Indian develops mobile-based security system for

New Delhi: An Indian software analyst has developed a
mobile phone-based system that may provide better
protection to BPO staff in transit.

“The GPS-based systems here are not adequate as India
has not developed detailed maps for our cities.
However, our system, Webtra, will work everywhere
as it is based on mobile technology,” said
Chennai-based V M Sankaran Nampoothiri.

As soon as an employee gets into a cab, he or she will
log on to the mobile phone and send an SMS to a
centralised number. Five minutes later, a message
automatically goes to the employee.

“If he or she does not respond to the message, a call
will follow after another five minutes. If the person
still fails to respond, the system will declare
a crisis alert. The transport department will call the
family of the person, as well as other employees who
were slotted in the same cab,” he said.

“It is really foolish to expect that a person in
trouble will be able to call any helpline or office.
For us, it’s not communication but break of
communication
that is a good alert,” he added.

“Our system has a database of thousands of hospitals
across the country. This can help employees and
companies rush to a nearby hospital in case of
emergency,”
he said.

When asked about false alerts and subsequent chaos
that it may create, Nampoothiri preferred to err on
the side of caution.

“Since these employees are young... the system may
sound 90 per cent false alerts, but the remaining 10
per cent will be of great help,” he said.

The cost of installing the system could be around Rs
350 per person per month. Nampoothiri said currently
two BPOs in the country were using his system,
while others were in talks with him.

“If a company wants to install the system with speech
detectors, the cost will be more. A speech detector
could translate at least 10 languages and scores
of regional accents into English. This will help in
deciphering the voice and language of a cab driver and
employees,” he said.

Blind Ayurvedic Doctor

Dr. Sameer Mansuri says he's perfectly happy to be blind.
And he has no desire whatsoever to be able to see. Sceptical? Listen to his explanation and he could almost make you believe he's lucky to be blind. The
31-year-old Mansuri, who is an Ayurvedic doctor who diagnoses ailments by feeling a patient's pulse, argues, "Your concentration decreases by 50 per cent
when you can see because you get distracted by everything around you." So, he adds, with an infectious laugh, "Believe me when I say I'm happy to be blind.
It actually helps me in my work."

The Ahmedabad-based Mansuri, who has a doctorate in Ayurveda, comes in every fortnight to Mumbai, where his patients range from reigning Bollywood superstars
and film directors to middle- class professionals and families. He prepares his medications in Ahmedabad and sources herbs and other ingredients from Punjab,
Andhra Pradesh, the Himalayas and Yemen. Yes, admits this graduate of English Literature,
says " Mansuri, waiting for his next patient in the Holiday Inn hotel at Juhu.

His easy laughter and perennially cheerful disposition belie both his visual impairment and the journey to his current position. It is the tale of a youngster
who constantly stumbled over obstacles but refused to fall down. The story began a few months after his birth, on new year's day in 1975, when his mother
tried to kill him in a bathtub filled with hot water. The family was ashamed of the bllnd-infaat, who was saved by an un-cle who caught his motheFln the
hick of time. "My uncle tells me my mother planned to drown me in the tub and claim I fell in accidentally because I couldn't see," he narrates.

At the age of five, his parents packed him off to a .boarding school for the blind where he excelled in his studies. After completing his BA with a first
class, Mansuri left Ahmedabad as he faced re-j peated humiliation there and settled in _ Hyderabad. With no professional skills, "he discovered he could
make a living as a ! masseur and turned out tsTbe surprisingly good at it too.

Then an encounter with Guru Shamshuddin, an 89-year-old_Ayurvedic doctor, changed his life. Though he was initially reluctant, the youngster learnt about
pulse diagnosis, the cause and cure of diseases and preparation of herbal medicines. After obtaining a practitioner's license in Hyderabad in 1999, Mansuri
was directed by Shamshuddin to return to Ahmedabad and setup a clinic there.

Word of his cures spread soon and today, the doctor runs a brisk practice. Hetal Gandhi, 35, who lost vision in both her eyes three years ago due to a
retinal disease, regained partial eyesight six months after she began Dr. Mansuri's treatment in February.

block quote
"I can read the headlines in a newspaper now and can walk about in the house on my own,"
block quote end

said Gandhi, speaking from Ahmedabad. Film producer and director Subhash Ghai is another admirer ,"Dr. Sameer Mansuri's treatment has bean very beneficial
for my physical and mental energy levels. His pulse diagnosis is very good and he's treated my family and friends as well," says Ghai.

Although he is perfectly comfortable with his handicap, Mansuri does not easily forgive what he perceives as slights against the visually impaired. Business
magnate Vijay Mallya should know. "I'm sorry you had an unpleasant experience with one of my flights.... since we have fallen short of your expectations,
please, accept my apologies," Mallya wrote to Mansuri last month after he received a complaint from the doctor about some re¬marks made by the ground crew
of King¬fisher Airlines in Mumbai. "I took action because if someone like me can be 'hu¬miliated, what about other blind people?" Mansuri asks angrily

The doctor, who lives in Ahmedabad's Paldi area with his wife - who's blind too - and their four-year-old son, says he does not treat more than 60 patients
a month because he wants to devote more time to the trust he's set up to take care of the needs of the visually impaired. His way of giving back something
to society in gratitude.

Dr. Samir wows Bollywood

Dr. Samir found many fans in Bollywood celebrities.

Aishwarya Rai - Bachhan was treated by Dr. Samir for hypertension and uneasiness.

Vivek Oberio, Music Director - Anu Kapoor have consulted Dr. Samir for their medical conditions.

Assistant Director - Abdul Kayyum, of rajkumar Santoshi Productions had consulted Dr. Samir for Ulceritis.

What baffles us is that dispite the fact these personalitied can avial the best of the medical treatment, they still turn to Dr. Samir as he treats without
any surgerical procedures.

Salman Khan, Subhash Ghai, Ashok Mehta are among many others who are treated by Dr. Samir Mansuri

Source:

http://www.dr-samir.com

Going to Propose a Girl ?

Here are the top most reply of a girl, when you propose her...

1) Nahi........ ......... ???

2) Chiiiii..... Kitne gande vichar hain tumhare..... ..

3) Maine tumhe sirf ek acche dost ki nazar se dekha hai ....

4) Mera pehle se ek boyfrnd hai....

5) Main in baton pe vishwas nahi karti, apne padhai pe dhyaan lagao...

6) tum abhi tak mujhe jaante kahan ho ?Yeh shayad infatuation hai....

7) Tumhara bank balance kitna hai…??

8) Magar last year to Maine tumhe raakhi baandhi thi ..hai naa..bhaiyya. .??

9) Mein abhi is relation ke liye mentally prepared nahi hoo....

10) Mein apne dady se pooch ke tumhe kaal answer karu…??

11) Itni is baat kehne ke liye itni der lagaa di??

12) Ye donon ke dil me hai na, to phir kya kehna!!

13) Sorry

14) "……Apna chehra kabhi aayine me dekha hai….. L…………………………… "

15) "Main toh tumhe apna Bhai maanati hu"

16) "Yes .. I too like you … (but hope you don't cheat on me ) " … (Which we guys most oftenly do )

17) Phele kyon nahi bataya AB tum late ho gaye ..

18) Tum agar pehle mile hote to sochti.

19) Tumhari himmat kaise hui mere baare mein aisa sochne ki… (probably followed by a slap)

20) Girl: mujhe sochna ka wakt do…

Guy: kitna wakt???(with hope)

Girl: saat janam

21) Mai ek shaadi shuda ladki hu ;-)

22) Mein tumhare chotte bhai se pyaar karti hoon…

23) Now that's a real tragedy….

Girl: Hee hee ……hee hee hee…..hee ….hee……hee……

Hee hee ……hee hee hee…..hee ….hee……hee……

24) Boy: I love U!

Gal: I don't think ABT all this before marriage.

25) Keep loving I don't care.

26) Tum mere liye kya kar sakte ho…

27) Kaun as number hai mera tumhare proposals ki history mein. Ha ha ha ha….

28) tumhe is nazar se kabhi dekha nahi

29) tumhare barre mein kabhi aisa socha nahi

30) mummy se pooch kar bataungi

31) mere bhaiyya se baat kar lo , who hi tumhe samajhayenge

32) Knyo, Tina NE "No" bola?

33) Lekin tum to Mina ke piche pade the, Kya usne thappad mara?

34) Kitne time ke liye -???

35) Worst one-- Jo bhi bolna hai jaldi bolo mera beta school se aata hoga..

36) Thanks. I love you, too.

37) Boy :- Sonya, I love U…..

Gal :- Sorry , Next 3 Months tak Waiting List chal rahi hai….

38) "What?"

39) "Let's just stay away from this"

40) My friend in college got one classic reply … "I THINK I'M ENGAGED"

41) "I think, I will have better options in future ..."

42)Mujhe tumse is baare mein koi baat nahi karni, then she starts ignoring, phir bhi nahi sudhare then she threatens via some common friends.

43) My Boy friend is very short Tempered. Beware of it.

44) like you as a friend but I never thought about us like this…cant we be just good friends for ever

45) Actually my younger sis likes you a lot. ..

46) My mummy does not like your family (if the family knows each other.) ..

47) "Why me?..Tumne mere meih essa kya dekha?..."she wants you to list down all the Good qualities that you even might have not seen in her. ...

48) SLAP !! ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS....it is said ..

49)hehe I didn't expect that from you....

50)nice joke ...

51)tum ladke kuchh or nahi soch sakte jaha ladki dekhi fisal gaye.....

52)achha tum bhi meine socha sirf harsh,nikhil, ravi, etc etc ko hi mujhme interest hai ..... And then walks on.......... ...

53)tumhe to purpose karna bhi nahi aata.... Peheli bari hai kya?? Koi baat nahi mein batati Hun ???...

Air Force Impressed With Akash Surface To Air Missiles Performance

Over a week long field trials of indigenously developed Surface-to-Air Missile Akash in the deserts of Rajasthan have impressed the top officials of Indian Air Force (IAF), according to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The medium range missile with a range of between 27 to 30 kms has yet to inducted by the IAF, and there were media reports earlier claiming that the IAF's top brass were not satisfied with the missile system, as they found instances when parts of missiles fell from the main body.

Efforts were made to improve the missiles, and field trials were held. The recent field trials conducted in Pokhran in the second week of November have put to rest such kinds of speculations. "The IAF officials were completely impressed by the field trials of the missiles," said a DRDO official.

In August this year, answering to a question in Lok Sabha, Defence Minister A K Antony clarified that the IAF has not declined the induction of Akash missile. Development of Akash missile is a part of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), and the missile system was expected to be inducted by the Indian Army and the Air Force by 2003.

As on July 31, 2007, an amount of Rs. 492.41 crore has already been spent on development of Akash, which has a launch weight of 720 kg, a diameter of 35 cm and a length of 5.8 metres.

It can fly at supersonic speed of around 2.5 Mach and can reach an altitude of 18 kms. The missile is supported by multi-target and multi-function phased array fire control radar called 'Rajendra' that has a range of about 60 km.

The first test flight of the missile was conducted in 1990, and since then many development and field trials have taken place.

Source : india-Defence

Indian Army Still Short Of 11,371 Officers

There is No shortage of soldiers in the Army. However, there is a shortage of 11,371 officers in the Army which is mainly in the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and below. Several measures have been taken by the Government to enhance recruitment in the Army.

All officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) have been made eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel and equivalents after 2, 6 and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. The term of SSC Officer has been extended to 14 years.

This has made the Army an attractive career option. Besides Army has undertaken sustained image projection publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth. Awareness campaigns, participation in career fairs and exhibitions, advertisements in print and electronic media are also some of the other measures in this direction.

This information was given by the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shri Amir Alam Khan in Rajya Sabha.

Infiltration Increasing From Pakistan: Army Chief

Infiltration from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir has increased in recent weeks, Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor said here Friday.

Here to address a conference on 'Changing dimensions of international security and its implications for India', Kapoor said that subversive elements are trying to get into the country.

'You would have noticed that of late there have been attempts to increase infiltration by the other side. The situation is very much under our control but infiltration still continues,' Kapoor said.

The Army chief said that the political situation in Pakistan was being observed.

'We want a stable Pakistan. We hope that things will get back to normal early,' he added.

Regarding the controversy over security checks of service chiefs at airports, Kapoor steered clear saying that 'it was up to the government to decide on the issue.'

Addressing the conference, Kapoor said that security in the present times had several connotations. 'There is environmental security, information security, energy security and humanitarian security,' he said.

'Globalisation had brought about strengths and inimical disorders into the realms of security. Globalisation had blurred boundaries and enhanced vulnerability. Acquisition of mass destruction weapons by non-state actors are also a cause of concern,' he added.

Talking of the future threat scenario, Kapoor said that one had to guard against threats to strategic installations, economy manipulation of stock exchanges, propaganda, drug trafficking, global warming and de-forestation. He also referred to the growing discontent in the society because of socio-economic disparities, which were causing alienation, societal faults like religion, ethnic, communal divisive factors and environmental issues.

He also emphasised the need for re-structuring of the forces with emphasis on right side, technological advancements, budgetary support and to build joint operational capabilities with sister forces

Source: http://www.newspostindia.com/report-24440

India Launches Operation To Aid Cyclone-hit Bangladesh

India has launched an operation to help the victims of the cyclone-hit Bangladesh, even as the world community assured $550 million and Bangladeshis in US launched a fund collection drive.

'Operation Sahayata' would provide relief materials worth Rs.30 million (Tk 520 million or $8.6 million) to the cyclone-hit victims in Bangladesh.

The materials to be sent would include medical equipment, 20,000 packs of ready-to-eat food, 10,000 blankets, 400 tents and 2,400 kg of medicines, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency reported Friday.

One of the three Il-76 aircraft carrying relief materials under the programme arrived at Zia International Airport here in the early hours Thursday, said an Indian High Commission official, adding that two more aircraft would arrive Friday and Saturday.

India will provide assistance of $22 million, including 40,000 tonnes of rice, 10,000 tonnes of wheat and 1,000 tonnes of milk powder, media reports said Friday.

Donor nations and agencies have so far pledged over $550 million in assistance for the people in south and southwestern districts hit by Cyclone Sidr as the government unveiled a three-phase rehabilitation plan.

The Food and Disaster Management Ministry has outlined both short and long term rehabilitation programmes for the cyclone-hit areas, which include repair of damaged roads and houses as well as saving the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, ministry sources said.

Meanwhile, a disaster management expert Thursday asked the Bangladeshi government to repair roads in the affected region as first priority for easy transportation of relief materials to remote areas.

'I think there is no crisis of relief materials as people from home and abroad have responded positively to help the affected people,' Gawher Nayeem Wahra, convener of Bangladesh Disaster Forum, was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

Despite the massive rehabilitation and relief programmes of the government, various quarters have raised questions about the management of relief distribution, as many of the affected people are yet to receive emergency aid.

Wahra said transportation of relief materials to remote areas has become a major challenge. Most of the roads have been damaged in the cyclone, while damage to jetties also affected the communication system.

'The government can engage army personnel in repairing the roads and jetties immediately,' he said.

He, however, pointed out that the aid workers are facing acute problems in reaching destitute people in remote areas.

A coordination meeting of secretaries of different ministries at the cabinet division discussed requirement of foreign assistance to meet the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr.

They were informed that the World Bank assured an assistance of $250 million and the Asian Development Bank pledged $100 million for the affected people.

'Of the $250 million World Bank assistance, $75 million will be provided as budgetary support,' said a top government official.

The government has identified Barguna, Patuakhali, Bagerhat and Pirojpur as the worst affected districts and eight other districts - Barisal, Jhalakathi, Bhola, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Khulna and Satkhira - as badly affected.

The government will run a Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme from December to March in 12 districts. Every VGF cardholder will get 15 kg of rice per month free.

A total of 25,90,000 cards will be distributed in the districts, officials said.

According to the Food and Disaster Management Ministry data Thursday night, 6.5 million people have been badly affected by Cyclone Sidr. Crops on 461,392 acres of land have been damaged completely and on 1,225,304 acres partially.

The cyclone has destroyed at least 363,346 houses completely and 815,628 houses partially.

The Bangladesh Embassy in the US and the Bangladeshi community residing there are jointly raising funds for the cyclone-affected people.

India Launches Operation To Aid Cyclone-hit Bangladesh

India has launched an operation to help the victims of the cyclone-hit Bangladesh, even as the world community assured $550 million and Bangladeshis in US launched a fund collection drive.

'Operation Sahayata' would provide relief materials worth Rs.30 million (Tk 520 million or $8.6 million) to the cyclone-hit victims in Bangladesh.

The materials to be sent would include medical equipment, 20,000 packs of ready-to-eat food, 10,000 blankets, 400 tents and 2,400 kg of medicines, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency reported Friday.

One of the three Il-76 aircraft carrying relief materials under the programme arrived at Zia International Airport here in the early hours Thursday, said an Indian High Commission official, adding that two more aircraft would arrive Friday and Saturday.

India will provide assistance of $22 million, including 40,000 tonnes of rice, 10,000 tonnes of wheat and 1,000 tonnes of milk powder, media reports said Friday.

Donor nations and agencies have so far pledged over $550 million in assistance for the people in south and southwestern districts hit by Cyclone Sidr as the government unveiled a three-phase rehabilitation plan.

The Food and Disaster Management Ministry has outlined both short and long term rehabilitation programmes for the cyclone-hit areas, which include repair of damaged roads and houses as well as saving the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, ministry sources said.

Meanwhile, a disaster management expert Thursday asked the Bangladeshi government to repair roads in the affected region as first priority for easy transportation of relief materials to remote areas.

'I think there is no crisis of relief materials as people from home and abroad have responded positively to help the affected people,' Gawher Nayeem Wahra, convener of Bangladesh Disaster Forum, was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

Despite the massive rehabilitation and relief programmes of the government, various quarters have raised questions about the management of relief distribution, as many of the affected people are yet to receive emergency aid.

Wahra said transportation of relief materials to remote areas has become a major challenge. Most of the roads have been damaged in the cyclone, while damage to jetties also affected the communication system.

'The government can engage army personnel in repairing the roads and jetties immediately,' he said.

He, however, pointed out that the aid workers are facing acute problems in reaching destitute people in remote areas.

A coordination meeting of secretaries of different ministries at the cabinet division discussed requirement of foreign assistance to meet the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr.

They were informed that the World Bank assured an assistance of $250 million and the Asian Development Bank pledged $100 million for the affected people.

'Of the $250 million World Bank assistance, $75 million will be provided as budgetary support,' said a top government official.

The government has identified Barguna, Patuakhali, Bagerhat and Pirojpur as the worst affected districts and eight other districts - Barisal, Jhalakathi, Bhola, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Khulna and Satkhira - as badly affected.

The government will run a Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme from December to March in 12 districts. Every VGF cardholder will get 15 kg of rice per month free.

A total of 25,90,000 cards will be distributed in the districts, officials said.

According to the Food and Disaster Management Ministry data Thursday night, 6.5 million people have been badly affected by Cyclone Sidr. Crops on 461,392 acres of land have been damaged completely and on 1,225,304 acres partially.

The cyclone has destroyed at least 363,346 houses completely and 815,628 houses partially.

The Bangladesh Embassy in the US and the Bangladeshi community residing there are jointly raising funds for the cyclone-affected people.

Road safety: 17 online driver education videos for Indian road users

Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much
of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the
indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60
years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a
National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can
demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently
the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such
as - blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second
gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average
Indian driver.

This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with
the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian
road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing
training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make
our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.

At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving
culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that
the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have
copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise
buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian
breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western
ways of travelling too.

To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-
india.blogspot.com/

The videos cover the following topics:

Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds
rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation

SANTA Ji

Santa needed some money desperately. Banta
Tells him that if he prays to Shivji in a temple, his
prayers would surely be answered.
So Santa goes to a Shiva temple. The temple had a
large Lord Shiva
statue. Santa closes his eyes, bows his head, joins
his hands and says his prayer.
Santa: "Ho Jee tussee itne vadde ho. Itne mahan ho.
Saannoo 100 rupayen chahiye. Kripa karo."
(OH GOD I NEED 100$ PLZZ HELP ME)
The priest sees Santa praying. He wants to help Santa
but knows that a Sikh will never accept the money. So
he drops a 100-rupee note,from behind the statue, so
that Santa can not see
him.
After Santa had says his prayers, and opens his eyes.
He sees the note
and thinks that god has listened to his prayers. He
takes the note and goes away.
However he is back again next day for money. Now the
priest is really annoyed with Santa.
The Priest decides that he is not going to give any
more money to Santa. He changes the big Shivji statue
with a smaller one of Ganapathi(LORD SHIV SON) that day.
Once again Santa goes to the prayer room. However he
does not notice the difference.
Santa closes his eyes, bows his head, joins his hands
and says his prayer.
Santa: "Ho Jee tussee itne vadde ho. Itne mahan ho.
Ajj to saannoo 50 rupayen hi chahiye. Kirpa karo."
(OH GOD YOU ARE GREAT I NEED 50$ PLZZ HELP ME)
After that he slowly opens his eyes and does not find
any money. So he lowers his demand a bit.
Santa: "O papa jee tussee itne vadde ho. Itne mahan
ho. Asee 10 rupayen me hi kaam chala lenge. Kirpa karo
jee."
(OH GOD YOU ARE GREAT I NEED just 10$ PLZZ HELP ME)
Again he slowly opens his eyes and does not find any
money. He slowly raises his head and now notices
the small Ganapathi(LORD SHIV SON) statue. He carefully looks left and
then right, and then slowly moves a bit forward near
the statue.
Then he whispers to the statue: "Puttar, Papa kitthe
hein ??!!
(WHERE IS YOUR DAD????)

VASTU GUIDELINES ON VEHICLE PARKING

Your cars reflect your personalities. In some countries it is practice to give a personal name to their own vehicles. Most of the people spend hours at a time in their cars which become like mini- homes. Like our homes, they become an extension of ourselves.

A neat, clean car generates a different impression of its owner to a dirty one. Negative energy in cars has the power to create a lasting damage and destruction to their owners and to others. To keep a clean space and healthy flow of energy, remove clutter such as fast food cartons, car park tickets, confectionary wrappers etc. Look after them as your family member.

Vehicle being important medium of transport, some rules of vastu can also be applied here. Following such rules one derives maximum benefit of vastu science. In metro cities it may be difficult to park he vehicle in desired direction but it is possible to choose any positive prime direction i.e. east or north.

1. Vehicle parking should be on the North West location of the plot or building. This rule is applied where the vehicle is parked for maximum period of time.

2. Vehicle should be parked facing positive directions i.e.east or north.

3. Parking at south west should be avoided. The car remains in the garage for longer period or it will require frequent repairs. In short the vehicle will not be useful for the owner.

4. Vehicle should not be parked facing south. South facing vehicle does not help user in positive way. User may feel his/her target or work is not going in positive direction.

5. Business people should park their vehicle facing North. This will help them in getting better deal in business. People in job should park their vehicle facing east. This will improve their intelegence and skill to work better in their work place. If parking is done facing west of North west corner, there will too much traveling for owner of vehicle. Whenever you have important project or business deal, park your vehicle facing north or east on the previous night.

6. Roof of the parking area should have slope towards east or north.

7. The slope in the parking area should be towards east or north.

Indians develop new iron using ancient technology

Indian metallurgists have developed a type of corrosion-resistant iron that construction engineers would love. And vital clues for it came for Delhi's famous Iron Pillar that has been standing tall for over 1,600 years.

Developed by Ramamurthy Balasubramaniam and his former student Gadadhar Sahoo of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, the iron contains phosphorus and shows remarkable resistance to corrosion, especially in concrete.

'This is a significant first step in the possible commercial (large-scale) use of these irons,' Balasubramaniam, better known as Bala, told IANS.

Most steels today contain small amounts of carbon and manganese. Modern steel makers avoid phosphorus because its segregation to grain boundaries makes the steel brittle.

But the IIT team successfully produced ductile phosphoric irons by driving the phosphorus away from grain boundaries through clever alloy design and novel heat treatment.

Ironically, Bala's material is not new. It was being made by Indian ironsmiths centuries ago. Bala says he got the clue for developing this material from the six-tonne seven-metre tall Delhi Iron Pillar - a major tourist attraction in the Qutb Minar complex -- that has been standing for centuries in the harsh weather of the capital without any corrosion.

'As a metallurgist, I was intrigued,' Bala told IANS. And his passionate quest to unravel the mystery that began in 1990s has now culminated in phosphoric irons.

The test samples developed by the IIT team remained fresh after three months of being immersed in solution, simulating the corrosive concrete environment, whereas the best commercially available steels got rusted. In another experiment, they embedded the samples in concrete to simulate actual conditions and obtained similar results.

'The work is especially important in regard to the widespread use of steels in civil structures,' said Gerhard E. Welsch, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio).

'The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis has added new urgency,' Welsch said in a congratulatory message to Bala. Seven people died when the bridge across the Mississippi river collapsed Aug 2, 2007.

Current philosophies to tackle corrosion in concrete include the addition of inhibitors to the cement mix, use of rebars that are galvanised, epoxy coated, or micro-alloyed by the addition of small amounts of chromium, copper and nickel -- elements that are known to induce passivity in iron.

Their high cost is a disadvantage, says Bala. 'Besides, we have experimentally shown our phosphoric irons perform better.'

Bala's real break came when he found that the iron used in the Delhi pillar contained elevated amounts of phosphorus -- as much as 0.25 percent against less than 0.05 percent in today's iron. He found this was a result of the ancient process where iron ore is reduced in a single step by mixing it with charcoal, without any limestone addition.

Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use limestone yielding molten slag and pig iron (high in carbon) that is later converted into steel. Most phosphorus is carried away by the basic slag.

Further studies and analysing rust from the pillar showed that phosphorus catalysed the formation of a protective passive film on the surface of the pillar that acted as a barrier between the metal and rust.

Tanjore Anantharaman, author of the book 'Delhi Iron Pillar - the Rustless Wonder' and Bala's former teacher at the Benaras Hindu University, says phosphorus was long suspected to be behind the pillar's corrosion resistance. 'It was Bala who proved it.'

That was in 2000. Actual material development and corrosion tests were initiated in 2003 when Sahoo joined Bala for his PhD that he completed in 2006.

'Our papers based on the thesis are coming out now,' Bala said. All the work, he said, was done with institute funds without any external support.

'Certainly, we are not claiming that this is the end of our studies,' admits Bala. 'We have shown the usefulness of phosphoric irons for concrete reinforcement applications. Now it has to be taken up by more researchers for greater understanding.'

Bala thanks his forefathers for the success. 'I am of the firm belief that ancient Indian metallurgists had the empirical knowledge that high phosphorus content ores resulted in corrosion-resistant iron. They did not create this material by accident.'

(Courtesy: IndiaeNews.com; October 13, 2007)

(URL: http://www.indiaenews.com/technology/20071013/75049.htm )

Indians develop new iron using ancient technology

Indian metallurgists have developed a type of corrosion-resistant iron that construction engineers would love. And vital clues for it came for Delhi's famous Iron Pillar that has been standing tall for over 1,600 years.

Developed by Ramamurthy Balasubramaniam and his former student Gadadhar Sahoo of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, the iron contains phosphorus and shows remarkable resistance to corrosion, especially in concrete.

'This is a significant first step in the possible commercial (large-scale) use of these irons,' Balasubramaniam, better known as Bala, told IANS.

Most steels today contain small amounts of carbon and manganese. Modern steel makers avoid phosphorus because its segregation to grain boundaries makes the steel brittle.

But the IIT team successfully produced ductile phosphoric irons by driving the phosphorus away from grain boundaries through clever alloy design and novel heat treatment.

Ironically, Bala's material is not new. It was being made by Indian ironsmiths centuries ago. Bala says he got the clue for developing this material from the six-tonne seven-metre tall Delhi Iron Pillar - a major tourist attraction in the Qutb Minar complex -- that has been standing for centuries in the harsh weather of the capital without any corrosion.

'As a metallurgist, I was intrigued,' Bala told IANS. And his passionate quest to unravel the mystery that began in 1990s has now culminated in phosphoric irons.

The test samples developed by the IIT team remained fresh after three months of being immersed in solution, simulating the corrosive concrete environment, whereas the best commercially available steels got rusted. In another experiment, they embedded the samples in concrete to simulate actual conditions and obtained similar results.

'The work is especially important in regard to the widespread use of steels in civil structures,' said Gerhard E. Welsch, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio).

'The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis has added new urgency,' Welsch said in a congratulatory message to Bala. Seven people died when the bridge across the Mississippi river collapsed Aug 2, 2007.

Current philosophies to tackle corrosion in concrete include the addition of inhibitors to the cement mix, use of rebars that are galvanised, epoxy coated, or micro-alloyed by the addition of small amounts of chromium, copper and nickel -- elements that are known to induce passivity in iron.

Their high cost is a disadvantage, says Bala. 'Besides, we have experimentally shown our phosphoric irons perform better.'

Bala's real break came when he found that the iron used in the Delhi pillar contained elevated amounts of phosphorus -- as much as 0.25 percent against less than 0.05 percent in today's iron. He found this was a result of the ancient process where iron ore is reduced in a single step by mixing it with charcoal, without any limestone addition.

Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use limestone yielding molten slag and pig iron (high in carbon) that is later converted into steel. Most phosphorus is carried away by the basic slag.

Further studies and analysing rust from the pillar showed that phosphorus catalysed the formation of a protective passive film on the surface of the pillar that acted as a barrier between the metal and rust.

Tanjore Anantharaman, author of the book 'Delhi Iron Pillar - the Rustless Wonder' and Bala's former teacher at the Benaras Hindu University, says phosphorus was long suspected to be behind the pillar's corrosion resistance. 'It was Bala who proved it.'

That was in 2000. Actual material development and corrosion tests were initiated in 2003 when Sahoo joined Bala for his PhD that he completed in 2006.

'Our papers based on the thesis are coming out now,' Bala said. All the work, he said, was done with institute funds without any external support.

'Certainly, we are not claiming that this is the end of our studies,' admits Bala. 'We have shown the usefulness of phosphoric irons for concrete reinforcement applications. Now it has to be taken up by more researchers for greater understanding.'

Bala thanks his forefathers for the success. 'I am of the firm belief that ancient Indian metallurgists had the empirical knowledge that high phosphorus content ores resulted in corrosion-resistant iron. They did not create this material by accident.'

(Courtesy: IndiaeNews.com; October 13, 2007)

(URL: http://www.indiaenews.com/technology/20071013/75049.htm )

India Concerned Over Safety Of Pakistani Nuclear Weapons, Proliferation

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday termed the proliferation of weapons of mass destructions (WMDs) as the world's most critical challenge, and expressed concern over the possibility of it falling into the hands of terrorists.

Speaking at a function here today, Mukherjee said, "Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the possibility of their falling into the hands of terrorists must rank among the most critical challenges facing the world today."

He said that present measures to stop proliferation of such weapons are not sufficient, and called for adoption of a new approach that would also prioritise disarmament.

"The issue cannot be addressed merely by focusing on supply-side technology controls. The so-called AQ Khan network made a mockery of these controls," he said, adding, "India has always pursued the objective of global disarmament, based on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and effective compliance."

Mukherjee's statement comes in the wake of the current unrest in Pakistan, that has led to growing fears in the global community that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of al Qaeda supportive militants there. Pakistan has rejected such fears, and has said that it could defend its nuclear arsenal.

U.S. Defense Major Raytheon Ties Up With L&T, Wipro, Godrej

Leading US defence company Raytheon has signed memorandums of understanding with major Indian companies in the last few days to develop defence technology for India's armed forces. 'We have signed MoUs with Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Godrej & Boyce and Data Patterns in the last few days,' Wes Motooka, Raytheon's vice-president for international strategy and business development, told IANS at the Dubai Airshow here Tuesday.

These were in addition to the MoU Raytheon had signed with Tata Power in February this year. Raytheon is now working closely with the strategic electronics division of Tata Power. 'These strategic alignments make good business sense for Raytheon and for India,' said Motooka. 'The scope (of these partnerships) is envisioned to include electronics, metal fabrication, test equipment, environmental control, power supplies and automatic mechanisms.'

These Indian companies are among the largest manufacturers of technology and defence equipment for India's armed forces. They produce a wide range of products in the areas of radar, naval systems, telecommunications and broadcast, electronic warfare, tank electronics, opto-electronics, professional electronic components and solar photovoltaic systems. Motooka said the tie-ups were a critical phase of Raytheon's plan to build a team committed to providing top quality products for India's armed forces.

'Our Indian associates are highly respected and proven technology suppliers. Our complementary capabilities will bring great value to India's military forces. We are looking forward to mutual success with these Indian companies.' He added that his company is looking for more tie-ups with Indian firms. 'We are looking for more Indian companies to partner but these are all subject to approval from the Indian and US governments.

' Source : india-defence.com

Infiltration increases, so do gun battles

SRINAGAR: Increased militant infiltration from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the last few months is fuelling fierce gun battles between the army and the ultras in border areas of Kashmir.

In the last 24 hours, 10 militants and two soldiers have been killed in various gun battles in the border district of Kupwara. Six top militants and two soldiers were killed in a fierce encounter in the Lolab valley on Friday.

Army spokesman Lt Col AK Mathur said on Friday 18 and 28 Rashtriya Rifles troops cordoned off the valley following specific information and launched operations. "In the morning, the troops established contact with the ultras. In the fierce gun battle that followed, all the six ultras hiding there were gunned down. We also lost two soldiers," said Mathur.

The slain soldiers have been identified as rifleman Raj Pal Singh and signalman Adi Naryanan of 18 RR.

"We recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the slain," Mathur said.
Three militants were killed in another encounter at Sonapidi, Kularoos, near the line of control in Kupwara district.

Vijay Kumar, superintendent of police, Kupwara, said, "Initially, two militants were killed in the encounter that began on Thursday. Later, we recovered the body of one more militant."

Kumar said another militant was killed in Gund Manchhar in Kupwara. "On receiving specific information, a joint team of police and 2-PARA eliminated an unidentified militant at Gund Manchher," he said.

The SP, Kupwara, said the encounters had increased due to the rise in infiltration from PoK. "Most militants killed had infiltrated Kashmir recently," he said.

source : http://www.dnaindia.com

Infiltration increases, so do gun battles

SRINAGAR: Increased militant infiltration from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the last few months is fuelling fierce gun battles between the army and the ultras in border areas of Kashmir.

In the last 24 hours, 10 militants and two soldiers have been killed in various gun battles in the border district of Kupwara. Six top militants and two soldiers were killed in a fierce encounter in the Lolab valley on Friday.

Army spokesman Lt Col AK Mathur said on Friday 18 and 28 Rashtriya Rifles troops cordoned off the valley following specific information and launched operations. "In the morning, the troops established contact with the ultras. In the fierce gun battle that followed, all the six ultras hiding there were gunned down. We also lost two soldiers," said Mathur.

The slain soldiers have been identified as rifleman Raj Pal Singh and signalman Adi Naryanan of 18 RR.

"We recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the slain," Mathur said.
Three militants were killed in another encounter at Sonapidi, Kularoos, near the line of control in Kupwara district.

Vijay Kumar, superintendent of police, Kupwara, said, "Initially, two militants were killed in the encounter that began on Thursday. Later, we recovered the body of one more militant."

Kumar said another militant was killed in Gund Manchhar in Kupwara. "On receiving specific information, a joint team of police and 2-PARA eliminated an unidentified militant at Gund Manchher," he said.

The SP, Kupwara, said the encounters had increased due to the rise in infiltration from PoK. "Most militants killed had infiltrated Kashmir recently," he said.

source : http://www.dnaindia.com

Bhai Ka Resume

 Pakya Bhai Supariwala urf Yeda Khopadi

Objective:
To obtain a challenging position as a Crime Implementation Analyst (CIA)

Education:
* B.S. (Crime Technology) Tihar Jail, India, August 1994

* M.S. (Criminal Sciences) Virginia Prison for International Smugglers and the Unlawful Activists(VPISUA) , August 1996.

Thesis:

"On escaping from high security prisons like Alcatraz with minimal efforts"

Coursework:
Cop Psychology, Plastic Explosives Technology, Bomb Controls and Timer Dev ice Theory, International Smuggling and Drug Trafficking, Object Oriented Crime Design


Work Experience:

* Research Assistant, LTTE Labs, Jaffna, Aug 1990-Aug 1991

* Worked on the prestigious Belt Bomb project

* Dev eloped instant death cyanide capsules in orange, strawberry; and mint flavors (Patent# 007,13,666)


Summer Internship:

Dawood Ibrahim and Haji Mastan Associates, Bombay , June1987-July1990

* Worked as a hitman and was responsible for many supari style killings

* Participated in election rigging in Bihar and made hafta Collections


Honors & Achievements:

* Won 1980 Gabbar Singh Memorial Award (given to child prodigies in crime)

* Member, IPKF (Indian Professional Killers Forum) student chapter

* Performer of the year in 2004 General Elections in Bihar & U.P.

* Strong hold on Govt. & NGOs.

* Specialized in extortion,illegal construction business & fake academic degree supply.


References:

* Dr. Charles Sobhraj, Full Time Prof., Tihar Jail, New Delhi

* Dr. Chandra Swamy, Visiting Faculty Tihar Jail, New Delhi

* Dr. Dawood Ibrahim , Overseas Projects Manager, Dub ai

Too Funny Sardar Jokes

Inspector to Santa: Phansi se pehle, bata teri aakhri ichha kya hai?
Santa: Mere pair upar aur sir neeche kar k phansi de do!

Santa proposing a girl: Darling kya tum mujse shadi karogi?
Girl: Tameez se baat karo.
Santa: Behan ji, kya aap mujhse shaadi karoge?

Banta: Meri biwi mujhe chod ke chali gayi. Santa: Tu uska khyal nahi rakhta hoga.
Banta: Arre yaar, Sagi behan ki tarah rakhta tha

Banta joins army, given AK 47. He's puzzled & asks Major: Sir, yeh bandook ki nali samne rakhun ya ulta?
Major: Kisi bhi taraf rakho, faida desh ka hi hoga

Santa: Bus stand jane k kitne paise?
Rikshawala: 10 Rs
Santa: 2Rs mein chalega to theek hai
Rikshawala: 2Rs mein kaun le k jayega?
Santa: Peeche baith main lekar jata hoon.

Santa: Main aur meri girlfriend shaadi kar rahe hain.
Banta: Wow, Kab?
Santa: Meri 7 Dec ko aur uski 13 Jan ko.

Santa kissed his girl friend in the park.
Girl: Plz ye sb shadi se pehle…
Santa: Don’t worry darling, I'm already married.

Pappu: Dad what’s Sex?
Santa gets tensed but explains everything.
Pappu: But dad how do I write all that in this small box of school admission form?

Santa: What is the similarity between Bill Gates n Me?
Banta: Don’t know.
Santa: Well.. He never comes to my house & I never go 2 his!

Girl: Will you love me after marriage also?
Santa: This depends on your husband, if he allows me.

WHRE IS THE CIVILISATION????

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the
World.
So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to China .
On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he
Noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read
"$10,000 per call".
The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by
what The telephone was used for.

The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for
$10,000 you could talk to God.

The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Japan . There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the
Same golden telephone with the same sign under it.
He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in China
and He asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.
She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000
He Could talk to God.

"O.K., thank you," said the American.

He then traveled to Pakistan , Srilanka , Russia , Germany and France .

In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same
"$10,000
Per call" sign under it.
The American, upon leaving Vermont decided to travel to up to India
to
See if Indians had the same phone.

He arrived in India , and again, in the first church he entered,
there
Was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read
"One Rupee per call."

The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign.
"Father, I've traveled all over World and I've seen this same golden
Telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to
Heaven,
But in the US the price was $10,000 per call.

Why is it so cheap here?"

>
> Readers, it is your turn........ Think ......before you scroll down...
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>
> The priest smiled and answered, "You're in India now, Son - it's a
> Local
> Call".
> This is the only heaven on the Earth.

Telephone

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the
World.
So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to China .
On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he
Noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read
"$10,000 per call".
The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by
what The telephone was used for.

The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for
$10,000 you could talk to God.

The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Japan . There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the
Same golden telephone with the same sign under it.
He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in China
and He asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.
She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000
He Could talk to God.

"O.K., thank you," said the American.

He then traveled to Pakistan , Srilanka , Russia , Germany and France .

In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same
"$10,000
Per call" sign under it.
The American, upon leaving Vermont decided to travel to up to India
to
See if Indians had the same phone.

He arrived in India , and again, in the first church he entered,
there
Was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read
"One Rupee per call."

The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign.
"Father, I've traveled all over World and I've seen this same golden
Telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to
Heaven,
But in the US the price was $10,000 per call.

Why is it so cheap here?"

>
> Readers, it is your turn........ Think ......before you scroll down...
>
>
>
> ............ ......
> ............ ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... .
>
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>
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>
>
>
>
> The priest smiled and answered, "You're in India now, Son - it's a
> Local
> Call".
> This is the only heaven on the Earth.

WHRE IS THE CIVILISATION????

Conversation between Bill Gates and our very own Laloo of Bihar

Gates : Namaskar! you must have heard of Windows.
Laloo : Oh yes! most govt. offices we have the single window clearance
concept.

Gates : At home have u installed Windows?
Laloo : I have removed all windows due to increased burgalaries in our
house.

Gates(Confused) : Then what is the system you operate on?
Laloo : OPERATION? Yes, I had a Hernia operation last month.

Gates(Sweating) : Hope the internet is being used a lot in India.
Laloo: Oh Yes! Due to increased mosquito problems many people are
sleeping
under the net.

Gates: By the year 2000 India should export computer chips.
Laloo: We are already exporting Uncle Chips.

Gates(Feeling very Uneasy): do you regularly use LapTops?
Laloo: My grand-child sleeps on the top of my lap.

Gates(Heavily Sweating): The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh knows a
lot
about RAM and ROM.
Laloo : RUM? Prohibition is being lifted and it will be shortly
available in
A.P..

Gates(Feeling Dizzy): I would like to take your leave before my system
crashes.
Laloo: I have exhuasted all my leave.

Gates: I have no energy left, let us go out and have a bite.
Laloo: BITE? I believe in non-violence. I will not bite.

Gates: (System Crashes and Found Missing).
"Windows is restarting.Please wait........ ....."

WHRE IS THE CIVILISATION????

Man in India Marries Dog to Atone for Stoning to Death Mating Canines
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Hindustan Times, Associated Press and Time of India contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311079,00.html

NEW DELHI — Selva Kumar had been hounded for 15 years by the memory of a horrible act he'd committed as a teenager.

As an 18-year-old he had stoned and clubbed to death two dogs he found engaged in mating. He then hung their carcasses from a tree.

That's when his personal suffering began.

"After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," Kumar told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

Kumar, now 33 and living in the southern Indian district of Sivaganga, could no longer take the physical pain of the "dog curse," so he sought the advice of an astrologer.
Indian man marries a dog
Friends and relations attend P. Selvakumar's wedding to a dog

Her cure for his maladies?

"Marry a dog."

Which is just what Kumar did on Sunday.

In a ceremony befitting a beautiful Indian bride, the bitch, a former 10-year-old stray named "Selvi," was bathed and dressed in a ceremonial orange sari with a garland of flowers adorning her neck. She was then brought to the temple in Tamil Nadu to be presented to Kumar by members of his family.

Kumar, sitting beside his bride, recited his marriage vows, declaring, "I will take care of it until its death." Then, the "couple" was declared married.

Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.

The Hindustan Times reported Kumar's family hosted a feast — while Selvi dined on a bun.

No word on where the couple would honeymoon or reside, or whether they had registered for gifts.

A gujarati boy

One day many years ago at a school in South London a teacher said to the class of 5-year-olds, "I'll give $20 to the child who can tell me who was the most respected man, whom people consider God, who ever lived."
An Irish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Patrick." The teacher said, "Sorry Alan, that's not correct."
Then a Scottish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Andrew." The teacher replied, "I'm sorry, Hamish, that's not right either.
Finally, a Gujarati boy raised his hand and said, "It was Jesus Christ." The teacher said, "That's absolutely right, Jayant, come up here and I'll give you the $20."
As the teacher was giving Jayant his money, she said, "You know Jayant, since you are Gujarati, I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ." Jayant replied, "Yes, in my heart I knew it was Lord Krishna, but business is busin ess!"

Indian Navy to Receive Technology to Prevent Ship Detection

Indigenous warship technology for evading detection by enemy ships and submarines will be handed over to the Indian Navy in Vishakapatnam on Wednesday.

A. Sivathanu Pillai, chief controller (R&D) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), will hand over the products to Vice-Admiral D.S.P. Varma, chief of materials at the Naval Headquarters. The Vishakapatnam-based Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) has developed the technologies.

'These technologies are aimed for use in modern warships under design and construction. NSTL has nurtured these technologies in the recent past and is progressing strongly towards self-reliance in this critical arena,' a defence ministry release said Tuesday.

'Warship technology is a multi-disciplinary field covering different aspects such as acoustics and electro-magnetics covering a wide band of frequencies. An inter-disciplinary and holistic approach has been adopted in developing these products,' the release added.

NSTL has developed a number of products to avert damages to naval ships in enemy attacks.

Among the products developed are acoustics enclosures, acoustic silencers, double stage vibration isolation systems, radar transparent ladders, stanchions, camouflage screens, and composite blowers.

'All these products were subjected to extensive laboratory and shipboard evaluations. After successful evaluations, these products have been accepted for induction into the Indian Navy,' the release said.

DRDO To Develop Long Range, Subsonic Cruise Missile

Indian defence scientists have taken up a new cruise missile development programme. The missile named Nirbhay (The Fearless) is in the same class as the US's Tomahawk and will have a range that is 300km longer than Pakistan's Babur.

Nirbhay is India’s seventh missile development project after the Agni series, the Prithvi series, Brahmos (in a joint venture with Russia), Akash, Trishul and Nag. The last three were part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme founded by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Nirbhay is being developed alongside Astra, an air-to-air missile designed to hit targets beyond visual range.

A cruise missile can be guided to a target. A ballistic missile is fired at a pre-determined target. Nirbhay will carry onboard a terrain-identification system that will map its course and relay the information to its guidance and propulsion systems. “Every modern military needs to have missile options. The requirement for Nirbhay was projected by all three armed forces to fill a gap in our missile programme,� Avinash Chander, the director of the Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, who is in charge of the project, told The Telegraph in Delhi today.

Nirbhay will be a terrain-hugging missile capable of avoiding detection by ground-based radar. It would have a range of 1,000km. “We have Brahmos, which is a supersonic cruise missile and the need was felt for a subsonic cruise missile that will be capable of being launched from multiple platforms in land, air and sea,� Chander said.

In the schedule drawn up for Nirbhay, a technology demonstrator is slotted for early 2009. Chander said the design for the system is complete and “hardware preparations are on�. He said Nirbhay would weigh around 1,000kg and travel at 0.7 mach (nearly 840kmph) and would be capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads. The Pakistani subsonic cruise missile Babur (also called Hatf VII) has ranges of 500 to 700km. The US’s Tomahawk has many versions, the latest of which has ranges in excess of 1,500km.

India Russia To Sign Akula Submarine Deal; To Be Leased For Seven Years

Ahead of Prime Ministers upcoming visit to Moscow from November 10th, India and Russia are widely expected to sign on the Indian Navy Akula Submarine Lease Deal.

Indian Navy is all set to acquire the nuclear powered advanced submarines for a period of up to seven years. This acquisition would help the Navy prepare for the induction of the ATV, India's indigenous nuclear-powered vessel-in-the-making which goes for sea trials in 2009. Strategic submarines are the key to India's quest for a credible nuclear deterrence.

For Russia, raising the stakes, it hopes, will increase Indian dependence as Moscow seeks to defend its position as No. 1 defense supplier to New Delhi, however Russia's importance as a defense partner to New Delhi declines following India's vastly improving internal defense capabilities compounded with close relations and improving with Israel, France and the United States.

Project 971 Щука-Ð` (Shchuka-B, 'Shchuka' meaning pike, NATO reporting name "Akula"), is a nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) first deployed by the Soviet Navy in 1986. The class is sometimes erroneously called the "Bars" class, after one of its members. Note that Akula ("shark") is the Soviet designation of the ballistic missile submarine class designated by NATO as the Typhoon class submarine. They are sometimes bitterly called "the Walker class," referring to John Anthony Walker, whose espionage data related to sonar detection was used to improve this submarine.

There are three sub-classes or flights of Shchuka, consisting of the original seven "Akula I" submarines built between 1982 and 1986, five "Improved Akula" submarines built between 1986 and 1991, and four "Akula II" submarines built from 1991. This information is disputed, however, as the distinction between the Improved Akula and the Akula II class is debated by authoritative sources.

Akula incorporates a double hull system that increases the strength reserve and is able to dive deeper than any other modern SSN. It is the quietest Russian nuclear attack submarine; the noise radiated by the Akula-II class is comparable to that of early versions of the American Los Angeles class.

India, Africa, Defence: India To Strengthen Strategic Ties With Gabon

India will provide expertise to the small defence forces of the Central African Republic of Gabon in disaster management, training and healthcare.

This was agreed during talks between the visiting Senior Minister for National Defence of Gabon, Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba and the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in New Delhi last night. Shri Sanjeeva Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Defence Ministry, later gave a presentation on the potential for cooperation during the delegation level talks.

Ties between the two countries have been expanding since the visit of a high-level Ministerial delegation led by the Gabonese President Mr. El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba to India in May last year. India offered a $14.5 million Line of Credit to Gabon for a housing project during the visit of Gabonese Deputy Minister of Housing Development in July, this year. However, there have been no high-level visits to Gabon from the Indian side.

Gabon, which is slightly bigger than Uttar Pradesh in size, has a very small military of about 10,000 personnel, divided into army, navy, air force and national police. Besides, France, who ruled Gabon for 75 years till 1960, maintain a battalion of 750 marines in the African nation located on the Atlantic Coast. Gabon, whose oil sector accounts for nearly half its GDP, quit the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1995.

India Approves More Funds For Minorities' Development

The Union cabinet Thursday approved increasing the share capital of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corp (NMDFC) from Rs.6.5 billion to Rs.7.5 billion for economic development of backward sections amongst minorities.

The change in shareholding pattern of the NMDFC would enable it to reach out to more people from backward sections that are below the poverty line

source : http://www.newspostindia.com/report-22579

World's Richest Man...

Mukesh Ambani is world's richest man
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani today became the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market.

Following a strong share price rally on in his three group companies, India's most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore).


In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around $62.29 billion each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin.


The five richest people in the world with their net worth


1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)

2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)

3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)

4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)

5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)


Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about $56 billion.

Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%).

Slim's wealth has been calculated on the basis of his stake in companies like America Movil (30%), Carso Global (82%), Grupo Carso (75%), Inbursa (67%), IDEAL (30%) and Saks Inc (10%).


According to information available with the US and Mexican stock exchanges where these companies are listed, Slim currently holds shares worth a total of $62.2993 billion, with more than half coming from Latin American mobile major America Movil. Slim is closely followed by Gates with a net worth of $62.29 billion currently.


Earlier last month, US business magazine Forbes had named Gates as the richest American with a net worth of $59 billion, calculated as on August 30. The magazine had said that a movement of $2 in the share price for Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, could "add or subtract $1 billion" from his wealth.


Since August-end, Microsoft's share price has risen by $6.58 (based on yesterday's closing on Nasdaq at $35.03), which results into a gain of $3.29 billion in Gates' wealth based on Forbes assumption.


Besides a stake in Microsoft, Gates' wealth also includes the commission and license fees earned by him and gains through his shares in an investment holding company that invests across the market.


Gates is followed by Buffett at the fourth place in the league of the world's richest with a net worth of $55.9 billion through his holding in his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway and in other companies. At the end of August, Buffett's wealth stood at $52 billion, as per the Forbes magazine. Berkshire Hathaway's share price has gained by about 7.5% since then.


Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.

Mittal currently ranks as the fifth richest in the world with a net worth of $50.9 billion through his 44.79% stake in world's biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal.


While most of Mittal's wealth comes from his steel empire, though he has also spread his wings into businesses like oil and real estate, those of Ambani and Gates are mostly through petrochemicals and software respectively. However, Buffett and Slim are making money from investments across a host of sectors.


Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in the World!! Lakshmi Mittal being at 5th position. Two Indians being at top 5!!

Time Pass

This is a real story of a young college girl who passed away last month
in Chandigarh. Her name was Priya. She was hit by a truck.

She was working in a call centre. She has a boy friend named Shankar.
Both of them are true lovers. They always hang on the phone.You can
never see her without her handphone. In fact she also changed
her phone
from Airtel to Hutch, so both of them can be on the same network, and
save on the cost.

She spends half of the day talking with shankar. Priya's family knows
about their relationship. Shankar is very close with Priya's family.
(just imagine their love) . Before she passed away shealways told her
friends "If I pass away please burn me with my handphone"
she also said the same thing to her parents.

After her death, people cudnt carry her body, I was there. A lot of them
tried to do so but still cant , everybody including me, had tried to
carry the body, the result is still the same. Eventually, they called a
person who know to one of their neighbours, who can speak with the soul
of dead person, who is a friend of her father.

He took a stick and started speaking to himself slowly.

After a few minutes, he said "this girl misses something here." Then her
friends told that person about her intentions to burn her with her
phone.
He then opened the grave box and place her phone and sim card inside the
casket. After that they tried to carry the body. It could be moved and
they carried it into the van easily.

All of us were shocked. Priya's parents did not inform Shankar that
Priya had passed away.

After 2 weeks Shankar called Priya's mom.....

Shankar :...."Aunty, I'm coming home today. Cook something nice for
me.
Dont tell Priya that I'm coming home today, I wanna surprise her."
Her mother replied....."You come home first, I wanna tell you
something very important."

After he came, they told him the truth about Priya. Shankar thinks
that they were playing a fool. He was laughing and said "dont try to
fool me - tell Priya to come out, i have a gift for her. Please stop
this nonsense".

Then they show him the original death certificate to him.
They gave him proof to make him believe. (Shankar started to sweat)
He
said... "Its not true. We spoke yesterday. She still calls me.
Shankar was shaking.

Suddenly, Shankar's phone rang. "see this is from Priya, see
this...."
he showed the phone to priya's family. all of them told him to
answer. he talked using the loudspeaker mode.

All of them heard his conversation.

Loud and clear, no cross lines, no humming.

It is the actual voice of Priya & there is no way others could use
her
sim card since it is nailed.

Inside the grave box they were so shocked and asked for the same
person's
(who can speak with the soul of deal perosns) help again. He brought
his
master to solve this matter.

He & his master

worked for 5 hours.

Then they discovered one thing which really shocked
them€  ’¥’¥’¥

Hutch has the best coverage.

Where ever you go, our network follows!!!

Proud To Be Indian

The first thing that strikes one about Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr. YS Rajan€ ¦’²s book, India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium is its positive tone. A man who always believed in teamwork, he insists that every reply he gives is further elaborated upon by his colleague and co-author Dr. Rajan, who has put in a long innings with the Indian Space Research Organization. Dr. Kalam says: € ¦’³ We are confident that poverty will be substantially reduced and that no Indian will be living below the poverty line by 2020. We believe that once food and job availability increase, this will have a triggering effect on the whole economy. We also believe this can be achieved without huge capital investments and have elaborated on this in our book.€ ¦’´
***
Tipu Sultan€ ¦’²s army was the first to use rockets. Abdul Kalam tells the story, in half jest and half pain that the British leant about accurate rocket propulsion from Tipu Sultan€ ¦’²s armoury.
***
The ATM bank card technology was developed in India in the late Eighties but it was patented in the US. It was a one million-dollar sale to Unisys which in turn made $700 million by selling it all over the world.
***
The bathing complex at Shirdi, Nasik in Maharashtra, built and maintained by Sulabh International for the Shirdi Saibaba Trust is the largest bathing complex in the world. The complex can serve 30000 people a day.
***
India has the second largest English-speaking graduates in the world (next to the USA).
***
The word navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word € ¦’³navigath€ ¦’´. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word € ¦’³nou€ ¦’´. Which means boat in sanskrit and few other Indian languages. The art of navigation was developed in the river Sindhu 6000 years ago. The strong Maratha navy had the British at bay for a long time.
***
India€ ¦’²s professional standing army of 1.1 million is the second largest in the world after China€ ¦’²s.
***
India has 18 officially recognized languages with a number of dialects and spin-offs. The nation has newspapers in 87 languages, radio programs in 71 and films in 15.
Sanskrit literature is more than 5000 years old and tamil 3000. Some Indian languages do not have a script. Although some languages are called € ¦’³tribal€ ¦’´ or € ¦’³aboriginal€ ¦’´, their populations may be larger than those that speak some European languages. Bhili and Santali both tribal languages, each have more than 4 million speakers. Gondi is spoken by more than 2 million people.
With 366 and 207 million speakers, Hindi is second and Bengali fifth among the top ten languages spoken in the world. Chinese tops the list as those speaking Chinese Mandarin number 874 million according to the World Almanac and Book of Facts, Modern Language Association of America and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
***
India produces the highest number of feature films per year from eight centres in a record 30 languages and dialects. Between 1912 and 1999, India produced 31264 feature films, both silent and talkies, of which Hindi films comprise 8566.
***
Abhinav Bindra of Chandigarh, is the only person to have shot a perfect score 600/600 in the air rifle (ISU) category at the Chandigarh State Shooting Championship at Patilal Rao range, eclipsing the previous mark 597/600 set by Austria€ ¦’²s Wolfram Wibel.
***
India is the largest producer of milk in the world. The milk is processed and distributed using state-of-the-art technology. The National Dairy Development Board now handles more than 10,900 metric tonnes of milk a day. It is estimated that Operation Flood increased milk-production during the period 1974-94 by 44 million metric tonnes per year. The entire operation is run on a commercial basis. Of the 72,000 village level co-operatives, milk was collected only from 53,000. The rest of them were considered to be commercially unviable. It is estimated that this alone is responsible for more than a billion dollars of rural income. Here is an indigenous initiative that converted the poor into consumers. More importantly, it created six million entrepreneurs in India€ ¦’²s villages.
***
India possesses the largest postal network in the world. It comprises 154149 post offices of which 89 per cent are located in 604341 villages. Letters are collected from 564701 letterboxes and processed by a network of 573 Railway Mail Service (RMS).
***
According to the Gemological Institute of America until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.
***
There are more than 5000 dailies, 16,000 weeklies and over 6000 fortnightlies in all Indian languages, higher than in any other country.
***
Chennai based eye hospital Sankar Netralaya is the first eye hospital in Asia to obtain an ISO certification.
***
Bharat Bala talks about a moment four years ago as the turning point in his life. His father, a freedom fighter and a close associate of Kamaraj, looked at him and said, € ¦’³ You say that good advertising is being able to encapsulate a product€ ¦’²s Big Idea. Can you create a Big Idea for our country? Can you sell India to Indians?€ ¦’´ That€ ¦’²s how Vande Mataram was born.
In three and half years Bharat Bala, Kanika and the team travelled 60,000 kilometers of India for Vande Mataram, Vande Mataram II and Jana Gana Mana. Ma Tujhe Salam, one of Rahman€ ¦’²s compositions in the first Vande Mataram album, played in 400 cinema halls. € ¦’³ There was chaos in the theatres,€ ¦’´ Bharat Bala says proudly, € ¦’³they kept playing the song again and again!€ ¦’´
Jana Gana Mana took 65 musicians to Ladakh. And they weren€ ¦’²t just any musicians: Bhimsen Joshi, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Jasraj, Shiv Kumar Sharma€ ¦’¥. you name them, they were there. Each one gave his/her own unique rendition of the national anthem, each wearing white, each standing dramatically against the area€ ¦’²s bleak backdrop.
***
Carlene Moore Ellis, director, education programme, for Intel Corporation, thinks that the computer education in India is fairly unique. She says: € ¦’³Our concerns in the US have not enough home work, too much free time, not enough time spent on math and science in classrooms. It is a great concern that American students are scoring last in math and science in the whole world. The top scorer in math and science is pretty much Asia. I think India€ ¦’²s math and science skills are outrageously good. I should have put my children in India from KG through class 8. I greatly admire this country€ ¦’²s passion for education. The valuing of education as a culture, the indisputable regard for educators and people attempting to educate a country of a billion people is very much to be admired. You should be proud of what you€ ¦’²ve done as a country.€ ¦’´
***
Hero Cycles Ltd., the flagship company of the Hero group, has been the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world since 1986. The two units at Ludhiana and Sahibabad have a combined production capacity of more than 16,500 bicycles a day.
***
The Keeled Chana National Park, Bharatpur (Rajasthan) is considered one of the finest bird sanctuaries in the world.
***
Taranath Shenoy, who is deaf, dumb and blind in one eye, did not let his physical disability stop him from swimming across the English Channel and the Straits of Gibraltar.
***
Jaipur foot looks exactly like the normal foot and matches the color of the skin. An Indian creation, Jaipur foot is now a part of medical terminology. Sudha Chandran who is a famous Bharatanatyam dancer lost her leg in an accident. She gave her first performance with the artificial limb on January 28 1984 and danced for nearly two hours.
***
In Surya Siddhanta, Bhaskaracharya calculates the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun to 9 decimal places (365.258756484 days). The modern accepted measurement is 365.2596 days. The difference between the ancient measurement (1500 years ago) and the modern measurement is only 0.00085 days (0.0002%). India has given the world the idea of the smallest and the largest measure of time € ¦’¶ from 34,000 th of a second (Krati) to 4.32 billion years (Kalpa).
***
Amartya Sen is high up in the world league of serious thinkers and a Nobel laureate in economics. He could have also won the prize for philosophy if the committee recognized the subject.
His work on the causes of famine changed public perceptions by showing why thousands might starve even when a country€ ¦’²s food production has not diminished, and his analysis of poverty has been enormously influential. Arguing that simple measures of GNP were not enough to assess the standard of living, he helped to create the United Nations€ ¦’² Human Development Index€ ¦’¥.
€ ¦’³He has a mind like a searchlight, yet he works at Mozartian speed. His output is staggering in its volume,€ ¦’´ comments Robert Cassen, an economist at the LSE.
-Jonathan Steele, March 31, 2001, The Guardian
***
From 173 million voters 50 years ago, the number grew to 619 million in the 1999 general elections, making India€ ¦’²s elections the largest in the world.
***
In 1997, Cipla launched transparent Rotahaler, the world€ ¦’²s first dry powder inhaler device now patented by Cipla in India and abroad.
***
Mr. Narayan NR Murthy, Chairman and CEO of Infosys, was named among the € ¦’±25 most influential global executives€ ¦’² by TIME/CNN in 2001. Infosys was ranked number two in corporate governance in a survey of 495 emerging companies conducted by CLSA emerging markets.
Mr. Narayan Murthy has sold 36,500 of his own shares in Infosys to contribute to charitable activities. The total value of this sale will be close to Rs.12 crores, based on that day€ ¦’²s closing price of Rs.3,210 on BSE. According to a notice sent to the stock exchange, Mr.Narayan Murthy owned 5.64 lakh shares in Infosys that, after the sale, has come down to 5.28 lakh shares.
Mr.Narayan Murthy and other Infoscians see social responsibility as a way of life. Mr. Narayan Murthy is a regular contributor to several charities. He and his wife Sudha Murthy have contributed close to Rs. Eight crores for the creation of 100 Nirmala Bangalore sanitation systems, HealthNet Infrastructure, under the Bangalore Agenda Task Force.
***
India is already the globe€ ¦’²s largest producer of films, annually cranking out some 800 titles. Exports earned $100 million in 1999, a tenfold increase since 1990. The year 2000 earnings were estimated at $250 million. Management consultant Arthur Andersen predicts Indian exports will expand by at least 50 per cent each year, earning around $3 billion by 2006.
India€ ¦’²s IT software and engineering savvy is spilling into India€ ¦’²s fast-growing reputation as an outsourcing center for high-quality, low-cost animation and special effects. (Indian companies typically charge 75 percent less than U.S. companies.) Arthur Andersen forecasts that Indian animation exports alone will reach $2 billion in 2003.
€ ¦’³Indians have it in them to match Hollywood€ ¦’²s standards shoulder to shoulder. For instance Signs, Manoj Night Shyamalan€ ¦’²s latest film, debuted at number one in mid-August 2002 with a staggering $60.3 million in ticket sales. Signs played in 3,264 theatres, averaged $18,469 per location and grossed more than the rest of the Top Five combined. Manoj Shymalan is described as the next Steven Spielberg. He improved on the record openings of his previous film, Unbreakable (2000), which grossed $30.3 million in the first weekend and eventually closed with $95 million. The Sixth Sense (1999) debuted at $26.7 million and raked in $293.5 million. Both films, starring Bruce Willis, collectively grossed over $900 million at the global box office. Signs posted the 11 th largest opening weekend ever, the fifth best among sequels and the second biggest in August 2002 after Rush Hour 2, which premiered around the same weekend a year ago.€ ¦’´
Source: Article by Anil Padmanabhan in India Today, August 2002
Manoj Night Shyamalan also wrote the screenplay for the family hit Stuart Little and became the first Indian-American or € ¦’±person of color€ ¦’² to ever be nominated in both the best writer and director Oscar categories.
The Gladiator recreates ancient Rome in all her majesty and film critics are going nuts about the perfect atmospheric smoke and the dazzling sets. The large chunks of these sets were not made in Dream Work€ ¦’²s fancy Hollywood studio, but right here in India. A Mumbai-based art-decorator firm, Nitish Roy & Associates, was hired to design portions of the sets for the spectacular Roman saga. The offer to prop up the Gladiator came like a bolt from the blue. Mr.Roy and his partner Sunil Pillai got a call in January 1999 from an old friend, Crispan Sallis, who had been hired as art decorator for the Gladiator to replace the existing one who had made a hash of things and had run through most of the budget. Recounts Mr.Pillai, € ¦’³ Crispan called us and said, € ¦’± I have no time and almost no money. You have to help me.€ ¦’´ It was an order they couldn€ ¦’²t refuse. Also one does not refuse a $107 million-budget Ridley Scott film.
Gurinder Chadha€ ¦’²s Bend It Like Beckham shot to number one in the British Box office, which represents a record for a film directed by an Indian.
***
The world€ ¦’²s first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC.
Nalanda University, the Harvard of its times was built in 4 th century BC and was one of the greatest achievements in the field of education. More than 10,500 students studied over 60 subjects at the Nalanda University. The subjects included Brahminical and Buddhist, sacred and secular, philosophical and practical. Nalanda attracted students not only from parts of India but also from far off lands.
***
The fact about the awe of Indian railways continues: Tracks of 1,00,000 Km. 700 stations. 2,300 railway yards. 11,000 freight and passenger trains a day. Over a million passengers a day. The longest tunnel in the world. The highest station in the world. One of the most challenging bits of construction (Konkan Railway). The largest railway in the world. In 1906, the largest railway station in the world was built at Howrah. One of the largest employers in the world. And perhaps among the cheapest tickets in the world.
***
Reuters is today the world€ ¦’²s largest news and television agency, with 198 bureaus serving 150 countries and revenues of more than $ six billion. The reputation of the service has been enhanced as much by its scoops and pioneering use of technology as by its fierce determination to protect its independence. Now, for the first time, it has placed its trust on an Indian to preserve its neutrality by appointing Mammen Mathew, Editor and Managing Director of the Malayala Manorama Group of Publications, as a Reuters trustee and director. Mammen Mathew, Chief Editor of TheWeek, is modest about the honour. € ¦’³It is a national recognition,€ ¦’´ he says. € ¦’³ It is an acceptance of the vibrancy of Indian journalism.€ ¦’´
***
Four Indian scientists have discovered that a type of chilli grown in the country€ ¦’²s Northeast region has the highest Scoville units per capsaicin € ¦’¶ a measure of hotness. The hottest chilli on earth is Indian indeed! Called the Tezpur Chilli after the area where it is grown, scientists say the pepper has beaten Mexico€ ¦’²s Red Savina Habanero, widely acclaimed as the hottest chilli in the world. € ¦’±The Tezpur Chilli was rated 85,000 Scoville units€ ¦’¥ The Mexican Chilli contained 57,000 Scoville units of pure capsaicin,€ ¦’² one of the scientists said.
***
A number of foreign airlines like British Airways, Singapore airlines and Swissair get their software developed in India-one good reason why their airlines run so efficiently.
***
Sanskrit is the mother of all European languages. According to Forbes (July 1987), Sanskrit was considered the most suitable language for speech recognition in Computer.During the early years of software revolution when western scientists were figuring out a way of constructing a protocol for writing code, they realized that the principles had already been laid down in the Sanskrit language by Panini some 2500 years ago.
***
India€ ¦’²s promising contribution to the world, the Simputer, a low cost portable alternative is out and its worldwide demand already exceeds the one million mark. It was formally launched here by its creators, four professors of the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) in Bangalore and three experts from Encore Software. The name Simputer, derived from € ¦’±Simple€ ¦’² and € ¦’±Computer€ ¦’² is about the size of a palm top but much more powerful and has ten times its processing speed. If produced in large volumes, it would cost Rs.9000 or less than $200.
The Simputer is expected to enable IT benefits to reach the common man. It has a special role in the third world because it ensures that illiteracy is not longer a barrier to handle computers. The key to bridging the digital divide is to have shared devices that permit truly simple and natural user interfaces based on sight, touch and audio. The Simputer meets these demands through a browser for the Information Markup Language (IML). IML has been created to provide a uniform experience to users and to allow the rapid development of solutions on any platform. Multi-lingual, it can operate in English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali. It can play MP3 files, send and receive e-mail and browse the web. It has a touch screen graphical interface, a speech synthesizer that can read text aloud to illiterates and a Smartcard for multiple sharing.
Simputers can be set up either at info kiosks, in the village panchayat, schools or even shops. Media Lab Asia has also purchased 100 units, state governments € ¦’¶ especially in the South € ¦’¶ are launching trials, and so are countries in Africa, Europe, the Far East, South East Asia and South America. Experts predict that the Simputer will revolutionize the market much in the same way as Sony€ ¦’²s Walkman.
***
Hindalco was adjudged the worldwide runner-up for the Millennium Business Award for Environmental Achievement under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme. The company€ ¦’²s Hirakud smelter was adjudged the Best Performing Smelter in the one to three million hours category by the International Primary Aluminium Institute, UK.
***
The Patang museum in Ahmedabad is one of the only two kite museums of the world. The other one being located in Tokyo.
***
In many ways, the 1200 hectare township called Kumbhanagar is a mini-India, a temporary home to people from all over the country and, indeed, the world. The clean Kumbha is a creation of 6000 sweepers working virtually round the clock. It has been gratifying to see workers remove trash from bathing ghats almost as soon as it is spotted. A monumental 200 tonnes of solid waste is trucked away from the Kumbhanagar every day. The 30 million pilgrims who took a holy dip on January 24, 2001 numbered more than the residents of Delhi and Mumbai put together; to use another reference point, they equalled the Canadian population.
India Today, 5 February 2001
***
In a breakthrough in brain research, the Indian American scientist has discovered that the part of the brain used for hearing can also be made to see. Mriganka Sur, head of the department of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that when an animal€ ¦’²s brain was rewired so that visual input was directed to the auditory cortex, or the part used for hearing, it responded to visual stimuli
***
Indian-American scientist Rusi Taleyarkhan is making waves. He, along with his US colleagues, has caused a stir in the world scientific community by claiming to be the first to have achieved nuclear fusion in a small table-top experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, USA.
Taleyarkhan, an alumnus of IIT Chennai, along with another scientist Richard Lahey, led the research team. Taleyarkhan opine, € ¦’³ The real significance of my discovery is that now for the first time one can use simple mechanical means to initiate and control fundamental forces of nature, specifically nuclear fusion. This has immense potential for limitless and clean form of energy. Presently we have been able to utilize simple tabletop mechanical energy to induce and control a nuclear fusion phenomenon. This can be used for a variety of applications like materials synthesis, chemical reactions, radiography and medicinal treatment.
In the future, is this technique can be scaled, it will be possible to generate a limitless and a relatively clean energy source for several hundred years. Fusion reactions of a certain type would produce about the same energy that will be a million times greater than either gasoline or coal.
Source: The Times of India
***
In the number of companies listed, India is in second place, only after US. The US leads with 6355 listed companies as of end 2001. India follows closely with 5795.
***
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR) is a world heritage site, the second after the Semming Railway in Australia to be accorded the status. The UNESCO world heritage committee said, € ¦’³ DHR is the first and still the most outstanding example of hill passenger railway,€ ¦’´ the committee said. Opened in 1881, it applied bold and ingenious engineering solutions to the problems of establishing an effective rail link across a difficult mountainous terrain of great beauty. Fully operational and retaining most of its original features intact, the DHR is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multicultural region.
***

Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics scientists achieved a 99.995 per cent concentration of helium. India is now a part of an elite club comprising US, Poland, Russia, Algeria and Falkland Islands, which have the technology to produce liquefied helium. The breakthrough means India may not have to import helium from US, which costs Rs. 400 per cu.m. The technology has applications in medicine, space research, defense and atomic energy. The capability to produce liquid helium will boost cryotechnology in India.
***
Bangalore has been named one of the top seven intelligent communities in the world for 2002 by Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a project of the World Teleport Association. The other six intelligent communities named by ICF are: Calgary in Canada, Florida High Tech Corridor Council and La Grange in the US, Seoul in South Korea, Singapore and Sunderland in the UK.
ICF developed a list of five Intelligent Community Indicators that provide the first global framework for understanding how communities and regions could gain a competitive edge today. The indicators relate to the deployment of broadband communications, knowledge work, programmes to overcome the digital divide, access to risk capital and effective economic development marketing.
According to ICF, the top seven have been chosen not because they excel in all these areas, but because each demonstrates excellence in at least one.
***
Dr.A.D. Karve, an Indian scientist heading a Pune-based non-governmental organization, has won a 30,000 pound sterling international award for discovering and implementing a unique technology for producing clean fuel from sugarcane waste. Karve, grandson of social reformer Maharshi Dondo Keshav Karve, was chosen for the award from among four finalists from over the world. The project converts a large-scale environmental problem € ¦’¶ burning millions of tonnes of sugarcane waste in open fields each year € ¦’¶ into a huge income-generating opportunity: providing clean and cheap domestic fuel.
***
Shaleen Haralalka, a 12 th standard student of St.John€ ¦’²s High School at Kota in Rajasthan, has developed equipment that can destroy landmines. He is among the four youngsters from India to be awarded a British Council scholarship to attend the two-week international science forum in London. He was one of the eight students in the world chosen by the Indian Space Research Organization and NASA to participate in the € ¦’³Red Rover Goes to Mars€ ¦’´ mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles in March. The equipment developed by Shaleen Haralalka is remote controlled, small, portable, lightweight and economical (production cost of Rs 10,000 per piece only).
Source: The Times of India, 25 July 2002
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Copernicus published his theory of revolution of the earth in 1543 AD. Some 1000 years earlier, Aryabhatta stated that the earth revolves around the sun using the following specific words: € ¦’³ Just as a person travelling in a boat feels that the trees on the bank are moving, people on the Earth feel that the Sun is moving.€ ¦’´
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A few drops of this medicine put in a band-aid strip and pressed against the skin on a patient suffering from malignant brain tumor gave immense relief from the excruciating pain! Prof. Asru Sinha and a group of scientists in Jadhavpur University introduced this anti-neoplastin. It has shown remarkable efficacy in nearly 30,000 people in the last two years. The success rate was 78- 80% from esophageal cancer, 60% for colon and for rectum it was 65%.
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The managers of Yahoo! And scores of other search engines that enable netizens to cruise the Infobahn have the late Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan to thank. He was the pioneer of Library Science. In the thirties, while studying in England, Ranganathan created a classification and retrieval system that formed the technical basis of many search engines today. He wrote the classic € ¦’± The five laws of Library Science€ ¦’² in 1931. In a recent Yahoo! Article, Aimee Glassel, the Internet Scout Projects€ ¦’² lead Internet cataloger says, € ¦’³ What Ranganathan recognized was that the world of knowledge was growing very quickly, with new areas being discovered and new ways to combine existing subjects. Any classification that attempted to enumerate a finite number of subjects without full capabilities for expansion to allow for new areas of knowledge could never meet the needs of the future. Ranganathan wanted to classify knowledge into broad classes, which were then broken down
into basic concepts or elements according to characteristics called facets. Individual facets were then synthesized to form a complete class number, which could describe in detail a single book. This is the underlying principle of colon classification.€ ¦’´

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Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is the toughest management school in the world to get into, ahead of Harvard Business school, Columbia University, Spain€ ¦’²s Institute de Empressa and France€ ¦’²s Insead, according to a survey by The Economist. There€ ¦’²s more. In terms of the course content, it comes in fifth after Yale, Harvard, IE and Paris€ ¦’² Haute Etudes Commercials. Even in times of crisis in the global job markets, the McKinseys, JP Morgans and AT Kearneys of the world flock to recruit youngsters from IIM campuses. They clock and average pay of Rs 21 lakh a year € ¦’¶ a little less than half the starting average for graduates of Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford.
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Pere Vicens, president of the International Publishers Association feels that the Calcutta Books Fair is the biggest of its kind in the world. € ¦’³I€ ¦’²ve never seen anything like this before. In fact, an open-air fair of this nature is quite unparalleled. The Madrid fair too is out in the open. But the Calcutta event is unique in its diversity.
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In many ways, the 1200 hectare township called Kumbhanagar is a mini-India, a temporary home to people from all over the country and, indeed, the world. The clean Kumbha is a creation of 6000 sweepers working virtually round the clock. It has been gratifying to see workers remove trash from bathing ghats almost as soon as it is spotted. A monumental 200 tonnes of solid waste is trucked away from the Kumbhanagar every day. The 30 million pilgrims who took a holy dip on January 24, 2001 numbered more than the residents of Delhi and Mumbai put together; to use another reference point, they equalled the Canadian population.
India Today, 5 February 2001
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The great Brihadeshwarar or the Meenakshi temple or Dilwara were built at the same time the great cathedrals in Europe were built. In sheer conception, scale and aesthetics, India matched and challenged the best.
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The four religions born in India are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. These religions are followed by 25 per cent of the world€ ¦’²s population. Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism are the third, fourth and fifth largest religions respectively in the world today. There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country including the Muslim world. The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia, built at the end of the 11 th century. The Venkateshwara temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10 th century, is the world€ ¦’²s largest religious pilgrimage destination, larger than either Rome or Mecca, with an average of 30,000 daily visitors donating $6 million a day.
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Perched on a lonely desolate hill, high in the inner Himalayas, is the latest hot spot for international astronomers € ¦’¶ the site for the spanking new Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO). Situated 4,517 m above mean-sea-level in the village of Hanle in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, this observatory € ¦’¶ commissioned in the year 2002 is the highest in the world. The Hanle telescope tops by 200m, the highest so far, the Meyer-Womble Observatory in the US, operated by the University of Denver, deep in the Ricky Mountains. For astronomers, the observatory€ ¦’²s height is crucial. The higher you go, the lesser the aberrations caused by the earth€ ¦’²s atmosphere.
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The International Mathematical Union awarded the prestigious R. Nevanlinna Prize for Computer Science, at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing, to the Chennai-born Professor Madhu Sudan of MIT. An IITian and doctorate from Caltech, Professor Madhu Sudan was being recognized by the international mathematical fraternity for his € ¦’³wide-ranging and brilliant€ ¦’´ error-correcting codes.
Three Indian computer engineers € ¦’¶ Professor Manindra Agrawal and his students Neeraj Katyal and Nitin Saxena at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur € ¦’¶ made world headlines by solving an age-old mathematical problem. They devised a way for a computer to state quickly and definitively if a number is prime. Experts around the world raved that the result was one of the most definitive proofs in computer science in a decade.
29-year-old Nirav Tolia of epinions.com first headed to medical school, switched over to Stanford, then joined Yahoo. He left after three years to start his own company, epinions.com. Today it is listed among one of the top five shopping sites and among the 50 most useful sites by Yahoo Internet Live. It was nominated by Wired Magazine as the most innovative start-up and selected as one of the top 10 companies of 2000 by the Industry Standard.
Source: The Times of India, 15 September 2002
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185 Fortune 500 companies are outsourcing software from India.
The Indian software industry will grow by at least 30 per cent this year.
IBM Global Services, Bangalore, has bagged a ten-year project from AT&T, with more than 5000 people likely to work on the project.
Sun Microsystems identified its Indian operations as one of the top five locations with a potential to earn over $ one billion revenue over the next five years. They may increase their Indian manpower from 400 to 4000 in the coming years.
Cisco purchased 29 acres in Bangalore and plans to invest Rs. 900 crore in India to expand operations.
GE plans to invest $800 million in IT and expects software exports from India to rise to $ three billion by 2004, with software outsourcing accounting for a third of the export targets.
Intel is investing $25 million for a technology development centre in Bangalore and could expand engineering staff by 50 per cent.
Computer Science Corporation is setting up development centres in Noida and Hyderabad.
Consultancy firm Ernst & Young is planning to set up its second software development centre in India.

Source: Outlook, 24 December 2001
Jack Welch salutes India € ¦’¶ € ¦’³I had recently returned from a tour of our R & D operations in India and was excited by what I had seen. We could not have the R & D teams in United States doing all the advanced, fun work while farming out the lower-value projects to places like India. My visits to India convinced me that their research labs were filled with scientists equal to or better than those in United States € ¦’¶ and in a lot more disciplines than software.€ ¦’´
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India is now a part of the global space-faring elite. India successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) placing the country€ ¦’²s first meteorological satellite, Metsat, in orbit. So far, these satellites have been put in orbit only by US, Japan and some European nations. The action took place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The 44-metre rocket set off with a blast with the satellite weighing 1060 kilograms. The cost of the satellite was Rs. 75 crore.
Twenty minutes after lift-off it was celebration time even in the mission control room. The PSLV had successfully placed the satellite in the geosynchronous transfer orbit € ¦’¶ when the satellite matches the earth€ ¦’²s rotation and appears stationary from the ground. A camera on board the satellite will constantly watch over the developing weather systems. High-technology instruments will relay the information to the Meteorological Utilization Centre in New Delhi. Thus unexpected natural calamities like the 1999 super cyclone in Orissa will be history. Now India will be prepared.
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Dhar district has a population of 1.7 million, with 54 per cent of the population being tribal and 60 per cent of the population living below the poverty line € ¦’¶ not really a promising territory for an IT revolution.
An intranet, named Gyaandoot, connects 21 rural cybercafes called Soochanalaya kiosk. Each Soochanalaya provides services to about 10 to 15 Gram Panchayats, 20 to 30 villages and to a population ranging between 20000 to 30000. The intranet covers five out of 13 blocks in the district and three out of seven tehsils in the district. The Soochanalayas are located along roadsides, bordering villages, which people normally traverse. They together serve a population of over half a million. The € ¦’±manager€ ¦’² of the Soochanalaya (kiosk) is a matriculate, not an employee but an entrepreneur who runs these on commercial lines without receiving salary or stipend.
Today, people can send applications, various certificates, forms and complaints of practically all types at a cost of only Rs. 10 and thereafter, in a maximum period of 10 days. Sometimes in less than 10 days, an intimation of the readiness of the certificate or grievance redressal is sent back to them through e-mail at the concerned Soochanalaya. Perhaps the most satisfying acknowledgment for the Gyaandoot project was the Stockholm Award in 2000, which was won competing against 109 IT projects from around the globe. It is the only Indian project to receive this award in any category in the past four years. There is a lot to be learnt from such initiatives if only we allowed ourselves to think.
Source: Economic Times
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Bikram Choudhary is a 56-year-old, California based yoga exponent. His sequence of 26 asanas (each of which is performed twice) and two breathing exercises, are practised in temperatures crossing 100 degrees. Bikram runs over 600 yoga studios in the US alone. He claims to have cured every major disease, including former US president Richard Nixon€ ¦’²s phlebitis. His celebrity followers include Michael Jackson, Shirley Maclaine and Madonna. His $ 7 million empire makes him one of the biggest players in the burgeoning of yoga industry.
Born in Kolkata, Bikram started learning yoga at four. At 13, Bikram won the National India Yoga contest. At his guru€ ¦’²s urging, Bikram travelled to the West. He opened his first studio in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, in the early 70s, in a basement, where he slept on the floor and conducted free classes. Today, a 90-minute class at his institute costs $ 200 € ¦’¶ one of the most expensive sessions in the city. Bikram€ ¦’²s diligence in spreading the good word of yoga has resulted in over 75 per cent of all US health clubs offering yoga classes.
Source: Time News Network Magazine
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The Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR) is a world heritage site, the second after the Semming Railway in Australia to be accorded the status. The UNESCO world heritage committee said, € ¦’³ DHR is the first and still the most outstanding example of hill passenger railway,€ ¦’´ the committee said. Opened in 1881, it applied bold and ingenious engineering solutions to the problems of establishing an effective rail link across a difficult mountainous terrain of great beauty. Fully operational and retaining most of its original features intact, the DHR is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multicultural region.
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When people call Silicon Valley€ ¦’²s Indian population a mafia, they mean that the immigrants who live in the Bay Area and work in high tech € ¦’¶ roughly 200,000, according to siliconindia magazine € ¦’¶ have formed an amazing web. Indians invest in one another€ ¦’²s companies, sit on one another€ ¦’²s boards and hire each other in key jobs. Many live in close proximity and hang out together. The network might be only mildly interesting if so many of the Valley€ ¦’²s Indian immigrants hadn€ ¦’²t become phenomenally wealthy and successful in the past ten years. People generally don€ ¦’²t think of it this way, but Bay Area Indian immigrants represent America€ ¦’²s most successful immigrant group. Collectively, they€ ¦’²ve created companies that account for $235 billion of market value.
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A scale of four notes known as Svaratantra came into being. The ancient Aryans like the ancient Greeks had their music confined to four notes. An account of seven notes is found in the Manduki Siksha of the Atharva Veda. The seven notes are Shadja, Rishaba, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada abbreviated to Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni respectively. It is stated that the note produced by the peacock at the highest point of rapture is the note Shadja. Rishaba is said to represent the sound that is made by the cow while calling her calf. Gandhara is the bleat of the goat. Madhyama is the identified with the cry of the heron. The nightingale of India the Koel sings always in Panchama. Dhaivata is the neighing of the horse. Nishada is the trumpeting of the elephant.
Though there was only one system of music in India, cultural development has produced two broad systems of Indian classical music, Hindustani and Karnatak. In spite of many variations in their structure and style, there is a marked fundamental unity between the two systems. Raga concept is a unique feature of Indian music. Raga is the basis of Indian melody. Indian music is built on Raga and Tala concepts. The word Raga is derived from the Sanskrit root, meaning € ¦’±to color€ ¦’², and the basic idea being that certain melodic shapes produce a continuity of emotional experience and color the mind. Ragas are classified in various ways according to regions, seasons, time to sing, aesthetic qualities, scientific capabilities, their individual characters, pleasing capacities and many other ways. This time classification is strictly adhered to in Hindustani music but not so much in Karnatak music.
€ ¦’³In the ancient times, men of medicine were also men of music. They were vaids who would, after checking a patient€ ¦’²s pulse, say: € ¦’±Give him so-and-so medicine and make him hear a recital of Raag Gandhar.€ ¦’² These vaids successfully correlated the sa-re-ga-ma-pa to the various points of the body. This is what has made our music a veritable treasure house.€ ¦’´ - Naushad Ali, legendary composer
The Sapta Swaras have a distinct power and the vibrations produced by these notes have an inherent potential in them. A yogi through intense meditation acquires the required power, which is communicated to the common man in various ways, music being one of them. The vibration produced by combination of notes has psychological impact on the person and can cure him of his mental and physical problem. - Layam,
September 1994.
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India€ ¦’²s higher education sector is vast. In the number of students enrolled in higher education as a percentage of the population aged 20 to 24, not only is India a considerable distance ahead of any other country of comparable income level, but there is in fact no country with even twice India€ ¦’²s per capita income that comes anywhere close to its higher education ratio (World Bank 1982: World View 1982). In the number of doctors per unit of population, India is second only to China among all countries having an income per head no higher than twice India€ ¦’²s.
Source: How is India doing by Amartya Sen
Vinod Gupta was a boy from a remote village in Uttar Pradesh€ ¦’²s Rampur district. He now makes US $370 million through his Omaha-based ( Nebraska state) software company InfoUSA with a market capitalization of US $900 million in 33 years. He is known for his Rs 25 crore donation to his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, and a women€ ¦’²s polytechnic in Rampur worth Rs 1.2 million.
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€ ¦’³Most US companies are totally dependent on our database for their e-net business, which includes Infospace, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, etc. I have friends like President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. I have helped her raise election funds from a state like Nebraska. I even helped Vice President Al Gore in his campaign. It€ ¦’²s not only friendship, the Democrats are more keen on Indian affairs which I like. I also helped a few Republican candidates and have a long list of Republican friends as well,€ ¦’´ says Gupta.
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Conde Nast Traveler, a reputed magazine, has chosen India as € ¦’±the best value for money€ ¦’² destination and the eleventh best holiday destination in the world (scoring an impressive 96.73 out of 100) in a poll conducted among the magazine€ ¦’²s readers worldwide, ranking it above otherwise popular bets such as Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland.
Source: Business Line, 2 November 2002
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Rabindranath Tagore is not just the first Indian Nobel Laureate, but also the first Asian to be so honoured, taking into account all the subjects in which the award is given by the Nobel Committee.
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The Lifeline Express (or the Jeevan Rekha Express) is the world€ ¦’²s first hospital on wheels. The train set out on June 16, 1991 on its pilot journey to provide people living in remote parts of India with free medical and surgical facilities.
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The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
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India has 18 officially recognized languages with a number of dialects and spin-offs. The nation has newspapers in 87 languages, radio programs in 71 and films in 15.
Sanskrit literature is more than 5000 years old and tamil 3000. Some Indian languages do not have a script. Although some languages are called € ¦’³tribal€ ¦’´ or € ¦’³aboriginal€ ¦’´, their populations may be larger than those that speak some European languages. Bhili and Santali both tribal languages, each have more than 4 million speakers. Gondi is spoken by more than 2 million people.
With 366 and 207 million speakers, Hindi is second and Bengali fifth among the top ten languages spoken in the world. Chinese tops the list as those speaking Chinese Mandarin number 874 million according to the World Almanac and Book of Facts, Modern Language Association of America and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
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The first scheduled airline in the world to enroll a woman pilot was Indian airlines. This happened in the year 1966. On 8 March 1998 it operated two all-women crew flights to mark Women€ ¦’²s day.
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