Post of Virender Sehwag

Facebook Post of Virender Sehwag

Nair batted like a Shayar !

Full Flow! Welcome to the club. Was really very lonely.

Indian Railways Launches Web-Based Project Monitoring System

Railway Minister Suresh
Prabhu on Tuesday launched
 the Project Management and
 Information System (PMIS)
which would enable the
railways to monitor online
the progress of ongoing
projects across the country.

"PMIS is a web-enabled IT which would cover the entire life cycle
 of complex projects. It is a step in leveraging resources which would
empower railways in transforming the way projects are designed, built
and commissioned," a railway official said.

PMIS would use drone recordings and CCTV footage to monitor the projects.

Prabhu said PMIS would be helpful in implementing upcoming major railway
 projects on time and save money.

"The plan is to roll out PMIS to all the major projects across the country. It will help in
online monitoring, mid course corrections to ensure faster execution of the projects.
The railways will save crores of money if projects are implemented on or before time,"
Prabhu said.

He said the system would improve with time and that the information
would be available to the public as well.

He said a system would be developed to grade employees on the basis
of their performance.

"A system would be developed to reward those who perform well and
punish the non-performers. PMIS will help in identifying the performance,"
 he said.

Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha called PMIS a "game-changer".

"If we manage to reduce the project completion time it will be a game-changer
 for the railways. It will also give economic benefits to the railways," Sinha said.

PMIS is currently being implemented in the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah
rail link as it has complex geological formation which requires extensive and
continuous monitoring.

Odd-Even Take 2: BJP Cries Stunt, Arvind Kejriwal Says Sabotage

Around 1,300 people were caught violating the rule the first day of the Odd Even rule yesterday and
 fined. (PTI photo)

NEW DELHI:  As Delhi gives a second shot to its Odd-Even car rationing scheme, the heat on the streets is more than just because of the searing April sun.

For the second time this year, a war of words has broken out between the Opposition BJP and Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the formula that allows cars of odd and even numbers on alternate days - in a bid to reduce pollution and congestion.

Vijay Goel, the chief of the BJP in Delhi, has called the scheme, which catapulted Mr Kejriwal to Fortune magazine's list of 50 greatest leaders in the world, a mere photo op and a publicity stunt.

"Arvind Kejriwal only wants to spend on people's tax money for propaganda and he is not interested in reducing pollution and traffic," Mr Goel said today.

Lashing out at Odd-Even posters plastered across Delhi that show a smiling Mr Kejriwal urging people to follow the rules, the BJP leader had said on Monday that he would violate them just as a mark of protest.

Twitter, a track that runs parallel on Indian Railways

After presenting the Railway Budget on February 25, Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister, had stated that the use of Twitter is a largest outreach programme by any organisation to reach people on real-time basis in a complex structure such as the Railways.

If you go to the Twitter page of Indian Railways, you find a list of 80-plus Twitter handles of general managers of zonal railways and divisional railway managers of various divisions. Barring a few, most of these handles were set up in July and months after that last year.

Twitter handles of Indian Railways (@RailMinIndia) and the minister (@sureshpprabhu) have nearly 9.57 lakh and 8.03 lakh followers, respectively. While many handles of zonal and divisional heads have more than 1,000 followers, a few send tweets regularly.

In an informal chat with BusinessLine during his visit to Mangaluru, a senior official of Konkan Railway said a dedicated person monitors twitter round the clock. The officials also monitor whatever is being tagged or the notifications they get on Twitter. Indian Railways get both bouquets and brickbats by users, in good numbers.

While many take to Twitter to complain about the lack of facilities, or cleanliness or about the demand for bribes, some use it as an SOS tool.

The users also shower praises on the good works done by the staff and the better amenities provided in the coach, along with posting pictures of clean station premises.

Paytm To Provide Free WiFi Hotspots, Starts With A Beta At Noida Sector-18 Metro Station

While India may have lagged behind China and others in that early manufacturing age, it sure as hell is keeping up with its counterparts, as far as internet connectivity is concerned. Wifi hotspots continue to sprout up in cities and even on railway stations (thanks to Google!).

In an addition to that, Paytm too is now rolling out free wifi hotspots at metro stations in Delhi, with Noida Sector 18’s station getting the first of those. The service at Noida Sector 18 metro station as was revealed by Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Facebook through a screenshot.

Talking about this new initiative, Vijay Shekhar Sharma told the ET,

We are building avenues for our merchants and consumers who do not have access to Internet at all times to stay connected with Paytm. Initially we are looking at metros because they are key locations for our consumers and our merchants, especially the auto-rickshaw walas.

Initially, when Sharma had announced the service through Twitter, people had assumed that free internet was only being provided by the company to access PayTm wallet. However, Sharma laterclarified that free WiFi will offer equal internet for every app and not free for Paytm app only.

For Delhi-NCR though, there already are service providers which are offering free public WiFi hotspots in the city. Popular shopping zones such as Khan Market and CP have free WiFi zones being offered by Vodafone and Tata Docomo. Service providers such as Ozone are also offering their free WiFi service at coffee shops and railway stations.

MTS had also introduced a similar WiFi service in Rapid Metro Gurgaon, however, other metro stations in Delhi are yet to get such service despite pre-poll promises made by the current government. Paytm’s entry (if it turns out to be as serious and aggressive as we are assuming it to be) will change the dynamics of this domain to a large extent.

However, Sharma has indicated that there will be a limit to the free usage of PayTm WiFi. But that shouldn’t really dampen spirits, considering that is an obvious with even the largest of such services. He said,

This is in its beta version, so we are still learning. After a point, we can expect our consumers to buy these services.

Offering free Wifi has become a consumer demand now, considering that Google and Microsoft — both are rolling out their respective mega projects to offer free wifi. This rise in demand can also be attributed to the aggressive pace in which Indian continue to join their fellow online populace on the internet.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians, IPL 2016 at Eden Gardens: Sunil Narine's return to increase KKR's chances

Kolkata: Mystery spinner Sunil Narine’s return will enable a confident Kolkata Knight Riders to tighten the noose when they take on a shaky Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League cricket tournament encounter, here on Wednesdsay. Both the Knights and defending champions MI were a part of utterly lopsided campaigns in their respective lung openers. While Knights clinically decimated Delhi Daredevils by 9 wickets having bowled the opposition for a sub-100 score, the Mumbai Indians were at the receiving end with league debutants Rising Pune Supergiants giving them a sound thrashing by 9 wickets. 

Narine, who had left for the Caribbean after his father’s demise is back in Kolkata, and with clearance from the ICC will like to forge a lethal combination with 45-year-old chinaman exponent Brad Hogg, if both are picked as overseas recruits.

Narine with 74 IPL scalps from four seasons has been instrumental in Gautam Gambhir leading the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise to titles in 2012 and 2014.

If the jet-lagged Narine is available, it will mean a selection dilemma for Gambhir with the Aussie veteran Brad Hogg (3 for 19) being the pick of their bowler rattling DD for 98 in 17.4 overs.

In that case, Gambhir may like to dump John Hastings, who did bowl well against Daredevils. A look at India’s recent series in Australia will indicate that Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma had really played the big-bodied Aussie really well. The other option is to play a batsman less to induct Narine and in that case Colin Munro may be made to sit out.

That apart, KKR has the perfect winning combination in place even if that would mean a heartbreak for Bangaldeshi star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who could not make the XI despite his fine performance in the World Twenty20, where he took 10 wickets from seven matches.

This will be KKR’s last match at the Eden this month as they will hit the road for six successive away matches with West Bengal in the middle of the Assembly polls as Gambhir’s men cannot afford to let go the crucial two points at home.

If Mumbai Indians, who had won their two IPL titles at this venue in 2013 and 2015, will have to bounce back from the defeat against debutants Pune Supergiants in the IPL opener, the onus will be on their batters to decode the spin puzzle of KKR at their happy hunting venue.

But going by their performance in the last match, it looked extremely weak as the defence of the title looks very shaky even at this early stage unless they get back to the rhythm at the earliest.

It will be skipper Rohit Sharma who will have to lead by example up front at the same venue where he had scored an ODI world record 264.

After surprisingly deciding to bat on a strip with seam movement and bounce, Mumbai Indians star batsmen struggled as they were 68 for 7 in the 16th over, having lost their top four batsmen inside five overs for 30.

It was the feisty Harbhajan who wriggled them out of the hole with an unbeaten 30-ball 45 to prop the total to 121 for 8. The target proved too little for the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Faf du Plessis and KP Pietersen who scripted a nine-wicket win in 14.4 overs.

“Hopefully, we will go back and come back with a positive frame of mind. Never thought the ball would do that much having played a lot of cricket here. They swung it a lot and our shot selection wasn’t great. We have good memories in Kolkata. It’s just the start of the tournament, no need to panic,” Rohit had said.

With their team think-tank boasting the legendary duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting to go with a star studded line-up captained by Rohit Sharma, there’s an overflowing of talents in the most decorated dressing room.

It will be all about channelising them to bring out the best XI something that had come in for much debate following their debacle at home.

Having impressed in India colours, Jasprit Bumrah struggled conceding 30 runs without a wicket, while Hardik Pandya (nine from 11 balls) too was unimpressive after being promoted to No 3 and gave away the winning runs leaking 12 in four balls.

West Indies bighitter Kieron Pollard, returning from an injury that kept him out of the World Twenty20, looked out of sorts in his one from eight balls as he would need a couple of games to get his eye back.

The exclusion of New Zealand big allrounder Corey Anderson who could have been a better option for Mitchell McClenaghan also came as a surprise so as that of Gujarat captain and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel who has had an impressive domestic season with a century in the last match in the oneday Deodhar Trophy.

Patel also had a fruitful Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy domestic T20 tournament where he scored four halfcenturies as he along with Delhi opener Unmukt Chand may vie for a place. Mumbai Indians may also have to rethink their bowling strategy at the Eden turner and Karnataka leftarm spinner J Suchith, a big turner of the ball, may seem a better option to go with the seasoned Harbhajan.

Priyanka Chopra receives Padma Shri

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who has garnered international acclaim with her stint in the American TV series 'Quantico', on Tuesday recieved the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, from President Pranab Mukherjee at a glittering function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

Priyanka looked no less than a 'Desi' girl, dressed in a lime green sari while receiving the honour. The former Miss World ventured into Hindi cinema in 2003 with the film "The Hero: Love Story of a Spy" and has made India proud globally with her role of FBI agent Alex Parrish in 'Quantico'. The actress, who is currently riding high on the success of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus 'Bajirao Mastani',has even bagged a Hollwood film, 'Baywatch', alongside Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.