Michigan has elected its first Indian-American State House Representative -- Samir 'Sam' Singh. George Joseph reports.

Fulham striker Dimitar Berbatov has been heavily criticised in his homeland after he snubbed the Bulgarian national team for a second time in 28 months.

Journalist-author Harish Nambiar talks about his book, Defragmenting India

Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, the promoters of DB Realty, have a common background -- both are college drop-outs and came from families that, directly or indirectly, dealt in real estate.

Ghana's Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac is still fuming after Uruguayan striker Luiz Suarez stopped a goalbound shot with his hand on the line in the last minute of extra time in their World Cup quarter-final.

Court interventions turn the tables on forex derivative losses, as banks push for out-of-court settlements.

A plea for a separate time zone for the north east region to match its productivity, progress and prosperity with the rest of the country was made by internationally-acclaimed film maker Jahnu Barua on Saturday. "The time difference between the eastern-most and western-most borders of the country is more than two hours. The NE region gets daylight much before the rest of the country," Barua said.

Jyoti Basu, the 95-year-old communist, has lost touch with many of his comrades. But this morning the former chief minister of West Bengal did not forget to call his favourite Congressman to say, "Happy Birthday!"

Hundreds of Indian students studying in Australia have been left in the lurch, with the sudden collapse of the Global Campus Management Group closing down four colleges in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday.The collapse has particularly come as a major blow for the Australian government, which has been working hard to rebuild the image of the country's education scenario.

Tamil-actor-turned political leader Vijaykanth told rediff.com that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's announcement of demanding Indian citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is helping the dream of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Reader Nitesh Palrecha sent us his photograph with motor racing ace Narain Karthikeyan.

For example, Idea Cellular posted a 0.7 per cent decline in the average minutes of use per subscriber in the first quarter of the current financial year, partly because of the increasing use of multiple SIM cards. So, too, with Vodafone-Essar. The company admits a fall in usage per subscriber, as an increasing number utilised SIMs of more than one operator, particularly in the new circles.

List of govt hospitals authorised to treat swine flu

Insiyah Vahanvaty interviews Zubin D'Souza, author of the cookbook Khana Sutra: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook.

According to a study by analyst firm Angel Broking, once the MNP facility is operational, mobile operators' average revenues per user, the benchmark of a telecom operator's financial strength, would get adversely impacted by around 5 per cent. Telecom companies' margins would also drop by 100-150 basis points and even earnings per share estimates would be pruned by 9-21 per cent.

38-year old Richard Harvey, who was studying at the Meridian International School in 2007, said university employees ridiculed him when he requested toilet paper and drinking water be made available on campus.

The mobile tariffs in the world's cheapest telecom market are set to fall further by at least 20-25 per cent during the year, more so due to increasing number of telecom operators and infrastructure overcapacity.

Customs officials have been directed to stop shipments of such phones. Industry experts expect the move to hit the sales of dual-SIM handsets, which are imported into the country by companies including Nokia, Samsung, Meridian Mobile and Spice. More importantly, this could also affect the plans to manufacture these handsets in the country. It is estimated that around 100,000 dual-SIM phones are sold in the country every month.

The first ever emerging technology conference from MIT's Technology Review -- EmTech India 2009 -- kicks off in New Delhi's Le Meridian on Monday.

Nokia has already increased prices of its base models by around 3-4 per cent. Industry analysts expect other manufacturers to follow suit. "The 25 per cent increase in the value of dollar vis-a-vis rupee (the dollar rose to Rs 50 this month from Rs 40 in March) has resulted in our import costs going up. This has compelled us to increase the prices of our old models launched during the last 6-9 months," said HTC (India) Country Head Ajay Sharma.

Mobile subscribers are in for a bonanza as telecom tariffs are set to come down by at least 25-30 per cent by the year-end. Factors such as a fall in the availability of international bandwidth, entry of new licencees and mobile virtual network operators, and the move to permit unrestricted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony will help bring down the tariffs.

Electronics and white goods manufacturers such as Videocon, Spice, Usha and Mirc Electronics have begun engaging the services of Independent design houses to take on the likes of global giants including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG in the mobile handset space. An IDH conducts research and development and designs handsets to enable Indian telcos launch their own mobile handset brands. It takes an upfront one-time fee for the purpose.

Despite the lack of policy and clear allotment of spectrum, the domestic telecom industry is all set to usher in 3G services with service and equipment providers readying infrastructure.

As the audience ushered into the Theatre Row's auditorium for the performance of writer Ayub Khan-Din's new play Rafta, Rafta, I had a very strong sense of dj vu, as if I had walked onto the sets of East is East.

Well, in continuation to the article on careers in Australia, we look at various colleges and institutes in Australia offering career-oriented hospitality (commercial cookery / patisserie) courses.

Coca Cola has got a clean chit from TERI for eco compliance. Its report said Coke meets with all Indian regulatory requirements.

Though in its infancy in India, mobile advertising is emerging as the biggest competitor to Internet advertising. It might even cannibalise online advertising, states a new study by global analysis firm Thomas Weisel International. India's online advertising is expected to reach an inflection point by 2009-end - a time when mobile advertising is predicted to grow at a scorching pace.

India's handset market is very similar to that of cars. The high-tech PDAs correspond to the luxury cars and the good old Maruti 800 takes the place of the no-frills handset segment.

The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore invites corporates, entrepreneurs, professionals, MBA students and undergraduate students to attend its annual festival VISTA 2006.

Christine Valmy Institute is conducting a three day hands-on traditional\nThai Massage workshop.

The second edition of the Microsoft Corporate Challenge began in Kochi on Friday with 34 teams from across India, representing various companies, including Infosys, Microsoft, Reliance Capital and Pepsi Foods, participating in the three-day event.

GoAir is offering special packages for the Nehru Trophy Boat Race to be held at\nAlappuzha Punnamada Lake on August 12.

The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore invites corporates, entrepreneurs, professionals, MBA students and undergraduate students to attend its annual festival VISTA 2005.

Telgi, the main accused in the multi-crore fake stamp-paper racket, has disputed it and claims he owes only Rs 2.36 crore in dues.

Take the Rediff Business Quiz and find out how much you know about the pharma industry.