Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal became the first Indian to clinch the World Junior Badminton Championship after a straight games victory in the final in Pune on Sunday.
The top seed got the better of ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21-9, 21-18 in a match that lasted just 25 minutes.
"It is a great feeling to win it this time. The last time, in 2006, I had lost in the final, but I am happy that I clinched the title this time," Saina, who reached the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics , said after the match.
"I never thought that I would play so well. The first game was easier, but in the second game she was playing good smashes, but I was successful in catching her on the net. I played my backhands well, and so, overall, I am satisfied with my performance. It was an okay sort of a match."
"However, I reckon my semi-final match against Chinese Shixian Wang as the toughest in the tournament," she added.
With the Commonwealth youth gold and the World Junior title in her kitty, the world number 11 has now set her eyes on the China and Hong Kong Opens later this month.
"I am next playing China Open and Hong Kong Open this month and I am confident of doing well there as well," the National champion said.
National coach Pullela Gopichand said Saina played like a champion all through the tournament.
"She played like a champion. It is good to see her wining convincingly through out the tournament. She has really done well, hats off to her," Gopichand said.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dhoni retains golden touch in Tests
Mahendra Singh Dhoni [Images] is destiny's favourite child. And he is very happily married to Lady Luck.
How else do you explain the fact that everything he touches turns to gold. He first substituted for Anil Kumble [Images] (as Test captain) against South Africa [Images] in the Kanpur Test and led India to a comprehensive eight-wicket win inside three days.
A second opportunity came his way in Mohali and he has ensured himself a 320-run thrashing of Australia [Images]. And here we won't even
A second opportunity came his way in Mohali and he has ensured himself a 320-run thrashing of Australia [Images]. And here we won't even
mention his ODIs or T20 exploits.
Don't agree with . Here's a second point of view then.
He has given the term "leading from the front" a whole new meaning.
Captaincy at a young age can be a burden and can affect your performance as a player. Not in Dhoni's case though. He celebrated wearing the captain's armband for a second time by contributing 92 and 68 not out with the bat-- a performance that won him the man-of-the-match award.
Don't agree with ? Here's the third and final point of view.
The 27-year-old has his head firmly on his shoulder and has not let success distract him as is usually the case with the young Indian cricketers. Dhoni is aware of the fact that both "performance" and "luck" are variable factors and would pose a problem for him at some stage. And that is precisely what keeps him rooted.
Still, do not agree with ? Then just hear from the horse's mouth.
"When you play one or two matches, records do happen," said Dhoni, when queried about his second successive triumph as Test captain. "But it is about doing it over a longer period of time." The captain was in fact surprised that the Aussies succumbed so meekly.
"Honestly speaking, we have not seen this before," he admitted. "I mean in their first innings, they were 22 for two wickets after 13 overs and I was so surprised that I told Rahul (Dravid) that you don't see things like that very often
"And maybe you won't see that again for a long time." Dhoni did admit, however, that India was the better side.
"I don't believe in comparisons but we did most things right," he explained. "We had only four bowlers and to their credit, they shared the responsibility well." But doesn't his captaincy deserved some credit as well?
"There's not too much pressure of being a captain," admitted Dhoni. "We have to take care of certain things on the ground and channel our efforts in the right direction." And what about his own batting?
"It was a perfect scenario for me to just go out and play my natural game," reasoned Dhoni. "We got a good start, the track was placid and the ball old. It was just the perfect occasion for my sort of batting.
"I have realized that I should play my natural game, play to my strengths. In between, I was not playing my game but thinking of the scenario." Another thing he has realised happens to be the fact that the hallmark of a good captain is to have faith in his players.
"I believe in every guy who is part of the side," he asserted. "Every player comes to this level after putting in a lot of effort."
The Mohali Test was memorable on many grounds-- Sachin's record, Amit Mishra's performance on debut and his own batting. But what was it that Dhoni himself like the most?
"Sourav getting 102 was special," blurted Dhoni, without thinking even for a moment. "Since it is his last series, he was playing without any pressure. And that is how one wants to see him play."
With almost everything going to perfection he definitely has reasons to expect more. But Dhoni believes caution is the best way to propagate aggression.
"They are a strong side," he warned. "It is just that we are doing our job well now. So we don't have to worry about the opposition as much. But they will come back strong for sure."
Successful, and still not complacent, that's Mahendra Singh Dhoni for you. Now you have to believe!!!
He has given the term "leading from the front" a whole new meaning.
Captaincy at a young age can be a burden and can affect your performance as a player. Not in Dhoni's case though. He celebrated wearing the captain's armband for a second time by contributing 92 and 68 not out with the bat-- a performance that won him the man-of-the-match award.
Don't agree with ? Here's the third and final point of view.
The 27-year-old has his head firmly on his shoulder and has not let success distract him as is usually the case with the young Indian cricketers. Dhoni is aware of the fact that both "performance" and "luck" are variable factors and would pose a problem for him at some stage. And that is precisely what keeps him rooted.
Still, do not agree with ? Then just hear from the horse's mouth.
"When you play one or two matches, records do happen," said Dhoni, when queried about his second successive triumph as Test captain. "But it is about doing it over a longer period of time." The captain was in fact surprised that the Aussies succumbed so meekly.
"Honestly speaking, we have not seen this before," he admitted. "I mean in their first innings, they were 22 for two wickets after 13 overs and I was so surprised that I told Rahul (Dravid) that you don't see things like that very often
"And maybe you won't see that again for a long time." Dhoni did admit, however, that India was the better side.
"I don't believe in comparisons but we did most things right," he explained. "We had only four bowlers and to their credit, they shared the responsibility well." But doesn't his captaincy deserved some credit as well?
"There's not too much pressure of being a captain," admitted Dhoni. "We have to take care of certain things on the ground and channel our efforts in the right direction." And what about his own batting?
"It was a perfect scenario for me to just go out and play my natural game," reasoned Dhoni. "We got a good start, the track was placid and the ball old. It was just the perfect occasion for my sort of batting.
"I have realized that I should play my natural game, play to my strengths. In between, I was not playing my game but thinking of the scenario." Another thing he has realised happens to be the fact that the hallmark of a good captain is to have faith in his players.
"I believe in every guy who is part of the side," he asserted. "Every player comes to this level after putting in a lot of effort."
The Mohali Test was memorable on many grounds-- Sachin's record, Amit Mishra's performance on debut and his own batting. But what was it that Dhoni himself like the most?
"Sourav getting 102 was special," blurted Dhoni, without thinking even for a moment. "Since it is his last series, he was playing without any pressure. And that is how one wants to see him play."
With almost everything going to perfection he definitely has reasons to expect more. But Dhoni believes caution is the best way to propagate aggression.
"They are a strong side," he warned. "It is just that we are doing our job well now. So we don't have to worry about the opposition as much. But they will come back strong for sure."
Successful, and still not complacent, that's Mahendra Singh Dhoni for you. Now you have to believe!!!
After Google, Motorola readies Android phone
As the wireless world awaits the Oct. 22 debut of the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software, engineers at Motorola are hard at work on their own Android handset. Motorola's version will boast an iPhone-like touch screen, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, and a host of social-network-friendly features, BusinessWeek.com has learned.
Motorola has been showing spec sheets and images of the phone to carriers around the world in the past two months and is likely to introduce the handset in the U.S. sometime in the second quarter of 2009, according to people familiar with Motorola's plans.
Building a phone based on the highly anticipated Android operating system is part of Motorola's effort to revive a loss-making handset division that has forfeited market share amid a drought of bestselling phones. Motorola stock, which on Oct. 17 rose a penny to 5.62, is hovering near a 16-year low.
The phone will appear among a new class of social smartphones designed to make it easy for users to connect quickly and easily to mobile social networks such as Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace. Such phones let users message in-network friends directly from phone contact lists, for example. A Facebook representative declined to comment on the company's work with Motorola. MySpace.com didn't respond to a request for comment.
Motorola declined to elaborate on its plans, but said in a statement: "We're excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google" and the community of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance that are working on the Android operating system.
Mobile networking wave
In the next year, social networking phones are expected to be a hit with the 16- to 34-year-old crowd, analysts say. According to consultancy Informa, the number of mobile social-networking users will rise from 2.3 per cent of global cell-phone users at the end of 2007 to as many as 23 per cent of all mobile users by the end of 2012.
The Android handset will feature a touch screen about the size of those on Apple's iPhone, people familiar with the phone say. While it takes some of the design cues from Krave ZN4, the first touch-screen phone from Motorola launched with Verizon Wireless on Oct. 14, it's not certain whether the Android phone screen will feature Krave's distinctive and interactive clear flip screen.
Like the world's first Android phone, from HTC, Motorola's Android-based device will offer a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. People who've seen the pictures and spec sheets for the device say it looks like a higher-end version of the HTC phone, called the T-Mobile G1. But it's expected to sell for less, at prices similar to the Krave, which is available for $150 with a two-year contract. After carrier subsidies, the G1 will retail for $180 with a two-year contract.
Slow off the mark
Motorola's new phone likely won't be ready to launch in the US until the second quarter of next year, say people who are familiar with it. And it may not be available in Europe until the third quarter of 2009. Many analysts have been expecting Motorola to roll out an Android phone in December or January.
Any delay gives competing Android phones a chance to gain traction. London-based INQ will unveil its social-networking phone, INQ1, in Britain and Australia in about a month. The slider phone, which integrates Facebook features into its address book and camera, is expected to enter the U.S. market next year.
And Nokia, the world's largest cell-phone maker, has already begun adding connectivity to its media-sharing site Ovi in some of its higher-end phones. "The sooner [Motorola] comes out with a social phone the better," says John Jackson, an analyst with the Yankee Group. "The more you wait, the more distance gets put between you and the rest of the world."
In the handset business, a best-selling product can reverse a company's fortunes quickly, as Motorola has seen first with its popular StarTAC, and then with the Razr line of devices. "Motorola still has global carrier and distribution relationships" to rival those of most competing players, says Jackson.
Motorola also has a relationship with industry innovator Apple, and may be able to offer iTunes downloads for upcoming phones, says Moe Tanabian, principal at researcher IBB Consulting. Music downloads may appeal to the same category of consumers that is expected to buy social phones.
Good people
The Android project is getting a lot of attention and support directly from Motorola's new co-chief executive officer, Sanjay Jha. The Android phone - likely one of a series of Android handsets Motorola is cooking up - is the brainchild of people who joined Motorola via its 2006 acquisition of Good Technology.
Good specialised in enterprise wireless messaging, data access, and security software used in such products as Motorola's Q line of smartphones. The project is headed by Rick Osterloh, vice-president and general manager for Android products and formerly Good's vice-president of marketing and product management.
Motorola is looking to add staff to its Android project in California, where the Good team is based. Applicants are invited to work on a "social smart phone." One posting for a software engineer on job board Monster.com reads: "We are a new start-up division within Motorola with strong executive level sponsorship, a 50M+ budget for our Android platform. Our new CEO, Sanjay Jha, has been in the forefront of the formation of the Android Open Handset Alliance!"
Motorola has been showing spec sheets and images of the phone to carriers around the world in the past two months and is likely to introduce the handset in the U.S. sometime in the second quarter of 2009, according to people familiar with Motorola's plans.
Building a phone based on the highly anticipated Android operating system is part of Motorola's effort to revive a loss-making handset division that has forfeited market share amid a drought of bestselling phones. Motorola stock, which on Oct. 17 rose a penny to 5.62, is hovering near a 16-year low.
The phone will appear among a new class of social smartphones designed to make it easy for users to connect quickly and easily to mobile social networks such as Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace. Such phones let users message in-network friends directly from phone contact lists, for example. A Facebook representative declined to comment on the company's work with Motorola. MySpace.com didn't respond to a request for comment.
Motorola declined to elaborate on its plans, but said in a statement: "We're excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google" and the community of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance that are working on the Android operating system.
Mobile networking wave
In the next year, social networking phones are expected to be a hit with the 16- to 34-year-old crowd, analysts say. According to consultancy Informa, the number of mobile social-networking users will rise from 2.3 per cent of global cell-phone users at the end of 2007 to as many as 23 per cent of all mobile users by the end of 2012.
The Android handset will feature a touch screen about the size of those on Apple's iPhone, people familiar with the phone say. While it takes some of the design cues from Krave ZN4, the first touch-screen phone from Motorola launched with Verizon Wireless on Oct. 14, it's not certain whether the Android phone screen will feature Krave's distinctive and interactive clear flip screen.
Like the world's first Android phone, from HTC, Motorola's Android-based device will offer a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. People who've seen the pictures and spec sheets for the device say it looks like a higher-end version of the HTC phone, called the T-Mobile G1. But it's expected to sell for less, at prices similar to the Krave, which is available for $150 with a two-year contract. After carrier subsidies, the G1 will retail for $180 with a two-year contract.
Slow off the mark
Motorola's new phone likely won't be ready to launch in the US until the second quarter of next year, say people who are familiar with it. And it may not be available in Europe until the third quarter of 2009. Many analysts have been expecting Motorola to roll out an Android phone in December or January.
Any delay gives competing Android phones a chance to gain traction. London-based INQ will unveil its social-networking phone, INQ1, in Britain and Australia in about a month. The slider phone, which integrates Facebook features into its address book and camera, is expected to enter the U.S. market next year.
And Nokia, the world's largest cell-phone maker, has already begun adding connectivity to its media-sharing site Ovi in some of its higher-end phones. "The sooner [Motorola] comes out with a social phone the better," says John Jackson, an analyst with the Yankee Group. "The more you wait, the more distance gets put between you and the rest of the world."
In the handset business, a best-selling product can reverse a company's fortunes quickly, as Motorola has seen first with its popular StarTAC, and then with the Razr line of devices. "Motorola still has global carrier and distribution relationships" to rival those of most competing players, says Jackson.
Motorola also has a relationship with industry innovator Apple, and may be able to offer iTunes downloads for upcoming phones, says Moe Tanabian, principal at researcher IBB Consulting. Music downloads may appeal to the same category of consumers that is expected to buy social phones.
Good people
The Android project is getting a lot of attention and support directly from Motorola's new co-chief executive officer, Sanjay Jha. The Android phone - likely one of a series of Android handsets Motorola is cooking up - is the brainchild of people who joined Motorola via its 2006 acquisition of Good Technology.
Good specialised in enterprise wireless messaging, data access, and security software used in such products as Motorola's Q line of smartphones. The project is headed by Rick Osterloh, vice-president and general manager for Android products and formerly Good's vice-president of marketing and product management.
Motorola is looking to add staff to its Android project in California, where the Good team is based. Applicants are invited to work on a "social smart phone." One posting for a software engineer on job board Monster.com reads: "We are a new start-up division within Motorola with strong executive level sponsorship, a 50M+ budget for our Android platform. Our new CEO, Sanjay Jha, has been in the forefront of the formation of the Android Open Handset Alliance!"
Monday, October 20, 2008
Injury almost pushed me into depression: Sania
Forced to stay away from courts for almost half the season, a fit again Sania Mirza is eyeing a comeback at January's Classic tennis tournament in Hong Kong and revealed that she almost sunk into depression while struggling to recover from a wrist injury.
The Indian ace has been out of action since the Beijing Olympics, where her wrist injury flared up again and she had to concede her first round singles match.
Sharing the trauma she faced when she ran out of options to get her wrist healed, she said it was difficult to cope with the situation at that time.
Sharing the trauma she faced when she ran out of options to get her wrist healed, she said it was difficult to cope with the situation at that time.
"It was scary. It was career threatening. I was almost going through depression. I think the post-injury period is more difficult to cope with and I am happy to be back. But I never doubted that I cannot make a comeback ," Sania, who is in Capital for the treatment, said.
Sania said she was keen to make a comeback but was not in a hurry. She confirmed that she will play a team tournament in Hong Kong in January before resuming her Tour activities.
"It is a big honour to represent Asia. It is great to be a part of such a large field, where you have players like (Jelena) Jankovic and (Maria) Sharapova. But we still have two-and-a-half months to go and it is very long period in tennis," she said after spending about an hour on the DLTA courts, practicing with Radhika Tulpule.
"It is a big honour to represent Asia. It is great to be a part of such a large field, where you have players like (Jelena) Jankovic and (Maria) Sharapova. But we still have two-and-a-half months to go and it is very long period in tennis," she said after spending about an hour on the DLTA courts, practicing with Radhika Tulpule.
Talking about the next season, she said she was approaching it cautiously
India to be a developed nation by 2028: Blackberry founder
James Laurence Balsillie, founder and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion, feels that in the next 20 years, India will reach the developed nation status with $20,000 per capita income in terms of purchasing power parity.
"I am impressed by the breathtaking transformation underway in India," he said, that has made India "the world's fourth-largest economy in purchasing-power terms, growing at 6 to 8 percent," Balsillie said. He was the keynote speaker at Canada-India Business Council Diwali dinner October 7 at Toronto's Marriott hotel.
India, he added, would "reach developed nation status [$20,000 per capita income in terms of purchasing power parity] in 2028."
Blackberry users in India are growing rapidly 'and we anticipate having millions of customers more before long,' Balsillie said.
He called the Blackberry 'an essential tool' for business that is 'profoundly empowering and democratic' as it allows 'millions of people in India to leapfrog legacy, technology and transit straight into the 21st century.'
Few countries, he said, 'are making that transition as dramatically as India.'
People the world over, he said, "respect India's incredibly rich heritage, [and] are deeply impressed by the pace of its current achievements. Indian scriptures, literature, and philosophy are read for their profound insights into human nature and social relations. Indian mathematics, from the concept of zero to the development of the decimal system, underlie modern science."
Balsillie also lauded the success of Indian businesses -- like Mittal Steel, Tata Motors , Infosys , the Mahindra Group, the Jindal Group, etc -- and "the growing impact in the world markets of Indian entrepreneurs."
He reeled off statistics and information about India, where "average literacy rates are rising, and the percentage of people living below the poverty line has been cut in half in one generation. All this progress is being made in. . . the world's most populous democracy. . . [that has] strong governance institutions, an engaged civil society, an irreverent press, a respected judiciary, vigorous Opposition parties and numerous ethnic groups and languages."
Indians, he said, are "playing increasingly prominent roles in Canada's economy and politics, including at the highest levels."
The Indian Diaspora, he said, "is a source of extraordinary benefit to Canada, in terms of talent, family and business contacts, and worldliness."
He called Indo-Canadians "crucial to Canada's openness to the world and to our success."
Balsillie is involved in establishing think tanks like the Centre for International Governance and the Balsillie School of International Affairs for which he has brought in Professor Ramesh Thakur from Tokyo as the director.
CIGI and Balsillie School will work with the Canadian International Council, the Asia-Pacific Foundation and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.
Balsillie suggested "the establishment of a permanent Canadian education presence in India, in order to recruit Indian students to undergraduate and graduate programs across Canada; an annual high-level policy dialogue that brings together business leaders, academic experts and government officials' exposure of Canadians to visiting Indian business and institutional leaders;" and the creation of "a young scholars program to facilitate and manage a regular and structured exchange of the best and brightest of our two countries emerging academic talent."
He also floated the idea of annual CIC fellowships by the C-IBC for the study of contemporary India.
"The world is changing faster than many people can comprehend," he concluded, "and a dynamic India [is] a major agent of that change."
He, however, admitted that this change "is uneven, with far more progress evident in economic governance than in political governance, where it is badly needed. The world's capacity to understand and manage change needs urgent upgrading."
"We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world," he said, quoting from the Buddhist scripture Dhamapada. "May the festival of lights [Diwali] illuminate our thoughts," he added.
RIM, inventor and maker of Blackberry phones, works with five telecom service provider partners in India -- Bharti, Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications , BPL Mobile and Tata Communications. Balsillie was in India two weeks ago with his wife Heidi.
Besides his meetings with Indian business leaders and CEOs, Mr and Mrs Balsillie also visited a number of historic Hindu temples, and the Mahatma Gandhi Museum in Delhi and in Mumbai.
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