Windows Phone 7 has a lot [...]]]> Microsoft introduced its next generation Mobile OS ‘Windows Phone 7’ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Analysts say that Windows Phone 7 is going to give a tough competition to iPhone. Windows Phone 7 is said to be Microsoft’s next attempt to take hold of the rapidly-growing mobile market.

Windows Phone 7 has a lot of features but it is facing criticism by analysts for missing out on certain must have features. One of the most missed features in Windows Phone 7 is cut-copy-paste.  The present version of Windows Mobile supports it but Windows Phone 7 doesn’t support this feature.

Another lacking is the Flash support. Just like iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have Flash support. Currently to render multimedia Windows Phone 7 uses Microsoft’s Silverlight, the web application framework that provides functionalities similar to Adobe Flash.

User will not be able to boost memory capacity or swap memory cards as Windows Phone 7 does not support it.

Also lacking is the upgradation support which means most of the phones that currently support Microsoft Mobile OS will not be able to upgrade.

The lab in Chennai, India, will work with local universities to develop document-management services for rising [...]]]> Xerox Corp is all set to open its research lab in India. Xerox is one of the largest makers of high-speed colour printers. This is the first lab Xerox is opening in a developing market to expand its services division.

The lab in Chennai, India, will work with local universities to develop document-management services for rising markets. Xerox has two research centres in the US and one each in Canada and France.

The move gives Xerox a footing in India where the economy expanded more than 6 per cent last year, while the economy contracted in the US, where Xerox gets more than half its revenue.

Xerox gained 7 cents to $10.09 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It had climbed 19 per cent this year before.

China has told Google that [...]]]> There is another turn in the China and Google dispute with China warning Google to obey its rules or face its consequences. This has given the indication that the dispute is not going to end in the near future with China not going for a negotiation in the dispute over hacking.

China has told Google that Google can always keep operating in China and expand its business there but it will have to obey China’s rules and regulations or else face the consequences.

Li Yizhong, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information technology said “It is irresponsible and unfriendly if Google insists in doing something that goes against China’s laws and regulations, and it will have to bear the consequence for doing so. Whether to withdraw from China or continue to stay is up to them”.

China has adopted this stance after Google yesterday emphasized that it was determined in its stand not to allow censorship of its web content in China.

“If Google decides to stay in China, we welcome and it will help boost the development of the country’s Internet industry,” Yizhong said.

One of its graduate has got a record $350,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) offer from a global investment bank based in South East Asia and two more have been offered packages of over Rs 1 [...]]]> In this year’s campus placements Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) has ranked first in the choice of recruiters with unsurpassed salary offers.

One of its graduate has got a record $350,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) offer from a global investment bank based in South East Asia and two more have been offered packages of over Rs 1 crore.

Also IIM C got the highest offers among all IIMs on Day 1 and 2 of placement. IIM-Bangalore got the second place and IIM-Ahmedabad came third during the first two days of placements based on the newly introduced ‘cohort system’.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have decided to change their process of campus recruitment. The basic difference is that now the campus recruitment will be conducted over a month or more instead of conducting it over a week, as done earlier. This was done because last year there were many students who did not find jobs in the placement week because of the ongoing economic crisis.

Earlier the IIMs used to follow the Day Zero, Day 1, Day 2….concept. The most in-demand companies were called on Day Zero and so on. The new system to be adopted by IIMs from this year will have companies coming in cohorts based on role similarity. For example all the IT companies will land in one weekend, the financial companies in the next and so on. This way, different clusters of cohorts will come for two days on the campus. This process will go on for one or two months instead of six to seven days.

The IIM-C placement process started on Saturday, with big companies offering the best pay packetstgy. UBS, the Swiss investment bank, hired solely from IIM-C. Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, recruited the largest number of its recruits from IIM-C. Oliver Wyman, a US-based consulting firm, also hired IIM-C students for its offices in New York, London, Singapore and Dubai.

Parties like RJD, SP etc who are dead against the [...]]]> After Rajya Sabha passed the historic Women’s reservation bill ensuring 33% reservation for women, the bill now goes to the Lok Sabha. There is no deadline, it depends on the government how much time it wants to take to travel from one House to the other.

Parties like RJD, SP etc who are dead against the bill are going to give this bill a tough fight in the Lok Sabha. There are clear indications that SP and RJD’s resolute resistance and their threat to withdraw support in case Congress went ahead with the bill had triggered a re-think among Congress party leaders, with many wondering whether the bill was worth exposing the government to life-threatening situations in a budget session. The UPA government may not want to risk taking the bill up in the Lok Sabha before the passage of the finance bill. If the Lok Sabha passes the bill, a notification will be issued and the act will come into force immediately. The act will be in force initially for 15 years. It can be extended by fresh enactment in Parliament.

Almost 100 countries ensure women representation in national legislative bodies through various kind of quota. Some 20 countries don’t have [...]]]> Women’s reservation bill is making headlines these days with Congress trying its best to get it passed in the Parliament on International Women’s Day. So what’s this bill all about? This blog tries to find out:

Almost 100 countries ensure women representation in national legislative bodies through various kind of quota. Some 20 countries don’t have any such system at all, India being one of them. The women reservation bill seeks to reserve for women a third, or 33 per cent, of the seats in the Lok Sabha and all state Assemblies. This bill does not reserve seats of Rajya Sabha or the state legislative councils whose members are elected indirectly. After this bill is passed a total of 182 seats in the Lok Sabha will be reserved for women out of 545 seats. Right now only 59 seats in Lok Sabha are represented by women.  Of the 182 reserved seats, 42 approx 22 percent, will be reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women keeping with the current policy of reserving 22 per cent Lok Sabha seats for SCs and STs. The Assemblies too will have a sub-quota for SC/ST women within the women’s quota. This means, of course, that nearly 30 per cent of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats will now practically be reserved for the SC/STs. This makes the total quota percent to fifty five, 33 per cent for women plus the existing 22 per cent for SC/STs. These reserved seats will be selected by rotation and selected by an authority prescribed by Parliament.

Delhi ranks first on parameters like population density, safety, transport, education, [...]]]> According to a ‘Liveability Index’ released by CII on the basis of a survey Delhi won over metros like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata; NCR towns Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad; and even planned cities like Chandigarh to be voted the best city to live in.

Delhi ranks first on parameters like population density, safety, transport, education, job opportunities and accidents. The only parameter in which it is lagging behind is healthcare, where the city is ranked 17th.

Among NCR cities, Gurgaon ranks ninth in the list due to lack of job opportunities, high crime, and unsafe roads and public transport. Noida ranks 27th due to poor healthcare, crime rate, no public transport and high rate of accidents.

‘Liveability Index’ released by the Confederation of Indian Industry, stated that the worst city in NCR is Faridabad with a rank of 32. The city needs upgradation of employment opportunities, public transport, roads, migration and healthcare.

Cities like Indore, Pune, Chandigarh, Goa, Bangalore, Jaipur and Faridabad rank at 37, 35, 34, 33, 32, 29 and 28, respectively.

After Delhi, the next best cities to live in, according to the survey, are Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, in that order. The bottom rankers in the index are Jamshedpur (ranked 37th), Visakhapatnam (36th), Patna (35th), Lucknow (34th) and Ludhiana (33rd).

They aim at social networking website and online banking users and transfer login ids and passwords to cyber criminals. ‘Koobface’, between August [...]]]> Protect yourself against ‘Koobface worm’, ‘Clampi’, ‘URLzone’ and the ‘Zeus’ Trojans that get installed in your computer stealing your login ids and passwords. These Trojans continue to outwit network security experts around the world.

They aim at social networking website and online banking users and transfer login ids and passwords to cyber criminals. ‘Koobface’, between August 2008 and December last year, has infected 3.1 million computers and continues to remain undetected by normal users.

This Trojan kicks off the process by posing as email alerts from a Facebook friend that sends messages to all Facebook user friends asking them to wire money as you are trapped in a foreign country.

The Zeus Trojan infects computers via email phishing attacks or by ‘drive-by downloads’. Along with Clampi, it steals online account credentials with a focus on bank accounts.

Zeus is estimated to have infected 3.6 million computers as of October 2009. Zeus malware sneakily sits in the computer and records logging in accounts and passes it on to the scamster.

Another banking Trojan URLZone, which can not be detected by normal users is an rising threat. When the criminal using the Trojan makes a transfer from a victim’s bank account, the Trojan can alter the online bank statement to camouflage the fact that an illegal transfer has occurred. Victims who check their bank accounts online, instead of reading paper statements, will not recognize their money has been stolen.