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The Supreme Court ruled that Gratuity is an inalienable right of an employee and not a bounty offered by the management,

A Bench of Justices S B Sinha and H S Bedi said that when a benefit is extended to a group of employees, the same cannot be denied to the other group of employees, if they were entitled to the benefit under the scheme.

The Apex Court dismissed an appeal filed by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) observing that “An employee is entitled to gratuity if it is not a bounty. Gratuity is payable on successful tenure of service,”

LIC had filed the appeal against a Karnataka High Court ruling which had held that the corporation’s Chairman does not enjoy any unbridled powers to fix pay scales and other benefits for the employees.

Earlier, the Gujarat and Kerala High Court had ruled in favour of the High Court but the Karnataka High Court gave contrary ruling following which the corporation had appealed in the Apex Court.

The Chairman or the other authorities can invoke the powers only as delegated to them under the relevant statute.

The dispute was related to fixation of reduced gratuity to officers who had retired prior to August one, 1994 and according to an order passed by the Chairman, those employees who retired prior to August one, 1994, were entitled to reduced gratuity based on the pay scale.

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Toyota a Global auto major is planning to come out with its small car for the Indian market by end of 2010.

During the 18th International Engineering and Technology Fair being held at Bangalore, Toyota-Kirlosakar, Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa, said that the car will be manufactured in its hi-tech facility at Bidadi.

Currently the company currently has no plans on coming out with a zero emission hybrid system car for the Indian market. The company would decide on releasing the Pirus in the Indian market after examining the tax structure and market conditions. Pirus is the world’s first mass-produced gasoline/electric hybrid passenger vehicle.

Being tax structure high in India the company officials were holding talks to bring down the tax for bringing Pirus to the Indian consumers.

Economy meltdown had impacted car sales in the country. Toyota is hopeful that it would meet its sale target of 50,000 cars in the next fiscal.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It’s a big day for India as music maestro. A R Rahman has become the first Indian composer to bag two Oscars for his music in Slumdog Milllionaire. He got his first Oscar for Best Original Score and second for Best Original Song.

Rags to riches romance “Slumdog Millionaire” has won eight Oscars at the 81st Academy Award function in Los Angels. A R Rahman has won two Oscars in the Best Score and the Song Categories for the movie. Rahman share the best Song award with lyricist Gulzar.

Danny Boyle has bagged the best director’s award for “Slumdog Millionaire”. The film also named best Film at the Oscars.

While Simon Beaufoy gets Best Adapted Screenplay award for the movie, Anthony Dod Mantle bags Oscar for Best Cinematography for Slumdog Millionaire.

For Best Sound Mixing, Resul Pookutty won the award for the movie.

Chris Dickens bagged Oscar in the Best Film Editing Category for Slumdog Millionaire.

Kate Winslet wins Oscar for Best Actress for her role in “The Reader”. Sean Penn wins best Actor Oscar for “Milk”

“Smile Pinki” with strong Indian connection bagged the prestigious award in the short Documentary category.

Penelope Cruz was named Best Supporting Actress for her role as a painter in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”.

While “WALL-E” has won Oscar for best Animated Feature Film, “La Maison en Petits Cubes” bagged best Animated Short Film Oscar.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” got Oscar for best Art Direction. Michael O’Connor bags Oscar for Costume Design in “The Duchess”. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” gets Oscar for Makeup.
A mood of jubilation was witnessed across Mumbai and especially in Dharavi, as Slumdog Millionaire, created history by bagging eight awards at the Oscars.

The residents of the Asia’s largest slums remained glued to the television sets to see two young children from their locality — Azarhuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali-who starred in the film, walk the red carpet.

A function was organized at Dharavi yesterday to rejoice the films entry into Oscars and a larger celebration is expected ahead with its sweeping success at the Oscars.

With the success of the film the Dharavi residents hope for a better future and life for their younger generations.

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This year Maha Shivratri is being celebrated with religious ferver and enthusiasm across the country on Monday 23rd Feb 2009.
In Uttar Pradesh, large numbers of pilgrims reach at Allahabad to take holy dip at Sangam the confluence of river Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati.

Thousands of devotees take holy dip on this occasion. With the bathing of Mahashivratri, more than one month long Magh Mela, largest Hindu congregation of the world is officially concluded.

At several places including Allahabad, Ujjain, Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Mathura and Naimisharanya temples and places of worships are decorated nicely with flowers and lights.

In Gujarat, the State’s largest and traditional folk fair of Maha Shivratri go in its peek in the foot hills of mount Girnar near Junagarh. A procession of Naga Babas is taken out in the foot-hills of mount Girnar at mid night tonight.

In Madhya Pradesh, the festival of Mahashivratri is being celebrated with religious fervor through out the state. The state is home to two Jyotirlingas, Mahakaleshwar and Onkareshwar.

People observe strict fast on this day and stay awake throughout the night. Thousands of devotees will be visiting the temple of lord Shiva to take the blessings.

Long queues can be seen outside the famous temples of Babulnath and Ambernath in Mumbai.

Thousands of devotees visit the holy cave at Shiv Khori shrine in Reasi district of Jammu. Shiv Khori is the third holy shrine revered by large number of pilgrims after Shri Amarnathji and Mata Vaishno Devi shrines. The three-day Mela is organized by State Tourism Department, in collaboration with Shiv Khori Shrine Board.

Elaborate arrangements are made by the administration to facilitate the yatris during the Mela days.

Legend associated with Shivaratri
According to Hindu mythology, Shivaratri or ‘Shiva’s Great Night’ symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati. Many however, believe, Shivaratri is the night when Lord Shiva performed the Tandava Nritya – the dance of primordial creation, preservation and destruction. Celebrating the festival in a customary manner, devotees give a ritual bath to the Lingam with the panchagavya – milk, sour milk, urine, butter and dung. Celebrations of Shivaratri Festival mainly take place at night. Devotees of Lord Shiva throng Shiva temples across the country and spend ‘the Night of Lord Shiva’ by chanting verses and hymns in praise of the Lord. The festival holds special meaning for the ladies. They pray to Goddess Parvati also called ‘Gaura’, the giver of ‘suhag’ for good husbands, marital bliss and a long and prosperous married life.

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The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund has recommended continuation of an 8.5 per cent interest rate to almost 440 lakh subscribers for fiscal year 2008-2009.

This was decided at a meeting of the newly constituted Board, Chaired by the Labour and Employment Minister Mr Oscar Fernandes in New Delhi on Sunday.

Six major trade unions have registered their protest over the government’s decision to fix the rate of interest at 8.5 per cent. They said, the rate of interest remained the same as last year’s and fell short of 9.5 per cent that was promised by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

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Indian Union Minister for IT and Communication A Raja said in a statement that the government aims to bring mobile number portability in the market by August this year.

Mobile number portability has been massively delayed and is much awaited.

This feature allows mobile users to switch their mobile service providers without changing their old numbers.

Raja said in a statement: “The mobile number portability enabling customers to retain their old number while shifting from one operator to another would be launched in major cities by August this year.”

It is likely to be launched in the major cities in the country by August. It would be further expanded to other markets at a later stage.

A lot of mobile users are stuck with their providers just because they cannot afford to change their numbers. This would be a huge relief for them.

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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India’s leading telecom service provider, the government owned telecom company has launched 3G telecom services in Chennai promising to introduce enhanced features and services including rich voice, data and video services, for the end-users.

The service was launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi making a video call to Union Communications Minister, A Raja.

The company said that it plans to invest Rs 2,700 crore for pan-India 3G services offerings. It plans to introduce the service in 700 cities including important towns and district headquarters.

MTNL has already launched its 3G services in Delhi, Two PSUs, BSNL and MTNL have received 3G spectrum ahead of the private operators who are still awaiting policy guideline clearance from the government before the spectrum auction takes place. The PSUS have atleast 6 months head-start advantage which in all likelihood appears to be extended by few more months.

Earlier 3G mobile services were launched on test basis in Haryana’s Gurgaon and Faridabad areas a few weeks ago.

The 3G platform will enable telephone companies in the country to offer high-end services such as high-speed internet, video conferencing on mobiles, interactive gaming, ultra fast downloads of video and music clips amongst other services. The PM also witnessed for sometime a live telecast of the India-England Test match on a mobile handset using 3G services.

3G makes possible video streaming applications such as Live TV, movie downloads, high speed data download on mobile phones with 3G services enabled.

Callers can also see each other on their mobile phone screens, according to a press release from BSNL.

The new service will offer data speed of 2 Mbps against 144 Kbps available now over the GPRS and EDGE enabled mobile networks.

BSNL is the first mobile company to launch the service in Chennai. Chennai Telephones has installed 25 stations (Node-Bs) in the city for the initial launch and these would be expanded fast.

The Communications Minister said BSNL plans to cover more than 700 cities with 3G services. The mobile network has been expanded making India emerge the second largest mobile telephone market after China.

Over 360 million mobile connections have been provided and this is expected to double by 2012. Teledensity has reached 34 per cent in January 2009 up from 12.74 per cent in 2006.

New initiatives such as bringing down tariff to 40-50 paise a minute, mobile number portability — allowing subscribers to retain their number while changing operators — are in the pipeline.

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Recent study showed that smoking before age 17 increases the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. Research team led by Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore studied data collected from 87 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system, leading to the disability of nerve cells to communicate with each other.

The disease usually presents with sensorial, visual, cerebellar and motor symptoms which often progress to physical and cognitive disability.

The study subjects were divided into three categories:

1. Nonsmokers,
2. Early smokers who started before age 17, and
3. Late smokers who started at 17 or later.

Research team also studied factors like sex, race, age, marital status, education, income level, and region.

Data analysis revealed that 32% of the MS patients were early smokers as compared to 19% of the people who didn’t develop the disease. This means the people who started smoking before age 17 have 2.7 times increased risk multiple sclerosis than nonsmokers.

However people who started smoking at 17 or later have no increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis as compared to nonsmokers.

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Generally a computer is shared at home. There aren’t any separate user logins and all family members use the same browser to surf the Web. Then how can you make sure that other people in the family don’t get to know about the websites you visited last night?

There are couple of options to do this -

1. You can delete your entire Web history (including browser cache) to wipe off all your tracks but this is not the best option since this action will also clear all your frequently accessed web pages from the address bar.
2. The other option is that you selectively remove websites from the history.

In case your browser is Firefox 3.1 then it includes some brilliant features to help you do so.

1. Forget about this site: This option is recommended if you want to erase only a couple of websites from your browser’s history.
2. Press Ctrl+H to access your web history in the Firefox sidebar, type some characters in the search box to find the website(s) that you want to remove, right click and select the “Forget About This Site” option. This option lets you delete the either entire domain (like google.com) or even a sub-domain (like images.google.com) from your browser history.
3. Or just a page: If you like to selectively delete only a couple of web pages from the history (and not the entire website), just right click the web page title in the History box and select “Delete This Page” or hit the Del key on your keyboard.
4. Clear Recent History: If you want to erase all the Web activity in the past hour or so, press Ctrl+Shift+Del in Firefox to open the “Clear Recent History” dialog and select “the last two hours” or “my history for today” option.

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The State Bank of India will be the sole booking agent for Tata Motor’s Nano. It is said that the Bank will make formal announcement in a few days.

It is learnt that initially, the SBI will distribute the prospectus in 100 select branches. The booking is expected to start by the end of this month and the initial amount will be Rs 70,000 per car. The allotment of the first 100 cars will be made through a lucky draw.

Tata Motors is expected to produce 3,000 cars a month in the beginning, while it will accept orders for one lakh cars.

Bank said “The advantage of the SBI being the sole booking agent is that a large number of buyers may become a car loan borrower. We also create a huge database of customers to whom we can cross-sell some of our products later”. The SBI will also offer car loans at an interest of 10 per cent. This offer is valid till May 31 this year.

The bank has also offered an 8 % interest — fixed for one year — on home loans till April 30.

Popularity: 3% [?]