Actress Shilpa Shetty won the Global diversity Award 2008 for making a significant contribution to the public appreciation and understanding of diversity. She also helped the organisers to raise 63,000 pounds for a London charity - the Silver Star Appeal - that runs mobile diabetes assessment units.

A leading group of mobile operators today unveiled a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of exciting mobile applications without compromising customer security. The new initiative will be known as BONDI.

The boycott against Hollywood movie "The Love Guru" for lampooning Hinduism proved to be disastrous, contributing to its blunt failure at the box office, a religious leader claimed.

"The boycott call of Hindus against the movie for blatant ridiculing of Hinduism has been proved to be very effective," Rajan Zed, the Hindu leader, announced here.

Sivaranjini, directed by M R Suresh produced under the banner of Maharaj Creations, is about a dancer and her lover. Kavya Madhavan is to play the role of a dancer in Sivaranjini, which relates on screen the story of a dedicated dancer by the same name and also has a romantic track to boost the film's appeal. The film has script by Mohandas Peringavu.

Shaji N Karun's off-beat Kutty Sranku with Mammooty, in the title role has started rolling in and around Kuttanad area near Allapuzha in Kerala. As the film is based on the change in seasons, environmental and climatic changes, the second and third schedule of the movie will be shot by the end of September and December 2008 respectively.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad - 500 016 has invited applications for a Common Entrance Test (CET) to be held on August 3, 2008 for admission to the various courses offered at its centres.

Diploma in embedded systems design

The DOEACC Centre, Calicut has invited applications for admission to the PG diploma in embedded system design ED-500 course commencing on August 11, 2008. Duration of the programme is 24 weeks. Course fee: Rs.43,000 + service tax. Full fee exemption is available for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has invited applications for its Open Management Aptitude Test (OPENMAT- XXIV) for admission to the following management programmes starting from January 2009 and July 2009.

MBA
Diploma in management (DIM)
Post graduate (PG) diploma in management (PGDIM)
PG diploma in human resource management (PGDHRM)

The Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Srirampura, Mysore - 570 008 has invited applications for its entrance test to be held on August 5, 2008 at Mysore, New Delhi and Kolkata for admission to the two-year M.Sc. programme in sericulture technology. This course is recognised by the University of Mysore and will commence from September 2008.

Eligibility

The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Kerala, has invited applications for the July 20 MCA entrance examination to be held at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode. The two-hour test will consist of 150 objective-type questions in mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, general knowledge, general English and fundamentals of computer awareness.