IIM site hangs, lakhs of students clueless about results

After the computer servers crashed on the first online common admission test (CAT) for B-schools, the results fared no better with a glitch-ridden system causing untold agony to lakhs of students. For more than three hours on Sunday, students couldn't see their results on www.cat.iim.in, which couldn't take the excess load. The problem was fixed only after 6pm.The candidates were informed about the blocking of scorecards at 3.45pm through a terse web message: "We are experiencing unusually heavy load on scorecard access server. We'll reopen the server after three hours." Not surprisingly, perhaps, the convener of the CAT committee, Satish Deodhar, could not be contacted all through Sunday.

Meanwhile, only IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Shillong declared the list of shortlisted candidates on Sunday. The other six IIMs are expected to release their list of selected candidates over the next two days. The CAT scores of candidates are used for admission to eight IIMs and around 120 B-schools in the country.After the first-ever online CAT -- in November 2009 -- turned into a fiasco due to a virus attack, the wait for its results seemed almost endless for the candidates. The results were earlier scheduled to be declared on January 22.
But then the second phase of CAT exam had to be conducted on January 30 and 31 for students who faced problems appearing in the first phase.

The results, which were postponed to February 15, were further deferred till Sunday. Nearly 2.4 lakh students had appeared for CAT 2009 of which almost 7,000 of them were left in the lurch due to failure of the system at various centres across the country. The unavailability of the scorecards on Sunday only added to the anxiety of the candidates.Arindam Lahiri, academic director, Career Launcher, said, "The system seems jinxed. It happens every year: the server becomes slow when the results are declared as every one tries to access it at the same time." He added,"But it had to be shut this time probably because it was a Sunday and the rush was too heavy."

Delhi boy Vivek Gupta was one of the students who scored a 100 percentile in CAT 2009. Gupta, an electronics engineer from IIT Roorkee, worked in an MNC after graduating in 2008 but left the job to prepare for CAT. "I started studying for CAT only three or four months before the exam. I think my background at IIT helped me crack CAT," said Gupta (24) from Pitampura. He further said, "I've got a call for an interview from IIM Ahmedabad. I would love to study there."

In Bangalore, Sunday's glitch upped tension levels among students. Sumana S, a private firm employee, couldn't stop weeping after trying for hours to access her result. "I worked hard for CAT. This is my third attempt and I really want to make it. I've been trying to access my CAT score for three hours now. My register number doesn't feature in either IIM-Ahmedabad or Shillong. I am getting worried," she said.

Ahmed (name changed), a final year engineering student, said he learnt about the results in the morning but got to see them only in the evening. "When I logged on, the website was flashing that the results were declared. When I clicked on it, I got a dead page. I kept trying. However, in between, some people could access the results but for a short time. There was an announcement from IIMs that the results will be declared at 3pm, then it got postponed to 6.45pm. But we got the results before that," he explained.Arjun Mohan, an engineer who is into sales and consulting, is one of the shortlisted candidates for IIM-A. "I couldn't access my score but I have been shortlisted for IIM-A. I learnt about the results around 11am and tried for a good two hours. This is my second attempt and I was keen on IIM-A and IIM-B," he said.
By the end of a wracking Sunday, all the candidates managed to get their results, much to their relief.

Sania Mirza's engagement called off

Sania Mirza hasn't had the best of starts to the 2010 season - on and off court. A broken service game is one thing,but a broken engagement and a broken heart,is quite another.Earlier in the week, the 23-year-old's father Imran, who coaches Sania and manages her career, called off his daughter's engagement to Mohammed Sohrab Mirza. Sania was formally engaged to the fellow Hyderabadi and longtime friend, now studying business in the United Kingdom, at a luxury hotel near her home last July.
The Indian star categorically refused to get into the why and what of the matter, but confirmed her engagement was off. "We were friends for half a decade, but found ourselves incompatible during our engagement period.

I wish Sohrab the best in life," she said.Even before the two got engaged, questions were doing the rounds about whether Mohammed could cope with the demands of being life-partner to a widely-traveled, hugely-popular athlete. Sania, who has been struggling with the differences for the last couple of months, hasn't taken the break-up well as her results on court show. However, she's doing what she always does at a time of crisis - surround herself with family and friends.As it stands, Sania will have to turn her focus to the courts, and in time might find comfort there. She flies out to Kuala Lumpur late on Friday, where she leads India's challenge in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group II competition, starting February 2.

Pak players should have been picked up for IPL-3: SRK

As a perceived snub to Pakistani players by the Indian Premier League spark a spat between neighbouring countries, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, an IPL franchisee himself, believes they should have been picked."I truly believe they (Pakistan players) should have been chosen," Khan, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), said.Khan, however, said that since "some issues" were involved the matter could have been handled by the IPL "respectfully".No Pakistani player was bought by the eight Indian clubs during an auction on Tuesday for the third edition of the glitzy IPL despite the Pakistan team being the reigning world champions in the Twenty20 format of the cricket tournament.Rooting for the Pakistani players, Khan said they are the best T20 players in the world. "They are the champions, they are wonderful but somewhere down the line there is an issue and we can't deny it," he told a news channel.

Khan said it was humiliating to him as a KKR owner that no one bid for the Pakistani players despite them being put up for auction."We are known to invite everyone. We should have. If there were any issues, they should have been put on board earlier. Everything can happen respectfully," he said."Everyday we blame Pakistan, everyday Pakistan blames us. It is an issue," Khan, who had five players from Pakistan playing for KKR in IPL's first edition, said.Khan felt that the youth should circumvent all that is said about India and Pakistan by the politicians and say, "It (Pakistan) is a great neighbour to have. We are great neighbours, They are good neighbours. Let us love each other.""Let me be honest. My family is from Pakistan, my father was born there and his family is from there," he said.

Padma Lakshmi beats Aishwarya Rai

Supermodels Padma Lakshmi and Lakshmi Menon have beaten Indian actresses Aishwarya Rai and Freida Pinto in a most desirable women poll conducted by a portal.According to the top 99 women poll by askmen.com, Padma Lakshmi has grabbed the 15th spot while Menon sits at the 45th position leaving behind "Slumdog Millionaire" star Pinto and former Miss World Aishwarya in 50th and 63rd positions respectively. "I am delighted that the readers of this portal have chosen to include me on their list. I am extremely flattered," the website quoted Padma as saying.Beating all of them, however, is Canadian actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, who tops the list. It also features singer Beyonce Knowles at sixth position, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and "Tranformers" star Megan Fox at seventh and 11th spots respectively.After a six-week long voting period, six million votes decided the ranking of these beautiful women.

IIT graduates annual salary drops and NIT graduates increased

The average annual salary of graduates of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology has dropped by five % while that of the National Institutes of Technology graduates has increased by six %.The average annual salaries of IIT graduates has dropped by 5% to Rs 5.88 lakh in 2009, according to the 5th IDC-Dataquest T-School 2009 Survey of 111 engineering colleges across the country.

Though the drop in the annual salary of IIT graduates has been ascribed to global recession, according to the survey, interestingly the average salary of NIT graduates has improved by 6% to Rs 4.36 lakh."Another reason for the drop in the annual salary of IIT graduates is that many bright students of IITs opted for higher studies instead of entering the job market," the survey pointed out.The highest annual salary received by an engineering graduate was from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), New Delhi, who received Rs 45 lakh from Schlumberger, the survey said.Due to the global slowdown, the average annual salary of engineering graduates countrywide stagnated at Rs 3.5 lakh.But the average annual salary of engineering graduates in BPO/ IT industry was a shade higher at Rs 3.6 lakh.

All IPL teams agreed to shun Pak players

What was suspected after Tuesday’s auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is now confirmed - there was indeed a consensus among the team franchisees that none of them would bid for the Pakistani players.Underlying this consensus were ambiguous signals from officialdom. Union sports minister MS Gill went on record on Wednesday insisting that neither his ministry nor the government had in any way nudged IPL teams to treat Pakistani players as untouchables. However, sources in the Indian cricket board (BCCI) gave TOI details of what transpired in the run-up to the auction, which suggest a more nuanced reality.

According to the sources, the BCCI initially told the franchisees that they could bid for Pakistani players and treat them just like cricketers from any other part of the world. Around the middle of December, the board also assured the teams that it would chip in with help for visas and other diplomatic clearances from the government.However, when team owners asked the board "what guarantee will the franchisees have?", the board spoke to some government officials in the last week of December and reverted with the message that the government - understandably - couldn’t give "any guarantee". The prospects of possible terror attacks clearly contributed to this message.Hence the IPL teams ignored the Pakistan players in auction as there was "no guarantee" from the government that these players would get visas and other clearances.

Glory for Avatar

Blockbuster sci-fi epic Avatar has been named best film drama at the Golden Globe awards, boosting its chances of further glory at the Oscars in March.Its director James Cameron was also honoured at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep won the best actress prizes, with Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr taking home their male equivalents.Ricky Gervais hosted the event, the first of 2010's major Hollywood awards.Presented each year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes often indicate who and what will go on to receive Academy Awards.

The Canadian film-maker previously won a Golden Globe for directing Titanic, which went on to win 11 Academy Awards in 1998.But he steered clear of the self-aggrandising language of his "king of the world" Oscar acceptance speech, heaping praise upon Bigelow, and addressing his actors in Na'vi, the language created for his blockbuster film.As Cameron accepted his prizes, it was revealed that Avatar had remained top of the US box office for a fifth week.Worldwide takings for the film now stand at $1.6 bn (£979m), setting it on course to top Titanic's $1.8 bn (£1.1bn) haul this week - which would make it the top-grossing film of all time.