Facebook India users doubled in 2011

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Popular social networking site Facebook finds India a major growth market, where the number of users have more than doubled in the past one year.

WASHINGTON: Popular social networking siteFacebook finds India a major growth market, where the number of users have more than doubled in the past one year, as against near-zero penetration in the neighbouring China.

For Facebook, looking to raise $5 billion through initial share sale, India is a key source for future growth.

The growth of 132 per cent in India has been higher than many other countries, including home market in US.

"We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries," Facebook has said, while noting that its penetration rate in India was estimated to be 20-30 per cent.

"... in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near zero penetration. We continue to invest in growing our user base, particularly in markets where we are relatively less penetrated," according to Facebook's documents for IPO filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Facebook monitors its user base through the number of Monthly Active Users (MAUs), among other metrics. An MAU is a registered Facebook user who logs in and visits Facebook, shares content or indulges in other activities in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement.

"As of December 31, 2011, we had 845 million MAUs, an increase of 39 per cent from December 31, 2010," it noted.

"We experienced growth across different geographies, with users in Brazil and India representing a key source of growth," Facebook said.

"... we had 46 million MAUs in India as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 132 per cent from the prior year," Facebook said. It noted that growth in the US was 16 per cent and 268 per cent in Brazil for the same period.

Facebook had 161 million MAUs in the US and 37 million in Brazil as on December 31, 2011.

According to the social networking major, it faces competition from Internet giant Google's social media platform Orkut in India, among other rivals in different countries.

Listing out its strategy, Facebook said it would "continue to focus on growing our user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea."

It added, "We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+, and also with other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, including Cyworld in Korea, Mixi in Japan, Orkut (owned by Google) in Brazil and India..."

Facebook has operation teams to provide support for users, developers, and advertisers in four regional centres, including one at Hyderabad in India.

It is planning to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange after its Initial Public Offer (IPO), which could value the company as high as $100 billion.

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Top 20 ‘tricks’ women use to feel sexy

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The top 20 ‘tricks’ women use to feel sexy (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

A new survey has revealed the top 20 trickswomen employ to make themselves feelseductive. 

A simple spray of favourite perfume comes top of the list for helping women feel sexy.

A new hairdo and a happy smile also rank highly.

Women also hailed settling down into a warm bath, showing off their well-maintained legs and wearing a push-up bra as quick fixes for achieving the "it" factor.

The study commissioned by UK's health and beauty retailer, Superdrug, also revealed that the average woman only feels truly irresistible once a week - usually on a Saturday night.

"This poll clearly indicates that while women know exactly what they have to do in order to feel sexy, they obviously aren't doing it often enough," the Daily Express quoted Sara Wolverson of Superdrug as saying.

"Maintaining a beautiful, polished appearance can take time - something most busy women don't have enough of.

"But with a little bit of effort, such as a splash of scent, a pair of fluttering false lashes and a big smile, ladies can feel confident and incredible," she stated.

The study of 2,000 women found more than half of those polled consider a simple spritz of perfume was all it took to make them feel special.

More than one third said a new hair colour or highlights made them feel sexy.

The poll also revealed that women feel sexier if they spend hours getting ready.

Other contributors to a sexy look include waxing, applying an all-over fake tan and straightening or curling hair, exercising religiously, wearing a tight-fitting top, a short skirt andjewellery.

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On revolution anniv, Iran warns West over oil curbs

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Deepika Padukone More Pics

This Race seems far from being won. After shooting for four days, Deepika Padukone has opted out of Race 2.
Her exit could not have been worse-timed, as it means more delays and hiccups for the Ramesh Taurani production. This is the second high profile exit after Sonakshi Sinha walked out of the mega-cast project and was replaced by Jaqueline Fernandes.

A shocked Taurani now has the onerous task of finding a replacement, someone who can step into Deepika's high heels opposite Saif Ali Khan.

A source close to the actress confirmed the developments and explained that her walkout had a lot to do with the film's ever-changing schedule. "Deepika had issues with the dates. Moreover she was irritated by the constant change in the shooting schedule of the film."

It should be noted here that the makers of Race 2 starring Saif, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Amisha Patel and Jacqueline has had the Herculean task of juggling all the star dates. To top it all, Sanjay Dutt has just been added to the cast, adding to the list of busy actors. "In a bid to accommodate all their dates, Deepika had to sacrifice her own. And Tips expected a commitment of 60 dates from her this year. Given that she had already committed dates to Ayan Mukherji, she was in no mood to rework her schedule again," said the source, adding, "She didn't want to be a part of the film anymore and walked out of the film."

Mirror has learnt that Taurani tried his best to cajole the actress into continuing with the film. Her co-star from Love Aaj Kal and Cocktail, Saif, too tried his best to convince her to stay on. But to no avail. According to unconfirmed reports, she was also not happy sharing screenspace with Jaqueline Fernandes. But then that is another story.

Despite repeated calls and text messages, both Deepika and Ramesh Taurani remained unavailable for comments.

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New Delhi: Although they have dissociated with the BCCI and the IPL, they have decided to full fee to Yuvraj Singh, who is currently under treatment for the non-malignant tumour.

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2G scam case: It's judgement day for Chidambaram

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NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday deferred till 12:30pm the pronouncement of its order on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy's plea to prosecute home minister PChidambaram in the 2G case.

At 10am, Special CBI Judge allowed only Swamy to enter inside the court room and conveyed to him asked him to come before 12:30pm.

"I have been asked to be present in the court before 12:30pm. I can say that I am confident that the judgement will be delivered today," Swamy told reporters coming out of the court.

Court staff also said that the judge may deliver the verdict around 12:30pm.

Swamy had moved the court seeking to make Chidambaram as co-accused in the 2G spectrum scam alleging he was as culpable as former telecom minister A Raja in determining the prices of scarce spectrum and in allowing the dilution of shares.

The Supreme Court on Thursday had refused to direct CBI to investigate the alleged role of Chidambaram leaving it to the special court trying the 2G case.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, which asked the lower court not to get influenced by its decision, had also refused to direct CBI to "investigate Chidambaram".

The special judge, on January 21, had reserved the order for February 4 on the plea of Swamy.

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Sahara quits IPL but will pay Yuvraj full fee

New Delhi: Although they have dissociated with the BCCI and the IPL, they have decided to full fee to Yuvraj Singh, who is currently under treatment for the non-malignant tumour.

“Yuvraj Singh, who is truly like one of our family members, is, quite unfortunately, passing through a bad phase health wise, undergoing treatment for critical illness, overseas. Out of enthusiasm, he may like to come out on the ground after a few months. But any well-wisher who truly loves him, would never desire that he be allowed to play for the oncoming months. Our duty is to take care of him, so Sahara has decided to pay him his full fee this year with condition as a Guardian that his priority should be health care and he should not play till he has fully recovered,” Sahara said in their statement.

We requested the BCCI on the basis of the fact that we have only one Indian marquee player, that we be allowed to add price of Yuvraj Singh in our auction purse, during the 4th February auction because we had later taken Sourav Ganguly at 0.4 million. Again, we have been denied on the basis of the rule book. Yet again, a case of being denied natural justice,” they further added.

“We think this peculiar situation of Shri Yuvraj Singh is silent in the rule book because it probably talks only about players who are temporarily injured,” they said.

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IPL Auction: CSK buy Ravindra Jadeja for $2 mn in tie-breaker

Just about two years ago, the career of the IPL's fifth and latest two-million-dollar man hit rock bottom, with little sign of a recovery. Ravindra Jadeja, then only 21, was handed a one-year ban from playing in the IPL. His offence was to try and negotiate a deal with Mumbai Indians while still under an obligation to play for Rajasthan Royals. The "rockstar", as Shane Warne had so memorably dubbed him, had been cut off from the stage. (Live IPL Player List)

Worse was to follow. A few months later, he was one of seven players who were sent a show-cause notice by the BCCI following a brawl at a St Lucia pub shortly after India's exit from the 2010 World Twenty20. Jadeja ended up apologising to the board. Later the same year, he found himself out of the India team as well, replaced by Yusuf Pathan, and missed out on the 2011 World Cup.

Debu Mitra, Jadeja's coach at his domestic side Saurashtra, believes too much was made of the allrounder too soon - he was only 19 when Warne turned him into a star. Mitra thinks that Jadeja should have been allowed to simply get on with the business of playing cricket. But the last blow, the loss of his India cap, forced Jadeja to take stock of his situation.

"When he was dropped from the India side, it was a lesson for him," Mitra said. "He changed himself a lot and worked even harder after that. He became very determined. Improved his batting. Improved his weak points." Mitra said Jadeja took to coming to practice early and asking his coach to bowl throw-downs while he worked on various aspects of his technique. He also began picking Mitra's brain on how to approach the game in the middle.

That hard work has paid off in spades in Saturday's IPL auction. Jadeja has already regained his place in the India side, thanks in part to Yusuf's poor performances. Now he has become the latest member of the IPL's two-million-dollar club.

Last year the now-terminated Kochi Tuskers Kerala bought Jadeja for $950,000, and he repaid them by making 283 runs at a strike rate of 124.12, and taking eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.26. What the statistics don't show, however, is the impact Jadeja can have as a fielder as well. He is extremely agile across the ground. Australia found out just how quick in the second Twenty20 international against India on Friday, when he ran out Aaron Finch and George Bailey.

Physical talents aside, Mitra said Jadeja is also very tough mentally. He cited Saurashtra's last Ranji Trophy game this season as proof of the player's refusal to give in. On a difficult pitch to bat on, Saurashtra were bowled out for 175. "Then he took six wickets," Mitra said. "Railways couldn't make 100 even. In the second innings, he took four more wickets. The match was over."

Shitanshu Kotak, a tea-mate and former captain of Jadeja's, called him fearless. "He doesn't think much," Kotak said. "He just plays." Kotak also believes Jadeja has matured as he has grown older, and has learned from his mistakes.

Chennai Super Kings, who have bought Jadeja (after going to a tie-break with Deccan Chargers, following the teams' bids of their maximum purse of $2 million), are going to get someone Mitra called three players in one. "He is equivalent to three players - batsman, bowler and fielder," Mitra said. "Nowadays you don't get many players like him."

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India's military build up may be too little too late?

ndia's 1.3 million-strong armed forces, hobbled by outdated equipment and slow decision-making, are undergoing an overhaul as defence priorities shift to China from traditional rival Pakistan.

And like a refit of the imposing but dilapidated defence ministry on Delhi's grand South Block, it's a plodding process.

Defence chiefs are hurrying to modernise ageing weaponry as China reinforces a 3,500-km (2,200-mile) shared but disputed border through the Himalayas.

It took 11 years to select France's Rafale as the favoured candidate for a $15 billion splurge on 126 new combat jets to replace a Soviet-era fleet of MiGs dubbed "flying coffins" for their high crash rate.

At the same time, feeling encircled as China projects its fast-growing naval power from Hormuz to Malacca, India is rushing to firm up friendships the length and breadth of the Indian Ocean.

India is the world's largest arms importer with plans to spend $100 billion on weapons over the next decade.

"The Indian military is strengthening its forces in preparation to fight a limited conflict along the disputed border, and is working to balance Chinese power projection in the Indian Ocean," U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper told the U.S. Senate this week.

That "balance" includes a strategic alliance with Washington that in turn has stoked Chinese fears of containment. It is due to test-fire its nuclear capable Agni V rocket in the next few weeks, with a strike range reaching deep into China.

In 2009, the air force reopened a high-altitude, landing strip in Ladakh last used during a 1962 border war with China. Along with other Himalayan bases, it is now upgrading the strip for fighter operations.

About 500 Indian MiG-21s have plunged to the ground since the 1960s, yet the jet is still in use, raising the question of whether painfully slow defence procurement procedures can come up with new hardware faster than old equipment is sent to the scrap heap.

According to Indian media, Russia delivered the nuclear submarine INS Chakra on a 10-year lease at the end of last month, eight years after India first asked for it.

A shortfall of about 200 planes means the air force is operating at its lowest level in decades - just 33 squadrons against a goal of 45. By the time all the Rafales are delivered, more MiGs will have been decommissioned.

"It's taken too long," said Jasjit Singh, a retired commander and director of the think tank Centre for Air Power Studies. "Can we live with a certain shortfall in the force, and for how long?"

India is developing a fifth-generation fighter with Russia and aims to fly it in 2015, as well as a fleet of 272 Sukhois, half of which have already been built.

From a defence perspective, India has traditionally had the upper hand over China's numerically superior air force, but rapid modernisation over the border may have flipped the balance.

Both forces are now smaller than 20 years ago, but China's has a fast-growing core of 350 advanced combat jets, including its own Sukhois. It also has a stealth fighter programme.

India's military modernisation plans are focused on the navy and air force, more than the army, which has traditionally squared off with Pakistan. But with Pakistan's air force also modernising fast, India risks losing its edge on two fronts.

In the 1980s, a scandal engulfed the government of then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi over millions of dollars in kickbacks on artillery contracts for Sweden's Bofors.

Weapons purchases have since been a tortuous process, with rules rewritten several times to avoid graft.

"There has been a tremendous shortage of artillery systems acquisition after the Bofors scandal," said Rahul Roy Chaudhury, a South Asia expert at London's IISS security think tank.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony is known to be very cautious, with no desire to be caught up in corruption scandals that have in recent years returned to haunt the government.

On Tuesday, he made clear no deal would quickly be signed for the Rafale or any other fighters.

"MEETING OF MINDS"

The relationship between India and China is complex, involving as much cooperation as competition. But while the generals and admirals rarely say as much publicly, India fears a repeat of a brief, humiliating 1962 border war and wants to be prepared for surprises.

Seafaring officers from 14 countries from New Zealand to the Seychelles have gathered on remote Indian islands in the Bay of Bengal this week for exercises and a "meeting of minds" about maritime security.

It is one of the largest such gatherings of maritime allies that India has organised, but China and Pakistan were conspicuously not on the guest list.

Predictably, since China is also a major trading partner, India's assistant chief of naval staff, Admiral Monty Khanna, was at pains to play down China's absence.

"There are many nations that have not been invited," Khanna said in New Delhi, adding China would not be discussed at the meeting. "India and China might share a land border but we are quite distant by sea," he said.

Distant they may be, but increasingly the world's fastest-growing major economies find themselves jostling as they compete for resources, sea lanes and allies. A lack of friendly engagement increases the risk of misunderstandings.

This week's exercises are being held on the Andaman Islands, where India is spending $2 billion to set up a military command and from where the contested and congested South China Sea is only a short hop away.

Last year, India's INS Airavat, an amphibious assault vessel that sailed from the Andamans was challenged in the South China Sea by a radio caller identifying himself as an official of the Chinese navy. Both sides later played down the incident.

"The Indian navy is coy about formally engaging with the Chinese navy because it feels that, if it does, it legitimises the Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean," said Roy Chaudhury.

"There needs to be much more communication, especially navy to navy, because they are bumping into each other more and more."

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