Anna gets social; on blog, FB, Twitter

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare seems set to take the virtual world by storm. He Thursday became a blogger and even joined social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

The blog, with posts in English, Hindi and Marathi, is titled "Anna Hazare Says" and can be accessed on: https://annahazaresays.wordpress.com.

In his inaugural post, Hazare wrote: "It is after a long time that I am directly communicating with you. Henceforth, it is from this blog that I will be constantly in touch with you."

"We started a movement demanding that Janlokpal Bill be passed in India and slowly the crusade spearheaded into a full-fledged non-violent revolution spilling on to the Ramlila grounds," he added.

The activist said he found the support of the people and his young friends as overwhelming as they came forward from every corner of the country and their cries awakened India from its deep slumber.

"Their cries not only shook the very roots of our country but people from world over who had fallen prey to injustice, corruption took active part in the movement.

"The entire movement was infectious. This was the beginning of a revolution. It was the beginning of India's second struggle for independence," Hazare said.

The 74-year old leader pointed out that parliament gave an assurance that it would put forward some of the demands from the Jan Lokpal Bill and get them approved.

"But assurance doesn't necessarily mean law. A bigger fight awaits us," Hazare urged.

The activist warned that the movement still "has a long way to go and very soon it will acquire a non-violent, but intense flavour of a nation-wide revolution".

"To enable a one-to-one conversation with you I will soon embark on my journey throughout India. I will address problems faced by people at every step of life... Interactive communication on this blog will start very soon. You can share your queries, problems thoughts and emotions with me," Hazare appealed.

He also wrote on his blog that he has joined Facebook and Twitter.

News from - http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5473498&page=0

Nano looks set for Indonesia, eastern Europe assembly

Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata said the country's largest auto maker is looking at assembling facilities in Indonesia and eastern Europe for rolling out its small car Nano.

"We are already selling the Nano in Sri Lanka and Nepal. We are also looking at assembling facilities for this, possibly in Indonesia and in some parts of Eastern Europe," Tata told the company AGM here. However, he did not specify which European country would be his choice.

By and large, Tata Motors is also looking at assembly of some of its vehicles in Latin America, Brazil, South-east Asia, especially Indonesia, and in some other countries, Tata said, adding, "Our plan is in fact to grow both in the neighbourhood and in some specific countries".

On the company's JV with the Italian company Fiat, which is still making losses, Tata said, "Yes, the Fiat JV is showing losses. Assumptions (made while starting the JV) in terms of volumes didn't work out, more so for Fiat than for us because there was a downturn and they made an assumption on off-take which did not materialise.

"Well, as we are 50 per cent owners, we have had to share in losses of the company. Both Fiat and we are having a re-look at the whole contractual undertaking to see whether we can make it more realistic. So, I hope we will be able to resolve that in course of time".

Tata also said the company planned to introduce its electric cars in Britain and Norway shortly.

He further said that the auto major is planning to sew together a joint venture in China for assembling the Range Rovers, besides exploring the possibility of setting up a joint engine project with Jaguar.

The Tata Group bought the British marquees Jaguar Land Rover brands from Ford Motor a few years back and had successfully revived the company and today almost 60 per cent of Tata Motors' sales come from this business.

Yesterday, Tata Motors reported a 1.4 per cent rise in standalone profit in the June quarter as the company was impacted by the rise in raw material costs and a drop in domestic sales coupled with shrinking margins even as its sales rose 14 per cent to Rs 11,833.19 crore and had warned of more margin pressures in the coming quarters.

On the coming quarters, Tata said the coming years pose considerable challenge and demand for cars may be dampened due to the global economic happenings. Similarly, if infrastructure spends go down, commercial vehicle sales can be affected, he said.

On the ongoing macroeconomic crisis in the West, Tata said, "the country will have to use this downturn as an opportunity to leverage our low-cost capabilities, right from design to manufacturing".

"We should tailor ourselves to become an auto hub," he said, adding, Tata Motors India will explore the possibility of having a joint engine development project with its British arm Jaguar.

Stating that the days of relative complacency is behind the company, he said Tata Motors will have to protect its market share in the country. Currently, it enjoys only third slot in the car market after Maruti and Hyundai, while in the bus and truck spaces, it is the market leader.

On expanding into overseas market, he said the company is exploring the possibility of expanding into South Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia where Tata products may have an acceptance. But he said, for this, the company needs to see where it can complement with JLR, which has a presence in 116 countries.

News from - http://autos.in.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5303821&page=0

Leh residents fear Chinese take over

The inaction of central government even after repeated incursions of Chinese troops into Leh has struck apprehensions in the hearts of local population. They feel that the government is sleeping and is quite weak,


Leh: The Union government's continued denial to the recent Chinese incursions on Indian territory has angered the locals, who have been unhappy over the passive response of the Centre.

As reports of Chinese incursion in Leh were confirmed, Headlines Today travelled to the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir to get an insight into the situation.

Leh additional deputy commissioner Tsering Morup was the first to confirm a recent incursion by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel. "Yes, there have been incursions," he told Headlines Today.

Inspector general of police (Kashmir) S.M. Sahai said: "If you look at the terrain in Leh and Ladakh, there are huge terrains which are unmanned. So definitely an incursion can take place there."

To get an exact impression of the situation on the ground, Headlines Today went further towards the Chinese border in Leh district.

Even as the state and the central establishment remains frozen in a state of denial about Chinese presence, Headlines Today found that the villagers were quite unhappy with the timidity of the government in tackling the brazen incident.

Leh resident Phunsuk Tonduk said, "The army and intelligence are sleeping. The Chinese are slowly inching towards Indian territory. One day they will take over Leh."

An angry local journalist went up to say: "The government is weak."

While a majority remain enraged, there were also a few who chose to remain indifferent. Some young boys said they "don't know... don't care".

Even the newspapers in the region have been flooded with reports of Chinese incursions over the last few months. Defence Minister A.K. Antony might choose to blame "perception" for the Chinese incursions, it seems that this dragon has already hacked into the Indian stable.

News from - http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5476483&page=0

How much do these footballers earn in a day?

We are sure that you will fall out of your chair after looking at the salaries of these gentlemen. If you are looking for a career change, it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a pair of soccer boots.

David Beckham


Country: England


Club: Los Angeles Galaxy


Yearly Earnings: $ 40 million


Earnings per day (in Rupees): Rs.53,54,520


News from - http://sports.in.msn.com/specials/sports_photos.aspx?cp-documentid=5475627

Top 20 Best Yet FREE iPad Apps For Your Apple Tablet

You’ve seen the commercials; Apps are what makes an iPad come to life. Whether you have aniPad or iPad 2 that means you need to decide which apps you should purchase and downloadright away. Here are the very best ones for work, play, creation, consumption and everything in between.

There are currently more than 100,000 native iPad apps available, although, as with the iPhone, a big chunk of those are filler. But the good apps are really good: creative, innovative, imaginative, useful and fun (or at least several of the above). So here is our pick of the top 20 best iPad (and iPad 2) apps of year 2011:

WindowShop: Windowshop is Amazon’s attempt to reinvent its website for tablets, and it does a great job. As with eBay, the focus is emphatically on product images and flicking between items with swipes and other gestures.

Barrel Tones: An amazing 3-D drum experience! Lay down your beats over top of home-grown jam tracks. These drums are the real-deal! Low latency, fully animated, made by musicians for musicians! Also, check out the Algoriddim Djay App For iPad if you are a music fan.

Tweetdeck (free): Another brilliant port to iPad, Tweetdeck shows you the feeds of your Twitter friends, your own mentions, and your direct messages. It works well because there is enough screen space to actually read all of this content.

Snikkr: Snikkr for iPhone and iPad is the first social productivity tool for iPhone. It supports mapping, navigation, directions, and local search. Snikkr also lets you safely share your location, and your favorite places, with friends, inside and outside of the Snikkr network.

Citrix Go To My PC: Just like BomGar remote support app, GoToMyPC for iPad makes it simple to control your computer while away from your work area, but the lack of multitasking support, and latency issues, may dampen the experience. GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to instantly connect to your Mac or PC, with access to all of your files, programs and network.

Vevo: MTV doesn’t show music videos any more, but Vevo is the nearest we have to a successor. Its iPad app is arguably the best way to use the service, too, tapping and swiping to browse a wide collection of videos.

123D Sculpt:This is a digital sculpting app: you pinch and rub the screen to mould virtual clay, buying in-app theme packs for 69p each including “Medieval” and “Transportation”. A tactile and creative delight.

Dragon Dictation: Featuring very accurate voice transcription and the ability to share messages via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, Naunce’s dictation app is both fun to use and immensely helpful—as long as you’re connected to the Web.

Kindle: Amazon’s e-reader app narrowly gets the nod over Apple’s own iBooks, with fewer visual frills but a large collection of ebooks, including regular discounts and offers. It also syncs your reading position across different devices.

iChromy: It’s an iPad browser that looks and feels like Chrome. And since I use Chrome every single day, that’s a good thing! It has tabbed browsing, an incognito window, and an omnibox (a shared box for typing in URLs and search terms) too. As close as you’ll get to Chrome on an iPad. Free

Epicurious: You like food, right? Epicurious has got tons of recipes presented in a nice, photo-friendly format. Show this to your Mom to justify your iPad purchase. Free.

Dropbox for iPad: Simple to use and extremely useful, this file synchronization app will keep all of your files in step, but the lack of built in file editing, and other limitations, may prove irritating.

Infographics: The app has about 50 different infographics created by the design company for its clients. There’s trivia-filled images for technology, sociology, learning and more. Perfect for those moments when you have a few minutes to spare and want to read something besides boring news.

Trulia: Trulia, an impressive real estate search engine and a respected name in the real estate game, has an iPad app that makes finding a new place a lot less intimidating and almost even fun. Poking around to explore apartments and homes with your finger is somehow much less frustrating than clicking around on a website.

FlipBoard: Flipboard wants to be your personalised, digital magazine, and does a great job of serving up articles that your Facebook and Twitter contacts have been linking to, as well as stories from your favourite websites.

PhotoBooth Free (included with iPad 2): A staple of the iPad 2′s starter apps, PhotoBooth takes advantage of the iPad’s dual cameras to bring you stupid pictures of yourself. Yes, it is a novelty app, but it’s one that might make you smile. Or, more probably, make young’uns chuckle at the sight of themselves with silly effects applied.

Google Earth: Google’s planet-mapping service was born to be on touchscreen tablets, getting you to swipe and pinch-zoom your way around the world. It’s an impressive showcase for iPad’s computing power, particularly the iPad 2.

Hootsuite: HootSuite allow users to create numerous social network streams and view them in a clean, friendly interface, dispatching messages to multiple networks simultaneously. Compose and Converse on the Go. HootSuite for iOS is the perfect social media tool for Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare.

Also check out these top 10 Ever Green, Best (Yet FREE) iPhone and iPad Apps

Calculator for iPad: Need to crunch some numbers? Calculator for iPad Free gives you a large, easy-to-read, attractive basic and scientific calculator for solving problems. Multitouch support lets you swipe away numbers. Upgrading to the $0.99 adds six additional themes: Standard, Silver Keyboard, Retro Grey, Pink Keyboard, Happy Pink, and Wooden.

Roambi: Roambi interactive mobile dashboards let you tap, turn and swipe to analyze and share your company’s latest information on any iPhone or iPad – keeping you connected to your business, anytime and anywhere.

News from - http://techchunks.com/technology/top-20-best-yet-free-ipad-apps-for-your-apple-tablet/