Dassault bags MMRCA deal defeating Eurofighter Typhoon

Finally after years and years of delays,negotiations and rumors the Indian government sources today announced that French firm Dassault has won a multi-billion dollar contract to provide 126 fighter jets to the Indian military.

"You can take it as confirmed that Dassault has got the deal. Since there were only two companies and it has come out as the lowest bidder," a government source told AFP.


Six companies including American F-16 and F-18, Russian MiG 35, Swedish Saab Gripen alongwith Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale were in the race in the beginning.

But in April last year, the defence ministry shortlisted Dassault and EADS, evicting the American, Russian and Swedish bids.
The process was started with the issuing of a global tender in 2007 after which all the six contenders were subjected to extensive field evaluation trails by the Indian Air Force at several locations across the globe.

Golden Globe to Rehman

Bollywood music director A.R. Rahman Monday became the first Indian to win the Golden Globe Award, for best original musical score in Danny Boyle's movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. The honour bestowed on the maestro has brought much cheer to the Indian film industry.

Rahman won the prestigious award for his musical score in the song 'Jai Ho', for which Gulzar penned the lyrics. The song is a typical Rahman number and the composer stuck to his signature style while composing it. The song was rendered by Sukhwinder Singh a Rehman regular.

Three cheers for Rehman! Hip Hip Hurray :)

Computing on the go from MS

There was this cool patent registration yesterday.Microsoft had applied for a patent in 2007 for a concept called computing on the go.

The Patent's abstract explains this as "a standard PC is given away or heavily subsidized. The consumer then pays to use the computer, with charges based on length of usage time and performance levels.".

What this means is for example:
Consider a situation involving three "bundles" of applications and performance: office, gaming, and browsing.
"The office bundle may include word-processing and spreadsheet applications, medium graphics performance and two of three processor cores," the document reads. "The gaming bundle may include no productivity applications but may include 3D graphics support and three of three processor cores. The browsing bundle may include no productivity applications, medium graphics performance and high-speed network interface."

"Charging for the various bundles may be by bundle and by duration. For example, the office bundle may be $1.00 [68 pence] per hour, the gaming bundle may be $1.25 per hour and the browsing bundle may be $0.80 per hour. The usage charges may be abstracted to 'units/hour' to make currency conversions simpler. Alternatively, a bundle may incur a one-time charge that is operable until changed or for a fixed-usage period,"
Debasys

Sony, ibibo launch application for RMTC movie

Sony BMG has partnered with ibibo.com to launch an application for the movie 'Raaz - The Mystery Continues' (RTMC).

The movie will hit theatres worldwide on Jan 23. The RTMC application on ibibo offers for the first time in India an opportunity for the audiences to Karaoke to the tracks of the movie and that too sing straight from their mobiles.

The application also treats users to the latest music of Raaz- The Mystery Continues and the haunting rifs of smash hit Maahi- the lead track, along with four other super hits! Users can register and sample exclusive RTMC videos, trailers, befriend the cast and crew, send exclusive RTMC eCards and eGifts to their ibibo friends.

Besides singing to RTMC tracks and joining the RTMC fan club, aspiring film makers and directors are invited to upload two to three minute videos, shot on a handy cam, mobile camera or a digicams, based on a supernatural or freaky theme and get a chance to spend a day with Mohit Suri, Director of RTMC and get to learn the art of film making.