'MS. TITIKSHA SAHAI' TO BE THE 'ETHICS & DESIGNING' HEAD

TITIKSHA SAHAI
ETHICS & DESIGNING HEAD
'AVIPRA GROUP'

We take immense pleasure in informing you that as a part of its core team 'AVIPRA' announce its first portfolio of  'ETHICS & DESIGNING'  to be headed by Ms. Titiksha Sahai. According to the current information now she has to decide her team within a week or later for which the members are being suggested by the 'AVIPRA GROUP' to her. The detail of the team will be publish on the blog as soon as she decides and finalize the list. 

Mean while the other important portfolios are being decided by the organisation and hope that it will be on the blog soon. 

We wish Ms. Titiksha Sahai a very bright future ahead. 

'AVIPRA' to announce its core team soon

New Delhi: The India’s youngest growing youth organization AVIPRA GROUP likely to announce its core team soon for its future operations and diversification, stated by an official. The AVIPRA GROUP is planning to announce the core team through its own blog website www.avipratimes.blogspot.com. So many young names are there in the guess for the desired portfolios like Chief Editor, CMD (Corporate Relations), CMD (Finance & Accounts), CMD (IT), CMD (HR) etc.  Some young names which are in the spotlight are -Mr. Ujjwal Sahni, Mr. Vipin Vijay Nair, Mr. Shivam Mishra, Mr. Prashant Sharan Srivastava, Ms. Shruti Rana, Ms. Shreya Sinha, Ms. Vaishnavi Sinha, Ms. Disha Tanwar, etc.

Mr.Pratyush Prakash & Mr. Avichal Sahai,
Chairperson - 'AVIPRA GROUP'

‘We are also planning to diversify our field of business in the long run’- said by Mr. Avichal Sahai, Chairman ‘AVIPRA GROUP’ in the board meeting.  

It was expected that AVIPRA’S portfolios will be filled up by June and can start its full fleshed operations in the starting of August.

‘We are regularly trying to deliver out our best to the society and always try to come up with the services needed by our society….’added by Mr. Pratyush Prakash, Chairperson, ‘AVIPRA GROUP’…focusing light on the services which AVIPRA is going to launch in the near future. He also added that- 'soon we have our own website and an official page on facebook to connect AVIPRA with the mass.

DU starts admission drill today

NEW DELHI: Delhi University will start giving out its prospectus for admission to undergraduate courses from Saturday. The first Open Day as well as the registration of SC/ST and differently abled candidates will also begin on the same day. 

From this year, there will be no pre-admission forms for applying to colleges for the general and OBC categories except for the courses which require an entrance exam. 

The university will admit at least 54,000 students across 60 colleges. Aspirants can meet the faculty and current students at the 12 Open Day sessions to be held from Saturday to June 8. The first Open Day will be organized at the Conference Centre on North Campus where DU officials and students will give presentations on courses and colleges, eligibility criteria and admission process. They will also take questions and offer counseling. 

The university has also started e-open days and web chat to guide students during the admission process. Besides the helpdesk set up at the office of the dean of students' welfare (DSW), the university has also created an email ID - - for students to mail their grievances and suggestions to the vice-chancellor directly. DU will also launch a Facebook page on Saturday. 

The registration for differently abled students will be held at the DSW office near the vice-chancellor's office on North Campus. DU's equal opportunity cell (EOC) will provide a free pick-up service to aspirants with special needs from Vishvavidyalya Metro station to the DSW office. The buses will ply every half an hour from 9am. For SC/ST registration, aspirants need to go to the faculty of arts. 

Saturday is also the last day for the sale and submission of forms for the Combined Admission Test for English (CATE). This year, 21 colleges will admit students to BA (honours) English through CATE.

Mumbai University may introduce robotics in engineering courses

The University of Mumbai (MU) is working on an ambitious project to introduce robotics as a subject in engineering courses. The project, called ‘E Yantra’, is being developed with the help of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

The university administration has called a meeting of principals from top 15 engineering colleges and faculty from the computer science department on May 13 to discuss how the project can be implemented in colleges. Experts from IIT will also be present.

The MU project aims to create a robotic revolution in the educational domain by conducting workshops, hosting competitions, deploying homegrown low-cost educational robotic platform hardware at colleges with the aim of creating quality content for teaching robotics. The idea of the project is to reach the faculty at engineering colleges through a series of workshops.

Dr Rajpal Hande, director, Board of College and University Development at MU, said: “In modern times, there is a need to use robotic tools in the educational field. Most of the developed countries have already started using robotics in teaching. Through the E Yantra project, we will also lay down a plan to use robotics for teaching in our engineering colleges. The intention is to create a hub-and-spoke model for the delivery pf content and expertise to college. We will first train faculty of the hub institutes in the use of our robots and our content.” The robotics course will be for students who have graduated in mechanical, electrical, instrumentation or computer engineering with an interest in robotics and artificial intelligence.

According to sources, candidates with a masters degree in robotics will be able to work in space research organisations and in companies that manufacture microchips. Job opportunities also exist in IIT for conducting extensive research in artificial intelligence.

Delhi University have set out to make life easy for freshers

Ready for a new start!!

NEW DELHI: Six old and existing students of Delhi University have set out to make life easy for freshers through 'jugaad'. This group of "practising jugaadus" can get you anything from an accommodation and academic information to a heavy discount in an eatery and even a maid's number. They address issues and solve queries through their web portal called dujugaad.in and a special 'Jugaad Club' that offers amazing discounts to students at a variety of places, be it the roadside omellete-wala or a high-end salon in Kamala Nagar. 

They are now gearing up for the admission season when the newcomers look for a good college, while the parents of many of them scout around for a suitable accommodation. "I was once sitting with friends. They were discussing how students who were new to Delhi had to face many problems. They had no clue about the right place to stay, flat rents, popular haunts, etc. That's when I thought there should be a facility that can tell students about everything that made sense on the campus," said Kumar Ashish from Bokaro Steel City who studies mathematics in Kirori Mal College. 

The portal was Ashish's brainchild. But it took shape only in June last year when five others - who were friends and friends of friends - came together with ideas and enthusiasm. So while Ashish and old student Sanjeev Kumar are responsible for the technical developments, Miranda House alumnus Smiti Rastogi and Sidhant Ghai, who graduated from Rajdhani College last year, take care of the marketing of 'jugaad'. Hindu College student Surabhi Sehgal and Gautam Bisht, English literature student from Hans Raj College, provide the content. "We named our initiative 'jugaad' because it means finding a way out. We often saw that new students were exploited and charged more many a time. We want to stop that by getting them discounts. We tell the PG owners, shopkeepers and eatery-owners to promise us discounts and we will get them a strong customer-base," said Surabhi. 

No wonder, a student taking up an accommodation through their portal can get up to Rs 500 off every month in the rent. Members of their club can also avail themselves of a discount of 10% to as much as 50%. "Seats in the college hostels are not enough and the PGs outside have hiked the rent. But we have enlisted around 22 PGs on the portal which should be suitable for the freshers. We visited each one of them to check their quality and standard. We chatted with the students already living there and also talked to the owners about discounts. Many of them agreed," said Surabhi. She added that for the club, students just have to pay Rs 200 for an entire year and they get a photo-identity card in return. "Students can just flash this card to get discounts. As for us, we only recover the operational costs." 

Many volunteers also work with the group to make networks, develop contacts and feel the pulse of the campus in return for a free lunch or dinner and even a movie at times. "They are all friends who want to be a part of this idea. We need their help because we need to gather details as minute as which bank branch in which college has an ATM. They also get us numbers of the maids and cooks," said Ashish. The group spends at least three to four hours every day fine-tuning and updating portal. A more user-friendly version of the portal with added features was launched last week. These 'jugaadus' now also plan to start the facility of auctioning goods. Surabhi said, "Many students who graduate and leave find it difficult to dispose of their furniture or TV and fridge. We will find a jugaad for them too." 

After Delhi University, online admissions in Mumbai University

Scorching heat, running from one counter to other, serpentine queues to submit applications, loss of documents, bouncing cheques are only some of the problems students face during admission time.

However, students can now heave a sigh of relief, with the Mumbai University in collaboration with the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited planning to conduct online admissions. The project, which is still in its preliminary stage, shall be first applied to the Institute of Distance Learning Department of the university for the academic year 2011- 2012.

A panel of authorities from the Mumbai University visited the MKCL officials in Pune last week to discuss the project and its application. Explaining the design of the project Harichandran, Director of IDOL said, " Two months back we received a proposal from the MKCL regarding online admission procedures on which a meeting was held between university officials and officials from MKCL. Authorities of MKCL gave us a detailed presentation on the functioning of the online admission procedure. We shall now submit a detailed report to the advisory committee in two weeks after which it will be placed before the management council for a final approval." He further stated that, " Online admission is applicable in a place where there are numerous students studying different subjects.

The introduction of online admission will help in speedy administration procedures thereby saving maximum time." Approximately 80,000 students' currently study through the medium of distance education. Since, manual admission procedures are lax and time consuming; the introduction of online admission has surely acted as a ray of hope for students. Currently, officials are planning on partially going online and partially seeking documents through post.

A separate office shall be framed within IDOL. After the form passes through each step students shall receive messages as well as emails regarding the progress of their form. Withholding of admission because of documentation shall also be reported to students.

DU admission schedule for 2011-12 announced

NEW DELHI: The admission process of the undergraduate courses for 2011-12 at Delhi University (DU) will start from June 15 with the notification of the first cut-off list. The admission schedule for the academic session 2011-12 has been approved by the advisory committee for admission on Thursday. The admission window for general candidate will be of 39 days with the last date for admission and payment of fees being July 23, excluding the admission with condonation by the vice chancellor. 

What will be unique to the admission process this year is that there will be no pre-admission registration of any kind, barring for those courses whose admissions will be based on entrance tests and interviews. Moreover, the registration for admission in sports and extra curricular activities (ECA) categories will commence only after the declaration of the second cut-off lists. Moreover, the university is yet to decide whether to continue with the centralized admission mode introduced last year for the sports quota. 

Unlike in the past, DU will announce five cut-off lists this year starting with the first on June 15 followed by June 21, June 27, July 2 and July 8 respectively. Also the aspirants will get four days for admission and payment of fees between two cut-off lists. 

As per the admission policy of 2011-12, out of the total number of 54,000 seats, reservation of seats will be 27% for OBC candidates, 15% for SC candidates, 7.5% for ST candidates and the remaining for general category. Colleges will simultaneously bring out a separate cut-off for the OBC category and the differential merit between the general category and OBC cut-offs shall not be more than 10%. Colleges have to declare the vacant OBC seats by July 15 and these will be filled up by other eligible candidates by July 23.

AI says 'no work, no pay' principle as strike continues

Air India on Tuesday announced 'no work, no pay' principle will be implemented to counter the pilots' strike that continued to disrupt its flights for the seventh day, as the Delhi High Court rapped both sides for their adamant attitude and failure to resolve the crisis.

"We are implementing 'no work, no pay' against all those who are not reporting for duty. Their April salary will not be processed if they do not join work", an Air India officer said.

The officer, who requested anonymity, said the company was making efforts to garner resources to pay the salaries to the rest of the employees. Bank loans were also being organised, he said.

The flight operations of the national carrier continued to be disrupted for the seventh day today with the striking pilots refusing to budge saying they would call off the stir as soon as the management assured the Delhi High Court that their demands would be considered within a time-frame.

The court rapped both the airline management and the pilots' union, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), for their rigid attitude and appointed an amicus curiae to assist it in resolving the stand off.

"It seems that you are also not interested in getting the strike called off," a division bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed told Lalit Bhasin, the counsel for the Air India management.

The two-judge bench also appointed senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra as amicus curaie "to assist us on the legal issues".

The ailing national carrier is flying only about 35-40 flights each day, as it has blocked domestic bookings for the past five days.

According to official estimates, private carriers were flying about 15,000-16,000 of passengers of AI, which is offering only about 9,000 seats each day. The airline has drastically slashed its domestic services by nearly 90 per cent operating only 40 of its 320 daily flights.

"We will await the High Court's order on the contempt proceedings and abide by it. .... I have already stated that there will be no talks with the pilots till they are on strike," Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi has said.

He has been regularly briefing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the daily developments relating to the situation arising out of the pilots strike and the high court proceedings.

ICPA leaders have made it clear to the court that they would call off the strike as soon as the management gave an undertaking to consider their demands within a given time- frame.

They have said that the Chief Labour Commissioner, in its closure report on the last round of tripartite talks, had blamed the management for not making any efforts to resolve the issues.

They quoted the CLC''s closure report on the conciliation proceedings as saying that the management had shown "an insincere and superficial attitude towards reaching an amicable solution".

The pilots, who struck work from midnight last Tuesday, have been demanding pay parity with their colleagues of erstwhile Air India, better working conditions and CBI inquiry into alleged withdrawal of flights from profitable routes, aircraft purchase and other issues.

Worst feared as Arunachal Pradesh chief minister goes missing after copter crash

ITANAGAR/GUWAHATI: A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others, including two crew, went missing over the densely forested hills near Tawang on Saturday. Authorities said there was no trace of the aircraft until nightfall.

The Eurocopter B-3, operated by Pawan Hans, was carrying Khandu, his security officer deputy superintendent of police Yeshi Choddak, Yeshi Lamu, the sister of Tawang MLA Tsewang Dhondup, and the two pilots, Captain B S Babbar and Captain K S Malick, from Tawang to Itanagar. There was no report of bad weather and the chopper lost radio contact soon after it took off at 9.56am. It was last sighted about 20 minutes later over Sela Pass and was scheduled to land at Naharlagun helipad at 11.30am.

"The chief minister is still missing and the chopper is truceless," Kiren Rijiju, the CM's adviser, said in Itanagar. He added that earlier in the day, there was information from some villagers in Bhutan that they have seen a chopper landing in Teporche area close to Tawang on the east. But Bhutan denied it.

Neither the government nor IAF rescue teams, which went out in two Cheetah helicopters, confirmed there had been a crash. But many officials feared the worst.

If the chopper has crashed, it would be the second such disaster in Arunachal this month. On April 9, another Pawan Hans helicopter, flying from Guwahati to Itanagar, went down, killing 17 persons. If Khandu (56) doesn't survive, it would make him the second CM in recent times to become a fatality in a chopper crash. On September 2, 2009, then Andhra chief minister Y S Rajashekara Reddy was killed when his helicopter flew into a hillside in blinding rain.

Pawan Hans chairman R K Tyagi held out hope that the helicopter would soon be found. The choppers were fitted with emergency locator transmitters that operate on two frequencies and can be tracked by satellites, he said. These were powered by batteries that lasted for two days.

But aviation sources said flying in the area was extremely dangerous because of sudden weather changes that affected visibility and made it difficult for pilots to see the hills. Also, Pawan Hans helicopters were under a safety review after the recent crash near Tawang.

Meanwhile, authorities have sought ISRO's help to locate the missing helicopter. There was day-long confusion after Khandu's helicopter went missing. About three hours after the helicopter was reported missing, authorities said contact had been established with the Bhutanese government and Khandu was safe. But within hours, Bhutan denied sending any report of a landing and the search and rescue teams of the air force were pressed into action. No results were available till nightfall when the search was called off.

DIG Robin Hibu told TOI that a new search, involving the police, air force and army, will be launched at daybreak on Sunday.

"The state government is in constant touch with the Centre and the government of Bhutan," said Jarbam Gamlin, Arunachal power minister. "We only hope and pray the CM and the team are safe." Congress chief Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the reported crash and shared the agony with the kin of the missing chief minister.

Bhutan ordered an extensive search across six districts, officials said.

"There is confusion. There is no official and authentic report on the chief minister's whereabouts. I have called up the external affairs secretary and the defence minister twice and requested for pressing IAF choppers into a search and rescue operation," said Arunachal MP Takam Sanjay.

AIEEE paper leaked !!

New Delhi: The All India Engineering Entrance Examination question paper has been leaked, following which the exam was delayed by three hours on Sunday.

The examination which was scheduled for 9:30 am on Sunday was rescheduled to begin at 12 noon on the same day. Sources say that the question paper was being sold in the open market in Lucknow.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force has arrested one person in connection with the paper leak and are looking for further leads in the case.

Vijay Prakash of STF Lucknow said, "We are trying to trace down two people who leaked the paper. We have the paper with us since last night."

Special Director General of Police Brij Lal, "We got the news through sources that some people were selling AIEEE paper in the market for Rs 6 lakh. We recovered the paper. We got some information that people from Kanpur and Bihar leaked the paper."

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) examination which was rescheduled for 2:30 pm was held at 4:30 pm on Sunday. For the students appearing in both AIEEE and AFMC examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said, "Students who are appearing in AFMC Examination and also appearing in AIEEE can appear in AFMC as per schedule. For such students the CBSE will conduct another examination on May 8 at 9:30 am at the same centre with same Roll No."

Wedding of the century

Thousands of 'royalists' camp outside Westminster Abbey to secure box seats for witnessing the... 

This big day is finally here. Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to exchange vows at the Westminster Abbey in London today. 

Outside the wedding venue, thousands of Royal diehards were camped since Thursday to be able to be as near to the wedding venue as police barriers would allow. 

Huddled together for warmth, groups passed round hot flasks of Breakfast Tea, shared crosswords and pinned reels of bunting to any surface available as they waited for Britain's most famous couple to arrive. 

Fans of the royal family – royalists – have occupied every available inch along the wedding procession route, outside the Abbey and Buckingham Palace. 

For some fans, no distance or discomfort is too great if the prize is a prime view of the wedding. Some 200 people were already camped out on Thursday across the street from Westminster Abbey. Dozens of tents have been set up, but despite a chilly breeze some fans are making do with just mats or sleeping bags. 

Many campers have decorated their tents and chairs with Union Jack flags and pictures of the couple. Metal barriers in front of them are adorned with banners reading "It could have been me", "It's cold but worth it" and "Congratulations to the happy couple". 

VIP guests arrive in London 

A-list stars such as Sir Elton John, David Beckham and Mr Bean – the alter ego of actor Rowan Atkinson – have arrived in London to attend the wedding. Sir Elton – who memorably sang Candle In The Wind at the 1997 funeral of William's mother, Diana – was accompanied by his civil partner David Furnish. 

Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels filmmaker Guy Ritchie is another guest, however his ex-wife Madonna will not be present at the ceremony.

Court questions Delhi University on semester system

New Delhi, April 28 : Delhi High Court Thursday issued notice to the Delhi University's Vice Chancellor, The University Grants Commission and the central government on the implementation of the semester system in the varsity's arts stream for 2011-12.

The division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said: "Issue notice to all the respondents. The matter will be heard on May 11."

A group of university teachers approached the Delhi High Court challenging the university's April 19 notification for implementation of the semester system in the arts stream for 2011-12.

The teachers' union also demanded quashing of the notification.

As of now, there are 13 courses, including physics, chemistry, botany and zoology, which follow the semester system in the university.

DU passes semester-based syllabi for 18 courses

NEW DELHI: In a hurried move, the Academic Council of Delhi University passed the semester-based syllabi for 18 honours courses, besides BA Programme and BCom, on Monday. It also authorised the vice-chancellor to pass the syllabi for the remaining courses before the new academic session starts in July. Though teachers termed the decision unlawful and the meeting undemocratic, the university made it clear on Monday that semesters in DU was a done deal now. 

The AC meeting, followed by the meeting of the highest decision-making body of DU - Executive Council (EC) - was convened in a hurry leaving less than 12 hours for the members to study the syllabi to be passed. This is the first time in the history of the university that meetings of three statutory bodies of the university have been convened within 24 hours. The DU registrar issued a statement after the meetings on Monday evening claiming that the AC had "approved with overwhelming majority, the semester for given undergraduate courses." What followed the statement was a list of over 50 syllabi. 

But several AC members said the meeting was not democratic. The teachers and some elected members of the AC said the V-C's plan to bifurcate the syllabi of the remaining courses to accommodate semesters is autocratic and detrimental for the university. Elected AC member Rakesh Kumar said: "The members raised a point of order on the fact that we didn't even get 24 hours to go through the agenda item. How can it be possible for the teachers to go through the syllabi overnight and approve them? We couldn't consult the teachers. These are academic matters.'' 

The elected members raised the point of order on the hurried manner in which the semester-based syllabi had been passed in the standing committee, AC and EC. The members also brought to the notice of the house the violation of the university statute 7 (1) where it is stated that the AC should have five student representatives from the undergraduate, post-graduate and research level. "This is one of the supreme bodies of the university and it has been convened in violation of the university statutes. All the stakeholders need to be represented. The high court had also asked the university to consult the students and yet we have no student representatives in the AC?'' said the elected AC member, Sheo Dutt. 

The elected members further objected to the non-uniformity in the semester-based syllabi, such as the number of papers and courses, interdisciplinary subjects and dilution of honours courses, among others, and the authorization of the vice-chancellor to exercise his emergency powers. "By this authorization, all powers of the statutory bodies, such as committee of courses, AC and EC, have been surrendered. What is appalling is that authorization to bifurcate the annual mode syllabi. For the university administration, it seems semesterisation is all about dividing the syllabi into two halves,'' said Dutt. 

Within 30 minutes of the AC meeting getting over, the EC met to approve the recommendations of the AC. The meeting passed all the recommendations of the AC, including authorization of the VC to take all necessary measures deemed fit for implementation of the semester system at the undergraduate level, including bifurcation of the annual syllabi. While the elected members of the EC presented their dissent on all the agenda items, the visitor's nominee - former health secretary Javed Choudhary - also objected to the hurried nature of passing the syllabi at the emergency AC meeting.

Kalmadi arrested; charged with forging, conspiracy!!

New Delhi:  Suresh Kalmadi has been arrested - a formal announcement is likely this afternoon - for allowing and in some cases inducing corruption in the Commonwealth Games that were held in India in October last year.  Mr Kalmadi has been charged with conspiracy and cheating; he also faces charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Mr Kalmadi was interrogated this morning by the CBI for the fourth time about a slate of contracts that saw the most expensive firms being hired for equipment and services. These include conspiring with a Swiss firm that supplied the Timing-Scoring-Results System (TSR) for the Games at exorbitant rates.

Mr Kalmadi served as the Chairman of the Organising Committee that has been drenched in corruption charges.  Team Kalmadi was allegedly in the habit of handing out contracts to firms that provided equipment or services at exorbitant rates; reasonable bids from other firms were allegedly ignored.

Several of Mr Kalmadi's closest aides have already been arrested- including Lalit Bhanot,  who served as the Secretary General of the Organizing Committee and V K Verma who was its Director General.

While Mr Kalmadi's own role has long been suspect, the CBI believes it finally has enough evidence to prove his corruption.  "Better late than never," was the official response of the BJP to the news of Mr Kalmadi's arrest.  In November, Mr Kalmadi, who is a heavyweight Congress politician from Pune, was fired as the Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

The Queen's Baton Relay which kick started the Games was held in London in September 2009. A London-based firm named AM Films was hired by Mr Kalmadi to provide taxis, portable toilets and massive public TV screens for the ceremony. Mr Kalmadi sanctioned transfers of huge amounts of cash to AM Films and its owner, Ashish Patel, even though there was no signed contract.  Mr Kalmadi later told NDTV that because London officials had requested equipment at the last minute, he did not have the time to process a contract. AM Films charged phenomenal amounts for its services.  The financial track record of Mr Patel proved to be dubious.  And then emails surfaced that showed Mr Kalmadi's close aides instructing Mr Patel for what rates to charge the Committee.  

A team from the CBI has reportedly met with Mr Patel in London, and is encouraging him to turn approver.  It has also discovered that three other bids made by other UK firms for the Queen's Baton Relay function were forged - most likely in an attempt to prove that due process had been followed in considering offers from a series of companies.

Mr Kalmadi's associates had first said that AM Films had been suggested as a potential contractor by the Indian High Commission in London.  It was soon proved that the emails brandished by the Organizing Committee to prove this were doctored.

Will Sathya Sai Baba's legacy collapse under succession war?

The demise of Sathya Sai Baba on Sunday has raised several doubts in the minds of devotees: what will happen to his multi-thousand crore spiritual empire spread across different parts of the world? Will it run smoothly and carry out the charitable activities as usual or collapse amid a fight for succession among the trust members and Baba's family members? Will it continue to get donations from devotees even after Baba's demise? As long as Baba was alive, the organisation's functioning and composition had always been shrouded in a veil of secrecy.

There are no official records on the extent of Sai Baba's wealth, as the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, the umbrella organisation of Baba's various charitable trusts, never makes public details of the flow of funds into the trust or its expenditure. The media has no access to the trust's affairs and nobody really knows who the members are in the trust. A local devotee recalled that Baba himself had once revealed the trust owned immovable property, including land in and around Puttaparthi, to the tune of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore. Conservative estimates say the trust's holdings touch a mindboggling Rs 1.3lakh crore if their assets in various countries are taken into account. The internal affairs in Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Baba, started spilling out only after he had been admitted to hospital on March 28. In the last 10 days, there has been a serious tussle between Baba's family members and the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust over who should manage the affairs of Prashanti Nilayam.

According to sources, Sai Baba's nephew and trust member R.J. Ratnakar Raju (son of Baba's younger brother R. Janakiramaiah) insisted he should be given the 'cheque power', hitherto vested with the trust's secretary K. Chakravarthi, a retired IAS officer who resigned from the government in 1981 to become registrar of the Institute of Higher Learning and, later, an inseparable part of the trust. On the other hand, Baba's personal attendant Satyajit also demanded that he be given the powers to handle the finances, as Baba himself had promised to take him onboard the trust.

Another family member - Chetana Raju, grand-daughter of Sai Baba's elder sister Parvathamma - is also said to be staking her claim. Chetana, who established a women's welfare trust in the name of Sai Baba's mother Eshwaramma, is believed to have the support of Chakravarthy and she wants to take over as the trust's chairperson with cheque power. With the internal wrangling reaching its peak even as Baba was battling for his life in hospital, the Andhra Pradesh government was forced to step in to resolve the crisis. The government deputed senior IAS officer L.V. Subrahmanyam and industries minister J. Geetha Reddy to thrash out the differences and bring in truce, albeit for the time being.

According to the temporary arrangement, both Ratnakar and Satyajit would run the trust with cheque power still vested in Chakravarthy. A final settlement could be reached after Baba's last rites. It was only after this arrangement was made did the trust, for the first time, issue a statement to the media, saying all is well with the trust and that it would run smoothly even after Baba attains nirvana. Though Raju denied any financial embezzlement in the trust, several ardent devotees, including former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board chairman D.K. Adikesavulu Naidu, suspected that crores of rupees had been siphoned off from Prashanti Nilayam in the last few weeks.

There were also reports that a truckload of gold was taken out of Puttaparthi. The devotees have demanded that the government take over the Baba's empire and run it on the lines of the TTD.

Aarushi & Hemraj Killed By Talwars:CBI

A forthright CBI has said in the Supreme Court that "investigation has squarely reached a conclusion that no one other than Dr Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar could have conjointly committed this dastardly crime" of killing their daughter Arushi and servant Hemraj.

The CBI also introduced the evidence given by a painter who white-washed Talwars' Noida house. "The painter will prove the instructions given by Dr Rajesh Talwar which have a bearing on the chain of circumstances proving his guilt," it said.

It responds to Talwars' counsel Pinaki Misra, who on March 19 had told the apex court that the CBI had deliberately ignored the evidence — detection of Hemraj's blood stains on a pillow cover recovered from compunder Krishna's possession. The agency says: "This was a typographical error on the part of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, which was clarified before the Allahabad high court.

On the issue of Talwars' seeking a touch-DNA test on the golf stick, which the agency suspects to be the blunt weapon used for the murders, it said: "Rajesh and Nupur insisted that the physical exhibits recovered from the scene of crime should be sent for LCN/Touch DNA development to some laboratory in foreign countries like UK or Canada." Rajesh Talwar had identified certain laboratotries for this purpose.

The CBI said it inquired from laboratories with expertise in touch-DNA test in the UK, US. Four laboratories showed their inability to carry out LCN/DNA (or touch-DNA) development and pointed out that the legal tenability of LCB DNA was suspect.

"Only James Clery of M/s DNA Defence, UK, agreed to develop DNA from the exhibits with LCN technique. Incidentally, Dr Rajesh Talwar was already in touch with James Clery even before the CBI approached him," the CBI said.

On checking the credentials of Clery's laboratory from UK, the CBI found from Interpol, UK, that it was not an accredited lab. "The petitioners are trying to mislead the courts by taking plea of LCN DNA. It is a case where there is sufficient prima facie material/evidence against petitioner and her co-accused to proceed with the case. They want acquittal before the trial," the agency said.

In discussion with scientists, the CBI said it found that the LCN technique depended on uncontaminated collection of possible DNA sources from the scene of crime and "since the exhibits in this case had already been subjected to traditional DNA development and were also subjected to much handling and exposure", it did not conduct the touch DNA test.

"The closure report was submitted on the basis of insufficient evidence and not on the basis of 'no evidence' against Talwars. The magistrate summoned her (Nupur Talwar) on being satisfied that there is a prima facie case against her," CBI said.

Delhi University: No commerce without maths!

NEW DELHI: Students without mathematics will no longer be eligible for undergraduate commerce courses in Delhi University colleges. According to university officials, the university is making mathematics a mandatory criterion for admission to B Com programme and B Com (H) course from forthcoming academic session. The reason for the change is said to the new semester-based course structure where the mathematical and computer components are enhanced. 

As per the new undergraduate students' admission process of DU for the year 2011-12, for admission to B Com programme a student needs to have studied mathematics in class X and for admission to B Com (H) course as the student need to have mathematics in class XII. 

"Previously the university did not use any set preconditions on additional eligibility criteria for B Com and B Com (H) courses. The colleges used to set their own additional eligibility conditions in the form of additional subject requirement. But from this year the university is making mathematics a mandatory subject in class X and XII respectively for admissions. The colleges will be notified of the changes soon," said deputy dean of students' welfare, DU, J M Khurana. 

While 44 colleges of DU offer B Com programme, 55 colleges offer B Com (H) course. Till last year the colleges used to set their own eligibility criteria, which is apart from the minimum cut-off marks required for admission to these two commerce courses. 

For B Com (H) course, till last year, individual colleges used to set the additional subject requirement criteria. While colleges like Lady Shri Ram and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya used to ask for 60% in class XII mathematics, for colleges like Dayal Singh, Gargi and Keshav Mahavidyalaya one just need to have the pass marks in class XII mathematics. 

Meanwhile, Laxmi Bai college set 50% in class XII mathematics as the minimum eligibility, while Satyawati (evening) set the requirement at 40%. But many other colleges including Sri Ram College of Commerce, PGDAV and Aditi Mahavidyalaya used to accept non-commerce, non-maths students with a deduction in percentage from the best of four marks in class XII. Similarly for admission to B Com programme apart from Laxmi Bai college no other colleges set any additional subject qualification last year.

Indian Army chopper goes missing in Sikkim

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS): An indigenously-built Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) of the Indian Army, with four crew members, went missing in north Sikkim Thursday leading to fears that it may have crashed.

The helicopter went missing near Shiv Mandir in the Lachung valley of the state at 11.20 a.m., an officer in the army headquarters here said.

This is the first Dhruv that was operational with the Indian armed forces to have got into trouble since the chopper fleet was inducted into the air force, army and navy beginning 1998, he said.

The chopper, carrying two army pilots, a junior commissioned officer and a soldier, had taken off from Sevoke Road near Siliguri in West Bengal around 9.50 a.m. Inclement weather was blamed for the chopper losing communication with the base.

Another Dhruv helicopter, which had also taken off at the same time from Sevoke Road, has reached its destination in Shiv Mandir safely, the officer said.

Army units at Chungthang, about 22 km away from the area where the Dhruv lost touch with the ground-based air controllers, have been rushed to carry out a search and rescue operation, he added. But their search has been hampered by adverse weather condition.

The incident comes two days after a commercial helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh. Seventeeen people were killed when the Mi-172 helicopter of Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited crashed while attempting to land at Tawang. The cause of the crash is yet to be ascertained.

Designed and manufactured by the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the ALH was first inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) for search and rescue, emergency airlift, air ambulance, evacuation, payload deliveries in high altitude posts and carriage of men and material.

The choppers were later inducted into the army and navy too for similar roles.

There were two incidents in the past involving Dhruvs – one of the seven sold by India to Ecuador air force crashed in October 2009 and another belonging to the Indian Air Force was forced to land due to a technical snag while rehearsing for the February 2010 ‘Vayu Shakti’ air power demonstration near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, the officer added.

DHOOM:3 to go on floor with Aamir Khan!!

The most anticipated announcement from Yash Raj Films is here!

Yash Chopra, speaking about DHOOM:3 says, “It’s a great pleasure to have Aamir working with YRF once again. It’s even more special that he will be doing DHOOM:3. I am terribly excited with what an actor like Aamir will bring to the DHOOM franchise with his unique star power and level of performance. Adi and Victor have worked over a year to bring out, what I can now confidently say, is possibly one of the best scripts coming out of YRF and I am sure that with Aamir and Adi together, they will both create magic to give our audience one of the most exciting films they have ever seen.” 

Aamir Khan says "It is indeed a pleasure to be working with Yashraj once again. Dhoom is a great franchise, most entertaining and full of fun. Every time I hear the theme tune of Dhoom it brings a swing to my step. Victor's script really won me over and I look forward to working with him, sharing screen space with Jai and Ali, and, of course, working with Yashji and Adi once again." 

Produced by Aditya Chopra, DHOOM:3 will be written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, popularly known as Victor, who has written DHOOM 1 & 2. Victor has also written and directed Tashan.

Both Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra will continue in their now iconic roles of Jai Dixit and Ali.

The film will begin shooting end of this year and is slated for a 2012 Christmas release. 

We will keep updating you with details of DHOOM:3 as we go along; he added.

PAWAN HANS Helicopter crashes in Tawang, Arunachal; 17 feared dead

Itanagar(Tue Apr 19 2011, 15:11 hrs): At last 17 people, including two infants, are feared killed in a helicopter crash that took place at Tawang in western Arunachal Pradesh today.

The helicopter, that belonged to Pawan Hans, was a regular passenger sortie from Guwahati to Tawang, and the incident occurred around 1:30 pm today.

Of the 23 people flying -- 18 passengers and 5 crew members -- six have been rescued and are being treated for severe injuries at the Tawang Hospital.

Sources in Itanagar said the helicopter was just about to land on the Tawang civil helipad, when it suddenly flared up and crashed to the ground.

It was only yesterday that several VVIPs including Union Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Minister of State Agatha Sangma flew in to Tawang to attend a review meeting of NREGA in the Northeast.

Tawang, located at an elevation of over 11,000 feet in the Eastern Himalayas, is the headquarters of the district by the same name apart from a Brigade HQ of the Indian Army that monitors the crucial international boundary here.

Delhi University: Online registration in colleges too!!

NEW DELHI: While Delhi University has decided to do away with registration of applicants through centralized OMR forms as well as registration by individual colleges, a few colleges are likely to initiate optional online registration. According to university sources, the administration is expected to issue guidelines on online registration soon. Moreover, the online registration will be optional and free of cost. 

Colleges say online registration will help them understand the scoring trends and come up with reliable cutoff lists. Principal of SRCC, P C Jain, said "We will be collecting data on our probable applicants via online registration, emails and SMSs. But the students will not be charged anything. This is primarily to map the scoring trend so that we can bring out realistic cutoffs. As per the instructions, all students, including those who do not register online, are eligible for admissions." 

The idea, Jain added, is to use past experience and tentative trends to calculate reliable cutoff lists. 

Hansraj College, however, is waiting for the university guidelines before starting with online registrations. "We will wait for the university to come out with the guidelines. But yes, online registration will help us get an idea about the cutoffs. We will also analyze board results to announce our cutoffs,'' said principal of Hansraj College, V K Kwatra. 

Meanwhile, university sources said, DU administration has made it clear that online registration will be optional and those students who do not apply online are also be eligible for admissions. "Colleges that opt for online registration can't charge any fee for it as this will defeat the very purpose of the new admission policy. The university is likely to issue specific guidelines for colleges who would like to opt for online registration,'' said a university official. 

Welcoming the registration free admission policy, principal of Kirori Mal College, Bhim Sen Singh said: "This is a step in the right direction. Now the students need not apply to a dozen colleges. They can just wait for the cutoffs and come for admissions directly.''