She could barely read what was written on the blackboard in her class. At home, she would study with the help of magnifying glasses.

But with just 2 per cent vision, Soma Patnaik of DAV Public School, Gurgaon, has scored 92.6 per cent marks in her Class X exam. Soma, is suffering from acute Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) since birth.

RP patients usually lose their vision by the age of 30. Both of Somas retinas are damaged and cannot be replaced. In fact, Somas parents were asked to admit their daughter in a school for the visually-handicapped.

New Delhi : The image of Rajeev Goswami, the Delhi University student who attempted self-immolation in 1990, is not yet history.

The anti-quota protest that has shaken the political establishment 16 years after that incident has rekindled public memory, if only as a reflection of middle class desperation.

But are political elements exploiting the outpourings of middle class anger over the reservation policy?

In 1990, the year of Mandal, Goswamis attempted self-immolation captured middle class anguish in a way that few images have. In more recent times, the capital has seen middle class mobilisation of a more cinematic kind with people from Gurgaon and Noida and south Delhi lighting lamps and candles to demand justice for murdered model Jessica Lal.

Italian leather accessories brand Blue and Blues is to foray in Indian retail market with at least 18 exclusive outlets across the country in coming three years.

Praveen Agarwal, Director of Unique International Pvt Ltd (UIPL) said, Its a brand of international repute opening its first exclusive store at Gurgaon within the first week of June. We plan to open at least 18 exclusive retail outlets in the next three years and two manufacturing units within a year.

UIPL has received global rights for marketing and manufacturing of Blue and Blues products. UIPL also has manufacturing unit in Kolkata.

Company plans to market premium products like ladies hand bags, wallets, mens wallet and belts which are not available in the domestic markets.

Gurgaon: Reliance Venture Limited (RVL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd., will sign an agreement with Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) next month for setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for development of a Rs. 30,000-crore multi-product Special Economic Zone near Gurgaon.

The agreement likely to be signed on June 12 would include the transfer of about 1,500 acres of land at Garhi Harsru, Gurgaon to the joint venture company being formed by HSIDC and RVL for the development of the SEZ.

The total cost for which the land would be transferred to the SPV, would include that of land acquisition, interest capitalised as holding cost at the rate of nine per cent per annum and the administrative cost at the rate of 15 per cent of the total cost of acquired land.

New Delhi : After days of will it, wont it, The Da Vinci Code finally opened here yesterday but to a mixed response, with some cinemas reporting a phenomenal response while others saying it was getting off to a slow start.

Sourav Verma, vice president of PVR cinemas that runs a chain of multiplexes across the city as well as in Gurgaon and Noida, said the response was overwhelming.

We opened out booking counter on Thursday evening and the response is phenomenal. People are going for advance booking even for the next two days, Verma said.

It was a different story across town.We sold only 18 tickets for our first show of the day and there are not many advance bookings. The hall has a seating capacity of 269, said a ticket seller at MMX theatre, Noida.

We are not sure about the future of the film. The situation will become clear only after a week, he added about the Tom Hanks starrer based on the bestseller by Dan Brown.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Transport Corporation of India Ltd., the countrys biggest trucking firm, sees its earnings per share growing 20-30 percent in 2006/07 as demand for transportation and logistics grows, an official said on Thursday.
Based in Gurgaon, a manufacturing hub on the outskirts of New Delhi, TCIL reported on Thursday earnings per share of 15.27 rupees in the fiscal year 2005/06 which ended in March, compared with 9.8 rupees in the previous year.
Executive Director Vineet Agarwal told Reuters in an interview the company was also planning to unlock value of its real estate holdings across the country.
We are keeping a lookout if some of the real estate that we own could be commercially developed in the long run, he said.
The company owns nearly 150 properties in India varying between 5,000 square feet and 12 acres. Over the past three years real estate prices have shot up dramatically as a housing boom has taken root.
Rising salaries, easy financing and better quality of apartments have also contributed to the growth in prices.
As a consequence, smokestack firms such as Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which owns huge tracts of real estate in congested cities like Mumbai, have seen their stock prices soaring.

Unitech, which bagged a mega land deal, is not planning any equity dilution, and internal accruals are enough for now, according to its Managing Director, Sanjay Chandra.

He stated that no commercial development of land at Noida was likely. In fact, 50 per cent of the land at Noida would be developed for residential needs. Rentals in Noida and Gurgaon wouldbe boosted by IT & BPO set ups. He further said that revenues from the Noida land deal were likely to start coming in by Q1FY08

Gurgaon : Hundreds of people, including women and children, in this satellite city of Delhi today took out a procession demanding a hold on reservation for OBCs in elite educational institutions.

Holding candles in their hands, businessmen, industrialists, lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants, members of Resident Welfare Associations and NGOs, took part in the two-kilometre march under the banner of All India Equality Forum.

The protestors handed over a memorandum to Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner R P Bhardwaj and requested him to send it to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to abolish the caste-based reservation system of the government.

Besides asking the government to defer the proposed hike in reservation in the central universities, the Forum also demanded setting up of an expert commission on the issue.

GURGAON: Hero ITES, the BPO arm of the Hero group, has entered into a partnership with Sales Force, Australias largest call centre. The two companies have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Even as the alliance takes shape, Hero ITES is in advanced stages of talks for acquiring a $75-m services company in the US.

It has already appointed a merchant banker, and is likely to complete the acquisition next month. Talking about the link-up with Sales Force, Rohit Chanana, business head of Hero ITES, told ET this was one of his most significant deals ever.

The Australian BPO market does not have many players yet, and we will have an early-mover advantage, he added.

GURGAON: A local court here on Saturday issued summons to L K Advani in connection with a criminal defamation case filed by businessman Abhishek Verma, whom the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader had accused of profiting in the controversial Scorpene submarine deal.

He has been asked to appear before the court by Chief Judicial Magistrate Raj Rani Gupta on July 17 and seek bail in the case.

Verma had filed the case against Advani on April 7, accusing him of using fabricated documents to charge him with taking kickbacks in the multi-crore submarine deal.