Useful tollfree helplines in India

Airways
Indian Airlines - 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways - 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet - 1800 180 3333

Automobiles
Mahindra Scorpio - 1800 22 6006
Maruti - 1800 111 515
Tata Motors - 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts - 1800 11 3636

Banks
ABN AMRO - 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank - 1800 44 6000
Citibank - 1800 44 2265
Corporatin Bank - 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank - 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank - 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank - 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI - 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank - 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank - 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya - 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank - 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank - 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank - 1800 122 222
State Bank of India - 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank - 1800 44 6655

Cell Phones
BenQ - 1600 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones - 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist - 1800 11 1211
Nokia - 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson - 3901 1111

Computers/IT
Adrenalin - 1800 444 445
AMD - 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers - 1800 444 683
Canon - 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems - 1800 221 777
Compaq - HP - 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband - 1800 424 1600
Dell - 1800 444 026
Epson - 1800 44 0011
eSys - 3970 0011
Genesis Tally Academy - 1800 444 888
HCL - 1800 180 8080
IBM - 1800 443 333
Lexmark - 1800 22 4477
Marshal's Point - 1800 33 4488
Microsoft - 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update - 1901 333 334
Seagate - 1800 180 1104
Symantec - 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics - 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals - 1800 44 6446
Wipro - 1800 333 312
xerox - 1800 180 1225
Zenith - 1800 222 004

Couriers/Packers & Movers
ABT Courier - 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz - 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers - 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd - 1800 21 4560
DHL - 1800 111 345
FedEx - 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers - 1800 11 3456
UPS - 1800 22 7171

Education
Edu Plus - 1800 444 000
Hindustan College - 1800 33 4438
NCERT - 1800 11 1265
Vellore Institute of Technology - 1800 441 555

Healthcare
Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Best on Health - 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras - 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline - 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson - 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic - 1800 22 5292
LifeCell - 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies - 1800 33 4420
Pfizer - 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek - 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha - 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses - 1800 44 8383
VLCC - 1800 33 1262

Home Appliances
Aiwa/Sony - 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches - 1800 22 7979
Blue Star - 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio - 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines - 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners - 1800 444 222
DishTV - 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys - 1800 21 4595
Godrej - 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps - 1800 33 4555
LG - 1901 180 9999
Philips - 1800 22 4422
Samsung - 1800 113 444
Sanyo - 1800 11 0101
Voltas - 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio - 1800 44 5432

Hotel Reservations
GRT Grand - 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group - 1800 111 000
Marriott - 1800 22 0044
Sarovar Park Plaza - 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays - 1800 111 825

Insurance
AMP Sanmar - 1800 44 2200
Aviva - 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz - 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance - 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life - 1800 227 227
LIC - 1800 33 4433
Max New York Life - 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram - 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance - 1800 22 9090

Mattresses
Kurl-on - 1800 44 0404
Sleepwell - 1800 11 2266

Investments/Finance
CAMS - 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund - 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO's - 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments - 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund - 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley - 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund - 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance - 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund - 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan - 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund - 1800 22 0101

Paints
Asian Paints Home Solutions - 1800 22 5678
Berger Paints Home Decor - 1800 33 8800

Teleshopping
Asian Sky Shop - 1800 22 1600
Jaipan Teleshoppe - 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands - 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping - 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping - 1800 220 777

Travel
Club Mahindra Holidays - 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings - 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours - 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism - 1800 444 747
Kumarakom Lake Resort - 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours - 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours - 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours - 1800 22 3344

UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)
APC - 1800 44 4272
Numeric - 1800 44 3266

Others
Consumer Helpline - 1800 11 4000
L'Oreal, GARNIeR - 1800 223 000
KONE Elevator - 1800 444 666
Indane - 1800 44 51 15
Aavin - 1800 44 3300
Pedigree - 1800 11 2121
Kodak India - 1800 22 8877
Domino's Pizza - 1800 111 123
World Vision India - 1800 444 550
Telecom Monitoring Cell - 1800 110 420

Five killed, 24 injured in blast in Malegaon

Rediff.com, September 08, 2006 15:36 IST

At least five persons were killed and 24 others injured Friday in a blast outside a mosque in the textile town of Malegaon in Nasik district, 180 kms from Mumbai, police said.

The blast took place Friday afternoon when people were returning after offering the Friday prayers at Nurani Masjid in the heart of the city, police said.

Nashik Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan told reporters that at least five persons were killed in the blast, although the figure could rise further.

They said the blast took place near Bada Kabristan, but added that he would not be able to comment on the nature of the explosion.

Rajvardhan said that people present on the spot have said that there was a possibility of more than one blasts.

Anti-Terrorism Squad sources said that at least two dozen persons were injured, seven of them critically, in the blast at Malegaon.

Read more : Five killed, 24 injured in blast in Malegaon

Income tax laws may soon be easier to understand

Rediff.com, September 08, 2006 14:45 IST

A government-appointed group to study simplification of laws relating to income tax has recommended removal of redundant provisions and use of simple language for understanding the laws.

The group consisting of Central Board of Direct Tax officials has submitted the 'Report on Simplification of Income Tax Act, 1961' to Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the government will now decide on further action, an official statement said in New Delhi on Friday.

The report combines all existing direct taxes like income tax, wealth tax, fringe benefit tax, etc, into one code 'Direct Taxes Code Bill 2006.'

For better understanding of law, the group has taken recourse to simple language -- minus the usual complicated legalese.

It has made efforts to remove existing anomalies and inconsistencies to enable easy implementation and ensure better compliance.

The concepts of 'previous year' and 'assessment year' have been replaced with 'financial year.'

Chidambaram had announced in his budget speech of 2005 that the Income Tax Act would be simplified and a new Bill would be introduced in Parliament, following which the group was constituted to simplify and rationalise the law relating to income tax.

Read more at : Income tax laws may soon be easy to understand

It is possible to be invisible!

It is possible to be invisible!
Reuters, London, August 1, 2006

It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.

Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H G Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.

But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the Fantastic Four.

"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt said. Invisibility is an optical illusion. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone.

The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.  "If you replace water with light, then you would not see something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front," he said.

The research was published in the New Journal of Physics, as a follow-up paper to an earlier study published in Science.

Read more at : Juniors

Intel unveils Core 2 Duo processors

Intel unveils Core 2 Duo processors
CRN Network, July 27, 2006

Intel Corporation has unveiled 10 Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors for consumer and business desktop and laptop PCs and workstations.

Charlotte Lamprecht, director, Digital Home Brand Management, Intel Corporation, said, "The Core 2 Duo processors are simply the best processors in the world. Not since Intel introduced the Pentium processor has the industry seen the heart of the computer reinvented like this."

Ramamurthy Sivakumar, managing director, Sales and Marketing (South Asia), Intel further added, "The Core 2 Duo desktop processor is an energy-efficient marvel, packing 291 million transistors yet consuming 40% lower power, while delivering the performance needed for the applications of today and tomorrow."
 
The company says that the highly anticipated processor family already has very broad support with more than 550 customer system designs underway - the most in Intel's history. Ultimately, tens of thousands of businesses will sell computers or components based on these processors.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processors are built in several of the world's most advanced, high-volume output manufacturing facilities using Intel's leading 65-nanometer silicon process technology. The desktop PC version of the processors also provide up to a 40% increase in performance and are more than 40% more energy efficient versus Intel?s previous best processor. According to multiple independent review organizations, the processors win more than nine out of 10 major server, desktop PC and gaming PC performance benchmarks.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processor family consists of five desktop PC processors tailored for business, home, and enthusiast users, such as high-end gamers, and five mobile PC processors designed to fit the needs of a mobile lifestyle. Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based workstations will also deliver industry-leading performance for such areas as design, content creation and technical computing.
 
The processor family is based on Intel Core microarchitecture, designed to provide powerful yet energy-efficient performance. With the power of dual cores, or computing engines, the processors can manage numerous tasks faster. They also can operate more smoothly when multiple applications are running, such as writing e-mails while downloading music or videos and conducting a virus scan.

Consumers and businesses will have the option to purchase Intel Core 2 Duo processors as part of Intel's premier market-focused platforms, which are made up of Intel hardware and software technologies tailored to specific computing needs, including Intel vPro technology for businesses, Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology for laptops, and Intel Viiv technology for the home.

Initial Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based systems are now available from system manufacturers, resellers and integrators, including Intel Channel Partner Program members. Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor-based systems will be available beginning in early August. Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based notebooks will be available at the end of August. Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X6800 is priced at $999, Core 2 Duo processor E6700 is available at $530, E6600 at  $316, E6400 at $224 and E6300 at $183.

Read more at : Computer Reseller News - For Providers of Information Technology Solutions

Saina Nehwal — female version of Gopi Chand

Saina Nehwal — female version of Gopi Chand
Stan Rayan, Jul 20 2006

KOCHI: As she enters the court, you can see the respect and fear in her opponent's eyes. Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton's wonder girl, scares the living daylights out of her rivals. A good number of her matches in the Indian circuit last just fifteen minutes and twenty at the most.

Given her awesome performances, one begins to wonder whether she is the female version of Gopi Chand.

"She may be better than that," says Thomas John, the India-born British coach at Gopi Chand's new academy in Hyderabad where Saina trains.

"Watch her, she'll win all the three National titles (sub-junior, junior and senior) this season. And if she works hard, she may win the Commonwealth Games crown in Melbourne next year," predicts Thomas.

But Saina has higher ambitions. "I want to win an Olympic gold," she says.

Given her hunger, she is in the right hands. Her idol Gopi Chand, who shocked the badminton world by lifting the All-England title a few years ago, frequently monitors her training sessions at his academy.

The 15-year-old Saina is already the country's junior champion and a runner-up in the Senior Nationals, losing to Aparna Popat who is World No. 27 and a former Junior World silver medallist.

At the international level, she won the Junior Czech Open two years ago and was a leading member of the Indian team which bagged the Commonwealth Youth Games silver in Bendigo, Australia, last year.

Saina fought well against host Korea's top-seeded Ha Jung Eun in the girls' second round of the Junior Asian championship last year before losing in three games. And she was in the Indian team for the Uber Cup qualifiers, the youngest-ever to do so.

The teen wonder has badminton in her blood. Her parents Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, and Usha Rani were former State champions in Haryana and it did not take long for Saina to start swinging the racquet.

Working on weaknesses

She moved to Hyderabad seven years ago and was trained by Dronacharya Awardee S.M. Arif for two years till his retirement from the SAI last year.

Unlike many Indian girls, Saina relies on ruthless power to subdue her opponents. She used to be a little suspect in her net play and mobility, but a recent look proved that the Andhra Pradesh star has worked on these aspects.

Having ironed out many of her physical flaws she now has to work on her mental make-up, especially when it comes to the international circuit. Often, after gaining huge leads, Saina has been unable to hang on to them and finish the job.

The Gopi Chand Academy has plans to send her to Holland or Denmark for training soon. That's the best thing that can happen to her career at the moment.

Read more at : The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Saina Nehwal — female version of Gopi Chand

Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up

Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up
Bureau Report, Zee News

Patna, July 28: Noted Bollywood singer Udit Narayan today admitted for the first time that Ranjana Jha was his first wife as he appeared before the Bihar Women`s Commission. In a clear indication of reconciliation with her husband, Ranjana too stated that she has no problems with his second wife Deepa. Udit, however, avoided taking to media.

Udit Narayan, who had been evading the appearance before the panel, was given 15-day ultimatum by the commission to solve the matter. Today, he gave a written assurance to the Commission that he recognised Ranjana as his first wife.

Udit Narayan had flown to Patna on June 30 for a reconciliation with Ranjana after the commission had threatened to have an arrest warrant issued against him if `meaningful reconciliation` was not achieved.

As Ranjana had told the commission following the meeting that talks were moving in the right direction, it had asked the singer to appear before it. Ranjana after about two-and-a-half hours of talks with Narayan at the airport lounge here on June 30 had told the media that talks had proceeded in the `right direction` and claimed that the singer had accepted her as his first wife.

A high-voltage drama was enacted on April 21 in a posh hotel here when Ranjana staged a sit-in in front of the door of the hotel suite in which Narayan was staying with Deepa Narayan, with whom he is living at present.

The commission had on the basis of the photographs and statement of people who had attended the marriage in 1984 prima facie accepted Ranjana`s claim of marriage with Narayan and had asked the singer to appear before the panel to record his version and also clarify his relationship with Deepa.

Deepa blames media, says it is family matter

While the high-voltage drama between Udit and Ranjana seemed to be dying down, Udit’s second wife Deepa took a U-turn today and blamed the media for “unnecessarily creating troubles for the family over what she termed as “internal matter”. She insisted that she had full knowledge of Udit’s first wife Ranjana before marrying him in 1982.

Deepa said that she has no problems with Ranjana.

Read more at : Zee News - Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up