Historic Spain victory caps euphoric African World Cup
A historic first World Cup victory for Spain in Soccer City capped the first World Cup in Africa Sunday, with a brief appearance by Nelson Mandela sealing the end to an immensely successful tournament for the South African hosts.The all-European final between Spain and the Netherlands was a bad-tempered affair, with the two sides ratcheting up 14 yellow cards, of which Dutch defender John Heitinga received two, earning him a sending off.
Spanish fans erupted in joy after striker Andres Iniesta scored the only goal of the game in extra time to write Spain's name in World Cup annals. The usually noisy army of Oranje supporters watched in stony silence and then loudly booed English referee Howard Webb as he collected his medal. But the dour Dutch mood couldn't dispel the euphoria of nearly one billion Africans, who were puffed up with pride at the close of an immensely successful World Cup that has confounded Africa's critics.
'You'll never get another World Cup like this. I'm very proud to be South African,' said Garrett Whyte, a 25-year-old student from Johannesburg, who attended the final. 'We have to thank South Africa for really transforming Africa, It's done all of Africa proud,' said Samson Adamu, from Nigeria, who also attended the game. 'Now the know-how is there, who knows, maybe Nigeria could organize a World Cup in a few decades,' he mused.
South Africa's farewell to a World Cup that has united the country across racial lines like never before was all the more emotional by the appearance at the closing ceremony of anti-apartheid icon Mandela. The 89,000-capacity stadium erupted in cheers and vuvuzela blowing as the white-haired statesman was driven around the pitch with his wife Graca Machel in a golf cart.
Dressed in a black winter coat and wearing a black fur hat and black gloves, the 91-year-old former president smiled and waved, leaving some fans battling to choke back tears. Mandela, the symbol of South African democracy, was key in landing the first World Cup in Africa but was forced to miss the opening ceremony on June 11 following the tragic death of his great grand-daughter in a car crash. Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for resisting apartheid before becoming the country's first black president in 1994, was key to South Africa securing the World Cup.
The closing ceremony was also watched by South African President Jacob Zuma, Queen Sofia of Spain, Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and several African heads of state. Dressed in a grass skirt and beaded halter top, Colombian popstar Shakira, who also also performed at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, headlined the event with her Cameroonian-inspired World Cup anthem Waka Waka. Grammy winning a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo blessed the final with their song 'Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain', a good omen in Africa.
As they sang, 13 make-believe elephants inhabited by people ambled across the pitch to drink at a video-projection of a watering hole. The ceremony also replayed key moments from the quarter-finals and semi-finals. After the final whistle, FIFA president Joseph Blatter presented the World Cup trophy to Spanish captain Iker Casillas with Zuma and Soccer City was lit up with fireworks. FIFA's boss was due to deliver his final assessment of the tournament on Monday but has also already declared his satisfaction. Zuma has already praised South Africans as the real stars of the tournament.
http://sify.com/news/historic-spain-victory-caps-euphoric-african-world-cup-roundup-news-international-khmfkdfhfjb.html
Jaipur Jantar Mantar, Matheran Railway to vie for World Heritage status
NEW DELHI: Jantar Mantar of Jaipur and Matheran Light Railway are in the race along with 30 other new sites for inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The World Heritage Committee will consider requests for inscription of the sites when it meets for its 34th session in Brazil's capital Brasilia from July 25 to August 3.
The 19.97-km-long Matheran Light Railway, which runs from Neral to Matheran in Maharashtra's Raigad district, offer a rich and scenic expanse of the mountain area and its associated eco-sensitive zone.
The Jantar Mantar is located within the boundaries of the City Palace Complex site in Jaipur and its total area is about 1.86 hectares.
During this year's session - to be chaired by Joao Luiz Ferreira, Brazil culture minister and president of the World Heritage Committee - 35 parties to the World Heritage Convention will present properties for inscription. Three of those countries - Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tajikistan -have no properties inscribed on the Heritage List to date.
Thirty-two new properties were submitted for inscription on the Heritage List this year: six natural, 24 cultural and two mixed (i.e. both natural and cultural) properties, including four transnational nominations.
The committee will also review the state of conservation of the 31 World Heritage properties, including Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger and may decide to add to that list new properties whose preservation requires special attention.
To date, the World Heritage List recognises 890 properties of "outstanding universal value", including 689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed properties in 148 states parties.
Cultural properties from India inscribed on the Heritage List are Agra Fort (1983), Ajanta Caves (1983), Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989), Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) (2004), Churches and Convents of Goa (1986), Elephanta Caves (1987), Ellora Caves (1983), Fatehpur Sikri (1986), Chola Temples (1987), Monuments at Hampi (1986), Monuments at Mahabalipuram (1984), Monuments at Pattadakal (1987), Humayun's Tomb at Delhi (1993), Khajuraho Monuments (1986), Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya (2002), Mountain Railways of India (1999), Qutb Minar (1993), Red Fort (2007), Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka (2003), Sun Temple at Konark (1984) and Taj Mahal (1983).
The natural properties on the list are Kaziranga National Park (1985), Keoladeo National Park (1985), Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985), Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks (1988) and Sundarbans National Park (1987).
Each year, the committee adds new sites to the List. The sites are proposed by the countries.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jaipur-Jantar-Mantar-Matheran-Railway-to-vie-for-World-Heritage-status/articleshow/6153892.cms
Lupin ranked fifth generic drug company in U.S.
Mumbai: Indian drug maker Lupin has become one of the top five generic drug companies operating in the U.S. market in terms of number of prescriptions. This is a first among Indian generic companies selling drugs in the US, the largest market in the world, writes P B Jayakumar of Business Standard.
Lupin is now behind Teva Pharma of Israel, Mylan Labs, Novartis and Watson Pharma. It had an average of a little over 8.4 million prescriptions a month in year between May 2009 and April 2010, said IMS, a global market research agency that tracks drug prescription sales in the US market.
In the previous year, Lupin had moved into the top 10 rankings at eighth position. Three Indian companies - Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Zydus Cadila and Aurobindo - are among the top 15 companies in the U.S. market, at 11, 12 and 13th positions, respectively. Glenmark (rank 18), Ranbaxy Laboratories (20), Sun Pharma (25) and Torrent (26) are the other Indian drug makers among the top 30 players in the U.S. generic business, said the data.
However, the journey further up the ladder will be tough for Lupin, as Watson Pharma, ranked fourth in the list, generates more than double the number of prescriptions for Lupin. Lupin's largest market, the U.S., had grown by about 38 percent in 2009-10 to Rs. 1,789 crore, of a total revenue of Rs. 4,740.5 crore. In March and April this year, Lupin had over a million prescriptions in the U.S. market.
"We are happy that we could achieve our target of breaking into the top five position a few years before we targeted to reach that milestone. We could achieve it in just five years, in a market dominated by players like Teva and Mylan which are there for the last two decades," Nilesh Gupta, executive director of Lupin, told Business Standard.
Lupin had filed a record 37 product registration filings and 19 bulk drug or raw material registration filings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during 2009-10.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Lupin_ranked_fifth_generic_drug_company_in_US-nid-69527-cid-3.html
India launches five satellites at one go
Mumbai: The boards of two energy firms belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) -- one in the business of generating power and the other that trades and transports oil and gas -- Sunday approved their merger in a $11-billion all-stock deal.
"The board of directors of Reliance Power and Reliance Natural Resources today approved a scheme of amalgamation of the two companies in an over Rs.50,000 crore ($11 billion) all stock deal," said an ADAG statement.
The board also approved the conversion rate of four shares of Reliance Natural for every Reliance Power share. The exchange ratio was based on the valuation by global consultancy firm KPMG.
The proposed scheme is subject to approvals of the shareholders of the the two companies, the stock exchanges and the Bombay High Court, among other statutory requisites and permissions.
The group said the deal would bring "substantial benefits" to the shareholders of both the companies, as it would expedite a gas supply agreement with Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries.
The merger, thereby, will accelerate Reliance Power's plans to set up gas based power plants of over 8,000 mw capacity. Also, shareholders will gain from four coal bed methane blocks of Reliance Natural Resources and a 10 percent share in an oil and gas block in Mizoram.
Among other benefits that will accrue to the shareholders of the companies, the statement said, the merged entity will see cost efficiency for fuel supplies through Reliance Natural's coal supply logistics and shipping business.
Post the approval of the merger, Reliance Power's net worth will swell to over Rs.16,000 crore, having added around net worth of around Rs.1,900 crore o Reliance Natural.
The two companies had a market capitalisation of Rs.10,394 crore and Rs.41,979 crore respectively at closing bell Friday.
In fact, according to the statement, 80 percent of the shareholder of Reliance Natural Resources shareholders, also hold equity in Reliance Power, and had got their stake free of cost when the original Reliance empire was split.
"Reliance Natural Resources shareholders will benefit from the proposed amalgamation by participating in future growth prospects of Reliance Power's diversified generation portfolio of 37,000 mw," said the statement.
The group also has substantial coal reserves in India and abroad. Among Reliance Power projects are three ultra-mega power plants at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Tilaiya in Jharkhand and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
"Reliance Power will have over 6 million shareholders, the world's largest shareholding family, upon completion of the deal."
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Two_Anil_Ambani_group_firms_propose_11_Billion_merger_deal__-nid-69338.html
Sunita Williams headed for the stars again
WASHINGTON: Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record of the longest spaceflight (195 days) for female space travellers, will head for the stars once again in June 2012.
Williams, 44, would take over as station commander at the International Space Station that was her home in the sky from Dec 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007.
She will be joined on the Soyuz 31 flight to the space station by flight engineers Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, the space agencies of the three nations announced Friday.
Daughter of Gujarat born neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovak mother Bonnie Pandya, Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needham, Massachusetts where her parents live as her hometown.
After launching aboard Discovery, Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and the Discovery crew brought the ponytail back to earth.
Among the personal items Williams took with her on her last trip were a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small figurine of Ganesha and some samosas. The question is what would she carry this time around.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Sunita_Williams_headed_for_the_stars_again-nid-69615-cid-3.html
Inflation to dampen by Dec - official
Reuters - India's wholesale price inflation could come down to 5 percent to 6 percent by December, but price pressures in the economy may prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to resort to tightening through unpredictable moves, a top government official said on Tuesday.
"By November, if market arrivals are significantly larger than last year, you should see a dampening of the rate of inflation," Chief Statistician T.C.A. Anant told Reuters in an interview.
He also said latest headline inflation numbers suggest that "slight dampening" was taking place.
June inflation data is due on Wednesday.
According to a Reuters' poll, headline inflation in June probably rose 10.8 percent from a year earlier, faster than a 10.16 percent rise in May.
Anant also said that monetary policy works best through an element of unpredictability and he would not be surprised if there is no rate hike in the scheduled July 27 monetary policy review.
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50082220100713
At 22, Patna boy becomes youngest IIT Professor
Mumbai: Dr. Tathagat Avatar Tulsi, a Patna-born child prodigy, becomes the youngest professor at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay at the age of 22. He is set to join as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics from next week.
He had completed his high school at the age of nine, earned his BSc degree at 10 and M.Sc at the age of 12. At the age of 21, Tulsi completed his doctorate in Quantum Computing from Indian Institute of Science.
The young professor, who has never studied in a classroom, plans to ask his students how they would want to be taught. "I have never taught in a class. But I believe I can come down to the level of a student and help them understand the subject," he said. When asked about his future plans, he said "I want to pursue my research and at IIT-B, I will have the leisure to continue my research and one day set up a lab focused on quantum computation in our country."
Dr. Tulsi had to turn down offers from Waterloo University in Canada and the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Bhopal to come and teach at IIT-B.
In 2003, the prestigious Time magazine named him among the world's seven most gifted youngsters, though he went into a shell after an international delegation called him a fake prodigy in 2001. Tulsi said he is going to write to the Limca Book of Records to include him as the youngest faculty member in the country.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/At_22_Patna_boy_becomes_youngest_IIT_Professor-nid-69649.html
Cabinet approves new rupee symbol
NEW DELHI: The Indian rupee will have its own symbol, a mix of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R', to become the fifth currency in the world to have a distinct identity.
The new symbol, designed by IIT post-graduate D Uday Kumar was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday.
The rupee will join the elite club of US dollar, British pound-sterling, Euro and Japanese yen to have its own symbol.
The symbol will be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, information and broadcasting minister told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
Kumar's entry was chosen from among 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakhs.
Soni said the government will try that the symbol is adopted within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months.
The symbol will feature on computer key boards and softwares so that it can be printed and displayed in electronic and print, she said.
Soni said it would also help in distinguishing the Indian currency from rupee or rupiah of countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The decision to have a symbol for the Indian rupee was taken by the government last year. The finance ministry wanted the symbol to represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country and called for entries from the public.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz/india-business/Cabinet-approves-new-rupee-symbol/articleshow/6171234.cms
Saina Nehwal rises to world No. 2 in rankings
NEW DELHI: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is just a step away from realising her goal of becoming the world's numero uno player as she jumped one place to a career-best second in the latest international rankings.
"I am very happy to achieve the world number two so soon in my career. The last three wins have really helped me. It is a great feeling but I feel my priority still will be to win more tournaments for India rather than focussing on ranking," Saina said.
"It will be difficult to hold on to the ranking but I hope to continue my hard work and win more titles and become the number one player soon," said the Hyderabadi shuttler, who is down with fever and cold.
The 20-year-old Saina made a meteoric rise following her back-to-back title triumphs at the India Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super Series, reaching the world number three last month.
And after the Indian defended her Indonesian Open Super Series crown to complete her hat-trick of titles, it was just a matter of time that she jumped to the second place.
By virtue of the consecutive title wins, Saina now has 64791.2637 points and is just behind Chinese Yihan Wang, while Xin Wang of China is in the third place.
Saina's father Harvir Singh also expressed happiness and hoped her daughter can continue her good work for the country.
"God has been kind. It is a marvellous achievement. I hope she can continue to work hard and win more laurels for the country," Harvir Singh said.
In March, Saina had attained the fifth position after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships.
However, she dropped to the sixth position in the subsequent weeks.
Saina's next engagement will be in the World badminton Championship in Paris next month, before playing the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
In the men's ranking, the Indian trio of Chetan Anand, P Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt were at 15th, 25th and 27th spot respectively, while mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju were static at the seventh place.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/badminton/Saina-Nehwal-rises-to-world-No-2-in-rankings/articleshow/6171771.cms
Gen Jones to visit India, lay groundwork for Obama's visit
WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser Gen (Retd) James Jones will travel to India next week to lay the groundwork for President Barack Obama's successful visit in November, the White House has said. During his three-day trip following the invitation of his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon, Jones will have discussions on a full range of strategic partnership being developed between the two countries. Jones will be visiting New Delhi from July 14 to 16 after travelling to Paris and Brussels during his trip that begins tomorrow.
"During his visit to New Delhi, the General will meet with National Security Adviser Menon and other senior Indian officials to discuss a full range of subjects key to the strategic partnership we are developing with India, including counter-terrorism cooperation, regional security, defence cooperation and export controls," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said. "General Jones will also have an opportunity begin laying the groundwork for a successful visit by President Obama to India in November," Hammer said in a statement issued yesterday.
Obama is scheduled to visit India from November 7 to 10, a senior US administration official said, adding that the First Lady would also travel with the President to New Delhi. "I look forward to advancing our partnership, to experiencing all that India and its people and its incredible ancient culture have to offer," Obama had said on June 3 at a reception hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in honour of India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. In an interview, General Jones had said the Indo-US strategic dialogue is taking the relationship to unprecedented levels of cooperation between the two countries.
"India is on a path of ascendancy. It is destined to be a nation of global influence. It is extremely important that in the globe that countries like India and United States when they can have a national affinity for one another as expressed by the strong friendship that exists between in respect that exists between the two heads of State that this relationship can grow," Jones had said. Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have laid out a strategic approach that is based on long term commitment and not just short term self-interest, in America's case the presence in the region, he had said.
"We have worked very hard to be mutually transparent in how we see things and there is a certain honesty and vibrancy about the relationship - it is frankly very pleasurable, it is open, it is honest, we have tried very hard to keep our Indian colleagues fully appraised of our strategy in Afghanistan, why we are there, what we hope to achieve, how we achieve," the senior official had said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Gen-Jones-to-visit-India-lay-groundwork-for-Obamas-visit/articleshow/6150102.cms
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Saturn Propellers Reflect Solar System Origins
ScienceDaily — Scientists using NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn have stalked a new class of moons in the rings of Saturn that create distinctive propeller-shaped gaps in ring material. It marks the first time scientists have been able to track the orbits of individual objects in a debris disk. The research gives scientists an opportunity to time-travel back into the history of our solar system to reveal clues about disks around other stars in our universe that are too far away to observe directly.
"Observing the motions of these disk-embedded objects provides a rare opportunity to gauge how the planets grew from, and interacted with, the disk of material surrounding the early sun," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., and a co-author on the paper. "It allows us a glimpse into how the solar system ended up looking the way it does."
The results are published in a new study in the July 8, 2010, issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Cassini scientists first discovered double-armed propeller features in 2006 in an area now known as the "propeller belts" in the middle of Saturn's outermost dense ring, known as the A ring. The spaces were created by a new class of moonlets -- smaller than known moons, but larger than the particles in the rings -- that could clear the space immediately around them. Those moonlets, which were estimated to number in the millions, were not large enough to clear out their entire path around Saturn, as do the moons Pan and Daphnis.
The new paper, led by Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini imaging team associate based at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., reports on a new cohort of larger and rarer moons in another part of the A ring farther out from Saturn. With propellers as much as hundreds of times as large as those previously described, these new objects have been tracked for as long as four years.
The propeller features are up to several thousand kilometers (miles) long and several kilometers (miles) wide. The moons embedded in the ring appear to kick up ring material as high as 0.5 kilometers (1,600 feet) above and below the ring plane, which is well beyond the typical ring thickness of about 10 meters (30 feet). Cassini is too far away to see the moons amid the swirling ring material around them, but scientists estimate that they are about a kilometer (half a mile) in diameter because of the size of the propellers.
Tiscareno and colleagues estimate that there are dozens of these giant propellers, and 11 of them were imaged multiple times between 2005 to 2009. One of them, nicknamed Bleriot after the famous aviator Louis Bleriot, has been a veritable Forrest Gump, showing up in more than 100 separate Cassini images and one ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observation over this time.
"Scientists have never tracked disk-embedded objects anywhere in the universe before now," Tiscareno said. "All the moons and planets we knew about before orbit in empty space. In the propeller belts, we saw a swarm in one image and then had no idea later on if we were seeing the same individual objects. With this new discovery, we can now track disk-embedded moons individually over many years."
Over the four years, the giant propellers have shifted their orbits, but scientists are not yet sure what is causing the disturbances in their travels around Saturn. Their path may be upset by bumping into other smaller ring particles, or responding to their gravity, but the gravitational attraction of large moons outside the rings may also be a factor. Scientists will continue monitoring the moons to see if the disk itself is driving the changes, similar to the interactions that occur in young solar systems. If it is, Tiscareno said, this would be the first time such a measurement has been made directly.
"Propellers give us unexpected insight into the larger objects in the rings," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Over the next seven years, Cassini will have the opportunity to watch the evolution of these objects and to figure out why their orbits are changing."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100709110506.htm
Researchers Use Robot to Determine How Human Strangers Develop Trust
ScienceDaily — What can a wide-eyed, talking robot teach us about trust?
A lot, according to Northeastern psychology professor David DeSteno, and his colleagues, who are conducting innovative research to determine how humans decide to trust strangers -- and if those decisions are accurate.
The interdisciplinary research project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is being conducted in collaboration with Cynthia Breazeal, director of the MIT Media Lab's Personal Robots Group, Robert Frank, an economist, and David Pizarro, a psychologist, both from Cornell.
The researchers are examining whether nonverbal cues and gestures could affect our trustworthiness judgments. "People tend to mimic each other's body language," said DeSteno, "which might help them develop intuitions about what other people are feeling -- intuitions about whether they'll treat them fairly."
This project tests their theories by having humans interact with the social robot, Nexi, in an attempt to judge her trustworthiness. Unbeknownst to participants, Nexi has been programmed to make gestures while speaking with selected participants -- gestures that the team hypothesizes could determine whether or not she's deemed trustworthy.
"Using a humanoid robot whose every expression and gesture we can control will allow us to better identify the exact cues and psychological processes that underlie humans' ability to accurately predict if a stranger is trustworthy," said DeSteno.
During the first part of the experiment, Nexi makes small talk with her human counterpart for 10 minutes, asking and answering questions about topics such as traveling, where they are from and what they like most about living in Boston.
"The goal was to simulate a normal conversation with accompanying movements to see what the mind would intuitively glean about the trustworthiness of another," said DeSteno.
The participants then play an economic game called "Give Some," which asks them to determine how much money Nexi might give them at the expense of her individual profit. Simultaneously, they decide how much, if any, they'll give to Nexi. The rules of the game allow for two distinct outcomes: higher individual profit for one and loss for the other, or relatively smaller and equal profits for both partners.
"Trust might not be determined by one isolated gesture, but rather a 'dance' that happens between the strangers, which leads them to trust or not trust the other," said DeSteno, who, with his colleagues, will continue testing their theories by seeing if Nexi can be taught to predict the trustworthiness of human partners.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100707220933.htm
India launches five satellites at one go
Sriharikota: Five satellites, including the advanced high resolution cartography satellite Cartosat-2B, were placed in orbit today after India's space agency ISRO successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from here.
"I am extremely happy to say PSLV 16 was a successful flight. All the satellites were injected precisely," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said.
ISRO's 230 tonne PSLV - standing 44 metres tall - soared towards the heavens from the spaceport here, about 80 km north of Chennai. The five satellites together weigh 819 kg.
Apart from its main cargo - the Cartosat-2B weighing 694 kg - the other satellites that the rocket put into orbit are the Algerian remote sensing satellite Alsat-2A (116 kg), two nano satellites (NLS 6.1 AISSAT-1 weighing 6.5 kg built by the University of Toronto, Canada and one kg NLS 6.2 TISAT built by University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland) and STUDSAT, a pico satellite weighing less than one kg, built jointly by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Twenty minutes after blast off, the rocket first released the Cartosat-2B followed by Alsat-2A and the three small satellites.
This was the first successful launch after Radhakrishnan took over as ISRO chairman last year.
"Two more launches are planned in three months time. One will be PSLV and another will GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)," he said.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was present at the launch, congratulated the ISRO scientists on the "perfect launch" and said: "ISRO makes the country proud."
Immediately after the ejection of the satellites, the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command) Network of stations there and at Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard in Sweden monitored their health. ISRO officials had some anxious moments in the run up to the launch.
Originally scheduled for launch May 9, ISRO decided to postpone it as it found "a marginal drop in the pressure in the second stage of the vehicle during mandatory checks" due to a faulty valve. At that time, the rocket was almost ready except for the loading of the satellites.
The rocket had to be dismantled to replace the faulty valve. The problem persisted even after the valve replacement here and ISRO sent the second stage (engine and other systems) back to its assembly centre to be dealt with.
Built to last for five years, the Rs.200 crore Cartosat-2B is India's 17th remote sensing satellite. It will augment ISRO's remote sensing data services along with the Cartosat-2 and 2A launched earlier.
The satellite's imagery can be used for preparation of detailed forest type maps, tree volume estimation, village/cadastral level crop inventory, town/village settlement mapping and planning for development, rural connectivity, canal alignment, coastal land form, mining monitoring and others.
"With the launch of Cartosat-2B, ISRO will have 10 remote sensing satellites in orbit - IRS 1D, Resourcesat 1, TES, Cartosat 1, 2 and 2A, IMS 1, RISAT-2, Oceansat 1 and 2," S. Satish, ISRO director (publications and public relations), told IANS.
India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market and earns a sizeable amount.
"The other remote sensing satellites that are slated for launch are RISAT (late 2010 or early 2011), Resourcesat and Megha-Tropiques," Satish added.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/India_launches_five_satellites_at_one_go-nid-69583-cid--sid-.html
Indian Government wants access to your Google and Blackberry mails
Indian Government has instructed the Department of Telcommunication to send notices to RIM, Skype, and Google to grant access to all communications that take place over their networks. Within 15 days, each of these companies will be required to open all the data, so that it can be read by the security and intelligence agencies. Else.....
It looks like we might join the Chinese and lay traditional marigold garlands on Google India Headquarters as the Government might ban these companies if they fail to comply. Although, taking into account the recent terrorist attacks, the Government's stance is justified to an extent. However, we feel that such negotiations must take place in the background. On the other hand, once in hands of Government officials, it wouldn't be surprising if one can get all your mail and data for a bunch of green notes. None of these companies has responded to the notices as of yet.
http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Indian-Government-wants-access-to-your-Google_4961.html
Computing Power Cracks Egg Shell Problem
ScienceDaily — Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield have applied computing power to crack a problem in egg shell formation. The work may also give a partial answer to the age old question "what came first the chicken or the egg?"
The answer to the question in this context is "chicken" or -- at least a particular chicken protein. There is however a further twist in that this particular chicken protein turns out to come both first and last. That neat trick it performs provides new insights into control of crystal growth which is key to egg shell production.
Researchers had long known that a chicken eggshell protein called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) must play some role in egg shell formation. The protein is found only in the mineral region of the egg (the hard part of the shell) and lab bench results showed that it appeared to influence the transformation of amorphous calcium carbonate (CaCo3) into calcite crystals. The mechanism of this control remained unclear. How this process could be used to form an actual eggshell remained unclear.
University of Warwick researchers Mark Rodger and David Quigley, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield, have now been able to apply a powerful computing tool called metadynamics and the UK national supercomputer in Edinburgh to crack this egg problem.
Dr David Quigley from the Department of Physics and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said: "Metadynamics extends conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and is particularly good at sampling transitions between disordered and ordered states of matter."
Using these tools The Warwick and Sheffield researchers were able to create simulations that showed exactly how the protein bound to amorphous calcium carbonate surface using two clusters of "arginine residues," located on two loops of the protein and creating a literal chemical "clamp" to nano sized particles of calcium carbonate.
While clamped in this way, the OC-17 encourages the nanoparticles of calcium carbonate to transform into "calcite crystallites" that form the tiny of nucleus of crystals that can continue to grow on their own. But they also noticed that sometimes this chemical clamp didn't work. The OC-17 just seemed to detatch from the nanoparticle or "be desorbed."
Professor Mark Rodger from Department of Chemistry and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said "With the larger nanoparticles we examined we found that the binding sites for this chemical clamp were the same as the smaller nanoparticles but the binding was much weaker. In the simulations we performed, the protein never desorbed from the smaller nanoparticle, but always fell off or desorbed from the larger one. However In each case, desorption occurred at or after nucleation of calcite."
The researchers had therefore uncovered an incredibly elegant process allowing highly efficient recycling of the OC-17 protein. Effectively it acts as a catalyst, clamping on to calcium carbonate particles to kickstart crystal formation and then dropping off when the crystal nucleus is sufficiently large to grow under its own steam. This frees up the OC-17 to promote more yet more crystallisation, facilitating the speedy, literally overnight creation of an egg shell.
The researchers believe that this new insight into the elegant and highly efficient methods of promoting and controlling crystallisation in nature will be of great benefit to anyone exploring how to promote and control artificial forms of crystallisation.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100709083751.htm
Nokia C5 mobile enters the market at Rs. 7999
Bangalore: Nokia has unveiled its latest handset, Nokia C5, for the Indian market. It comes with the price tag of Rs. 7999. The C5 comes with features like a 3.15 MP camera, 3G connectivity and a 2.2 inch wide color display screen. The phone has an expandable memory up to 16GB . It operates on Symbian S60v3 and also supports OVI map, which is huge navigation application for the mobile devices. For connectivity purposes, Nokia C5 supports USB, Wi-Fi Bluetooth, onboard FM Radio and pre-installed Java. The new phone's vital feature entails Nokia Messaging and undemanding renovation of silhouette on Facebook.
Along with the Nokia Messaging attributes, addicts can approach mails from Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail on the new mobile.
Also users can get the access of mail version from Ovi mail for entree' mails on this new handset. C5 clientele can also update their contour on the social networking site Facebook effortlessly and can check position of the profile of their colleagues and friends on this handset. Further the additional feature in this phone is that it crafts chatting swifter and simple as the Nokia C5 has entrenched Google Talk and Windows Messenger. It remains to be seen how well the consumer takes to the product considering the pricing and features the C5 has to offer.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Nokia_C5_mobile_enters_the_market__at_Rs_7999-nid-69565-cid-31.html
Delhi lad hopes his robots will bend it like Beckham
New Delhi: Even as the World Cup held people in thrall, an 18-year-old Delhi boy is hoping his home-built robots would be able to show off their football skills at a world championship called Robosoccer to be held September 15 to 19 in Bangalore.
Diwaker Vaish is busy fine-tuning his three humanoid robots that will participate in the event to be hosted by the Federation of International Robosoccer Association (FIRA) from Sep 15-19 in Bangalore.
He is now programming the three soccer robots -- a goalkeeper, a defender and an attacker -- for the robot soccer tournament.
A Class 12 pass out, Diwaker said: "For the first time, the event will be held in India. I hope my three specially designed soccer robots will play in the tournament. I have finished the physical structure of one robot, I will finish the other two in another week, while programming for all the three would be done simultaneously. I hope my robots will win the world cup as they have unique features." For this, Diwaker has already built a prototype - Isotope.
With an Atmel processor as brain, 25 brackets forming the skeleton and 16 servos in place of muscles, Isotope can walk, dance and stand on one leg and even dance to bhangra beats!
"With additional high-power servos (they are muscle-like parts that help a robot move like a human being), the newly-developed soccer robots are more stable. They won't fall even if you push them with force."
Diwaker, who has taken a break from his studies to follow his passion, say Isotope took seven months to create.
Now, he is confident that he can finish work on the soccer robots by August as he already knows the nuances of robot-making.
Talking about Isotope, he said, "With advanced artificial intelligence techniques, Isotope will be able to take instructions in both Hindi and English."
But will these skill sets be enough for a robot to take on its rivals on the mini-soccer field?
"No, competing with robotic experts from Korea, Japan, Czech Republic etc is not a joke. My soccer robots are much more advanced and efficient than my first humanoid robot."
Diwaker is being sponsored by A-Set (Advanced School of Engineering and Technology), a private computer institution in Delhi.
A gadget freak, Diwaker got interested in robotics after his first creation, a racing boat, won the first prize in Quanta in Lucknow in November 2009.
His boat finished the race in 18 seconds and won the competition in which students from 40 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Russia and the Czech Republic, participated.
Speaking about her son's skills, Maya Vaish said, "We have spent around Rs.4 lakh for procuring tools and material to build the robot. Initially, his father (Uday Kumar Vaish) who is into computer networking business, was apprehensive. But later we considered it as an investment in our child's development."
"Right from childhood, Diwaker has been very creative. When he was in Class 6, he burnt down our refrigerator as he wanted to check how long a candle will remain lit inside the freezer," she said.
Diwaker studied in Bal Bharati Public school in Rajendra Nagar and scored 72 percent in Class 12. But he feels that the education system in India offers little scope for robotics.
"I learned the basics of robotics from the Internet. In counties like Japan, Korea and the United States, a school student coming up with a robot is very common. But in India only IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) students take up projects on robotics. Awareness on robotics and its possibilities are very few here," Diwaker said.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Delhi_lad_hopes_his_robots_will_bend_it_like_Beckham__-nid-69613-cid--sid-.html
Transcend launches Indian online shop
New Delhi: Transcend Information, a manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, has come up with a new e-commerce initiative, launching its Indian online shop in association with Supertron Electronics, its India distributor. Transcend's portal www.transcend.co.in will lead the customers to www.supertrontranscend.com, which will provide customers specifications of the products, along with the price.
The company has already established its presence on social networking platforms like Facebook in order to connect with its Indian customers better.
Austin Huang, Director - Sales, Transcend Asia, said, "Customers can take a look at the exhaustive range of Transcend products available in varying capacities, colors and form factors; study the specifications in order to compare; order and pay for selected products online; track their orders; download drivers etc., on this shopping portal."
The products made available in the portal include Transcend's MP3 players, USB flash drives, digital photo frames, USB external hard drives, solid state drives and peripherals like CD/DVD burners and card readers. For shopping worth Rs. 5000 or more, the shipping is offered free of cost to the customers, said Huang.
Transcend wishes to connect with its customers especially in the younger age group who are generally very net savvy. Along with the launch, the company has also announced an online event, a Speeding Racing game, offering prizes for those who take an attempt at the game till July 30, 2010.
Transcend has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and China, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China.
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Transcend_launches_Indian_online_shop_-nid-69621.html
Geoscientists Find Clues to Why First Sumatran Earthquake Was Deadlier Than Second
ScienceDaily — An international team of geoscientists has uncovered geological differences between two segments of an earthquake fault that may explain why the 2004 Sumatra Boxing Day Tsunami was so much more devastating than a second earthquake generated tsunami three months later. This could help solve what was a lingering mystery for earthquake researchers. The quakes were caused by ruptures on adjacent segments of the same fault. One key difference was that the southern part of the fault that ruptured in 2004, producing the larger quake and tsunami, appears bright on subsurface seismic images possibly explained by a lower density fault zone than the surrounding sediments. In the 2005 segment of the fault, there was no evidence for such a low-density fault zone. This and several other differences resulted in the fault slipping over a much longer segment and reaching much closer to the seafloor in the first quake. Because tsunami waves are generated by the motion of the seafloor, a quake that moves more seafloor creates larger tsunamis.
Early in the morning of Dec. 26, 2004 a powerful undersea earthquake started off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia and extended about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) to the north. The resulting tsunami caused devastation along the coastlines bordering the Indian Ocean, with tsunami waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high inundating coastal communities. With very little warning of impending disaster, more than 230,000 people died and millions were made homeless. Three months later in 2005, another strong earthquake (although significantly smaller than in 2004) occurred immediately to the south, but triggered only a relatively small tsunami that claimed far fewer lives.
A team of researchers from The University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, The University of Texas at Austin, The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology in Indonesia and The Indonesia Institute for Sciences has discovered one clue as to why the two earthquakes were so different. Working aboard the research vessel Sonne, the scientists used seismic instruments to probe layers of sediment beneath the seafloor with sound waves. They discovered a number of unusual features at the rupture zone of the 2004 earthquake such as the seabed topography, how the sediments are deformed and the locations of small earthquakes (aftershocks) following the main earthquake.
They found the southern end of the 2004 rupture zone was unique in one other key way. To understand that requires a little background on how and why earthquakes happen there at all. The largest undersea earthquakes occur at subduction zones, such as the one west of Indonesia, where one tectonic plate is forced (or subducts) under another. This subduction doesn't happen smoothly however, but sticks and then slips or ruptures with the release of vast amounts of stored energy as an earthquake. The plate boundary between the overriding Sumatran and Andaman islands and the subducting Indian Ocean sticks and slips in segments. This kind of plate boundary is called a décollement and is a very shallow fault running from beneath the trench to under the islands.
The researchers found that the décollement surface has different properties in the two earthquake rupture regions. In the 2004 area, the décollement was seismically imaged from the ship as a bright reflection whose specifics suggest lower density materials that would affect friction. In the 2005 area the décollement does not show these particular characteristics and thus would behave differently in an earthquake. This and several other differences resulted in the fault slipping over a much longer segment in 2004 and reaching much closer to the seafloor, potentially causing a larger tsunami. The results of their study appear in the July 9 edition of the journal Science. The paper's lead author is Simon Dean, of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science, which is based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOC).
"Both earthquakes occurred on the same fault system, initiating 30-40 kilometers below the seabed," said Dean. "Our results will help us understand why different parts of the fault behave differently during earthquake slip which then influences tsunami generation. This is critical for adequate hazard assessment and mitigation."By comparing these results with other subduction zones around the world, the research team believes the region of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake is very unusual, suggesting that tsunami hazards may be particularly high in this region.
"By understanding parameters that make a particular region more hazardous in terms of earthquakes and tsunami we can speak to potential hazards of other margins," said Sean Gulick, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics. "We need to examine what limits the size of earthquakes and what properties contribute to tsunami formation." The fact that the 2004 and 2005 source areas were different is good news. Had the two fault segments ruptured together, the resulting earthquake would have been about a magnitude 9.3 instead of 9.2. Because the earthquake magnitude scale is logarithmic, an increase in 0.1 translates to about a third more energy released. To put that in perspective, the first event had the explosive force of 1.8 trillion kilograms of TNT. Adding the second segment, the resulting earthquake would equal 2.4 trillion kilograms of TNT.
Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council. The researchers are Dean, Lisa McNeill, Timothy Henstock and Jonathan Bull (University of Southampton, NOC), Gulick, James Austin Jr. and Nathan Bangs (University of Texas at Austin), Yusuf Djajadihardja (Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, Indonesia), and Haryadi Permana (Indonesia Institute for Sciences).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100708141535.htm
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