PUNE:The Pune police has arrested former employees of Mphasis BPO on charges of fraudulently transferring $425,000 from the accounts of four customers of their BPO client.
According to the Police investigating the cyber crime, while the 12-member gang was arrested last week for illegal transfer of $350,000 from Citibank, during interrogation, the police learnt the gang had fraudulently withdrawn an additional amount of $75,000 from the account of an U.S. citizen.
The Mphasis staff members acquired the passwords to end customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts. The fraud occurred from the end of February until last week. The misdeeds came to light when the customers noticed the missing funds. Citibank then tracked the activity to Mphasis' Pune customer service center. Police said the gang had transferred the entire amount using Internet facilities from various internet parlors in the city.
HeroNumberOne
13-04-2005, 10:36 AM
India launches $1.5 B rural health initiative
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
NEW DELHI: India launched an ambitious plan to provide health care to its rural poor, committing an initial 67 billion rupees or $1.5 billion to the program.
Calling the announcement of the program a "very important day" of his 11-month-old government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India has grossly neglected the health of its citizens.
"The Indian health system is perhaps guilty of many sins of omissions and commissions," Singh said Tuesday adding, "We have grievously erred in many of our health programs. We have paid inadequate attention to public health."
The health mission aims to teach a woman in each village across the country to become a health care worker. The health worker will be tasked with identifying areas of concern and providing primary health care such as childbirth assistance and caring for newborns in the country.
The program will be undertaken in the villages across the Country, but the initial focus will be the 18 impoverished states in the north and northeast.
The program also envisages strengthening rural hospitals and giving more powers to village councils to prepare and implement their own health care plans with input from health workers.
King
13-04-2005, 07:36 PM
hmmmm, India Thieves r getting modernized
HeroNumberOne
14-04-2005, 02:52 AM
Labor costs in India is lowest in the world
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
LONDON:Labor costs in India are among the lowest in the world while the highest are in European countries Belgium, Sweden and Germany, according to a new survey.
Employment costs in India are 2,024 euros a year, while in Belgium, Sweden and Germany the financial burden of employing a worker is more than euros 50, 000 a year.
In new E.U. member states such as Latvia labor costs are euros 4,752, in Lithuania euros 5,649 and in Poland euros 8,257, the study conducted by Mercer Human Resources Consulting, the world’s largest employee benefits consultancy, said.
In Japan, annual labor costs are euros 45,839 and in the U.S. it was euros 33,195.
The labor costs include national average earnings for full-time employees, social security, mandatory benefits as required by national law and voluntary benefits such as pension, death, disability and medical payments.
The survey showed that E.U. as a whole featured 15 percent lower employment costs compared to the U.S. Annual labor costs in France (euros 45,879) and in the U.K. were in line with Japanese costs but almost 40 percent higher than U.S. costs.
HeroNumberOne
14-04-2005, 02:52 AM
India to launch Cartosat 1 next month
Tuesday, April 13, 2005
BANGALORE:India will launch Cartosat-1, the first satellite of its kind with stereoscopic imaging capability, next month and INSAT-4A by August first week, Indian Space Research Organization Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
INSAT-4A, country's heaviest communication satellite will be launched from European Arian-5 launch vehicle in French Guyana, in July end or early August, he told reporters here.
Nair also said India plans to launch one or two satellites every year.
In the first week of May, Cartosat-1, with stereoscopic capabilities and resolution of 2.5 meters to map the country, will be launched from PSLV at Sriharikota, he said. The satellite would enable up gradation of survey maps, which were prepared in 1980-85, within a year, Nair said.
By the year end, ISRO will also launch Cartosat-2 (with one meter resolution and swath of 30 km) and HAMSAT for amateur radio, as piggyback rider, on PSLV, he said adding another communication satellite would be launched through GSLV.
HeroNumberOne
15-04-2005, 08:47 AM
Sabeer Bhatia launches InstaColl
Thursday, April 14, 2005
BANGALORE: Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has launched a start-up product firm involved in new collaboration software that allows users to share information and documents in real time over the web.
Bhatia, who has invested in the firm InstaColl, said the software, an add-on to the popular Microsoft Office, helps sharing of information and documents between number of users using the Internet.
Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, the free e-mail service, made it big when he sold off the venture to software behemoth Microsoft for over $400 million at the height of the dotcom boom. Later he started aarzoo.com which was shut very soon as it did not attract intended clients.
"It works the way like you do," Bhatia said, adding, that he would soon head the Bangalore-based InstaColl as its Chairman.
The product, in beta version, can be downloaded free for the next few months, he said, adding that once the product is licensed, "We will make it extremely affordable".
InstaColl has tied up with IBM to bundle the software with its X-series of servers.
Financial details were not revealed about the venture that currently employs over 100 professionals
HeroNumberOne
15-04-2005, 08:50 AM
India, U.S. sign historic aviation accord
Thursday, April 14, 2005
NEW DELHI: India and the United States have signed a landmark air travel pact that opens up skies for airlines of both countries, a move experts said will result in more commercial flights, lower fares and stronger economic ties.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and U.S. transportation secretary Norman Mineta signed the air traffic transport agreement. It replaces the existing pact that dates back to more than 50 years.
Airlines of both countries can now select routes and destinations based on consumer demand. The deal provides for open routes, capacity, frequencies, designations and pricing as well as opportunities for cooperative marketing arrangements, including bilateral code sharing with domestic carriers.
It also allows cargo carriers to operate in either country without directly connecting to their homeland. The new pact replaces an agreement signed in February 1956 that restricted the number of airlines that could fly between the countries, cities served, frequency of service and pricing.
An estimated two million passengers travel between India and the United States. No U.S. airline currently operates a non-stop service to India
HeroNumberOne
17-04-2005, 08:49 AM
Security agencies take control of vital installations in Delhi
Friday, April 15, 2005
NEW DELHI: A day before the arrival of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, security agencies today took control of vital installations, including the place of stay and venues the highly threatened VVIP will visit during his three-day stay here.
Hoardes of police personnel, including those in plain-clothes, have swarmed Ferozeshah Kotla, venue of the April 17 Indo-Pak one-day cricket match to be watched by Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Security has also been tightened at the Hotel where Musharraf will stay along with his delegation and it has been made out of bounds for media persons.
Security agencies have started sanitizing the cricket ground and the hotel and anti-sabotage checks to detect any explosives have been initiated at these places.
Musharraf will stay in a suite on the ninth floor of the hotel where 70 rooms have been booked for his entourage.
HeroNumberOne
17-04-2005, 08:54 AM
Forex reserves up by $253M
Saturday, April 16, 2005
MUMBAI:India’s foreign exchange reserves grew marginally by $253 million to $ 141.45 billion for the week ended April eight, 2005.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves now stand at $1,41,457 million, an increase of $ 253 million over last week’s reserves of $ 1,41,204 million, according to RBIs weekly statistical supplement released here today.
The marginal rise is mainly due to revaluation of international currencies and increased remittances, analysts said.
The foreign currency assets were up by $262 million to reach at $1,35,524 million for the reporting week.
Gold reserves and SDRs remained static at $4,500 million and $ five million respectively.
The country’s reserve tranche position in the IMF declined by $ nine million to $1,428 million, RBI added.
HeroNumberOne
26-04-2005, 08:41 AM
Internet search engine for Hindi soon
Monday, April 25, 2005
CHENNAI: After developing the world's first search engine for Tamil language websites, the Anna University-K B Chandrasekar Foundation is now in the process of developing an Internet search engine for Hindi.
"We are at the second stage of the development of Hindi search engine," S. Bhaskar, a research scientist at the Language Technologies division of the foundation said.
The Language Technologies division, which comprises of 16 scientists, last year, developed a search engine for Tamil websites, which can do both site specific and web searches.
Bhaskar said the Hindi search engine would be ready in a few months. Now, only www.webduniya.com posseses a Hindi search engine. The Hindi search engine would search the contents of several Hindi websites to produce a result, which is not possible in the existing search engines.
The foundation is a novel private-public initiative, where Chadrasekhar who founded Netscaler, provided the University and the initial seed capital of Rs. 70 million. Chandrasekhar belongs to the 1983 batch of Madras Institute of Technology.
The foundation, Bhaskar said, was also looking at developing Internet search engines in other languages like Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada. The AUKBC Foundation is now self-sufficient by earning handsome revenues through the various research products
HeroNumberOne
26-04-2005, 08:42 AM
India's exposure to US market climbs the fastest
Monday, April 25, 2005
MUMBAI:Amid signals of a rising U.S. interest rate and dollar, India has increased its exposure to U.S. treasury securities and bonds (USTs) by $2.1billion in February ’05. This is the highest increase among all major Asian investors in USTs.
India’s exposure to USTs went up from $13.9 billion in January ’05 to $16 billion in February ’05, up $2.1 billion, according to the latest data released by the department of treasury of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
The trigger to such a sharp hike has been Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s announcement of hardening of the U.S. interest rate, which has seen the U.S. dollar marginally gaining in the international market.
Only four other major investors — U.K., the Caribbean, Ireland and France have invested higher amounts than India in USTs. In fact, no other major Asian investors including China and Japan have hiked exposure to USTs during the month.
As far as India is concerned, while the bulk of the investment in USTs is by the Reserve Bank of India, small amounts have been picked by domestic financial entities as well.
This means that almost a fourth of the reserves pile-up during the month has been parked in USTs. The central bank parks its reserves in sovereign papers and deposits in various central banks as well as foreign banks.
HeroNumberOne
27-04-2005, 08:09 AM
Indian scientist wins U.K. award
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
LONDON: An Indian scientist who has been working to save and preserve the snow leopard has won Britain's largest conservation prize - the £60,000 Whitley award.
Dr. Charudutt Mishra, 34, who has been working in a village in the Himalayas, just south of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, said that he found the survival of the snow leopard was being threatened due to hunting and human incursion into the forest.
With only 1,000 snow leopards in India as per the last official estimate, and only 4,000 in other countries, Mishra said he set up a simple insurance scheme among communities whose livestock were being preyed on by snow leopards to reduce the number of big cats killed in retaliation.
Since his scheme was introduced in Kibber village where he is based, hunters have killed no snow leopards. He has also negotiated conservation agreements to keep domestic livestock out of some areas, which has led to a recovery in the wild prey of the snow leopard.
Mishra says he has now set up his own conservation body with the help of conservation scientists from across India. Edward Whitley, a disciple of Gerald Durrell, established the award in 1994 to support passionate conservationists working in difficult conditions around the world.
Mishra says that he will use the £60,000 prize money to continue his conservation work.
HeroNumberOne
27-04-2005, 08:11 AM
India targets 200 million cellular phone users
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
NEW DELHI:The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) Tuesday said it has targeted a user base of 200 million mobile subscribers by 2007.
"The Indian GSM cellular industry has matured with most GSM networks making profits and are well positioned to reach the 200 million mark by 2007," COAI and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a joint statement.
India has 40 million GSM users now and last early this month the Country became the fifth largest in terms of telephone subscribers, including mobile and fixed line.