Auto driver turns web entrepreneur

Chennai: An auto rickshaw driver from Chennai, M Samson has studied only till Standard-VII, but understands the medium of internet and online banner advertisements better than many local businessmen available in the society.

Samson runs an advertising website named as NetwayAdvertise.com. Talking to Satrajit Sen of AlooTechie, Samson said, "I started this website mainly for local businessmen who can't advertise in print or TV due to their high ad rates." Samson charges Rs.500 a year for hosting a display ad. Currently, there are about 15 banner ads running on the site and with that rate, he earns around Rs.7,500 a year from his online advertising business. The expenditures for the portal include a fee of Rs.2,000 per year for site maintenance and upgrading the domain registration, and a payment of Rs 60 to the webmaster for creating and uploading each banner ad.

It was not an easy journey for a local auto rickshaw driver to learn about the internet medium and the ways of earning money through that, but the ability to learn new things and earn more money helped Samson to reach where he is today. According to Samson, he was first introduced to the world of internet in 1997 by a traveller from Japan who taught Samson how to access and use Hotmail so that he could communicate with his foreign clients, whenever they would want to visit the city. Gradually, Samson became familiar with emails, and also came to know that news and information can be gathered from internet. In 2006, a British Airways co-pilot, who was Samson's client then, saw him accessing hotmail and gave him the idea to advertise his services on internet. "Initially, I couldn't understand how one can advertise on internet. So, my client from British Airways explained to me the concept of a website and how it could be used to communicate across the world. I asked him to help me in setting up the site and he was the person who went back to London and designed the website TukTastic.com for me," Samson said. [TukTastic is a play with two words Tuk-Tuk, which means an auto rickshaw, and fantastic.

Once the site was launched, Samson started getting a lot of queries on email and SMS from travellers. "Though, I can't recount the numbers, most of the queries came from the foreigners. But gradually Indians were also catching up to the number of queries. Presently, I get between three to five queries every day," said Samson. Later on, Samson told some of his businessmen friends about TukTastic and explained the global nature of internet, some of them became interested and wanted to advertise their business as well on internet. But they didn't know where to go. "I saw this as an opportunity to earn money and thus launched the online advertising site NetwayAdvertise.com to help my friends," said he.

Now with Internet becoming one of the fastest growing medium to connect with people across the world, many people may try to follow the path of M Samson and try to do something different in life.

China, India boost defence as crisis takes toll on West

LONDON (Reuters) - China and India sharply raised defence spending in 2009 despite the economic crisis but most European NATO members face a squeeze on defence budgets as they rein in gaping deficits, a report said on Wednesday.

The impact of the global financial crisis on defence and security spending varied across regions and countries, the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank said in its annual report "The Military Balance".

U.S. defence spending almost doubled under former President George W. Bush but President Barack Obama had signalled that the need to tackle a big budget deficit would require "a dramatic reprioritisation within defence spending", it said.

Obama asked Congress this week to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2011 -- including a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon's base budget -- but said he would continue his drive to eliminate wasteful programmes.

A sharp recession had led the Russian government effectively to abandon a comprehensive military re-equipment plan due to run from 2007-15 and to replace it with a new 10-year plan starting in 2011, the report said.

"In contrast to developments in advanced economies, both India and China have maintained their recent trend of double-digit increases in defence spending," it said.

India boosted defence spending by 21 percent in 2009 after the 2008 Mumbai attacks killed 166 people, it said.

China's official 2009 budget included a 15 percent rise in defence spending to 480 billion yuan, equal to $70.3 billion at market exchange rates, the report said.

However, it said the official Chinese defence budget did not reflect the true level of resources devoted to the People's Liberation Army. It was widely believed that the official budget took no account of weapons bought overseas or research and development funding, it said.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE LIKELY TO SUFFER

Other Asian countries, such as Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, had also posted increases in defence spending, it said.

In Europe, though, many countries had seen their budget deficits rise sharply as they pumped money into the economy to try to end the recession.

"When the time comes to redress these fiscal imbalances, discretionary spending will come under considerable pressure and defence is likely to suffer, particularly in those countries facing a looming demographic shift requiring greater expenditure on pensions and healthcare," the editor of the Military Balance, James Hackett, wrote in the report.

Britain faced a challenge in reconciling its budget deficit with its large and growing future equipment plan, it said.

Among European members of NATO, only Norway and Denmark were likely to increase their defence budgets in 2010, and over the medium term most other countries would do well to increase defence spending in line with inflation or match existing budget levels, it said.

This would lead to pressure to step up pooling and multinational management of defence assets, to countries specialising in niche capabilities and to the collective procurement of critical defence equipment, it said.

France Concorde crash trial set to begin

The US airline Continental and five individuals are set to go on trial in France over the crash of an Air France Concorde jet nearly 10 years ago.

A wing and one engine caught fire as the supersonic jet was taking off from Paris Charles De Gaulle airport in July 2000.
Flight 4590 struck a hotel killing four people as well as all 109 on board.
Continental will deny that a metal strip that allegedly earlier fell from one of its planes caused the crash.
The iconic Concorde plane was moving too fast along the runway to stop after one of its four engines and a wing caught fire, so its pilots were forced to lift off, only to crash two minutes later in the town of Gonesse.
Most of the passengers were German tourists heading to New York to join a luxury cruise to the Caribbean. Nine French crew members also died.
Leaking fuel
The entire fleet of Concordes was grounded until an inquiry established that one of the plane's tyres had burst, causing debris to shoot out and rupture the jet's fuel tank.
Leaking kerosene then ignited and caused the catastrophe.
After nearly a year and a half out of service, in November 2001, the jets took to the air once more with new re-enforced fuel tanks, but inquiries continued.

The crash occurred shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport

In December 2004 a judicial investigation into the disaster concluded that a piece of metal left on the runway by another aircraft had caused the Concorde's tyre to shred and burst.
Investigators said the titanium metal strip had fallen from the engine casing of a Continental Airlines DC-10 that took off a short time before.
The airline is now facing prosecution after a French public prosecutor asked judges in March 2008 to bring manslaughter charges.
Continental Airlines is denying responsibility and says the Concorde was stricken well before it hit the 17-inch (43cm) piece of metal.
It maintains that the disaster happened because the jet was unfit to fly.
This is denied by Air France, which is not facing charges in the forthcoming manslaughter trial.
'Catastrophic mishap'
In addition to Continental Airlines, five individuals are being prosecuted.
They include John Taylor, the Continental mechanic who allegedly fitted the metal strip to the DC-10, and Stanley Ford, a maintenance official from the airline.
Also facing charges are Concorde's former chief engineer Jacques Herubel, and Henri Perrier, a former head of the Concorde division at Aerospatiale (now part of the aerospace company EADS).
Mr Perrier was placed under investigation in 2005 after being accused of being told about faults with the jet but doing nothing about them.
In 2001 he said: "Nothing we knew would ever have led us to believe such a catastrophe could happen. This was a catastrophic mishap."
Claude Frantzen, a former member of France's civil aviation watchdog, is the fifth individual defendant.
Only some of the victims' families will be represented at the hearings, as many took compensation from Air France after the crash in return for not taking legal action.
The trial, in Pontoise, near Paris, has been scheduled to last 53 days, though due to the varying numbers of days the court will sit each week the proceedings are not expected to finish until the end of May.

Rahul has insulted martyrs of 26/11:

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday criticised Rahul Gandhi's statement that NSG men from North India were involved in vanquishing terrorists during 26/11, saying his remarks were an "insult" to martyrs who sacrificed their life while defending Mumbai.

"Rahul Gandhi has insulted the bravery of martyrs like Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, Tukaram Omble, all daring Marathi policemen, and NSG Major Sandeep Unnikrishan," the Shiv Sena Executive President said.
"Where was Rahul Gandhi when Mumbai was attacked," Uddhav asked, adding that he condemned the anti-Marathi statement of the Congress leader.
The AICC General Secretary yesterday flayed Shiv Sena and the MNS for their constant tirade against people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh reminding them that the NSG men who vanquished terrorists during 26/11 were also from the two states and other places.
Taking a swipe at the two Sena outfits, he had said, "If terrorists have to be fought with, let Biharis remain there."
"In Maharashtra, MNS leader Raj Thackeray keeps on saying throw out people of Bihar and UP. But, who killed the terrorists who had attacked Mumbai? They were the NSG guys from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and from the rest of the country. At that time they did not say throw away Biharis," he said.

A R Rahman bags two trophies at the Grammy Awards

Los Angeles, Feb 1 (PTI) Indian music maestro A R Rahman struck gold once again, bagging two trophies at the 52nd Grammy Awards here for his music in ''Slumdog Millionaire''. The composer, who has already won a Golden Globe and two Academy awards, registered win in both the categories he was nominated for.

Rahman, 44, was the earliest winner in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category and picked up another trophy for his song "Jai Ho" in the best motion picture song category moments later. "This is insane, God is great again," an elated Rahman said while accepting the golden gramophones.
Rahman beat Steve Jordan for "Cadillac Records," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds", the producers of "Twilight" and "True Blood" to bag the award in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category. In the best song category Rahman''s rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song "The Wrestler," from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.
Rahman''s Grammy win was similar to his triumph at the Oscars last year where he picked up the best original score statuette before winning the Oscar for ''Jai Ho'', which has become an international anthem. It is Rahman''s first Grammy.
The other Indians who have won the award, known as the Oscars in music, include Pandit Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussain.