SBI launches ‘virtual' card for online transactions

State Bank of India has launched a ‘virtual' electronic debit card for e-commerce transactions.

The ‘State Bank Virtual' card can be created by a customer using the bank's Internet Banking facility with transaction rights.

The product allows the user to create a virtual card for any online transaction and the customer is not required to share the details of the principal account on the merchant Web site, said the bank in a statement.

The new product is a convenient and secure gateway to online payment for SBI's Internet banking users. Among the features of the virtual card are: no charges on creation of the card and the customer can create any number of cards at the same time. The card is created for each online transaction and is valid for a maximum of 48 hours.

There is no transfer of balance from the principal account inasmuch as only a lien is marked on the account. The minimum amount with which the card can be loaded with is Rs 100. There is no upper limit.

Transfer of balance takes place only when the customer does the actual transaction online

Yogeshwar, Amit make it to London Olympics; Sushil misses out again

Amit Kumar (55kg) and Yogeshwar Dutt (60kg) became the first set of Indian wrestlers to book their London Olympics berths by clinching a gold and silver medal respectively at the Asian qualifying tournament even as the fancied Sushil Kumar (66kg) failed to make the cut in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The finalists in each weight category won tickets to the London Games in the ongoing event and Asian champion Yogeshwar and Amit were the only Indians who were able to do so in the freestyle event on Friday.

Amit ensured himself a ticket to London after he overcame Chinese Xiaobin Hong in the semifinals. The wrestler, after getting a bye in the round of 16, got the better of Yemen's Basheer Ahmed Mohammed Al Yamani in the quarters before overwhelming the Chinese in the semifinals.

The Haryana-lad then blanked Shinichi Yumoto of Japan 5-0 in the summit clash to get the gold medal. Yogeshwar, meanwhile, stormed into the finals of the tournament after beating Mongolia's Mandakhnaran Ganzorig.

Internet around the world may shut down on Saturday

NEW DELHI: Come Saturday and there is a strong possibility that you won't be able to indulge in your favourite internet activities like shopping and surfing due to a hacking group - Anonymous - which has threatened to shut down the net.

"Operation Global Blackout 2012 looks to shut down the internet for a whole day tomorrow (Saturday) by disabling its core DNS servers, making websites inaccessible," said Interpol's Secretary General, Ronald K. Noble.

Noble was speaking at the thirteenth D.P. Kohli memorial lecture on "Multijurisdictional Investigation: Operation Unmask" in the capital.

According to Noble, "Anonymous" is protesting against several reasons including the crash of Wall Street and irresponsible leaders.

"Investigations have already been launched by Colombia, Chile and Spain as their private and public websites have been attacked by the group," he added.

Nancy Powell confirmed as US ambassador to India

Washington: The US Senate on Friday confirmed career diplomat Nancy Powell as ambassador to India, a position that had remained vacant for the past year.
The Senate confirmed ambassadors to 16 countries following Obama administrations's concern over the posts lying vacant. The confirmation had been lying pending before the senate for about two months now.
Obama's first ambassador to India, former congressman Timothy Roemer, had announced his resignation in April 2011. US President Barack Obama had nominated Powell as his next Ambassador to India on December 16 last year, but since then her name had languished in the Senate for approval.

Top ten highlights of the BRICS Summit

Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in New Delhi at the BRICS grouping today. These nations comprise nearly half the world's population and a growing share of global GDP.

Here are the ten key outcomes of the Fourth BRICS Summit today:

1) Declaration after the summit cautions the West against allowing the Iranian situation to escalate into conflict. It backs dialogue to resolve the Iranian nuclear impasse. The declaration said the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme should be resolved diplomatically and should not be allowed to escalate. It also recognised the right of Iran to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. "We agreed that lasting solution to the problems in Syria and Iran can only be found through dialogue," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

2) The declaration also backs a Syria-led democratic transition. BRICS voices "deep concern" over Syria and calls for "an immediate end to all violence and violations of human rights" and backs a Syrian-led political process.

Facebook offers Rs 1.34 cr package to Allahabad engineering student

ALLAHABAD: Social networking giant Facebook has hired an engineering student here for a fat annual pay package of Rs 1.34 crore, one of the biggest offers made to alumnus of any technical institution of the country.

According to P Chakravarti, Director of the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), a B.Tech student from the institute, who has requested that his name be withheld for "security reasons", received a letter on March 27 from Facebook confirming his appointment and the annual pay package on offer was stated to be USD 262,500 (around Rs 1.34 crore).

Interestingly, the MNNIT Director said the recruitment process began with a mail from Facebook "in October last year which was followed by nine rounds of telephonic interviews" before he was finally selected for the plush job which would require the student, who hails from Kanpur, to move to Menlo Park in California after finishing his software engineering course at the institute.

Dalai Lama wins $1.7 million Templeton Prize

NEW YORK: The Dalai Lama has been awarded one of the world's leading religion prizes.
The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader is the winner of the 2012 Templeton Prize for his work on science and religion. The honor from the John Templeton Foundation, announced Thursday, comes with a $1.7 million award.

The Dalai Lama is founder of the Mind & Life institute for research on science and Buddhism. A series of talks he gave at Stanford University led to the creation of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, which brings together scientists and religious scholars. The Templeton Prize will be awarded on May 14th in London.

The 76-year-old spiritual leader lives in exile in India. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for advocating nonviolent liberation for Tibet.

69th Annual Globe awards,Clooney, Streep Win Golden Globes

Ricky Gervais got himself bleeped Sunday night at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards — but then again, so did Meryl Streep.
Gervais, returning as host of the show for the third time, largely avoided the personal insults that caused so much controversy at last year’s show, but he still got off quite a few good jabs here and there, including at the Hollywood Foreign Press, which puts on the Globes, and NBC, which airs them.
“The Globes are just like the Oscars, except without all that ‘esteem,’” he joked. He added that the Globes were to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton: “a bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker and more easily bought — allegedly.”
Biting hard on the hand that fed him, Gervais later said, talking about “Boardwalk Empire,” “It’s about a load of immigrants who came to America about a hundred years ago, and they got involved in bribery and corruption and worked their way up into high society. But enough about the Hollywood Foreign Press.”

Standard & Poor's downgrades EU bailout fund to AA+

The Standard and Poor's ratings agency on Monday downgraded the EU bailout fund EFSF by one notch to AA+ but said it would restore the top AAA ranking if the fund obtains additional guarantees.

The decision was the result of downgrades to France's and Austria's ratings from AAA since they served as top-level guarantors of the European Financial Stability Facility, S&P said in a statement.

"The EFSF's obligations are no longer fully supported either by guarantees from EFSF members rated 'AAA' by Standard & Poor's, or by 'AAA' rated securities," said S&P.

The eurozone's temporary bailout fund uses guarantees from its top-rated members to borrow funds at low rates on the market to loan onwards to countries which can no longer borrow at affordable rates.