Sep 20, 2009

Tidbits for 20/09/2009

Its a bright sunny Sunday morning and I am in my home today for the entire day..Thankfully no office or Training today. And lets catch up with some interesting Tidbits of Informations.

1. What is "GreenHunt" ?

It is an Operation by COBRA ( Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) against naxalites in the jungles of Chattisgarh.

2. What is the Nanavati Commissions ?

it is the Commision set up to investigate the Post Godhra Riots.

3. Tomorrow is the festival of Eid Ul Fitr , and celebrated all across the world by Muslims with a great amount of fun and gaeity.

So lets see some information about it :

* It is known as Pakistan as Meethi Eid

* Eid is an Arabic word meaning “festivity”, while Fitr means “charity” and so the holiday symbolises the breaking of the fasting period

* The traditional Eid greeting is “Eid Mubarak” followed by an embrace

* In Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Eid is also commonly known as Hari Raya. Hari Raya literally means ‘Day of Celebration’ i.e. ‘The Day’. Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore celebrate Eid like other Muslims throughout the world. It is the biggest holiday in Indonesia and Malaysia and is the most awaited one

Wishing one and all ..Eid Mubarak..


5. Keeping her Railway Budget promise of introducing non-stop air-conditioned ‘Duranto’ trains that would connect metropolitan cities within the shortest possible time, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee flagged off the first Duranto Express between Sealdah and New Delhi here on Friday.

Lets hope that all the Plans made by our Govt get turned into reality in this right way and spirit

Sep 19, 2009

Well well well... What shall I say to this blog..after having forgotten it for the last 24 days. Its very bad on my part.Period.
But nothings over till you give up. So lets get started and get the ball rolling.

1. Which Team is India playing in the Davis Cup for an entry into the Davis Cup World Groups?

Its South Africa, and they are playing at Johannesburg. Somdev and Rohan Boppana had a excellent first day winning both matches. For details, click here.


Hopefully these players can replace Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.

2. Okay, now a bit of trivia. I attended a quiz last weekend and thought to share this with you.

A person called Dennis Hwang, is the only person to be doing it since 2000.
He works in the Company Google and his work is seen by the entire world during famous days like those of festivals , or birhtdays of important persons.

Any guesses?



He is the person who designs the google-doodles on the homepage of google. And has been doing it since the year 2000. What are google doodles, read on here

3. "Cattle Class" has become a commond word now. How. Seems it has been glorified by Shahshi Tharoor - India's Minister of State for External Affairs. Due to the Govt's presumed Austerity measures , he was asked to travel economy class in airlines, when he reffered to them as "cattleclass" .

Keeping in view the condition of the country where a flight travel is a dream for many many people., maybe Tharoor should have restricted himself and not given such inappropriate comments. For an update, click here

Aug 25, 2009

Hi

Lots of things going on around as usual .
The weekend passed off pretty weekly ; it usually does when you are busy.

It was Ganesh Chaturthi on Sunday and was celelebrated with fervour all over India. It is also known as Vinayak Chaturthi, mainly in the Western Parts of the country. It is a festival celebrated publicly with a lot of enthusiasm and by the chants of "Ganpati Baba Maurya" .

England team regained the Ashes series,2009. It was fitting farewell to one of the best modern day cricketers of England : Andrew Flintoff. A charismatic allrounder , he was largely responsible for playing the vital link in many a matches with Australia.
Australia went into a state of "sports" mourning with this loss as Ricky Ponting becomes the 1st Captain in 119 years to lose the Ashes twice under his captaincy. Well as someone said in a newspaper article " Is this the Beginning of the End" ...

In India , the BJP as a party is washing its dirty linen in the public ; after Jaswant Singh, it was Arun Shourie to lash out at the party in the open , accussing the top leadership of running the party as a Private Company. It must to be very sad for Mr Vajpayee to read the papers nowadays.

In the Sports world ( not cricket-world ) ;
Kenenisa Bekele became the first athlete to win the 5,000 and 10,000m crowns at a World championship, something not even the legendary Haile Gebrselassie managed.

Aug 22, 2009

Current Affairs Info : Saturay,22nd 2009

Hi Again

Well the weekend is here ; time to get a break from "office" work and take some "more" time out towards the other work !!

Lots of things happening around in the world of Sports , Politics and Business , and always Current Affairs. I will have a dedicated Sports Section from today , highlighting all that you need to know in the world of Sports. Another info , I am sports fanatic ; be it badminton, cricket , football , I love playing it and also following it .

To start off , what are the different things going on :

World of Cricket :

1. Virender Sehwag has revolted against the DDCA ( Delhi and District Cricket Association) and along with several others like Ishant Sharma , Ashish Nehra have not turned up for training, accusing the DDCA of corruption. Sehwag is reportedly interested to play for Haryana instead in the Ranji trophy

Aha ! ! Can you tell me what are the domestic cricket tournaments help every year in our country. Dont worry , ll tell you everything in short :

Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy was launched as the "Cricket Championship of India" at a meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in July 1934. The first Ranji Trophy fixtures took place in 1934-35 with Bombay walking away with the top honours.

Irany Trophy
The tournament was named after the late Z. R. Irani, who was associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India since its inception in 1928. It is a 5 day match played between the Ranji Champions and the Rest Of India.

Duleep Trophy
The Duleep Trophy, named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinghji, was launched by the BCCI to espouse more competition in the Indian cricket arena. The tournament was proposed to help the national selectors in assessing the form of the cricketers.

Deodhar Trophy
The Deodhar Trophy was started in the 1973-74 as a one-day equivalent of the Ranji Tournament. It is named after the grand old man of Indian Cricket - the Late Prof. D. B. Deodhar. It is played between the five Indian cricket zones- the North, South, East, West and Central Zone.

Challenger Trophy
The Challenger trophy began in India 1994-95. In 1998-99, it was renamed to as N. K. P. Salve Challenger Trophy in honor of N. K. P. Salve, the person who was instrumental in bringing the World Cup to the country in 1987. It is played between the Indian national team along with two other teams India A and India B consisting of the most promising Indian cricketers at domestic level.

Cricket you see is a Religion in a country like ours ! ! ! Dont worry I am not going to go on and on about these tournaments, as it can be very lenghty and I will bore you then :).

Well some recent cricket important cricket matches going on :

England and Australia are facing each other in the Ashes , 2009. It is termed as one of the greatest rivalries in the world of Cricket. Click here if you want to know more ! !

Some Sports Personalities in news !! !


  • Kumar Sangakkara ( Cricket , Sri-Lanka ) : World's no 1 Test Batsman ranked by International Cricket Council ( ICC )
  • Arjun Balu : National Rally Driver
  • Usain Bolt : He also claimed the World 200 mtrs athletics Championships beating the previous record of Michael Johnson .
  • Stuard Board ( Cricket , England )
  • Blanka Vlasic ( Athletics , High Jump ; Russia )
  • Sebastian Vettel : Formula One Driver
Talking about Formula One, do you know the drivers of the ForceIndia team ( owned by the charismatic Vijay Mallya ) ?

They are Giancarlo Fiscicella and Adrian Sutil . And guess who is the test driver ? Vitantonio Liuzzi......are you bit amazed , I was also hoping to see the name of Narain Karthikeyan somewhere in that list .

Now time for some Currentl Affairs :


  • The Haryana State Assembly has been dissolved by the Governor Jagannath Pahadia on recommendation from the Chief Minister , Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the cabinet.
  • Who is the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India , he is Montek Singh Ahluwalia . Okay ..now why am I asking about the Deputy Chairman , who is the Chairman of Planning Commission ? it is always the Prime Minister of the Country.
  • See this link : India to give Rs 2,000 cr assistance to Nepal. Click here

Well thats for the day, more coming on its way ! !

Bye
















Aug 19, 2009

Tidbits for the day:19/08/2008

Writing a blog regularly is a tough job when you consider the hectic schedules we are all exposed to . Dont think that I want you to have pity on me for that, its just a fact that I am stating right now. Nothing more, nothing less.

I do not the know the person who said "A busy person has the time for Everything" , but if he was able to do everything , hats off to that person.

Once had read a newspaper article about Khushwant Singh about his daily set of magazines and newspapers ; but I seriously feel its a luxury to read them . With the kind of days we have at times, just feel at times if we are just trying to do too many things in too short a time. Or maybe not ! ! ! Tough to thing to decide as these are all very very personal things.

Well , this world is an unforgiving one , after we saw what happened to Jaswant Singh, just because of his book on Jinnah , he is being expelled from BJP. For a pretty good article on it , click here.

Liked this comment from him " I am worried and sad that just one book has led to my expulsion," he added, wondering what would happen if "soch, vichar and chintan" (thinking and introspection) stopped in Indian politics.

Rightly said , I think that every person has the right to express his opinions and taking such a action is totally undemocratic on part of the party itself ..

Assam and its neighbouring states were rocked by a EarthQuake today .The quake which measured 4.9 in the Richter scale was experienced at around 4.15 pm, the Regional Seismological Laboratory in Shillong reported

Some background of EarthQuakes

Two earth quake measuring scales are Richter and Mercalli scale. The magnitude of most earthquakes is measured on the Richter scale, invented by Charles F. Richter in 1934. The Richter magnitude is calculated from the amplitude of the largest seismic wave recorded for the earthquake, no matter what type of wave was the strongest. For more details , you can read here. It is a good read for people learning Geography or taking it as an Exam Optionals.

On Sports and Business side also , many developments are happening !! !.. The updates are coming shortly.

Bye for now everyone ! !!

Tidbits of Information: 18/08/2009

1. Usain Bolt removed 0.11 seconds from the 100 mtrs dash in the World Athletics Championship in Berlin . Question : which country does he belong to ?

Jamaica

2. Another sitter for the day ; Who is India's current Home Minister ?

P. Chidambaram

3. US PGA Golf Tournaments , recently an Asian player defeated Tiger Woods in the final round and emerged as the 1st Asian Champion in a US PGA Major Golf Tournament . Who ?

South Korea's Yang Yong-Eun

4. Amidst lot of violence and chaos , Presidential Elections will be held in Afghanistan tomorrow .

5. NCPUL : National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language

6. MAKS 2009 ; What am I referring to ?

It is the international air show going on in Russia where the latest in technology will be showcased and displayed.

Aug 17, 2009

Tidbits : 17/08/2009

1. Which are the countries celebrating Independence day on 15th Aug every year ?


Korea ( North K and South K ) year 1945 ; Democratic Republic of Congo ( year 1961 ) ; Bahrain : 1971


2. On 14th Aug this year , Pakistan celebrated their Independence day ; it conferred to Sitare -e-Imitaz to 17 foreign nationals including an Indian. Who received it ?


Parliamentarian Nirmala Deshpande , a passionate advocate for India Pakistan relationships received the award posthumously.



3. "CIL , SAIL Chief conferred SCOPE Award" . what is being referred to here ?


SCOPE - Standing Committee on Public Enterprises


CIL - Coal India Limited , conferred as an organisation


SAIL Chairman , Mr S.K. Roongta was conferred the award in individual category.


4. Boat Clinics "AKHA" offerring ray of hope in remote islands of the Brahmaputra. More Details ?


These are mobile boat clinics started in the remote islands of the Brahmaputra , which provides health-care facilities to people in these remote areas. They were started by an NGO , C-NES ( Centre of North East Studies and Policy Research ) and entered into a Private-Public partnership with NHRM ( National Rural Health Mission ) . For the full article click here


Feels good personally that people even today are working hard for the welfare of people living in downtrodden areas giving up many a luxury themselves.


4. Sonia Sotomayor was currently in news. Why ?


She is the 1st Hispanic judge into the US Supreme Court and the 3rd female judge.



Coming more on your way today ! ! ! !


Till then enjoy and take care








Aug 15, 2009

tidbits of Information : 15/08/2009

1. Who was India's first Home Minister . Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who played a major role in integrating the entire nation.

2. Who is India's Food and Agriculture Minister now ? Sharad Pawar

3. Recently a news item published - GoM to go into aviation fuel prices .
What does GoM stand for ? GoM - Group Of Ministers

4. BCCI is fighting against the WADA . What is WADA and where is the point of controversy in it ? WADA is World Anti Doping Agency and BCCI has raised the question of the "whereabouts" clause to the Attorney General of India now.

5. UNCIRF - what does it stand for ? United Nations Commission on International Religious Freedom. They have kept India under the "watch list" for not promoting religious and communal harmony and urged the Central Govt to take further steps in this regard.

6. Recently India signed a FTA ( Free Trade Agreement ) with ASEAN ( Association of South East Asian Nations ) , in Bangkok.

For the countries under ASEAN , see this link


Want to read something about Swine Flu , read this article from Hindu , click here . Absolutely brilliant ! !

Till the next time ...bbyee

The Hindu paper ...

Nowadays am reading into a lot of articles in the Hindu Newspaper ( started it recently , unable to tolerate the Times Of India , which has deteriorated like anything in the last one year ) . I have had enough of those last page pictures ! ! !

Every day in the Hindu paper , in the middle section , there are absolutely wonderful articles. Let me give you example of one .

There was an article on National Security . it said that India as a country is now buying defence stuff etc from foreign countries and spending huge amount of money on it . Mainly to protect us and our borders from any outside threat.

But the author of that article , pointed out quite a different picture for "terror" . Today India gets all its seeds for production of food grains from outside. So we are totally dependent on them for our food supplies , so assume that they stop supply to us.

Is our Govt able to ensure self sufficiency in the country in respect of food.

Inspite of large scale development in cities and metros, we still have people in our very own country who die out of starvation as they cannot fulfill one of the very basic and fundamental necessities of Human Life ..ie Food.

Agriculture is the backbone of the large number of people in this country, but still we are heavily dependent on rain , why ? Have you ever heard of a Drought in places like Australia , US. I guess never.

Our Govt gave Loan waiver to many farmers in Maharashtra and Vidarbha region , but was the problem actually solved. Or was it a election gimmick. They will fall into debts again , commit suicides , few horrifying pictures will come up , and the cycle repeats. Govt invested its money once before the elections and nothing now.

Quota system - In another 10 years , the application forms for any examination will ask - are you a General candidate or not ? Instead of starting economic/financial status based reservation , the Govt is calmly playing the vote bank politics. It is like giving more and more fish to the persons and never teaching them "fishing" .

Our country with its vast population and different degrees of population is on the verge of a civil revolution if the attitude of the Govt is not changing in some very very basic areas like agriculture , food production , removal of poverty etc.

I think that there is a more major threat in this country brewing inside and waiting to Explode ! ! !!! Its high time Govt takes note of it . It is true that the problems are many , and maybe we have to take up the mantle to fight it .

Happy Independence day !! ! today is our country's 52nd year of independence. Surely our freedom fighters could not have imagined the condition of India as it is now , 50 years ago.

Apr 17, 2009

Elections started in India yesterday.
Lots of candidates and an enormous country exercising its right to franchise.
Do we really care what is going on in our country, I feel at times. Are we really patriotic enough towards our country or just limited to the discussions ( in offices and homes ) , once the political fever reaches its high and you can see pamphlets and political leaders everywhere, the same ones whom you never knew even existed. I wonder whether its even worth writing bout this, but this thought suddenly hits me at times like a bolt from the blue.

One friend of mine ( working in Microsoft ) used to tell me that they ask very tough problems to candidates in job interviews. But he says the toughest question is never asked ? How to manage India ? Sounds absurd to you, you may say , what a question this is ...

but do have a thought about it .....hmm..

doesnt it feel good when India won the t20 world cup, when our country achieves somethings which we are all proud of..the feeling of being elated. .. unfortunately we are ready to enjoy when its "all shining " and not during the other times..maybe it characterizes everything.
Reading today's times of India, 1st page...it was a pretty ironoc statement : The urban might is not interested to vote , they will be saying "We are having a nice life , thank you...and I have some better things to do "

The question is can this change ? Are we really passionate about certain things ! ! or is it just me , myself and that is all as have ! ! !