French Open 2016: Djokovic Defeated Murray, Won First French Open Title

Paris: Novak Djokovic breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday as he won his first 2016 French Open Title beating Britain’s Andy Murray in a tough competition. Murray is holding the World Number Two ranking. The 29-year-old Serbian player won 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-4 to win his 12th major title. Reports are that with this Djokovic became the first male tennis player to achieve all four Grand Slams at once since Rod Laver achieved the same in 1969.

With a series of records made on yesterday’s match, Djokovic was found to be the eighth man who has won all four of the sport’s major singles prizes. Murray also had created a history in the final match of Grand Slam yesterday as he was Britain’s first male finalist in Paris since 1937, sources said.

“It’s a very special moment, the biggest of my career. I felt today something that I never felt before at Roland Garros, I felt the love of the crowd,” said Djokovic which was followed by handing over the La Coupe des Mousquetaires Trophy to the Serbian player with a broadly smiling face.

EXIN Times reports asserted that Murray looked upset with the defeat but the match saw an aggressive performance of him in the opening set. His final comments, however, did not lock his disappointment over the defeat. Murray said: “To Novak, this is his day. What he’s achieved the last 12 months is phenomenal; winning all the Grand Slams in one year is an amazing achievement. It’s so rare in tennis, and for me personally, it sucks to lose the match, but I'm proud to have been part of today.”

Artificial Intelligence Era Started, Tech Moguls Declared

California: Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on a meeting of tech leaders last week at Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif has asserted that humans need to implant ‘neural laces’ in their brains to compete with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Addressing the conference, Musk also has asserted that AI will make the computers ‘sophisticated and godlike’ while mankind will struggle to keep up.

California, in this context, heard some science-fiction like description from Musk, though not for the first time from the business magnet. Musk described his plans, of an ‘injectable human-computer link’ during discussion at a conference while publishing his online magazine Recode. While the insistence on implanting AI continued by Musk, several other tech moguls’ replied that AI is very likely to affect the daily chores of humankind.

According to a report by Bank Of America,  it is now no secret tech companies now are ‘diving’ into AI analytics research to grow $70 billion by 2020 from that of $8.2 billion in 2013. The report asserted: “AI, which combs through large troves of raw data to predict outcomes and recognize patterns, is already used in web search systems, marketing recommendation functions and security and financial trading programs. The technology will spread to driverless cars and service robots in the future.”

However, tech magnets like Google, Microsoft Inc. and Apple Inc. sees artificial intelligence as a great opportunity. Notably, Google started applying the AI technology first through ‘deep neural networks’ and introduced voice recognition software some four years ago and is ahead of industry rivals.

“It’s really early but I think we’re on the edge of a golden era. It’s going to be so exciting to see what happens,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asserted. “It’s really early but I think we’re on the edge of a golden era. It’s going to be so exciting to see what happens,” he said. “Amazon has been working on artificial intelligence for at least four years and now has 1,000 employees working on Alexa, the company's voice-based smart assistant software system,” he added.

French Open 2016 - Lopez and Lopez Win Men’s Doubles Title

Paris: Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez became the first Spanish tennis pair to win at the French Open in 26 years after beating American Bob and Mike Bryan.

The 15th seeded Lopez duo on Saturday beat the Bryan twins 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3, denying the fifth seeds’ 17th major trophy, as per EXIN Times.

They’ve become the first Spanish pair to win at Roland Garros in 26 years. The Bryans were fifth seeded at the tournament. Top seeded duo France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut were eliminated in the third round by Lopez duo.

With another Spaniard Garbine Muguruza upsetting defending champion Serena Williams to lift her maiden Grand Slam title on the same court earlier in the afternoon, the day was stubbed ‘Spain Special'.

Feliciano and Marc, who’re not related to each other, broke their opponents in the first game before wrapping up the first set.

The Bryans, seeking a third title of the clay-court major following victories in 2003 and 2013, forced a tiebreaker in the second set before Feliciano sealed the win with an ace.

In contrary of the Bryan brothers, the most successful pairing of all time, the Spanish duo just teamed up with Olympics in mind since the Australian Open in January.

“You can’t imagine what it means to win a Grand Slam for the first time, against the best players in the sport,” Feliciano Lopez said. “Winning a Grand Slam is something amazing, and I didn’t have a Grand Slam victory on my resume,” said Marc.

10-Year-Old Raped, Killed In Birbhum Village

Birbhum:  A 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered at a village in Birbhum’s Tarapith area.

The girl’s body was found in pool of blood yesterday morning near her house, the police said. Her family members claimed the girl was picked up by the alleged accused in the darkness while she was sleeping in a small room of their thatched house along with her brother and grandmother. Her parents were in an adjacent room, the police said.

The victim’s grandmother told the police that at around 11 PM yesterday she found her granddaughter was missing and raised an alarm. At dawn, the body was found in a field near a thatched shade used to cover submersible pump.

The family members, along with villagers, began to look for the girl. Around 3 AM, her semi-nude body was found at a distance of nearly 1 km from her residence, inside a hut in a farmland. According to eyewitnesses, while the lower part of the body was covered with a sack, the girl had been gagged with hay.

The incident sparked tension in the area with villagers resisting the attempts by the police to take away the body. They demanded a CBI probe as well as the immediate arrest of the culprits.

The father of the victim, a daily wage earner, went on to lodge a complaint against unknown persons. “A few people have been detained for questioning. The postmortem examination report will shed light on the cause of death,” a district police officer said.

Kamal Bairagya, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Rampurhat said, “The body of a minor girl has been found. We have got some significant clues and sniffer dogs have been pressed into the investigation. The exact cause of death will be confirmed only after post-mortem.”

Tom Alter Quits As Head Of FTII Acting Department

Pune: Following serious disagreement with students, veteran actor Tom Alter resigned as head of the acting department at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The FTII administration, while confirming the resignation of Alter, said, “It is yet to be accepted.”

According to Brijendra Pal Singh, chairman of the FTII academic council, the students had refused to attend Alter’s classes as he had sought 100 percent attendance. The FTII students, however, accused Alter of having “dictatorial ways” and said that he was failing as an administrator, as a result of which they had to suffer.

Sources said that on May 23, students misbehaved with Alter and they had a scuffle with him at the director’s office. At that point, the actor threatened to resign. In his resignation letter sent through an email, Alter has maintained that due to other commitments, he was “unable to find time for academic activities”.

FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola, while confirming the resignation, said, “The institute is trying to persuade him to withdraw the resignation.” Alter had joined the institute in November 2014, and he voluntarily decided to not take any honorarium. He was teaching students without accepting any salary.

Alter’s resignation is the latest standpoint between the students and FTII management as the institute is again on a simmer after the academic council proposed to bring in a new syllabus, shifting to a choice-based credit system and extra measures to maintain discipline on the campus.

The council has proposed that hostel facility will be allowed to be used only for the duration of the course while the proctor is to be appointed on the campus to bring in order among students.

At an academic council meeting held on Wednesday, students opposed all the proposals put forth by council members. Irked by the constant opposition by students, Brijendra Pal Singh reportedly expressed his disappointment, saying he had never come across students who “wanted to oppose everything”.

Another IIT Aspirant Commits Suicide In Kota, Ninth Case This Year

Kota: An engineering student of a coaching institute in Kota committed suicide on Monday night. The student committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his rented room in Mahaveer Nagar area, the ninth such incident in the coaching hub in 2016.

The body was sent to a hospital for postmortem on Tuesday morning, police said, adding no suicide note was found in the room. A probe has been launched in the matter to ascertain why he took the extreme step.

Another student had in April ended her life despite having cracked the IIT-JEE mains. The girl had in a suicide note said she was not able to put up with the depression and stress that she had been experiencing while taking coaching and that the government should down coaching institutes.

In the wake of increasing cases of suicides by students, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh had recently said a body formed to regulate coaching institutes. “The body should also decide the admission procedure to these institutes and direct them to reduce the pressure on students,” he had said.

The small desert town of Kota, nearly 250 km from Jaipur, accommodates a range of coaching institutes to prep students for the IIT and medical entrance exams. Nearly 11 lakh students sit for the IIT entrance every year. Of these, two lakh qualify the mains and only 10,000 are eventually accepted by the IITs.
After another student ended her life despite having cracked the IIT-JEE mains last month, a senior administration official, Collector Ravi Kumar Surpur, had sent a letter to the parents of the 1.5 lakh students enrolled for coaching in Kota, urging them “not to force their expectations and dreams on their children”. Seventeen students taking coaching committed suicide in Kota last year, after which guidelines to coaching institutes to check such deaths were initiated.

Indians, Mexicans & Americans Among The World’s Happiest Workers

More than seven in 10 of employees don’t mind the daily grind and are actually pretty happy at work, according to the results of an annual survey.

The findings come from the latest well-being work barometer, carried out by Edenred-Ipsos, which questioned 14,400 employees in 15 countries around the world and found that 71 percent of people reported feeling positive about their work.

As you might expect, well-being at work came down to a mix of factors, including the working environment, how much people feel appreciated and how they feel about the work they do.

However, while the report found a high level of well-being overall, there were differences between countries.

Indian employees came out top of the pile, with 88 percent of workers reportedly feeling positive about their work. While Japan fared far worse, with just 44 percent of employees surveyed responding positively about their jobs.  

The UK and China were on equal footing, with an average of 71 percent of workers scoring positively for workplace well-being, with the US nudging higher with 77 percent.

According to the team behind the annual survey, 10 items related to well-being at work were identified, broken down into three ‘pillars’ of ‘environment’, ‘appreciation’ and ‘emotion’.

They found that across all countries, environmental factors scored highest, including knowing what was required of them at work.

But employees across the world are falling short when it comes to appreciating their workers, as are ‘emotion’-related scores – such as how much someone enjoys going to work in the morning and how interested they are in their job. 

Trends emerged across countries in terms of what was most important to them. Well-being was most related to environment for Japan, Turkey, China, Italy and Poland.

In India, Mexico, Brazil and Chile, emotional factors such as enjoying coming to work and being stimulated by the job were most important.

While for Spain, the UK and the US, the three categories were more equal, with less emotional factors having an impact on well-being compared to employees in other nations. 

‘In professional environments undergoing profound changes, employees play a central role. Active consideration for their well-being at work is a priority,’ said the Ipsos Group’s Antoine Solom.

‘In a sometimes difficult economic context, employee engagement is central to the sustainable performance of organizations,’ added Jeanne Renard of Edenred. 

The list ranked India at first with 88 percent of workers reportedly feeling positive about their work. India was followed by Mexico (81 percent), USA (77 percent), Chile (77 percent), Brazil (77 percent), Germany (74 percent), UK (71 percent), China (71 percent), Poland (70 percent), Belgium (70 percent), Spain (68 percent), France (67 percent), Turkey (65 percent), Italy (63 percent) and Japan (44 percent). The percentage of positive workers in India is double than that of Japan.