New Delhi: A day after the CBI practically implicated Dayanidhi Maran in the 2G spectrum scam, the Textile Minister and former telecom minister on Thursday quit the Union Cabinet. Neither being a media baron nor being Karunanidhi's grand nephew could help Maran save his Cabinet post. The moment the CBI told the Supreme Court that it is probing the 2G case against Maran, it was clear that he had to resign, but the question was 'when'. 

The answer came at the cabinet meet on Thursday morning. Sources said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed to him that his position was untenable. Soon after the meet, Maran, who was defiant till then, went back to the PMO to hand over his resignation.
Dfending Maran, Karunanidhi said, "The Media has been ruling in India and if it wants it can defame anyone, Dayanidhi Maran is no exception".

Karunandhi also denied reports that he gave the go-ahead to Maran to resign after speaking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday night.

"No body from the UPA or the Congress has contacted me. I did not speak to
Sonia Gandhi last night," said Karunanidhi.

Despite the blow to the DMK, the Congress said ties with their Tamil Nadu allies remain strong. "The DMK has been the alliance partner of the UPA since 2004 both at the Centre and in the state and the situation stays as such," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewary.

Sources say that the Congress had communicated the decision to the DMK on Wednesday. Weakened by the election defeat the DMK was in no position to back its minister.

Adding to it was internal rivalry. Maran who is Karunanidhi's grand nephew has been seen as arch rival of DMK chief's daughter Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and sections within the party have been gunning for him. But the biggest winner is perhaps Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. "This is something long overdue. The Prime Minister should have made him to resign long ago," Jayalalithaa said.

"The PM has to take a call. He inducted a person despite conflict of interest. This grievance has been made, he should have known better," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Jayalalithaa has already been cracking down on those connected to Maran family's Sun Network and the company stocks took a huge beating after news of Dyayanindhi's resignation.

Resigning from the Cabinet may just be the beginning of troubles for Dyaynidhi Maran. He is most likely to be questioned by the CBI in the case, and
how it proceeds further could determine his political future.

Documents revealing UFO sightings have been made public on an FBI official
database
The previously classified records, which contain information of extraterrestrial encounters dating back 60 years, show eye-witness accounts of flying saucers and alien life forms.

In one document, a special agent in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office sent a letter to the FBI's director on 22 March 1950, claiming that an Air Force investigator recovered a spacecraft in a field near to Roswell, New
Mexico.

It reads: "Three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter."

The report, which is registered on the FBI's online Vault library, then goes on to describe the 3ft human-like bodies of the aliens among the remains of the UFO landing.

According to the document, each foreign body was dressed in a fine metallic cloth and bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.

The information comes after the Ministry of Defence released thousands of pages of UFO material at the National Archives last month.

Speaking with Yahoo! UK News today, Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for the British Ministry of Defence commented on the reports, saying: "These documents are extremely interesting, but it's going to be very difficult to discover the truth after so many years. There are many questions for the FBI and the United States Air Force, but the problem is that nobody now working for these organisations will have been employed at the time of the incidents described."

"Even if we don't solve the mystery of UFOs and the Roswell crash, these papers show that the American government took a strong interest in the paranormal. Maybe 'The X-Files' is closer to the truth than people think."

David Hardy, an official from the FBI's Records Management Division said the declassification of secret files reflects a strong commitment to build public trust and confidence through greater public access to FBI records.

He said: "The new website significantly increases the number of available FBI files, enhances the speed at which the files can be accessed, and contains a robust search capability."

In general Low Cost Business Intelligence (BI) gets associated with two terms
Open Source BI and Small Medium Enterprise (SME).


Not just SME companies look for Low Cost BI Solution, even large Enterprises
look at low cost BI solution for certain business functions. Also not always low
cost BI solution need to be built using Open Source BI, there are other
alternatives that can be evaluated.


The cost of a BI solution gets impacted by multiple parameters like cost of
software, cost of hardware, cost to implement, time to implement, cost to
maintain and other factors. Let us look at one of the key parameter, the cost of
the software that delivers a BI solution. Some of the low cost BI software
options include


Free BI
MicroStrategy Reporting Suite is free with 1 CPU limit, up to 100
named user, no limit on usage days.…can be tried for
freehttp://www.microstrategy.com/freereportingsoftware/
The popular tools
SSRS and SSAS that helps setup the base for BI come along with Microsoft SQL
Server Enterprise
Editionhttp://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/business-intelligence.aspx


SAAS (Software As A Service) BI, is a good option to look for at a lower
capital cost with a monthly or per user pricing model. Some of the SAAS BI tools
are
BIRST  http://www.birst.com/products/tech-overview.shtml
GoodData
http://www.gooddata.com/technology/platform/
BirtOnDemand
https://www.birtondemand.com/bod/home/
is another recent SAAS BI from Actuate, supports Mobile BI as well


Low Cost Editions, BI software with limited features are available. Some of
these which can be implemented in an ‘on premise’ model are
IBM Cognos
Express  http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/products/cognos-express/
SAP
Business Objects Edge BI  http://www1.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/sme/edgeseries/edge-bi/index.epx

Bill Gates     

William Henry Gates III (1955-), along with Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft
Corporation, the world’s largest software maker. Bill Gates, the wealthiest
person in the world with an estimated net worth of $480 crores (Rs 211,200
crore!), is probably the best-known college dropout.


Gates attended an exclusive prep school in Seattle, went on to study at
Harvard University, then dropped out to pursue software development. As students
in the mid-70s, he and Paul Allen wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter
for the Altair 8800, the first commercially successful PC.


In 1975, Micro-Soft – later Microsoft Corporation – was born. Three decades
on, Gates has been Number One on the Forbes 400 for over a dozen years. And
here’s something you probably didn’t know: The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation currently provides 90 per cent of the world budget for the attempted
eradication of polio.

Larry Ellison  

Lawrence Joseph Ellison (1944-) , co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation,
founded his company in 1977 with a sum of $2,000. Once a school dropout, he is
now, according to Forbes, one of the richest people in America with a net worth
of around $184 crores. The figure also makes him the ninth richest in the
world.


As a young man, Ellison worked for the Ampex Corporation, where one of his
projects was a database for the CIA. He called it Oracle, a name he was to reuse
years later for the company that made him famous. Interestingly, the
organisation’s initial release was Oracle 2. The number supposedly implied that
all bugs had been eliminated from an earlier version.


Ellison is quite a colourful man, and has long dabbled in all kinds of
things. Want to learn more? Try his biography, The Difference Between God and
Larry Ellison.

Dhirubhai Ambani  

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (1932-2002) was born into the family of a
schoolteacher. It was a family of modest means. When he turned 16, Dhirubhai
moved to Aden, working first as a gas-station attendant, then as a clerk in an
oil company.


He returned to India at 26, starting a business with a meagre capital of
$375. By the time of his demise, his company – Reliance Industries Ltd – had
grown to become an empire, with an estimated annual turnover of $120 crores!


Dhirubhai was, in his lifetime, conferred the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th
Century Award by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A
Times of India poll in the year 2000 also voted him one of the biggest creators
of wealth in this century.


Dhirubhai’s is not just the usual rags-to-riches story. He will be remembered
as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global
corporate group. He is also credited with having single-handedly breathed life
into the Indian stock markets and bringing in thousands of investors to the
bourses.



Steve Jobs  

Steven Paul Jobs (1955-) and Apple Computer are names that have long gone
together.


Born in the United States to an unknown Egyptian-Arab father, Jobs was
adopted soon after birth. After graduating high school, he enrolled in Reed
College, dropping out after one semester.


In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year old Steve Wozniak founded Apple
Computer Co. in the family garage. Jobs revolutionised the industry by
popularising the concept of home computers.



By 1984, the Macintosh was introduced. He had an influential role in the
building of the World-Wide Web, and also happens to be Chairman and CEO of Pixar
Animation Studios.


Today, with the iPod, Apple is bigger than ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked
for several years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a listing in the
Guinness Book as `Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer.’ He was once gifted a $9
crores jet by the company though. And his net worth? Moer than $3 billion.

Michael Dell    

Michael Saul Dell (1965- ) joined the University of Texas at Austin with the
intention of becoming a physician. While studying there, he started a computer
company in his dormitory, calling it PC’s Limited. By the time he turned 19, it
had notched up enough success to prompt Dell to dropout.


In 1987, PC’s Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003,
Dell, Inc. was the world’s most profitable PC manufacturer.


Dell has won more than his fair share of accolades, including Man of the Year
from PC Magazine and EM>CEO of the Year from Financial World . Forbes, in
2005, lists him as the 18th richest in the world with a net worth of around
$1600 Crores. Not bad for just another dropout.

Subhash Chandra Goel    

Here’s something not many people know about Subhash Chandra Goel : The Zee
chairman dropped out after standard 12.Subhash Chandra started his own vegetable
oils unit at 19. It was, in a manner of speaking, his first job. Years later, a
casual visit to a friend at Doordarshan gave him the idea of starting his own
broadcasting company. We all know how that story ran.


Chandra knew nothing about programming, distribution or film rights. What he
did understand quite well was the Indian sensibility though. Funded by UK
businessmen, Zee came into being as India’s first satellite TV network.


Today, it reaches 320 lakhs homes, connecting with 20 crores people in South
Asia alone. The network also covers Asians in America, the Middle East, Europe,
Australia and Africa, making this dropout a very rich one.