France, EU laud India on successful moon landing

New Delhi - France, chair of the 27-nation European Union, Saturday lauded India on the successful lunar exploration mission, which, it stressed, confirmed “India's eminent position among the world-class scientific and technological powers”. “France, on behalf of the European Union, warmly congratulates India for the successful landing of the Moon Impact Probe and the launch of the lunar exploration programme,” the French embassy said in a statement here.“This remarkable success of the Indian space vehicle confirms anew India's eminent position among the world-class scientific and technological powers,” it said.
“France and the European Union look forward to the strengthening of the existing scientific cooperations with India in the field of space, which are particularly promiseful for the development of science and knowledge worldwide,” the statement underlined.In a milestone for the country's space programme, India planted its national colours on the moon Thursday as the foil-wrapped Moon Impact Probe landed in the Shakelton crater near the lunar South Pole.The Moon Impact Probe, dropped from the larger, unmanned Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, sampled the thin lunar atmosphere during a half-hour free fall.Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned lunar probe, was launched Oct 22. After the US, then USSR, and Japan, India is the fourth country to land a probe on moon.

Take a sabbatical, Infosys tells employees

Bangalore: Bangalore: India's second-largest information technology services provider, Infosys Technologies, has issued letters to its employees stating they could opt for a one-year sabbatical to engage themselves in philanthropic activities. They would continue to draw 50 per cent of their salary during the period. Infosys crossed the 100,000-employee mark in India in the quarter ended September 30, 2008.
The company said that while the move may have coincided with the global financial turmoil and slowing growth rates of IT firms, it should be perceived as a pure voluntary act by employees who are prompted by altruistic motives and inspired by the example of its chairman and chief mentor, NR Narayana Murthy.
The employees, an internal memo said, need to be on the company rolls for at least two consecutive years before they are eligible for the offer and a panel comprising senior members of the Infosys leadership team will decide each case. "This policy will promote volunteerism among employees and we believe that the value and benefits arising from it will have an impact on community, the employees and ultimately, the company," it said.
Sources said that the policy came into force only a few days ago and the company is working out the finer points like whether the employees will be given any salary or emolument during the sabbatical. However, it is understood that the company is planning to pay some amount of the salary, while the rest the employees can earn from the NGO they are working for.An Infosys spokesperson confirmed the development: "We introduced this policy almost two months ago, which allows employees to go on up to one year of sabbatical to engage in philanthropic activities. A
ll employees have been communicated the policy internally."When asked how much the employees will be paid during that time, the spokesperson said they will be given 50 per cent of the salary, while the other half will be given by the respective NGOs they work with."It's a part of Narayana Murthy's desire to give back to society, which is driven by the fact that many employees quit their jobs to pursue philanthropic activities. This would give such employees an option to pursue their hobby while still continuing with the jobs, even if they will be paid a small amount by the company.
The employees can go out with a cut in their salaries, even though the final details are being worked out by the company," a source close to the development said.Infosys has a good deal of exposure to the sectors which have been worst hit by the current global economic meltdown such as banking and financial services, telecom and retail. In the last quarter, the company had announced that some of its clients in their sectors are coming back to re-negotiate. In a recent report, brokerage house CLSA had forecast that Infosys might miss its dollar revenue guidance for the third quarter, and may even post a sequential fall in the quarter. The CLSA report also acknowledged that the flow of IT deals from the BFSI segment has "worsened substantially" and that long-term deals are being offered on "very tough terms", thus putting pricing under serious threat as customers play one vendor against the other.

Ponting finally sees positives of India loss

Melbourne: The humbling Test series loss in India followed by the scathing criticism at home doubled up to make for a miserable time for Australian cricketers but skipper Ricky Ponting insisted that far from having a demoralising effect, the setback has made his team stronger.

"There are positives in losing a series. Losing can make good cricketers with character better. I'm sure that has been the case for a lot of our blokes who have come into the side recently and for some who have been there for a long time," Ponting, who himself drew flak for his "ordinary" captaincy during the 0-2 loss, wrote in a column for 'The Australian'.

"We are not in India now. While it is important for us all to think about what happened and how we played, you cannot live in the past with cricket, we have to put things behind us and move on quickly," he added, urging the team to focus on the tasks ahead.

Ponting reiterated that the Indians played better cricket in the four-match series but asserted that the Aussies would be back to their best after having learnt from the debacle.

"We were beaten by a better side there and now it's time to change gears," he said referring to the upcoming Test series against New Zealand starting November 20.

"There were, however, a lot of good things to take out of that series and the more I think about it the more confident I am about the future," he added.

Ponting singled out Simon Katich and Shane Watson's performances as the biggest gains in an otherwise poor series for the world champions.

"Simon Katich was a real positive for us. His form was very good, as it was in the West Indies. We took him to India because he had success there before and he did not let us down. He handled the conditions as well, if not better, than anybody."

"Shane Watson was a revelation. His bowling stood up as good as any of our quicks and his batting in Mohali showed his qualities. There had been question marks about Watto's ability to stand up physically to Test cricket and he did that, finishing off the tour as well as he started it," he pointed out.

Rookie spinner Jason Krejza, who grabbed 12 wickets in his debut Test in Nagpur, also got a word of praise from Ponting.

"...it is stating the obvious to say that Jason Krejza was terrific in India, 12 wickets on debut is a once-in-a-generation effort, but what was so good was watching him improve as the tour went on. "

"He's got very good flight, drift and drop, he puts a lot of over-spin on the ball and gets a lot of turn. He's still a work in progress," he said.

Citigroup mulls 10,000 pink slips | India insulated?

New York: Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup, the world's largest bank, will hand out pink slips to at least 10,000 employees beginning this week and is also planning to raise its credit card interest rates as part of plans to return to profitability, a report said on Friday.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Citigroup is embarking on "another huge round of layoffs and is raising interest rates on millions of credit card customers" as part of its push to become profitable again.
The fresh measures follow net losses of more than $20 billion over the past year and the subsequent efforts by Pandit, who became Citigroup's CEO late last year, to stabilise the financial giant, the report added.
"Starting this week, Citigroup is handing out pink slips toat least 10,000 employees..." the Journal reported.
In October, Citigroup reported a net loss of 2.8 billion dollars for the third quarter and said that its headcount was cut down by about 11,000 employees during the period.
In the first three quarters of this year, Citigroup cut down its workforce by about 23,000 persons.
Another report in the New York Times said that worst may be yet to come for Citi despite a year of losses, months of share price plunge and a 25 billion dollar government help.
The company's share price have lost nearly two-third of its value so far this year and figures among the top losers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index.
The New York Times report quoted unnamed Citi executives as saying that the bank has announced plans to cut 40,100 jobs as of the third quarter and "still needs to hand out pink slips to 9,100 workers to meet its goals and bankers are bracing for much of the bad news to arrive early next week."