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The national highway passing Kolar, 70km from Bangalore, has seen a lot of red on its surface for years now. The colour-coated stretch is the result of tomatoes dumped by farmers protesting a price crash. This week, too, the disgruntled lot threw their crop on the highway after the prices fell from Rs 80 per kilogram to Rs 15-25 a kg. An appeal had earlier been made to the government to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre to tomato growers. The farmers’ action blocked the highway for hours this week. After their unique protest ended, the crushed tomatoes...

Seven bombs hit Ahmedabad, two killed Enlarge Photo By Rupam Jain Nair AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - At least seven small bombs exploded in Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding 55, just a day after another set of blasts in the country's southern IT hub, officials said. On Friday, eight bombs exploded in quick succession in Bangalore, killing at least one person and wounding six others. Saturday's blasts were in the Ahmedabad's crowded old city dominated by its Muslim community. One was left in a metal tiffin box, used to carry food, another apparently left on a...

Bombs rock ‘India’s Silicon Valley’ By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi Published: July 25 2008 15:49 | Last updated: July 25 2008 15:49 India’s information technology capital, the southern city of Bangalore, was rocked on Friday afternoon by a series of eight small bomb blasts that killed at least one person and injured nearly a dozen others. The blasts happened in quick succession at about 1.30pm local time and caused temporary traffic chaos in the city, which is the hub of India’s global software outsourcing business. Known as India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore is home to 1,500 companies such as India’s...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Just breaking 6 or 7 bombs went off in Banagalore - my home town. A prayer for the city with the liveliest and friendliest of people

US slump to prop up India as next offshoring hotspot 14 May, 2008, 0750 hrs IST,Chiranjoy Sen, TNN BANGALORE: Belt-tightening by global technology giants—a fallout of US economic slowdown—is likely to reinforce India as the most preferred offshoring destination. Top technology firms are actively moving part of their workforce from the US, UK and European markets to lower-cost destinations. They cite availability of local talent, better delivery and conducive enviroment as key offshoring reasons. While they may not admit it, firms would be looking at stepping the gas on offshoring to curb bloating costs and to lift margins. Networking and...

New York, NY (AHN) - The Boeing Company announced on Thursday that it has signed a $1 billion agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) of India as a part of manufacturing outsourcing contract. According to the 10-year pact, HAL will manufacture sub-systems of Boeing's fighter planes including F-18 Super Hornets and Apache Helicopters. Initially, Boeing will invest around $20 million annually to increase its manufacturing unit size and complexity along with business opportunities in the sub-continent. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Jim Albaugh, President of Boeing Integrated Defense System and Chairman Ashok K Baweja, the Indian defense...

World's first awake bypass surgery with valve replacement performed at Wockhardt Hospitals, Bangalore.    Another chapter in the history of heart surgery across the world was written in India by the Bangalore-based Wockhardt Hospital & Heart Institute, recently.   Dr Vivek Jawali, chief cardiovascular surgeon along with his team at Wockhardt Heart Institute have set a global benchmark by performing the first coronary bypass surgery along with an aortic valve replacement without using general anaesthesia or ventilator support while the patient was on a heart lung machine.   This is the first such reported case in the world of a twin heart...

The rare Koran and the painting Police in the Indian city of Bangalore have seized a copy of the Koran they believe may have belonged to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb over 300 years ago.The book was discovered after a raid on a hotel in the city. Police arrested a man who was trying to sell it and an antique painting for more than $1m. The gold-embroidered Koran, written in Persian, has more than 1,000 pages. Experts are checking if a signature on the back belongs to Aurangzeb, who ruled India from 1658 to 1707. 'Fragrant' The Mughal ruler was a...

LONDON (Reuters) - Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, a contestant on hit reality television show Celebrity Big Brother, finds herself at the centre of a storm over racism and bullying that has many Britons asking -- are we all bigots? The 31-year-old, a major star in India but little known in Britain until now, will be one of the last people in the country to know that her treatment in the Big Brother house, which is cut off from the outside world, is front page news. A record 13,000 complaints have been made to media watchdog Ofcom, politicians are weighing into...

Police in the southern Indian city of Mysore say they have arrested two suspected Pakistan-based militants after a shooting. Senior police official Praveen Sood told the BBC that the two men were planning to launch attacks on targets in Mysore and Bangalore cities. Two policemen were injured in the incident, which happened after the two men were stopped by a police patrol. Guns, a satellite phone and a laptop were seized from the men, police said. Mr Sood said the incident took place on the outskirts of Mysore, about 145km (90 miles) from Bangalore, which is the hub of India's...

Lockheed Martin is holding a two-day aerospace and defence suppliers' conference in Bangalore, South India beginning Monday. The company has been surveying potential relationships in India and sees great opportunity to add value to its product lines by working with the industry here. "Lockheed Martin views the Indian Government's new offset policy as an opportunity to create 'win-win' relationships that can help deliver high quality products at affordable costs," it said. The company said the two-day conference would seek to "establish inroads for commerce between its current supplier team and Indian companies that could provide parts and services for Lockheed...

BANGALORE: Under a project facilitated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, about 500 sex workers in Mysore own chip-embedded smart cards, which when presented during transactions help them get discounts at select shops and hotels and earn them loyalty points that can be redeemed for discounts on later purchases. The shopping basket can include provisions, food at restaurants and clothes.

IBM has a message for the world... at least to the people who care about what IBM is doing. The "I" now stands for India. The "B" stands for Bangalore - India's Silicon Valley. The "M" stands for Mirza Diya, Bollywood's answer to Lindsay Lohan. Mirza will emcee IBM's annual investor briefing at a hotel 10,000 miles away from IBM's New York offices in a sprawling palace that looks like Britain's Windsor Castle and was built during Britain's time of colonial rule. The message is simple - IBM is sending a message that India and ALL of ASIA are crucial...

BANGALORE, India — After graduating from Northwestern University last year, Nate Linkon contemplated job offers in Chicago and New York. But he chose a less conventional path and started his career here, in India's booming tech capital. The 22-year-old Milwaukee native works in marketing at Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's second-largest software exporter. He's part of a small but growing number of young Americans moving to Bangalore and other Indian cities to beef up their resumes, launch businesses or study globalization in one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Despite the traffic-choked streets, unsteady electrical supply, occasional digestive troubles and other daily...

POLICE opened fire in India's technology hub today, killing four people as tens of thousands of fans mourning the death of a film icon torched vehicles and attacked company offices. Police said that an officer was earlier beaten to death as film actor Rajkumar's cortege made its way through the streets of Bangalore. One man died of bullet wounds after police opened fire in self-defence when mobs attacked their bus. Three people were killed after the funeral as police fired at a mob enraged at not being able to attend the service. The body of the 77-year-old actor, who died...

Americans seeking jobs in booming Bangalore More U.S. workers heading East to beef up their resumes, launch companies The Associated Press Updated: 2:37 p.m. ET April 2, 2006 BANGALORE, India - After graduating from Northwestern University last year, Nate Linkon contemplated job offers in Chicago and New York. But he chose a less conventional path and started his career here, in India’s booming tech capital. The 22-year-old Milwaukee native works in marketing at Infosys Technologies Ltd., India’s second-largest software exporter. He’s part of a small but growing number of young Americans moving to Bangalore and other Indian cities to beef...

A code-red kind of alert has ripped across the country, bringing scientific installations, borders as well as beach revellers in Kerala and Goa and consulates within its ambit. NEW DELHI: The Bangalore attack has put the fear of Bali into the hearts of India’s security organisations. With the terrorists involved still at large, there is growing apprehension of a Bali-type terrorist attack in the run-up to the New Year. Therefore, a "code-red"kind of terror alert has ripped across the country, bringing scientific and sensitive installations, porous borders as well as beach revellers in Kerala and Goa and consulates within its...

It’s a possibility that's staring India in the face after the first ever terror attack in Bangalore, the center of the country's thriving outsourcing industry ___ At about 7:30 p.m. on December 28, a gunman walked into an international conference taking place at the Indian Institute of Science, a prestigious academic institution in Bangalore, and began throwing hand grenades into the conference hall—four grenades, all unexploded, have been found so far on the institute's campus. Apparently panicking when none of the grenades exploded, the gunman opened fire with an AK-56 while he retreated. A retired mathematics professor attending the conference...

BANGALORE: One scientist was killed and three others were injured when unknown persons opened fire inside the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISC) campus here on Wednesday evening. According to police sources here, the shootout occurred at the J N Tata Auditorium of the institution when a conference on operations research was in progress. According to an administrator of the auditorium, four assailants came in a white ambassador around 1900 hrs, entered the auditorium porch and started firing indiscriminately. They then fled the spot. The deceased was identified as Prof N C Puri from IIT, Delhi, who had come here...

Bangalore may change name to Bengaluru BANGALORE, India, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Bangalore, India, may soon get the new name Bengaluru, which means "the town of boiled beans" and is closer to its original name of Benda Kaal Ooru. According to legend, a tired and hungry king, Vira Ballala, gave the city its original moniker when an old woman offered him boiled beans when he got lost on a hunting trip. Today, the city of 6.5 million people is known as the Silicon Valley of India. The name-change idea came from Dharam Singh, chief minister of the state of Karnatka,...

BANGALORE, India - Drive along Hosur Road -- Bangalore's version of Highway 101 -- even at 1:30 a.m. and you'll see sparks from welders working on new buildings to house software companies. Pick up any newspaper and read ads from tech companies seeking -- imploring -- engineers to come work for them. Experience the Silicon Valley-style, masters-of-the-digital-universe attitude permeating Bangalore, from its impossibly jammed roads to the new dot-com-like offices. ``We think we will overtake Silicon Valley,'' said Vineet Shrivastava, bid manager at the Bangalore campus of Dutch tech services and wireless company LogicaCMG. ``You can see it for yourself.''...

Cisco is bullish on India and cannot wait to use Indian expertise for research and development. Cisco Systems Inc. will hire more engineers in India than in the United States for its research and development work over the next three years, the company's chief executive said Friday. President and CEO John Chambers said the company would invest US$50 million (A41.83 million) to set up a second research and development center in Bangalore, India's technology hub, and triple its workforce here to more than 4,000 by 2008. He said this would mean more engineers are hired in India than in the...

BANGALORE - The incessant rains that submerged vast swathes of Bangalore in the last week of October couldn't have come at a worse time. The rains came on the eve of Bangalore's annual information technology exhibition - BangaloreIT.in, billed as one of Asia's hottest IT events. Not only did the rains swamp the technology fair, but worse, they laid bare Bangalore's crumbling infrastructure at a time the city, India's hi-tech hub and capital of southern state of Karnataka, was preparing to showcase itself as the country's most attractive investment destination for IT. The floods caused scores of houses to collapse,...

An Indian researcher has breached the much-touted "impenetrable" Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft. Bangalore-based Debasis Mohanty has cracked WGA through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of the Windows XP programme. Microsoft confirmed the claims of Mohanty, but sought to downplay it saying, "It represents very little threat." A company spokesperson said they did expect counterfeiters to try a number of different methods to circumvent safeguards provided by WGA. WGA is an anti-piracy programme that keeps a tab on consumers whether they are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. Mohanty has posted a detailed proof-of-concept...

Beijing or Bangalore? The race hots up THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN BANGALORE: Every time I visit India, Indians always ask me to compare India with China. Lately, I have responded like this: If India and China were both highways, the Chinese highway would be a six-lane, perfectly paved road, but with a huge speed bump off in the distance labelled ‘‘Political reform: How in the world do we get from communism to a more open society?’’ When 1.3 billion people going 80 miles an hour hit a speed bump, one of two things happens: Either the car flies into the air,...

A terrorist cell busted by Indian police was planning attacks on leading software firms in Bangalore. Three men were shot dead and two arrested in southwest Delhi on Saturday. Indian police claim the men were members of Lashkar-e-Toiba - a Wahabi militant group fighting for an independent Kashmir. Police found documents suggesting the group visited Bangalore in November last year and were finalising arrangements to rent a house there. The group had a detailed map of the offices of one firm, according to the Star of Mysore. Apart from maps of call centres police also recovered 100 kilos of dynamite,...

Life seems to ebb away slowly and painfully for those suffering from some life threatening disease. In this time of despair a new cure always brings a ray of hope in the life of such patients and their families Uma Devi , Bangalore - Today a busy woman who will entertain guests at home this weekend. "It's going to be hectic. But then I enjoy cooking," she says. For the record, Uma has just been cured of glioblastoma (highly invasive), a form of brain tumour. Till about two months ago, she had a "perpetual headache." Today, she is free of...

BANGALORE, India -- Information technology officials from some of the world's leading companies met Tuesday to discuss improving the high-tech hub of Bangalore's deteriorating infrastructure. Executives from U.S. companies Dell and IBM and the heads of Indian firms Wipro and Infosys met with Karnataka state's Chief Minister Dharam Singh to discuss several problems plaguing the capital Bangalore -- a popular outsourcing destination for Western companies. Issues affecting Bangalore include electricity shortages, inadequate public transport, and traffic congestion. The city also needs an airport upgrade. Singh promised to tend to Bangalore's infrastructure woes to protect the city's multibillion dollar high-tech industry....

America cannot ignore the fact that the centre of gravity is moving eastwards to Asia, away form Europe and North America, and India will be the motor force in globalisation, according to former US Ambassador to India and American International Group External Affairs Vice President, Mr Frank G Wisner. Delivering a lecture on India and United States - The Road Ahead as part of Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture here, Mr Wisner said that China and India are taking their places among the world's great powers and Asia will drive the world's growth. Asia, including India, will be the motor force...

MUMBAI: India's commercial capital has been put on "high alert" following information from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Tuesday of a possible terrorist strike by a human bomb, police said. According to police sources, the FBI warned that Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore could be the target of terrorist attacks. "According to the FBI alert, a lone terrorist may target either vital strategic installations or VIPs in any of these three cities," a senior police official said. The official said: "The human bomb is suspected to be either an intruder from Nepal linked to an international militant outfit or...

Is Bangalore finally going to replace California's Silicon Valley as the world's I.T. employment center? New statistics from the Indian city suggest that, yes, its legions of I.T. workers soon may outnumber those in the Bay Area. Bangalore employs some 160,000 tech workers, the vast majority concentrated in value-added I.T. occupations, as opposed to call centers or business outsourcing. These figures are within striking distance of Santa Clara County's I.T. employment rolls. But such head-count comparisons are deceptive, to say the least. Outsourcing, while certainly touchy for many, is a nuanced and many-layered issue that goes beyond the seemingly bad...

Snigdha Dhar sat in the echoing emptiness of her new home, her husband off at work, her 7-year-old son prattling on about Pizza Hut. The weather outside was California balmy. Children rode bicycles on wide smooth streets. Construction workers toiled on villas like hers - white paint, red roofs, green lawns - and the community center's three pools. Six years ago, Dhar and her husband, Subhash, a vice president at Infosys Technologies, the Indian software giant, migrated like thousands of Indians before them to Silicon Valley in California and its suburban good life. But Silicon Valley is not where their...

IT's an invasion. And the 'invaders' are swooping down on Bangalore from all over the world. Americans, Brits, Spaniards, Japanese, Polish - all in search of digital nirvana while soaking in the Indian experience. Sunday Times catches up with them in the pubs, malls and software parks of the Garden City. About 108 years ago,a young Winston Churchill came to Bangalore, then a small garrison town where "the sun even at mid-day is temperate and the mornings and evenings are fresh and cool". Within months, he was plain bored of life in the camps. So he read books by the...

In a significant report, an influential consultancy firm has warned American companies that either they outsource more work to India, including high-powered functions like research and development, or face extinction. Companies risk extinction if they hesitate to shift facilities to low-cost countries because the potential savings are so vast, said a recently released report by Boston Consulting Group. Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage The report also cited US executives who felt quality of American workers were deteriorating, compared to the high quality of workers in countries like India and China, the Washington Post reported. "The largest competitive advantage will lie...

Rises in the wages paid to Indian IT workers could lead to the country pricing itself out of the offshore-outsourcing market The US technology industry's demand for offshore services is apparently beginning to drive up pay rates in India, raising questions about the long-term benefits of outsourcing work to that country. Information technology workers in India reported double-digit salary growth in 2003, according to recent research, while pay for similar work within US borders has been relatively stagnant if not declining. Although India's salaries generally remain significantly lower than US averages, the narrowing wage gap and other unforeseen factors are...

BANGALORE, India — On the main road outside the Electronics City industrial park, the scene is classic Third World chaos. Motor scooters, auto rickshaws, people and animals throng the street beneath a midmorning sun. As drivers hammer their horns, a wayward cow noses through a pile of roadside garbage. This is familiar, impoverished, old India. But leave the main road and you enter a new India, one where the lawns are manicured and the only noise is the chirp of a cell phone or the soft whir of a laptop computer. This is the home of Infosys, a fast-growing technology...

Title: "US Firms That Outsource are Traitors: Kerry" Outsourcing of hi-tech jobs to India, China, Russia, the Philippines, and elsewhere has become an issue which is being debated in the Democratic primaries and in the US Congress, with current Democratic frontrunner in the presidential race, Senator John Kerry, calling companies which outsource 'Benedict Arnolds.' The name refers to an American 'traitor' who defected from the ranks of American revolutionaires to join the British colonists. Kerry was quoted by Contra Costa Times on the West Coast as denouncing the Bush Administration for 'rewarding Benedict Arnold CEOs who move profits and...

Education Is No Protection By BOB HERBERTPublished: January 26, 2004   he conference was held discreetly in the Westin New York hotel in Times Square last week, and by most accounts it was a great success.The main objections came from a handful of protesters who stood outside in a brutally cold wind waving signs that said things like "Stop Sending Jobs Overseas" and "Put America Back to Work." No one paid them much attention.The conference was titled "Offshore Outsourcing: Making the Journey Work for Your Corporation." Its goal was to bring executives up to speed on the hot new thing...

BANGALORE : The Legislative Council on Friday witnessed an interesting debate with a majority of the members, particularly those from medical background, gunning for mandatory sterilisation of married men, to check population explosion. When Jalaja Naik (Congress) raised the issue of women being forced to undergo sterilisation, many others joined in. M R Tanga (BJP) and M P Nadagouda (AIPJD), who are doctors by profession, contended that unless men were compelled to go in for sterilisation, no population control measure would succeed. "There is enormous social and family pressure on women to undergo tubectomy. Indian men have wrong notions about...