Oscar Fernandes, Girija Vyas and Sisram Ola may get Cabinet berths in reshuffle today

NEW DELHI: In an exercise influenced by Rahul Gandhi, a much-awaited Congress organizational revamp on Sunday saw the elevation of leaders seen to be close to him, removal of some non-performers while trusted hands continue to retain charge of important party tasks.

Changes in the organization are linked to a comprehensive ministerial reshuffle scheduled for Monday evening aimed at filling vacancies like railways, highways, housing and urban development.

Taken together, the AICC and ministerial reshuffles aim to set Congress's election machinery in motion with a focus on poll preparations in states and filling of important Cabinet berths. Sources said eight new names - four each in cabinet and MoS level — could be inducted.

Oscar Fernandes, Birender Singh, Girija Vyas and Sisram Ola could be the cabinet picks while Manikrao Gavit, J D Seelam, EMS Natchiappan and Santosh Choudhury could be junior ministers. Besides, cabinet minister for labour Mallikarjuna Kharge could be shifted to the key railways ministry. Fernandes could be in the highways ministry vacated by CP Joshi who was inducted as general secretary in AICC in the Sunday reshuffle.

The Congress leadership seems intent on beaming a business-like message of a party getting down to the brass tacks while its main rival BJP remains uneasy with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's elevation as campaign head.

Congress's organizational changes have been in the works since Rahul was named vice-president and heir imminent at the Jaipur 'chintan shivir' in January.

Senior leader Ambika Soni, who left the government in October last year, has been given charge of a newly created Congress president's office. This gives her a role in Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's interface with the party as well as government.

Ahmed Patel continues to be political secretary to the Congress president with an overarching role as a key aide to Sonia.

Ajay Maken and C P Joshi, who quit the government, have been given significant assignments. Maken replaces long time media incharge Janardan Dwivedi as head of communications and Joshi is in charge of Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.

Rahul's vote of confidence in the two leaders is being read with a diminished role for Dwivedi and the exit of veteran Oscar Fernandes from AICC.

There was some speculation on Jitin Prasada being considered for independent charge. The changes may see some seniors like health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad given a new portfolio.

Elevation of younger leaders like Milind Deora to independent charge and induction of Mandsaur MP Meenakshi Natarajan is also seen as a possibility. There are numerous vacancies at the minister of state level in the wake of DMK pullout of UPA.

The fairly exhaustive organizational exercise touches management of states deeply, with Rahul seen to have got rid of some of the deadwood. Care, however, has been taken in ensuring tried and trusted organizational hands like Mukul Wasnik, B K Hariprasad and Digvijay Singh retain key jobs. Shakeel Ahmed has got the charge of Delhi and neighbouring Haryana and Punjab.

On the other hand, non-performers like Gulchain Charak and Birender Singh were shown the door. Delhi leader Jagdish Tytler is also out. Gujarat's Madhusudan Mistry has got a leg up as has Mumbai leader Gurudas Kamat who has been rehabilitated.

AICC also announced screening panels to select candidates for MP, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram, a rare urgency by party standards for polls scheduled for November.

The changes are linked to Congress's bid to appear focused ahead of election. Many attached importance to the Congress decision to effect the AICC rejig on the day BJP faced a high-voltage divorce with its old ally in Bihar, JD(U), and ouster from the state government.

To observers, it makes political sense that Rahul is seen to have complete control of the ruling dispensation while there are differences in BJP over Modi's elevation as poll mascot.

Assigning the tricky Andhra Pradesh to Digvijay Singh also bears the trust of Rahul although he has been kept away from UP.  

Indians overstaying visa in Saudi Arabia to face action: Embassy

 DUBAI: The Indian embassy in Riyadh has warned its citizens not to overstay their visa in Saudi Arabia and leave the country immediately once they have obtained Emergency Certificates to avoid penal action over Nitaqat law.
"Anyone who overstays their visa in Saudi Arabia beyond the grace period will face penal action including jail sentence, penalty and deportation with a ban on re-entry," the embassy said in a statement.
"The embassy again urges all overstaying Indian nationals to avoid such a situation by availing the 'concessions' announced by the Saudi authorities during the grace period which ends on July 3, 2013," it added.
According to the embassy, all those who have obtained ECs from the embassy will have their original passports cancelled. They will not be able to travel out of India using their old passports, even if the date of expiry on their passports shows validity.
"Anyone wanting to change their jobs (Tanazul) in Saudi Arabia could obtain new passports after following the necessary procedures," said the statement.
The embassy urged all Indian nationals who have applied for ECs to collect the same from the embassy on the dates allotted to them, on or before June 20, 2013.
Earlier, the embassy had said that its officials would undertake EC verification and distribution tours to different parts of the country in order to reach out to Indian nationals staying in other cities.
The new Saudi labour law, 'Nitaqat', and the ongoing drive to identify workers who are overstaying in the Arab Kingdom was one of the main areas of focus during the recent talks held between external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and his Saudi counterpart.
The 'Nitaqat' law makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers.
As a result of this law, a number of people who were working without valid work permits and runaways have come under the scanner.
Once the three-month grace period ends on July 3, all those expatriates who are found in Saudi Arabia without valid papers will be jailed and heavily penalized. As of May 20, 75,000 Indians have registered with the Indian embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate in Jeddah to be processed and be send back with 'emergency certificate'. There are over two million Indians in Saudi Arabia.

Samsung Galaxy S4 sales estimates cut by 30%

SEOUL: Analysts fell under Samsung's marketing spell when they made what they now admit were hopelessly optimistic forecasts for its smartphone sales.

Samsung's huge share of the high-end smartphone market also persuaded some analysts to downplay industry data pointing to a fast-saturating segment, a reality that is already eating into sales of Apple's iPhone 5.

Woori Investment & Securities, one of South Korea's largest securities firms, cut its outlook for Samsung's earnings and target share price on June 5. It was the first to adjust its view.

A massive wave of downgrades has since followed, with forecasters including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs taking a harder look at their assumptions of how well the S4, Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphone, would actually do.

Sales estimates for the S4 were slashed by as much as 30%, stirring investor concerns over Samsung's mobile devices division - the company's biggest profit generator.

Investors in the South Korean IT giant have paid dearly. Samsung lost nearly $20 billion in market value in a week as shares plunged following the downgrades.

"I'd say most forecasters including myself had this conviction that they'll outperform again - because it's Samsung," said Byun Hanjoon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities. "They had beaten expectations before, which led many to believe they are bound to excel again with the S4."

The S4 sold 10 million sets in just one month of its debut in late April, outperforming its predecessor, the S III.

Yet analysts now say the high-end smartphone segment is slowing, citing lacklustre prospects in Europe and South Korea in particular.

The S4, in reality, also lacks any real wow factor, they say.

"The Street, including Goldman Sachs, admittedly extrapolated the first-quarter earnings momentum through the year," Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Bang said in a report. "This resulted in very optimistic earnings expectations."

Most analysts have reduced their estimates for S4 shipments to around 7 million units a month from their previous average expectation of 10 million.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has lowered its S4 sales estimate for this year by 5 million to 65 million units.

Some analysts say a loss in potential sales of 5 million S4 units would cut around $1 billion of Samsung's operating profit.

"S4 sales are solid. It's just that some analysts had higher expectations and then they lowered them," JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile devices division, told reporters last week.

Over the past month, 17 out of 43 analysts have downgraded their earnings estimates for Samsung, leading to a 0.6% drop in their average forecast for the company's April-to-June earnings to 10.4 trillion won ($9 billion), according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

The lowered forecast, however, would still be a quarterly record.

Many analysts say weaker-than-expected S4 sales will not necessarily stop Samsung from posting record quarterly profits. The company has diversified into many segments of the smartphone market, Merrill Lynch says.

Mid-tier phones
Still, the scale of the downgrades has cast a shadow on Samsung's dominance in the $250 billion smartphone market.

Doing it no favour, Chinese rivals are aggressively growing their market share, aided by strong sales of mid-tier models - a segment in which Samsung has relatively weak positioning, according to analysts.

The mid-tier segment accounted for less than 15% of Samsung's total shipments last year.

Analysts say Samsung has to focus on this lower tier in the medium term.

The high-end segment is losing momentum, with manufacturers struggling to differentiate themselves and consumers calling for a leap in innovation, they say.

To be sure, Samsung has not sat idle.

It has gradually expanded its offerings. Among four varieties of the S4 introduced in recent weeks, there was one stripped-down version called the Galaxy Mini.

By comparison, Apple has had no new offerings since the iPhone 5 hit the market in September last year.

Samsung bulls are also pinning their hopes on product launches later this year including the Galaxy Note III, a phone-tablet hybrid.

Some analysts say conservative forecasts will prevail.

"Expectations for innovation have been lowered, and I don't think there'll be as much buzz surrounding new product launches as it used to be," said Byun at KB.

Samsung's stock, which slumped to a six-month low on Thursday, inched up 0.9% on Friday.

Rafael Nadal predicts top 10 ranking for Kei Nishikori

Paris:  Rafael Nadal predictably proved a clay court bridge too far for Kei Nishikori on Monday at the French Open but predicted the Japanese will be a top 10 player soon.

The Spaniard, looking to become the first man to win the same Grand Slam singles crown for an eighth time, was celebrating his 27th birthday.

And Nishikori was unable to spoil the Mallorcan's centre court party as the 23-year-old from Shimane could manage only eight games in going down to a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 defeat.

Yet Nadal still had praise for his efforts and offered some crumbs of comfort.

"He's a player with a lot of talent," said the Mallorcan.

"Now he's in the top of the ranking and he's improving; playing round of 16 here in Roland Garros is great. He had a good tournament in Madrid, too, quarterfinals.

"I think he's a candidate to be top 10 without any doubt."

Nishikori failed in his quest to become just the second Japanese man to reach the last eight after Jiro Satoh, who made the quarter-finals in 1931 and 1933.

He said afterwards he wished he had been more aggressive.

"The second set, I think I was a little bit, you know, too passive or like defensive. He was hitting more forehands. I was running side to side more than the first set," the Japanese conceded.

Nishikori, who last year became the first Japanese man to reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open in 80 years before falling to Andy Murray, became Nadal's 56th victim in 57 matches at Roland Garros as the 13th-seed proved unable to go one better than Fumiteru Nakano, who reached the last 16 on the Parisian clay in 1938.

Despite his loss, Nishikori, whose Australian exploit saw him emulate 1995 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Shuzo Matsuoka as the only Japanese man to reach the last eight at a Slam, improved greatly on two previous second round losses in Paris.

Last year he missed the event with an abdominal strain but came in this time having seen off Roger Federer in Madrid to show his burgeoning clay prowess.

BlackBerry says majority of top US firms testing its new devices

Sixty percent of US Fortune 500 companies are already testing or using the system to manage BlackBerry's new line of devices, the company said on Wednesday, as U.S. carriers began to roll out its new keyboard-equipped Q10 smartphone.The Q10, which comes with the tiny physical keyboard that many BlackBerry fans admire, is the second device powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The touchscreen Z10 launched earlier this year.
The U.S. market is crucial for Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry as it seeks to win back market share ceded to Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and other devices powered by Google's Android operating system.
"This is a very exciting day for us, launching with all four major U.S. carriers," BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear said in an interview.
Tear said BlackBerry, which has long had a strong base of corporate and government users, expected the Q10 to allow it to win back customers who have been using other devices.
He believed demand for the smartphones would be helped by the fact that a majority of top U.S. companies were testing or installing the BlackBerry Enterprise Service system that would allow them to manage the new devices on their internal networks.
"Since everybody is migrating toward this, we expect it will definitely create pull for our (smartphone) products," he said.
"There are a lot of very loyal BlackBerry keyboard users out there who have been waiting for this and I think, with the Q10, we will also be able to win back prior BlackBerry customers, who are now trying other platforms."
The Q10 launched in Canada, Britain and a few other countries two months ago. The U.S. launch was delayed due to a longer carrier-testing process.
The device is already on sale through T-Mobile in the United States, while rivals Verizon and AT&T have begun to accept pre-orders for shipping later this month. Sprint plans to begin selling the devices this summer.

Top 10 changes that Microsoft Windows 8.1 will bring

After several rumours hinting at the new features that Microsoft's Windows 8.1 would bring, the Redmond giant has officially announced some of them through a new blog post taking a "first look."According to Microsoft, Windows 8.1 will not just respond to customer feedback, will add new features and functionality to improve the touch experience and the operating system's mobile computing potential.
"The Windows 8.1 update will deliver improvements and enhancements in key areas like personalization, search, the built-in apps, Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity," the company said.
1. New Start tip
The biggest change that the update brings is the Windows Logo at the left hand corner in place of the Start screen "tip" that comes up when one hovers the mouse pointer in Windows 8. The Windows Logo is more recognisable according to Microsoft. It also gives the ability to users to choose between booting to the desktop directly. At the moment, only the Start screen shows up when one boots the PC.
2. Desktop wallpapers for Start screen
Microsoft will now allow users to turn their PCs or tablets into a photo frame when it's locked. Users can choose to show a slideshow of pictures stored locally in their devices or in the cloud via SkyDrive. It will also add the ability to take pictures from the lock screen via the device's camera directly from the lock screen.
In addition to this, the update will bring more colours and backgrounds including animated ones for the Windows Start screen and will even allow users to set their desktop background as their Start screen background. As reported previously, the Windows 8.1 Start screen would features new tile sizes including a new large and new small size.
3. Updated Search
According to Microsoft, Windows 8.1's Search charm will offer global search results powered by Bing in "a rich, simple-to-read, aggregated view of many content sources to provide the best "answer" for the user's query." Search will also offer "Quick actions" that include actions users would like to take, for example, play songs or videos. Results from local files, apps, and settings would be accessible in the same was as they are on Windows 8.
4. App Updates
Microsoft will be updating native apps to offer new functionality. The company mentions that the Pictures app will offer the ability to edit pictures and the Music app has been completely redesigned to offer a better experience and adds that it will also be introducing new apps shortly.
5. New multitasking experience
Following the Windows 8.1 update, users will be able to snap apps in variable sizes, as reported earlier. It will allow users to run three apps simultaneously on one screen and run different Modern UI/ Metro apps on different displays if connected, while keeping the Start screen on one display. Users will also be able to snap multiple windows of the same application.
6. Updated Store
Microsoft is also revamping the Windows Store to show more information with detailed lists of top free apps, new releases, and picks on the homepage.
7. SkyDrive improvements
Windows 8.1 will allow users to save files directly to SkyDrive and will offer an updated SkyDrive app that allows offline access to files.
8. Better PC Settings menu
Another issue that a lot of users faced with Windows 8 was that a lot of system settings were not available in the PC settings and they had to still go to the Control Panel on the desktop to access them.
Users will now be able to change their display resolution, set power options, see the make and model of their PC, change the product key, run Windows Update, and even join a domain directly from PC Settings.
9. New Internet Explorer
The Windows 8.1 update will bring a new version of the Internet Explorer browser. Internet Explorer 11 would be built for touch and would offer faster page load times in addition to several other new personalisation features.
10. Better handling of tiles
Users will be able to group and rearrange tiles more conveniently. They'll now be able to select multiple apps all at once, resize them, uninstall them, or rearrange them on the Start screen. Windows 8.1 will require users to press and hold or right click to move tiles around to prevent accidental movement of tiles. The update also brings the ability to filter apps by name, date installed, most used, or by category. 

Gael Monfils beats Ernests Gulbis at French Open

Paris:  Gael Monfils advanced to the third round of the French Open by defeating Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 Wednesday.

A former top 10 player, Monfils missed the French Open last year because of a right knee injury. His best showing at Roland Garros was a semifinal finish in 2008.

Monfils warmed up for the tournament by reaching the final of the Open de Nice last Saturday.

The last Frenchman to win at Roland Garros was Yannick Noah in 1983.