Goa govt launches scheme to strengthen infra in schools

Panaji: Schools in Goa would now be able to upgrade or set up infrastructure, including for IT services, and even acquire land for the purpose, courtesy a dedicated scheme announced by the state government on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters that the scheme has been approved by the state Cabinet with the financial implication being pegged at Rs 50 crore annually.

"While primary schools will be given Rs 50 lakh each, high schools Rs one crore each and higher secondary schools Rs two crores for the purpose," Parrikar

said.

The chief minister said that 50 per cent of the total allocation would be made in the form of grants and rest as interest-free loan, which can be repaid over next 15 years.

Though nearly 276 schools are eligible for this scheme, only 30 schools would get the benefit for the current academic year, Parrikar said.


"The funds provided for the infrastructure creation can also be used to acquire land and also to install IT services like wi-fi and CCTV," he said.

State-run Education Development Corporation has been named as a nodal agency to implement the scheme, a revised version of the earlier scheme wherein schools were asked to mortgage their properties to avail the benefit.

PTI

Kerala gets 72 percent surplus rainfall

Thiruvananthapuram: Ushering in brighter prospects for the power sector, Kerala has received over 72 per cent surplus rainfall since the onset of Southwest monsoon on June 1, after passing through a rain-deficient year that witnessed severe energy crisis and grim drought conditions.

According to India Meteorological Department, till June 19 the state as a whole received 665 mm rainfall against the normal 386 mm for the period.

While all parts of the state received good rains without long pauses, it is all the more significant that Idukki district, where reservoirs of major hydro electric projects are located, got 93 per cent excess rainfall, state power board sources said.

Among the 14 districts, Kannur in north Kerala received the highest amount of rainfall with a surplus of 114 percent.

Last year, the rainfall received by the state was deficient by 24 per cent during the southwest monsoon and 35 per cent during the northeast monsoon periods.

The shortfall pushed the state into one of its worst power crisis, forcing the Government to clamp 90 minutes load-shedding, half of which was during peak hours in the evening, curbs in consumption by non-domestic consumers. rainfall, replenishing reservoirs in that area.

With the prospects brightening, Kerala State Electricity Board last week lifted the one-hour day-time load-shedding and the 30-minute peak-hour cut.

According to KSEB, generation from hydro-electric projects accounts for bulk of the power available in its grid, with supply from thermal plants and small and small and micro projects and non-conventional sources yielding just a minor portion of the demand required.

PTI

Gulaab Gang - Actresses Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla (Benaras Mediaworks)

Actresses Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, who will be seen together in the upcoming film Gulaab Gang, have teamed up for a new campaign to celebrate the triumphs of women against all odds.

Gulaab Gang directed by newcomer Soumik Sen, is based on Gulabi Gang, a group of Indian women vigilantes and activists dressed in pink saris, fighting against the social injustice and operating in the Bundelkhand region of central India.

The film's producer Anubhav Sinha along with the two leading ladies announced the campaign titled Believe, which is an endeavour by Benaras Mediaworks in association with Gulaab Gang.

"It goes without saying that the environment and times we live in are sad and hostile. Especially for us women. And yet there are these stories of rising above the odds which the nation must know of. As a creative artist my job has been to inspire audiences with art and films I'm part of. I look forward to saluting the unknown heroines of the country," Madhuri said.

The campaign will bring forth stories of valour from across the country and talk about unheard stories and unsung heroines.

"It is always inspiring and uplifting to know a real story of real women who have overcome hardships, extreme hardships and come out as winners," Juhi said.

Source : IndianExpress

Amazon now in India

Online retailer Amazon launched its India marketplace, ‘Amazon.in’, on Wednesday, offering books, movies and television shows for sale.

According to industry watchers, it notched up nearly 10,000 orders on the first day of operations.

In this current marketplace model however, Amazon will not own any merchandise sold but will act as platform for any retailer who wishes to sell his products.

“Our vision is to become a trusted and meaningful sales channel for retailers of all sizes across India, enabling them to succeed and efficiently grow their business online,” said Amit Agarwal, Vice-President and Country Manager, Amazon India.

To start with, Amazon.in has over 12,000 movie and television titles and 7 million book titles for purchase. It plans to expand soon into categories such as cameras and mobile phones.

The company’s top executives met Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma some months ago and discussed the creation of a favourable policy environment for Amazon to do business, which is otherwise not allowed in India.

Hurdles side-stepped

The new marketplace model allows the company to sidestep regulatory hurdles that prevent foreign retailers from owning an Indian arm for direct sales.

Source : TheHindu

The world's tiniest fisheye camera

Twenty-five year-old student Greg Dash was frustrated. He wanted to take "fisheye"-style camera pictures without having to pay for an expensive lens, or fiddle around with a smartphone app. He wanted something light and small that he could pull from his pocket at a moment's notice. Unfortunately such a device did not exist.
So, he went ahead and invented it.
Measuring just four centimeters long and two centimeters high, the "Little Cyclops" has only two buttons and no viewing screen.
However, an array of nifty features -- including a timelapse mode, 12 megapixel resolution and HD video recording capabilities -- have proven so popular with photography enthusiasts that the camera easily surpassed its funding target on the crowdsourcing website, Indiegogo.
 Silent success of BLUMOTION hinge Divine inspiration behind Post-it Notes Harvesting rubber from dandelions
The Little Cyclops had raised $100,000 as donations came to a close this morning, almost double the initial $53,000 target.
"It's all been a bit overwhelming," said Dash. "At one point I was getting an email every seven minutes and it has been just impossible to respond to everyone.
"Because the money has gone so far over the goal now though I can get other people on board to help get the cameras out," he added.
See also: The ingenious refocusing camera
Dash says he first came up with the idea for the camera late last year when he was unable to find an affordable fisheye lens to use with his own digital SLR camera.
He resolved to fashion one himself using an old camera and a lens he had custom made.
When friends were impressed with the results he decided to see if he could raise the funds to put his invention into production.
A manufacturer -- which he doesn't wish to reveal as he is still in the pre-production phase -- was then sourced to make a limited run of 1,000 devices completely from scratch which will be sold on a first-come first-served basis.
The cameras are priced at $100 each and orders have already arrived from as far afield as Japan and Taiwan.
"It's been amazing as there has been interest from everywhere really, all over the world," Dash said.
"I was even invited to go on Dragon's Den (a popular British TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their products and ideas to prominent businesspeople) but there's no way I'm going on that," he added.
See also: $30 gadget lets your eyes take control
Despite the unforeseen level of interest, Dash says he has no plans to go into the serious business of mass production any time soon.
His main priority remains studying towards a PhD on the economic and social impact of wind energy development at the University of Aberystwyth in his native Wales.
The success of Little Cyclops however has helped him pay-off mounting student fees and encouraged him to further test his powers of invention.
He now has a new limited edition camera in the pipeline which he hopes to release at the end of the summer, although he remains tight-lipped as to what exactly that may be.
"There's going to be a view finder added and a load of other features but I don't want to give away what it is yet," he said.
"It's going to be able to do something that you can't do on any smartphone and would usually cost hundreds of pounds but I can do it for about £50 ($76)."
It's been amazing as there has been interest from everywhere really, all over the world
Greg Dash
See also: Print a life-size robot for under $1,000
Dash plans to listen to feedback on the Little Cyclops before finalizing the design of his next product and crowdsourcing for funding.
For now, however, the main priority is to continue with his studies while indulging his passion for photography and camera development when he can.
"It's not a business really, just a project that I'm working on to see what we can do with cameras and have a bit of fun with them," he said.
"I really enjoy my PhD and the work that I do so if the money I make from the cameras makes that a bit easier or more comfortable for me then all the better."

Source : CNN

Seagate unveils Ultrathin hard disk for use in mobile devices

Source : Seagate.com

Seagate Technology has launched the thinnest hard disk drive ever, targeting use in mobile devices. The hard disk, that has been dubbed Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD, is only 5mm thin and weighs approximately 93 grams.
Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD is a 2.5- inch drive, which will be available in two variants, 320GB and 500GB, but takes 25 percent less space than its previous-generation 7mm counterpart. The suggested retail price for this hard disk is $89, for the 320GB variant. This hard disk comes with a 6Gbps SATA interface. It also supports SED encryption on the 500GB capacity version.

Due to its slim profile, Seagate is hoping the hard disk will find use in mobile device like tablets, further diminishing the boundaries between tablets and laptops.

Commenting on the launch, Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate said, "When we originally demonstrated this solution last September, we knew we had a truly innovative product that would empower our partners to reimagine mobile applications. The strong support from our OEM partners indicates we have delivered on our vision and look forward to a new wave of innovative solutions enabled by this revolutionary product."

"The new Seagate Laptop Ultrathin truly raises the bar, enabling us to finally create high-capacity, thin and light laptops that consumers crave at mass-market price points they can afford," said S.Y. Shian, corporate vice president and general manager of Asus' notebook business unit. "The drive's capacity, coupled with its ultra-slim, lightweight footprint, empowers our engineers to think out of the box and create truly ground-breaking, innovative system designs- it's a win- win for both us and the consumer."

Seagate has recently unveiled 660 SSD, which is its first solid-state drive (SSD) for consumers, as well as next-generation enterprise SSDs - Seagate 600 Pro SSD and the Seagate 1200 SSD.

Source : NDTV

New camera sensor may do away with flash someday soon

Singapore : The camera flash may soon be a thing of the past. A newly developed imaging sensor promises to produce clear and sharp photos even in dim lighting.

 

The sensor made by researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore is 1,000 times more sensitive to light than imaging sensors in most modern cameras.

 

"We expect our innovation will have great impact not only on the consumer imaging industry, but also in satellite imaging and communication industries, as well as the mid-infrared applications," tech site Mashable quoted the sensor's inventor Wang Qijie as saying.

 

Wang is an assistant professor at NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

 

He said this is the first time that a broad-spectrum, high photosensitive sensor has been made using pure graphene.

 

Wang said manufacturers will not have problems switching to graphene, saying the camera industry need not change its manufacturing processes - all it has to do is switch the base materials for graphene.

 

If the industry adopts his design, he said we could soon see cheaper, lighter cameras with longer battery lives.

 

For its part, Mashable said the new sensor may have applications not only in point-and-shoot cameras, but also in surveillance and satellite cameras.

 

The new sensor uses "light-trapping" nanostructures that use graphene as a base. The nanostructures hold onto light-generated electron particles much longer than current sensors.

 

"We have shown that it is now possible to create cheap, sensitive and flexile sensors from graphene alone," Wang said.

 

Graphene

 

Graphene, a one atom-thick layer of the mineral graphite, is a strong carbon compound with a honeycomb structure.

 

The structure makes it "as flexible as rubber, more conductive than silicon and which resists heat better than a diamond," Mashable said.

 

With such properties, graphene has been touted as the building material of the future, winning Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for their work with it.

 

Graphene's properties make for stronger electric signals, which can be processed into an image, compared to the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor used by present cameras. 

Source : gmanetwork

Festival sheds light on Fed Square

Melbourne : Looming 13 meters tall in the center of Federation Square, a mass of steel and lights has emerged as the visual centerpiece of the square’s annual Light in Winter program.

Designed by renowned light artist Bruce Ramus, the Tree of Light, or Helix Tree, weighs 11 tonnes, is 17 meters wide, and is comprised of 21 curved steel beams fitted with LED lights which illuminate in response to the volume and pitch of the human voice.

Ramus, who was commissioned by curator Robyn Archer to create a piece that would act as a beacon drawing visitors to the square, says he was attracted  to the connotations of the form. “Helixes don’t impose on each other, they are always in harmony. That really appealed to me,” he says. The brief also asked that a connection be made between light and power, which inspired Ramus to craft the helix into a tree. “Trees symbolize power without resistance. They bend, they sway, in harmony with their environment.”

At dusk every night over the month of June, various Melbourne choirs will perform “Singing Up the Tree”, their voices activating colourful lights that will emit from the branches of the structure. Visitors, too, will be able to create their own light shows, but song, rather than speech, is recommended for best results.  “We need to make it quite sensitive to cut out the ambient noise from pedestrians and the like, so you do have to sing out,” says Ramus. “ I don’t imagine it’s for the shy.”

Advertisement

Other attractions on the Light of Winter program include the Solstice Celebration on June 22nd, a feast of music, performance and food from more than twenty of Melbourne’s ethnic communities, and Sound to Light: Crossing Borders, an exhibition at No Vacancy Project Space that pairs Melbourne and Hobart-based sound and light artists and will be simultaneously streamed at Hobart’s Dark Mofo.

The Light in Winter is at Federation Square until June 30. All events free. 

Source : TheAge

Microsoft brings back the 'start' button with Windows 8.1 update

Reuters

Seattle: Microsoft is bringing back the Windows "start" button, offering a stripped-down version among a slew of improvements aimed at winning over tablet users and placating PC customers alienated by Windows 8.

The world's largest software company is looking to re-energize sales of its latest Windows version, which has not made the splash with computer users it was hoping for. Executives say the plan is now to update Windows periodically, rather than waiting three years or so between big releases.

Although Microsoft has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses since October, broadly in line with Windows 7 three years ago, the company must tackle a dwindling PC user base and its inability to make a mark in the exploding tablet market.

Shipments of traditional PCs - the most reliable gauge of Windows' popularity - are expected to fall almost 8 percent this year, while Microsoft's Surface has taken less than 2 percent of the tablet market.

Windows 8 was designed to be used both on touch-screen tablets and traditional PCs. But while touch-screen users tend to like the new "tile"-based interface, many mouse and keyboard users complained that the new design was confusing.

Confirming speculation, Microsoft said the Windows 8.1 update will have a button in the bottom left corner of the screen that acts like the "start" button in previous versions of Windows. Although it will not be labelled "start", it features the Windows logo and takes the user straight to a grid of applications.

"The work you are seeing us do here is continuing to advance the modern (interface), while really taking into account some of the things we've learned from people who still want to use the desktop, to make the transition easier," Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of the Windows unit, said in an advance briefing on the Windows 8.1 update last week.

Microsoft is only making features of the new software public on Thursday.

Free update

Windows 8.1, previously known by the code name "Blue", will be available for free to all Windows 8 users some time later this year. Microsoft will make a test version available at its annual developer conference on June 26.

Windows 8.1 also includes a vastly improved "search" function, which allows a user to search for documents, apps, or items on the Internet from a single search bar, like a souped-up version of Apple's Spotlight feature.

It also allows users to see all their applications immediately in a grid by swiping down or pressing a button on-screen, which should make it easy for unfamiliar users to get to the app they want quickly.

Users can also customize the start screen much more easily, changing sizes of app icon "tiles" or controlling which apps appear. For the first time, it will be possible to open two windows simultaneously in the new-look interface.

Windows 8.1 includes Microsoft's latest browser, Internet Explorer 11, and lets the user restore the address bar and tabs to the screen view. That feature was missing in the initial version of Windows 8, which was designed to make the most of limited screen space on a tablet but tended to disorient traditional mouse and keyboard users.

Users will also no longer have to switch to the old desktop view to make changes in their default settings.

But they will still have to switch back to a traditional desktop set-up to use some programs such as Word or Excel, which have not been redesigned to function in the new Windows 8 style.

Pav bhaji-seller to take part in streetfood fest in Singapore

New Delhi: Strolling at PragatiMaidan one day 35 years ago, Gulab Singh saw pavbhaji being prepared. He came home and tried making it himself. Today, he has a popular stall that sells pavbhaji along with bhelpuri at India Gate. But everyday is a struggle. For two months, he's been at home as police have stopped street vendors from selling anything at India Gate.


Now, though, some good news has come his way. Singapore Tourism Board has invited him to their country to be part of the first World Streetfood Festival Congress. After Singh participated in a street food festival held in the capital in December, a delegation from Singapore was so impressed that they approached the street vendors association to invite him. He had won an award at the street food festival.

"Here police beat us up and NDMC officials seize my cart. So many times we have had to run leaving all our goods behind. When we return, save a few utensils there is little else. At least the firangs (foreigners) have realized our worth," said the 50-year-old.

Usually he earns Rs 15-20,000 a month but the past two months have been very rough. "I almost lost hope and even made up mind to return to Mathura (his hometown). Where will we go if the authorities turn against us? At least I'm lucky enough to have this opportunity, but what about others?" he said. On Wednesday, hundreds of India Gate vendors put up a blockade at police headquarters demanding they be allowed to do business.

Singh will be flying on Sunday evening. At his house, it's a festive atmosphere. His wife and four children are all very excited. "My wife has packed some woollens as well though I have told her not to. I wish I could afford to take my family along." Along with Singh, four other street vendors —Narayanswami and Bhaskar Urs of Karnataka, Ashok Shah and Vijay Kumar of Patna — will also participate in the festival. Narayanswami sells chicken 65 in which he uses 65 kinds of spices, Bhaskar Urs is into tangerine and lemon rice. Ashok Shah sells litti chokha Bihari-style and Vijay sells mutton rice.

National Association for Street Vendors of India, NASVI, is happy for the quartet. "It is sad that our government has done nothing for them," Sangeeta Singh, street food programme manager with NASVI, said.

Soon, your hand can be your smartphone!

PTI


Washington: Researchers are developing a revolutionary new technology that puts the mobile phone on the palm of your hand - literally.

Using a special camera that combines high-speed vision and two rotational mirrors, Masatoshi Ishikawa and colleagues at the

University of Tokyo have found a way to project a device's display or keyboard onto the palm, or any other surface, so that one can operate it remotely at home or office.

The system can detect the movement of a three-dimensional object every two milliseconds, Ishikawa said.

The high-speed vision allows the programme to track moving objects, so users would be free to walk with the phone image in palm, without the display ever shifting, ABC News reported.

The computer system beams ultrasonic wave emitters, so the user actually feels the keyboard pressing against their skin, without anything in their hand. The sensation is as small as a 3-gramme object.

"You won't need a keyboard, you won't need to carry a smartphone, or a computer. You can make a call without anything," Ishikawa said.

Ishikawa expects the technology to turn into a reality in a year or two.

The palm phone is the latest in a string of systems Ishikawa has developed, using high-speed vision technology.

Last year, he unveiled a robotic hand designed to win the game rock-paper-scissors 100 per cent of the time.

Narayana Murthy lauds Modi as the ‘finest administrator’

Showering praise on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for being "the finest administrator," Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy said Monday the state had done extremely well under his leadership as reflected by its growth indices, but added he did not have much idea on how the state was doing in terms of human development indices.

Speaking to the media during his visit to Vadodara to receive the first Sayaji Ratna Award of the Baroda Management Association, Murthy said quality of roads, power situation and other infrastructure in Gujarat were enough to establish its reputation as an effectively administered state. "Narendra Modi has been acknowledge as the finest administrator in the country, there is no doubt about it," he said.

"It is clear just from the data on the ground that this state has done extremely well. I do not know how it is in certain human development indices like nutrition, healthcare, etc. So I am not in a position to comment on that. But having looked at cities like Ahmedabad and Vadodara, I must say he (Modi) has done well," he said.

Expressing concern over India's current growth rate at 5%, Murthy said the rate was insufficient to create "inclusive prosperity." "Common sense tells that if we continue to grow at this rate, it won't be sufficient to bring about inclusive prosperity. For that, we will have to grow at 9-10% rate," he said.

Murthy said Mahatma Gandhi was his role model for the power of leadership he demonstrated. "Mahatma Gandhi, a Gujarati, has been my role model. He was somebody who demonstrated the power of leadership. He said you must be the change you want to see in others. Therefore Gandhi had been, is, and will be a role model for me."

Samsung tests 5G technology to download movies in a second

AFP



SEOUL: Samsung Electronics on Monday said it had successfully tested super-fast fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology that would eventually allow users to download an entire movie in one second.
The South Korean giant said the test had witnessed data transmission of more than one gigabyte per second over a distance of two kilometres. 

The new technology, which will not be ready for the commercial market before 2020 at the earliest, would offer transmitting speeds "up to several hundred times faster" than existing 4G networks, it said in a statement. 

That will permit users to "transmit massive data files including high quality digital movies practically without limitation", it said. 

"As a result, subscribers will be able to enjoy a wide range of services such as 3D movies and games, real-time streaming of ultra high-definition (UHD) content, and remote medical services," it added. 

Samsung said it had found a way to harness millimeter-wave bands which have proved to be a sticking point for the mobile industry to date. 

The test used 64 antenna elements, which the tech titan said overcame the issue of "unfavourable propagation characteristics" that have prevented data travelling across long distances using the bands. 

One of the most wired countries on earth, South Korea already has around 20 million 4G users.

Barack Obama 'learns Gangnam Style' from daughters

Obama said that his two daughters Malia, 14 and Sasha, 11, have taught him some moves of Gangnam Style, Politico magazine reported.

US President Barack Obama, who appeared at a joint press conference with South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, on Tuesday, said that her country’s culture is spreading around the world.

Obama said that his two daughters Malia, 14 and Sasha, 11, have taught him some moves of Gangnam Style, Politico magazine reported.

“As I’ve mentioned to President Park, my daughters have taught me a pretty good Gangnam Style,” he said.

Now, an app to track happiness levels

Researchers at Cambridge University have developed an app that could track happiness by combining smartphone data with users' perception of mood.

EmotionSense collects information about where users are, how noisy the environment is and whom they are communicating with. It then combines this data with the user's own report about mood, reports the BBC.

The app is part of a project to see how mobile phones can be used to improve health and well-being.

Mood-tracking apps already exist but the team from the Cambridge Computer Laboratory think this is the first time that user-input data and phone information sources have been combined.

Dr Jason Rentfrow, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Cambridge University said the aim here is to use a more flexible approach, to collect data that shows how moods vary between people.

When the app is opened for the first time, a sensor that tells the researchers what time of day it is is unlocked. The app spends roughly a week collecting data from this sensor and testing it against the user's emotional state. At the end of this, the user is asked to complete a short life satisfaction survey, which unlocks a new sensor, after about eight weeks.

Lead researcher Dr Neal Lathia said the app has been designed as "a journey of discovery" for the user to give them a step-by-step guide to what might be influencing their mood swings .

The system that allows users to input their own data about how they are feeling has been designed by psychologists.

The app is expected to be used by doctors as a therapeutic tool as well as by individuals to work out the times that they are most stressed, for example.

Initially the app will be available only for Android phones but the team is working on a version for other smartphones. 

To groom them young, FTII starts workshop for children

The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has for the first time come up with an acting workshop for children aged 10-16 years. The 12-day Basics of Acting Workshop beginning May 27 will introduce children to cinema they see on screen from another angle. They will be taught the basics of acting.

It is being seen as a pilot project to be replicated in a grander and wider scale, perhaps as an annual feature of the FTII calendar.

FTII director, DJ Narain, says, "The idea was conceptualised a couple of months back, and we are interested in understanding responses the pilot project will get. While acting is the mainstay of the workshop, a small element of cinema studies will be added to it so that children can be groomed as intelligent audiences for the future."

In addition, children will learn about elements of emotion, body language, voice modulation and dialogue delivery. All this will be done to develop acting skills needed for in front of the camera, besides teach the significance of team work.

Chandramohan Nair, a veteran actor and a faculty at FTII, will be in charge of the workshop.

Narain adds that students for the short course is limited to 20. "While it is a pilot project, the workshop will teach specifics of acting. Also keeping the target audience in mind, the entire course cannot be heavy with a lot of technicalities. It will be conducted in a manner such that interest of children at the workshop can be maintained."

While the last date for applications is May 21, the course fee is Rs 8,000 and doesn't include accommodation.

Narain says they will, depending on the response, convert it into an annual feature. "We would like to make it a four-week summer camp, which will have elements of film appreciation, basics of cinema studies, besides acting which would be the core element. Right now we will assess the pilot project after it is completed, weigh the good and the bad and work accordingly," he adds.

Details about the workshop can be found on the official FTII website and at the Short Course Unit at the institute.

Narain says there are plans to later reduce the age of eligible participants from 8-14 years. "I would like to say though, that the workshop is only for children. There is no connection between this course and the regular acting course at the institute. The whole concept is an experimental one so that children can understand films better at a young age and eventually become a more intelligent generation of cinemagoers," he adds.

DDLJ voted favourite Indian film of the past 100 years

Cinema lovers have voted 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' (DDLJ) as their most favourite feature film from the past 100 years of Indian cinema in a poll conducted by Sanona, the UK's largest online Pay Per View (PPV) Indian movie streaming service.

The hit romantic comedy, which starred superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the lead roles, won 47 per cent of the votes in the online poll conducted across social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, email and via the movie portal itself to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Indian film industry.

Written and directed by Aditya Chopra, son of the legendary Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra, 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' beat a selection of ten all-time greats which included classics such as Raj Kapoor's 'Awaara' (1951), Mehboob Khan's 'Mother India' (1957) and Ramesh Sippy's 'Sholay' (1975).

'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' was among the first Indian films to be produced with the large and rich South Asian diaspora in the West as its target audience.

The film introduced the Non-Resident Indian into modern Hindi cinema, making overseas desis and scenic foreign locations the heart and soul of storytelling.

The trans-continental romance filmed in the UK, Switzerland and India was declared an all-time blockbuster and remains the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema, completing 900 weeks at the Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai.

The film tells the story of a young couple (Raj and Simran) who fall in love on a European vacation, and relates how the boy tries to win over the girl's parents so that she can marry him rather than the groom that her father has chosen for her.

When it released on July 25, 1995, DDLJ received rave reviews from critics worldwide and became the second highest grossing film of Bollywood in 1990s after Salman Khan's 'Hum Aapke Hai Koun'.

It was also the second film to surpass the 100 crore mark worldwide. In 1996, DDLJ won 10 Filmfare Awards including four major awards in the Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress categories.

It also won National Film Awards for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

Sanona's CMO, Shazia Nizam, is not surprised that an evergreen musical such as DDLJ won the poll by a wide majority.

"With Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's continuing popularity and Bollywood's expanding fan base in the UK, Europe and further afield, it comes as no surprise that 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' would be voted the public's most favourite film," she said.

Angry Birds turn into love birds as Rovio creates custom-made level to help fan propose to his girlfriend

Angry Birds-obsessed Ben Levi decided to propose to his girlfriend Melissa Swift in an unusual way: with a little help from game maker Rovio.

In a blog, Rovio said: "A while ago a guy named Ben got in touch with an unusual request. He wanted to pop the big question to his long-term girlfriend Mel through Angry Birds! We jumped at the chance to bring these lovebirds together, and started building a custom-made level that featured Ben’s marriage proposal."

Rovio created Angry Birds Friends, which was released yesterday, and Levi suggested that his girlfriend begin playing the new game.

On completing the first two levels and reaching the third, the words ‘marry me Mel’ appeared on the screen. She said yes.

Rovio has said that the in-game proposal can be seen for a limited time on the Angry Birds Friends tournament.

Bacchan admired for his role in Gatsby

Variety Magazine: By far the liveliest work in the film comes from two actors with only a few minutes of screen time between them: the lithe, long -limbed newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as gabby golf pro Jorden Baker and in a single scene that marks his belated Hollywood debut, Bollywood's superstar Amitabh Bacchan as the flamboyant Jewish gambler 'Meyer Wolfsheim'

Amitabhs reaction on Facebook: No, no this cannot be true.