are close to BSNL's broadband exchange nodes can subscribe to the service. While 24 Mbps broadband will be available to customers who are at a distance of up to 500 metres from the exchange, 16 Mbps broadband is available to customers up to around 1 km from the exchange. BSNL does not have the capability to offer high-speed connection over a longer distance at present.

For other subscribers, BSNL is already offering broadband service with speeds ranging from 256 kbps up to 8 Mbps. BSNL offers its broadband services with value-added services such asgames on demand, music and video on demand, Web conferencing, Virtual Private Network on IPTV, video tutoring, video surveillance, Web co-location, Web-hosting.

Broadband speed in India is lagging behind other countries. For example, in Japan consumers can get up to 100 Mbps connection. Subscriber growth is also sluggish in India with only 8 million broadband users till now.

 

Delhi's horror killings: 3 murders in 48 hrs

In a bizarre story unfolding in northwest Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, a misplaced sense of caste loyalty, a twisted, medieval idea of honour and blinding rage seem to have turned some youngsters virtually into serial killers.’Honour killing’, which seemed to be a grotesque and macabre dance of death being enacted in the badlands of Haryana and UP, is now taking place within metropolitan Delhi, close enough to send a chill down the spines of the capital’s residents.
   In the past 48 hours, three bodies have been found — two young women and a man — with bullet wounds in the head. Monica Gurjar Singh (24) and her husband, Kuldeep Singh, (26), were found to have been killed on Sunday night. On Tuesday morning, the body of Monica’s cousin, Shubha Nagar (20), was found with a hole in the head, left to rot in a Santro car in Ashok Vihar’s H block, barely a kilometre from the Ashok Vihar police station. Taken aback by the sheer brazenness of the murders, the cops are now scrambling to protect the boyfriend of Shubha, her sister, Khushboo, and the latter’s husband, Ravi, as the prime suspects — Monica’s brother, Ankit, and Shubha’s brother, Mandeep — remain on the loose. Their mobiles were traced to Rohtak in the morning and there were reports that they were moving in a Tata Safari. A team has been looking for them since then but has drawn a blank. Ravi’s family is apparently in Rohtak at present.
   The police have issued a lookout notice against Ankit and Mandeep, as well as an associate of theirs, identified as Nakul. An unspecified reward will be paid for any information about them.
   The cops said they found Shubha’s body around 8am on Tuesday in a black Santro car near a park in Ashok Vihar’s H block. “A resident noticed the car. There was a foul stench coming from it. A PCR team found the body which was lying in the passenger seat next to the driver. Her younger brother, Sandeep, confirmed her identity,’’ said joint commissioner (Northern Range) Karnal Singh.
   Police suspect that Ankit and Mandeep are behind Shubha’s murder too. “Monica’s father, Jai Singh Nagar, told us that his son, Mandeep, had asked his youngest sister, Shubha, to come along with him to locate Khushboo who had eloped with Ravi. The brother and sister had walked out of the house,’’ said DCP (northwest) N S Bundela.
   In an interesting twist, joint CP Singh said the Santro belonged to a Rajput family staying in Wazirpur village where the accused resided. “The car’s owner has been found to be one Rahul, a distant cousin of Kuldeep. He said the accused had come to their house around 6pm on Sunday and asked for the Santro car for a few hours. The accused said that since Monica had come back to Ashok Vihar, he should not hesitate in giving the car,’’ said Singh.

Dark Age In Modern Delhi



THE VICTIMS

Kuldeep Singh (26) | HCL executive, son of wealthy Rajput landowner in Wazirpur village. Braved family disapproval to marry Gujjar girl Monica Shot dead in his car near his Ashok Vihar house
Monica Gurjar Singh (24) | Ran away from her home to marry Kuldeep, her neighbour, in 2006. Found dead in her bedroom
Shubha Nagar (20) | Monica’s cousin and sister of accused Mandeep Gurjar. Fled home in early May to pave way for elder sister, Khushboo, to elope later that month. Found dead in a car

THE CAUSE

Monica’s intercaste wedding was seen to have ‘emboldened’ her cousins, Khushboo and Shubha, to choose their own life partners. Khushboo married her Kashmiri boyfriend while Shubha briefly eloped with a boy from Bihar

THE SUSPECTS

Ankit Gurjar and Mandeep Nagar | Monica’s brother, Ankit, and Shubha’s brother, Mandeep, both cousins, are alleged to have plotted to kill Monica, Kuldeep and Shubha
Ankit and Mandeep are on the run. Their mobiles have been traced to Rohtak where the family of Khushboo’s husband is located

 

Kuldeep & Monica

 

Ankit Gurjar

 

Reliance ‘close to acquiring' second shale gas field in US

Reliance Industries is close to buying a stake in a shale gas field in Texas in the US, according to international media reports. Financial Times reported that an announcement to this effect is expected in New York late on Tuesday.

According to FT, RIL will pay $1.35 billion (Rs 6,200 crore) to acquire a stake in the Eagle Ford shale gas field in South Texas, controlled by Pioneer Natural Resources. Apparently based on information from reliable sources, the report said that RIL might acquire 45 per cent in the field. The company did not comment on the story.

RIL has shown growing interest in shale gas and recently acquired a 40 per cent stake in Atlas Energy's Marcellus shale acreage position in south-western Pennsylvania in April. The deal was valued at $1.7 billion.

“While the scale of investment in any tie-up with Pioneer is likely to be smaller than the Atlas deal, it nevertheless demonstrates RIL's appetite for diversification in geography, sectors, and relatively unproven technologies,” said Mr Philipp Lotter, Senior Vice-President, Moody's Investors Service.

Mr Alok B. Agarwal, Head Institutional Research, Mata Securities, called this a smart move on the part of RIL. “Being in the gas business, for Reliance it is only a logical extension. Even if it takes some time to get any return from the shale gas business, given their cash position it wouldn't be a problem for them,” he said.

RIL's interest in Pioneer's shale gas fields was talked about immediately after it acquired 40 per cent stake in Atlas's gas fields. Reliance claims to have access to 3.43 lakh acres of undeveloped land with an estimated 13 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Read More ...