Prema Jayakumar, 24, daughter of Jayakumar Perumal who is a Mumbai autorickshaw driver, has topped the all India Chartered Accountancy (CA) examination that was conducted in November 2012 by the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India. She secured 607 marks out of 800.

Prema did her articles with Kishore Seth and Company. Her 22 year old brother also cleared the CA exam with her. Both siblings registered together with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

The CA topper who lives with her parents and brother in a one-room chawl in Malad is delighted and credits her parents for her success with their support and blessings. She now wants to make sure they live a life of comfort.

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'Missed calls' that are hugely popular with Indians is now being embraced by businesses including big brands, to engage with their customers.

One Bangalore based firm that provides a variety of missed call and SMS services say missed calls can be used to verify a lead, gauge customer response, mobile number verification, voting services and surveys. Industry-wise, branding for retail is the largest user with the baking sector following closely. Also, activities like couponing, surveys, friend referrals and recommendations are also using the missed call facility.

Missed calls score over SMSs as they drive two to fifty times more engagements for businesses than SMSs. The ease of use and zero charges give missed calls a huge advantage over other forms of communications.

Critics say it is hard to accurately identify the intention behind missed calls so it may not be ideal for market research or gauging interest. For the moment though, millions are dialing - and disconnecting.

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The Indian government's hike in customs duty on gold from 4 percent to 6 percent, a tax that will have to be passed on to customers, has the bullion industry worried that the move will encourage import through illegal channels, or quite plainly, smuggling.

The government has also proposed to cut down the minimum deposit unit in its Gold Deposit Scheme. The tenure of deposits has also been reduced from 3 years to 6 months to draw short term investors.

It remains to be seen whether the demand for the metal that has been giving positive returns for the past 12 years, will continue.

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Police in Jharkhand Singhbhum district have detained a 12-year-old boy on charges of the rape and murder of his neighbour, a five year old girl, in tribal Tonto area.

The body of the girl was recovered from a bush.

The young rapist is to be produced before the juvenile court.

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Sankalp Sinha, 19, a student at Sharda University in Uttar Pradesh who was notorious for oversleeping because he kept hitting the snooze button on his alarm clock and going back to sleep, has invented a 'shocker' of an alarm clock.

Determined to get out of bed in time, Sankalp invented his clock that emits harmless micro-volts of electric current that shocks the sleeper to life.

He calls it his 'Good Morning Sing N Shock' clock and hopes his invention will catch on. He is in negotiations with various manufacturers and hopes it will be available on the high street stores in a short while.

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