'Failure is the pillar of success,' Konwar told IANS outside his mud-and-thatch hut in village Shyamkota in Morigaon district, about 80 km from Assam's main city Guwahati.

The road leading to the village is potholed. There is no electricity still in the entire Shyamkota area.

'We use to study with lanterns as there is no power supply, even now there is no electricity in my village,' Narayan said, as he surrounded by a stream of visitors who came to congratulate him.

His success story is remarkable - he gave up studies for at least six months while he was in Class 9 due to financial constraints.

'My father, a primary school teacher, passed away while I was in Class 5. It was really tough for my mother to raise me, my two younger brothers, and my younger sister,' said Narayan, who ranked 119th in the merit list of the All India Civil Services Exams.

Financial hardship came in the way of studies. He got a second class in Class 10 and failed once in the school-leaving Class 12 exam.

'But I was determined to do something in life. That helped me,' he said.

Eventually, he completed his post-graduation in political science from Gauhati University with a first class.

'My priority was then to financially support my family. So I did a part time job in a college,' he said.

But with dreams in his heart to do something, he went to New Delhi for coaching to crack the civil services exams.

'It was biting cold in Delhi, and I just had a thin blanket to protect me. I could not stay in Delhi for long due to financial reasons,' Narayan said.

Having studied all along in the vernacular medium, Narayan said language cannot be a barrier for success.

'Poverty, language, or even coming from a remote area, cannot be a hindrance to success if one is determined,' Narayan said. 'I would like to really do something in life and for the society at large.'

'This partnership intends to nurture and promote employability skills especially with special focus on southern and western parts of Orissa,' CGI chairman Mukti K. Mishra told IANS.

The agreement was signed by Mishra and Dillip Chenoy, CEO of NSDC Wednesday in New Delhi.

CGI has under its umbrella two engineering colleges and two management colleges located in the state.

The engineering colleges are Jagannath Institute for Technology and Management (JITM) and Centurion Institute of Technology (CIT). The management colleges are Centurion School of Rural Enterprise Management (CSREM) and CIT-MBA.

Launched in October 2009, NSDC is a public-private partnership venture, which aims at creating 150-million-strong skilled manpower by 2022.

However, the study found that girls and boys were equally close-mouthed about issues involving sex and what they do with their dates while not under supervision.

Results showed that the amount of information parents hear from their teenagers about dating depend on a variety of matters, including age, gender, and what aspect of dating the topic involves.

'Many parents become frustrated because they feel that the lack of communication with their teenage children is evidence of increasing distance or diminishing influence,' explained Christopher Daddis, study co-author and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University (OSU) at Marion.

'What we found is that adolescents are willing to talk to their parents about some issues, but those issues may change as they grow older and they feel more autonomous,' he added.

The study involved a survey of 222 adolescents at a central Ohio high school. About half of them were boys and half were girls.

Students were asked to rate how willing they were to disclose specific information to their parents about 22 issues relating to their romantic lives.

Daddis found that adolescents were more willing to talk to their parents about their date's identity and how they showed affection.

Specifically, girls disclosed information more often than boys, and with both sexes the mother was their primary confidante.

The study found that teens who reported a higher level of trust with their parents also disclosed more.

However, all adolescents - girls and boys - disclosed little about what they did when not under supervision and whether they had sex.

The researchers also found that teens were more likely to discuss issues that they thought could involve harm to others and that may have severe consequences, an Ohio State University release said.

'We found that adolescents were more willing to talk to their parents about an issue if they felt that it would render harm to themselves or have some consequences that may affect others,' Daddis said.

The findings appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Moments after a special court Thursday awarded the capital punishment to Kasab, the only one of 10 Pakistani terrorists to be taken alive, crowds at the perennially crowded station had spontaneously clapped and cheered. Some lit lamps in memory of the people killed at the spot Nov 26, 2008.

But Friday was just like any other day.

A mass of humanity thronged the railway station, one of the busiest in Mumbai, to board trains that ply on a 140-km route connecting the city to Raigarh and Thane districts. Those getting off the arriving trains quickly headed to the exits, everything happening in clockwork precision.

Vendors busily served breakfast and refreshments to customers. Fishermen carried huge baskets of fish on their heads, ducking now and then to avoid running into other commuters.

However, Kasab's fate was a point of discussion, at least for some.

'We are disappointed that Kasab still gets to appeal in the high court and the Supreme Court,' said commuter Ashmita Pillay.

Pillay is one among a large number of people who will be happy if Kasab, a native of Pakistan's Punjab province, is hanged without any delay.

Kasab and fellow Pakistani Abu Ismail went on a killing spree, firing away from their AK-47s and hurling grenades, killing those on the platform without any provocation.

After over 50 people had been killed in and around the railway station, Kasab and Ismail calmly walked out and kept killing whoever they saw until they ran into a police picket where Ismail was killed and Kasab captured.

It was at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus that a photographer clicked away Kasab in action -- evidence that was used in his trial.

Johny Gomes, a regular commuter, still remembers the day when Kasab landed at the railway station.

'I had missed the train to Thane and was headed to the rest room when I heard what I thought were crackers. But when I went there I saw two bodies. I realised instantly there had been a terrorist attack.

'I ran and got into the driver's coach of a train. When he told me the train had been cancelled, I ran towards the exit and boarded a bus. I took a taxi later to reach my home,' Gomes said.

Anukul Bhavsar, another commuter, added: 'As for Kasab's death sentence, I am glad he has to die.'

Bency was admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital last week after her condition deteriorated and her weight had dropped to as low as 16 kg. The teenager died Thursday.

'Bency's funeral will take place as and when her uncle and family come from Mumbai. The uncle is arriving today (Friday) and his wife will come tomorrow...so in all likelihood it would take place tomorrow (Saturday) at the Kaithakuzhi Mar Thoma Church,' her grandmother Sallamma told IANS.

Bency and her younger brother Benson were infected by their parents, who died a few years ago. They were looked after by their 56-year-old grandmother, who gets a widow's pension of Rs.3,000 a month.

The HIV positive siblings got a lot of media attention when, led by their grandfather, they barged into the state secretariat seeking then chief minister A.K. Antony's intervention to stop schools from turning them away.

In 2004, after two years of struggle, they were re-admitted to the government-run school near their home at Chathanur in Kollam district, about 50 km from Thiruvananthapuram.

Their grandfather died in 2005.

Sallamma says it is 13-year-old Benson who comforts her.

'When I cry, he tells me not to cry because he can feel Munna (Bency) is lying in the bed next to his. He comforts me by saying that, if I cry, then how he can bear the loss of his Munna,' Sallamma said with tears in her eyes.

Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj, while she was health minister, had hugged and kissed them in public, sending a strong message to society that children like them should be loved and not shunned.

Soon after, HLL Lifecare Ltd provided them monthly financial assistance for food and travelling to school. While Benson has just passed his Class 7 exam, Sallamma is happy that Bency could clear Class 9 before her death.

The grandmother now wants that Bency's body be kept for some time at the Kollam District Hospital for people to pay their last respects.

'Then the body should be kept at our village council and then brought home before being taken to church for the last rites,' Sallamma said.

In Mumbai, there were celebrations on the streets as people burst firecrackers and distributed sweets to express their joy on Kasab getting the death sentence, while in the national capital most people said the terrorist should be hanged without any delay.

As soon as the judgement was given by the Special Court in Mumbai, people began distributing sweets, burst firecrackers and shouted in joy. Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the Mumbai terror attack, along with nine other terrorists held the country's commercial capital to siege in November 2008, killing 166 people and injuring 244.

Celebrations were also held outside Special Public Prosecutor Ujjawal's Nikam hotel in the CST where firecrackers were burst along with the beating of drums. People gathered outside his hotel with garlands and bouquets to felicitate him for his feat.

At the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where Kasab and his associate Abu Ismail massacred over 50 people, many commuters lit a lamp in front of a memorial to the victims.

'We are glad Kasab has been awarded the death sentence. It comes as a tribute to all those who lost their lives in the terror attacks at the CST,' said Anil Parmar, a daily commuter.

Party workers of the Shiv Sena also burst firecrackers at various places to welcome the death penalty.

Members of the National Institute of Jihad Against Atrocities and Terrorism (NIJAAT) distributed sweets to passers by near the Maratha Mandir in Mumbai Central, south Mumbai. 'We are glad he has been sentenced to death,' said NIJAAT convenor Haji Hyder Azam.

In Mumbai and in New Delhi most people sought immediate execution of the death sentence, with some even saying he should be shot by a firing squad in public.

In the western suburbs of Mumbai, people celebrated by distributing sweets to passers by. 'This is our way to welcome Kasab's death sentence. We just hope his execution also takes place soon,' said Ameya S. from suburban Goregaon.

Fauzan Umar, 23, a resident of Darya Ganj in the old quarters of Delhi, said that Kasab should have been hanged 17 months ago. 'Why have we waited for so long,' said the student who is pursuing software engineering.

Speaking in the same vein, Umar added the judgement showed that 'justice has been done to those people who had died in the Mumbai massacre. This shows our judicial system is still effective and credible.'

Simmy Hasija, 21, demanded that both Kasab and Afzal Guru, sentenced to death in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, be hanged together as 'both are cold blooded murderers'.

'He (Kasab) should be hanged immediately. No punishment can ever suffice his actions. Even after killing so many people he used to shamelessly smile in the court. Moreover, crores of taxpayers money has been spent on his security. It's high time that we should put an end to this nonsense,' Hasija told IANS.

Kriti Mehra, a HR trainee with a private company, said she hoped that Kasab's appeals in various courts should not become a way to give him more time to live.

'He may appeal in a higher court which will again take many more years. People of India will be satisfied the day he is hanged,' he added.

Rose boarded a Bangkok flight March 17 and came back as a woman after undergoing a sex reassignment surgery at a cost of $3,500 to transform into a woman.

'I feel now I have better brand appeal. Now I am India's first sex change television personality,' Rose told IANS here on the sidelines of a press meet.

'I am a focused person. The only challenge as a woman I will be facing now is being approached by men,' she added.

It is now 50 days since she became a woman.

'It is no more a double life. I am feeling like a butterfly. I am at the peak of happiness. I had dreamt of this day since my childhood,' Rose told reporters.

A mechanical engineer with a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the Louisiana Tech University in the US, Rose faced a gender dilemma at a young age.

She spent her school and college years immersed in books.

Belonging to a middle class Tamil family, Rose was brought up as a boy and educated at two elite schools in Chennai.

'After my education I decided to be myself. I understood that nobody can take away my degree and knowledge,' Rose said.

On the timing of the sex change, she said: 'I wanted to become a celebrity first and then undergo a sex change.'

She said after struggling a bit she got the chance to host a talk show on Vijay TV and later migrated to Kalaignar TV.

Speaking about her future plans, Rose said: 'I have readied a feature film script based on the happenings in my life. The film will be made in Tamil and English.'

Rose is also hoping to make a mark in Hollywood.

Rose does not plan to change her name. 'Rose is a beautiful name,' she said and added: 'I don't want to remember my original name. That's the name I want to forget.'

Rose said she is happy to have played a significant role in bringing the plight of transgenders to the spotlight.

'I will continue to focus on transgender issues,' Rose said, adding that she is okay with people referring to her as a transgender or a woman, but would prefer the latter.

The report, 'Declining Quality of Life of the Young Child in Delhi', has been put together by Delhi Forces, an NGO, through a survey in three slums in the capital.

'Huge amounts of money is being pumped in for the Commonwealth Games by the government, but when it comes to the poor people of Delhi, there is no budget,' said Biraj Patnaik, principle adviser to the commissioners of the Supreme Court, in a press meet in the capital.

'Declining quality of governance, lack of accountability and redressal mechanisms, leave the less privileged in Delhi feeling helpless,' he added.

According to the report, 47 percent of the capital's urban poor are malnourished.

Vandana Prasad, advisor to Commissioners Right to Food, while speaking on the report, said: 'There is a gross denial of basic rights in the three slums where the survey was conducted, like many other places in the capital. There is a lack of electricity and water supply in the permanent settlements, denial of payment of minimum wages and children's rights to survival, protection and development.'

'In the three slums, none of the persons had ration cards, only one person had a below poverty line (BPL) card and there are no Anganwadi (mother-child care) centres,' she added.

'The government is violating the Supreme Court orders by not providing Anganwadis on a priority basis for communities that are demanding it within the stipulated period of three months. The lack of creches on worksites is a direct infringement of the obligations the government is accountable for under the Construction Worker's Act, 1996,' Prasad further said.

Amod Kanth, chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), said: 'Out of a 7,000,000 population that resides in the slums, nearly 50 percent are children. It is indeed a matter of great shame that the needs of such a large segment of the neglected and deprived population are not being addressed.'