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Gaganjeet Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri to represent India at 2013 World Cup of Golf

New Delhi, September 24, 2013: India will be represented by the duo of Gaganjeet Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri at the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf 2013, scheduled to be held from November 21 – 24, 2013, at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia.

Gaganjeet Bhullar, currently ranked 150 in the world, the highest among Indian professionals, and Anirban Lahiri, the next highest ranked Indian professional at 191, will both be making their debut at the World Cup.

Gaganjeet Bhullar, who was recently conferred the Arjuna Award, India’s second-highest sporting honour, has posted a couple of good finishes in 2013. The 25-year-old from Kapurthala was the runner-up at the European Tour’s Avantha Masters earlier this year.  He also claimed tied eighth place at the European Challenge Tour’s Gujarat Kensville Challenge. Bhullar, a winner of five international events, is currently placed second on the Asian Tour Order of Merit and 105^th on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings.

Anirban Lahiri, the other member of the Indian team, has enjoyed an excellent season on the Asian Tour in 2013. The 26-year-old Bangalore lad won the SAIL-SBI Open this year and followed that up with two more top-10 results including a runner-up finish at the Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters. Lahiri, a winner of three international titles, is currently in seventh position on the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Anirban also has two wins to his credit in the current PGTI season.

Mr. Padamjit Sandhu, Director, PGTI, said, “Gaganjeet and Anirban have excelled and won laurels for the country at the international level in recent years. This is another opportunity for them to showcase their talent at the highest level of the sport. With the criteria for qualification and playing format being the same for the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, a good result for our professionals at the World Cup will prove a huge morale-booster for our chances at the Olympics. We wish Gaganjeet and Anirban all the best.”

Incidentally, Bhullar and Lahiri were part of the Indian quartet that won the silver medal in the team event at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

Beginning in 2013, the World Cup of Golf becomes primarily an individual event with a team component. The 60-player field will be selected based on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) with up to two players per country allowed to qualify (four per country if they are within the top 15 of the OWGR). The format will return to 72 holes of stroke play, with the individuals competing for $7 million of the $8 million total purse. OWGR points will be awarded for the first time. The top two-ranked players from each country will compete for the team portion using combined stroke play scores. The individual portion is similar to what will be used at the 2016 Olympics.

India had recorded its best performance at the World Cup of Golf back in 2005 when the team comprising of Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal had finished a creditable ninth.

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Categories : sports, Uncategorized

Tere Pyar Mein Paapad

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Tere Pyar Mein Paapad

Genre: Comedy

 

Release Date: 27 September 2013

 Starring:Unnat Dutt, Shaiza Kashyap, Shamsher Mehndi, Ajay Arora and Aakriti Narula.

Director. Unnat Dutt

Studio:UEA Pictures

In todayⳠfast paced and competitive life, do you think there is room to fulfill your fantasies? There is no space to even have fantasies, let alone fulfill them. But, this is not the case in the life of Prem Pujari Das, called PPD by his friends. Fantasies can be saucy and spicy but acting some of them out can be quite dangerous and detrimental to the relationships, or may be not?

Tere Pyaar Mein Paapad is a story about an author Prem (Unnat Dutt) who secretly fantasizes about being with two women. All hell let loose when he does the unthinkable of sharing his fantasies with his menacing friends, Dr. Tully (Ajay Arora) and Shamsher Mehndi ( Shamsher Mehndi). They add fuel to fire and the misadventures start. The story revolves around the journey of Prem and his girlfriend Mili (Shaiza Kashyap) all the way towards his fantasies with many casualties on the way!

The film, states Unnat is a masala popcorn film. ㉴Ⳡabout a manⳊdesire to be with two women at the same time. ItⳠa laugh riot. But there is a deep message that is sought to be conveyed. I wanted to show how we lose what we have while chasing after something with we donⴠhave.䠠Notable is the item number Jalebi Jia Rang which has aroused a lot of interest says Aakriti Narula.

Shamsher Mehndi and Desi Hustlers (Gora and Manpreet ) have given three fabulous numbers in the movie which are on its way of becoming potential hits. Team TPMP also took the opportunity to thank  people for not protesting against IndiaⳠfirst bold movie based on an adult fantasy.ࠓocial media reach of the movie is running in a few crores and its Facebook pages fan base is over a lakh.

An engrossing romantic adult comedy, Tere Pyaarr Mein Paapad releases on Friday 27 September 2013 at DT cinemas, Wave and Movie Times near you!!!

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UN Broadband Commission releases latest country-by-country data

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UNESCO Press Release No. 2013-95

UN Broadband Commission releases latest country-by-country data on state of broadband access worldwide

Broadband goes wireless – but poorer countries being left behind

New York, 21 September, 2013 – Mobile broadband is the fastest growing technology in human history, according to the 2013 edition of the State of Broadbandreport.

Released in New York at the 8^th meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, the report reveals that mobile broadband subscriptions, which allow users to access the web via smartphones, tablets and WiFi-connected laptops, are growing at a rate of 30% per year. By the end of 2013 there will be more than three times as many mobile broadband connections as there are conventional fixed broadband subscriptions.

The State of Broadband is a unique global snapshot of broadband network access and affordability, with country-by country data measuring broadband access against the four key targets set by the 60 members of the Broadband Commission in 2011.

The Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest household broadband penetration at over 97%. Switzerland leads the world in fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, at over 40%. By comparison, the US ranks 24^th in terms of household broadband penetration, and 20^th in the world for fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, just behind Finland and ahead of Japan.

In terms of Internet use, there are now more than 70 countries where over 50% of the population is online. The top ten countries for Internet use are all located in Europe, with the exception of New Zealand (8^th) and Qatar (10^th).

“The global roll-out of broadband carries vast potential to enhance learning opportunities, to facilitate the exchange of information, and to increase access to content that is linguistically and culturally diverse,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, who  serves as co-Vice  Chair of the Commission with ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré. “It can widen access to learning, enhance its quality and empower men and women, girls and boys, with new skills and opportunities.  But this does not happen by itself – it requires leadership, planning and action.”

“The new analysis in this year’s report shows progress in broadband availability, but we must not lose sight of those who are being left behind,” said ITU’s Dr Touré. “While more and more people are coming online, over 90% of people in the world’s 49 Least Developed Countries remain totally unconnected. Internet – and particularly broadband Internet – has become a key tool for social and economic development, and needs to be prioritized, even in the world’s poorest nations. Technology combined with relevant content and services can help us bridge urgent development gaps in areas like health, education, environmental management and gender empowerment.”

For the first time, the State of Broadband report also tracks a new target mandating ‘gender equality in broadband access by the year 2020’, which was set by the Commission at its March meeting in Mexico City. ITU figures confirm that, worldwide, women are less likely to have access to technology than their male counterparts. While the gap is relatively small in the developed world, it widens enormously as average income levels fall.

A separate report of the Commission’s Working Group on Gender, led by UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, was also released at today’s meeting.

The full meeting of over 50 Commission members also welcomed a host of special guests including Nigeria’s Minister for Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson, Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Academy Award winning actor and advocate, Geena Davis, and UN Special Envoy for Youth, Ahmad Alhindawi.

Other highlights of today’s meeting included a presentation by Dr Touré of theYouth Declaration developed by over 500 young people at the ITU Youth Summit held in Costa Rica (9-11 September) hosted by President Laura Chinchilla, and a preview of a new report by the Task Force on the Post-2015 development agenda and future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was led by Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg, and which advocates the importance of including ICTs as a central pillar of the global development agenda.

The State of Broadband 2013 is the second edition of the report. Released every year in September in New York, it is the only report that features country-by-country rankings based on access and affordability for over 160 economies worldwide.

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Categories : Business, Uncategorized, world News

GAIL releases its third Sustainability Report

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“Energising Tomorrow Responsibly” theme of the report
New Delhi, September 25, 2013: Shri B. C. Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL (India) Limited, today released the company’s Sustainability Report for the year 2012-13 on the theme “Energising Tomorrow Responsibly” in the presence of Shri R.D. Goyal, Director (Projects), Shri Prabhat Singh, Director (Marketing), Shri S. Venkatraman, Director (Business Development), Shri P. K. Jain, Director (Finance) and other senior officials of the company.
This is the third Sustainability Report that has been brought out by the company and retains the pattern of stakeholder-centric reporting used in the earlier reports.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. B C Tripathi said “GAIL’s journey of touching lives and continually improving operating processes is encapsulated in the 3rd edition of the disclosure report on sustainable development befittingly titled – Energising Tomorrow Responsibly.
“Today, GAIL is the only PSU in the Oil & Gas sector to become one of the founding members of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) Focal Point India’s Sustainability and Transparency Consortium,” he added.
GAIL has produced a stakeholder-centric report reflecting on strategies and actions towards analyzing impacts and working towards creating a “positive stakeholder value”.
The report has been developed on the basis of GRI G3.1 guidelines on Sustainability Reporting and the Oil & Gas Sector Supplement (OGSS). The disclosures are in line with the requirements of the application level ‘A+’ and address 73 core and 25 additional GRI performance indicators. It is a Type 2 Moderate level assured report including data verification at different sites of GAIL including its Gas Processing Units, Petrochemical plant, Natural Gas compressor stations, LPG pumping/receiving stations, Corporate Office and some regional pipeline offices, GAIL Training Institute. The report is available on the GAIL website http://www.gailonline.com<;http://www.gailonline.com>.
With this, GAIL has been able to align the release of its Sustainability Report on the same day as its Annual General Meeting (AGM) which is a rare feat among large Corporates of India.
Photo caption: (From left to right) Shri C. N. Trivedi, Executive Director (Petrochemicals), Shri R.D. Goyal, Director (Projects), Shri S. Venkatraman, Director (Business Development), Shri B. C. Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director, Shri Prabhat Singh, Director (Marketing) and Shri P. K. Jain, Director (Finance) releasing GAIL (India) Limited’s Sustainability Report for the year 2012-13

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26092013

Naresh – Welcome — thanks for standing with Democrats. When President Obama asked me to serve as the chair of the Democratic Party, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I’m proud to work every day to advance the President’s agenda and elect Democrats across the country to support him. This isn’t just about politics for me, though. As a mother of three, I’m determined to make sure my children grow up in a country where everyone has a fair shot — no matter who they are, where they come from, or who they love. I’d love to know why you’re a Democrat — take a moment to let us know what issues are important to you personally. The President is working hard to do the job voters sent him to Washington to do, which is why he’s asked people like you and me to step up and take ownership of this party. In the months to come, we’re going to work on many important issues — fixing our broken immigration system, reducing gun violence, and making smart investments in our country’s future. We also have some critical elections coming up that we need to prepare for now. This has always been your party. We’ve already accomplished so much together — and I can’t wait to see what we do next. Get started now: http://my.democrats.org/Welcome Thanks, Debbie Debbie Wasserman Schultz Chair Democratic National Committee P.S. — We could use some more supporters like you. If you have a second, would you mind inviting your friends and family to join us?

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http://www.nisaindia.org

NISA Hosts its Second Annual School Leaders Summit Press Release – For Immediate Release - 25 September 2013, New Delhi National Independent Schools Alliance, an initiative of Centre for Civil Society, is organising its annual School Leaders Summit (SLS) at India International Centre, New Delhi on 26 September 2013. The summit will bring together over 150 budget private school leaders, educationists, researchers, investors, school principals and proprietors. These stakeholders, representatives of a diverse cross-section of society, will discuss the role of budget private schools in the education space, the existing challenges and gaps in the education system, and also explore opportunities and innovative practices to improve quality of schooling and student performance. Honorable Member of Parliament Sh. Madhu Goud Yaskhi will preside over the event as the Chief Guest for the summit. Sh. Yaskhi is the MP from Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh and is currently serving on the Standing Committee for Human Resource Development. An introduction about NISA by members of the NISA executive committee will be followed by an address by the chief guest. The day will further progress into four key panel discussions over the following issues: Barriers to the Choice of Education: The session, chaired by Amit Kaushik, former Managing Director at Educomp, will explore parental choice in the education of their children and how these choices are being limited by government regulations. The key speakers for this discussion will be R Sridhar, Managing Director of Educational Initiatives, Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Professor of Education Economics and International Development at London University, R C Jain, President of NISA, and Delhi State Public Schools Management Association and Tejpal Singh, Secretary General of the Punjab Private Schools Organisation and NISA State Representative from Punjab. School Leadership Training-  Chaired by Azad Oomen, Executive Director at the Central Square Foundation, this session will aim to provide school leaders with high-quality programming, individualised coaching and leadership development opportunities in order to build, lead, and sustain outstanding schools. The key speakers for this discussion will be Aditya Natraj, Founder Director of Kaivalya Education Foundation, and Mohammed Anwar, Managing Director of Empathy Learning Systems Pvt Ltd. and NISA representative for Andhra Pradesh. Running of Great Low Fee Private Schools- This session will aim to highlight the best practices in running low-fee schools and provide school owners with techniques for school improvement. It will be chaired by Amitav Virmani, Country Director for Absolute Return for Kids (ARK). On the panel, we have Ashish Rajpal, Founder and Managing Director of XSEED, Ashok Thakur, Founder of Muni International School and Siddharth Ajith who manages new initiatives at Gray Matters India. School Financing Models - In view of the challenges faced by low-fee schools in school financing, this session will focus on how to create sustainable and lucrative finance models for these schools. Harsh Shrivastava, COO at Centre for Civil Society will chair the session and Lokesh Gupta of Spice Investment Fund and Neeraj Sharma, CEO of Indian School Finance Company will be on the panel. The summit is an important step in helping the National Independent Schools Alliance achieve its dual aim of strengthening advocacy efforts for budget private schools with the government, amplifying the voice of these schools that currently face closure in the face of Right to Education norms for school recognition; and improving the quality of schooling and student performance in these schools. For further information contact: Samta Arora: samta@ccs.in | +91 99538 27773

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26092013

Posted on September 26, 2013 by sagarmedia

Aside

Actress Sneha Upadhyay at Sydenham College’s Simsree Simerations 2013

Actress, model, DJ, Pantaloons Femina Miss Fashionista 2012 and Kingfisher Calendar finalist Sneha Upadhyay (Madhu Sneha) is on a high this year after having walked the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week for Ritu Kumar and as a Pool Model; as well as for Shantanu & Nikhil at IIFA Rocks 2013.༯span>

Sneha༯span>was on the jury of Sydenham College’s Simsree annual fest Simerations 2013 along with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s favourite choreographer Mudassar Khan (Dabangg, Bodyguard, Bol Bachchan and Boss amongst others) and Dancing Curve’s Itika and Raunak. Sneha, who found the Simerations show too ‘filmi’, crowned Beat Breakers from Chinai College as the winners along with the second runners up from NK College. ༯span>

Incidentally, Sneha is also finalising a very unique show on a niche channel where she is playing herself as a successful model – well, she really is the Tyra Banks of India when it comes to films, fashion and television. ༯span>

This mesmerizing model was born in Howrah (near Kolkata) and was a studious conservative middle class family geek till she participated in the Bhawanipur College Fest and her entire life changed! The scintillating Sneha Upadhyay is the first runner up of the Kingfisher Calendar Girl 2012 hunt in association with NDTV Good Times and chosen in the Top 3 after a long hunt for a talent race among contestants from all across India. The girl, who had not even worn track pants is now scorching the ramps across India with what ace lensman Atul Kasbekar calls is the ᰥrfect body⮠ And renowned Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra chose only this Kolkata girl for his shows. The diva now aims to model her career a la Trya Banks and wants to replicate the global iconⳠsuccess in India.  

Sneha started off with an audition as a სt Woman⠡nd the model with ᒨythm in her Body⠨ad leading  fashion choreographers drooling over the Indian equivalent of Hollywood star Halle Berry! In fact, Sushma Puri from Elite Model Managemetn chased her all the way upto the Kolkata Fashion week in order to sign her on. And ace designer Nandita Thirani chose her as the lucky opening mascot for showcasing her Lakme Fashion Week collections.  And then followed a string of fashion designer fans including Manish Malhotra (he only chose Sneha from Kolkata she closed for him in the Kolkata Fashion Week), Jaya Misra  and Shantanu-Nikhil amongst others.ࠠ

㉊always had a feeling of being extraordinary and rising above my surroundings but didnⴠhave any clue. I strode the normal path for a girl of my background till my teens. My letter from the engineering college got misplaced and I was mulling entering dental college. When suddenly a new avenue of ramp modeling opened up in my life. It created a ruckus in my conservative household and my parents were very upset. My elder sister stood by me and gave me the confidence and courage to pursue it,䠳ays Sneha. When 5-6 hoardings with my face were put up across Kolkata, my parents finally relented when people appreciated my work. And yes, she has not taken a single penny from them for her pursuits.

On the Kingfisher Calendar show, Sneha was initially very disturbed with the emotionless approach of the crew! ㉠was just another candidate with a lovely body. I wanted to tell them that I had an equally intelligent mind to back my body up. I am proud that it was seen in the tasks that I did. The other candidates found my reading habits and my religious chanting from my rosary very weird. And while they used to diet, I used to eat quite a lot and still maintain my demure size zero tall frame. But when I started posting success after success, they started taking me seriously,䠳ays Sneha.  She adds, ㏴hers were competing while I was really enjoying myself.  I am very happy to win the Most Beautiful Body and the Most Photogenic Body titles. My mantras were confidence, determination and focus.伯p>

In fact, SnehaⳠbiggest fear on the show was that she was frightened of water and scared she might be asked to swim. 㔨ere was an accident in Chennai where I literally lost my life and was scared of swimming and going underwater. I joined this contest to confront my biggest fears and showcase my inborn talents. In the early rounds, they gave me an underwater task and I had to channelize all my resources to complete the task. I did well and proved a point to myself and peers. I won the maximum tasks and surprised myself and others. I have become very carefree and fearless.䠠༯p>

An ambitious young fresh face, Sneha quit her marketing job in the fast-paced city of Mumbai to change her career course to the glamorous world of fashion. A true believer in herself, Sneha swears that soon the world will know and believe in her! She is the most confident about ㍹self as a whole䠡nd her asset is her 㣯nfidence that has got her quite a lot at a young age.ࠓhe reads quite a lot and is a linguist with English (literature graduate with honours), Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. And she claims that she is a born dancer. She has dabbled in copywriting and thinks of writing scripts during her leisure time. She has also tutored the contestants of the Indian Princess contest organized by the Mumbai-based Atharva Group. She enjoyed the task of grooming and tutoring young raw contestants and elevating their self-esteem, self-confidence and self-belief.

An extremely spiritual human being, Sneha philosophises, ㉠get bored very quickly and keep looking for new challenges and frontiers of expressing myself.  I still feel I havenⴠexpressed myself fully and am still in the process of discovery. I continue to get plum assignments without really auditioning or striving hard. I continue to meet greater human beings and aspire to match their greatness with my latent talent and abilities. I believe that an actor lies hidden within me. I always fantasise about giving several expressions for a particular situation. I am Power Woman and will be the one that will make a difference to the lives of millions of Indians.䠉ncidentally, her father was an amateur actor and used to do a lot of theatre and encourage her to watch serious cinema.  But no one else in her family has any remote connection with showbiz. And Sneha is determined to make it on her own steam. ࠼/p>

As in sync with her Kolkata mindset, Sneha dreams of doing meaningful globally crossover films in the mould of actress such as Aparna Sen, Smita Patil and Madhuri Dixit amongst others.ࠓhe is still adjusting to the metropolis of Mumbai in terms of films, finance and fashion.  And Sneha Upadhyay is very clear that she is here to be and carve a niche for herself while leaving her footprints in the sands of time