New Delhi, Bangalore, Nov 11 Along with a bouquet of flowers, the global CEO of Yahoo! Inc, Ms Carol Bartz, offered the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, whom she met on this morning, help with the Unique Identification (UID) programme being put in place in the country when she met him on Wednesday morning. “The UID project involves a huge database. We, at Yahoo, have expertise in handling such huge amount of data. We met the Prime Minister today and discussed, among other things, how Yahoo can help the Government in the project,” Ms Bartz said here at an editorial round table with the media. However, Yahoo also said that it was not looking at the UID project for any commercial interest but to pay back to the nation where it has had a presence for so many years.

On her first visit to India as Yahoo chief — a post she took over in the beginning of the year and one that brings with it industry expectations of a turnaround for the company — Ms Bartz also met Mr Nandan Nilekani, who heads the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), today. The UID project, which will provide a Unique Identification Number to the country’s over one billion citizens, is being looked at with great interest by several other multinational IT and Internet players as well. On Wednesday, networking solutions company Cisco Systems was another player to evince interest in the project. The company said it was in discussions for a possible role in the project.

“We are in talks with Mr Nilekani on how to help and the kind of role Cisco can play,” Ms Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco Systems Inc, said on the sidelines of the BangaloreIT.biz conference. When contacted, the UIDAI Chairperson, Mr Nilekani, told Business Line that the discussions with Yahoo revolved around the general Internet economy and the project. “Yahoo and other Internet companies such as Amazon and Google have built massive Internet applications that have millions of users…That experience is relevant to us. When one looks at a project the scale of UID, it is good to share such experiences.”

preliminary stage But Mr Nilekani pointed out such meetings are still at a preliminary stage. “We need everyone… every technology company… and need to look at their offerings. UID project is large and complex, and we have to have an open mind so that we can choose the best possible solutions,” he said. Earlier this year, the Microsoft Co-founder, Mr Bill Gates, had stated that his company is interested to partner India in the project. He had also met Mr Nilekani during his visit to the country in July. Indian IT companies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro too are hoping that the project would galvanise the domestic software market, which has historically trailed IT exports. This is because the project will require a full technology backbone, massive computing power, database, storage, and biometrics.

Meanwhile, the UIDAI has started working on a draft legislation which will arm it with statutory powers to hand-out a unique identification number to every Indian resident. It has also started dialogues with various state governments on the project strategy. Mr Nilekani has met Government representatives in nearly 10 States and expects to cover all the States by January 2010. The UIDAI will start issuing the identification numbers in 12-18 months, and expects to cover at least 600 million residents within five and half years. The Authority has made it clear that the identification number will be a proof of identity linked to demographic and biometric information but not confer citizenship.

MUMBAI: Having begun the series with a genuine chance of becoming the top ODI team in the world, India slipped back to third position after going down 2-4 to world champion Australia in the seven-match home series that concluded on Wednesday.

In contrast, Australia reaffirmed its number one status after dominant 10 weeks of One-day cricket even though the seventh and final ODI against India was washed out. India went into the seven-match series as world number two and needed to win the series to topple Australia from the top slot but Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men could not capitalise on the injury-ravaged Australia's thin resource and lost the series.

For Australia, it caps off a superb 10 weeks or so of ODI cricket, having beaten England 6-1 at their own backyard, followed by a victorious performance at the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa and now an impressive series victory over Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team.

As recently as September 20, the Aussies were ranked third behind India and the Proteas but now there are eight ratings points separating them from Graeme Smith's team. However, with a ODI series coming up against England and with Australia concentrating on Test cricket until the third week in January, there is the opportunity for South Africa to close that gap. Elsewhere, Zimbabwe has lost one ratings point following its 0-2 series defeat to South Africa and now sits just a single point above Ireland in the 10th position.

NEW DELHI: Air India on Wednesday decided to drastically cut the salaries of its top management — functional and executive directors. The performance-linked incentive (PLI) component of their pay, which accounts for 60% to 80% of the total package, has been completely scrapped for those on board on deputation from the government. The 36 AI-IA directors used to get anywhere between Rs 55,000 and Rs 5.2 lakh as PLI every month.

Airline employees who have made it to the board after years of service will face a huge cut in PLI as this has now been brought within department of public enterprise guidelines under which PLI can't be more than half of the salary. For instance, the ED (operations) has a basic salary of Rs 73,240 with a monthly PLI of Rs 521,425. Similarly, ED (engineering) has a salary of Rs 76,169 and a monthly PLI of Rs 162,529. Now following Wednesday's board decision — taken amid stiff opposition from directors, PLIs can't be more than half the salary which would mean a knock of almost Rs 4.9 lakh and Rs 1.2 lakh per month for the EDs operation and engineering. The non-technical board members used to get a PLI of under a lakh which would also get slashed.

"Government nominees on board who are ex-officio there don't get any PLI. IAS and IPS officers sent on deputation there like director (vigilance) will henceforth not get any PLI at all. If the CMD happens to be an IAS or IPS posted there, he or she will also not get any PLI," said a top board member. This move has left directors fuming. "We'll now get less than many of our juniors. Our take-home was under a lakh after deductions and now it will be almost half that amount. The airline could not touch pilots' PLIs as they can ground the airline with a strike," said an angry board member. Another board member said: "The airline's morale has never been lower. People right from top to bottom now wonder if this is being done deliberately to cover up for ministry's mistakes like merger and huge aircraft orders for which we are being made scapegoats," the member said.

Importantly, the move has come just a day before Pranab Mukherjee-headed Group of Ministers (GoM) meets to decide on the issue of funding AI. The ministry is seeking Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 9,000 crore as equity infusion and aircraft purchase assistance from the government over next three years. But the GoM told AI clearly that it had to make progress on wage cut front to get any money.

NEW YORK: The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index made new yearly highs on Wednesday after data showed China industrial output surged and Federal Reserve officials hinted money would remain cheap well into 2010. But stocks were off their morning highs as the U.S. dollar reversed course and rose against a basket of currencies after hitting a 15-month low. The turnaround weighed on dollar-denominated commodities and natural resource stocks that had been among top gainers.

Chinese factory output rose to a 19-month high in October, sparking a wave of buying in commodities as investors bet the data was a herald of growing demand in the world's third-largest economy. Shares in Nucor Corp, a big U.S. steel producer, rose 2.7 percent to $41.84, while the Dow Jones iron and steel index rose 2.4 percent. Comments from top Fed officials that the U.S. recovery would be bumpy underscored the view that interest rates will stay low and economic stimulus will remain intact, a boon for the stock market in the short-term.

"In addition to the economic data showing that things are getting better you also have seemingly all the policy makers in the world on a coordinated basis trying to keep this recovery going," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. The S&P 500 has risen for seven of the last eight days at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate has jumped to more than 10 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 29.93 points, or 0.29 percent, to 10,276.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.00 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,097.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 10.98 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,162.06. The outlook from the corporate front gave a mixed picture of the economy.

United Parcel Service Inc, the world's largest package delivery service, gained 1.6 percent to $57.75 after its chief executive forecast volume to grow next year as the global economy gradually recovers. But shares in Macy's Inc, the department store operator, tumbled 8.6 percent to $17.77 after the company reported third-quarter results that were stronger-than-expected but gave a gloomy outlook on same-store sales for the fourth quarter. Homebuilders were up sharply as Toll Brothers Inc gained 14.7 percent to $21.10, following the company's release of preliminary results on Tuesday. The Dow Jones homebuilders index rose 6 percent. Volume and trading are expected to be light throughout the day because of the Veterans Day holiday. The US bond market and government offices are closed, while other markets will trade normally.