Keep yourself busy to stay happy

People who have something to do, even if pointless, are happier than those who sit idle, say researchers.

The study was conducted by Christopher K. Hsee and Adelle X. Yang of the University of Chicago and Liangyan Wang of the Shanghai Jiaotong University.

"The general phenomenon I'm interested in is why people are so busy doing what they are doing in modern society," says Hsee. 


Sure, there are reasons, like making a living, earning money, accruing fame, helping others, and so on, reported the Psychological Science journal.

But, Hsee says, "I think there's something deeper: We have excessive energy and we want to avoid idleness."

For the study, volunteers completed a survey, then had to wait 15 minutes before the next survey would be ready.

They could drop off the completed survey at a nearby location and wait out the remaining time or drop it off at a location, where walking back and forth would keep them busy for the 15 minutes.

Either way, they would receive a candy when they handed in their survey. Volunteers who chose to stay busy by going to the faraway locations were found to be happier than those who chose to be idle. 

Sitting too long 'ups death risk'

A new study has found that the more time people spent sitting down, the greater their risk of death.

American Cancer Society researcher Alpa Patel says that irrespective of the physical activity you get, the amount of time spent sitting can up death risk.

The study found that more leisure time spent sitting was associated with higher risk of mortality, particularly in women.
Women who reported more than six hours per day of sitting were 37 percent more likely to die during the time period studied than those who sat fewer than 3 hours a day.

Men who sat more than 6 hours a day were 18 percent more likely to die than those who sat fewer than 3 hours per day.
Associations were stronger for cardiovascular disease mortality than for cancer mortality.

"Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases," said Patel.

The authors conclude that "public health messages and guidelines should be refined to include reducing time spent sitting in addition to promoting physical activity.

The study appears early online in the American Journal of Epidemiology. (ANI)

India Inc on hiring spree in July-Sept

India Inc on a hiring spree
Post-slump, hiring plans of corporate India is at its best for the current July-September quarter, driven by infrastructure, manufacturing and telecom sectors, said the latest employment outlook report by recruitment firm TeamLease.
According to the study, hiring sentiment is at an 18- month high for the July-September quarter. The net employment outlook index saw a six per cent jump to 64 index points for the reviewed three- month period compared to the previous quarter.
According to the report, barring healthcare and pharma sectors, all other segments are upbeat about their hiring plans.
Hiring sentiment is highest in the infrastructure sector with a 21 per cent increase, followed by manufacturing and engineering & telecom sectors with 13 per cent and 11 per cent increases, respectively.
Among cities, Delhi has the highest hiring sentiment with a 19 per cent increase in the index, followed by Mumbai and Ahmedabad with 14 per cent increases each. However, hiring sentiments is seen in the negative zone in Chennai and Kolkata.
Interestingly, Tier-II cities have experienced a significant increase (three per cent) in hiring intent to 19 per cent, indicative of the talent supply potential of these geographies.
After being the most neglected zones by potential employers, the junior and entry-level zones are now finding favouring with employers.
Hiring at the junior and entrylevels of organisational hierarchy are set to make a strong comeback with 17 per cent and 11 per cent increases in hiring intent (respectively), which was worst hit and remained stagnant for the past 24 years, the report said.
This, however, has cut significantly into mid-and senior-level hiring and demand in this segment is seen to be decreasing.
According to the report the number of companies in the 'Not Hiring' category has dipped to a 12- month low of 12 per cent.
This is a drop of eight per cent. Sales, marketing and customer care have registered the highest increase of eight per cent among functional areas.
"We are seeing positive hiring intentions over the past few months, and are expecting this to continue. There is also a gradual increase in the intent to hire from Tier-II cities, which shows that companies are looking well beyond urban markets for tapping talent," Sangeeta Lala, vice president, TeamLease Services, said.
"This is also an indicator of consistent and steady growth across business size, sectors and geographies. The opportunities in Tier-II cities are encouraging and might be an answer to the geographic mismatch present in the country," she added.
TeamLease's Business Outlook Index also rose by five per cent to 61 index points. However, it has doubled itself over the course of four quarters.
The study, which covered 568 companies, focused on employment growth potential, business outlook and hiring forecasts in relation to location and company profile.

Mahatma Gandhi's long-forgotten diary recovered

Though Gandhi never called himself a Hindu nat...Image via Wikipedia
Mahatma Gandhi's diary written during the year of Indian Independence and held till recently under private possession will soon be open for public viewing at the National Archives here.

The small diary handwritten by the Bapu in Gujarati is among a collection of other letters and documents handed over to the Archives by Varsha Das, former director of the Gandhi National Museum.
"We received Gandhi's diary 10 days back along with a collection of other documents from Varsha Das, the former director of the Gandhi National Museum," Rajesh Verma, Assistant Director, National Archives of India told PTI.

Meena Jain, a childhood friend of Das had handed over to her, Gandhi's diary and other documents containing letters and several diaries written by Manu Behn, the niece of Mahatma Gandhi.
"I handed over the collection to the Archives in the first week of July as we do not display the original diary and documents at the Museum. Also, the Archives has the facility of temperature control that is suitable for the preservation of the diary whose pages are in a fragile condition," Das told PTI.
The worn and yellow pages of the diary dated between April 13 to December 29, 1947 has detailed jottings by the late leader mostly in blue ink with also several entries in pencil all in Gujarati.

"The diary is a national as well as a world's treasure. By keeping it in the Archives one will get to know a little more about Mahatma Gandhi's life and work than what we know at present," says Das.

Apart from Gandhi's diary the collection received by the National Archives contains 19 diaries written by Gandhi's niece Manu Behn along with several assorted pages with bangla alphabets, pencil notes written in Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati as well as some illegible writings, a source at the National Archives said.
"The 19 diaries by Gandhi's niece contain her writings as well as several letters as old as 1944 that are addressed to her by Zakir Hussain, Indira Gandhi and other leaders and freedom fighters," adds the source.

The entire collection would be kept in ten folders in a chronological order at the Archives.
Varsha Das, who was also formerly Director, The National Book Trust says, "A lot will be revealed through these diaries." The Archives would laminate and produce a digitised version of the Gandhi's diary which is expected to benefit researchers and scholars, she adds.

Rajesh Verma says,"A specific division would be assigned to preserve these documents." The Mahatma's diary would be kept separately from those of Manu Behn, he adds.

The diary is yet to be translated from Gujarati to various languages for the benefits of researchers and scholars who are interested in reading about Gandhi.

"We are looking for a person who can translate these Gujarati documents. We will get it done as soon as possible before it is open for public use," says Verma.

"People who know Gujarati can access the diary even now. In order to facilitate greater dissemination we plan to translate it into Hindi and English too," says the Assistant director.

Besides, the personal diary, an album of Mahatma Gandhi capturing his 1925 Madras tour, highlights of his visits, addresses, arrivals, speeches and public functions along with other items including undated press clippings, a 1942 calender, telegrams and a photocopy of a few Gujarati couplets would also be showcased at the National Archives.

Zero To 1050 mph In 42 Seconds!

bloodhoundssc


Believe it or not, a jet-propelled vehicle is almost set to break the land speed record, that too at an incredible 1,050 mph. A life-size replica of the Bloodhound supersonic car (Bloodhound SSC) was on display at the Farnborough International Airshow, Hampshire on Monday, July 19.
The car will be powered by both a Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine and a rocket engine, generating a combined thrust of 47,500 lb. (or 212 kN of force), the equivalent of 180 Formula One racing cars.


The Bloodhound is about 42 feet long, nine feet high and two feet wide, with a wheelbase of about 29 feet and a mass of more than 14,100 pounds.
The current land speed record is held by ThrustSSC, a twin turbofan-powered car which broke the sound barrier, reaching 763 mph at Black Rock Desert, Nevada on October 15, 1997.



Murali gets 800 - Murali delivers on a big occasion, again


A man who averages 24.48 in 34 ODI tournament finals, conceding runs at 4.1 an over, cannot be accused of not having a sense of occasion. And his farewell Test has been some occasion. You can't escape the farewell Test. The road from the team hotel to the ground, some 40km along the coast, is full of Murali posters. The Galle International Stadium is full of Murali: banners, cut-outs, messages, an electronic countdown to 800 wickets, the works. The Galle Fort overlooking the stadium has two giant Murali cut-outs. Every cricketer who has spoken in public has been asked to pay tribute to Murali. There have been guards of honour, 21-gun salutes, his family has been on the TV camera most of the time.
Muttiah Muralitharan acknowledges his five-wicket haul, Sri Lanka v India, 1st Test, Galle, 4th day, July 21, 2010
It is only natural to feel some nerves going into your final Test, ending 18 years of as many ups as downs. But Murali remained unfazed and did what he does best
It is only natural to feel some nerves going into your final Test, ending 18 years of as many ups as downs. Memories must have flown, he must have thought of his future. In between, there was a Test match to be won. There were fears if the farewell would distract the team. Would he himself be able to concentrate and bring his best for one last time, especially given his recent lean form? This man, however, has left worse distractions, worse pressures, behind when walking on to the field to represent Sri Lanka. "Boss, when I go out, I don't think about these things," he says. "My job is to get batsmen out, I think about that only."
And get batsman out he did on his penultimate day of Test cricket. Also on display was the big offbreak that seems to have gradually become smaller ever since he began bowling the doosra. The way he got MS Dhoni's wicket is any offspinner's dream. Dhoni had not just come in - he had his eye in, having scored 33. The ball drifted away from him, dipped too, Dhoni's feet played the original line, the bat went chasing the ball, and then it spun, spun big, through the gate, kissing the inside edge, not enough to alter its track, and found the stumps.
Inexplicably Murali had been kept away from action for 17 overs in the morning. Even after Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman were had, Kumar Sangakkara let Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni settle. Even Tillakaratne Dilshan was used before Murali. It was as if he was being set a challenge - do it from here, with India just 105 short of saving the follow-on. He didn't start off too well, bowling two long hops in his first over, which were duly dispatched by Dhoni.
Soon, though, came that magic ball. With the sight of tail in, Murali squeezed into the door left ajar. We were right up Murali's alley, with runs on board, no hope of a win for the opposition, the batsmen uncertain. Of all the times in the world, you don't want to face Murali at such a time. Yuvraj, who had played well for his 52, was drawn out, he wasn't sure which way the ball would turn, had to play at it, and Mahela Jayawardene hardly ever drops those edges off Murali.
The tail was easy for Murali. Pragyan Ojha wasn't the first batsman poking at one outside off, fearing the doosra, edging it away. For Abhimanyu Mithun he produced the sharp offbreak again, finishing his 67th five-for. "You have to ask him if felt any nerves," Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka's coach, said. "But this is the first time I've seen Murali showing a bit of emotion after taking those five wickets. Throwing his arms in the air... I'm sure he's happy with the way he's gone so far in the match."
In the second innings, perhaps the age showed. The trajectory got flatter, more doosras were bowled than the big offbreaks. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, although for not enough time from India's point of view, batted expertly, denying Murali for long. The ball, though, doesn't know how old you are. Murali stayed at the batsmen for 18 long overs. Whatever might have happened earlier in the day, there was no way that in dying light, anybody else was going to bowl the last over of the day.
In the 13th over of that spell, Murali got Yuvraj in similar fashion as in the morning. This one was pitched middle and off, he had to play at it, it spun away sharply, Jayawardene was there again, with his fingers under the dying ball. Murali is having some drink for the road.
Source: Cricinfo.com

Airtel to bring iPhone 4 in India

The much hyped iPhone 4 would soon hit the Indian mobile market if all goes well between the country's largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, and the handset maker, Apple. 

"We are working with Apple. Hopefully in the September-October time frame we would launch the phone," Sanjay Kapoor, Chief Executive of Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia), told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference. 



Earlier in June, Vodafone Essar had spoken of its plans to launch the iPhone 4 in India, without specifying a timeframe for the same. 

On the rollout of Broadband Wireless Access services in four circles - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab - which it bagged for Rs.3,314.36 crore, Kapoor said they were still to decide on the technology that will be used. 

Airtel, which won 13 circles in the auction of airwaves for third generation (3G) telephony spectrum, shelling out Rs.12,295.46 crore ($2.73 billion), has also started gearing up its network to enable a quicker rollout of such services. 

Bharti Airtel already sells iPhone 3GS in India priced at Rs 35,500 for the 16 GB model and Rs. 41,500 for the 32GB model.

Apple had last month announced the launch of the iPhone 4 with a sharper screen and video-chat features in an attempt to ward-off competition from devices running Google's Android software.

"As far as 3G is concerned, a very large amount of the network is 3G ready. We are working towards an aggressive timeline," 

Henry retires from international soccer


France's all-time leading goalscorer Thierry Henry has announced his retirement from international soccer.Henry confirmed his decision on the day he was presented as a New York Red Bulls player having signed a multi-year contract with MLS side after leaving Spanish champions Barcelona.

The 32-year-old scored 51 goals for his country but only made two substitute appearances as France were knocked in the group stages at the World Cup.

The squad returned in disgrace after refusing to train two days before a vital game but Henry says France's dismal showing had nothing to do with his decision.

"South Africa didn't play any part in it. My decision was taken right before the World Cup," he told reporters in New York.
"I could have announced my decision before the World Cup but I didn't want to put that kind of cloud on the team. I think it was time for me to stop after the World Cup.''

Asked what went wrong at the World Cup Henry replied: "I actually would like to know myself. I don't know what it was.

"From a personal point of view, I am always going to respect the decision of the coach. It was [Raymond Domenech's] decision not to play me and I respect that.

"Lots of stuff was invented unfortunately. I just like to stick to the pitch, and the problem was we didn't play very well. That's the only thing we should be talking about right now. We didn't perform. It's as simple as that.

"We had a good atmosphere, but when you don't perform well it is difficult. For me, you can also have a lot of stuff happening when you win. We just didn't play well. I will stick to this.

"I think the team should move on now with Laurent Blanc in position as the coach, and hopefully they can qualify for the European Championships and do well in that competition.''

As for his move to New York, Henry said a switch to the United States was something he had been thinking about for "four or five months."

"I can assure you I have come here to try to win, that is the most important thing,'' Henry said. "I am a competitive person and I'm sure the boss can put a team out there to do it.

"I've met some people who came to MLS before and played for this club. I played with a guy you know well, Youri Djorkaeff, and know Claudio Reyna too.

"For me there was not any other option than New York Red Bulls. I wanted to represent New York. I love this city. It was a no brainer for me.''

IIT post-graduate gives Rupee its symbol

Verdict on the Rupee symbolThe jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar's design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval.

Kumar's symbol is an amalgam of the Devanagari 'Ra' and the Roman capital 'R' without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. "We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture," Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister's approval, said a Ministry official.
The Ministry had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.

While the basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country's economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation 'Rs' which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Kumar's concept, an official said, is based on the Tricolour and "arithmetic equivalence". While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for 'equals to', representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world.

When contacted, Kumar said he was unaware of his design having been ranked first by the jury. "I hope your news is real," he told The Indian Express from IIT Bombay. He joins IIT Guwahati as a faculty member in the Department of Design tomorrow.

Bharti loses top tech honcho to RCom

In a major executive movement, Bharti Airtel lost its CTO Jagbir Singh who moved in as the president of Technology and Networks at Reliance Communications (RCom). This is a crucial change in the run-up to the start of 3G networks in India.

Singh held his post at Bharti since November 2001. He led the complete mobility network team, 3G strategy and planning team and Wimax deployment team at Bharti and was responsible for strategic planning of mobile network, providing strategic direction, deciding the network architecture and network vision. 

He was also responsible for Bharti's international ventures of 2G and 3G networks in Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Channel Islands in the UK.

With over 20 years in the Telecom field, Singh has had working experiences with Nortel (in Asia-Pacific role), Lucent Technologies and Defense Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Government of India. 


Bangalore-based firm launches first Indian web browser 'Epic'

Indians have a new cause to celebrate with the launch of the first Indian made web browser aptly called 'Epic'. Released by a Bangalore-based software firm, Hidden Reflex, Epic is based on the Mozilla platform.

The unique feature that sets Epic apart from other browsers is that it has a built-in antivirus protection. The integrated antivirus and antispyware has been powered by ESET. 



The web browser can be customized as per the user's desire. You can change the background and themes according to your preference. And there are over 1,500 free themes to choose from. The browser's has a number of apps in its sidebar like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut etc. You can directly launch them from the sidebar.

The Epic is highly Indian in its look and feel. The 'Indic' app in the browser lets you type in 12 Indian languages.

The browser makers claim maximum privacy by giving features such as one-click private data deletion, flash cookie deletion built-in and no storage of browsing history. Faster downloads and browsing are some of the other claims made by the Epic developers. So what are you waiting for? Go check and experience it for yourself. After all such innovations reinforce our feelings of being a proud Indian. 

The number of i-banks increases in India

The number of investment banks (i-bank) in India is increasing day by day. According to industry estimates, at least 300 i-banks have been set up in India over the past 18 months, compared to only 50-60 new i-banks in 2006-07, when fund-raising was at its peak, reports Deeepti Chaudhary of Mint.

Experts said that number Indian firms are raising funds for acquisitions now, though i-banks have been around for long. And i-banks are looking to have a share of benefit. 



According to Deepak Srinath, director of Viedea Capital Advisors, a Bangalore-based boutique i-bank, if it's a good deal a number of i-bankers are available. "It's like real estate brokering now", said Srinath.

Boutique i-banks typically handle sub-$25 million (Rs115 crore) deals, that helps in areas like fund-raising, debt, and private equity (PE) and venture capital investments.

There are about 15 multinational investment bankers in India now. On the other hand, the nuber of homegrown i-banks lies in between 15 to 20. There are nearly 1,000 small i-banks in India with one or two partners. Most of the i-banks that have come up since early 2009 are in this last category.

In April 2009, Renuka Ramnath, then Managing Director and Chief Executive at ICICI Venture Funds Management, quit to float PE Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Ajay Relan quit as Managing Director and India Head of Citi Venture Capital International in 2008 to launch CX Partners, writes Chaudhary.