Despite an economic slowdown, G

With Akshaya Thrithiya - an auspicious day by the Hindu calendar – falling on April 27, gold suppliers are hoping for a turnaround for the better so far as demand for gold is concerned! Since the gold prices in India having more or less hovered around the Rs 14,000-15,000 per 10-gram range for some time, the jewellery sales have plunged substantially. In fact, there was hardly any import of the yellow metal during February and March.  

Exhibiting one of its worst quarterly performances ever, Ranbaxy Laboratories – now owned by Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo - has posted its third straight quarter of losses, for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

Citing foreign exchange instability, a 14 percent drop in its US market, and pricing strain in key markets, Ranbaxy posted a net loss of Rs 761 crore during the quarter – a dramatic turnaround from the Rs 153 crore net profit figures in 2008. In the previous two quarters, Ranbaxy posted losses of Rs 680 crore and Rs 394 crore.

The bill introduced by US Senators Mr. Chuck Grassley and Mr. Dick Durbin on Thursday is expected to have grim implications for the Indian IT firms, as it aims at curtailing the use the of H-1B and L1 visas, thereby limiting the competitiveness of the offshore vendors.

The bill proposes to alter the H-1B and L1 visa stipulations in such a way that US employers would be prohibited from employing additional H-1B and L-1 guest-workers in case more than 50 per cent of their workers are H-1B and L-1 visa holders. The implementation of the proposal in its current form could cause a big dent in the profitability of the Indian IT services market.

The computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research have come up with a new technology to put computers in a doze that can save energy up to 60 to 80 percent.

Yuvraj Agarwal, doctoral researcher of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) with a team of Microsoft Research computer scientists has developed a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers (PCs), which induces a new energy-saving state they call 'sleep talking'.

Within six months of its October 2008 launch, T-Mobile's Google Android smartphone - which already makes up nearly two-third of the 3G devices available on the T-Mobile network - finds itself amid and enviable milestone; that of touching the noteworthy 'one million' mark in US sales!

Going by a T-Mobile announcement earlier this week, the G1 smartphone handset has thus far sold a million units, and has had quite a few updates to enhance functionality and fix bugs in the operating system. T-Mobile also intends shifting more smartphones over to the Android OS.