AK Srivastava (SriAKS)

TOI 12 Oct 2008 : In the IIT joint entrance examination of 2007, a score of 15% in mathematics was enough to make it to IIT-Kanpur. If you found that shocki ng, look at this year's figures. In 2008, students could join IIT-Kharagpur despite scoring no more than 5% in physics. ….. For the second year running, the reduction of subject cutoffs to single digits under a procedure introduced in 2007 has allowed less meritorious candidates to slip into IITs even in the general category. ….. This flies in the face of the seemingly reassuring statistics put out by IIT-Roorkee on its website in August stating that in the 2008 JEE conducted by it, the marks obtained by the last admitted candidate in the general category were 63 out of 162 in maths (39%), 72 in physics (44%) and 45 in chemistry (28%). ….. The website glossed over the fact that some of the admitted candidates who obtained higher aggregates (and, therefore, higher ranks) actually scored much lower marks in one or the other subj...

********* In a statement which has warmed the cockles of Indian hearts as much as it has created a ruckus in his own country, Pakistan president As if Ali Zardari has described militants operating in J&K as " TERRORIST ". This is the first time a top Pakistani leader has dared to state this in public and vindicate the stand of the Indian establishment. While New Delhi is still wondering about the real power centre (government, ISI or army) in Pakistan, senior government officials nonetheless seemed delighted with Zardari's interview to Wall Street Journal in which he also said that Pakistan did not look upon INDIA as a threat. "India has never been a threat to Pakistan. I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad," Zardari said in the interview. "Whatever the situation in Pakistan, Zardari is the leader of his country and it is important for us that he makes the right noises. He seemed very positive in New York to...

ऐसे वीर सिपाही को शत-शत नमन ओ जाने वाले हो सके तो लौट के आना ...At a time when most fathers would have stayed beside their sick son's hospital bed, tend to his blood transfusion and ensure that the dengue died down, Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma rushed to Jamia Nagar from the hospital to raid a house where terrorists were holed up। He hadn't gone home for three days, rushing from office to hospital and back and his wife expected him to return on Friday evening finally. But home they brought the warrior dead. ...Sharma (42) was undoubtedly Delhi Police's top shot terror fighter, after ACP Rajbir Singh had been murdered a few months back. But he was no gunslinger. His forte was his technical expertise and his surveillance prowess was unmatched in the force. …Winner of seven gallantry awards, including the President's gallantry medal and 150 police rewards, Sharma, who moved with extra protection, was credited with the killing of 35 terrorists and the arrest of 80 others. ...

The New York Times : Friday, September 19, २००८ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/lehman_brothers_holdings_inc/index.html?excamp=GGBUlehmannews&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=BI-S-E-GG-NA-CT-lehman_news Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850 by two cotton brokers in Montgomery, Ala। The firm moved to New York City after the Civil War and grew into one of Wall Street's investment giants, despite period brushes with death. On Sept. 14, 2008, the investment bank announced that it would file for liquidation after huge losses in the mortgage market and a loss of investor confidence crippled it and it was unable to find a buyer. Lehman's slow collapse began as the mortgage market crisis unfolded in the summer of 2007, when its stock began a steady fall from a peak of $82 a share. The fears were based on the fact that the firm was a major player in the market for subprime and prime mortgages, and that as the smallest of the major Wall Street firms, it f...