Pact for supplying 100,000 laptops to students inked

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister's Youth Programme on Monday signed contract with Higher Education Commission (HEC) for supply and commissioning of 100,000 laptops to be distributed under PMYP.
The contract was signed at HEC secretariat and Anwar Amjad, director general information technology, HEC, and Zhang Le, international projects manager Haier Electrical Appliances Corp Ltd, signed the contract while Advisor to PMYP chairperson MNA Leila Khan also present on the occasion. Haier has won the contract through a competitive process conducted by HEC in which major manufacturers of laptops participated.
The programme aims at distribution of laptops among young and bright students studying in public sector higher education institutions across the country. The HEC is the executing agency responsible for developing criteria, mechanism, modalities and a roadmap for procurement and distribution of laptops under this programme. During 2013-14, 100,000 laptops will be distributed among students as per defined criteria.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest Leila Khan shared the vision of PML-N government for development of youth. She appreciated HEC for effectively managing the selection process for the laptop programme. She emphasised that it has been ensured that entire procedure of the laptop programme is transparent and that laptops will be distributed purely on merit.
Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, chairperson HEC, thanked the government for showing confidence in HEC for execution of the laptop programme. He appreciated the idea of the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for not only providing laptops to students but also bounding procuring agency to assemble laptops in Pakistan. He said that right from the start Transparency International has been involved so that nobody has any doubt on fairness of the whole process.
It may be mentioned here that Transparency International Pakistan has congratulated the prime minister for procurement of 100,000 laptops fully in accordance with PPRA rules. The whole process has been completed by HEC in a record time of 20 days.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi, executive director HEC, said that the youth programme launched by the government is talent-centric, which is a source of inspiration for the young population of this country.

Most Effective Weapon of US starts leaving Pakistan?

WASHINGTON – Can you believe that U.S. most effective weapon against the war of terrorism C.I.A. has started leaving Pakistan, revealed by The Daily Beast in a report.

According to the report, the CIA is now leaving its front-line Afghan counter-terrorist forces in south and east Afghanistan leaving a security vacuum that U.S. commanders fear the Taliban and Al-Qaeda will fill and leaving the Pakistan border open to possible deluge of fighters and weapons.

“The CIA has started to end the contracts of some of those militias who were working for them,” said Aimal Faizi, spokesman for outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a longtime critic of the CIA’s Afghan operatives. “Some of them were in very important locations, so we deployed our troops there.”

U.S. and Afghan military commanders tell The Daily Beast that Afghan forces are stretched too thin to replace many of those departing CIA paramilitaries. Thousands more CIA-trained operatives are about to get the boot ahead of what already promises to be a bloody summer fighting season. That could mean spectacular attacks against U.S. and Afghan targets just as the White House is weighing its long-term commitment to Afghanistan. And it could give the now-small al Qaeda movement inside the country more freedom to grow and eventually hatch new plots more than a decade after the invasion meant to wipe out the perpetrators of the Sept. 11th attacks.

Senior U.S. officials said the slow dismantling of the CIA’s forces has also alarmed U.S. lawmakers, who had assumed those forces would remain in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban after U.S. troops withdrew.

But CIA officials told lawmakers this past week that with U.S. troops slowly closing bases across the country, the intelligence agency’s footprint also has to shrink. The CIA doesn’t want to face another high-risk situation like Benghazi, Libya, where militants attacked both the U.S. diplomatic outpost and the CIA base.

The Obama administration had wanted to leave up to 10,000 U.S. troops in the country after the December 2014 withdrawal deadline. But the current Afghan president has refused to sign a long-term security agreement, and the Afghan presidential election seems headed for a runoff, meaning it could be months before a new Afghan president takes charge.

So U.S. forces here are rapidly closing outposts, preparing to withdraw to six “enduring” bases that could remain if a security deal goes through before early fall. While the CIA is not affected by the security agreement, it relies on the U.S. military for protection and logistical support—especially at its far-flung bases in south and east Afghanistan. Just months ago, the talk in administration circles was that these paramilitaries would be significantly expanded in the near future. Now, it appears, the opposite is taking place. (The CIA declined to comment for this story.)

The elite Afghan teams have built a fearsome reputation for their U.S. special operations-like targeting of terrorist suspects, guided by a handful of CIA paramilitary officers on most missions.

Karzai’s spokesman Faizi said the Afghan government had no advance notice of the firings, but later tried to recruit the Shkin forces into the ranks of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, in hopes of keeping them from selling their skills to the Taliban or someone else.

“We tried to hire those militia for the same pay as the CIA,” he said. “But only a 100 or so said yes.”

Two U.S. officials said the CIA-trained paramilitaries at the Kunar base have been told of their imminent firing, and some have already reached out to the Taliban, possibly to reach a peace deal for when they no longer have Americans to pay or protect them.

Did you know?: Brangelina to team up again

Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie is likely to team up again with her partner Brad Pitt for a new film which she has written. The project will reunite the couple for the first time since their hit 2005 action drama Mr and Mrs Smith, reported the Deccan Chronicle. He had once said that he would love to work with her again. Pitt, 50, and Jolie, 38, had met on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith.

No distributor or studio is attached to the project yet. Pitt made a cameo in Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey which had hit the screens in 2011.

Pitt has appeared in over 40 major films, including 12 Monkeys (1995), Ocean’s Eleven(2001), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), while Jolie has appeared in over 30 major films, including Girl, Interrupted (1999), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), andChangeling (2008). Their relationship began after they starred together in Mr and Mrs SmithThey have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, and three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.

Women need to pamper themselves sometimes: Shilpa Shetty

She lives life almost queen size, with a house manager, helpers and chauffers. Yet she says she’s middle-class. PHOTO: FILE

NEW DEHLI: Actor Shilpa Shetty’s IOSIS spa and wellness chain is branching out to tier-II and tier-III cities. The actress-turned-entrepreneur says the maximum potential for growth lies there as women have the means but feel “guilty” about stepping out of home only to “pamper” themselves. It’s a feeling even she relates to as a mother.

Shilpa and her businessman husband have a son named Viaan, who will turn two later this month.

In a freewheeling chat on her recent visit to the capital, Shilpa said: “Despite owning a chain of spas, I call the lady home to get whatever beauty treatment I need!”

“Mumbai’s traffic is awful, and rather than spending two hours in reaching a salon, I’d rather spend one hour getting a treatment, and the remaining hour with my son at home. I feel as guilty as any mother about leaving the house or my child to pamper myself,” she said, but added that she may not feel as guilty when Viaan is around eight years old.

But largely, she believes change needs to ensue.

“Women need to let themselves go sometimes. Most women get so engrossed in everyday work and home life that they don’t realise that they aren’t giving themselves any time. Invest on yourself sometimes,” said the 38-year-old, who believes women deserve it, for all that they do.

Shilpa has been part of showbiz for almost two decades, during which she has entertained Bollywood films like Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Dhadkan and Life… in a Metro. She gained international recognition after featuring and winning Britain’s Big Brother reality show in 2007, and she has also been active on the Indian small screen as a judge on reality shows.

IOSIS, the unisex spa and wellness chain she co-owns with Kiran Bawa, came into being in 2009.

Since its modest beginnings in suburban Mumbai in 2009, it has a presence in eight places.

“As part of the wellness industry, we are conscious of our brand and we are well aware of who we want to cater to. Of course, people in the metro cities need spas, but it’s the tier-II and tier-III cities where there’s a dearth of good spas,” she said.

“Places like Ludhiana and Chandigarh have people with a lot of money, but they don’t have access to good wellness places. So, this is a thought carried forward beautifully by my business partner Kiran.

“Women need wellness, but sometimes they just don’t know what to do  — how to pamper themselves, how to go about it…but I hope we can make them more aware with our efforts,” she added.

Meanwhile, Shilpa is also busy handling her other roles  — a celebrity, a fitness expert, a co-owner of Rajasthan Royals Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, her latest foray into the jewellery business with Satyug Gold, being a daughter and being a wife and mother!

She lives life almost queen size, with a house manager, helpers and chauffers. Yet she says she’s “middle-class” enough to know the “tamaatar ka bhaav (price of tomato)”

According to Sonam, I am the ugliest actor: Kangana

Kangana expressed her displeasure towards Sonam’s absurd statements on Koffee with Karan. PHOTO: FILE

Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor creates quite a controversy every time she appears on Karan Johar’s chat show Koffee with Karan. Her stint in the last season made Rishi Kapoor angry as she made some rude remarks about Ranbir Kapoor. And this time she has offended Kangana Ranaut it seems. While Ranaut didn’t appear on the chat show, she seems to have been kept updated with all the statements that have been made, for she expressed her dismay at Sonam’s recent comments on good-looking actors.

In Koffee with Karan’s latest season, Sonam came on the show with her father, Anil Kapoor and took digs at her contemporaries and made several statements that even appalled the host. She said, “If you’re not good looking, they think you are a good actor. Just because you look ordinary and you talk loud doesn’t mean you’re a good actor.” While many in Bollywood might be taken aback with this statement, it is only Ranaut who has reacted strongly to these not so humble words, reported Bollywood Life.

“Sonam has said that people who act well are ugly. So do I get the crown of the ugliest person? After watching Queen, people have been telling me that I act really well, so according to Sonam, I am the ugliest actor in Bollywood today. And well, I accept that with all the gratitude and humbleness,” she said.

Ranaut also went on to say that it’s time that real people grace the screen, as opposed to Sonam, who thinks that only good looking people can act well. “I feel that Sonam really needs to get her facts right about acting. Actors aren’t models – it’s a different technique to convey expressions and emotions and it has got nothing to do with looks. And we should have a variety of actors just for the sake of casting. We don’t have right casting in our country. It’s high time we get rid of this six-pack brigade and glamorous looking people. We should get real people in because the stories we show on-screen are about real people. And that’s how the movies will be genuine and heartfelt. Story telling needs to get honest.”

Ranaut also held Sonam responsible for cinema not being so genuine today. “If our cinema is not good today, people like Sonam should be held responsible. There are people out there, who might not fit into that Vogue kind of space, but they have all the right to be an actor,” she added.

Picasso’s son accuses authorities of dishonouring father

A news daily notes that if anyone could calm Claude Picasso, it would be Prime Minister Valls, who himself is the son of a Spanish painter who immigrated to France. PHOTO: FILE

PARIS: 

French authorities are trying to make peace with the son of Pablo Picasso after he accused them of dishonouring his father by delaying the reopening of the Picasso Museum in Paris.

The refurbished 17th century mansion housing the collection had been due to reopen in June after a five-year, 52 million euro ($72 million) refurbishment. But the Culture Ministry said now that it would not open until mid September, missing the tourist season’s summer peak.

“I am outraged and deeply concerned,” Claude Picasso, said the 66-year-old son of the painter, who is seen as one of 20th century’s most influential artists.

“I get the impression that France couldn’t give a damn about my father or me,” he said in an interview published on Friday, just before the Culture Ministry confirmed in a statement its decision to wait until September.

Inaugurated in 1985, the Picasso Museum includes nearly 300 paintings including Self Portrait from his early Blue period through to Matador and others completed in the years before his 1973 death. It also includes 250 sculptures, relief paintings and other works.

“What possible interest could the Culture Ministry have in hindering the reopening and functioning of one of the country’s most popular museums?” the ministry said. “The Ministry appeals to everyone to put their own personal interests to one side and share the enthusiasm and calm required to complete this project,” it added.

Addressing widespread incredulity in arts circles over previous official explanations that the delay was partly needed to recruit new guards, the statement also announced the creation of 40 new jobs “despite the tough budgetary climate.”

The office of Prime Minister Manuel Valls could not immediately be reached to confirm a Le Monde report that Valls would receive Claude Picasso on Monday.

However, the news daily noted that if anyone could calm the enraged Picasso heir down, it would be Valls, who himself is the son of a Spanish painter who emigrated to France

Did you know? : Rajinikanth gets almost 150,000 followers on his first day on Twitter

Rajinikanth’s mass popularity and appeal is largely drawn from his mannerisms and stylised dialogue delivery. PHOTO: FILE

Cinematic icon Rajinikanth, who joined Twitter on Monday, attracted almost 150,000 followers on his very first day.

“Salutation to the lord! A big thank you to all my fans, excited on this digital journey,” tweeted the Rajnikanth, who is revered for his acting acumen.

His new movie Kochadaiiyaan, directed by his younger daughter Soundarya R. Ashwin, is gearing for release Friday. Hence, Rajini’s decision to make his presence felt on the digital world seems to be well-timed.

He has decided to engage with his fans via the Twitter handle @SuperStarRajini.

Rajinikanth said in a statement: “I decided to start with Twitter because I felt that the platform is abuzz with all the news and the trends that happen across the globe and I’m told that this is where all the best Rajini one-liners are.”

The 63-year-old, one of India’s most prolific and influential superstars, Rajinikanth’s mass popularity and appeal is largely drawn from his mannerisms and stylised dialogue delivery.

With his entry on Twitter, he hopes to interact with his fans. For this, he has partnered with CA Media Digital’s first venture, Fluence  — a celebrity digital network  — which will manage his digital presence.

“I am confident that I have the best team and the best guides who will help me connect with my audience,” said the superstar.