Anil Ambani doles out cash - In Puri,

Industrialist Anil Ambani exhibited his generosity during a visit to Puri on Sunday. Holding wads of Rs 1,000 notes, Anil donated not less than Rs 40,000 among a handful of roadside coconut vendors and poor passers-by on Puri-Bhubaneswar National Highway near Chandanpur in Puri district.

Anil's cavalcade, comprising eight cars, halted with a screech near the coconut vendors on the busy highway around 3.15 pm. Anil, wearing a white kurta-pyjama, walked up to the vendors and bought coconuts for himself and those in his cavalcade. He was joined by his mother Kokilaben, sister Dipti D Salgaocar and brother-in-law Dattaraj Salgaocar.

Anil then distributed food packets and other gifts among coconut vendors. The chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group did not stop there. Money was distributed like 'prasad' among fruit sellers and poor villagers, who thronged the place.

"I sold 70 coconuts to Anil Ambani and his people. He himself had two. I got a Rs 1,000 note, some sweets and a food packet from him," said a coconut vendor, Sagar Bhoi.

Anil did not frustrate other vendors. He walked down to other fruit sellers and doled out money and freebies. "I saw him hand Rs 1,000 notes to at least 40 people. Some security guards, who accompanied Anil, were also benefited as Anil distributed notes to them as well," another vendor Nanda Behera said.

"I had heard of Anil Ambani. I was overjoyed to get him as my customer today. He was very generous and soft-spoken," Bhoi said.

"Anil was driving the car and suddenly stopped on the road. We were shocked at first. Then he got us coconuts and donated money to the poor coconut vendors," one member of the cavalcade said.

Earlier, Anil visited the Jagannath temple and spent at least two hours meditating in the Mahalaxmi sub-shrine located inside the 12th century shrine precinct. His mother accompanied him to the temple for darshan of the presiding deities. Anil's visit to Puri came a fortnight after he undertook a pilgrimage to temples in south India. From Puri he headed further east to Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu.

India third on global female smoking list

Indian women are among the worst in the world when it comes to smoking. According to the latest Tobacco Atlas, the country ranks third in the top 20 female smoking populations across the globe. Only the US with 2.3 crore female smokers and China with 1.3 crore women smokers are worse off than India in this chart. However, as far as percentage of women smoking is concerned, it is below 20% for India. Among India's immediate neighbours, only Pakistan figures in this infamous list, but right at the bottom at 20th with around 30 lakh female smokers. Published by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, the Atlas makes another serious observation -- female smokers in India die an average eight years earlier than their non-smoking peers.

According to the Atlas, about 250 million women in the world are daily smokers -- 22% being from high resource countries and 9% from low and middle resource countries. Realizing the potential of this growing market, the Atlas said the tobacco industry has been marketing cigarettes to women using seductive but false images of vitality, emancipation, slimness, sophistication and sexual allure. Reacting to the report, Dr P C Gupta, director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, told TOI that this finding had very serious implications for India. "Even though the percentage prevalence of women smoking in India isn't that high, the number is huge. In addition to all the harm that tobacco causes to men, women are additionally exposed in a special way because of their reproductive function."

Dr Gupta added that tobacco consumption reduced birth weight of the foetus, decreased their gestational age leading to premature babies, increased the risk of still births and heightened chances of anaemia among adult pregnant women. "The government isn't focusing on anti-tobacco campaign that specially targets women. Smoking is definitely increasing in young college going women showing that the tobacco industry is targeting them very strongly," Dr Gupta added. The Atlas said tobacco killed some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will die from cancer -- and drained $500 billion annually from global economies.

As 25% of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities. In 2010, 72% of those who die from tobacco related illnesses would be in low- and middle-income countries. By 2030, 83% of these deaths will occur in low and middle-income countries. Unveiled at the Global Cancer Summit on Wednesday, the Atlas said 2.1 million cancer deaths per year will be attributable to tobacco by 2015. "The Atlas is crucial to helping advocates in every nation get the knowledge they need to combat the most preventable global health epidemic," said John R Seffrin, CEO of American Cancer Society.

4G threatens to spoil Govt's 3G party

As India dithers over a policy on 3G mobile telephony, US' Motorola wants to test the next level (4G) that could pour cold water on
the government's plan to raise Rs 35,000 crore from selling radio frequency for the existing version.
Motorola, which has tested the new next generation technology, called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), is all set to start trial services of 4G that can offer 70 MB per second (Mbps) download speeds on a mobile phone by the end of this year.
The company is likely to approach the Department of Telecom (DoT) for trial spectrum, Subhendu Mohanty, a senior executive with Networks Mobility Business, Motorola India, said.
This development may, however, prompt operators planning to launch 3G telephony to wait and watch, thus spoiling the government's plan to mop up a whopping Rs 35,000 crore from auction of 3G spectrum.

Asked whether Motorola is talking to operators, Mohanty said: "We would like to have trial with the players but the technology can also be tested on our own systems."
In fact, the DoT is also understood to have prepared a concept paper on the 4G and the issue may be discussed at length in the days to come. Besides Motorola, other telecom vendors are also in the process of trials, industry sources said.

Oriya daily wagers win reality show - India Got Talent

BHUBANESWAR: The all-conquering members of the Oriya dance troupe 'Prince' -- comprising daily wage earners -- may now justly expect a reception fit for kings. Since the moment Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee announced that the dancers from far-flung Ganjam district in Orissa were the winners of the TV reality show, "India's Got Talent", everybody and his brother in the state is doing a jig.

And with good reason. The dancers are not just starry-eyed participants in a hotly contested programme where the ultimate prize was Rs 50 lakh and a Maruti Ritz. Nearly every member of the group of 24 has surmounted individual odds -- two of them have overcome polio -- and shown their unbeatable spirit.

Coming from different parts of Ganjam, the dancers displayed perfect symmetry of determination and talent to outperform groups from across India -- including an improbable 10 in the grand finale. Their winning submission was a performance based on 'Dashavatar' -- the 10 avataras of Lord Vishnu.

"We'd hoped to win. Now that we have achieved our mission, we're thrilled!" exclaimed troupe leader Krishna Mohan Reddy (26) on phone from Mumbai. The self-taught dancer-choreographer told TOI, "The prize money has come as a blessing as most of us were in dire need of it. Some needed to build houses, others have sisters to get married."

Krishna -- from a nondescript village Ambapua on the outskirts of Berhampur, Ganjam -- said he now plans to set up a dance academy. "We'll all contribute part of our prize money for the institute," he said.

The Berhampur-based troupe -- their story sounds a bit like the rags-to-riches tale of Jamal Malik in 'Slumdog Millionaire' -- has become a statewide obsession ever since its members startled everybody with their fleet-footed show. Such was "Prince's" impact that CM Naveen Patnaik declared his vote for the group. "Their performance has been magical and they have made Orissa proud," he said after congratulating Krishna and his boys.

'Prince' was formed four years ago. Two of its members, Padmanabha Sahu (24) and Telu Tarini (13), suffer from polio. Most dancers are wage earners in their teens or 20s. They practised in Ambapua and on Gopalpur beach, and have now left their footprints on the sands of time.