Daughter of DGCA No. 2 got licence from school with no plane

MUMBAI: They did not have even a single aircraft at their airport base, neither did they have a classroom or a hangar there, but in 2007, for some reason, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was benevolent enough to grant Raipur-based Touchwood Aviation the approval to start flying training for Commercial Pilot License (CPL) students. 

A month after it started, Rashmi Sharan, the daughter of A K Sharan, joint director general ofDGCA and its number two man, joined the school. Back then, Sharan was the deputy director general (training and licensing), the department which grants approval to flying training organisations. A year after Rashmi got her license and moved out, the school shut down. 

The case of Touchwood Aviation is an intriguing one as it is perhaps the only flying school in Indiato ever get a Flight Training Organisation approval even before it could position an aircraft at its base. It was also allowed to function, though it did not have the mandatory classroom or hangar at its airport base. 

So what are the violations here? 

1. According to Flying Training Circular (No 2/2005) issued by DGCA on May 2, 2005, flying schools/clubs "should have a minimum of three serviceable aircraft", among other requirements, to get an approval to start flying training for CPL students. At any given point of time, if the aircraft fleet falls below three, then the approval for training CPL students will be withdrawn, it states. 

"After the circular came into effect, the DGCA inspected all 16 flying schools in India at that time and flying schools with one or two aircraft scurried to increase their fleet to three," said an aviation source adding that the norms were adhered to in the annual inspections then on. 

When Touchwood Aviation was granted the Flying Training Approval in 2007, this circular, very much in effect — as it is today — was sidelined to grant the approval fraudulently. The proof of violation appears in the hand-written inspection report, dated 24 August 2007 (TOI has a copy) which grants Flight Training Approval to Touchwood. 

It was filed by Mohan Chandran, an official with Aerodrome Standards, Mumbai, after visiting Touchwood's Raipur facility and states that the school is yet to have an aircraft positioned at its base. Said an aviation source: "I do not know of any instance in India, where a flying school got an approval to start training even before it could position the aircraft and build a hangar." 

He added: "Let alone get an approval, the DGCA officials from the flying training department will not even come to inspect the school if the hangar and aircraft are not ready. Getting an approval only comes after site inspection," he added. 

2. How did the DGCA office, find ground facilities "satisfactory", when there was none at the airport base? Apart from the above-mentioned circular, Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), Section 7, Series D which pertains to approval of flying training instutites also states that a flying school's airport base should mandatorily have aircraft hangar, briefing room, waiting room, etc, for student use. 

But Touchwood Aviation had their office, briefing room, etc, at a place located about 10km from Raipur airport. They did not have any facility at the airport. "Students were ferried to the airport every morning and back in the evening. They would wait on open tarmac through the day for their turn to fly," said a source. 

The issue is not just of inconvenience. Having a briefing room on site is regarded as essential. For instance, before and after every flight, a student undergoes a briefing and a de-briefing session in the classroom. "In a briefing lesson, the flight to be undertaken would be discussed and instructions given so that the teacher and student do not waste time in the cockpit on lessons that can be given when on ground," said an instructor. 

"After a flight, the student is de-briefed and the mistakes and shortcomings are pointed out and instructions given to rectify them," he added. In case of Touchwood, there was no room in the airport for the de-briefing sessions, post flight. 

3. DGCA's flying training department is entrusted with the job of inspecting schools to grant/renew flying training approval. So why did the department waive all the norms for Touchwood? "Since Touchwood had not positioned any aircraft at its base or have a hangar, officials from the DGCA's flying training department refused to inspect the school," said an aviation source. 

Sharan, the then deputy director general (training and licensing), sent Chandran, an official from the aerodrome standards department in Mumbai, to do the Touchwood inspection, the source added. Based on the inspection report filed by Chandran, Touchwood was given an approval for six months, which was later renewed. 

Director General Bharat Bhushan said that he was looking into the case. Manjit Singh, owner of Touchwood Aviation, said that nine students, including Rashmi Sharan, completed their CPL from his school. It shut down in August 2009. Rashmi did her training between September 24, 2007 and October 7, 2008. 

"Airports Authority of India, the owner of Raipur airport, asked Touchwood to pay 13% of the gross turnover since the time of starting school. This made us economically unviable," Singh said about the closure of the school. He confirmed that no hangar space was allotted by AAI at Raipur airport. "All scheduled and periodic maintenance was done in the hangar at Raigarh airport in Chattisgarh," he added. 

Touchwood said that if it gets airport space at rates which are economically viable, it would start operations. But other flying school promoters will vouch that getting a DGCA approval to start a flying training organisation is not an easy task.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Daughter-of-DGCA-No-2-got-licence-from-school-with-no-plane/articleshow/8094783.cms

Adobe India doles out up to 200% bonus

BANGALORE: At Adobe's India centre, bonuspayouts are not just linked to meeting key result areas (KRAs) or targets, but also to how innovative employees have been through the year. 

This year, the company doled out bonuses up to 200 per cent, a reflection of the firm notching up 200 patent applications to its name over the years, second only to the number of patents applied from its US office. 

The company has 40 per cent of its global research and development talent in India and one of its most profitable global business units, the firm has five in total, is fully managed here. 

"In India, the opportunity for us is talent arbitrage, not cost arbitrage. We choose the best people from the highest ranked colleges like the IITs and other tier I technology schools and make every effort to keep them together," says Jaleel Abdul, senior director, human resources, Adobe Asia-Pacific. 

To keep the flock together, the company is paying top dollar for top-notch talent, 50-60 per cent higher than most other tier I firms. It has promoted 30 per cent of its engineering staff last year and ensured that employees have full ownership of products that are commercialised and are not involved with just a part of the product, as is often the case with global technology firms which has research centres here. 

Employees also get customer feedback on products. Adobe pumps in significant resources to see a patent application through to its end, a process that could take several years and keeps its employees updated through the process. "A patent is a measure of technical excellence and that probably is the biggest high. It is about saying I invented something no one else thought of before," Abdul said. 

"The annual incentive plan or bonus payouts are based on the company's performance and individual performance. Performance is measured with reference to the Leading to Win criteria which includes thought leadership, results leadership, people leadership and personal leadership. The payouts are contingent on differentiated value added by recipients on all four quadrants of Leading to Win criteria. In addition to this, the company also gives out significant special bonuses to employees who work on innovative ideas that get patented," he added. 

The company has seen a significant increase in the number of patents it has been applying for every year. A growing headcount is also lifting the number of the patent filings, now at almost one every year. 

At a time when most technology firms have been a grappling with huge churn, Adobe says attrition has been in single digits and one sign of employees staying with the company for long periods is that today is because large part of its leadership team has come through the campus route. 

Adobe has also increased hiring significantly this year. It has 1,800 employees and has been increasing headcount at 15-17 per cent a year in the past. In the first three months of this year the company has already hired 350 people.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/Adobe-India-doles-out-up-to-200-bonus/articleshow/8087920.cms

Threat to life of Sai Baba's caregiver & personal doctor

HYDERABAD: With intelligence reports hinting that there was threat to the life of Sathya Sai Baba's caregiver Satyajit and personal doctor Dr Aiyar, the state government on Monday advised both of them to make fewer public appearance for some time. 

As the report also cautioned that certain elements were trying to eliminate some persons who were close to the Baba, the government beefed up security for all the trust members. Satyajit is a front runner for the top post in the Sathya Sai Central Trust with majority of its members openly expressing their preference for him. 

Dr Aiyar was criticised by many devotees for not maintaining any medical records of Sai Baba, some of them, even made threat calls to him while Baba was in hospital. This was revealed by Prasanthi Nilayam sources.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Threat-to-life-of-Sai-Babas-caregiver-personal-doctor/articleshow/8085008.cms

57 Indian firms in Forbes Global 2000 list

WASHINGTON: As many as 57 Indian companies including Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. figure in TheForbes Global 2000 list of public companies based on their rankings for sales, profits, assets and market value. 

Reliance with sales of $45.3 billion is ranked 121st in the list with three public State Bank of India Group (136, $29.1 billion), Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (172, 22.6 billion) and Indian Oil (243, $52.1 billion) taking the next three places among the Indian firms. 

Other companies in India's top ten were ICICI Bank (288, $13.2 billion), NTPC (348, $10.8 billion), Coal India (418, $10.4 billion), Bharti Airtel (453, $9.3 billion), Larsen & Toubro(499, $9.8 billion) and Tata Motors (512, $20.2 billion). 

JPMorgan Chase is in the top spot for the second consecutive year as the world's largest company followed by HSBC, up six spots fuelled by a 121 percent growth in profits in the past fiscal year. 

In total, the Global 2000 companies now account for $32 trillion in revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $138 trillion in assets and $38 trillion in market value. These firms also employ 80 million people worldwide. 

The Asia-Pacific region led The Global 2000 again this year with 701 companies, including the most additions (11) to the list of the regions - Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa-EMEA, the Americas and the US - with doubled profits, by far the biggest increase. 

The biggest profit centre was China, as 121 companies, including PetroChina, ICBC and Sinopec, returned an aggregate profit of $168 billion. Japan and South Korea also showed impressive gains in profits and assets. 

With the US economy back on its feet, growing at a steady 3 percent clip over the past 12 months, American firms on The Forbes Global 2000 are growing far faster. Total sales were up 12 percent in 2010 over 2009, and profits continue to rise-up 69 percent, versus 56 percent for the S&P 500. 

Still, the US grip on The Global 2000 has been slipping since 2004, when the number of US constituents was 751. It's now 536. The US still accounts for the most firms among the top 100 with 28.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/57-Indian-firms-in-Forbes-Global-2000-list/articleshow/8063766.cms

Steve Jobs to return 'as soon as he can': Cook

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple's ailing chief executiveSteve Jobs remains involved in major strategic decisions at the company and hopes to return to work full-time as soon as he can, a top Appleexecutive said. 

"He is still on medical leave but we do see him on a regular basis," Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook told financial analysts during a conference call to discuss the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings. 

"And as we've previously said he continues to be involved in major strategic decision," Cook said. "I know he wants to be back full-time as soon as he can." 

Jobs, 56, went on medical leave in January, his third since 2004, but has retained his title of chief executive at Apple. 

Jobs underwent an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009, but Apple has not released any details about his latest health issues. 

Apple's fortunes have been uniquely linked to Jobs, who returned to the then flagging company in 1997 after a 12-year absence and introduced innovative and wildly successful products like the iPod,iPhone and iPad.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/hardware/Steve-Jobs-to-return-as-soon-as-he-can-Cook/articleshow/8045885.cms

Nokia gives good news finally!

HELSINKI: Nokia Corp has reported better than expected first quarter profits despite confirming that its market share around the world dropped below 30 percent for the first time in over a decade, as the world's top cellphone maker continued to lose ground to its rivals. 

Though the Finnish company said its net profit for the quarter fell €5 million to €344 million ($499 million) a year earlier, the markets were impressed by the news that operating profit only fell 14 percent during the period instead of the anticipated 40 percent decline. 

Nokia shares were up 3 percent at €6.11 ($8.87) in afternoon trading in Helsinki. 

Elsewhere in its statement, Nokia revealed that its revenues grew by 9 percent to €10.40 billion from €9.52 billion in the same period in 2010, while smartphone sales were up 6 percent at €7 billion. 

Despite the increase in smartphone sales, Nokia confirmed that its overall global market share plunged to 29 percent, from 33 percent a year earlier and 31 percent in the previous quarter. 

CEO Stephen Elop said Nokia has now signed a "definitive" deal with Microsoft Corp to develop software for smartphones "and that product design and engineering work was well under way." 

But he cautioned that the company faced "a more challenging second quarter.'' 

Nokia said the tsunami and earthquake in Japan had disrupted the supply of some components linked to Japanese suppliers and would impact its results in the second quarter. 

Nokia is the world's top cellphone maker but faces stiff competition in top-end smartphones from Apple Inc's iPhone, Android-based handsets and Research in Motion's Blackberry. 

However, Nokia said it sold 24 million smartphones, 13 percent more than in 2010. 

Total handset sales were only slightly up at 108.5 million, Nokia said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/telecom/Nokia-gives-good-news-finally/articleshow/8047232.cms

As Sai Baba's condition worsens, succession war hots up in Puttaparthi

HYDERABAD: Even as devotees continue to be on edge about the health situation of Sathya Sai Baba, the names of his nephew R J Ratnakar and his caregiver, Satyajit, are emerging as possible persons who may have a bigger say in the Satya Sai Baba Central Trust. 

Sai Baba is the chairman of the trust that controls various activities being carried out in his name. 

Ratnakar (39) controls the cable TV transmission in Puttaparthi and also is a dealer of a Hindustan Petroleum petrol pump in Puttaparthi. Satyajit (33) who joined the Satya Sai school at the age of 5, studied at the Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning where he completed his MBA standing first in the university. He offered to serve the Baba for his entire life and rose to become his personal caregiver. 

Even as doctors were attending the Baba — his weight has dropped to a mere 32 kg on his 25th day of hospitalization — the family members of the spiritual leader engaged with trust members about who will lead the organization in the post-Sai scenario. 

"Both the trust members and Baba's close family members agreed that Ratnakar and Satyajit could have a greater say in running the trust post-Sai Baba," said a source. 

Ratnakar is said to have some political links, though he himself is not a member of any party. His father Janakiramaiah, younger brother of Baba, was vice president of the Anantapur district Congress Committee from 1989 to 2000. He is the only family member who was made a member of the trust by Baba. 

On the other hand, Satyajit has been serving as personal attendant of Saibaba since 2002 and is reputed to be the only person who can allow access to any outsider to Yajur Mandir, the sanctum of Saibaba in Prasanti Nilayam. 

Some of the devotees of Saibaba and his family members are said to be upset over the fact that the trust is dominated by Tamils. 

"The central trust has as its members K Chakravarthi and R V Srinivasan. Now, Satyajit, also a Tamil Brahmin, is being foisted by them to run the trust affairs," said a family member who did not want to be identified. However, some sources say Saibaba hinted two days before his 85th birthday in November last year that Satyajit should be made a member of the central trust. 

On Thursday, at meeting among trust officials, family members and Andhra Pradesh government representatives Geeta Reddy (major industries minister) and L V Subramanyam (principal secretary, finance), the trust and family members agreed not to air any adverse comment against one another and maintain public decorum.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/As-Sai-Babas-condition-worsens-succession-war-hots-up-in-Puttaparthi/articleshow/8052662.cms

Exports rise 37.5% to a record high of $246bn

NEW DELHI: India's exports rose 37.5% in 2010-11 to touch a record $246 billion as traders targeted new markets and gained from improved sentiments in the US and Europe. Provisional numbers released by the commerce department on Tuesday showed that engineering goods and petroleum helped exporters close the year with nearly 25% higher exports than the $200 billion targeted by the government (see table). 

But oil appeared to be the main culprit when it came to imports, which rose 21.5% to $350.3 billion during the last financial year. Oil imports crossed the $100 billion mark to close the year at $101.7 billion, with the possibility of upward revision. Higher-than-budgeted exports, however, helped the economy deal with a lower than estimated trade deficit of $104.4 billion, which may be revised to $105-110 billion. At the present level, it was lower than $109 billion in 2009-10. 

With trade adding up to nearly $600 billion in 2010-11, it now accounts for nearly 50% of India'sgross domestic product (GDP). While there was all-round cheer and expectation of reaching the $450 billion export target ahead of the 2014 deadline, the government warned that a steep rise during the current financial year might be a tough task. To begin with, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma warned of the possible adverse impact of higher global oil prices, which would push up production costs. 

Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar added growth worries in the US and Europe and problems in Japan to the list. "At the moment, 2011 is not looking very good," he said while adding that the government would try to push for a 25% growth in the current financial year too. In March, exports went up by 43.9% to $29.1 billion, while imports rose 17.3% to 34.7 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $5.6 billion.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Exports-rise-375-to-a-record-high-of-246bn/articleshow/8032392.cms

Another malady, another Pulitzer: Indian Doc's book on cancer wins prize

WASHINGTON: She is an interpreter of maladies. He's the biographer of one of the great maladies of all time. Dr Siddharth Mukherjee, a New Delhi-born oncologist, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prizefor his book "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer," more than a decade afterJhumpa Lahiri won the prize for her similarly-titled collection of short stories. 

While the New York-based Lahiri won the 2000 Pulitzer for fiction, Dr Mukherjee, 41, who also lives in Big Apple, has been awarded the 2011 prize for general non-fiction. In its citation, the Pulitzer committee described the book, which has won rave reviews, as "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science." 

Mukherjee joins a growing band of Indian-origin physicians who seem endowed with literary DNA. Among them, Dr Abraham Verghese, who began his writing career in the late 1980s with "My Own Country: A Doctor's story," which centered on the AIDS in the US, Dr Atul Gawande, a staff writer for the New Yorker and most recently author of 'The Checklist Manifesto," and Dr Deepak Chopra, the new age spiritual guru of mind-body dynamics, whose books are numerous. 

Mukherjee, who is currently serving as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and is also a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center, began his writing career more recently after an encounter with a patient who had stomach cancer, who told him she was willing to go on fighting, but she needed to know what she was battling. He couldn't point her to a book that could explain cancer, and he began writing as an answer to her query. 

Mukherjee tells the stories of several cancer patients and survivors, while recognizing pioneering researchers, including the breakthrough provided by the Indian scientist, Yellapragada Subba Rao (1895-1948) who synthesized the Folic Acid for the first antifolate clinical trials conducted by Sidney Farber, who initiated the treatment of childhood leukemia. 

Largely unrecognized and forgotten both in India and in the US (where he spent much of his career), Subba Rao is also credited with developing Methotrexate, one of the first cancer chemotherapy agents and still in widespread clinical use. In his book, Mukherjee muses about why Subba Rao, who came from the provincial town of Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh, never got his due (his peers won the Nobel), describing him as "a reclusive, nocturnal, heavily accented vegetarian who lived in a one-room apartment downtown, befriended only by other nocturnal recluses." 

Mukherjee came from a slightly different India to a more welcoming US. After schooling in New Delhi (St. Columba's, five years junior to Shah Rukh Khan), he went on to major in biology atStanford University, before winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he earned a Ph.D. in immunology. After graduation, he attended Harvard Medical School to train as an internist and won an oncology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is married to the artist Sarah Sze, who is herself an accomplished sculptor and a recipient of the 2003 MacArthur Fellows "genius grant." 

Incidentally, Lahiri and Mukherjee are not the first Pulitzer winners of Indian-origin. That honor belongs to Gobind Bihari Lal, a US-based science writer (and contemporary of Subba Rao), who shared the 1937 Pulitzer with three other Americans "for their coverage of science at the tercentenary of Harvard University," -- the same university which denied Subba Rao a regular faculty position forcing him to go work at Lederle Laboratories. 

Although the Pulitzer award carries a modest prize of $10,000, the book will get another publicity bump, adding to the already significant critical acclaim. Published by Simon and Schuster in 2010, it was nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and made the Top Ten list under various categories in The New York Times, Time magazine and The Oprah magazine. 

Among the finalists Mukherjee pipped in non-fiction category were Nicholas Carr for "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain," and SC Gwynne for "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Another-malady-another-Pulitzer-Indian-Docs-book-on-cancer-wins-prize/articleshow/8029070.cms

After Pakistan missile test, India flexes muscle

NEW DELHI: Diplomatic re-engagement may have begun afresh but both sides are keeping their powder dry. The 1.13-million strong Indian Army is honing its war-fighting machinery with a major combat exercise, codenamed "Vijayee Bhava'' (Be Victorious), in the Thar desert to practice "high tempo'' operations to cut across the border. 

Squeamish for long with India's "pro-active conventional war strategy'', or what is colloquially dubbed the "cold start'' doctrine, Pakistan in turn test-fired a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile Hatf-IX on Tuesday. 

Given that Hatf-IX has a strike range of only 60 km, it is clearly intended for brandishing as a "battlefield nuclear weapon'' to deter Indian armoured forces from launching rapid thrusts into its territory. 

"Pakistan already has the long and medium range Shaheen and Ghauri series of missiles, acquired with help of China and North Korea, to act as the delivery mechanism for strategic nuclear weapons,'' said a senior Indian official. 

"So, with this new missile, Islamabad seems to be looking at tactical nuclear deterrence against advancing enemy formations. But it is being foolhardy if it thinks nuclear weapons are war-fighting weapons,'' he added. 

India, of course, has its own nuclear and missile plans. It may be steadfast about adhering to a "no first-use'' of nuclear weapons but has made it amply clear that a nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be "massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage''. 

The "Vijayee Bhava'' exercise, of course, is more conventional in nature, even though the combat manoeuvres may be simulated under "a NBC (nuclear, chemical, biological) overhang''. 

The exercise, which will enter its peak phase in early-May, is being primarily conducted by the armoured corps-intensive 2 Corps, considered to be the most crucial of Army's three principal "strike'' formations tasked with virtually cutting Pakistan into two during a full-fledged war, said sources. 

Incidentally, the 2 Corps based in Ambala is aptly called the `Kharga Corps', taking its name and formation sign from the deadly scythe wielded by Goddess Kali to vanquish enemies. 

"In 2009, the 2 Corps had conducted the `Hind Shakti' exercise to fine-tune the pro-active strategy, which is all about mobilizing fast and hitting hard at several border points to catch the enemy unawares and gain momentum,'' said a source. 

"The `Vijayee Bhava' exercise, which will also include elements from other Western Army Command (WAC) formations like the Jalandhar-based 11 Corps, will further validate operational concepts,'' he added. 

With hundreds of tanks, artillery guns and over 30,000 soldiers, the exercise geared for "network-centric operations'' will see the extensive use of satellite imagery, helicopter-borne surveillance systems, spy drones and a wide array of land-based radars to "achieve battlefield transparency''. 

As reported by TOI earlier, after Operation Parakram in 2002 took almost a month to reach D-Day readiness, India has reorganized Army formations all along the western front to enable a more swift and powerful offensive punch. 

It was under this overall plan that the South-Western Command (SWAC) was created at Jaipur in 2005 as the Army's sixth operational command. With the Mathura-based 1 `Strike' Corps and Bhatinda-based 10 `Pivot' Corps under it, SWAC is responsible for offensive operations on the western front in conjunction with the Western Army Command (Chandimandir), which controls the 2 `Strike' Corps. 

The Northern and Southern Army Commands, with the latter having the Bhopal-based 21 `Strike' Corps, at Udhampur and Pune respectively, will of course also play a crucial part in the event of a war but it will be SWAC and WAC which will assume the pivotal roles. 

Moreover, both the western and southwestern commands of IAF have also stepped up coordination with the different Army commands in the western theatre to synergize efforts to build "an integrated and organic'' air-land war-fighting machinery.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/After-Pakistan-missile-test-India-flexes-muscle/articleshow/8031113.cms