Aishwarya Rai, Bindra and Dhoni among Padma awardees

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G Madhavan Nair, Sister Nirmala of the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna and Ashok S Ganguly, a member of the PM's Council on Trade and Industry, have been chosen for the Padma Vibhushan awards for this year.

Padma Bhushan has been awarded to technocrat and chairman of the National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda, journalist Shekhar Gupta, historian Ramchandra Guha, Lt Gen (retd) Satish Nambiar and Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra among others.

Other eminent personalities who will be conferred the Padma awards include cricketer and team India skipper M S Dhoni, Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Helen, composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar and singers Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan and Penaz Masani — all Padma Shri.

A total of 133 Padma awards were announced — 10 Padma Vibhushan, 30 Padma Bhushan and 93 Padma Shri.

Source : Times of India.

Infosys results for Fourth Quarter and Year ended

The benchmark index is flat in the early trade despite a better-than-expected third quarter result from IT bellwether Infosys. Most of the Asian markets are weak fell after Wall Street fell for the fourth session on Monday because of worries related to financial sector grew.

The Senex is up 57 points at 9,167 while Nifty is up 8 points at 2,781. Before the markets opened in India, Infosys reported its third quarter results. Software major Infosys Technologies announced a 33.31 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,641 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, over the corresponding period a year ago.

The Infosys stock is up over 4 per cent on better-than-expected numbers. Other Sensex stocks that are among the major gainers are Rel Infra and RCom, both up over 3 per cent.

Among the losers, Wipro and Tata Steel are down nearly 3 per cent. Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, the IT index is leading the gainers, up over 2 per cent, followed by the realty index.
Most of the major Asian markets are trading in the red on Tuesday after Dow fell 1.5 per cent on Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell for the fourth session Monday as oil prices tumbled and as worries about the financial sector grew. So far this year, the Dow is down 3.5 per cent.

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Thirumangalam Election Result

Thirumangalam Election Result - The bypoll for Thirumangalam Assembly constituency, will be held on 9th January 2009.

The constituency is witnessing a triangular contest between DMK's Latha Adiyaman, widow of a former party MLA, AIADMK's M. Muthuramalingam, the party's Madurai Rural District Deputy Secretary, and actor-politician Vijaykant's DMDK nominee T. Danapandiyan.

RESULTS ON MONDAY : Results for the much hyped Thirumangalam by-elections, said to be one of the most expensive for political parties in recent times, will be out by noon on Monday.

The counting of votes for the poll will begin at 8am at the Madurai Medical College premises.

Precautions are being taken to make the counting process tranparent by appointing additional counting assistants to support counting supervisors and assistants already appointed.

SNAP Test 2008 Result on January 10, 2009

The Results for SNAP Test held on 21st December 2008 for admission to MBA and other PGDM Programs in various institute under the Symbiosis International University will be declared on January 10, 2009.

The Result Page on Symbiosis website www.snaptest.org had earlier announced that the SNAP Results would be declared on January 7. On January 10, check out the link SNAP Test Result.

SNAP Results

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Soha Ali Khan is a busy girl in New year

Soha Ali Khan hasn’t touched down in Delhi for a while, but what surprised us the most when we ran into her, was the fact that the svelte actress was sporting sunglasses even though it was quite a foggy morning!

When we asked her why she was making the unusual style statement, she laughed, “It’s after a long gap that I’m back home and it’s nice to be back in Delhi with my friends and family. I was away for almost a month and a half in South Africa for the shooting of my next movie. Unfortunately on the last day of the shoot, I had an allergic reaction to a flower we had used during the shoot and my eyes got affected.

Thank God it happened just as the unit was packing up. Brilliant timing, na? I have to wear sunglasses now to protect my eyes. I’m also on antibiotics and lots of medicine.”
Soha is quite excited about her upcoming movies. She’s just finished with Dil Kabaddi and tells us about her other projects as well, saying, “I have many movies releasing this year. My next movie is a comedy and I really enjoy doing comic roles. It’s a nice change from my usual fare. I have just completed three movies – Dhoondte Reh Jaooge, 99 and Tera Kya Hoga Johnny – which are all coming out this year. I was in South Africa shooting for Kunal Deshmukh’s movie Tum Milein, with Emraan Hashmi. It was a great experience for me to work in this movie, as the role is quite different from anything that I have done before. We shot five weeks in South Africa and we will start again in January in Mumbai. I’m quite happy with the way the movie has turned out as it has a very interesting script.”

We asked her if she’s actively looking for a change of pace as far as the characters she plays on the silver screen are concerned, and she agrees, “I enjoy experimenting with new roles and it’s also helping me to grow as an actress. The idea is always to do new kinds of roles. It’s so easy to get into a creative rut. I’m also doing a Bengali movie with Aparna Sen, Goinar Baksho (Jewellery box). This movie will be quite interesting as it centres around three women – Konkona Sen, Moushumi Chatterjee and me. My mom is not a part of the movie, but she is part of it in spirit. She is always there by my side to support and encourage me. In this particular case she’s going to coach me in speaking in Bengali as I’m terrible at it!.”

On a lighter note, we ask her opinion of the much discussed Saif-Kareena link-up and she shrugs, “Seriously, I'm bored of talking about Saif and Kareena. I just don't understand why people walk up to me and ask about their relationship. I think it would be more appropriate to ask them directly. But yes, Kareena is a lovely person and I’m happy that she has made my brother happy.”
Soha has also grabbed the chance to spend some time with her family now that she’s back home. She tells us “I had been away for five weeks in South Africa, so now that I'm back home I would like to spend some quality time with my family. I will try to reconnect with my friends and family members this year.

One gets so busy sometimes that one forgets what is truly important. I was very distressed after hearing about the Mumbai terror attacks. I was in South Africa and it was horrible to see images of the Taj and Oberoi hotels. Luckily, no one close to me was affected directly by the tragedy. But I was watching the news constantly and the condition of the victims left me totally shaken. The New Year was also a very low key affair for me because of this”

And does she have any other projects apart from the movies she’s working on? Soha laughs “At the moment acting takes up all my time and energy. It’s very difficult to multi-task, so I find it very difficult to do anything else. I also love writing and enjoy sports like badminton and tennis.” Quite multifaceted isn’t she. Source : TOI