Rupee to get a symbol today!

Joining the club of other major currencies of the world like the US dollar, the pound sterling, the yen and the euro among others, the Indian rupee too is set to get its unique identification symbol that is recognisable worldwide.

In February 2009, the Finance Ministry had invited Indian residents to participate in a competition for designing a 'symbol for the Indian rupee', the results of which are to be announced today. Five designs have been shortlisted by the government after this all-India contest, of which one will be denoted as the symbol for the rupee.

These signs are easy to write and are specially designed to appeal to Indian and international community.

A symbol reflecting the Hindi alphabet 'R' is likely to be approved.

Reserve Bank of India’s Executive Director HR Khan feels a symbol for the rupee was absolutely necessary. “Every currency has a symbol so we thought that the Indian currency should also have a symbol. It is more of a symbolic value because we are an emerging power and most countries have some symbol with acts as an identification for the currency worldwide.”

* Source

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Past days log... :|

After a while now I am back with pen & paper (rather mouse & keyboard ;-) ...) to pen down something on my blog. I've been a bit involved for these days, to spare any time for blogging so...
On 7th this month I had the internals for final semester training's presentation. It didn't clicked well, as I per my expectation, but than expectations always kill you! The thing happened was like singing melody before a deaf. As my presentation subject was beyond the perceptions of my esteemed college teachers (or I must say the selected bimbos of college, specifically chosen for the task! ;-) ) who were mere acting as an object for distraction! :-p They didn't even got a slightest of idea of what I did in my project (Programming Radio frequency identification detection system on the VxWorks RTOS, the same OS that is used in Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot), & were not satisfied! But externals on 11th went par excellence, where the poor external examiner was speechless! :-D Now I am hoping for some descent marks, that's it, nothing more on it... My stay there was smooth, against the anticipations I was making, as I stayed at a friend's place @Ambala. & didn't had to live in the great place "Lalru!" ;-)

Now only one or two visits to college are left to collect the final mark sheet & the important thing, my engineering degree! :-D
Last days were not as rocking or party filled as I was expecting, some formal relations that were being carried forcibly were left behind, that might have carried away some good memories too... The good & true relations reflected shinning, that I can see shining ahead in life too...

Then I came back the sweet home. Got a new cellphone Nokia 5235. Again a small crap happened, that is making me think- have I repeated a mistake with buying Nokia?! As earlier also I faced some issues with Nokia 5233, (with mom now) though it is very fine now. I must say though Nokia has a sense for good engineering, they lack on the quality part still, if compared to global brands like Sony Ericsson, or Motorola. There seem to be no uniformity or standard in their products, still as I was not having more bucks I settled for Nokia. Hope to get a blackberry after job myself! ;-) Though Nokia phones are good, with good features, & I like them, but I am sincerely not a fan of Nokia!... Noway... I dream of a Sony Erricson Xperia, or Motorola Milestone or a Blackberry.... :-p
The issue I faced was with the display of my 5235, though 5235 seemed to be perfect in all respects after I purchased it from a Priority to be sure of quality, yes it is fine too, but as I placed both my 5235 & 5233 (older)... smash!... my happiness crashed! The "white" of my phone was paler than the "white" color of 5233 (No it's not an AD of Tide... ;-) ), that had really true & sharp contrast! This was disheartening but is not a reason enough to get me a replacement! :-( Though I am settled now as I don't have any affect of that difference, as my priority of usage is music, internet & office work & very less or least if I say I would use it for watching videos, though there won't be any pain in watching videos too, as the display actually has no issues, only the white is a bit pale, that's it! May be all 5235 had it, may be it is because 5235 is 80% made of recycled material, whatever, Nokia is not a brand for geeks!! ;-D

Also I had a small beer party with a friend here in Delhi, but there is nothing much to write, as nothing great happened. ;-)

Now a days I am involved in making a project for mom's school competition. It is robotic car with an robotic arm, all direction movements, remote controlled, it is almost done & have a power to lift upto 5kg load (or may be more!) :-D

Nokia announces C1 and C2 - two SIMs inside, bargain prices

Affordable phones for developing countries have arrived to the Cseries. Two of the new offerings are dual-SIM solutions and the other two offer good connectivity and multimedia for a very limited price. Nokia also announced a bicycle charging solution for areas with limited access to electricity.

Lets start wit the Nokia C2 - before taxes and subsidies it will cost 45 euro (55 USD). The C2 is a dual-SIM phone and interestingly, the second SIM card is easily accessible and hot-swappable (a world's first). The phone supports the 900/1800 GSM bands.

The Nokia C2 has a unique dual-SIM solution - the second SIM card is hot-swappable

The battery is estimated to last 16,5 days on standby and 4 hours of talk time. The Nokia C2 also features VGA camera, GPRS Internet connectivity, Bluetooth and FM radio with broadcast recording. There's also a microSD card (up to 32GB, but those cost more than the phone itself), 3.5mm audio jack plus an MP3 player.

The other dual-SIM phone is the Nokia C1-00, which will cost 30 euro (37 USD). It doesn't have two active cards - just one, but there's a quick shortcut to switch between the two. The phone has a smashing standby of 48 days. It features an FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack and a flashlight.

The Nokia C1-00 has two SIM cards, but only one can be active at a time

This is where the new Nokia numbering scheme becomes a little confusing. The final two phones are the Nokia C1-01 (39 euro) and the C1-02 (35 euro) - both are somewhat similar, but not quite identical to the C1-00.

The Nokia C1-01 and C1-02 have a single SIM, but add a microSD slot and GPRS

The Nokia C1-01 and Nokia C1-02 only have a single SIM card slot, but offer GPRS, Bluetooth, microSD card slot (up to 32GB), 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio and MP3 player. The Nokia C1-01 features a VGA camera, which the Nokia C1-02 lacks.

The Nokia C1-00 is expected in the third quarter, while the other two in the last quarter of this year.

The bicycle charging kit from Nokia

By the year's end Nokia will also release the bicycle charging kit, which uses a dynamo to charge phones using the standard 2mm plug. It is targeted at areas with limited access to electricity, where bicycles are often the most popular mode of transportation.

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