The government conferred the Padma Vibhushan on Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Wipro chairman Azim Premji for their contribution to public affairs and trade and industry, respectively. Padma Bhushan is the second highest civilian award.
Other Padma Vibhushan awardees include Former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, technocrat Vijay Kelkar, the late Gandhian economist LC Jain, scientists PK Iyengar & PR Rao, educationist AR Kidwai, culture czarina Kapila Vatsyayan, first woman photo journalist Homai Vyarawalla, litterateurs ONV Kurup & Sitakant Mahapatra and film director A Nageshwara Rao.
The corporate world reaped a rich harvest in the Padma Bhushan category. Featuring in the list of awardees of the country's third highest civilian honour this year are ITC chairman YC Deveshwar, ICICI MD and CEO Chanda Kochar, Ranbaxy's Analjit Singh, Infosys CEO S (Kris) Gopalakrishnan and Dr Reddy Laboratories' founder-chairman K Anji Reddy. Pioneer of the GVK group, GVK Reddy, NIIT founder Rajendra Singh Pawar and HCL's Ajai Chowdhary.
Aditya Birla Group director Rajashree Birla was conferred the Padma Bhushan. Wife of the late Aditya Birla, she has been looking after ABG's social commitments. Grasim has taken up the education of villagers around Ngada. Indian Rayon has involved itself in medical projects and Tanfac is rehabilitating TB and leprosy patients. Birla has been overseeing each of these social projects.
There was no Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, for the third year running. The last person to get it was Bhimsen Joshi in 2008. The music maestro passed away on Monday. The Padma awards are conferred by the Government of India to eminent personalities each year on the eve of the Republic Day. The Padma list has 128 names this year - 13 Padma Vibhushans, 31 Padma Bhushans and 84 Padma Shri awards. There are 31 women in the list.
The Padma Bhushans were dominated also by 12 personalities from art and cinema, including ailing Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor and Waheeda Rahman, music director Khayyam, theatre personality Satyadev Dubey and eminent painters Krishen Khanna and Arpita Singh. No mediaperson figures in the 2010 Padma list.
Among the current crop of stars, actresses Kajol and Tabu and actor Irfan Khan, remembered for his role in Maqbool, walked away with the Padma Shri. Pop singer Usha Uthup also won the Padma Shri in the music category.
Even as talk of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar getting the Bharat Ratna proved to be speculation, the sports category had its own share of Padma honours. Cricketer VVS Laxman was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his successful performance as a batsman, as were wrestler Sushil Kumar, weightlifter N Kunjarani Devi, ace shooter Gagan Narang and discus thrower Krishna Poonia.
In the civil services category, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, who was part of the nuclear deal negotiations with the US, former cabinet secretary Surendra Singh and MN Buch, known for his work on urban planning, were honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
Among scientists who have made it to the list are Professor M Annamalai, Mahesh Haribhai Mehta, CNR Raghavendran, Suman Sahai and EA Siddiq. All of them were honoured with the Padma Shri. In medicine, the late K Raghavan Thirumulpad was conferred the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to ayurveda and the late Keki Byramjee Grant for his work in cardiology.
Among the educationists, Krishna Kumar and former Delhi University vice-chancellor Upendra Baxi were honoured with the Padma Shri.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Unemployment level dips in South Asia: ILO
South Asian countries, led by India registered a rapid economic growth in 2010 and their unemployment rates dipped marginally from the previous year, says the latest annual Global Employment Trends (GET) report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Globally, however, it was a bad year for jobs for the third successive year.
Globally, however, it was a bad year for jobs for the third successive year.
The annual employment trends survey points to a highly differentiated recovery in labour markets, with persistently high levels of unemployment in developed countries and employment growth coupled with continuing high levels of vulnerable employment and working poverty in developing regions.
These trends set a stark contrast, with the recovery seen in several key macroeconomic indicators: Global GDP, private consumption, investment, and global trade and equity markets all recovered in 2010, surpassing pre-crisis levels, ILO said in its statement on the report.
The report has called for expansion of wage employment and social safety nets and cited India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a model for reducing the region's large work deficits, besides asking for less dependence on exports and reorientation of growth toward domestic consumption.
Increasing social protection is crucial for enhancing economic security and encouraging consumption, it said in its policy recommendations.
"Economic growth in the region as a whole declined from 9.1 per cent in 2007 to 5.9 per cent in 2008 and to 5.5 per cent in 2009. It is estimated that the region's economy grew by 8.9 per cent in 2010, led by India, which registered rapid growth of 9.7 per cent in 2010. The Maldives Nepal and Pakistan are lagging,'' it said.
The region's unemployment rate has been fairly stable in recent years, including the economic crisis, ranging from 4.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent between 2007 and 2010.
Globally, unemployment remained at record high for the third straight year since the start of the crisis, ILO said, waring that weak recovery in jobs was likely to continue in 2011, especially in developed economies.
Jobs are back! IT, auto, others to hire thousands
Jobs are back with a bang in India, proving it to be the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring plans.
The 'cautious optimism' that pervaded throughout the last year has evaporated and companies are now looking to hire aggressively.
The IT sector, whose growth had dived to single digits in 2008, has entered another growth phase, with multinational corporations looking to India to expand their footprints, Kris Gopalakrishnan, managing director and CEO, Infosys Technologies, said on Saturday.
With the IT sector back on its feet, companies have started hiring and expanding again. The top five companies are estimated to hire 160,000 to 180,000 new employees in the next one year, Gopalakrishnan said.
This phenomenon offers tier-two and tier-three Indian cities opportunities to expand, he said.
"There are two options for any city - grow or die. If a city does not grow, over time people and businesses start moving out, and ultimately the city dies," he said.
TCS to hire 37,000 engineers
The country's largest information technology services provider, Tata Consultancy Services has said it will hire 37,000 engineers from campuses for 2011-12, 13,000 more than this financial year.
For 2010-11, TCS had made 24,000 campus offers.
The company has already crossed its hiring target of 50,000 employees for 2010-11 and will be adding 12,000-15,000 employees in the fourth quarter of this financial year.
"For the next financial year, we have decided to hire 37,000 from campuses. Of this, we have already given offers to 23,696 students. These trainees will join TCS towards the end of the first quarter of 2011-12," said Ajoy Mukherjee, vice-president, head, global human resources, TCS. The company visited 171 educational institutions.
If the company manages to add 15,000 people by the end of this quarter, it will have a headcount of more than 200,000. At the end of the third quarter, TCS had a headcount of 186,914.
Mukherjee also said the company was reviving its promotion policy for senior management. "Last quarter, we had announced that for junior employees, promotions will happen on a quarterly basis. And we can see the impact of this decision, as the attrition rate in this segment has come down. Staring from this January, we will start the senior promotions twice a year," said Mukherjee.
He also said the company was working on salary rise details and would announce it in April. "It is difficult to share the average hike that we will announce. We are still working on the details. But they will kick in from April onwards." Last year, TCS had given an average salary hike of 10 per cent.
Cognizant to hire 25,000 people in 2011
Nasdaq-listed information technology company Cognizant Technology Solutions plans to recruit another 25,000 people in 2011.
CTS, which follows the calendar year as the accounting period, recruited 25,000 people in 2010 too, as it expanded its verticals and focused on new geographies.
"While it is tough to make exact estimates at present, we are looking at recruiting numbers comparable to, if not more than last year's," said R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director of CTS.
He was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the company's second campus in Kolkata. After completion, the facility will be able to house 16,000 IT professionals.
At present, CTS has 8,000 employees in Kolkata. The new campus is one of the company's two major campuses. The other one is in Chennai and it can house 15,000 people. CTS has about 100,000 employees across the country.
The Chennai-headquartered company, which spent $180 million on infrastructure development, both in terms of campus development and leasing space for footprint expansion, is also looking at new regions to expand its reach. It also wants to reduce reliance on the North American market, due to growing protectionism and increasing levels of saturation.
FCI to hire 9,000 in next 3 years
The Food Corporation of India, the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains, today said it will hire 9,000 professionals in the next three years.
"We will fill-up approximately 9,000 posts in various categories in next three years," FCI Chairman and Managing Director Siraj Hussain said during the launch of the revamped website of the organisation.
While the scale of foodgrains dealt by FCI has increased substantially over last three decades, its manpower has been drastically reduced in the wake of staff retirement to almost half, he said.
Currently, there are over 33,000 staff working with FCI across the country. About 20,000 employees will be retired in next two years, he added.
Airlines to add 5,000 professionals
Airlines in India are likely to hire 5,000 professionals across various operations this year, including cabin crew, ground staff and pilots, following the evident boom in the aviation sector.
"Airlines had pulled out at least 20% capacity from the market during the downturn. That capacity was restored last year and we see airlines adding another 20% capacity this year and would be hiring 4,500-5,000 people this year," said Kapil Kaul, CEO of aviation consultancy firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, South Asia, said while speaking to a business daily.
In one of its largest hiring programmes since the Indian Airlines-Air India merger, the airline is increasing cabin crew by 700 to tide over the current shortage. New hires will be a mix of trainees and experienced staff.
"The need to hire emerged after we saw a shortage of crew. We will also need a lot of people for our expansion plans, with Delhi airport becoming our hub," said an Air India official, who did not wish to be identified. Air India has 3,200 cabin crew and a negligible attrition rate.
At the same time, Air India Express, the low-cost wing of the airline, is planning to induct four more aircraft and will require 74 new cabin crew members. This addition will help increase the number of flights from 168 to over 200.
Experts say that Air India and low-cost airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet will add more than 1,000 this year.
Car makers to employ over 3,000
Passenger vehicle sales likely to rise to 5 million units by 2015 and over 9 million units by 2020, from the current figure of 1.95 million due to the strong domestic demand and export of small cars.
Carmakers in Indian now are eyeing more research and development personnel from India and overseas as they plan to ramp up their capacities to grab a bigger share of India's rapidly growing car market.
General Motors India, Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai and Mahindra and Mahindra will also new talent from the United States and Europe.
Maruti is likely to hire 1,500 people from India by March. M&M, the country's largest utility vehicle maker, too plans to recruit fresh talent.
Accor to create 3000 jobs in India next year
Global hospitality firm Accor has said that it will hire 3,000 people by next year in India to fill vacancies being created at its upcoming hotels in the country.
Accor currently operates eight hotels under brands, Novotel, Ibis and Mercure, and two convention centres that employ about 2,000 people.
"By the end of 2011, we will employ total 5,000 people at Accor operated properties across India," Accor Hotels India, regional director of human resources ashwin A Shirali told media.
About 30 per cent of the job opportunities being created will be for entry level jobs, he said. The company will operate ten new properties that are likely to come up in 2011.
In August this year, Accor had said that it plans to open 90 hotels by 2015, out of which contracts for 60 hotels have already been signed. Around 21 hotels are likely to be operational by the end of 2012.
At present Accor, in partnership with InterGlobe Enterprises, runs hotels under the Ibis brand and has partnership with other companies for Novotel and Mercure brand.
Nokia Siemens Networks to hire 800 more
Nokia Siemens Networks, a provider of mobile infrastructure and managed services, will establish a new facility at Navalur in Chennai in addition to the existing facility at Taramani as part of its global network solutions centre.
The new facility, spread across 90,000 square feet, is nearly three times in size from its existing facility.
"We will be scaling up to 1,800 employees in Chennai by 2011, from current 1,000," said Armando Almeida, head of global services at NSN. NSN has a another 1,500 based in Noida.
The Chennai centre provides remote delivery support services including network implementation and managed services. It is one of the three operating GNSCs globally. The other two are at Noida, India and Lisbon in Portugal. Two new centres at Moscow and Sao Paulo are being set up to be in the same time zones as potential markets and also to address language requirements.
"The growth in business is partly in anticipation of 3G services in India and partly due to operators preferring us for network management," said Almeida.
Coca-Cola to hire 600
The India arm of global beverage maker Coca-Cola plans to hire around 600 workforce this year, which accounts for around nine per cent of the existing employees, a top company executive has said.
"We are looking at recruiting around 600 employees in our India operations this calendar year," Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages vice president (HR) P V Ramana Murthy said.
The recruitment would be made across all levels, including management trainees, he said.
The company's current head-count stands at 6,500, which will be increased to around 7,100 this year, Mr. Murthy said.
Hindustan Coca Cola has plans to gradually reduce the hiring of lateral talent in its bid to groom trainees into mid management cadre, he said.
"We are planning to slowly, in about five years, reduce hiring of experienced people and increase the recruitment of management trainees. These trainees will be groomed to take over these mid to high level posts in future," Mr. Murthy said.
He said for retaining these groomed executives, the company is planning to incentivise them or offer them compensation, which will be more in the form of emotional and cultural aspect.
"We will concentrate on creating a work environment, which will be more comfortable and have facilities to suit these young executives. If the need arises we will also look into offering them customised incentives," Murthy added.
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages is wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, responsible for manufacturing, sale and distribution of beverages across the country.
Bright prospects for working moms
With accelerating economy and brightening of employment prospects, 56 per cent of Indian companies are looking to recruit working mothers in 2011.
In fact, research from workplace solutions provider, Regus points out that Indian firms are far more likely to hire returning mothers compared to their global counterparts.
The Regus survey, in which over 10,000 business respondents from across the globe were interviewed during August and September 2010, found that globally 36% of companies expect to hire working mothers in 2011.
This reflects a downward trend in sentiment towards hiring working mums, the same research last found that globally 44% of companies had expressed a desire to hire returning mothers.
India, where 43% of companies plan to add staff overall, counters this trend with fully 56% of firms declaring they plan to hire more working mothers. This figure is down, however, on 64% a year ago.
The survey forms the basis of a Regus report entitled 'Mother's Day? A study of trends in hiring working mothers across the globe', which reveals residual concerns amongst a minority of employers, who still fear that working mothers may show less commitment and flexibility than other employees (37%), leave shortly after training to have another child (33%) or have out-dated skills (24%).
In India employers were particularly concerned about working mums' skills being out-of-date (45%) and about them taking time off to have another child (51%).
On the positive side, a majority of businesses now value returning mothers, with 72% declaring they believe companies that ignore part-time returning mothers are missing out on a significant and valuable part of the employment pool.
In addition, fully 56% regard working mums as offering skills that are difficult to find in the current market; and 57% declare that they value returning mothers because they offer experience and skills without demanding top salaries.
In India, the percentage of those who valued working mothers because of this was higher than the global average (64%), perhaps indicating that there is still a lot of work to be done to reach salary equality between working mothers and their colleagues.
Oprah Sister: Patricia, Oprah's Secret Half Sister, Revealed
Oprah's huge family secret was revealed on Monday: she has a half-sister named Patricia.
Vernita Lee, Oprah's mother, gave Patricia up for adoption in 1963, but kept her a secret from her daughter. Oprah was nine years old and living with her father when her mother had the baby. She said she never even knew Vernita was pregnant.
Oprah and Patricia were publicly reunited on Monday's show. Oprah showed video of her and her partner, Steadman Graham, driving to Milwaukee to meet Patricia for the first time on Thanksgiving Day last year.
Patricia said she started thinking that Oprah might be her sister when she saw an interview with Vernita Lee on television. The information Lee gave coincided with what she knew about her birth family.
She tried to track down her birth mother, but was told by the adoption that the mother did not want to get in touch with her. But Patricia did manage to track down Oprah's niece, and DNA tests confirmed that they were related. This led to Oprah confronting her mother, who confirmed that Patricia was indeed her half sister. Vernita Lee also appeared on Monday's show.
The 83rd Annual Oscar Nominations
Below is the list of the 83nd Annual Oscar Nominations
Best Picture
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"Inception"
"The Kids Are All Right "
"The King's Speech"
"127 Hours"
"The Social Network"
"Toy Story 3″
"True Grit"
"Winter's Bone"
Best Direction
Darren Aronofsky for "Black Swan"
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "True Grit"
David Fincher for "The Social Network"
Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech"
David O. Russell for "The Fighter"
Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"
Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"
James Franco in "127 Hours"
Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right"
Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine"
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in "The Fighter"
John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"
Jeremy Renner in "The Town"
Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"
Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in "The Fighter"
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech"
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"
Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"
Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom"
Adapted Screenplay
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for "127 Hours"
Aaron Sorkin for "The Social Network"
Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for "Toy Story 3″
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "True Grit"
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for "Winter's Bone"
Original Screenplay
Mike Leigh for "Another Year"
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for "The Fighter"
Christopher Nolan for "Inception"
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for "The Kids Are All Right"
David Seidler for "The King's Speech"
Animated Feature
"How to Train Your Dragon"
"The Illusionist"
"Toy Story 3″
Art Direction
"Alice in Wonderland": Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O'Hara (Set Decoration)
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
"Inception": Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
"The King's Speech": Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
"True Grit": Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)
Cinematography
"Black Swan": Matthew Libatique
"Inception": Wally Pfister
"The King's Speech": Danny Cohen
"The Social Network": Jeff Cronenweth
"True Grit": Roger Deakins
Costume Design
"Alice in Wonderland": Colleen Atwood
"I Am Love": Antonella Cannarozzi
"The King's Speech": Jenny Beavan
"The Tempest": Sandy Powell
"True Grit": Mary Zophres
Documentary (Feature)
"Exit through the Gift Shop"
"Gasland"
"Inside Job"
"Restrepo"
"Waste Land"
Documentary (Short Subject)
"Killing in the Name"
"Poster Girl"
"Strangers No More"
"Sun Come Up"
"The Warriors of Qiugang"
Film Editing
"Black Swan": Andrew Weisblum
"The Fighter": Pamela Martin
"The King's Speech": Tariq Anwar
"127 Hours": Jon Harris
"The Social Network": Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Foreign Language Film
"Biutiful": Mexico
"Dogtooth": Greece
"In a Better World": Denmark
"Incendies": Canada
"Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)": Algeria
Makeup
"Barney's Version": Adrien Morot
"The Way Back": Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Wolfman": Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score)
"How to Train Your Dragon": John Powell
"Inception": Hans Zimmer
"The King's Speech": Alexandre Desplat
"127 Hours": A.R. Rahman
"The Social Network": Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Music (Original Song)
"Coming Home" from "Country Strong" Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from "Tangled" Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours" Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Short Film (Animated)
"Day & Night": Teddy Newton
"The Gruffalo": Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
"Let's Pollute": Geefwee Boedoe
"The Lost Thing": Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)": Bastien Dubois
Short Film (Live Action)
"The Confession": Tanel Toom
"The Crush": Michael Creagh
"God of Love": Luke Matheny
"Na Wewe": Ivan Goldschmidt
"Wish 143″: Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Sound Editing
"Inception": Richard King
"Toy Story 3″: Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
"Tron: Legacy": Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
"True Grit": Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
"Unstoppable": Mark P. Stoeckinger
Sound Mixing
"Inception": Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
"The King's Speech": Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
"Salt": Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
"The Social Network": Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
"True Grit": Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Visual Effects
"Alice in Wonderland": Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
"Hereafter": Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
"Inception": Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
"Iron Man 2″: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Top 50 Search Engines
- Google - Google UK - Google Image Search
Google is a search engine that makes heavy use of link popularity as a primary way to rank web sites. Users across the web have in essence voted for good sites by linking to them.
- Ask Jeeves - Jeeves For Kids - Ask Jeeves UK
Innovative online search service that processes plain-language queries with surprising accuracy.
- Lycos - Lycos UK
Lycos has been around since the early days of the net and is still one of the most popular search engines. The service employs human editors for some of its listings, complemented by crawler-based results. The name Lycos comes from the Latin for "wolf spider."
- Alta Vista - Alta Vista UK -
An awesome site from Digital, it maintains a HUGE index with powerful and FAST search functions. Coverage is excellent so it is good for broad searching and for offbeat subjects but you can be overwhelmed by too many hits.
- LookSmart - Looksmart UK
LookSmart is the closest rival Yahoo has, in terms of being a human-compiled directory of the web. The high quality of the directory is thanks to a team of nearly 200 full-time professional editors.
- Yahoo! - Yahoo UK
Yahoo is the web's most popular search service and has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find information easily. The secret to Yahoo's success is human beings. It is the largest human-compiled guide to the web, employing 80 or more editors in an effort to categorize the web. Yahoo has at least 1 million sites listed. - MSN (Microsoft)
Microsoft's MSN service features both directory listings and search engine results. Powered by Inktomi, this is now one of the most powerful search engines. - BBC - Search The Web
The BBC's "family friendly" search engine, based on Google search technology. Results are clear, uncluttered, relevant, and commercial free. "Our results are the ones that best match your search words - not the ones advertisers want you to see." Excellent!
- GigaBlast
Gigablast is a new search-engine that looks set to challenge Google. It's been set up by a New Mexican Software Engineer, and already producing great search results.
- GO Network
Go is the reincarnation of Infoseek, a newly designed site claiming to have enhanced capabilities, with a 50% larger search index and search results pages that are 30% faster. It offers portal features such as personalization and free e-mail.
- HotBot
This search engine has a great many loyal fans. It very often comes up with the goods where other engines fail.
- Open Directory
NetScape's Open Directory Project aims to build the most comprehensive human-reviewed directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors.
- Teoma Search
Teoma, which means "expert" in Gaelic, determines the authority or quality of a site's content, by using Subject-Specific Popularity. Subject-Specific Popularity ranks a site based on the number of same-subject pages that reference it, not just general popularity.
- FAST Search
One of the new generation of search services, armed with next-generation technology. FAST aims to be bigger, speedier and more accurate than the existing major search engines.
- Multi Search
Multi Search is a powerful tool which will search all the top search engines with one click.
- Webcrawler
One of the first and biggest search engines, and it still produces highly relevant results. - REX
This is a VERY nice site - a little sense of humour, very professionally done. - HandiLinks
This is a great directory. HandiLinks listings are all organized into a hierarchical index and it's fast and easy-to-use. It has extensive categorization, and uses a frame design that aids rather than getting in the way of searches. - Snap.com
Snap.com is a human-compiled directory of web sites, supplemented by search results. It aims to challenge Yahoo as the champion of categorizing the web. - Scour.Net
A useful multimedia search engine. Use it to find audio, video, images and animation Scour.Net takes you directly to the multimedia you are searching for, quickly and easily. - AAA Matilda
The most popular search engine outside of North America. Matilda is a very individual search engine from Australia, and growing rapidly in popularity. - UK Plus
UK Plus features reviews of UK-relevant sites, prepared by a team of journalists. Reviews are grouped into various channels, covering everything from Arts and Business to Travel and Work. They are also searchable. - Direct Hit
This Popularity Engine tracks the sites that people actually select from the search results list. By analyzing the activity of millions of previous Internet searchers, Direct Hit determines the most popular and relevant sites for your search request. - Dogpile
Sends a search to a customizable list of search engines, directories and specialty search sites. - Britannica Internet Guide
This site strives to list only the highest quality sites on the Net. It's now integrated into the Britannicca.com website, so you get a high-quality search engine and encyclopaedia at the same time. - Go2Net
This is a metacrawler, in other words it searches several other search engines in order to obtain its results. Rapidly gaining in popularity as a web portal. - Alba36.com
A human reviewed searchable directory to over 2700 specialty and regional search engines, vortals, portals, topical guides, specialized directories and the best web sites.
- WhosBest.com
A search engine that gives ratings for each site. - ANZWERS
ANZWERS (Australian and New Zealand Web Enquiry and Research System) offers visitors the ability to quickly conduct region and domain specific searches. - Mamma
Sends search requests to seven major search engines. - NewsTrawler
Allows you to send a query to one or more news sites from one location. Hundreds of sites are listed, by country and by category. - EuroSeek
EuroSeek is distinguished from other such engines by a multi-lingual interface. - Your WebScout
A popular index of the Net's best Web sites, discussion groups and archives. - Northern Light
A professional researchers' favourite, because it organises material so well by topic. Based in Canada. - SelectSurf
An excellent website directory, that doesn't overwhelm with too many sites. - BrightGate MetaSearch
Searches over 20 search engines using a parallel metasearch.
- NewsBot
HotBot's news-only search service. - UKMax
UKMax allows users to search only pages within the .uk domain or perform a worldwide search. It also offers some directory listings, regional news content, weather reports, and portal features such as portfolio tracking. - SearchUK
Lists UK-related domains. - Global Online Directory (GOD)
UK based search engine. - GoTo
GoTo is the only major search engine which sells listings. Companies can pay money to be placed higher in the search results, which GoTo feels improves relevancy. - Internet Sleuth
Allows you to search the standard search engine choices or a huge number of specialty sites, all from the same place. - Search Spaniel
This dog sniffs out several of major search engines at the same time, or you can choose to do the same with an extensive list of specialty search services, such as for entertainment or employment information. - SavvySearch
Metacrawler type engine. - BOTBOT.com
BOTBOT parallel search engine and Web Directory - Get multiple results using advanced parallel search technology. Search the Web, News, MP3, Images, Audio, Video and more. Comes up with some good results.
- UK Index
Lists sites based in the UK or that are UK-relevant. - Metafind
Similar to Dogpile, except that searches only go to search engines. - HuskySearch
The author of MetaCrawler continues research into information retrieval with this University of Washington-based metacrawler. - Mirago
UK directory and search engine. - HealthLinks
Massive directory listing over 4,600 health related websites in 150 categories.
Why Should I Buy Insurance
All assets have some economic value attached to them. No person can deny that there is also a possibilty that these assets may get damaged/destroyed or become non-operational due to risks like breakdowns, fire, floods, earthquake etc. Different assets are exposed to different types of risks like a car has a risk of theft or meeting an accident, a house is exposed to risk of catching fire, a human is exposed to risk of death/accident. Insurance is needed because of following reasons:
Social Security Tool
Insurance acts as an important tool providing a sense of security to the society on a whole. It is the right of every human-being to have basic amenities like food, clothing, housing, medical care, standard of living necessary for his personal and family's well being, and right to security in case of unemployment, disability, sickness or any other circumstances out of his control.
In case the bread earner of a family dies, the family suffers from direct financial loss as family's income ceases. As a result, family's economic condition gets affected unless there are other arrangements to rescue the family from this situation. Life insurance is one alternate arrangement that offers some respite to the family from financial distress. Otherwise this family would have been pushed into the lower strata of the society, which would be an additional cost to the society. This is because subsidies would have to be given to the family so as to enable it to survive and enjoy the basic rights at par with other people. Moreover, a poor family is generally seen to have a large family size with family members being illiterate. This on a whole affects the society and is a cost to the society. Therefore, insurance compliments the state in social management efforts.
Uncertainty
The basic need of insurance arises as risks are uncertain and unpredictable in nature. Getting insurance for an asset does not mean that the asset is protected against risks or its exposure to risk is reduced, but it actually implies that in case the asset suffers any loss in value due to such risk, the insurance company bears the loss and compensates the insured by making payment to him.
Economic Development
The premium paid by people to the insurance companies is a part of their savings. Insurance, thus, acts as a useful instrument in promoting savings and investments, particularly within the lower-income and middle-income families. These savings are ultimately used as investments fuelling economic growth.
General Purposes of Insurance
Insurance is widely popular and beneficial because of its following general purposes:Protection or safety (Term insurances) : These plans are best suited for people aged upto 35 years as it provides higher protection at low cost. These plans are also beneficial for a person whose income is low and want to secure their family from financial default in case of his death. Marriage or education of the child (Children plans) Speedy growth of money & risk cover (Unit Linked Plans) Saving and Protection (Endowment type plans) Saving, protection & liquidity (Money back plans)
The above purposes apply for life insurance. In case of General insurance the basic purpose is to protect the insured against financial loss suffered by him or creation of liability, due to the causes covered by the policy.
Social Security Tool
Insurance acts as an important tool providing a sense of security to the society on a whole. It is the right of every human-being to have basic amenities like food, clothing, housing, medical care, standard of living necessary for his personal and family's well being, and right to security in case of unemployment, disability, sickness or any other circumstances out of his control.
In case the bread earner of a family dies, the family suffers from direct financial loss as family's income ceases. As a result, family's economic condition gets affected unless there are other arrangements to rescue the family from this situation. Life insurance is one alternate arrangement that offers some respite to the family from financial distress. Otherwise this family would have been pushed into the lower strata of the society, which would be an additional cost to the society. This is because subsidies would have to be given to the family so as to enable it to survive and enjoy the basic rights at par with other people. Moreover, a poor family is generally seen to have a large family size with family members being illiterate. This on a whole affects the society and is a cost to the society. Therefore, insurance compliments the state in social management efforts.
Uncertainty
The basic need of insurance arises as risks are uncertain and unpredictable in nature. Getting insurance for an asset does not mean that the asset is protected against risks or its exposure to risk is reduced, but it actually implies that in case the asset suffers any loss in value due to such risk, the insurance company bears the loss and compensates the insured by making payment to him.
Economic Development
The premium paid by people to the insurance companies is a part of their savings. Insurance, thus, acts as a useful instrument in promoting savings and investments, particularly within the lower-income and middle-income families. These savings are ultimately used as investments fuelling economic growth.
General Purposes of Insurance
Insurance is widely popular and beneficial because of its following general purposes:
The above purposes apply for life insurance. In case of General insurance the basic purpose is to protect the insured against financial loss suffered by him or creation of liability, due to the causes covered by the policy.
Basics of Insurance
Meaning of Insurance
Insurance provides financial protection against a loss arising out of happening of an uncertain event. A person can avail this protection by paying premium to an insurance company.
A pool is created through contributions made by persons seeking to protect themselves from common risk. Premium is collected by insurance companies which also act as trustee to the pool. Any loss to the insured in case of happening of an uncertain event is paid out of this pool.
Insurance works on the basic principle of risk-sharing. A great advantage of insurance is that it spreads the risk of a few people over a large group of people exposed to risk of similar type.
Definition
Insurance is a contract between two parties whereby one party agrees to undertake the risk of another in exchange for consideration known as premium and promises to pay a fixed sum of money to the other party on happening of an uncertain event (death) or after the expiry of a certain period in case of life insurance or to indemnify the other party on happening of an uncertain event in case of general insurance.
The party bearing the risk is known as the 'insurer' or 'assurer' and the party whose risk is covered is known as the 'insured' or 'assured'.
Concept of Insurance / How Insurance Works
The concept behind insurance is that a group of people exposed to similar risk come together and make contributions towards formation of a pool of funds. In case a person actually suffers a loss on account of such risk, he is compensated out of the same pool of funds. Contribution to the pool is made by a group of people sharing common risks and collected by the insurance companies in the form of premiums.
Lets take some examples to understand how insurance actually works:
Insurance provides financial protection against a loss arising out of happening of an uncertain event. A person can avail this protection by paying premium to an insurance company.
A pool is created through contributions made by persons seeking to protect themselves from common risk. Premium is collected by insurance companies which also act as trustee to the pool. Any loss to the insured in case of happening of an uncertain event is paid out of this pool.
Insurance works on the basic principle of risk-sharing. A great advantage of insurance is that it spreads the risk of a few people over a large group of people exposed to risk of similar type.
Definition
Insurance is a contract between two parties whereby one party agrees to undertake the risk of another in exchange for consideration known as premium and promises to pay a fixed sum of money to the other party on happening of an uncertain event (death) or after the expiry of a certain period in case of life insurance or to indemnify the other party on happening of an uncertain event in case of general insurance.
The party bearing the risk is known as the 'insurer' or 'assurer' and the party whose risk is covered is known as the 'insured' or 'assured'.
Concept of Insurance / How Insurance Works
The concept behind insurance is that a group of people exposed to similar risk come together and make contributions towards formation of a pool of funds. In case a person actually suffers a loss on account of such risk, he is compensated out of the same pool of funds. Contribution to the pool is made by a group of people sharing common risks and collected by the insurance companies in the form of premiums.
Lets take some examples to understand how insurance actually works:
| Example 1 | Example 2 |
| SUPPOSE | SUPPOSE |
| UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION All 1000 house owners are exposed to a common risk, i.e. fire | UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION All 5000 persons are exposed to common risk, i.e. death |
| PROCEDURE All owners contribute Rs. 300/- each as premium to the pool of funds  Total value of the fund = Rs. 3,00,000 (i.e. 1000 houses * Rs. 300) 5 houses get burnt during the year Insurance company pays Rs. 40,000/- out of the pool to all 5 house owners whose house got burnt | PROCEDURE Everybody contributes Rs. 1200/- each as premium to the pool of funds Total value of the fund = Rs. 60,00,000 (i.e. 5000 persons * Rs. 1,200) 50 persons die in a year on an average Insurance company pays Rs. 1,00,000/- out of the pool to the family members of all 50 persons dying in a year |
| EFFECT OF INSURANCE Risk of 5 house owners is spread over 1000 house owners in the village, thus reducing the burden on any one of the owners. | EFFECT OF INSURANCE Risk of 50 persons is spread over 5000 people, thus reducing the burden on any one person. |
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