Video: Obama's 'Dinner Date' With the GOP

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51074733/

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Nexus 7 dock finally in the Google Play Store

If you're looking to get your hands on the elusive official dock for the Nexus 7, it's now finally listed in Google Play for $29.99. Google has thus far set a limit of two per person.

The dock, which charges the tablet via the pogo pins as well as serves as an audio output via a 3.5mm jack, runs $29.99. You can read our complete review of it here.

Google's currently listing it with a 1- to 2-week shipping time, which generally means there's a better than average chance you'll actually get it sooner than that. (We're currently seeing an anticipated shipping date of March 17, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, being a Sunday and all.)

Thanks, Bill!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/llvBWF0vlmo/story01.htm

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Russian Church official attacks Stalin but says Soviet history is not ...

Published time: March 04, 2013 15:20

A top Russian Orthodox cleric has praised the Russian people for disrupting Stalin?s plan to change the historical course of Russia, but at the same time called for not all Soviet history to be painted black.

?I doubt that Stalin wanted Russia to return to its roots, he sincerely lived by the ideals of the World Revolution. But the logic of history, the conscience of the people forced him to start Russia?s return to its roots,?? said the head of the Holy Synod?s Department for Church and Society Relations, Vsevolod Chaplin at a discussion dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Stalin?s death.

The panel was held at the discussion club of the World?s Russian People?s Assembly ? the international NGO that specializes in development of the Russian political thought.

The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged role in the Russian Empire, but after 1917 revolution the Bolshevik government declared a secular state and seized all of the church?s assets, including land and church buildings. The move caused opposition in the clergy leading to repression that ended only after the Soviet Union's entry into World War II as the state needed religion to boost people?s morale.

Vsevolod Chaplin told the discussion club that it was the Russian Orthodox Church that appeared to be stronger than Stalin.

?The martyr?s feat and the resurrection of the Church and everything that has happened after it showed that our people, its spirit, the logic of its history and its way are stronger than the strongest force and more powerful than the most powerful leader,? Chaplin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

At the same time Chaplin said the Soviet period of Russian history was not uniform and therefore could be assessed very differently.

Chaplin said during the discussion that the harmful theories and philosophy were all imported from abroad, including the theory of the World Revolution while during the Great Patriotic war the people started to return to the deep rooted home values, including the Christian faith.

The church official emphasized that Soviet authorities under Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin committed a lot of crimes against innocent people, including the repressions against the clergy and the Church itself. ?These crimes must get a duly assessment from our people and we must do everything to prevent these crimes from happening again,? Chaplin said.

The attitude towards Stalin is a topic of heated discussion in Russia.

For years activists posted Stalin?s image on buses during Victory Day celebrations and local legislature in the central Russian city of Volgograd renamed the city Stalingrad on major holidays. This move, however got no support at the federal level.

At the same time, a number of NGOs and public movements still demand public condemnation of the Soviet dictator due to his purges and repressions.

An opinion poll conducted in October 2012 has shown that Stalin?s popularity has grown from the final days of the Soviet Union. 42 percent of those polled called Stalin a person with greatest influence on the history of mankind compared to just 12 percent in 1989. 22 percent of Russians said that Stalin?s role in history was purely negative against 60 percent holding the same opinion in 1989.

Source: http://rt.com/politics/russian-church-official-blasts-stalin-and-bolsheviks-but-notes-positive-moments-in-soviet-history-775/

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Sony aims for third place in global smartphone popularity contest

Taking bullish approach to the competitive world of smartphones, Sony's head of mobile told reporters earlier today that the company wants to claim third place. Yep, not first or second (Apple or Samsung, depending on your metric of choice) but the other guy -- enough to make it on the podium. IDC recently ranked Sony in fourth place for the last quarter, claiming 4.5 percent of the mobile market, ahead of ZTE but behind Huawei and those aforementioned smartphone sovereigns. Kunimasa Suzuki added that the company's plan might involve humbler models pitched at developing nations. Hopefully those cheaper Xperia devices will arrive soon, as Sony's running out of letters. And heck, there's nothing wrong with third place.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

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Source: Reuters

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1q2uISQppFM/

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Analysis: Optimistic India budget jars with revenue reality

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Staking his credibility on meeting a deficit-cutting target, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is likely to be forced to scale back spending in the upcoming fiscal year after delivering a federal budget that makes aggressive revenue assumptions.

Cutting expenditure would pit Chidambaram against the ruling Congress party's urge to ramp up populist spending ahead of elections due in 2014, and risks exacerbating a dramatic slowdown in Asia's third-largest economy.

Instead of slashing spending, as had been expected, Thursday's budget for the financial year starting next month bets on an increase in revenue to fund a 16 percent rise in expenditure and trim the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of GDP.

For that to happen, India's sputtering economy must accelerate to roughly 6.5 to 7 percent growth from the current fiscal year's expected 5 percent -- a decade-low and a disappointment for a country that not long ago aspired to double-digit expansion.

The budget also assumes that India will manage to sell about $10 billion worth of government stakes in companies and generate $7.5 billion in revenue from the battered telecoms sector.

It also envisions capping subsidies at 2 percent of GDP, from 2.6 percent this year, a limit that rating agency Standard & Poor's warned could be breached.

Keeping a lid on spending, however, is where Chidambaram may be able to deliver.

Against the populist leanings of his party, Chidambaram has managed to curb expenditure in the final months of the current year, putting India's fiscal deficit on track to fall to 5.2 percent, better than its revised 5.3 percent target.

However, austerity comes at a price. The December quarter's stunningly weak growth of 4.5 percent underscores the risk of cutting back on government spending, and some economists expect growth to lag 5 percent for another quarter or more.

"Chidambaram has kept some room to cut spending by having a bigger allocation to plan expenditure," said Barclays economist Siddhartha Sanyal.

So-called plan expenditure refers mostly to capital spending that can have a multiplier effect, which is needed to help grow the economy but is politically easier to delay than subsidies.

"So, if he falls short in revenues, he can cut some of the plan expenditure, but that will again hurt growth," Sanyal said.

SAVE NOW, SPEND LATER?

One way Chidambaram could reach his deficit target even if revenue falls short is to hold back on spending in the first half of the fiscal year before ramping up outlays in the run-up to federal elections due by May 2014.

In the current year, Chidambaram slashed plan expenditure by nearly 18 percent to 4.3 trillion rupees ($78.3 billion) and raised non-plan expenditure, which is consumption-based spending, by 317 billion rupees over budget estimates to 10 trillion rupees.

That has allowed him to narrow the current year's fiscal deficit to near an original 5.1 percent target that had anticipated economic growth of 7.6 percent, which in hindsight proved highly optimistic.

Trimming the deficit helps fend off the threat that India becomes the first of the BRIC economies to have its credit rating downgraded to "junk", something Chidambaram would be loath to see happen on his watch.

His new budget will prove similarly malleable.

"It has enough flexibility to deal with both upside and downside risks, as past experience has shown," Dipak Dasgupta, principal economic advisor in the finance ministry, told Reuters.

TOUGH TARGETS

That flexibility will be necessary, because the budget makes optimistic assumptions.

Undaunted by repeated failure to meet targets for unloading its stakes in companies, India plans to sell 540 billion rupees worth of shares in the fiscal year starting in April, including 400 billion rupees worth of shares in state firms, compared with a reduced target of 240 billion rupees this fiscal year.

That equity sales target is equivalent to two-thirds of the total $15 billion raised by Indian firms in 2012. It comes as investors are being asked to digest $2-$3 billion in shares in numerous firms as controlling shareholders trim their holdings to comply with a 75 percent cap that takes effect on June 30.

"The target, 400 billion, looks very ambitious to me," said Taina Erajuuri, a Helsinki-based portfolio manager at FIM India.

"It's very hard to sell in this kind of market conditions. The market is going to be very volatile, the rupee will continue to be very weak," she said.

Similarly, the budget assumes 408.5 billion rupees from licenses and other revenue from the debt-strapped telecoms sector, a target analysts say looks tough.

Goldman Sachs, HSBC and local ratings agency Crisil expect India to miss its fiscal deficit target, saying 5 percent of GDP is more likely.

"They'll have revenue shortfalls and they'll make up for it by squeezing expenditure," said Jahangir Aziz, economist at JPMorgan, who expects full-year economic growth of about 5.6-5.7 percent in the upcoming fiscal year. ($1 = 54.9050 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-optimistic-india-budget-jars-revenue-reality-210655911--business.html

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