With the theme song composed by maestro A R Rahman playing in the background, Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated India’s most modern Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad.

Comparable to the best in the world, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad is the India’s first airport to be operational under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The spanking airport has been designed by Hong Kong architects Winston Shu and Gumund Stokke.
The new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamsabad about 40kms away from the city.
The Hyderabad airport boasts of a 4,260 metre runway that is the the longest in South East Asia.
The non-polluting airport has 100,005 square metre glass encased terminal, that has promised natural light to passengers.
First airport in the country that has no demarcation between international and domestic terminals.
Can handle 12 million passengers in the first phase and 40 million passengers within a year.
Can handle 1 million tons of cargo annually.
Hyd airport has the tallest air traffic control (ATC) tower in the country at 75 metres
Hyderabad Airport has been built at a cost of Rs 2,478 crore by GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL).
GHIAL has build, own and operate the airport for 60 years.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a joint venture company promoted by GMR Group (63%) and Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (11%), Government of Andhra Pradesh (13%) and Airports Authority of India (13%) as the other consortium partners.

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport popularly known as Shamshabad Airport, is a new airport near Shamshabad about 22 km from the city of Hyderabad, in India named after former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. The airport will replace the current airport, Begumpet Airport. Scheduled to opened on 14 March 2008, it is the second public-private partnership in the Indian airport infrastructure sector, the first being the Cochin International Airport.

The new Hyderabad airport is being built by Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL), a public-private joint venture between GMR Group, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad and both the State Government of Andhra Pradesh and Airports Authority of India (AAI). GMR Group holds 63% of the equity, MAHB 11%, while the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Airports Authority of India each hold 13%.

The airport, once completed, will be able to provide much-needed infrastructure to handle large aircraft and international traffic. The airport is expected to be the best in the country and will house world-class facilities. The airport is being developed to cater to a total of 12 million a year and will in the final stage be able to cater to 40 million passengers a year. The total cost of the project is Rs 2,300 crore (US$560 million). The airport will be built on an area of 5,400 acres (22 km²).

A Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320 with 86 journalists, company officials and crew members became the first plane to land at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 15:10 on Tuesday, February 12th 2008 as a part of calibration tests. The A320 was followed by a Jet Airways plane two hours later, arriving from Mumbai.

Shamshabad Airport was inaugurated by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, in presence of Chief Minister Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Minister of Civil Aviation Mr. Praful Patel. Munich Airport International, a specialized organization will help in the transfer of operations from the Begumpet airport to the new airport with precision. The Munich Airport International has also helped in transfer of operations of the airport at Athens, Bangkok and Seoul.

Panaji : Unwilling to buy the Goa police's theory on British teenaged girl Scarlett Eden Keeling's death, her mother on Saturday accused state Home Minister Ravi Naik, and police chief B S Brar, of having nexus with the drug mafia and threatened to move the court to "expose the criminal-police-politician nexus".

"I had been informed that there is a strong nexus between drug mafia, Ravi Naik and the Director General of Goa Police," Fiona Eden Keeling alleged.

She charged the Home Minister and the DGP with having full knowledge of criminal activities in the tourist state but they have done their best to protest the criminals. "That has been the case with my daughter also," she said.

Fiona circulated copies of a statement issued by Tourism Minister Fransisco Pacheco, in which he has expressed concern over the increasing drug trade along the coastal belt.

Police have said the 15-year-old girl was drugged, sexually assautled and left to die on Anjuna beach where her body was found on February 18.

Vikram Varma, lawyer representing Fiona, told PTI here on Saturday that the family members "feel the police might harass them in future. Hence, we may move the High Court to expose the nexus".

Emerging with Fiona from special juvenile police unit at Panaji, where she gave in-camera statement to the police in connection with her daughter's death, Varma said the police were treating her as a suspect and not as a witness in the case.

"Probably, we are moving the High Court in this case."

Scarlett's family is not happy with the police investigation so far which it has described as a "cover up".

"The world is witness to the attempts being made to cover up Scarlett's murder," Fiona said.

Reiterating her demand for a probe in the case by Central agencies, Fiona said any inquiry done under the supervision of the Home Minsiter and the DGP would be "useless".

"Goa is a beautiful place and I love Goans. But these two persons have brought shame to not only Goa but the entire country," she said.

"To my mind good people don't deserve an environment controlled by a drug mafia under protection of a few corrupt police officers and politicians", she said.

Fiona said this case was not just about the murder of her daughter but also about many such victims whose identities would be revealed only after a proper probe.

When contacted for reaction on Fiona's allegations, officials said Naik was busy attending his scheduled functions while DGP Brar was in Delhi.

"How can I say anything when she talks about my bosses? It will not be fair on my part to comment," North Goa Superintendent of Police Bosco George said.

SOURCE: HINDU

LONDON: Fiona MacKeown, mother of British teen Scarlett Keeling who was found dead on a beach in Goa, has admitted that she was imprisoned for a year as a teenager for stabbing her employer after he allegedly tried to force himself on her friend, local media reported on Saturday.

"It's something that happened, and I learnt a lot from it," 43-year-old MacKeown told The Times . "But it has no relevance to Scarlett's case," she said.

Earlier, MacKeown's 19-year-old son Hal Keeling was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail that his mother was jailed for attempted manslaughter.

MacKeown's son revealed that his mother was 18 when she and a friend were charged with attempted murder. She served a year of a three-year sentence after the charge was reduced to attempted manslaughter following a trial in 1983.

Meanwhile, another report in the Daily Mail claimed the deaths of at least four Britons could be reinvestigated by police in Goa after it admitted covering up Scarlett’s death.

Quoting officers, the report said the police would reopen investigations into dozens of suspicious deaths passed off as accidents.

At least 126 foreign nationals including 40 Britons have died in Goa in the past two years, the report said.

Many were put down to natural causes or accidents - but some officers believe up to 12 deaths passed off as drowning since last year looked suspicious.

SOURCE: TOI

Mike Nizza wrote on
January 3, 2008, 4:32 pm in NYTIMES blog entry that The rising price of love, or at least a monument built in honor of it.

From Taj Mahal, More Bad News About the Dollar

The surging rupee is the latest currency to put on a public display of dominance over the dollar:
Your money no good at the Taj Mahal if it’s from the US
While the plan was announced in November, a report today from The Associated Press today mentioned the heavy price that dollar-toting Americans will have to pay to enter India’s member of the seven wonders of the world: About $20, which is $15 more than the deal offered during the dollar’s heady days.
“And it’s likely to get worse in booming India,” the article soberly continued.
Update: USA Today’s estimate on the entry fee is much less than the A.P.’s quote:
Foreigners now pay 500 rupees — roughly $12.80 at today’s exchange rate. (You also get a free bottle of water.) You will, however, pay an additional levy if you want to enter with a video camera. Indians pay 20 rupees — about 50 cents.

Serena Williams won her first title in 11 months Sunday, defeating Patty Schnyder, 7-5, 6-3, to win the Bangalore Open in India.

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Scoreboard Results/Schedule Money Leaders Williams dominated the final with powerful serves and ground strokes. Schnyder made several unforced errors while trying to hit deep and keep Williams at the baseline.

“It’s good to be a champ here, it always feels good to win,” said Williams, who won her 29th career title and her first since April at Miami.

The 11th-ranked Williams was warned for a court violation after she cursed and smashed her racket when she faced two break points in the fifth game of the first set.

“I’m passionate about what I do,” Williams said. “I got too passionate, my grip was wet and that’s what happened.”

The players traded service breaks in the first three games of the second set with Schnyder breaking Williams in the first and third games. Williams surged ahead by breaking Schnyder in the sixth and eighth games.

“When you’re playing a champion like Serena, you’ve got to be at your best,” Schnyder said.

In the doubles final, third-seeded Peng Shuai and Sun Tiantian of China defeated top-seeded Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan, 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.

QUERREY WINS IN LAS VEGAS The unseeded American Sam Querrey captured his first career ATP title on Sunday, defeating the South African qualifier Kevin Anderson, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to win a hardcourt tournament in Las Vegas.

Querrey, ranked 66th in the world, had 12 aces in his victory. He improved his match record to 12-6 this year and became the second American to capture an ATP title in 2008. The other is Andy Roddick, who won in San Jose, Calif., last month and in Dubai on Saturday.

Querrey, 20, reached his first career final with a 7-5, 6-2 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Guillermo Cañas of Argentina, who had been the last seeded player remaining.

SOURCE: nytimes

Caution: Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible.

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Back Story With Steve Lohr (mp3)For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment — video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games.

Moving images, far more than words or sounds, are hefty rivers of digital bits as they traverse the Internet’s pipes and gateways, requiring, in industry parlance, more bandwidth. Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000.

In a widely cited report published last November, a research firm projected that user demand for the Internet could outpace network capacity by 2011. The title of a debate scheduled next month at a technology conference in Boston sums up the angst: “The End of the Internet?”

But the Internet traffic surge represents more a looming challenge than an impending catastrophe. Even those most concerned are not predicting a lights-out Internet crash. An individual user, they say, would experience Internet clogging in the form of sluggish download speeds and frustration with data-heavy services that become much less useful or enjoyable.

“The Internet doesn’t collapse, but there would be a growing class of stuff you just can’t do online,” said Johna Till Johnson, president of Nemertes Research, which predicted the bandwidth squeeze by 2011, anticipating that demand will grow by 100 percent or more a year.

Others are less worried — at least in the short term. Andrew M. Odlyzko, a professor at the University of Minnesota, estimates that digital traffic on the global network is growing about 50 percent a year, in line with a recent analysis by Cisco Systems, the big network equipment maker.

That sounds like a daunting rate of growth. Yet the technology for handling Internet traffic is advancing at an impressive pace as well. The router computers for relaying data get faster, fiber optic transmission gets better and software for juggling data packets gets smarter.

“The 50 percent growth is high. It’s huge, but it basically corresponds to the improvements that technology is giving us,” said Professor Odlyzko, a former AT&T Labs researcher. Demand is not likely to overwhelm the Internet, he said.

The question of the problem’s severity is more than a technical one, since it will affect the shape and cost of the nation’s policy on broadband infrastructure, a matter that is expected to attract political attention after a new administration takes over in Washington.

While experts debate the immediacy of the challenge, they agree that it points to a larger issue. In the Internet era, they say, high-speed networks are increasingly the economic and scientific petri dishes of innovation, spawning new businesses, markets and jobs. If American investment lags behind, they warn, the nation risks losing competitiveness to countries that are making the move to higher-speed Internet access a priority.

“The long-term issue is where innovation happens,” Professor Odlyzko said. “Where will the next Google, YouTube, eBay or Amazon come from?”

The Internet, though a global network, is in many ways surprisingly local. It is a vast amalgam of smaller networks, all linked together. The worries about digital traffic congestion are not really about the Internet’s main trunk lines, the equivalent of network superhighways. Instead, the problem is close to home — the capacity of neighborhood switches, routers and pipes into a house. The cost of stringing high-speed optical fiber to a home, analysts estimate, can be $1,000 or more.

That is why Internet access speeds vary so much country by country. They depend on local patterns of corporate investment and government subsidy. Frederick J. Baker, a research fellow at Cisco, was attending a professional conference last month in Taiwan where Internet access is more than twice as fast and costs far less than his premium “high speed” service in California.

“When I mention my own service, people here shake their heads in disbelief,” said Mr. Baker, who is a board member of the Internet Society, a nonprofit organization that helps guide Internet standards and policy.

In the United States, the investment required to cope with rising Internet traffic will need to be made at several levels, not just cable and telecommunications carriers. Tim Pozar, an engineer and a co-owner of the Internet services company UnitedLayer in San Francisco, said a number of forces were combining: the surge in bandwidth-hungry video applications on Web sites, the need to handle traffic from more Internet-enabled devices like cellphones, and shortages of electrical power for data centers in places like San Francisco.

“We’re running out of horsepower to accommodate the demand,” said Mr. Pozar, whose company’s data centers support Web sites for customers ranging from museums to social networks. “And upgrades needed in data centers are going to be a lot more expensive than in the past, now that all the excess capacity left over after the dot-com bubble burst has been gobbled up.” The pace of future demand is the big uncertainty surrounding the Internet traffic challenge, and how fast people will adopt emerging technologies is notoriously difficult to foresee.

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Back Story With Steve Lohr (mp3)In the aftermath of the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, there was a glut of capacity — so-called dark fiber, strung around the world and then left dormant. Now demand is catching up with that supply. In its prediction of more than 100 percent annual growth, Nemertes, a telecommunications research firm, assumes brisk use of new innovations like high-end videoconferencing, known as telepresence, which corporations are beginning to embrace as an alternative to costly, time-consuming travel.

If this technology becomes a consumer product in the next few years, as some analysts predict, Internet traffic could spike even more sharply.

Slick video chats are something that William Bentley, a 13-year-old New Yorker, would like to see. He is fairly representative of the next generation of digital consumer: He has made and posted his own YouTube videos, subscribes to YouTube channels, enjoys multiplayer games like World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament, and downloads music and videos.

Asked what he would want next from the Internet, he replied, “It would be nice to have everybody always right there — just click and you could see them clearly and talk to them.”

That sort of service is certainly going to require more bandwidth and more investment, with higher costs across the spectrum of the Internet ecosystem that includes cable and telecommunications carriers, Internet companies, media Web sites and even consumers. AT&T, for one, said last week that it would spend $1 billion this year — double its 2006 expenditures — to expand its overseas infrastructure.

But even if investment lags behind, there will be no Internet blackout. Indeed, the Internet has survived predictions of collapse in the past, most notably by Robert M. Metcalfe, a networking pioneer and entrepreneur, who in a 1995 magazine column warned of a “catastrophic collapse” of the Internet in 1996. There were service problems, but nothing like Mr. Metcalfe predicted, and on stage at a conference in 1997 he ate his words.

“The Internet has proven to be wonderfully resilient,” said Mr. Metcalfe, who is now a venture capitalist. “But the Internet is vulnerable today. It’s not that it will collapse, but that opportunities will be lost.”

SOURCE:nytimes

The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood hailed a study.

Related
Blogrunner: Reactions From Around the WebNearly half the African-Americans in the study of teenagers ages 14 to 19 were infected with at least one of the diseases monitored in the study — human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis, a common parasite.

The 50 percent figure compared with 20 percent of white teenagers, health officials and researchers said at a news conference at a scientific meeting in Chicago.

The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or S.T.D.’s, among all the participants tested were HPV, at 18 percent, and chlamydia, at 4 percent, according to the analysis, part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Each disease can be serious in its own way. HPV, for example, can cause cancer and genital warts.

Among the infected women, 15 percent had more than one of the diseases.

Women may be unaware they are infected. But the diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms like irritating vaginal discharge, painful pelvic inflammatory disease and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy. The infections can also lead to longterm ailments like infertility and cervical cancer.

The survey tested for specific HPV strains linked to genital warts and cervical cancer.

Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the findings underscored the need to strengthen screening, vaccination and other prevention measures for the diseases, which are among the highest public health priorities.

About 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year among all age groups in the United States.

“High S.T.D. infection rates among young women, particularly young African-American women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk,” said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., who directs the centers’ division of S.T.D. prevention.

The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, said the new findings “emphasize the need for real comprehensive sex education.”

“The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure,” Ms. Richards said, “and teenage girls are paying the real price.”

Although earlier annual surveys have tested for a single sexually transmitted disease in a specified population, this is the first time the national study has collected data on all the most common sexual diseases in adolescent women at the same time. It is also the first time the study measured human papillomavirus.

Dr. Douglas said that because the new survey was based on direct testing, it was more reliable than analyses derived from data that doctors and clinics sent to the diseases center through state and local health departments.

“What we found is alarming,” said Dr. Sara Forhan, a researcher at the centers and the lead author of the study.

Dr. Forhan added that the study showed “how fast the S.T.D. prevalence appears.”

“Far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated S.T.D.’s, ” she said.

The centers conducts the annual study, which asks a representative sample of the household population a wide range of health questions. The analysis was based on information collected in the 2003-4 survey.

Extrapolating from the findings, Dr. Forhan said 3.2 million teenage women were infected with at least one of the four diseases.

The 838 participants in the study were chosen at random with standard statistical techniques. Of the women asked, 96 percent agreed to submit vaginal swabs for testing.

The findings and specific treatment recommendations were available to the participants calling a password-protected telephone line. Three reminders were sent to participants who did not call.

Health officials recommend treatment for all sex partners of individuals diagnosed with curable sexually transmitted diseases. One promising approach to reach that goal is for doctors who treat infected women to provide or prescribe the same treatment for their partners, Dr. Douglas said. The goal is to encourage men who may not have a physician or who have no symptoms and may be reluctant to seek care to be treated without a doctor’s visit.

He also urged infected women to be retested three months after treatment to detect possible reinfection and to treat it.

Dr. Forhan said she did not know how many participants received their test results.

Federal health officials recommend annual screening tests to detect chlamydia for sexually active women younger than 25. The disease agency also recommends that women ages 11 to 26 be fully vaccinated against HPV.

The Food and Drug Administration has said in a report that latex condoms are “highly effective” at preventing infection by chlamydia, trichomoniasis, H.I.V., gonorrhea and hepatitis B.

The agency noted that condoms seemed less effective against genital herpes and syphilis. Protection against human papillomavirus “is partial at best,” the report said.

Source: nytimes.com

SCRANTON, Pa. — Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a big backer of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, told reporters tonight that he would be happy with the so-called “Dream Ticket” of Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barack Obama — even if it meant that Mrs. Clinton was No. 2.
“It would be great,” he said. “Either way. I’d be for it either way.”
Asked what he meant by “either way,” he said: “Whether it’s Senator Obama for the president and Senator Clinton for vice president or vice versa, I think it would be great.”
Mrs. Clinton has made allusions in recent days to a potential joining with her Democratic rival. She has not specified their order, but she has in no way hinted that she would accept the number-two spot.

Mr. Rendell said tonight that he would prefer she be the presidential candidate but would be fine either way because the party needed to come together. For him to say that he would be fine with her in the number two spot could raise questions about his commitment to her campaign for the top spot, although he has endorsed her and
has said he would use his political capital, especially in the Philadelphia suburbs, to get her elected.
He also predicted that Senator John McCain, the putative Republican nominee, would pick Mitt Romney as his vice presidential candidate.
Here’s a transcript of his comments by The New York Times. The subject of the “Dream Ticket” came toward the end of a 15-minute chat with reporters standing around in the gym of Scranton High School after a Clinton rally.
Q: What do you think of the “Dream Ticket?”
Mr. Rendell: “It would be great. Either way. I’d be for it either way.”
Q: What do you mean by “either way?”
Mr. Rendell: “Whether it’s Senator Obama for the president and Senator Clinton for vice president or vice versa, I think it would be great.”
Q: You would be happy either way?
Mr. Rendell: “I would be happier if she were the presidential candidate, but I think it would be a good thing _ we need to come together, and I think it would be a good thing. We’d have some inevitable questions. ‘Senator Obama you said Senator Clinton wasn’t trustworthy, how can you make her vice president, one heartbeat away?’ ‘Senator Clinton, you said Senator Obama is not ready to meet the challenge of national security, how can you put him one heartbeat away?’ But you know, I think John McCain is going to pick Mitt Romney and they’ve said worse things about each other than…
Q: You really think he’ll pick Romney?
Mr. Rendell: “Sure. The economy’s the issue, and he’s the strongest Republican on the economy. You can’t pick someone who doesn’t have, in my judgment doesn’t have something to offer on the economy. Because Senator McCain by his own admission has a problem.”
Mr. Rendell then discussed the 1960 Democratic primary. He said Kennedy and Johnson had the “bitterest of primaries, much worse than anything in this campaign,” but when Kennedy got the nomination he said the Democrats couldn’t win without Texas and took Johnson. Johnson didn’t want it because he was already majority leader but accepted in the interests of the party.
Q: Would Hillary accept V.P.?
Mr. Rendell: “I can’t speak for her, but I think she’d give it some serious consideration, as I hope Senator Obama would if the roles were reversed.”
Q: And you’d be fine with that?
Mr. Rendell: Absolutely. You know, much happier with Senator Clinton as the presidential nominee, but I think we need to come together.”
Q: Some people say this is a ploy by the Clinton campaign to diminish Obama, by suggesting he should be vice president.
Mr. Rendell: “No, I think it’s responding to what they hear out there. The most comments I get from rank and file Democrats…”
At this point, Mr. Rendell turned to two young men who were standing there listening to the chatter and asked them: “Would you guys like to see Senator Clinton and Senator Obama on the same ticket?”
One replied: “As long as Senator Clinton is the president.”
There was much laughter all around.
Mr. Rendell: “I know, I know… All I hear from Democrats out there, whether it’s young Democrats, older Democrats, ‘We’re for Hillary, but get them on the same ticket.’ So I think Senator Clinton is responding to the will of Democrats. I don’t think it’s a ploy, gosh.”
Q: Has she told you she’d be okay with vice president?
Mr. Rendell: “No.”
Q: Is Obama qualified to be vice president?
Mr. Rendell: “Would I consider Obama qualified to be vice president? Sure, again, LBJ had zero foreign policy experience when he became vice president. For that matter, JFK had zero foreign policy experience. I think there’s a value to experience and when you’ve got someone like Senator Clinton who’s been on Armed Services for seven and a half years, who’s been in 80 different foreign countries on her own, I think that’s valuable but it isn’t absolutely mandatory.”
He laughed to himself. “I w

Source:nytimes

It’s primary day in Mississippi — and none of the candidates are there.
Talk about the election down in the Magnolia State seems to be taking a backseat to the Eliot Spitzer story, but it’s the last vote before the big contest in Pennsylvania six weeks from now (and where the Democrats are today).
Thirty-three delegates are at stake in Mississippi, where the latest polls favor Barack Obama, reports Charles Babington of The Associated Press.
Mississippi’s large black electorate in Tuesday’s voting makes it fertile ground for Obama, who has swept the other Deep South states and has pulled huge margins among black voters. Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, campaigned in the state last week, but by Monday was in Pennsylvania, where the primary is April 22.
The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., says “voter turnout is still expected to be light to moderate in an election that also includes two open congressional seats and a U.S. Senate contest.”
Between 125,000 to 150,000 voters will cast ballots, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann predicted. He said 100,000 headed to the polls in the 2004 presidential primary that featured eight contenders for the Democratic nomination, including ultimate nominee Sen. John Kerry. Mississippi has 1.78 million registered voters.
It’s an open primary, meaning undeclared voters who usually vote Republican can cast their ballot for a Democrat. People on the ground in Mississippi don’t expect much of that to happen.
Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University, said he doesn’t expect much crossover voting. It would take an organized effort by Republicans and a lot of money, he said.
“I just don’t see Republicans getting that stirred up about this,” he said. “It’s almost impossible, with an even tie, to see who would be most advantageous to the Republicans.”
Mr. Obama spoke to packed audiences in Columbus and Jackson, Miss., on Monday. In Columbus he discussed whether he’d consider becoming Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vice president, a talking point she and Bill Clinton have taken up lately, write Jeff Zeleny and Julie Bosman of The New York Times.
But when Mr. Obama arrived here Monday, he brusquely discounted the chatter. He suggested that the Clintons were being duplicitous in their offer, implying on one hand that he was not ready to be president, but that on the other, he could solve the party’s political impasse by joining together.
“I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place can offer the vice presidency to someone who’s in first place,” Mr. Obama told a town meeting at the Mississippi University for Women here, alluding to his lead in delegates. As the crowd cheered, he said: “If I’m not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president? Do you understand that?”
John McCain, on the other hand, is going to spend the next couple of weeks — while the Dems traverse the Pennsylvania battleground — quietly raising money and planning a speaking tour to tout his military prowess.
The Associated Press writes that he “also hopes to deepen voters’ understanding of his background and policy views. His first effort comes in foreign policy next week. McCain will keep a previously scheduled commitment to join a congressional visit to European and Middle Eastern capitals. He plans to meet with a series of world leaders.
Mr. McCain’s health is fine, by the way, says his campaign.
A Republican congressman from Iowa reiterated his past belief that terrorists will celebrate if Mr. Obama becomes president, despite a disavowal from Mr. McCain’s campaign.
“(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them,” Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press. “That’s why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him.”
King said his offices have been bombarded with calls — positive and negative — since he said Friday that al-Qaeda “would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror.”
Mr. Obama’s name came up in the fraud trial of his former supporter Antoin Rezko on Monday, in an e-mail message that suggests Mr. Obama was involved in discussions about the state health planning board Mr. Rezko allegedly improperly influenced.
The message indicated that Mr. Obama, now a Democratic presidential candidate, and other top Illinois politicians consulted in 2003 on legislation to keep the board, which approved the construction of health facilities, from expiring under sunset provisions in state law.
The vaguely worded message also seemed to raise the possibility that Mr. Obama, who at the time was chairman of the Illinois Senate’s health committee, had been involved in recommending candidates for the board.
Campaign trail roundup:
* Both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton spend the day in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clinton attends rallies in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and President Clinton hosts events in Washington, Canonsburg and Center Township.
* John McCain holds two town hall meetings in St. Louis, Mo.
* Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting in Fairless Hills, Pa.

Source:nytimes

NEW DELHI, March 11: Under-19 captain Virat Kohli, Pakistan middle order batsman Misbah-ul Haq and Bangladesh spinner Abdur Razzak were bought by Bangalore IPL team in the second players' auction in Mumbai. Bangalore spent Rs 50 lakh for Misbah. Bangalore also bought Under-19 wicketkeeper Srivatsa Goswami. Pakistan’s star batsman Mohammed Yousuf too joined the team.

Under-19 seamer Pradeep Sangwan was picked up by the Delhi IPL team .

Australia's Shane Watson, South Africa's Morne Morkel, Pakistan's Sohail Tanvir and England's Dimitri Mascarenhas were bought by the Jaipur IPL team . Under-19 heroes Ravindra Jadeja and Taruwar Kohli also found place in the Jaipur team.

Kolkata bought Pakistan's Salman Butt and Mohd Hafeez to further strengthen their batting line-up. Kolkata also bought under-19 stars Iqbal Abdullah and S Kaul.

Under-19 player Tanmay Srivastava, Ajitesh Argal and Australian all-rounders James Hopes, Luke Pomerbach were purchased by the Mohali IPL team.

Mumbai bagged South Africa's Ashwell Prince.

There were no takers for Mohd. Yousuf.

International Players for second auction:

Set Name of the player Availability Bidding Price Team

Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) 80 percent

Morne Morkel (SA)

Jaipur

Ashwell Prince (SA) 100 percent
Mumbai

Kyle Mills (NZ) 40 percent

Mohammad Hafeez (Pak) 80 percent
Kolkata

Ross Taylor (NZ) 40 percent

Peter Fulton (NZ) 40 percent

Jamie How (NZ) 40 percent

Jeetan Patel (NZ) 40 percent

Chris Martin (NZ) 40 percent

James Franklin (NZ) 40 percent

Brad Hodge (Aus) 100 percent

Shane Watson (Aus) 100 percent
Jaipur

Phil Jaques (Aus)

James Hopes (Aus) 80 percent
Mohali

Brett Geeves (Aus)

Luke Pomersbach (Aus) 100 percent
Mohali

Prasanna Jayawardene (SL) 100 percent

Mohammad Ashraful (B’desh) 100 percent

Mashrafe Mortaza (B’desh) 100 percent

Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak) 80 percent $125,000 Bangalore

Salman Butt (Pak)

Kolkata

Yasir Hameed (Pak)

Dmitri Mascarenhas (Eng)

Jaipur

Sohail Tanvir (Pak)

Jaipur

Abdur Razzak (B’desh) 100 percent
Bangalore

List of Under-19 Players: (Price for U-19 is fixed with $30,000)

Name of the player Teams

Virat Kohli Bangalore
Abhinav Mukund

Ajitesh Argal Mohali
Shreevats Goswami Bangalore
Tanmay Srivastava Mohali
Manish Pandey

Turuwar Kohli Jaipur
Ravindra Jadeja Jaipur
Saurabh Tiwary

Duvvarapu Siva Kumar

Pradeep Sangwan Delhi
Siddharth Kaul Kolkata
Einstein Napoleon

Perry Goyal

Sayyed Abdullah Iqbal Kolkata

Following is the amount other IPL franchises have:

Jaipur - $2.05 million
Bangalore - $374,000
Chennai - $23,750
Delhi - $71,250
Hyderabad - $262,500
Kolkata - $107,500
Mohali - $292,250
Mumbai - $53,750

Round 2 IPL auction
IPL: Bid for U-19 players

Round 1, IPL bid: Who got whom?

Source: TOI

WASHINGTON: India is the sixth most popular country in the US, with 69 per cent of the Americans having a positive image about it, while Pakistan finds itself among the 10 most unpopular nations, according to a new poll.

Of 22 countries rated in Gallup's 2008 World Affairs survey, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Japan win favour with at least 80 per cent of Americans. The top four is followed by Israel at 71 per cent.

While India ties with France at the sixth spot for the positive image, the opposite is true of Pakistan which is viewed favourably only by 22 per cent of those polled and negatively by 72 per cent.

The February 11-14 survey shows that 73 per cent of those polled perceive Afghanistan negatively, while the number is 77 per cent for Iraq and 88 per cent for Iran.

About 6 in 10 Americans have a favourable view of Egypt, South Korea and Mexico, Gallup USA has said.

Ten countries are viewed unfavorably by at least half of Americans. Of these, Iran, North Korea, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Cuba are viewed more negatively than positively by a greater than 2-to-1 margin. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and China have somewhat more moderately negative images.

The poll shows interesting political divide of America as well with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq all viewed more favourably by Republicans than by Democrats. France, Mexico, China, Venezuela, and Cuba are all viewed more favourably by Democrats than by Republicans.

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,007 adults, aged 18 and older. The maximum margin of sampling error is three percentage points.

Source: TOI

Someone rightly said happiness lies in the mind. It is the one thing that is the final destination, no matter what path we tend to take. For centuries, people have wondered what brings happiness and how one can achieve perpetual happiness. So when a survey revealed that Indian youths are the happiest in the world, there was mixed reactions. Letters poured in to ask if young India was, actually, a happy lot?

At the TimesofIndia.com, we decided not to take Young India's happiness for granted. We asked if young Indians are happier because their expectations are fewer, and a strong 58 per cent begged to differ. People were of the opinion that although young Indians were happy, it had little to do with fewer expectations. With the world coming closer, barriers and boundaries have disappeared and it was easier to strike friendships, leading to happiness in some form. Many agreed that with a liberalised economy, the material benefits that young India shares has gone up, considerably, giving them happiness, albeit for a day. But most agreed that happiness had practically nothing to do with fewer expectations.

Amita Jain, writing in from Pune , said, "Nowadays expectations are high. Material luxuries are easily available and one wants to have more. The world is becoming smaller and more interaction is making people greedier and less satisfied with their lives." Sheela from IT city Bangalore agrees with Amita that "the expectations are growing without limit, day by day, especially the young want to achieve their goal and expectation very early and really faster than ever."

Navneet from Delhi went to the extent of saying that, "If young people have little expectations then who has high expectations?"

No individual can operate in a vacuum and live in a private utopia, circumstances prevalent in the society do affect the individual either positively or negatively. So it is but obvious that the present government, the policies, the malpractices all go a long way in either making the youth a happy or a sad lot. Reiterating this chain of thought, Krishna from Hyderabad , says that "Majority of young Indians are unhappy because their dreams are not taking proper structure because of poverty and the system of reservations. Students mainly in rural background can't even express their problems." Aanchal from Gurgaon opines that, "neither the young Indian nor the grown-ups are happy in India. Youngsters are busy on a 24x7 schedule and elders are sad seeing their plight."

Sunita Jindal from New Delhi said, "In fact the situation is just the opposite it. Young Indians' expectations are not met by their parents and society. They are always in a worry and feel insecure due to unfulfilment of their expectations." Tarun Khurana from Bangalore said, "First of all, young Indians are not happy and even if some of them are, it is because they are not ambitious at all."

The lobby that believes that due to a good number of reasons the happiness quotient has actually gone up is packed up with a lot of zeal. Better quality of life, greater opportunities, the globalisation effect which has brought in the best of the entire world right into our homes are reasons that have gone a long way in making life a happy experience for scores of young people in India today. Anjali, writing in all the way from London , said, "Compared to the youth world over, Indian children are brought up to be achievement-oriented. The Indian youth is ambitious and hard working."

Sunil from Fiji agrees, "Young Indians are happy because they have the chance to achieve their dreams and fulfil expectations," he says.

S P Singal from USA said, "they are happier because they have resources to meet their expectations which per se are higher than the earlier generation's. They earn more and have will and the capacity to spend more. They have done the country proud and are putting our cunning politicians to shame."

For Mumbaikar B P Dixit , Indian youth "have started realising their worth and cherishing it. They feel secure and are hence a happy lot".

Ankur from Gurgaon added, "Young Indians believe in enjoying their lives with whatever they have. Their expectations are not limited, they are ambitious and at the same time they are satisfied, they enjoy whatever they have at present and dream for the future."

Some people also believed that the amount of freedom enjoyed by the youth today is far more than their predecessors and with fewer restrictions the youth have been privileged enough to see their dreams take shape. They have also been able to strive hard to achieve them. Whatever said and done, happiness for the Indian youth has been a mixed bag.

Source: TOI

SILICON VALLEY: Indians in Santa Clara County, home of the Silicon Valley, have the highest median household income, own the most valuable homes, and are the best educated, according to a latest census report.

The report which provides a snapshot of Santa Clara County, one of the only two counties in the country, shows that Indians have median income of USD 116,240, which is about 44 per cent above the county's median of about USD 81,000, said the San Jose Mercury News .

The report profiled the four largest immigrant communities -- Indians, Mexicans, Chinese and Vietnamese. It found that although three-quarters of the Indian population was born abroad, they own the most valuable home of about median home price of USD 860,000, compared with the county's price of USD 743,000.

More than four in five Indian adults have at least a bachelors' degree and Indians are most likely to be white-collar professionals, with about 80 per cent engaged in management, professional and related occupations.

Kailash Joshi, a prominent Indian entrepreneur, told the Mercury News that he believes Indians flourish in the US not just because of their commitment to education, but because their native country prepared them for America's ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, and its aggressive market economy.

A significant share of the valley's Chinese population lacks an advantage its Indian counterpart enjoys - English.

Source: TOI

NEW DELHI: When it comes to being satisfied with oneself, Indian youths are the world's happiest lot with career being their top priority.

Young middle-class Indians are the happiest people of all and much more satisfied with all aspects of their lives compared to other nationalities, according to a new global survey by Swedish research and consulting firm Kairos Future.

Further, work comes as top priority for Indian youth, followed by a good career and higher-status. In contrast, for those in Europe, a good living environment comes on top and above all work-related aspects, Kairos Future said.

The priorities of Indian youth -- work, good career and a position with high status, are reflected in their values such as endurance and entrepreneurship.

"Indian youth are also strikingly more optimistic about their own future and also about the future of society. The general picture in other countries is that young people tend to be personal optimists but societal pessimists," according to Kairos Future Group CEO and founder Mats Lindgren.

However, the study found that even though family is a strong focal point in an Indian society, youths here showed little interest in having a family and children of their own.

When asked about what constitutes a good life, many responded that there are many other important aspects than having a family and children, the survey said.

"Indians are focused on their careers and are much more status-oriented than youth in Europe," says the latest survey carried out by Sweden-based Kairos Future, a futures research and consulting firm.

Source: TOI

Their address is obscure but their calling card is Talent. Meet the rising stars of New India: Small-towners who are taking centrestage, not just in cricket but also in IITs and IIMs.

From the boondocks to the boardroom, the apprentices of New India are forging their weapons to fend off corporate raiders and launch takeover bids. If Praveen Kumar is using the cricket route to fame and glory, Nisha Rani, Nirmal Kumar and Sri Bhagwan Tyagi have chosen a different pitch. They’ve come a long way from Rewari, Risaura and Ladukhera respectively. But like countless young people, they have a clear roadmap, and potholes and roadblocks only make them more determined.

Go ahead, google these place names. They’re small blips on the radar of urban India but as sociologist Shiv Visvanathan says, "Small towns are the new machines for mobility. That’s where the big dreams are being constructed. Education is the new vehicle for young people to realise their dreams and they are not caught in the old paradigms."

Nisha, Nirmal and Bhagwan are the IITMians - the new elite, moulded by gruelling entry tests and even more gruelling academic rigour of the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management.

Nisha is from Rewari district in Haryana. After doing BSc, she taught Science and Maths in a school there. She says, "I’m the first person from my district to study in an IIM. My father works in the BSF and my brother runs a business. He keeps telling me that I should start my own business."

If that’s a refreshing departure from the convent-educated, English-speaking urban city-slicker strutting around campus, meet Sri Bhagwan Tyagi from Ladukhera, a village 40 km from Agra, so forgotten by the government that it doesn’t even have electricity or roads. There, nobody had heard of IIT. Farming is the only option.

Those lucky enough to go to Agra for college education find themselves without a job and return to the land. But, education unlocked new doors for Tyagi - he began travelling 12 km every day to the Dr Karan Singh Inter College, where a teacher motivated him to take the JEE. He now studies at IIT-Bombay.

Nirmal is our third IITMian, currently at IIM-Ahmedabad. He’s from Risaura in Siwan district near Patna. "I completed my schooling in the village and went to Hyderabad for my BSc. The few years in Hyderabad were a blessing for me but I have friends who had an even more difficult time."

The transition from small town to big city is tough but as Chetan Bhagat, author of Five Point Someone: What Not To Do At IIT , says, "Though there is no empirical evidence, I’d imagine two-thirds of students at IITs/IIMs are from small towns. The JEE and CAT are probably the ultimate talent scouting process. Coming from small towns, they are hungrier for success and do well. Their achievement is that much more incredible."

A view echoed by Prof Indira Parikh, former dean of IIM-Ahmedabad and currently founder-president of the Foundation for Liberal and Management Education, Pune: "When they come to the IIMs, they see others doing well and are inspired to do well too in this environment of learning. They see that many things are possible. It’s rather infectious and a reflection of what’s happening in the New India."

Sandipan Deb, author of The IITians: The Story of a Remarkable Indian Institution and How its Alumni are Reshaping the World , says, "This is part of a larger trend sweeping the country. In every field, from cricket to entrepreneurship, small-town India is going through a remarkable transformation, where boys and girls from the Ranchis and the Nasiks are exhibiting a dramatic rise in confidence and ambition. They are much hungrier for success than their more comfortable counterparts from the metros, and know that if they try hard enough, they can achieve their dreams."

Someone who realised his dream is R K Misra, The Times of India’s first Lead India initiative winner. From Sitapur (UP) to IIT-Kanpur to Tokyo to Bangalore, Misra’s journey is awe-inspiring. "Lack of opportunities is the biggest challenge for a small-town student. Once I did well in studies, my parents' aspirations grew. I had to work hard not to disappoint them. Word filtered down to us that there was something called the IIT and it was worth trying to get admission there."

But his biggest fear was: "What if I don’t get in? These days, there are tutorials etc. For me, it was rather unstructured; I remember buying the previous years’ entrance exam question papers on the footpath! The real test began when I entered IIT. It was intense - weekly tests, semester exams and all scores added up to the final result. It motivated me to work even harder."

Prof Rajeev Gowda at IIM-Bangalore looks beyond this small town phenomenon: "The interesting thing is not so much the rise of village/small town students as the decline of the metro/convent kids. Perhaps the latter have more distractions or see opportunities abroad as more accessible."

"In any case, what is a metro?" asks Chetan Bhagat, adding, "It’s time we moved away from population numbers and looked at income levels, mindsets and aspirations too. What urbanites imagine to be small towns are full of people who dream big and are realising their dreams."

Rohithari Rajan, author of IIM - Ganjdundwara , points out: "With greater informational connectivity, aspirations are no longer limited by town and class. With greater physical connectivity, those aspirations can be achieved independent of background too. Across India, young men and women set themselves high goals, and pursue them with confidence."

Millions are doing exactly that. Final-year student Tyagi says: "I never dreamt of the life I’d lead after coming to IIT, or the things I’d learn and places I’d visit." Now, they’re not only dreaming, but making their dreams a reality.

Source: TOI

There are women in all fields who have achieved successes that can be termed exceptional. These were mostly achieved despite their status as women. Here, Nazim Khan profiles eight achievers who, in their own way and their own fields, are inspirations to all women.

Indra Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi can tell you a thing or two about breaking glass ceilings. She let nothing stand in her way to becoming the head of PepsiCo, the fourth-largest food and beverage company in the world. Nooyi is indeed an inspiration to all Indian women, indeed, to all women worldwide.

But her list of achievements doesn?t end at being head of PepsiCo. In 2006, Fortune magazine ranked Nooyi No. 1 in its list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. The same year, Forbes magazine ranked her the fourth most powerful woman on earth, after Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) and Wu Yi (Vice-Premier of China).

Nooyi certainly wasn?t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. After graduating from Chennai, she went on to acquire degrees from IIM Calcutta and the Yale School of Management. She began her career at Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, and went on to hold senior positions in companies such as Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri. She later joined PepsiCo and swiftly rose through the ranks to become its CEO in August last year.

At PepsiCo, Nooyi was instrumental in spinning off fast-food restaurants KFC and Pizza Hut in 1997 to create a separate company called Yum Brands. She has been also been responsible for charting the way for PepsiCo?s acquisition of Tropicana.

Nooyi has never lost sight of her Indian roots and values. She learnt the hard way that it?s best not to hide what you are when she went for her first interview in an ill-fitting business suit and was turned down for the job. She wore a sari for the next interview and was selected. Today, Nooyi is seen at most Pepsi functions in a sari.

Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza has ventured where no Indian woman had gone before. She planted herself firmly in the annals of Indian sporting history when she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title at the Hyderabad Open in 2005. The same year, she also became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam Tournament at the US Open. Today, Sania is among the Top 50 woman tennis players in the world - yet another first for an Indian woman.

Sania had an early start in competitive tennis, picking up a tennis racquet at the age of six. She turned pro at the tender age of 13, and hasn?t looked back since.

Sania is the ultimate poster girl of the Indian media. She is admired for daring to be different, wearing her attitude on her sleeve. She?s often seen in T-shirts with lines that say ?I?m cute, no shit?, ?Well-behaved women rarely make history?, and ?You either agree with me or you?re wrong?.

Of course, like most people in the public eye, Sania has also been in the middle of controversies; her remarks on pre-marital sex created a bit of a stir, and she found herself at the receiving end of a fatwa by Islamic cleric for her `skimpy? tennis attire.

Critics have raised question marks about her fitness, which they say has triggered her current slump in form. And some say her aggressive attitude borders on arrogance. But it?s perhaps her aggressiveness that has played an important role in her success, and as for her slump in form, it should not be long before she proves her critics wrong.

Her greatest inspiration, she says, is when a girl comes to her and says ?I picked up a tennis racquet because of you?. She?s certainly an inspiration for any Indian girl.

Saina Nehwal

First came Sania, then there was Saina. Apart from her name, the teenage sensation has much in common with Sania, including a huge appetite for success and the belief that she can beat the best in business. While Sania made Indian tennis history, Saina Nehwal has taken the badminton world by storm.

The 16-year-old made an appearance at the Philippines Open in May 2006 as an unseeded player and a world ranking of 86, and went on to beat everyone in sight to take the women?s singles title. With the victory, Saina became the first Indian woman to win a four-star badminton event, and it took her world ranking to 45. Since then, she has managed a career-best world ranking of 22.

Regarded as the best thing to have happened to the world of Indian badminton after Aparna Popat, Saina was trained by Dronacharya Award winner S M Arif and later by all-England winner Pulella Gopichand, The teenager hopes to win an Olympic Gold some day. And the way she?s been going, her dream may not remain just a dream.

Shilpa Shetty

It was a blessing in disguise! Shilpa Shetty?s Bollywood career was in the doldrums when she got an invitation to participate in the UK reality show Celebrity Big Brother. Little did she realise that she would land herself in the middle of a raging controversy, be at the centre of international attention, and emerge a winner.

The trouble began when Shilpa became the target of what were perceived as racial attacks and barbs by some of the other participants on the show, particularly Jade Goody. It wasn?t long before the press got on to the act and it became a Shilpa show all the way ? in the newspapers, the tabloids and TV. So heated did the debate become that it was even thought fit to be discussed in the House of Commons and the Indian Parliament.

Shilpa not only weathered the storm well, but went on to ride the wave of public sentiment in her favour to win the show hands down. She?s been invited to dinner with Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. And there are reports of her having bagging several lucrative deals, including one for a perfume named after her, and a role in a James Bond movie!

Kiran Desai

Following in your mother?s footsteps is a difficult task, especially when your mother is the acclaimed novelist Anita Desai. But Kiran Desai took that route and managed go a step further when she won the Man Booker prize in 2006, something her mother could never do, even though she was nominated three times for the award.

Kiran Desai won the Booker for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss, becoming the youngest-ever woman writer to have won it (at the age of 35), and the second Indian author after Arundhati Roy.

Desai?s came out with her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, in 1998 for which she earned plaudits from many, including Salman Rushdie.

The Inheritance of Loss is based on a character who has to face a drastic change of cultures when he migrates from Kalimpong in Northeastern India to the US. Kiran herself was brought up in India and left at the age of 14. The plot is partly reminiscent of her own story, and beautifully describes the struggles of such cross-cultural journeys.

Ekta Kapoor

Love her or hate her, but you cannot ignore Ekta Kapoor. While the feminists hate her for producing soaps that they claim degrades the status of women, this doesn?t cut much ice with most Indian families, who are absolutely lapping up her productions. So popular are her serials (all of which start with the letter K) that Ekta is now known as the Soap Queen of India.

And she deserves that title. She has produced over 50 soap operas that air across major Indian networks. Her influence in the Indian media is undeniable. She was named among the 40 Young Global Leaders 2006 by the Forum of Young Global Leaders, an affiliate of the World Economic Forum. In 2001, Asiaweek magazine named her among the 50 most influential communicators in Asia. In the same year, she won the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award, the first woman to receive the honour.

The daughter of yesteryear actor Jeetendra, films run in Ekta?s veins. She?s also a film producer, and has released five films to date, of which Kya Kool Hai Hum was the most successful. A sequel to it is being planned.

Ekta has often been the target of criticism for tackling themes like infidelity and divorce, using rehashed and repetitive plots and stories that seem to drag on and on. But the channel heads don?t seem to mind, for her serials still manage to keep the audiences tuned in and the TRPs going.

Deepa Mehta

She?s in the news for varied reasons, right or wrong, depending on which way you look at it. Some people feel she is someone who deliberately makes films that show India in a bad light and makes money from it. Others laud her for tackling subjects that were not touched upon hitherto.

The subjects of Deepa Mehta?s films are certainly controversial. In Fire, she took on the issue of women involved in a lesbian relationship, and 1947: Earth dealt with the carnage in the wake of India?s partition. Her latest movie in the trilogy, Water, depicts the plight of Indian widows a few decades ago. Water was short-listed for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film Category but eventually lost o