Love turns him blind

Raghu (24), along with his friends, had gone to attend the wedding reception of his ex-girlfriend, Anusha, at Channapatna.

Anusha’s family members, who were against the relationship, repeatedly punched Raghu in the face damaging his eyes.

“We shifted him to Nimhans as he was critical,” said Kishore, Raghu’s friend.
Later he was shifted to Narayana Nethralaya. Dr K Bhujang Shetty, chairman of Narayana Nethralaya, said: “His right eye is completely damaged, but we may be able to restore vision in his left eye. However, this can be determined only after surgery.”

The surgery is expected to be conducted on Saturday.
A native of Mandya, Raghu was in a relationship with Anusha for the past four years. According to Kishore, the couple even got married in Dharmasthala in 2009.

However, Anusha’s family was against the marriage and had attacked Raghu even earlier. They even destroyed all evidence of their marriage.

Raghu shifted to Bangalore and started working as an instructor at a Girinagar gym. Anusha had called him for her wedding reception over phone.

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New Walkman phone appears on Sony Ericsson's site

Sony Ericsson will launch a new 'Walkman' phone called the W8 that runs on Google's Android OS. The phone recently appeared on the Sony Ericsson website, though there has been no official statement to announce the launch.

The device will feature a 3" touch display and a 3.2 megapixel camera with micro-SD memory up-to 16GB. Although the device will run Android it is not clear which version will come loaded on the device.

This will be the first Android powered phone to sport Sony Ericsson's Walkman brand. 

Recently, Sony Ericsson launched the Xperia Play, which became the first PlayStation Certified phone. After the launch of the Xperia Play this might be an attempt to reignite the Walkman branded phones, which have taken a beating at the hands of the iPhone and other smartphones.
                                                                            
The device is expected to be released in India, China, Hong-Kong, Indonesia and Vietnam and will be available in azure, orange and red colors.

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Exclusive: Apple iPad 2 Coming To India Next Week, Starts at Rs 27,900

Tired of being quoted Rs 60k for the iPad 2 in India? Well not for long!

We suspected! and a trusted source just confirms that the Apple iPad 2 is coming to India next week! It is expected to launch via Vijay Sales, Croma and Reliance iStores. Yesterday we heard Apple COO, Tim Cook talking about the success of the device and 13 more countries getting the iPad 2 in a weeks time, luckily India figures on the list.

Apple was criticized badly for delaying the launch of the iPad 1 in India (it launched in Jan 2011), but it seems that they are making up with the iPad 2. The pricing as we guessed yesterday would be the same as the iPad 1, starting at Rs 27900 for the 16GB WiFi version and going up to Rs 44,900 for the 64GB 3G+WiFi version. Stay tuned!

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Video Surfaces Online Showcasing Different iOS Interface

A video appeared online Tuesday that shows never-before-seen features of the Apple iPhone iOS. The video was created by Tinhte.vn, a Vietnamese technology blog.

The clip, which can be seen below, demonstrates a new design for the iPhone that allows users to jump between apps currently running on the phone. When a user presses the home button twice, the screen zooms out to show a tiled view of currently running applications. A user can then switch to another app by pressing the desired tile.

It is unclear if the new interface is an early prototype, showcasing features that will make it into the next iPhone update, or if the designs were killed by Apple during the development of the iPhone 4, which was released last year.

Either way, the video is quickly making the rounds in the tech blogosphere, where most believe it showcases an authentic Apple design. Bloggers were also excited that the demonstration takes place on the highly coveted white iPhone 4. The white iPhone has been delayed for months because of discoloration problems with the phone’s exterior.

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RINL mulls setting up steel plant in JV with Karnataka Govt

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd is planning to set up a three million tonne capacity steel plant under joint venture with the Karnataka Government.

RINL, which runs the Vishakapatnam Steel Plant, a Navratna company, has been eying to utilise the existing facilities of Kudremukh Iron Ore Comany Ltd to set up the plant.

Under a Supreme Court order, which banned mining activity in the eco-sensitive western ghats region, Kudremukh plant was shut down about five years ago.

The investment in the proposed joint venture would be in the order of about Rs 15,000 crore, the company CMD, Mr Pradip Kumar Bishnoi, told reporters here today after launching its Rural Dealership Scheme in Karnataka.

KIOCL has some fine dumps of iron ore which it has not used and RINL is planning to utilise it.

Mr Bishnoi, however, clarified that his company was not looking at any mining activity in the Kudremukh area and would seek mining rights at a place to be granted by the State in the event of the project taking off.

He said that the company would be setting up a four million tonne capacity special products plant at its Vizag unit, investing about Rs 25,000 crore by 2015.

“The process of setting up of this plant has begun. Consultants have already been appointed. Report should be in place within two or three months,” he said.

He said that hitherto RINL had been producing long products and wanted to enter the area of manufacturing flat products like seamless tubes of large diameter 200 to 300 metres, used by oil field, gas distribution and boiler tube industry.

It would also be rolling out cold-rolled non-grain oriented and cold-rolled grain oriented products at the proposed plant, for which it was scouting for technical know-how.

The existing production capacity of 3 mt would be expanded to 6.3 mt by 2011-12 and in another two years to 7.3 mt.

Mr Bishnoi said the company also has plans to expand the production capacity to 20 mt by 2020-21.

To encourage rural distribution of steel, the company has appointed 125 dealers in rural areas and ten in Karnataka. The number of dealers in Karnataka would be ramped up to 200 in the near future.

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Gold, silver scale new highs

Precious metals continued to rally with gold and silver scaling new peaks on speculative and investment buying, backed by the buoyancy in global markets.

The yellow metal touched Rs 22,000 for 10 gm on sustained jewellery buying for marriage season.

Silver also spurted to Rs 72,980 a kg.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) shot up by Rs 205 for 10 gm and closed at Rs 22,030. Pure gold (99.9 purity) rose by a similar margin to Rs 22,135.

Silver ready (.999 fineness) sky-rocked Rs 2,170 a kg to Rs 72,980.

Chennai: Bar silver: Rs 72,520; retail silver: Rs 77.60; standard gold: Rs 21,935; retail ornament gold (22 carat a gm): Rs 2,040.

Hyderabad: Standard gold (24 carat) for 10 gm: Rs 22,250; ornamental gold (22 carat) for 10 gm: Rs 21,710-21,810; silver (0.999) (a kg): Rs 73,000.

Kolkata: Silver ready: Rs 72,100; Gold ready: Rs 22,430.

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Corporate, retail banking help boost Indian Bank's profit

Indian Bank continued its creditable performance during the year ended March 31, 2011 in all the key parameters. The directors have proposed a dividend of Rs. 7.50 per share of Rs. 10. It paid a dividend of Rs. 6.50 in the previous year.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, T. M. Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director, said the bank registered a growth of 19.8 per cent in its operating profit at Rs. 3,292 crore against Rs. 2,747 crore in the previous year on a healthy growth in net interest income at Rs. 9,361 crore against Rs. 7,714 crore.

Total income improved by 16.8 per cent to Rs. 10,543 crore from Rs. 9,031 crore. Total expenditure, excluding provisions and contingencies, stood at Rs. 7,251.23 crore against Rs. 6,283.42 crore with interest expenditure accounting for Rs. 5,324.92 crore (Rs. 4,553.18 crore).

The bank has provided a sum Rs.92 crore towards transitional liability on a proportionate basis on employee benefits, Rs. 33.20 crore towards part of the additional gratuity fund requirement and a net sum of Rs. 153.06 crore towards additional pension fund liability.

After taking into account these provisions, the net profit has risen by 10.2 per cent to Rs. 1,714.07 crore from Rs.1,554.99 crore. Corporate banking and retail banking contributed significantly to the rise in net profit. Earnings per share improved to Rs. 38.79 from Rs. 35.09 and the book value to Rs. 184.44 from Rs. 156.66.

The overall business of the bank registered a growth of 20.3 per cent at Rs. 1,81,530 crore against Rs. 1,50,886 crore with deposits accounting for Rs. 1,05,804 crore (Rs. 88,228 crore) and advances Rs. 75,726 crore (Rs.62.568 crore), Mr. Bhasin said. Priority sector advances grew by 19.9 per cent to Rs. 25,.969 crore.

The net interest margin at 3.86 per cent (3.55 per cent), was the highest in the banking industry, Mr. Bhasin said.

The bank had made strenuous efforts to bring down non-performing assets and the ratio of net non-performing assets (NPA) to net advances stood at 0.53 per cent. During the year, total NPA recovery was Rs. 756.58 crore. The bank will continue its focus on recovery of NPAs and 2011-12 will be ‘the year of recovery', Mr. Bhasin said.

The capital adequacy ratio was comfortable at 13.56 per cent as per Basel II norms against 12.71 per cent in the year-ago period.

Financial inclusion

Under the financial inclusion plan 2010-12, the bank covered 1,010 villages as on March 31, 2011 and 1.53 lakh no-frill accounts were opened. Credit to MSME sector registered a growth of 15.8 per cent at Rs. 9.681 crore.

Under branch expansion, the bank opened 104 branches in India and a branch at Jaffna (Sri Lanka) taking the total to 1,860.

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