The bench headed by Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave ruled that reservation on religious grounds could not be accepted and struck down the Muslim Reservation Bill. It was a split verdict as two judges supported the reservations.

The Congress Government suffered a major setback, as the Muslim reservations was one among thepoll promises of the erstwhile Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

The judgment was pronounced after over one year of arguments which concluded in March 2009.

The Bench found fault with the BC Commission for depending on Krishnan Committee Report which had conducted its survey in only six districts of the State to decided teh backwardness of Muslims, saying that it was unsustainable.

The verdict aroused sharp reactions from the Muslim community.

Led by the floor leader of All-India Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen (a Hyderabad-based political party) in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi, a large number of protesters tried to storm into the State Secretariat.

They were arrested by the police and taken to Goshamahal Stadium.

Meanwhile, the State Government dropped enough hints that it would move the Supreme Court on this issue.

After the Y S Rajsekhar Redddy-led Government passed the Bill, in July 2007, allowing Muslim minorities 4 per cent reservations in educational institutions amidst stern protests from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and some other groups, a batch of writ petitions were filed challenging the constitutional and legal validity of the Government’s move.

Challenging the Reservations in favour of socially and educationally backward classes of Muslims Act 2007, the petitioners challenged the veracity of the Act which, they alleged, was based on communal lines.

Under the Act, the State Government had extended 4 per cent reservations in educational institutions to the 15 backward groups of Muslims in Andhra Pradesh. Identification of the 15 backward groups was a contentious issue.

There were heated debates and deliberations on deciding the backwardness of Muslims as the religion has no caste but has only two sects and various sub-sects.

The case was heard by a five- member bench from 2007 to January 2008 but was transferred to a larger bench in view of critical issues involved.

When the High Court did not give a stay order against the fresh admissions of Muslim students in professional colleges under the Act, the petitioners moved Supreme Court in August 2008 where a division bench consisting of three judges refused to stay the admissions and asked the High Court to “give the final verdict as early as possible.”

The Bill was passed in the third attempt by Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy to fulfil his electoral promise of providing 4 per cent reservations to Muslims.

In the first attempt his Government brought in 5 per cent reservations through an executive order but it was quashed by the High Court in 2005. The Supreme Court too struck it down as the reservations had crossed the upper limit of percentage.

The State then scaled down the reservations to 4 per cent.

Andhra Pradesh High Court

Here are the other highlights:

• Earnings per share decreased to Rs. 27.75 from Rs. 28.66 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year; QoQ growth was 3.3%; YoY decline was 3.2%
• 32 clients were added during the quarter by Infosys and its subsidiaries
• Gross addition of 8,719 employees (net addition of 4,429) for the quarter by Infosys and its subsidiaries
• 1,09,882 employees as on December 31, 2009 for Infosys and its subsidiaries
Business outlook
The company’s outlook (consolidated) for the quarter ending March 31, 2010 and for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, under Indian GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is as follows:
Outlook under Indian GAAP – consolidated*
Quarter ending March 31, 2010
• Income is expected to be in the range of Rs. 5,675 crore and Rs. 5,721 crore; YoY growth of 0.7% to 1.5%
• Earnings per share@ is expected to be in the range of Rs. 25.62 and Rs.25.83; YoY decline of 9.0% to 8.3%
Fiscal year ending March 31, 2010
• Income is expected to be in the range of Rs. 22,473 crore and Rs. 22,519 crore; YoY growth of 3.6% to 3.8%
• Earnings per share@@ is expected to be in the range of Rs. 106.85 and Rs. 107.06; YoY growth of 2.2% to 2.4%

There has been a surge in cash card transactions at the IRCTC website with around 13 per cent of rail tickets being booked using pre-paid cash cards. ItzCash card, India’s only “Multi Purpose Prepaid Cash Card”, lead the cash card category for online booking of rail e-tickets with more than 78 per cent share.
Cornering a significant per cent share of the total online transactions, ItzCash card has emerged as one of the preferred payment options amongst the 34 payment gateways available.

The data available at the IRCTC website for the month of November 2009 clearly marks a shift in consumer behavior with more and more people looking at digital transactions to ensure quicker and convenient purchase of their rail tickets. Cash cards facilitate the same as it helps even the non-bankable population to look at online bookings.                 

Over 85 per cent of the country’s population does not have banking instruments for online transaction. The number of credit card holders and debit card holders are 2 per cent and 13 per cent of population respectively.  With this huge void in banking instruments for digital transactions cash cards like ItzCash will play a significant role in the future and growth of digital convergence.
Usage of cash cards clearly signifies the growth in digital payments and how consumers are looking at a more convenient mode for purchasing their tickets or paying their utility bills. To provide services to the consumers company like ItzCash has tied up with more than 5000 merchants and spread across 1800 locations including cities, towns and rural India. The tie-ups across service sectors facilitate the multi-utility aspect of the card. ItzCash has over 20,000 ItzCash franchisees branded as “ItzCash World” and 180,000 outlets in 1800 Tier I and II towns in the country under the brand name “ItzCash Point”. ItzCash through this tie up with IRCTC is been offering an easy and convenient mode of online booking of railway tickets in Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 cities.

As per the IDC report, Kodak has clocked the growth rate of 48% by volume.  As per the report in Q3, 2009, the Digital Cameras price segment “below Rs. 10,000/- “contributes 71% to the entire digital cameras market in India, with Kodak at 29% market share being the clear market leader in this segment, followed by Samsung at 15%.

Kodak will now be focusing on launching India specific cameras and other products and are in the midst of conducting extensive market research for the same The Company will invest in communications and increasing brand presence in this category.

 Symantec’s mobile strategy focuses on the effective integration of its mobile security and management solutions to help customers reduce downtime, increase user productivity, improve response time and provide protection and management throughout the mobile device lifecycle—from provisioning and management to security and eventual device retirement.

IDC research indicates that the number of worldwide converged mobile device shipments will reach more than 167 million by the end of 2009 and forecasts that it will increase to more than 291 million by 2013, representing a 14 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate(1).  In fact, the smart phones market in India alone, sized at 5 million in 2008, is expecting a compound annual growth rate of 23% by 2011, according to technology research firm Ascenda. As more mobile devices access corporate networks, often through unprotected pathways, malware writers and criminals will use this window to gain access to sensitive data.

Symantec’s mobile management and security strategy follows a lifecycle model, provides tight integration and aligns with the broad Symantec portfolio. As part of its mobile strategy, Symantec is now offering three new products to help customers mitigate risk, manage complexity, control costs, automate processes and address compliance concerns with efficiency and cost savings.

·   Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition 6.0 provides protection for mobile devices against malicious threats and unauthorized access to sensitive corporate information by utilizing award-winning antivirus technology, an advanced firewall, and SMS anti-spam protection. Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition helps ensure both the protection of the data on the mobile devices and compliance with internal and external security requirements.

·   Symantec Network Access Control Mobile Edition 6.0 works with Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition to enforce compliancy with security policies to ensure that only secure, policy-compliant devices can access the network and email on Microsoft Exchange. Symantec Network Access Control Mobile Edition provides client-based integrity checking and centralized alerting of device integrity status. Assessment of host integrity status for mobile devices helps organizations ensure that they are able to consistently enforce IT policy. Centralized logging, reporting, and alerting further enables organizations to proactively monitor the status of managed devices.

·   Symantec Mobile Management 7.0 increases IT efficiency with over-the-air deployment of applications and updates, improves end user productivity by managing mobile device health, and integrates with Symantec mobile security products to manage and secure mobile devices throughout their lifecycle. Symantec Mobile Management provides powerful remote assistance capabilities, real-time system management, granular software delivery and self repair, and complete visibility into the mobile environment.

Symantec’s mobile security and management solutions are built on the Symantec Management Platform, which provides unified enterprise-class management of desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices. This enables administrators to centrally define and distribute security policies to mobile devices over-the-air. The Symantec Management Platform also provides product integration to enable unified security and management of mobile devices from a single management console, thus reducing complexity, mitigating risk, and lowering costs. Integration with Symantec LiveUpdate further helps to ensure timely updates of content.
Source: Company Release

Once ready, this technology by Microsoft will change the face of gaming globally. See it to believe it at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal

Microsoft Office 2010

cheduled for launch soon, Microsoft Office 2010 will enable unprecedented levels of seamlessness across the PC, phone and browser for information workers. It will offer rich and powerful new ways to deliver best work at office, home, or school.  Office 2010 will come packed with enhanced and easy-to-use tools, customizable templates, color schemes, and photo-editing capabilities. Along with Office 2010, Microsoft is also introducing Office Web Apps for businesses users – which are the light weight versions of familiar Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note), delivered through the browser.  Office Web Apps will extend the Office experience on the web by letting customers access their documents from virtually anywhere and easily share and work with others online.
Visit – http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx to see the beta preview of Office 2010 launched recently by Microsoft.
Microsoft Security Essentials
To address consumer demand for quality anti-malware protection that’s easy to get and doesn’t slow down system performance, Microsoft recently introduced Microsoft Security Essentials, a no-cost anti-malware solution that provides consumers with quality protection from threats including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. And since Microsoft Security Essentials is downloadable directly from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials, consumers can be rest assured that the software they are downloading is legitimate and not rogue security software that can actually cause a PC get infected or crash.
Available to genuine Windows users, Microsoft Security Essentials has been designed to be hassle-free and is focused on addressing consumer demand for a security product that delivers the following:
•         Quality protection
•         An easy-to-use experience
•         Unobtrusive performance
Cool Hardware from Microsoft
Life Cam Cinema
Offering the best video quality with 720p high definition sensor, Microsoft Hardware’s Life Cam Cinema tries to refresh the way you can connect with your loved ones. With some exciting features such as auto focus, glass element lens, clear frame technology for clear and smooth video, noise canceling microphone and easy tilt and swivel base, Life Cam Cinema will completely redefine your online video experience. Blending technology with style, the Life Cam Cinema also comes with an in-built compatibility with the latest Microsoft software and services.
With great features, great value and effective functioning, Life Cam Cinema is sure to change the way you connect online with people who matter.

Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000
Ergonomically designed to suit a consumers everyday needs, the Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 will fit beautifully with your life on the go whether it is at work, home, campus, gym or anywhere else. Providing healthy computing, style and technological advancement all together, the Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 helps you get more effective. With inbuilt BlueTrack technology, the mouse generates a more precise image of the surface and works more accurately and on more surfaces. This technology also makes the Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 better than an optical and a laser mouse.