MEDICAL MALPRACTICE.

World Bank Falsified Information On Malaria Treatment, The Lancet

According to a group of health experts, the World Bank published bogus financial and statistical accounts and squandered money on useless malaria treatment. The World Bank says the accusations are unfounded. The World Bank, with an annual budget of $20 billion, is the world's major aid organisation which focuses on eradicating poverty.

The report appears in the journal The Lancet.

Medical practice over the last few years has degenerated into a lucrative industry, which concentrates on returns on investments rather than care for the consumer. While in every other industry the consumer has a right to choose the service or product, the health care industry has adopted a unique "take what we give" approach.

When the government health care infrastructure is far from satisfactory with absent staff and lack of drug supplies, the corporate hospitals and private nursing homes are making merry. These hospitals, which are listed on the stock exchanges and expand their operations on investments from shareholders, are forced to market "profitable" products to make the shareholders happy.
Medical malpractice is an act or omission by a health care provider which deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community and causes injury to the patient.

Medical malpractice is not merely the negligence on the part of the care giver; a conscious decision of the care giver to offer and/or force a product, procedure or investigation upon a patient for monetary gain either personally or for the institution needs to be incorporated in the definition under "malpractice."

The decision-making in a vast section of the medical profession is governed by the financial gain to the decision maker rather than the best ethical choice for the patient. Angina or chest pain is one of the symptoms that has been unduly exploited by the medical profession. The significant anxiety that is associated with a heart attack makes the patients and the relatives vulnerable to the treatment choices offered at that crucial moment.

Medical malpractice is a growing risk for many doctors. Unfortunately, despite a doctor's
good intentions medical malpractice is still a reality for many.
If you have medical problems as a result of your doctor's medical malpractice, it is highly
recommended that you seek a medical malpractice lawyer that specializes in your type of
case. Medical malpractice is a complicated field of law, and finding an experienced
medical malpractice lawyer is extremely important..

A good medical malpractice lawyer will work with you to determine the merits of your
case, your legal standing, and determine if a case should be brought. They will help
determine the extent of your medical problems, and the compensation that you are due.
Medical malpractice lawyers take legal action in only a very small percentage of the potential claims for damages for mistakes caused by those who provide medical care. Most people who are injured either do not know that their condition was caused by negligence or do not bother to make a justified claim and as a result less than 10% of those who are entitled to claim actually do so. Healthcare professionals including specialists, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, medical technicians and alternative health practitioners including chiropractors are negligent if the treatment of a patient, under their care, has fallen below the minimum standard which the medical profession regards as acceptable.

There are a number of potential defenses under medical malpractice law available to those who represent allegedly negligent healthcare professionals which include the doctrines of "accepted practice," "respected minority" and "error of judgment". If the person providing the treatment can show that the actions which caused the injury were errors of judgment as opposed to negligent actions, that the practice followed was accepted by other competent physicians and that the injury was merely an unfortunate result, or that a body of respectable doctors would act in a way which deviates from the standard practice, then the doctor may avoid liability unless negligence can be proven. There are time limits within which a claim must either be settled or issued in a court of law and failure to take action before the expiry of the statute of limitations may mean that the chance to obtain damages is lost forever.

Strong passwords: How to create and use them

Your passwords are the keys you use to access personal information that you've stored on your computer and in your online accounts.

If criminals or other malicious users steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions. In many cases you would not notice these attacks until it was too late.

Fortunately, it is not hard to create strong passwords and keep them well protected.

What makes a strong password

To an attacker, a strong password should appear to be a random string of characters. The following criteria can help your passwords do so:

Make it lengthy. Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.

Many systems also support use of the space bar in passwords, so you can create a phrase made of many words (a "pass phrase"). A pass phrase is often easier to remember than a simple password, as well as longer and harder to guess.

Combine letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess.Other important specifics include:

The fewer types of characters in your password, the longer it must be. A 15-character password composed only of random letters and numbers is about 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard. If you cannot create a password that contains symbols, you need to make it considerably longer to get the same degree of protection. An ideal password combines both length and different types of symbols.
Use the entire keyboard, not just the most common characters. Symbols typed by holding down the "Shift" key and typing a number are very common in passwords. Your password will be much stronger if you choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks not on the upper row of the keyboard, and any symbols unique to your language.

Use words and phrases that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. The easiest way to remember your passwords and pass phrases is to write them down. Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with writing passwords down, but they need to be adequately protected in order to remain secure and effective.

In general, passwords written on a piece of paper are more difficult to compromise across the Internet than a password manager, Web site, or other software-based storage tool, such as password managers.

Create a strong, memorable password in 6 steps

Use these steps to develop a strong password:

1.Think of a sentence that you can remember. This will be the basis of your strong password or pass phrase. Use a memorable sentence, such as "My son Aiden is three years old."

2.Check if the computer or online system supports the pass phrase directly. If you can use a pass phrase (with spaces between characters) on your computer or online system, do so.

3.If the computer or online system does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password. Take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you've created to create a new, nonsensical word. Using the example above, you'd get: "msaityo".

4.Add complexity by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. It is valuable to use some letter swapping or misspellings as well. For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Aiden's name, or substituting the word "three" for the number 3. There are many possible substitutions, and the longer the sentence, the more complex your password can be. Your pass phrase might become "My SoN Ayd3N is 3 yeeRs old." If the computer or online system will not support a pass phrase, use the same technique on the shorter password. This might yield a password like "MsAy3yo".

5.Finally, substitute some special characters. You can use symbols that look like letters, combine words (remove spaces) and other ways to make the password more complex. Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of "MySoN 8N i$ 3 yeeR$ old" or a password (using the first letter of each word) "M$8ni3y0".

6.Test your new password with Password Checker. Password Checker is a non-recording feature on http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx that helps determine your password's strength as you type.

Password strategies to avoid
Some common methods used to create passwords are easy to guess by criminals. To avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords:

Avoid sequences or repeated characters. "12345678," "222222," "abcdefg," or adjacent letters on your keyboard do not help make secure passwords.

Avoid using only look-alike substitutions of numbers or symbols. Criminals and other malicious users who know enough to try and crack your password will not be fooled by common look-alike replacements, such as to replace an 'i' with a '1' or an 'a' with '@' as in "M1cr0$0ft" or "P@ssw0rd". But these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in case, to improve the strength of your password.

Avoid your login name. Any part of your name, birthday, social security number, or similar information for your loved ones constitutes a bad password choice. This is one of the first things criminals will try.

Avoid dictionary words in any language. Criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly guess passwords that are based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions. This includes all sorts of profanity and any word you would not say in front of your children.

Use more than one password everywhere. If any one of the computers or online systems using this password is compromised, all of your other information protected by that password should be considered compromised as well. It is critical to use different passwords for different systems.

Avoid using online storage. If malicious users find these passwords stored online or on a networked computer, they have access to all your information.

The "blank password" option
A blank password (no password at all) on your account is more secure than a weak password such as "1234". Criminals can easily guess a simplistic password, but on computers using Windows XP, an account without a password cannot be accessed remotely by means such as a network or the Internet. (This option is not available for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Me, or earlier versions) You can choose to use a blank password on your computer account if these criteria are met:

* You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one
* The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer)

The use of a blank password is not always a good idea. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password.

How to access and change your passwords
Online accounts
Web sites have a variety of policies that govern how you can access your account and change your password. Look for a link (such as "my account") somewhere on the site's home page that goes to a special area of the site that allows password and account management.
Computer passwords
The Help files for your computer operating system will usually provide information about how to create, modify, and access password-protected user accounts, as well as how to require password protection upon startup of your computer. You can also try to find this information online at the software manufacturer's Web site. For example, if you use Microsoft Windows XP, online help can show you how to manage passwords, change passwords, and more.

Keep your passwords secret
Treat your passwords and pass phrases with as much care as the information that they protect.

Don't reveal them to others. Keep your passwords hidden from friends or family members (especially children) who could pass them on to other less trustworthy individuals. Passwords that you need to share with others, such as the password to your online banking account that you might share with your spouse, are the only exceptions.

Protect any recorded passwords. Be careful where you store the passwords that you record or write down. Do not leave these records of your passwords anywhere that you would not leave the information that they protect.

Never provide your password over e-mail or based on an e-mail request. Any e-mail that requests your password or requests that you to go to a Web site to verify your password is almost certainly a fraud. This includes requests from a trusted company or individual. E-mail can be intercepted in transit, and e-mail that requests information might not be from the sender it claims. Internet "phishing" scams use fraudulent e-mail messages to entice you into revealing your user names and passwords, steal your identity, and more. Learn more about phishing scams and how to deal with online fraud.

Change your passwords regularly. This can help keep criminals and other malicious users unaware. The strength of your password will help keep it good for a longer time. A password that is shorter than 8 characters should be considered only good for a week or so, while a password that is 14 characters or longer (and follows the other rules outlined above) can be good for several years.

Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control. Computers such as those in Internet cafés, computer labs, shared systems, kiosk systems, conferences, and airport lounges should be considered unsafe for any personal use other than anonymous Internet browsing. Do not use these computers to check online e-mail, chat rooms, bank balances, business mail, or any other account that requires a user name and password. Criminals can purchase keystroke logging devices for very little money and they take only a few moments to install. These devices let malicious users harvest all the information typed on a computer from across the Internet—your passwords and pass phrases are worth as much as the information that they protect.

What to do if your password is stolen

Be sure to monitor all the information you protect with your passwords, such as your monthly financial statements, credit reports, online shopping accounts, and so on. Strong, memorable passwords can help protect you against fraud and identity theft, but there are no guarantees. No matter how strong your password is, if someone breaks into the system that stores it, they will have your password. If you notice any suspicious activity that could indicate that someone has accessed your information, notify authorities as quickly as you can. Get more information on what to do if you think your identity has been stolen or you've been similarly defrauded.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

In Internet marketing, search engine marketing, or SEM, is a set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). The three main methods are:

• Search engine optimization (SEO), or improving rankings for relevant keywords in search results by rectifying the website structure, and content such that they could be easily read and understood by the search engine's software programs. It is seen that website containing the latest trends and updates are first available to the visitor.
• Search engine advertising or paying the search engine company for a guaranteed high ranking or an ad displayed aside the results (commonly known as pay per click advertising).
• Paid inclusion, or paying the search engine company for a guarantee that the website is included in their natural search index.
Search engine marketers are experts and firms who explore of weaknesses and strengths in the methods and individual products to find the best way to promote a particular website in search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is a process of preparing your website and its constituent pages for prime positioning on search engines, using specific keywords. SEO is actually very complex, as it changes on a regular basis.
Search engine optimization is usually divided into two categories of tasks: on-site optimization, otherwise known as natural optimization and off-site optimization or link building. On-site optimization focuses on improve your website’s layout, content, etc. Off-site optimization improves your search engine position by building up links pointing to your website from other websites.
Search engine advertising

Advertising with search engines could be further classified as Advertising based on a keyword search and Advertising based on content context.

Advertising based on a keyword search:

Advertising based on a keyword search could take place through a search engine such as google.com, or a search engine partner site, such as shopping.com. For example, Google offers a service called AdWords, which allows companies, for a small fee, to have a link to their website featured when a user searches a specific keyword which the company specified.

Advertising based on content context:

Many search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo! Search) have partner websites with specific content. The websites agree to let the search engines place content-specific advertising on their website, in return for a fee. The search engine then finds companies interested in advertising on websites with their desired content. For example, an online dog food retailer might have their advertisement placed on a site about dogs.
Both of these advertising formats allow advertisers to target specific users with certain interests. Generally these advertisements are paid for based on either a pay per click campaign or an impression based campaign. Pay Per Click listings work because they put your company in front of people looking for your products or services.

When a potential customer arrives at your web site, they have already searched for products or services you offer. This makes them a pre-qualified lead, with a high chance of them purchasing your products or services.

Paid inclusion

Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index. Paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies, the most notable exception being Google.

This is different from pay per click advertising because the inclusion is guaranteed but not placement.

Dos And Don’ts Of Insulin

It has been estimated that by 2025, 300 million people will have diabetes, a remarkable 5.4 percent of the world’s projected population. India is projected to have largest number of diabetics by 2025.

In normal healthy individuals, the body’s energy is met through burning of glucose within the cells. The pancreas hormone-insulin, controls the passage of glucose from blood to the cells. It is also required for conversion of glucose to glycogen in the liver and formation of fatty acids in the adipose cells. Thus, the lack of insulin causes an increase in blood sugar level causing hyperglycemia, a condition commonly called diabetes (diabetes mellitus).

It is basically of two types: Type I (insulin dependent) and Type - II (non insulin dependent).

Type I diabetes treatment requires use of insulin from external source while Type II can be treated with oral hypoglycemic agents and/or insulin from external source. Indeed, in Type - I diabetes, the patient’s survival depends on daily injections of insulin.

Insulin is a protein and would be digested before reaching the blood stream. Hence, it is not yet feasible to have oral form of insulin, either tablet, capsule or oral liquid. It is available as injection for subcutaneous administration. There are two types of insulin based on external source: animal source and human source (genetically engineered).

Though both have similar efficiency in controlling blood glucose level, human insulin is more tolerable. Animal insulin often has a risk of insulin allergy, but is cheaper. There are different types of insulin preparations available in the market. These include quick acting, short acting, intermediate acting, long acting and mixed.

As different types of insulin work at different speeds and for different duration, and patients respond differently to insulin, it is the doctor who decides the best insulin for his/her patient. Though injection is the most common form of insulin administration, currently other modes of delivery is also available like insulin inhaler, insulin pump, etc.

Regular monitoring of blood glucose is a must for the patient taking insulin. Easy-to-use glucometers are available. Once diet schedule and insulin dosage are adjusted, it should be followed meticulously. Otherwise, the blood-glucose maintenance is disturbed. The injection of insulin from this site becomes erratic and uncontrollable. The site of the injection must be rotated.

Like other medicines, insulin too has side effects. The most common is hypoglycemia (lowering of blood glucose level). Serious hypoglycemia may occur with over dosing, missing of meals, inappropriate exercise, vomiting and diarrhoea, and after drinking alcohol. The symptoms are headache, palpitations, sweating, tremor, nausea, blurred vision, increased hunger, speech and motor dysfunction etc.

If hypoglycemia is suspected, blood glucose should be tested immediately and sweets, sugar or glucose should be taken or given orally.

Dhoni after Dravid, determined by Tendulkar

It was Sachin Tendulkar's great idea to make Mahendra Singh Dhoni captain of India'a One-Day team, BCCI president Sharad Pawar disclosed on Friday.

Pawar recalled how the Indian team plunged into a crisis in England last year with the then captain Rahul Dravid dropping first hints of his reluctance to lead the team.

"By that time, Rahul had told me he could not concentrate on his game and requested me to find someone else. Some of the selectors wanted Sachin to lead and I conveyed it to him. But Sachin said, 'please don't do this.' I asked then who should lead the side and he said 'give it to someone like Dhoni'.

"He said 'give Dhoni the opportunity. He has excellent relation with the teammates'. I told him I would not interfere but would definitely convey it to the selectors," the BCCI chief said.

Pawar also hailed Tendulkar and fellow senior players Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble for paving way for the youngsters in the Twenty20 team.

"I was in England when we were playing them. Sachin met me and suggested, 'I know you don't interfere with the team selection but you please tell the selectors not to include players of my generation in the Twenty20 squad. He said 'my generation is not fit for Twenty20, so give opportunity to the youngsters."

IPL bosses on alert as bookies get ready to fix matches

The Indian Premier League (IPL) hasn't just got players, fans and Bollywood stars excited but even the bookies can't wait for the action to begin.

They believe matches can be fixed when the Twenty20 tournament starts on April 18, but IPL bosses are sure their moves will come to naught.

But across the country, men who form part of cricket's underbelly are licking their lips in anticipation, as the bookies believe that with no national pride to play for, IPL matches and players will be easy targets.

"Sab malik ke liye khel rahen hain. They have got money for that, toh malik jaisa bolega who vaisa hee karenge. Malik ne bool diya wicket fainkna hain toh fainkna hee padega unko (Everyone is playing for his owner. If the owner says then the player will have to throw away his wicket)," a bookie says.

Even as the IPL has brought in big money in the world of cricket and caught the attention of many but are the IPL authorities really prepared to prevent match-fixing.

IPL bosses say they are fully aware of the risks and say the hype in the build-up to the event is important. However, they say the credibility of the tournament to them is paramount.

"We have made it abundantly clear that Anti-corruption code of ICC will be applicable. We are having a close coordination with the ICC. We have taken more precautions than one would have taken for even a World Cup," IS Bindra, IPL's Infrastructure Committee head, said.

Cricket's tryst with match-fixing claimed not just high-profile victims but for some; destroyed the soul of the game.

So the game's keepers will have to ensure, that this latest glitzy avtaar doesn't let the ghost to re-emerge.

South African team arrives in Chennai

The South African team arrived this morning for its first Test match against India beginning on March 26.

The players arrived at the international airport by an Emirates flight from Dubai around 9 am and were soon escorted to their hotel in luxury coaches.

Tight security arrangements were made at the airport. The Indian team members are arriving in batches. Virender Sehwag and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad arrived last night while others would be reaching on Saturday.

South Africa will play three Test matches against India with Ahmedabad (April 3-7) and Kanpur (April 11-15) hosting the last two matches.

However, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said on Friday that recent selection controversies had taken their toll on team at a news conference shortly before leaving for a three-Test tour of India.

"The evidence of this week shows that the off-field stuff does have an effect on the team," Smith said. "There are a few things we need to work through, they can't be left undealt with. We need to find a way to deal with these issues so we can concentrate on the cricket."

I didn't say Gill misused IHF money: Aiyar

NEW DELHI: Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar denied tonight that he had accused Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill of spending the organisation's money on his daughter's wedding.
In a clarification, the Minister said that he had only stated that the money was made available to improve the game.

"I hotly deny that I have accused KPS Gill of misusing IHF money to fund his daughter's wedding, as claimed by a news channel." "In fact, the clip following this claim shows me making the general point that money is made available to improve the game. Nowhere in that clip or anywhere in the interview have I accused Gill of any personal abuse. I'm consulting my lawyers in the matter," Aiyar said.

Dhoni, Harbhajan clear fitness test for SAfrica Test series

NEW DELHI: Ending the speculation surrounding offspinner Harbhajan Singh and ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's fitness, the Cricket Board yesterday said the duo has recovered from injuries and would be available for the three-Test series against South Africa starting next week.
While Harbhajan was nursing a left hamstring injury, Dhoni was recuperating from a sprain in the fourth finger of his right hand picked up during the tour of Australia.

However, both of them yesterday cleared the fitness test conducted by physiotherapist Paul Close in Bangalore.

"As per the report both the players have recovered from injuries and passed the required Physical Fitness Test and both are available for South Africa Series," the BCCI said in a statement.

India has no intention to dominate world cricket: Bindra

MOHALI: Though India has become an "engine of growth of world cricket" and is "sustaining" it, it has no intentions to dominate international cricket because the country earlier itself fought against the domination of one or two nations over the sport, ICC's new principal advisor-designate I S Bindra said yesterday.
"India is an engine of growth of world cricket, it is sustaining, it is generating 85 per cent of revenue," Bindra, who will be taking over his new assignment from July, told a press conference here.

When a reporter asked that there was "some resentment" against India due to its growing financial clout in the sport, Bindra, who is also president of Punjab Cricket Association, said there is no such thing and added "in fact, every country fully supported our initiative of launching Indian Premier League.

"India has fought against domination of one or two powers and we will not tolerate domination by anyone, including by India itself," 66-year-old Bindra, whose initial term of contract as ICC's principal advisor will be for two years, said.

Bindra said among his priorities in the new job will be to implement the vision of the ICC, development of cricket, particularly in USA and China, assisting in improving relations between members and assisting the BCCI in ensuring the smooth conduct of ICC events, including World Cups.

"Now, extending and popularising this game in two major economies (US and China) is going to be one of our priorities. I had a long chat with (ICC's CEO designate) Imtiaz Patel on many issues including this one...," he said adding Patel fully supported him.

Himalayan tragedy awaits India, China'

Shrinking Himalayan glaciers are going to turn Chinese and Indian rivers like the Ganga and the Yangtze into seasonal rivers that dry up in summers and could eventually lead to "politically unmanageable food shortages" in the region, a leading environmental scientist has warned.

Climate-driven shrinkage of river-based irrigation water supplies has been on the environmental community's radar for some time, but the alarm put out by Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, while invoking a "civilization-threatening scenario," is the starkest yet.

"The world has never faced such a predictably massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mountain glaciers of Asia," Brown said in a paper released this week.

"In a world where grain prices have recently climbed to record highs, with no relief in sight, any disruption of the wheat or rice harvests due to water shortages in these two leading grain producers will greatly affect not only people living there but consumers everywhere."

Moreover, Brown said, in both of these countries, food prices will likely rise and grain consumption per person can be expected to fall. In India, where just over 40 per cent of all children under five years of age are underweight and undernourished, "hunger will intensify and child mortality will likely climb."

The projections were based partly on the fact that China and India are the world's leading producers of both wheat and rice -- humanity's food staples.

China's wheat harvest is nearly double that of the United States, which ranks third after India. With rice, China and India are far and away the leading producers, together accounting for over half of the world harvest.

In a separate teleconference, Brown said India's Gangetic plain faded the prospect of losing the double cropping that allowed it to harvest wheat in winter and rice in summer. Water tables were also dropping rapidly in both India and China and were dangerously low in many places.

"Both countries have lost momentum in the effort to raise grain production. In both countries stocks are down to minimal levels and both are wrestling with serious food price inflation," he said in remarks that come amid convulsions already in the world grain market.

Mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau are melting and could soon deprive the major rivers of India and China of the ice melt needed to sustain them during the dry season, Brown's paper said. In the Ganges, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, this loss of dry-season flow will shrink harvests.

The paper referred to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that Himalayan glaciers are receding rapidly and that many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, it warned, the Ganges could become a seasonal river, flowing during the rainy season but not during the summer dry season when irrigation water needs are greatest.

The Ganga is the largest source of surface water irrigation in India and the leading source of water for the 407 million people living in the Gangetic Basin, a population larger than any other single country other than China. The Yellow River and Yangtze basin hold a similar position in China.

Brown said that as food shortages unfold, China will try to hold down domestic food prices by using its massive dollar holdings to import grain, most of it from the United States, the world's leading grain exporter. As irrigation water supplies shrink, Chinese consumers will be competing with Americans for the US grain harvest.

Arriving soon: Trendy terminal at IGI

Passengers arriving in Delhi after May will enter the city through a new and much more swanky arrival terminal. The terminal is being increased by about 4,000 square metres, covering the existing VIP gate area on one side and most of the area near Udaan Bhawan on the other.

Work on the terminal should be completed within the coming two or three months. However, if the present traffic congestion in front of the domestic terminals is not sorted out, the effect of the new entry zone may well be shortlived.

The new terminal will have an upper screen, balanced on huge pillars, at the entrance. Apart from supporting the roof, the pillars will also be used for lighting. Right in front will be the multilevel parking that will accommodate about 3,000 vehicles. That, however, will be ready only by January 2009.

Part of the VIP parking will be located right next to the arrival, towards Udaan Bhawan. "That is still in the planning stage. With the VIP gate having been shifted to terminal 1A, most of the VIP parking will be shifted there but some of it will remain where it is," said a Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) official.

The renovated terminal will have shops in an area of 2,000 square metres as against the present area of 300 square metres. Accordingly, space for airline offices will be reduced by more than half. Collecting baggage will also become easier since there will be eight conveyor belts as opposed to the five at present.

However, DIAL’s current plans to regulate traffic flow due to the ongoing work have only made the situation worse at the domestic terminal.

A new entry road for traffic moving towards the arrival terminal, leading off the road going towards terminal 1A, was opened a few weeks earlier so that congestion could be eased on the main road turning into the airport. However, despite several signages, very few vehicles actually use the new road.

The traffic has now taken to stopping on the narrow entry road for terminal 1B, causing a huge bottle neck at the entrance. A speed breaker at the very point where cars now stop also adds to the chaos.

The situation is made worse by arriving passengers crossing the road at the same spot in order to go to the parking. With the road meant for the arrival practically unused, passengers have to walk across the taxi lane and the arrival lane to reach parked vehicles. "We have put up signs but other than that, there is nothing much we can do," said a DIAL official.

Tibetan protestors storm Chinese Embassy in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Scores of Tibetan protestors broke into the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Friday afternoon, agitating against the crackdown on the pro-independence movement in Lhasa by China.

The protestors, who posed as students to gain entry into the heavily guarded Chinese embassy, arrived in a tourist bus.

Once inside, they waved Tibetan flags and shouted slogans against the Chinese government.

The Delhi police managed to round up the protestors without using force and later took them to the Chanakyapuri police station.

The protest took place hours ahead of the arrival of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, who will discuss the Tibet crisis with the government of India and United States Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The protest was a manifestation of the frustration of the Tibetan people, who have been denied freedom. It was a protest against the violence unleashed by the Chinese authorities in Tibet," Dhondup Dorji, vice president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, told.

LDF will rule Kerala for long', says Achuthanandan

KOZHIKODE: Crediting his Government with launching a series of programmes benefiting all sections of people, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan yesterday said the LDF had become so powerful and people-friendly that the state would no more witness the political arrangement of LDF and UDF coming to power alternatively.

`Though the state has so far witnessed the two Fronts returning to power in turns, the arrangement will come to an end as the LDF has emerged quite powerful to remain in power for long', he said addressing a regional rally of CPI (M) volunteers held here to mark party stalwarts late A K Gopalan and E M S Namboodiripad's death anniversaries.

While the CPI (M)-led LDF had made it a habit of initiating people-oriented schemes whenever it came to power, Congress-led UDF, on the contrary, used to push the state backward by ignoring developmental activities, he said.

`You can be rest assured that LDF and UDF exchanging power in successive elections will not happen anymore as the UDF will not be able to rest power from us', he said.

Listing out his Government's achievements, the CPI (M) politburo member said besides writing off farm loans up to Rs.25, 000, it had also launched several projects like Smart City and Infro Park to generate job opportunities.

The UDF's attempts to `hoodwink' people by accusing LDF of being `anti-development' backfired severely in the 2004 Lok Sabha and 2006 assembly polls as the latter won 19 of the 20 seats and two-thirds majority respectively, he said.

Paying rich tributes to AKG and EMS, he said the state only stood to benefit by pursuing the path shown by them.

Import duty cut on edible oil to hit state, says VS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre's decision to slash the import duty on edible oils including palm oil is likely to hit thousands of coconut farmers in Kerala, already reeling under the impact of steady price fall over the years.

The reduction in duty has become "all the more severe" as it coincided with ban on restrictions on import of coconut oil. Demanding immediate withdrawal of the decision, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said the duty on edible oil had been brought down from 89.4 per cent in July 2006 to as low as 20 per cent in two years.

In a statement, he said this exposed the UPA Government's claim of being farmer-friendly highlighting the loan-waiver proposal in its latest budget. In reality, the government is pushing policies strengthening globalisation which would put farmers into a deeper debt trap, he said.

The LDF Government and farmers unions wanted the decision to be withdrawn, saying it would badly hit 3.1 million farmers in the state, most of them small and marginal holders.

The government says the cut in import duty on unrefined palm oil from 45 per cent to 20 per cent and that of refined oil from 52 per cent to 27.5 per cent would lead to flooding of palm oil into Indian market which would have drastic fallout on the price of coconut oil.

"The decision is not going to hit coconut farmers alone but also cultivators of other oil seeds like soya bean and sun-flower," pro-CPI farmer's union leader Satyan Mokeri told reporters.

Delhi, the best e-governed state in India

Delhi emerged as the best e-governed state in 2007, followed by Goa and Chhattisgarh, even as Karnataka and Gujarat plummeted in e-governance initiatives, a Dataquest-IDC e-Gov survey says.

"Delhi was voted the best e-governed state by its denizens for meeting nine out of 14 parameters set for the survey," Dataquest's chief editor Prasanto K. Roy said in a statement here Friday evening.

"The nation's capital state rose to the top from third position in 2006, while Chhattisgarh jumped to third position from 14, with an impressive record of e-governance performance," said Roy.

Other three best e-governed states are Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab follow them.

"Karnataka, which was the second best e-governed state in 2006, plunged to ninth position last year, indicating that political stability is crucial to the success of e-governance projects in a state," Roy said.

Similarly, the survey found Gujarat slipping to 19th position from fourth in 2006 and Jharkhand as the worst e-governed state, followed by Haryana and West Bengal.

The findings were based on a citizen survey conducted across 20 states by CyberMedia group's leading publication Dataquest in association with technology research firm IDC India.

Last year's topper Goa slipped to the second spot.

Among the southern state, Andhra Pradesh slipped to eighth position from fifth in 2006, while Tamil Nadu rose to fourth from eighth and Kerala to fifth from 11th rank.

Citizens gave maximum marks to e-initiatives in education, income tax and transport services, while they expressed dissatisfaction with those in employment exchange, police and security and judiciary.

The maximum score achieved on any parameter was Chhattisgarh for its education department. Delhi topped the list in police and security category, while Gujarat's low scores on both police and judiciary indicate the negative legacy of the 2002 riots, the survey noted.

"We are seeing the impact of political and law and order issues on citizen's satisfaction-whether it is Gujarat's massive fall, or Karnataka's or West Bengal's muted slides," Roy asserted.

In north, Himachal Pradesh jumped to seven from 16 and Punjab to 10 from 16, with impressive gains in ranking, as interaction with governments becoming easier, while Haryana declined to 18 from 10.

In e-governance services for businesses, Tamil Nadu topped the list with Chhattisgarh close behind followed by Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu was at 10 in 2006, while businesses ranked Chhattisgarh at 16.

"The survey found businesses in most of the respondent states more satisfied than citizens with e-governance projects, as the former benefitted from e-applications for supplies and provisions, government tenders and contracts and power utility," Roy affirmed.

The overall e-governance scores of Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Haryana also fell as compared to 2006, as citizens and businesses reported low satisfaction levels with government services.

In business-government interface, Karnataka, which was topper in 2006, fell to 11 and Gujarat slipped to 16 from three in the previous year.

The survey found Goa was the most e-ready state followed by Delhi and Uttarakhand. E-readiness measures the success of new e-governance projects in each of the 20 participating states.

"The findings show constant and diligent effort is required to keep individuals and businesses satisfied with the progress of e-governance initiatives. High-performing states in previous years have not stayed at the top, which shows continuous retention of service quality and ease of interaction is key to e-governance," Roy added.

With assembly elections due in some states followed by general elections in 2009 across the country, a high chance of disruption of e-governance services in several states cannot be ruled out.

BPOs feel realty pinch in smaller cities

India Inc, especially the BPO (business process oursourcing) sector, looks at them as the 'next destination cities'. With sky rocketing property prices, non-availability of good office spaces on rent, and high attrition rates, Tier I cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi are fast becoming too expensive for many BPO firms. A reason why Tier II-III cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, are coming up as alternative destinations.

However, some BPOs say, the move to Tier II cities may not be a great idea after all, since property prices are not very cheap or not what they expected them to be. Real estate may be booming, but prices sky rocketing as well at times quite close to Delhi and Bangalore rates. What's more, getting good middle management talent too is a problem in these cities.

While cities like Pune have almost become an extension of Mumbai, others like Ahmedabad, Mohali and Jaipur are catching up fast with improved infrastructure and real estate. In fact, many BPOs are drawing out plans to move to these cities, while some have already taken the first step. For example, WNS has a centre in Nasik, Genpact has a facility in Jaipur, Intelenet has centres in Pune and Mohali, and Mphasis has it in Mangalore.

However, experts warn the picture may not be as pretty as it looks. The ground reality is quite different in some of these cities. While real estate is developing fast, prices too are moving north simultaneously. And that's a dampener for many companies. "Its not easy to get large office spaces at low cost in cities like Pune or Ahmedabad. These cities are also witnessing a real estate boom, costs are only marginally lower than say Mumbai or Delhi. Buying or renting property comes to almost as much as in the metros," says Aditya Gupta, president, InfoVision.

"Surely, rentals in Tier 2 cities are lower than metros but due to the huge demand from corporates, prices are on the rise," feels Radhika Balasubramanian of Intelenet Global Services, which has 18 centres across India including a few in small cities.

Availability of talent pool is the other major attraction for small cities. However, experts say even that could be a problem. Even though many BPOs hold job 'melas' in small cities, where spot jobs are offered and lakhs are being spent on ads to attract young professionals, the quality of manpower is not that good. In fact, the investment in training is bound to be significantly higher in these cities. With most people having completed their education in vernacular medium, their knowledge of English is usually poor.

"Also, its not easy to get middle management people in smaller cities. People at the team leader level with a few years of experience are tough to find. And not many are willing to relocate from a metro to a smaller city," explains Sohit Brahmawar, executive director, vCustomer. However, on the positive side, studies reveal attrition levels and salary expectations in smaller cities is much lower than in Tier I cities.

Realising the business potential of smaller cities, state governments are now playing an active role in attracting BPOs to invest in their. The Karnataka government has helped make destinations like Mangalore and Hubli attractive.

Similarly, Punjab is taking efforts to develop infrastructure and initiate policy changes. And as experts say, given the sky rocketing prices in bigger cities, ultimately, moving to a Tier 2/3 city will be not be an option but a must do for most BPOs.