Source: BBC News News Highlight: Ukraine's largest steel mill has been bought by Mittal Steel for $4.8bn (£2.7bn) after an earlier sale was annulled amid corruption allegations. Mittal, the world's biggest steel firm, outbid a group led by France's Arcelor, and local company LLC Smart Group. Ukraine hopes that the sale will underline its reform credentials and bolster creaking investor confidence. The Kryvorizhstal mill was originally sold to the son-in-law of former President Leonid Kuchma for $800m. It was one of the scandals that sparked the Orange Revolution and propelled President Viktor Yushchenko into power. Read more

This is one weakness that the Indian IT companies address sooner the better!! India's booming software and outsourcing sectors are trying to improve data protection to please increasingly security-conscious clients and to pre-empt protectionist laws, industry officials said Thursday. Officials of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) told a news conference they will work with customers, regulators and law enforcers to bolster "trustworthy outsourcing" in India. India, where English-speaking workers earn a fraction of their Western counterparts, exported $12.5 billion of software and services in the year to March, up more than 30 percent from the previous year. Read more

How did the Indian IT outsourcers do? Here is a round up! * While TCS, Wipro and Infosys achieved $1 billion revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal, Satyam Computer is likely to join the $1 billion revenue club by the end of the current financial year. * TCS outperformed its peers on the net profit growth front. * Satyam posted the biggest revenue growth. * TCS’s 21.26 per cent growth in revenue was the lowest among the four IT companies. * Satyam’s consolidated net profit, as per Indian GAAP, rose 34.2 per cent from Q2 last fiscal. Read more

Google, the champion of tomorrows technology stocks has gotten to a new record for itself! 100 billion now. Google Inc.'s market value briefly surpassed $100 billion for the first time Friday, its stock scaling new heights after an earnings and revenue spike that astonished investors. The online search leader's shares traded as high as $346.43 on the Nasdaq Stock Market before backtracking as the day progressed. The shares had gained $36.16, or 11.9 percent, as their price eased to $339.36 in late afternoon trading. After the slight retreat, Google's market value stood at $98 billion after just seven years in business. That was nearly $20 billion above the market value of Hewlett Packard Co. - a Silicon Valley pioneer founded 66 years ago. Read more

Rediff also talks about the new Internet Regime - where the Indian companies wanna be a part of. It is good to see that at least the companies - if not the Government - is looking out on the horizon!! With exhaustion of Internet protocol addresses under the current technology looming large, India is set to join a select group of countries to adopt IPv6 technology, which is considered to be a long-term solution to overcome the limitations of the present IPv4 Internet regime. In addition to offering almost infinite address space, IPv6 technology is considered as the solution for end-to-end global connectivity and Internet scalability. Read more

There are times when the credit should be given where it is due.... here is one for BSF... the "angels of mercy" during the earthquake. For the villagers of Dachhi in north Kashmir, the Border Security Force posted in the area have become angels of mercy as they rescued them from the rubble and are helping them rebuild their homes in the aftermath of the devastating quake on October 8. The 19th battalion of BSF, posted in the village, was quick on the scene, pulling out survivors from the rubble and providing succour to the injured and the quake affected. Forty-year-old Rehmat Bi gratefully remembers the jawans who pulled her and her daughter Rashida Bano out their collapsed house after the quake. Read more

NASA is hosting a competition along with Spaceward Foundation, called the "Beam Power" Challenge to build an "elevator to space"!! Here is more on it: Picture a ribbon stronger than steel that stretches from Earth into orbit and acts as a kind of space highway, on which robots transport materials back and forth. That is what scientists call the space elevator. And long before it's ever a reality--if it is at all--scientists must discover the materials, mechanisms and wireless power source to make it work efficiently. Considering it's no small feat of optics, electricity and mechanics, NASA and the nonprofit Spaceward Foundation are hosting the first-ever competitions this weekend offering $50,000 to teams with the best design of robot climber and ribbon. The competition, to be held here at NASA's Ames Research Center, is merely a conceptual demonstration of the space elevator. Read more

Here's a story of how Oracle was double-dating - Oracle AND Peoplesoft! Its interesting how aggressive Larry Ellison is with how he leads Oracle. SAP will has tougher times ahead. And Oracle is not the ONLY competitor... Open Source ERPs may start nibling into the market pretty soon! So be ready for a rough ride ahead in the ERP space. While in the midst of a hostile takeover battle for PeopleSoft, database giant Oracle also was laying the groundwork for its eventual acquisition of Siebel Systems. According to a proxy filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Oracle and Siebel were quietly discussing a potential merger in November 2003, about five months after Oracle made a hostile bid for PeopleSoft. Read more

Wanna become a Motivational Speaker? Here is some guidance.. 1. Evaluate your special message. Consider what it is that you have to say that would be of value to others--have you experienced great adversity, or received some special education? In order to succeed as a motivational speaker, you must have something special to deliver. 2. Carve out your niche. A motivational speaker is, in many ways, a product that must be sold. Why should someone pay to hear you impart your message? Be able to articulate your unique experiences and explain exactly how you can inspire others. 3. Create an outline of your presentation. This will be used not only to provide a framework for your talk but also as a marketing piece for potential clients. Read more