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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Junior dos Santos Discusses Recent Knee Surgery, UFC 141 Main Event
LAS VEGAS -- Watch below as UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos discusses his recent knee surgery, when he expects to fight again, how his life has changed since winning the heavyweight title last month, and his pick for Friday night's UFC 141 main event.
Friday, December 30, 2011
India anti-corruption law doesn't clear Parliament
NEW DELHI -- India's Parliament was unable to pass an anti-corruption bill that had been cleared by the powerful lower house earlier this week, leaving the controversial legislation in limbo.
The upper house debated the bill for more than 13 hours Thursday before adjourning at midnight without clearing it, indefinitely delaying potential passage of the government's "Lokpal," or watchdog, bill.
The lower house passed the anti-graft bill Tuesday after hours of fierce debate with several amendments suggested by opposition lawmakers. The bill becomes a law after both houses of Parliament pass it and send it to the president for her signature.
Parliament will reconvene early next year, though the date is unclear. It must reconvene by March to pass the budget for the next year.
Like the lower house, the upper house saw impassioned, often angry debate, with opposition parties calling the bill weak and ineffective. The government's own allies also had issues with a section of the proposed legislation that allowed the central government to create an anti-corruption ombudsman for the states, who they said should be free to enact their own anti-corruption legislation.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a member of the ruling Congress party, accused the opposition of not making any constructive suggestions regarding the law, but "opposing for the sake of opposing."
The legislative showdown was the culmination of months of charged political debate and public protests that brought tens of thousands of middle-class Indians fed up with rampant corruption into the streets and put a scandal-plagued government on the defensive.
Hoping to defuse activist Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade, the government initiated debate Tuesday on a bill to create an anti-graft watchdog. But that failed to satisfy Hazare, who began a three-day hunger strike in Mumbai on Tuesday demanding the proposed ombudsman be made more powerful.
Hazare ended his fast Wednesday, a day earlier than planned, citing poor health, but he has vowed to keep fighting to ensure that Parliament passes his stringent version of the legislation.
He said his supporters would travel across the country to campaign against the political parties that did not support his proposals.
Hazare's main complaint with the anti-graft bill before Parliament is that the proposed corruption ombudsman would not have authority over the country's top investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. He says the ombudsman position would be too weak without that authority.
The legislation covers senior politicians and officials. The prime minister's office is under its purview, but with restrictions. But it gives the ombudsman no powers to conduct independent investigations into complaints of corruption.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/29/2566346/india-anti-corruption-law-doesnt.html
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
India tycoon's got tons of cash, nowhere to invest
In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
MUMBAI, India (AP) ? Ajay Piramal is sitting on a mountain of cash. Yet the billionaire Indian tycoon, working in one of the world's fastest growing economies, is struggling to figure out what to do with the money.
The problem isn't opportunity, he said. It's India.
"Every large investment, there was no transparency," Piramal said.
His dilemma is a worrying sign for India. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere.
In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal, a tall big man in a country that still measures prosperity by girth, was eager to set that cash pile to work. He wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years.
"The same plant could be set up in China in two years," he said. "I love India, but my customer is not going to wait."
India, still a beacon of relatively fast growth despite a troubled world economy, should be a magnet for capital. Instead, since the beginning of 2010, the amount that Indians have invested in businesses overseas has exceeded the amount foreigners are investing in India, according to central bank figures.
In part this reflects the confidence and aptitude of India's maturing companies and the current malaise in the global economy and financial markets. But it also reflects deep problems at home. India's big coporations may be cash rich but the failure to invest that money domestically is bad news for a developing country that needs capital to build the roads, power plants and food warehouses that could help lift hundreds of millions out of dire poverty.
The frustration of India's business elite with corruption, political paralysis, log-jammed approvals, regulatory flip-flops, lack of access to natural resources and land acquisition battles ? to pick a few of the top complaints ? has reached a pitch perhaps not heard since India began liberalizing its economy in the early 1990s.
"If you are an honest businessman in India, it's very difficult to start up anything," said Jamshyd Godrej, chairman of manufacturing giant Godrej & Boyce. "Companies are going to operate where they see the best opportunities and efficiency for their capital."
Increasingly, that's outside India.
In 2008, foreigners poured roughly twice as much direct investment into India ? $33 billion ? as Indians plowed into businesses overseas. By 2010, that had reversed: Indians invested $40 billion abroad ? twice as much as foreigners invested in India ? a trend that's continued this year.
There is another, unspoken element to all the complaints. To the extent that business in India ran on corruption, some of the old, dirty ways of doing things are being disrupted, freezing India's already glacial bureaucracy, business leaders say.
Scandals in the staging of the Commonwealth Games, the pilfering of homes meant for war widows and the irregular auction of cellphone spectrum that cost the country billions has sent parliamentarians and even a Cabinet minister to prison.
With Indians tiring of the incessant graft, tens of thousands of middle-class protesters poured into the streets and pushed an anti-corruption bill onto the floor of Parliament.
Steelmakers can't get enough iron ore because a massive mining scandal in the southern state of Karnataka prompted a court to order the closure of illicit mines that account for a fifth of iron ore production in the country.
The bureaucrats ? even the honest ones ? are reportedly so scared of being punished they are refusing to make the decisions needed to make the country run.
Piramal is not unpatriotic. Each room in his executive suite is named after an Indian epic hero: Arjuna, the most pure; Dhananjay, acquirer and master of wealth. There's a quote from the Upanishads scriptures on the wall.
His office sits in a one million square foot office park in Mumbai his family built. The buildings around him ? white with blue glass that flashes back the unforgiving sun ? bear his own name in large black letters: Piramal Towers.
Piramal had the will and the means to build power plants and roads.
Instead, his Piramal Group's largest investment to date has been in one of the office park's tenants: the Indian subsidiary of the British telecom giant Vodafone Plc.
Last September, when he got the first payout, of $2.2 billion, from Abbott, the phone started ringing.
"Because people knew we had money, we had so many people approaching us for projects in the infrastructure sector," he said. "These people had no experience and no knowledge and no track record of having built a business in any area. And yet they were coming to us saying we have licenses and approvals. That just didn't sound right or smell right."
Each day, they paraded through his office: The investment banker who decided to build a 500 megawatt power plant, the coal trader assured of a government coal allocation, small-time miners with pretty presentations promising land, licenses and financing.
"They'd name politicians from the center and the state who had it all tied up for them," he said. "It didn't sound right. Obviously there were things going on in the system."
Road and port projects weren't much better, he said.
Piramal also looked at investing in engineering and infrastructure services companies, but couldn't make sense of their books.
"We couldn't find anything," he said. "People get greedy. In their desire to get good valuations they resort to, if I can say, creative accounting."
Today, India's infrastructure companies are known as great wealth destroyers.
"Infrastructure investment has become untouchable, a sure way of losing money," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Global Securities. He calculates that four of India's top infrastructure companies ? GMR Infrastructure, GVK Power and Infrastructure, Lanco Infratech and Punj Lloyd ? have lost over 80 percent of their value since 2007. A fifth, Larson & Toubro is down 50 percent.
Piramal may have dodged a bullet, but shareholders in Piramal Healthcare aren't happy. Despite a $600 million special dividend and share buyback, the share price has sagged since the Abbott deal was announced on May 21 last year. They'd like to see the Abbott cash productively deployed. Instead, much of it is sitting in fixed deposit accounts.
Piramal said he really does want to run a pharmaceutical company and be the first Indian company to discover a world-class drug ? despite his dabbling in telecom, financial services and real estate financing. It's just that pharma can't absorb all his cash. He plans to sell the 5.5 percent stake he picked up in Vodafone Essar for $640 million in a few years, when Vodafone Essar issues shares in an initial public offering, he said.
He has also launched Piramal Capital, to make real estate and infrastructure loans, and spent about $50 million to acquire IndiaReit, a real estate investment company.
Meanwhile, his thoughts have turned to Boston, where he set up IndUS Growth Partners with a professor from Harvard Business School to look for buying opportunities in the U.S., in security, financial services and biotechnology. And he said he's still planning to spend over a billion dollars on biotechnology acquisitions in North America and Europe.
"India was going more towards capitalism than socialism," Piramal said. "I think we're going back. Capitalism went to too much excess. Corruption levels went to the extreme."
He said he'll announce his first overseas acquisition by March.
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Company Sues Former Employee for Value of 17,000 Twitter Followers [VIDEO]
Noah Kravitz left his former employer PhoneDog in October 2010 on good terms. Now the company is suing him for $340,000 for the 17,000 followers he kept after he left the the position, valuing each follower at $2.50 per month over a period of eight months.
Kravitz told the New York Times that PhoneDog told him he could keep his followers, as long as he continued to Tweet about the company.
Do you think people should be able to maintain their Twitter accounts they?ve used professionally once they leave a position? How much do you think a Twitter follower is worth?
Source: http://mashable.com/2011/12/26/twitter-court-followers/
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Van Halen Confirm David Lee Roth Reunion Tour
New videos shows band reunited with original singer.
By Gil Kaufman
Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth
Photo: Michael Buckner/ Getty Images
Van Halen fans got the best Christmas present of all over the weekend when the legendary Los Angeles rockers confirmed the long-standing rumor that they will be reuniting for a tour with original madcap lead singer David Lee Roth.
The announcement came via a video released on Monday on the band's official site in which the 57-year-old Roth is seen unleashing some of his classic high-kicking stage moves alongside his former bandmates guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, as well as the group's current bass player, Eddie's son, Wolfgang.
Photos: Van Halen's early years.
The black and white video shows the band mugging along to their iconic hits "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher" amid a shower of confetti and balloons on a club stage. The easy camaraderie belies the infamously testy relationship between Eddie Van Halen and Roth, as the pair seem to be getting along as they run around the stage of the Roxy Theatre on L.A.'s legendary Sunset Strip.
The site promises that the first tickets for the reunion tour will go on sale on January 10.
Van Halen's original bass player and backing vocalist, Michael Anthony, was booted from the band in 2006 after 32 years and replaced by teenager Wolfgang. Since parting ways with Roth in 1985, Van Halen rebooted with singer Sammy Hagar in 1985, enjoying a string of hit albums and songs through 1996, when Hagar was shown the door and briefly replaced by former Extreme singer Gary Cherone, who only lasted three years in the slot. After bringing Hagar back in from 2003-2005, Van Halen invited Roth back into the fold several years ago and toured with him in 2007-2008.
In addition to the tour, the group are working on their first album of new material with Roth in 27 years. They recently signed to Interscope Records after spending their entire career on Warner Bros. Records.
Related Photos Related Artists
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676467/van-halen-reunion-tour.jhtml
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Techie promised railway jobs, duped candidates of Rs 50L
| native name | Kolkata (??????) |
|---|---|
| former name | Calcutta |
| type | Metropolitan City |
| type 2 | Capital |
| locator position | left |
| Skyline | Kolkata Imgs.jpg |
| skyline caption | Clockwise from top: Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, Downtown Kolkata, Howrah Bridge, Kolkata tram, Vidyasagar Setu Bridge |
| nickname | City of Joy, Cultural Capital of India, Literary Capital of India, City of Furious Creative Energy, City of Palaces, City of All Cities, City of Bridges in India, City of Football in India, Paris of the East |
| state name | West Bengal |
| district | Calcutta ? |
| founded | 1690 |
| founder | Job Charnock |
| leader title 1 | Mayor |
| leader name 1 | Sovan Chatterjee |
| altitude | 9 |
| population as of | 2011 |
| population rank | 5th |
| population total | 4,486,679 |
| population total cite | |
| population metro | 15,644,040 |
| population metro cite | |
| population metro as of | 2010 |
| population metro rank | 3rd |
| languages type | Spoken languages |
| languages | |Bengali|English|Hindi|Urdu}} |
Kolkata (; , , ), formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata is the commercial capital of East India, located on the east bank of the Hooghly River. The city of Kolkata has 4.5 million residents, and the metropolitan area, including suburbs, has a population of approximately 15.7 million, making it the third most populous metropolitan area in India and the 13th most populous urban area in the world. The city is also classified as the eighth largest urban agglomeration in the world.
Kolkata served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911 when due to geographical disadvantages and growing nationalism in Bengal the capital was shifted to New Delhi. The city is noted for its vibrant political culture, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to contemporary politics. Once the center of modern education, science, culture, and politics in India, Kolkata witnessed economic stagnation in the years following India's independence in 1947. However, since the year 2000, an economic rejuvenation has led to an acceleration in the city's growth. Like other metropolitan cities of India, Kolkata continues to struggle with urbanisation problems like pollution and traffic congestion. Despite its problems, Kolkata remains the dominant urban area of eastern India and a major educational and cultural hub.
Etymology
The name "Kolkat?" (and the anglicised name Calcutta) have their roots in Kalikat?, the name of one of the three villages (Kalikat?, Sutanuti, Govindapur) in the area before the arrival of the British. "Kalikata", in turn, is believed to be a version of Kalikshetra (, Kalikkhetro "Land of [the goddess] K?li"). Alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkil? ("flat area"). Again, the name may have its origin in the indigenous term for a natural canal, Khal, followed by Katta (which may mean dug). There is also another theory that the place used to specialize in quicklime (kali chun) and coir rope (k?t?) and hence the place was called Kalik?t?.Thus, while the city's name has always been pronounced "Kolkat?" or "Kolikat?" in the local language, its official English name was changed from "Calcutta" to "Kolkata" in 2001, in order to reflect the original pronunciation. In part, this was a move to erase the negative legacy of British rule. (See also "Renaming of cities in India".) This change has not always been reflected by overseas media, but news sources like the BBC have opted to call Bombay Mumbai and Calcutta Kolkata.
History
The discovery of the nearby Chandraketugarh, an archaeological site, provides evidence that the area has been inhabited for over two millennia. The city's documented history, however, begins with the arrival of the English East India Company in 1690, when the Company was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. Job Charnock, an administrator with the company was traditionally credited as the founder of the city. However some academics have recently challenged the view that Charnock was the founder, and in response to public interest, the High Court ruled in 2003 that the city does not have a specific founder.Up to 18th century Kolkata was under indirect rule of the Nawab of Bengal comprised three villages Kalikata, Gobindapur and Sutanuti. These villages were part of a khas mahal or imperial jagir or an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor himself, whose jagirdari rights were held by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family. Against the wishes of this family and in spite of their protests, the rights over these villages were transferred to the East India Company in 1698. The British in the late 17th century wanted to build a fort near Gobindapur in order to consolidate their power over other foreign powers ? namely the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the French. In 1702, the British completed the construction of old Fort William, which was used to station its troops and as a regional base. Calcutta was declared a Presidency City, and later became the headquarters of the Bengal Presidency. Faced with frequent skirmishes with French forces, in 1756 the British began to upgrade their fortifications. When protests against the militarisation by the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-Ud-Daulah went unheeded he attacked and captured Fort William, leading to the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta incident. A force of Company sepoys and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772, and starting in 1864 during the summer months, the capital was temporarily shifted to the hill station of Shimla. In the early 19th century the marshes surrounding the city were drained and the government area was laid out along the banks of the Hooghly River. Richard Wellesley, the Governor General between 1797?1805, was largely responsible for the growth of the city and its public architecture which led to the description of Calcutta as "The City of Palaces". The city was a centre of the British East India Company's opium trade during the late 18th and 19th century. By the 1850s, Kolkata was split into two distinct areas ? one British (known as the White Town) centred around Chowringhee, the other Indian centred around North Calcutta. The city underwent rapid industrial growth from the early 1850s, especially in the textile and jute industries: this caused massive investment by British companies in infrastructure such as Howrah station and telegraph connections. The coalescence of British and Indian culture resulted in the emergence of a new Babu class of urbane Indians ? whose members were often bureaucrats, professionals, newspaper readers, Anglophiles, and usually belonged to upper-caste Hindu communities. Throughout the nineteenth century, a socio-cultural reform, often referred to as the Bengal Renaissance resulted in the general uplifting of the people. In 1883, Surendranath Banerjee organised a national conference ? the first of its kind in nineteenth century India. Gradually Calcutta became a centre of the Indian independence movement, especially revolutionary organisations. The 1905 partition of Bengal on communal grounds resulted in widespread public agitation and the boycott of British goods (Swadeshi movement). These activities, along with the administratively disadvantageous location of Calcutta in the eastern fringes of India, prompted the British to move the capital to New Delhi in 1911. The city and its port were bombed several times by the Japanese during World War II, the first occasion being 20 December 1942, and the last being 24 December 1944. During the war, millions starved to death during the Bengal famine of 1943, caused by a combination of military, administrative and natural factors. In 1946, demands for the creation of a Muslim state led to large-scale communal violence resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 people. The partition of India also created intense violence and a shift in demographics ? large numbers of Muslims left for East Pakistan, while hundreds of thousands of Hindus fled into the city. Over the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Maoist movement ? the Naxalites ? damaged much of the city's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. In 1971, Bangladesh liberation war led to the mass influx of thousands of refugees into Kolkata resulting in a massive strain on its infrastructure. In the mid-1980s, Bombay, now Mumbai, overtook Kolkata as India's most populous city. In 1985 Rajiv Gandhi referred to Kolkata as a "dying city" because of the social and political traumas. Kolkata has been a important base for Communism as West Bengal was ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))-dominated Left Front for 34 years (1977?2011) ? the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government. The city's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India introduced by the central government in the mid-1990s. Since 2000, Information Technology (IT) services have revitalized the city?s stagnant economy. The city is also experiencing a growth in the manufacturing sector.
Geography
Kolkata is located in the eastern part India at in the Ganges Delta at an elevation ranging between to . It is spread linearly along the banks of the River Hooghly in a north-south direction. Much of the city was originally a vast wetland, reclaimed over the decades to accommodate the city's burgeoning population. The remaining wetland, known as East Calcutta Wetlands has been designated a "wetland of international importance" under the Ramsar Convention.
Like the most of the Indo-Gangetic plains, the predominant soil and water type is alluvial. Quaternary sediments consisting of clay, silt, various grades of sand and gravel underlie the city. These sediments are sandwiched between two clay beds, the lower one at depths between and and the upper one ranging between and in thickness. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the town falls under seismic zone-III, in a scale of I to V (in order of increasing proneness to earthquakes) while the wind and cyclone zoning is "very high damage risk", according to UNDP report.
Urban structure
Kolkata city, under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), has an area of . The Kolkata conurbation (Kolkata Metropolitan Area), however, is spread over , and comprises 157 postal areas, as of 2006. The metropolitan area is formally administered by several local governments including 38 local municipalities. The urban agglomeration comprises 72 cities and 527 towns and villages. The suburban areas of Kolkata metropolitan district incorporates parts of the districts North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia. The east-to-west dimension of the city is narrow, stretching from the Hooghly River in the west to roughly the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the east, a span of barely ?. The north-south expansion is roughly divided into North, Central and South Kolkata. North Kolkata locality is the oldest part of the city, with 19th century architecture and narrow alleyways and is made of neighborhoods like Nagerbazaar, Bangur, Lake Town, and Shyambazaar. It's northern border is roughy near Kolkata Airport and it's southern border is approximately near Lake Town. It is bordered by the Hoogly River to the west and V.I.P Road to the east. Central Kolkata comprises of B.B.D. Bagh, Esplanade, Dharmatulla, and Kankurgachi with the Hoogly River to it's west and V.I.P Road and the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass to the west. South Kolkata grew mostly after independence of India and consists of localities such as Ballygunge, Tollygunge, Alipore, and New Alipore. It's northern border is on Park Circus Ave. and it's southern one near Thakurpukur, Joka, Garia, and Kamdahari. It's western border is the Hoogly River and it's eastern border is the Easter Metropolitan Bypass. Two recently-developed (and planned) areas of Kolkata are: Salt Lake City (Bidhannagar) to the northeast and Rajarhat, also called New Town, to the north of Bidhannagar. The former was developed between 1958 and 1965 to accommodate the burgeoning population of Kolkata.Central Kolkata houses the central business district around the B. B. D. Bagh area. The government secretariat, General Post Office, High Court, Lalbazar Police HQs and several other government and private offices are located here. Several companies have set up their offices around the area south of Park Street which has become a secondary central business district. The Maidan is a large open field in the heart of the city where several sporting events and public meetings are held. Several statues of Britisher colonial officials and Indian freedom fighters and martyrs are erected in the Maidan area. Other notable park in the city include Central Park in Bidhanagar and Millenium Park beside the Hooghly river.
Climate
Kolkata has a tropical wet-and-dry climate (K?ppen climate classification Aw). The annual mean temperature is ; monthly mean temperatures range from to . Summers are hot and humid with temperatures in the low 30's and during dry spells the maximum temperatures often exceed 40??C (104??F) during May and June. Winter tends to last for only about two and a half months, with seasonal lows dipping to 9??C???11??C (54??F???57??F) between December and January. The highest recorded temperature is and the lowest is . On average, May is the hottest month with daily temperatures ranging from a low of to a maximum of , while January the coldest month has temperatures varying from a low of to a maximum of . Often during early summer, dusty squalls followed by spells of thunderstorms or hailstorms and heavy rains with ice sleets lash the city, bringing relief from the humid heat. These thunderstorms are convective in nature, and are locally known as Kal baisakhi (, Nor'westers).
Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of the South-West monsoon lash the city between June and September and supply the city with most of its annual rainfall of . The highest rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August?. The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per annum, with the maximum sunlight occurring in March. Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata, and the Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) level is high when compared to other major cities of India, leading to regular smog and haze. Severe air pollution in the city has caused a rise in pollution-related respiratory ailments such as lung cancer. Kolkata has been hit by several cyclones, including the cyclones of 1737 and 1864 that killed thousands of people.
Economy
Kolkata is the main business, commercial and financial hub of East India and the northeastern states. It is home to the Calcutta Stock Exchange ? India's second-largest bourse.Until recently, flexible production had always been the norm in Kolkata, and the informal sector has comprised more than 40% of the labour force. For example, roadside hawkers generated business worth Rs. 8,772 crore (around 2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005. State and federal government employees make up a large percentage of the city's workforce. The city has a large unskilled and semi-skilled labour population, along with other blue-collar and knowledge workers. As in many other Indian cities, information technology became a major growing sector in Kolkata since late 1990s, with the IT sector growing at 70% yearly ? twice that of the national average. In recent years there has been a surge of investments in the housing infrastructure sector with several new projects coming up in the city led by companies such as Tata Housing Development Company, DLF Limited and Unitech Group. Kolkata is home to many industrial units operated by large Indian corporations with products ranging from electronics to jute. Some notable companies headquartered in Kolkata include ITC Limited, India Government Mint, Kolkata, Haldia Petrochemicals, Exide Industries, Hindustan Motors, Britannia Industries, Bata India, Birla Corporation, CESC Limited, RPG Group, Texmaco Limited, Bengal Ambuja, Philips India, Eveready Batteries, Coal India Limited, Damodar Valley Corporation, PwC India, and Peerless Group. Recently, various events like adoption of "Look East" policy by the government of India, opening of the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim as a border trade-route with China and immense interest in the South East Asian countries to enter the Indian market and invest have put Kolkata in an advantageous position for development in future, particularly with likes of Myanmar. Kolkata is an important centre for banking and finance. At present it has the headquarters of three large nationalized banks Allahabad Bank, Uco Bank and United Bank of India.
Civic administration
| Mayor: | |
| Police Commissioner: |
The main functions of the KMC are water supply, drainage and sewerage, sanitation, solid wastes management, streets and public places, street lighting, and building regulation. Fire services are handled by a state agency- Kolkata Fire Brigade. Similarly, for the river port services, there is a Kolkata Port Trust, an agency of the central government.
Other authorities: the Collector of the Kolkata District, the Kolkata Police, the District Magistrate (DM) of South 24 Parganas District, and the (SP) of South 24 Parganas District. As of 2010, the All India Trinamool Congress holds the power in KMC, its mayor is Sovan Chatterjee while the deputy mayor is Farzana Alam. The city also has an apolitical titular post, that of the Sheriff of Kolkata.
As the capital of the state and the seat of the Government of West Bengal, Kolkata houses not only the offices of the local governing agencies, but also the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, the state Secretariat (Writers' Building) and the Calcutta High Court. Kolkata also has lower courts; the Small Causes Court for civil matters, and the Sessions Court for criminal cases. The Kolkata Police, headed by the Police Commissioner, comes under the West Bengal Home Ministry. The city elects three representatives to the Lok Sabha (India's lower house) and 21 representatives to the state Legislative Assembly.
Utility services and media
The KMC supplies potable water to the city, sourced from the Hooghly River. The water is purified and treated at Palta water pumping station located in North 24 Parganas. Almost all of Kolkata's daily refuse of 2500?tonnes is transported to the dumping grounds in Dhapa to the east of the town. Agriculture on this dumping ground is encouraged for natural recycling of garbage and sewer water. Parts of the city still lack sewage facilities leading to unsanitary methods of waste disposal. Electricity is supplied by the privately operated (CESC) to the city region, and by the West Bengal State Electricity Board in the suburbs. Frequent interruption of power supply was a problem until the mid 1990s; however the situation has since improved immensely with seldom power cuts occurring presently. The city has 20 fire stations (under West Bengal Fire Service) that attend to 7,500 fire and rescue calls on average per year.
State-owned BSNL and private enterprises like Vodafone, Airtel, Reliance Communications, Uninor, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Virgin Mobile and MTS India are the leading telephone and cell phone service providers in the city. Cellular coverage is extensive with both GSM and CDMA services being available. Broadband Internet penetration has steadily increased with BSNL, Tata Indicom, Sify, Airtel, Reliance and Alliance being the leading service providers.
Bengali language newspapers like Anandabazar Patrika, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Jago Bangla, Aajkaal, Dainik Statesman ,Ganashakti,Ekdin are widely circulated. Popular English language newspapers published and sold in Kolkata include the Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Statesman, The Telegraph and Asian Age. Some major periodicals are Desh, Sananda, Unish Kuri, Kindle, Anandalok and Anandamela. Being the biggest trading market in East India, Kolkata has a substantial readership of many financial dailies including The Economic Times, The Financial Express, Business Line and Business Standard. Vernacular newspapers such as those in Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi and Chinese are also read by a minority. Dainik Jagran world largest read Hindi daily news paper(AIR), the state-owned radio broadcaster, airs several AM radio stations in the city. Kolkata has 12 local FM radio stations, including two from AIR. The state-owned television broadcaster Doordarshan provides two free terrestrial channels, while four MSO provide a mix of Bengali, Hindi, English and other regional channels via cable. Bengali 24-hour television news channels include STAR Ananda, Tara Newz, Kolkata TV, 24 Ghanta, Ne Bangla, News Time and Channel 10.
Transport
Public transport is provided by the Kolkata suburban railway, the Kolkata Metro, trams and buses. The suburban network is extensive and extends into the distant suburbs.The Kolkata Metro, run by the Indian Railways, is the oldest underground system in India since 1984. It runs parallel to the River Hooghly and spans the north-south length of the city covering a distance of 22.3?km. There are several more lines being built for the metro to serve other areas of Kolkata such as Howrah and Bidhan Nagar. Buses are the preferred mode of transport and are run by both government agencies and private operators. Kolkata is India's only city to have a tram network, operated by Calcutta Tramways Company. The slow-moving tram services are restricted to certain areas of the city. Water-logging due to heavy rains during the monsoon sometimes interrupts the public transport.
Hired forms of mechanised transport include the yellow metered taxis, while auto rickshaws ply in specific routes. Almost all the taxis in Kolkata are Ambassadors. This is unlike most other cities where Tata Indicas or Premier Padminis are more common. In some areas of the city, cycle rickshaws and hand-pulled rickshaws are also patronised by the public for short distances. Private owned vehicles are less in number and usage compared to other major cities due to the abundance in both variety and number of public vehicles. However, the city witnessed a steady increase in the number of registered vehicles; 2002 data showed an increase of 44% over a period of seven years. The road space (matched with population density) in the city is only 6%, compared to 23% in Delhi and 17% in Mumbai, creating major traffic problems. Kolkata Metro Railway and a number of new roads and flyovers have decongested the traffic to some extent. Kolkata has three major long distance railway stations at Howrah, Sealdah and Kolkata (Chitpur). The city is the headquarters of two divisions of the Indian Railways ? Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway. Dainik Jagran world largest read Hindi daily news paper
The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at Dum Dum to the north of the city, operates both domestic and international flights. The airport is presently being upgraded to accommodate increased air traffic. Kolkata is also a major river port of East India. The Kolkata Port Trust manages both the Kolkata and Haldia docks. There are passenger services to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and cargo ship service to various ports in India and abroad, operated by the Shipping Corporation of India. There are ferry services as well, connecting Kolkata with its twin city of Howrah.
Demographics
thumb|The Chinese New Year celebrated in Chinatown. Unofficial estimates put the number of [[Chinese community in India|Chinese in Kolkata anywhere from 5,000 to 200,000, most of whom live in or near Chinatown in Tangra.]] {{India census population |title = Population Growth of Kolkata |1981= 9194000 |1991= 11021900 |2001= 13114700 |2011= 15644040 |estimate= |estyear= |estref= |footnote= Source: Census of India }} {{bar box |width=250px |barwidth=100px |title = Religions in Kolkata |left1=Religion |right1=Percent |float=left |bars= }} Residents of Kolkata are called Calcuttans. According to the provisional population of 2011, Kolkata city has a population of 4,486,679, while the urban agglomeration had a population of 13,216,546 in 2001. The sex ratio is 928 females per 1000 males which is lower than the national average, because many working males come from rural areas and neighbouring states (mainly Bihar, UP, Orissa), where they leave behind their families. Kolkata's literacy rate of 81% exceeds the all-India average of 66%. Kolkata Municipal Corporation area has registered a growth rate of 4.1%, which is the lowest among the million-plus cities in India.Bengali comprise the majority of Kolkata's population, with Marwaris and Bihari communities forming a large portion of the minorities. Some of Kolkata's minor communities include Chinese, Tamils, Nepalis, Oriyas, Telugus, Assamese, Gujaratis, Anglo-Indians, Armenians, Greeks, Tibetans, Maharashtrians, Konkanis, Malayalees, Punjabis and Parsis. Tibetans mostly came as traders. There were also many Armenians, Greeks and Jews, although these have declined in 20th century. After the establishment of Israel, many Jews left to live in Israel and the size of the Jewish community had a severe decrease. Chinatown in the eastern part of the city of Kolkata is the only Chinatown in the country. The locality was once home to 20,000 ethnic Chinese, now the population has dropped to 2,000 or so. The traditional occupation of the Chinese community here had been working in the nearby tanning industry and the Chinese restaurants.
Bengali is the dominant language spoken in Kolkata, which also serves as the Official State Language. English is also used, particularly by the white-collar work force.
According to the census, 73% of the population in Kolkata is Hindu, 23% Muslim, 2% Christian and 1% Jains. Other minorities such as Sikhs, Buddhist, Jews and Zoroastrian constitute the rest of the city's population. 1.5 million people, who constitute about a third of the city's population, live in 2,011 registered and 3,500 unregistered (occupied by squatters) slums.
Kolkata reported 67.6% of total Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes registered in 35 Indian mega cities in 2004. Kolkata police district registered 10,757 IPC cases in 2004, which was 10th highest in the country. The crime rate in the city was 71 per 100,000 against the national rate of 167.7 in 2006, which is the lowest among all the mega cities in India. Some estimates state that there are more than 60,000 brothel-based women and girls in prostitution in Kolkata. The population of prostitutes in Sonagachi constitutes mainly of Nepalese, Indians and Bangladeshis. Some sources estimate there are 60,000 women in the brothels of Kolkata. The largest prostitution area in city is Sonagachi.
Culture
Kolkata has long been known for its literary, artistic and revolutionary heritage. As the former capital of India, Kolkata was the birthplace of modern Indian literary and artistic thought. Kolkatans tend to have a special appreciation for art and literature; its tradition of welcoming new talent has made it a City of Furious Creative Energy. For these reasons, Kolkata has often been dubbed as the Cultural Capital of India or the Literary Capital of India.A characteristic feature of Kolkata is the para or neighbourhoods having a strong sense of community. Typically, every para has its own community club with a clubroom and often, a playing field. People here habitually indulge in adda or leisurely chat, and these adda sessions are often a form of freestyle intellectual conversation. The city has a tradition of political graffiti depicting everything from outrageous slander to witty banter and limericks, caricatures to propaganda.
Kolkata has many buildings adorned with Gothic, Baroque, Roman, Oriental and Indo-Islamic (including Mughal) motifs. Several major buildings of the Colonial period are well maintained and have been declared "heritage structures", while others are in various stages of decay. Established in 1814, the Indian Museum is the oldest museum in Asia and houses vast collections of Indian natural history and Indian art. Marble Palace is classic example of European mansion in the city. Netaji Bhawan is museum and shrine dedicated for honor of Netaji, Indian freedom fighter of World War II. The Victoria Memorial, one of the major tourist attractions in Kolkata, has a museum documenting the city's history. The National Library of India is India's leading public library. Academy of Fine Arts and other art galleries hold regular art exhibitions.
The city has a tradition of dramas in the form of jatra (a kind of folk-theatre), theatres and Group Theaters. Kolkata is the home of the Bengali cinema industry, dubbed "Tollywood" after Tollygunj, the location of Bengali movie studios. Its long tradition of Art-Film making includes globally acclaimed directors such as Academy Award winning director Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and contemporary directors such as Aparna Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Rituparno Ghosh.
In the nineteenth and twentieth century, Bengali literature was modernized in the works of authors such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. This literary modernization, coupled with the social reforms led by reformers like Ram Mohan Roy, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda and others, constituted a major part of the Bengal Renaissance . The rich literary tradition set by these authors has been carried forward in the works of Jibanananda Das, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Manik Bandopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Buddhadeb Guha, Mahashweta Devi, Samaresh Majumdar, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay among others.
Kolkata is also an important centre of art and has hosted many important artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Ramkinker Baij, Bikash Bhattacharya, Paresh Maity and Devajyoti Ray. In the 1960s, the city has seen the emergence of the famous Calcutta Group, which preceded the Progressive Artists Group in field of modern Indian art. In 2005, the first exhibition on Pseudorealism was held at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture. The city continues to be the home of one of the most passionate lovers of art in country. Kolkata is often also called the backyard of Indian art.
The city is also noted for its appreciation of Rabindrasangeet and Indian classical music as well as Bengali folk music such as baul and kirtans and gajan, and modern songs including Bengali adhunik songs. From the early 1990s, there has been an emergence of new genres of music, including the emergence of what has been called Bengali Jeebonmukhi Gaan (a modern genre based on realism) by artists like Anjan Dutta, Kabir Suman, Nachiketa and folk/alternative/rock bands like Moheener Ghoraguli, Chandrabindoo, Bhoomi, Cactus, and Fossils.
Key elements of Kolkata's cuisine include rice and Machher jhol (fish curry), with roshogolla, sandesh and mishti dohi (sweet yoghurt) as dessert. Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes various eelish preparations (a favorite among Bengalis). Street foods such as beguni (fried battered eggplant slices), kati roll (flatbread roll with vegetable or chicken, mutton, or egg stuffing), phuchka (deep fried cr?pe with tamarind and lentil sauce) and Indian Chinese cuisine from China Town in the eastern parts of the city are quite popular. Sweets occupy an important place in the diet of Kolkatans and at their social ceremonies.
Bengali women commonly wear the sha?i as per tradition and global/western outfits. Among men, western dressing has greater acceptance, though the traditional dhoti and panjabi/kurta comes to life on festivals.
Durga Puja, in the autumn, is the most important festival and the most glamorous event in Kolkata. Other notable festivals include Jagaddhatri Puja, Diwali, Saraswati puja, Eid, Holi, Christmas, poila boishak (new year), Rath Yatra and Poush parbon (harvest festival). Some of the cultural festivals are Kolkata Book Fair, Dover Lane music festival, Kolkata Film Festival and National Theatre Festival.
Education
Kolkata's schools are either run by the state government or by private (many of which are religious) organisations. Schools mainly use Bengali or English as the medium of instruction, though Urdu is also used, especially in Central Kolkata. The schools are affiliated with any of the following ? West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Institute of Open School (NIOS) and the A-Level (British Curriculum). Under the 10+2+3 plan, after completing their secondary education, students typically enroll in a 2 year junior college (also known as a pre-university) or in schools with a higher secondary facility affiliated with West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, ICSE or CBSE. Students usually choose from one of three streams ? liberal arts, commerce, or science, though vocational streams are also available. Upon completing the required coursework, students may enrol in general or professional degree programmes.
Kolkata houses seventeen universities or autonomous institutions and numerous colleges affiliated to them or to other universities located outside. The University of Calcutta (founded in 1857) has 153 affiliated colleges. The Calcutta Madrasa College, founded in 1781, was upgraded to a university in 2007. The Jadavpur University is a notable university known for its arts, science and engineering faculties. Calcutta Medical College is the first institution teaching modern medicine in Asia. Other notable institutions are Presidency College, St. Xavier's College, Bethune College (the first women's college in India), and Scottish Church College. Some institutions of national importance are the Asiatic Society, Bose Institute, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, the Indian Statistical Institute, the Indian Institute of Management, the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, the Marine Engineering and Research Institute, the Rabindra Bharati University, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, the Calcutta Mathematical Society, the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management- The First B-School of India, the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, the West Bengal University of Technology and the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
Notable scholars from Kolkata include physicists Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha and Jagadish Chandra Bose, chemist Prafulla Chandra Roy, statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, mathematician Raj Chandra Bose, physician Upendranath Brahmachari and educator Ashutosh Mukherjee.
Sports
The most followed sports in Kolkata are football and cricket. Kolkata, a major centre of football activity in India and home of top national football clubs such as Mohun Bagan AC, East Bengal, Chirag United S.C., and Mohammedan Sporting Club is known as Mecca of Indian Football. Calcutta Football League, which started in 1898, is the oldest football league in Asia. Mohun Bagan AC, one of the oldest football clubs in Asia, is the only club to be entitled 'National Club of India'. Kolkata is also home to Kolkata Knight Riders IPL cricket team franchise.
As in the rest of India, cricket is extremely popular and is played throughout the city in its grounds and streets. Tournaments, especially those involving outdoor games like cricket, football, and badminton or indoor games like carrom are regularly organized on an inter-locality or inter-club basis. The maidan area hosts several minor football and cricket clubs and coaching institutes.
Notable sports stars from Kolkata include former Indian national cricket captains Sourav Ganguly and Pankaj Roy, as well as current cricketers Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Manoj Tiwary, Olympic tennis bronze medallist Leander Paes. Former football stars include Sailen Manna, Chuni Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, and Subrata Bhattacharya.
The city is known for its large stadia. The Eden Gardens is one of only two 100,000-seat cricket stadiums in the world. It hosted final of 1987 Cricket World Cup. It is home to Bengal cricket team and Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL. Salt Lake Stadium (also known as Yuva Bharati Krirangan)?a multi-use stadium?is the world's second largest capacity football stadium. Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is the second-oldest cricket club in the world. Kolkata has three 18-hole golf courses at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (the first golf club in the world outside Britain), Tollygunge Club and Fort William. The Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC) holds regular equestrian races and polo matches. The Calcutta Polo Club is now considered as the oldest polo club of the world. The Calcutta South Club is the venue for some national and international tennis tournaments. From 2005, Sunfeast Open, a Tier-III tournament of Women's Tennis Association Tour, takes place in Netaji Indoor Stadium. The Calcutta Rowing Club hosts regular rowing races and training. Although it is a minor sport, Kolkata is considered the "capital" of rugby union in India. The city also gives its name to the name of the oldest international tournament in rugby union, the Calcutta Cup, which is of Indian workmanship.
When the Elite Football League of India was introduced in August 2011, Kolkata was noted as one of eight cities to be awarded a team for the inaugural season. Named the Kolkata Vipers, the team's first season will be played in Pune, and it will be Kolkata's first professional American football franchise.
Sister cities
Kolkata has sister city relationships with the following cities of the world.See also
References
Further reading
External links
}}Category:Cities and towns in West Bengal Category:Eastern Railway (India) Zone Category:Former national capitals Category:Indian capital cities Category:Metropolitan cities in India Category:Populated places established in 1690 Category:South Eastern Railway (India) Zone
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Presidential race in Iowa quieter than in the past
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., listens to a question during a campaign stop at Lodge Pizza & Steakhouse in Corydon, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to workers and local residents after touring the TPI Iowa wind blade manufacturing facility, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry signs an autograph for Jeanne Dietrich, of Omaha, Neb., after speaking to local residents and workers at the TPI Iowa wind blade manufacturing facility, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? It's been a different presidential race in Iowa this year ? quieter.
Campaign headquarters have hardly been buzzing with activity, unlike the around-the-clock nature of past contests. Candidates have barely visited the state, compared with years when most all but moved here. And they have largely refrained from building the grass-roots armies of yesteryear, in favor of more modest on-the-ground teams of paid staffers and volunteers.
The final rush of campaigning here gets under way Monday, just a week before the Jan. 3 caucuses, and, to be sure, there will be a flurry of candidate appearances and get-out-the-vote efforts all week.
But that will belie the reality of much of 2011, a year marked by a less aggressive personal courtship of Iowans in a campaign that, instead, has largely gravitated around a series of 13 nationally televised debates, a crush of television ads and interviews on media outlets watched by many Republican primary voters, like Fox News Channel.
"We just haven't had as much face time," Republican chairwoman Trudy Caviness in Wapello County said. "That's why we're so undecided."
Indeed, people here simply don't know the Republican presidential candidates that well. And it's a big reason why the contest in Iowa is so volatile and why the caucus outcome could end up being more representative of the mood of national Republicans than in past years when GOP activists here have gone it alone by launching an unlikely front-runner to the top of the field.
With a week to go, the state of the race in Iowa generally mirrors the race from coast to coast.
Polls show Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, having lost ground and Texas Rep. Ron Paul having risen, with both still in contention with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the head of the pack. All the others competing in Iowa ? Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum ? are trailing.
But, in a sign that the contest is anyone's to win, most polls have shown most Republican caucusgoers undecided and willing to change their minds before the contest in a state where the vote typically breaks late in the campaign year.
There are a slew of reasons why the Iowa campaign is a much more muted affair than in 2008 ? marked by the iconic clash of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who together employed almost 300 staff in Iowa and held blockbuster rallies. This year, there is no contested Democratic primary, given that President Barack Obama has no serious challenger. Only Republicans are competing, and those candidates are approaching the state differently, both visiting and hiring less. Also, like it did everywhere else, the race here started slowly ? months later than usual ? as a slew of GOP politicians weighed candidacies, only to abort White House bids.
Long-time Republican activists here, who often joke that they like to meet the candidates several times before deciding, have barely seen the candidates once, much less at all, and no campaign has more than 20 paid staff in the state.
All that's partly a consequence of how technology has changed both the political and media environments in recent years. Campaigns now can more precisely ? and cheaply ? target their pitches to voters from afar, sending personalized e-mails and YouTube video messages from the candidates to voters directly, and more campaign outreach is being handled by volunteers and through central national websites. And voters, themselves, now can go online and find information about the candidates without having to wait for the White House hopeful to show up in the town square.
"Caucuses don't exist in a vacuum. They're not the same every time," said John Stineman, a West Des Moines Republican activist who ran Steve Forbes 2000 Iowa campaign. "But everything else has changed. Why wouldn't the caucuses change?"
Part of the change has been driven by Romney's approach to the state.
The nominal GOP front-runner for most of the year, Romney has been far less aggressive in cultivating support in Iowa than in his failed bid of 2008. He's only spent 10 days in the state this year, compared to 77 days four years ago, in an attempt to lower expectations in the leadoff state where evangelical conservatives have harbored doubts about Romney in light of his Mormon faith and changed positions on some social issues.
Paul, the Texas congressman, has been focused more on building a national following than being a one-state candidate.
Gingrich only became a serious contender in the state a few weeks ago. And, until recently, he didn't have the money or manpower to launch a full-scale Iowa campaign, meaning more sporadic visits and a smaller team. He's struggled to reach all parts of the state more than once; it was just last week that he visited Ottumwa, seat of the county Caviness represents and a medium-size Iowa city uniquely situated in the southeast with its own small media market.
Likewise, Perry has not been to Marshalltown, a central Iowa GOP hub about the same size as Ottumwa and home of the state-run veterans home. It would seem like a natural spot for Perry, a former Air Force officer who has sought veterans support. But he also hasn't visited Fort Dodge, also another mid-size Iowa city in north-central Iowa on the way to heavily Republican northwest Iowa.
Those who have been struggling to gain traction ? and who lack the money of better-funded, better-known rivals ? are turning to old-fashioned retail campaigning in hopes of wooing voters the traditional way.
Bachmann is in the midst of a bus tour that has her crisscrossing the state. And Santorum, who never has broken out of the back of the pack, is betting that a year of one-on-one campaigning will pay off in the end.
Barb Livingston is proof that, for all the changes, there's still something to be said for the personal approach. She has struggled all year to find a candidate to back and is basing her decision on a personal impression she had ? except that impression was established four years ago, riding around Marshall County with Romney.
"When push comes to shove, I had a chance to meet him and travel around with," said Livingston, a former Marshall County GOP chairwoman. "He's someone personally I connected with."
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US weighing travel request for Yemen's president (AP)
HONOLULU ? The Obama administration is considering whether to allow Yemen's outgoing president into the United States for medical treatment, as fresh violence and political tensions flare in the strategically important Middle Eastern nation.
A senior administration official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh's office requested that he be allowed to receive specialized treatment in the U.S. for injuries sustained in a June attack on his compound. The request was being considered, and would only be approved for medical reasons, the official said.
Until now, the White House had not commented on Saleh's assertion Saturday that he would be leaving Yemen and traveling to the U.S. Saleh insisted he was going in order to help calm tensions in his country, not for medical treatment.
The official, who requested anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly, did not say when the Obama administration would decide on Saleh's request. But the official said Saleh's office indicated that he would leave Yemen soon and spend time elsewhere abroad before he hoped to come to the U.S.
Demonstrators began protesting against Saleh and calling for his ouster in February. The Yemeni government responded with a bloody crackdown, leaving hundreds of protesters dead, and stoking fears of instability in a nation already grappling with burgeoning extremism.
Last month, Saleh agreed to a U.S.- and Saudi-backed deal to hand power over to his vice president and commit to stepping down completely in exchange for immunity. The deal further angered Saleh's opponents, who demanded he be tried for his attacks on protesters.
American officials are deeply concerned that the months of turmoil in Yemen have led to a security breakdown. The dangerous al-Qaida branch in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has taken advantage of the vacuum to expend its presence in southern Yemen.
Pressure has been mounting in recent weeks for Saleh to leave Yemen altogether. Opponents say he has continued to wield influence through his loyalists and relatives still in positions of power, hampering the transition ahead of presidential elections set for Feb. 21. Many feared he would find a way to continue his rule.
Activists said troops commanded by Saleh's relatives attacked protesters in the capital of Sanaa Saturday, killing at least nine people. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated the following day, protesting the deaths and demanding the resignation of Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi for failing to bring the killers to justice.
The White House said President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, called Hadi Sunday and emphasized the need for Yemeni security forces to show "maximum restraint" when dealing with demonstrations. Hadi told Brennan that he had launched an investigation into the recent deaths and injuries and would do his utmost to prevent further bloodshed, the White House said.
The White House said Brennan and Hadi agreed on the importance of continuing with the agreed-upon path of political transition in Yemen in order to ensure that the February elections take place.
Obama was being briefed on developments in Yemen while in Hawaii for his Christmas vacation.
The U.S. has experience with letting unpopular foreign leaders into this country for medical treatment.
More than three decades ago, President Jimmy Carter allowed the exiled shah of Iran into the U.S. for medical treatment in October 1979, eight months after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led a revolution that ousted the shah and created the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Iran. Fifty-two American hostages were held for 444 days in response to Carter's refusal to send the shah back to Iran for trial.
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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Philips SensoTouch 3D shaver in India
By SiliconIndia, Friday, 23 December 2011, 07:26 Hrs
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Bangalore: Philips introduced the most?premium shaver from its global portfolio in India- the SensoTouch 3D. This is also the first ever shaver launched in India which has both wet & dry shaving. Philips? new offering,?SensoTouch 3D is contemporary and is backed with advanced technology. The shaver has a sleek design and comes in a stylish black color.
At the core of the new design and technology are four exceptional features that increase comfort and distinguish the shaver within the premium category: GyroFlex 3D?system allows the shaver to perfectly follow the contours of the face using three independent and dynamic moving elements.? Heads have 360? pivoting movement and are outward flexing and inward tilting. UltraTrack?is the new innovative shaver head that also helps to give a close shave and keeps skin irritation to a minimum. Aquatec seal?is an inbuilt seal that allows men the versatility to choose between a comfortable dry shave or a refreshing wet shave. SkinGlide?provides a flat surface with rounded edges and curved shaving heads that helps in smooth shaving with low friction to minimize irritation.
The Philips SensoTouch 3D is now available at all major retail outlets across key metros and is priced at: 
12,999/-
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