India has no plans to attack Pakistan: Defence Minister

DEFENSIVE TALK? India’s Defence minister A K Antony has demanded sincere action by Pakistan against the terrorists.

India on Dec 16, 2008 said it is not planning any military action against Pakistan but stressed that the neighbouring country will have to take action against terrorists there for the relations to improve.

“We are not planning any military action but at the same time unless Pakistan takes actions against those terrorists who are operating from their soil against India and also against all those who are behind the Mumbai terrorist attack, things will not be normal,” Defence Minister A K Antony said.

He was talking to reporters on occasion of Vijay Diwas marking the 37th anniversary of India’s military victory on Dec 16, 2008 over Pakistan in the Bangladesh liberation war.

On the issue of troop deployment along the Indo-Pak border, Antony said the situation there was “normal” and armed forces were “always ready”.

“Everything is normal because our forces are always ready,” the Minister said.

The Minister denied that India was planning to call off the more than five-year-old ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC).

“Nothing like that,” he stated when asked if India had any plans to call off the ceasefire with Pakistan.

Refusing to divulge India’s course of action in the present scenario, Antony demanded sincere action by Pakistan against the terrorists.

“I cannot say what course of action we will take but unless Pakistan shows sincerity in whatever they are saying through their actions, one thing is very sure that there is no question of things as usual,” he said.

The chiefs of Navy, Army and Air Force — Admiral Sureesh Mehta, General Deepak Kapoor and Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major — also attended the Vijay Diwas function.

Bush warns Pakistan to fight terror or a face-off

GET IT CLEAR: Bush has said US will not be held to ransom by terror outfits

With India reaching out to the world community in the wake of Mumbai attacks, the US, Germany and Britain are sending their ministers and functionaries to India to discuss the developing situation.

Washington too is keeping the pressure up.

US President Bush made a statement saying even governments sponsoring terrorism will be held responsible.

“We’ve made it clear to Pakistan that we must do whatever to protect American people. Governments sponsoring terror are as guilty as the terrorists and will be held to account,” warned America’s President who will soon be making way for president-elect Barack Obama to take over.

The US reiterated that countries should deny safe haven to terrorists.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice too came down hard on the terror outfits and their nefarious designs.

Rice had said that those who want to disrupt good relations between India and Pakistan were at root, and that these non-state actors clearly used Pakistani territory. Rice continued to tell the CBS radio in the interview that there is reason for Pakistan to take up responsibility to act.

Ten Greatest Leaders of the World

Winston Churchill

Churchill arrives at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to attend thanksgiving services for the May 1945 World War II victory in Europe.
The master statesman stood alone against fascism and renewed the world’s faith in the superiority of democracy

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a muslim politician and leader of the All India Muslim League who founded Pakistan and served as its first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (“Great Leader”) he envisioned a secular state for Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi at home next to a spinning wheel, which looms in the foreground as a symbol of India’s struggle for independence. His philosophy of nonviolence and his passion for independence began a drive for freedom that doomed colonialism

Adolf Hitler

Hitler gestures during a speech in May 1937
The avatar of fascism posed the century’s greatest threat to democracy and redefined the meaning of evil forever

Martin Luther King

King announces on April 25, 1967, that he would not be a candidate for the president of the United States
He led a mass struggle for racial equality that doomed segregation and changed America forever

Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini

Khomeini in 1979 returning to Tehran, Iran
Brazenly defying the West, he revived Islam’s faithful and authored a new form of religious government. The prescriptions were often chilling

V.I. Lenin

Lenin in 1918, the year he split with the Left Social Revolutionaries and renamed the Bolsheviks the Russian Communist Party
Driven by ideological zeal, he reshaped Russia and made communism into a potent global force

Nelson Mandela

Mandela was a TIME Man of the Year in 1993
As the world’s most famous prisoner and, now, his country’s leader, he exemplifies a moral integrity that shines far beyond South Africa

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II waves to pilgrims in September 1989
The most tireless moral voice of a secular age, he reminded humankind of the worth of individuals in the modern world

Ho Chi Minh

Founder and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Communist North.

He married nationalism to communism and perfected the deadly art of guerrilla warfare

Infosys to freeze hiring, says signs aren’t good

COMPANY FORECAST: S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys, speaks at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

Infosys Technologies Ltd will freeze recruitment after meeting this fiscal year’s target of hiring 25,000 staff, a telling sign the global downturn is hitting India’s $52 billion outsourcing sector.

The country’s second largest software services firm however has no plans to cut jobs and is sticking with its third quarter outlook, CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan told reporters.

He said the outsourcing sector’s growth rate would halve next year as some customers delay orders. “Last year the IT industry grew more than 30 per cent, this year it is looking at somewhere in the region of 15 per cent,” Gopalakrishnan said.

India’s export-driven IT sector, used to a scorching pace of growth, has been hit by the financial crisis and recession in the United States, which contributes more than half their revenue. In the last few years, the outsourcing industry has created tens of thousands of jobs, mainly attracting young workers, as global companies look to trim labour costs.

Infosys hired 16,000-17,000 employees in the first half of the fiscal year that began in April and would honour commitments to 6,000 under training, Gopalakrishnan said. Infosys, which counts Goldman Sachs and Philips Electronics among its clients, cut its full-year dollar revenue outlook in October due to the worsening global downturn.

Gopalakrishnan said on Dec 04, 2008 the company would freeze fresh recruitment, apart from meeting specific skill needs. “We will have to look at controlling our cost, controlling our expenses making sure that we run an optimised business. We will have to look at what are things we need to do in order to prepare ourselves for the recovery.” “Growth is coming more and more from emerging markets so hese are the things we need to prepare ourselves. We should not lose momentum in this slowdown,” he said.

But Infosys still expects its strong client base and a weakening rupee to help it meet a forecast for December quarter earnings of $0.57 a share. The Indian rupee has fallen nearly six per cent so far this quarter against the dollar.

“Infosys is seeing further degradation of the demand environment, with headwinds from leadership changes at customers, a shrinking large deal pipeline …. Pricing pressure has emerged,” CLSA Asia-Pacific said in a report this week.

Indian Airports on high alert after hijack warning

TENSION IN THE AIR: Airports in small cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh and Guwahati are at maximum risk.

Security has been tightened at all airports following an intelligence warning.

According to intelligence agencies, there is a possibility of an Indian airplane being hijacked small airports where security checks are less stringent.

Airports in small cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nashik and Guwahati are at maximum risk.

Intelligence agencies have alerted small airports and air marshals are being sent to sensitive sectors.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security is carrying out checks across the country. Earlier, there were rumours of a bag being found at Mumbai airport but those were found to be false.

According to some media reports, Deccan Mujahidden, a little-known organisation that claimed responsibility for Mumbai attacks, has sent an e-mail threatening to attack three Indian airports.

Intelligence agencies believe that the Deccan Mujahideen is a front created by LeT for it’s Mumbai strikes.

Barack Obama nominates Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State

US President-elect Barack Obama on Dec 01, 2008 named former Democrat rival Senator Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State in his incoming administration and retained Robert Gates as the Defence Secretary.

The team of Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden also officially announced other key members of their cabinet, nominating Eric Holder as Attorney General, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Susan Rice as Ambassador to the United Nations and General Jim Jones as the new National Security Adviser.

“In this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning – a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges,” Obama said in a statement issued by his transition team.

To succeed, a new strategy should be pursued that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power — military and diplomacy, intelligence and law enforcement, economy and the power of “our moral example,” the country’s first African-American President said.

“The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that. They share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world,” Obama, who will be taking office as the 44th US President on January 20, 2009, said.

Indian Flag in moon, Chandrayaan-1 probe sends first signal

CONQUERING MOON: Ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam and ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair hold a model of the moon.

The moon is 3,84,400 km away from earth and on Nov 14, 2008, India became the fourth nation to have its flag flying on the moon’s surface when Chandrayaan-1’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP), with the Tricolour painted on it, touched down.

The 35-kg payload crash-landed on the lunar surface at around 2030 hrs IST. The MIP has started sending its first signals to Chandrayaan-1.

It also contains equipment which will help scientists design a lunar land rover for the upcoming Chandrayaan-2 mission.

The MIP is slightly smaller than an average TV cabinet. Inside the MIP there is a device to constantly check it’s height as it falls. Another device checks what the air on the moon is made of. There is even a video camera to photograph the moon from close range.

The photographs taken by the MIP will help Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) decide where to land India’s first moon rover, a few years from now.

The MIP also has the Indian flag painted on it’s sides and a Sanskrit verse which means “

The MIP disconnected from Chandrayaan-1 100 km above the moon. As it fell, it kept sending information back to the satellite.

Closer to the surface, rockets were fired, to slow down it’s speed and soften the impact on landing.

After half an hour of free fall, the MIP crash-landed on the south pole of moon.

The idea to send a MIP was first mooted by former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

If it weren’t for him, Chandrayaan-1 would only have orbited the moon.

Obama finally calls Manmohan Singh, discusses Indo-US ties

TIME FOR INDIA: Obama has already spoken to 15 world leaders, including the Pakistani President.

US president-elect Barack Obama called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday morning and discussed the Indo-US relationship.

Obama reportedly told Singh that the two countries can work together in many area.

“We need to give strength to Indo-US relations. The Indo-US strategic ties are very important,” Obama told Singh.

PMO sources said Singh congratulated Obama on his historic victory and said his success would be an inspiration for the oppressed people all over the world.

The Prime Minister also said that the relationship between India and the US was “very good” but “we should not be satisfied with the status quo”.

Singh conveyed his best wishes for the success of the Obama administration in meeting challenges that face the world.

The Prime Minister also invited Obama and his wife Mitchelle to visit India, the sources said.

Obama praised Singh’s contribution to the progress of India as Finance Minister earlier and the Prime Minister now.

Obama had reportedly called Singh on Saturday too but the Prime Minister could not take the telephone call from the US president-elect as he was travelling.

“I got a call on Saturday but could not take it as I was travelling,” Manmohan Singh had said on Monday on board his special aircraft while returning home from a two-nation visit to the Gulf.

Obama has already spoken to 15 world leaders, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, after his election.