Anchor Anasuya New Pictures

Anchor Anasuya New Pictures

Harbhajan Singh stuck in Uttarakhand rains, tweets he's fine

Star India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is one amongst the many pilgrims and tourists who have been stranded in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand due to landslides and heavy rains.

The off-spin bowler tweeted he was fine and lots of people were stuck.

The cricketer is now staying put at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp at Joshimath which houses the paramilitary's first battalion.

He has taken shelter with the border guarding troops since yesterday when he was returning from the Hemkunth Sahib gurudwara here and could not go beyond because of inclement weather, a senior official said.

The bowler is now spending time interacting with ITBP jawans and playing badminton with them, they said.

TRAI cuts roaming charges for calls, SMSes

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday allowed free mobile roaming on payment of a fixed fee from July 1 and reduced national roaming charges for others by up to 57 per cent.

The regulator, however, rejected the suggestion of completely scrapping roaming charges saying it was not practical as of now. “The authority has decided to reduce the ceiling (upper price for roaming calls and SMS rates) across board, permitting telecom providers to issue special tariff vouchers and mandating that a roaming plan will be offered (for post paid customers),” Trai Chairman Rahul Khullar said.

The ceiling tariffs on national roaming prescribed by Trai in 2007 were Rs 1.40 per minute for outgoing local calls and Rs 2.40 per minute for outgoing STD calls. These ceilings have been reduced to Re 1 per minute and Rs 1.50 per minute respectively, Trai said in a statement. Similarly, the ceiling tariffs for incoming calls while on roaming have been reduced from Rs 1.75 per minute to 75 paise per minute, it added.

Tariffs for outgoing SMSes while on roaming, which were earlier under forbearance, have now been capped: Outgoing local SMSes at Re 1 per SMS and outgoing STD SMSes at Rs 1.50 per SMS. Incoming SMSes will remain free. The regulator said operators have been mandated to provide two types of roaming plans for customers–Special Tariff Vouchers (STVs) and Combo Vouchers (CVs).

“Trai has reduced ceilings for national roaming calls and SMSes and instituted a new regime for providing flexibility to telecom service providers to customise tariffs for national roamers through STVs and CVs,” the regulator said.

While rejecting the suggestion of complete removal of roaming charges, the Trai said that free roaming regime is simply not practicable at this juncture. All subscribers will benefit from the reduced ceilings, and competitive pricing below the new ceiling levels is expected. The provision for STVs and CVs as well as special tariff plans for roaming will allow service providers to cater to specific roaming needs of different customer segments, it added.

The regulator had initiated review of national roaming tariffs after the government announced to make one national free roaming throughout the country in the New Telecom Policy (NTP), 2012.

Asked about the implementation of mobile number portability at the national level, Khullar said work is going on in the matter but it is not likely this year.

KEA Diploma CET Re-test on June 30

Following a major goof-up in the Diploma Common Entrance Test (D-CET ) question paper on Sunday, a re-test will be conducted on June 30. The test is for diploma holders seeking admission to professional undergraduate courses.

The D-CET had come under fire after students complained that the question paper was a complete repeat of last year's.

Students said even the mistakes in last year's question paper were repeated. Ironically, they pointed out, that the flaws in last year's paper had resulted in awarding of 20 grace marks. An expert committee has been set up to look into the matter.

The exam is important for those students who passed the diploma examination conducted by the Board of Technical Examinations or an equivalent examination in Karnataka for admission to the second year of day and evening engineering degree courses. The exam was taken by 21,159 students across 56 centres in the state. Thirteen of these centres were in Bangalore. There are around 16,000 seats available in engineering colleges through lateral entry.

"I request parents and students to cooperate. We regret the inconvenience caused," said higher education minister RV Deshpande.

There will be no separate fee for the new exam.Hallticketswillbe available on the website after 6pm on Tuesday.
Only the order of the questions had been changed, they alleged.

Wipro to hire over 1000 professionals in Germany

IT services major Wipro Ltd today said it will triple its headcount in Germany by hiring over 1,000 people over the next three years with an aim to expand its operations in the key European nation.

According to industry estimates Germany's IT market size stood at around USD 80 billion last year.

"Wipro plans to triple its employee strength in Germany over the next three years, by hiring over 1,000 professionals," the company said in a release.

At present, the Bangalore-headquartered firm has over 500 employees in Germany, which serve more than 30 clients. It has 145,000 employees across 98 countries as on March 31, 2013.

Its customers in Germany include a global automotive company, an European utilities major and one of the largest telecom companies in the country, among others, Wipro said.

"Wipro expects to see significant traction in the retail, automotive, telecom, healthcare, banking and energy and utilities sectors in Germany in the years to come," it added.

To drive stronger incremental growth in the future, Wipro is looking to address the requirements of medium-sized enterprises in the region, in addition to its existing focus on large global enterprises, it said.

The company has a three-pronged strategy for Germany. "We are making investments in building strong domain knowledge in key growth verticals and are hiring local talent with strong delivery and program management capabilities," Wipro Chief Sales and Operations Officer (Growth Markets) Rajat Mathur said.

The firm will continue to strengthen our new business hunting approach in order to build a strong and structured pipe-line of business opportunities for the next three to five years, he added.

In Germany, Wipro has IT development centres in Munich, Meerbusch, Nuremberg and sales offices in Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Meerbusch.

It has an on-shore datacenter capability in Meerbusch that offers a broad range of IT infrastructure management services to Wipro's European and global customers.

Japanese Scientist develops body-double robot

A Japanese scientist has developed a body-double robot which resembles him closely, with tiny human-like movements and blinking eyes.

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, has been working on developing lifelike androids.

The new robot was unveiled at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress in New York, a futuristic conference focused on the technological singularity.

The new ‘Geminoid’, an android resembling a real person was tele-operated — controlled remotely — by a person offstage.

Ishiguro has also developed another Geminoid, a fashionably dressed female android, which he has shown off in the windows of clothing stores, LiveScience reported.

The robot was so popular that the clothing it was modelling sold out immediately, Ishiguro said.

Ishiguro has also taken his robots on the road as part of a travelling “android theatre,” where they act out scenes with human-like expressions.

The roboticist also made the “Telenoid,” a pillow-like bot deliberately designed to appear ageless and genderless so that people can project an imagined face onto its neutral appearance.

Ishiguro has tested the Telenoid among the elderly in Denmark, who took to it very well, he said.

Another of Ishiguro’s inventions is the “Elfoid” — a smaller version of the Telenoid that functions as a mobile phone.

Today, everyone talks to the “little black boxes” of their smartphones, Ishiguro said, so he wanted to personalise and humanise the devices.

At the end of Ishiguro’s talk, his robotic double spoke up, saying that next time, it would give a much better presentation than the real Ishiguro.

Sensex gains 80 points in early trade

The BSE benchmark Sensex rose nearly 80 points in early trade on Monday as funds and investors made selective buying ahead of RBI policy meeting.

The 30-share barometer gained 79.48 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 19,257.41 with stocks of healthcare, IT, oil and gas and capital goods leading the rise.

The Sensex had gained 350.77 points in the previous session as slowing wholesale inflation and strengthening rupee revived hopes of rate cut by RBI.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty up by 12.00 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 5,820.40.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.18 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei up by 1.20 points in early trade on Monday. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.70 per cent lower in the previous session on Friday.