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Action plan to phase out consumption of HCFC is on track: Ramesh

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 16 (ANI): Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday that India has developed a comprehensive Road Map and Action Plan to phase-out of production and consumption of Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) in various sectors.

Addressing the gathering during the 15th International Ozone Day here Ramesh said: “The Government of India has taken a number of policy measures, fiscal and regulatory, to encourage the early adoption of alternative technologies in this area by existing and new enterprises.”

Ramesh hailed the Montreal Protocol as the most successful international treaty to ever achieve universal participation.

“At a time when the world is trying to solve the problem of climate change, the International Ozone Day provided a timely reminder of how international cooperation can help to solve major global environmental problems,” Ramesh added.

India is one of the first developing countries to join the Montreal Protocol and pledge its commitment to protect the Ozone Layer.

As a part of the accelerated phase-out of CFCs, India has completely phased out the production and consumption of CFCs as on 1 August 2008, 17 months prior to the agreed schedule.

Ramesh informed that over 97percent of controlled Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) have been phased out by the Montreal Protocol.

“The end of 2009 will mark another significant milestone in the history of its implementation, with the use of potent ODSs -CFCs, Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC) and Halons, except pharmaceutical-grade CFCs used in the manufacture of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) – being ceased completely,” he said

The CFCs required for manufacturing for MDIs used by Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients are still available in India, a national transition strategy to phase them out by 2013 is currently under implementation.

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank recently also launched the India: Chiller Energy Efficiency Project to accelerate the conversion of CFC-based chillers using new, more energy efficient technologies,” Ramesh said.

This year’s theme for the ozone day was ‘Universal participation – Ozone protection unifies the World.’ (ANI)

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Beefed-up diets of Asia’s middle class may lead to chronic food shortages

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 30 (ANI): Scientists have said that the beefed-up diets of Asia’s expanding middle class could lead to chronic food shortages for the water-stressed region.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the threat was highlighted in a study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which estimate that Asian demand for food and livestock fodder will double in 40 years.
Asia’s growing economy and appetite for meat will require a radical overhaul of farmland irrigation to feed a population expected to swell to 1.4 billion by 2050, scientists warned at Stockholm’s World Water Week recently.
At current crop yields, East Asia would need 47 percent more irrigated farmland and to find 70 percent more water, the study found.
South Asia would have to expand its irrigated crop areas by 30 percent and increase water use by 57 percent.
Given existing agriculture pressure on water resources and territory, that’s an impossible scenario, according to the study authors.

Scientists urge modernization of existing large-scale irrigation systems, most of which were installed in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s estimated that India, the world’s largest consumer of underground water, has 19 million unregulated groundwater pumps.
Groundwater in northern India is receding by as much as a foot (0.3 meter) a year due to rampant water extraction, most of it for crop irrigation, according to a study.
More than 109 cubic kilometres of groundwater were drained from the region between 2002 and 2008, according to the satellite image-based study led by scientists with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Governments’ inability to regulate this practice is giving rise to scary scenarios of groundwater over-exploitation, which could lead to regional food crises and widespread social unrest,” said Tushaar Shah of IWMI.

As for China, the country’s per capita “water footprint” for food production has almost doubled since 1985, according to Junguo Liu of the Beijing Forestry University.
“A switch from traditional rice and noodles to a meatier diet is behind the change,” Liu said. “Changes in food consumption are the major cause of worsening water scarcity in China,” he added.
Total water requirements for food production in China are predicted to rise by 40 to 50 percent in the next 30 years, he further added.
“Where do you get such a big amount of water? It is a really big question and a big challenge,” he said.
“If other developing countries follow China toward a Western diet, the global water shortage becomes even more serious,” he added. (ANI)

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Your cars may soon be powered by urine

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New York, July 15 (ANI): Could it be possible to run your car on urine? Well, it may be, if Ohio University scientists are to be believed.

And their confidence stems from the fact that they have found a novel way to produce hydrogen energy from urine.

According to Discovery News, the scientists used a nickel-based electrode to make cheap hydrogen from urine.

When the research team led by professor Gerardine Botte stuck the electrode into a pool of urine, and applied an electrical current, hydrogen gas was released, which was used in fuel cells.

The prototype is about three inches by three inches, and is capable of generating 500 milliwatts of power.

The scientists hope to create commercial versions of the technology.

Botte expects that the fuel-cell urine-powered car could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon.

“One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses. Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel,” the New York Daily News quoted him as saying.

The researchers focussed their study on urea, a urine by-product.

“Urea is a byproduct of a lot of cities and farms, but even if you take all the people and all the animals, there’s not enough to run the world,” said University of Georgia professor John Stickney.

He added that though applications using urine won’t be available to consumers for quite some time, it’s definitely worth developing.

“We are going to have to put together a lot of greener ways to collect energy that don’t produce greenhouse gases and don’t require us to go to war,” he added. (ANI)

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German Chancellor meets Manmohan Singh at G8-G5 summit

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

L’aquila, July 10 (ANI): German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met on the sidelines of the G8-G5 summit here on Thursday.

They reportedly discussed bilateral issues and topics pertinent to the summit.

Leaders of the world’s richest nations and major developing powers would have on the table issues like global warming and international trade, with the poorer countries seeking concessions.

U S President Barack Obama would chair the climate discussions, but hopes of agreeing on ambitious emission-reducing goals have faded after China and India rejected demands to halve their emission of greenhouse gases by 2050.

The talks have been broadened to include the heads of new economic powerhouses in recognition that the world’s problems can no longer be dealt with by an elite few.

The fragile state of the global economy dominated the first day of the annual G-8 summit, with the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia acknowledging that were still significant risks to financial stability.

The 17-member Major Economies Forum (MEF), which groups the G-8 plus big developing nations, also looks set to embrace the two Celsius goal on Thursday, but is balking at making further commitments ahead of a decisive U.N. climate conference in December.

Progress has been hampered by the absence of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who withdrew from talks to attend to ethnic clashes in China’s northwest that have killed 156 people and wounded over a thousand.ndian negotiators said developing countries first wanted to see rich nation plans to provide financing to help them cope with ever more floods, heatwaves, storms and rising sea levels.

Broader economic concerns are also high on the agenda, with emerging nations complaining that they are suffering heavily from a crisis that was not of their making.

China, India and Brazil have all questioned whether the world should start seeking a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar. They have said they may raise this on Thursday after having discussed it amongst themselves on July 8.

The debate is highly sensitive in financial markets, which are wary of risks to U.S. asset values, and the issue is unlikely to progress very far in L’Aquila.

However, a breakthrough on trade may be within reach. Diplomats say the G-8 and G-5 should agree to conclude the stalled Doha round of trade talks in 2010. Launched in 2001 to help poor countries prosper, they have stumbled on proposed tariff and subsidy cuts. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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Obama, Manmohan cozy up at G8-G5 summit

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

L’aquila, July 9 (ANI): US president Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cozied up to each other at a summit of the G8-G5 groupings at L’Aquila in Italy on Thursday.

Leaders of the world’s richest nations and major developing powers would have on the table raging issues like global warming and international trade, with the poorer countries seeking concessions.

US President Barack Obama would chair the climate discussions, but hopes of agreeing ambitious goals have faded after China and India rejected demands to halve the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

The talks come on the second of a three-day Group of Eight summit, with discussions broadened to include the heads of new economic powerhouses in recognition that the world’s problems cannot no longer be dealt with by an elite few.

The fragile state of the global economy dominated the first day of the annual G8 summit, with the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia acknowledging that were still significant risks to financial stability.

The 17-member Major Economies Forum (MEF), which groups the G8 plus big developing nations, also looks set to embrace the two Celsius goal on Thursday, but is balking at further commitments ahead of a decisive U.N. climate conference in December.

Progress could be hampered by the absence of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who withdrew from talks to attend to ethnic clashes in China’s northwest that have killed 156 people and wounded over a thousand.

Indian negotiators said developing countries first wanted to see rich nation plans to provide financing to help them cope with ever more floods, heatwaves, storms and rising sea levels.

Broader economic concerns are also high on the agenda, with emerging nations complaining that they are suffering heavily from a crisis that was not of their making.

The debate is highly sensitive in financial markets, which are wary of risks to U.S. asset values, and the issue is unlikely to progress very far in L’Aquila.

However, a breakthrough on trade may be within reach. Diplomats say the G8 and G5 should agree to conclude the stalled Doha round of trade talks in 2010. Launched in 2001 to help poor countries prosper, they have stumbled on proposed tariff and subsidy cuts. (ANI)

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Forests could become source of warming: report

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The world’s forests are at risk of becoming a source of planet-warming emissions instead of soaking them up like a sponge unless greenhouse gases are controlled, scientists said.

Deforestation emits 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide when people cut and burn trees, but standing forests soak up 25 percent of the emissions.

If the Earth heats up 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) or more, evaporation from the additional heat would lead to severe droughts and heat waves that could kill wide swaths of trees in the tropics of Africa, southern Asia and South America. And emissions from the rotting trees would make forests a source of global warming.

“If temperatures are growing at the current pace definitely this would happen at the end of this century or before,” said Risto Seppala, chair of a report by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, a nonprofit network of scientists.

The IUFRO will present the report to the U.N.’s Forum on Forests in New York next week.

Not all areas of the world would suffer immediately and pine forests in northern parts of the world could benefit at first.

“In the beginning it would mean some very positive consequences,” for boreal forests such as those found in Northern Europe and Canada, said Seppala by telephone from his home in Finland north of the Arctic Circle. He said timber and paper industries in the North could prosper as warmer weather pushes growth of spruce and other trees.

Even forests found in more temperate parts of the world, such as the United States and Western Europe, could grow faster at first.

“Those who live in industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere won’t suffer too much at first,” he said.

People in many developing countries with forests tend to rely more on forests for food, clean water and other basic needs.

But eventually tree pests and parasites that until now have not appeared much in forests in colder parts of the world are likely to spread north as temperatures warm, the report said.

An example of pests already moving to the North is the pine beetle, which has devastated large parts of forests in British Columbia over the past decade and has moved into the province of Alberta. The pest can be killed by periods of extreme cold, but the 2007-2008 winter did not kill off the insects in Alberta.

Much depends on exactly how much temperatures will warm. A Reuters poll earlier this month of scientists showed that global warming is like to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise above pre-industrial levels seen by many countries as the maximum to avoid the worst of rising sea levels, floods, droughts and heat waves. Temperatures have already risen 0.7 Celsius.

Steps can be taken to protect forests and help them adapt to warmer temperatures, such as sustainable harvesting, the IUFRO report said. Perhaps even more important is cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases, said Seppala.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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‘Cyber criminals can buy personal identities for less than a can of cola’

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 14 (ANI): With a rise in cyber frauds, criminals can now purchase full personal identities for “less than a can of cola”, according to an Internet security firm.

The annual Symantec Internet Security Threat Report revealed that the market for stolen personal information, including credit card details, names addresses and dates of birth, grew to such an extent last year that it led to a price war of sorts.

The report found that criminals were increasingly targeting individuals for financial gain “more than ever before”.

And, according to the investigators, the UK suffered the second highest level of malicious online activity in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), with 11 per cent of the region’s total.

However, Germany topped the list with 14 per cent.

It was also revealed that credit card information was the most sought after, and details sold for as little as 40p, while some could even fetch 20 pounds.

While bank account details were priced for about 675 pounds, full identities could be bought for between 50p and 40 pounds.

“This recession-proof underground economy is reaching such a level of growth and maturity that there are signs of a price war developing, as online criminals find it increasingly easy to steal private details, and barter to sell them for bargain prices,” the Telegraph quoted Guy Bunker, of Symantec, as saying.

In the report, the scientists covered over 200 countries and monitored hacker communications to know in detail about the Internet black market in stolen information.

Bunker said that the world of online crimes was no longer the preserve of “spotty teenagers” and had become increasingly sophisticated. (ANI)

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Babies likely dream their first dreams in womb

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 14 (ANI): German researchers have found that very immature sheep foetuses can enter a dreaming sleep-like state weeks before the first rapid eye movements are seen.

Mathematical analysis carried out by mathematician Karin Schwab and neuroscientists at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena provides a tool to better understand the purpose of sleep.

It may also be helpful in studying how the brain develops, and in identifying vulnerable periods in brain development when damage could lead to disease later in life.

The researchers point out that directly measuring the brain activity of a human foetus in the womb is impossible, and that whatever is known about the early sleep habits comes mostly from watching eye movements.

The first rapid eye movements are seen around the seventh month of a foetus’ development.

For the current research, Schwab studied sheep, an animal that typically carries one or two foetuses similar in size and weight to a human foetus.

The course of brain development is also fairly similar in humans and sheep, lasting about 280 days in humans and 150 days in sheep.

The researchers recorded electrical activity in the brain of a 106-day-old developing sheep foetus directly, something that had never been done before.

Schwab’s team used sophisticated mathematical techniques for detecting patterns, and found cycles in the complexity of immature brain activity.

Unlike sleep patterns in later stages of development, the cycles fluctuated every 5 to 10 minutes and changed slowly as the foetus grows.

The researchers concede that it is difficult to imagine what the foetus experiences during such cycles in terms familiar to adults, but add that the patterns shed new light on the origins of sleep.

“Sleep does not suddenly evolve from a resting brain. Sleep and sleep state changes are active regulated processes,” says Schwab.

The new findings are also consistent with other data that shows that the brain cells that generate sleep states mature long before the rest of the brain is developed enough to fall into REM sleep.

Schwab says that a better understanding of brain development may provide clues about diseases later in life, like neurological disorders or crib death.

A research article on the mathematical analysis has been published in the journal Chaos. (ANI)

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With high girl child enrolment, Sikkim gets new education scheme

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Gangtok, April 6 (IANS) Sikkim girls are far ahead of the boys in school enrolment, the ratio standing at 113 girls to 100 boys. This is the highest in the entire northeast, and to maintain the trend the central government has ushered in a new scheme, according to an official.

‘Sikkim has done very well and has stolen the march over other northeastern states. The girl child enrolment here is very high, which a very good sign,’ Rudra Poudyal, director of the human resource development department, told IANS Monday.

Focusing on the universalisation of secondary education, the scheme has been launched under the 11th Five-Year Plan starting this year.

The new scheme will see the allocation of new model schools keeping in consideration the educationally and otherwise backwardness of the entire northeast region.

Success would be wholly financed by the central government in the first year and from the second to the fifth year, the central government would contribute 90 percent, five percent will be funded by the state and five percent by the Ministry of Development of Northeast Region (DONER).

Poudyal said the central government had now recognised the need of further developing education in the region and has, therefore, chalked out new schemes and facilities.

The government was also initiating the Northeast scholarship schemes and full computerized education for higher secondary students in the northeast region, for which Rs.60 billion has been earmarked among others.

‘In the northeast even the gross enrolment in standard IX is rising with our average in the country being 90 percent. We are moving forward and getting over the negative reality of high school dropout rates, we are doing well,’ Poudyal said.

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Obama, Hu stress crisis response in first meeting, AS

April 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

BEIJING (AP) President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, promised to work together to renew global growth and build a strategic partnership but did not discuss Beijing’s unease about its holdings of U.S. debt and other disputes in their first meeting at the London economic summit. Obama accepted an invitation to visit Beijing this year and the two leaders agreed to create a new U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, said a senior American official who briefed reporters in London.

The official said Obama agreed during the meeting Thursday on the need to change the International Monetary Fund to give China and other developing countries an “an appropriate role” but the two leaders did not discuss details. A bigger voice in managing the world’s finances is a key Chinese demand, and Beijing has suggested its contribution to global bailout efforts will be contingent on receiving it.

“The presidents agreed that the strong links between China and the U.S. economies have been a great mutual benefit, both in terms of trade and investment, and they were eager to build on that,” said the official, who talked on condition of anonymity in line with U.S. government policy. “Each side explained what they were doing and the goals they had in mind, and just expressing the importance that we, together, stimulate our economies and get growth going,” the official said.

The Strategic Economic Dialogue, due to meet later this year, succeeds a twice-a-year forum begun under former President George W. Bush to address a wide range of disputes over trade and other issues. The new forum, held once a year, is to be led by U.S. Secretary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and, on the Chinese side, by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Counselor Dai Bingguo.

Hu and Obama avoided U.S.-Chinese disputes, possibly to avoid fueling public pessimism about the global ecomomy. They did not discuss Beijing’s unease about the safety of its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and its proposal last month for a global currency to replace the dominant dollar, according to the American official.

“There was no mention of either of those two subjects,” the official said. Hu and Obama also avoided expressing their government’s criticisms of each other’s stimulus plans.

Beijing is uneasy that Washington’s heavy spending might fuel inflation and weaken the dollar and has appealed to Obama to steps that might erode the value of China’s estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. Washington needs Beijing to help finance its stimulus by buying more U.S. Treasury securities, and other Western governments want Chinese money to help finance a global bailout fund.

China has said its biggest contribution to a recovery will be to ensure strong growth in its own economy, the world’s third-largest. “There was not a detailed discussion of stimulus,” the official said.

However, he said Obama expressed awareness of the risks of higher inflation from stimulus spending and promised to bring down the U.S. budget deficit after economic growth revives.

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Obama, Hu stress crisis response in first meeting, AS

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

“There was no mention of either of those two subjects,” the official said. Hu and Obama also avoided expressing their government’s criticisms of each other’s stimulus plans.

However, he said Obama expressed awareness of the risks of higher inflation from stimulus spending and promised to bring down the U.S. budget deficit after economic growth revives.

India wants transparency on A.Q. Khan issue for a better tomorrow for the world

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 1 (ANI): Ahead of the G-20 economic summit, India on Wednesday said that there was a need for more transparency on the Pakistan’s nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan issue.

Addressing the media, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon here said that there was a need for the international community to work together to prevent any future possibility of recurrence of nuclear technology proliferation.

“On the A.Q. Khan network, we feel that there is a need for much more transparency. Not only about what happened in the past but to enable us to be certain that nothing like that will happen again. And to be sure that nuclear materials technology equipment are all not just secure today, but will always be secure,” said Shivshankar Menon.

Menon stressed that the transparency over Khan’s issue was needed also to ensure the nuclear technology remained in safe hands, not just today but also in future, and the world community should reflect a united approach on such a matter.

“This is very important because the danger really, of networks, like the A.Q. Khan network that they blur the line between what is official, what is not official, what is private and that is really worrying part for us. So it’s very important. So whether it is people being out, free to continue with these activities, or whether it’s putting in place systems to prevent a recurrence of this sort of proliferation, we feel it’s very important that the international community must work together,” Menon said.

“I’d be surprised if Pakistan wasn’t mentioned at the sidelines of the summit, because it is an issue, an issue not only for us, but an issue really for the world and the US has just unveiled its new comprehensive strategy to deal with Afghanistan and Pakistan. So I think its natural that this will be a topic,” Menon added.

Deliberating about the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s meet with his British counterpart earlier in the day ahead of the G-20 economic summit, Menon said that both the leaders met at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday and spent about little more than an hour together.

” Most of the conversation was really about the global economic crisis, financial crisis and what the G-20 meeting could do about it. Both of them expressed satisfaction with the way that preparations have been going, and that work has been done before the actual summit, the leader’s meeting,” said Menon informed.

On the Government of India’s steps to shield the country from getting over influenced from the global financial crisis, Menon said: “Stimulus packages that we have implemented already and the steps we are taking to increase investment in infrastructure, designed to do is really to compensate for the deterioration in the external environment so I would characterize the Indian economy as an economy that is capable of taking care of itself and is continuing to maintain a positive growth and therefore is part of the solution to the problem rather that part of the problem itself.

“We don’t intend to approach the IMF, we don’t feel the need to, but we do feel that it does need to be augmented, its resources need to be augmented to help the other developing countries who have been very hard hit by the crisis.” By Smita Prakash (ANI)

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Gordon Brown wants results from G20 summit

March 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, March 26 (ANI): Lashing out at the corporate greed, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that he would work to set global principles and standards for salaries in the finance sector at next week’s G20 summit in London.

On Wednesday, Brown promised “detailed results” from the summit as he stopped in New York during a three-continent tour intended to drum up support for a coordinated international response to the global economic crisis.

Brown is hosting the April 2 summit for leaders of the Group of 20, made up of rich and key developing nations that account for more than 80 percent of the world economy.

The British PM said that the summit would seek to create international standards for executive compensation. Disclosures of huge paychecks and generous bonuses for executives in the financial sector have drawn increasing public ire as banks and insurance companies have had to be bailed out by governments because they made bad investments or took on too much risk.

“We will even also publish principles about remuneration, so that there are similar standards and for remunerating bankers and the financial system in future in all countries and not just in one, to avoid a race to the bottom which is a consequence of not having any standards at all,” Brown said. (ANI)

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Manmohan Singh likely to attend G-20 Summit

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Mar 10 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is expected to attend the G-20 Summit in London on April 2.

This summit can provide an opportunity for Prime Minister to meet United States President Barack Obama for the first time.

According to an official, Dr. Singh intends to attend the G-20.

“A team of Indian officials is in London for preparations for the Prime Minister’s visit. PM’s visit would depend on his health condition and a clearance from doctors,” the official said.

Seventy-six-year-old Singh underwent a ‘redo’ coronary artery bypass surgery to remove five blockages in his heart at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on January 24 and has since been recuperating.

The G-20 Summit, a group of developed and major developing countries, is meeting to discuss the global meltdown and ways to meet the challenge. (ANI)

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CIA sees economic meltdown as a major security threat to the US

February 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb.26 (ANI): The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has in its first Economic Intelligence report has said that the current economic meltdown should be seen as a preeminent security threats facing the United States.

“We’ve seen the impact of a worldwide recession occur throughout the world,” said CIA chief Leon Panetta.

The spy agency is following worrisome trends in many corners of the globe, from East Asia to Latin America.

In private meetings yesterday, Latin American intelligence officials were quoted by the Washington Post as warning their U.S. counterparts of a crisis spreading throughout the hemisphere, particularly in Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela.

“Clearly, it’s related: What happens in the economy, and what’s happening as a result of that, is affecting the stability of the world,” Panetta said.

Other key intelligence officials have raised similar alarms in other settings.

The new director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told a Senate panel this month that economic woes have largely replaced terrorism as the country’s number one security challenge.

Blair repeated the theme yesterday in testimony before the House intelligence committee, noting that three European governments have fallen because of economic issues.

“Our analysis indicates that economic crisis increases the risk of regime-threatening instability if it continues for a one- or two-year period,” Blair said.

“Instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order,” he added.

The economic crunch adds to a formidable list of global concerns facing the new administration’s security team. (ANI)

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Now, a hand-held water sanitizer to help developing problems

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 15 (ANI): Student engineers at the University of Iowa have developed a novel, hand-held device to sanitize water that can save lives of people who lack daily supply of clean water.

Available for just five dollars, the device was designed as a class project by 15 student engineers.

And now it has become a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first-place-award-winning project

Craig Just, faculty advisor to the UI College of Engineering chapter of the organization Engineers for a Sustainable World, said that the EPA award represented an honour for the students and much more for citizens in developing countries.
We have some of the best students on the planet here at Iowa, and winning the competition was only the beginning. We hope to multiply the 75,000 dollars first-place award 10-fold in the coming year so that we can make a substantial human health impact in our target countries,” he said.

To date, the students have worked with residents of Xicotepec, Mexico and are now planning to make water sanitizers available in Ghana and other developing countries in the future.

“I’ve spoken with a potential industrial partner, a worldwide distributor of chlorine generators designed for pools and spas, that is interested in the effort. These types of partnerships could greatly expand the reach of the project,” said Just.

The study titled ‘More Affordable Handheld Water Sanitizers’ was presented by Just at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago. (ANI)

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Tata Power to set up geothermal, solar plants in Gujarat

January 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai: Tata Group company Tata Power Monday said it is looking at the possibility of setting up a geothermal power plant and a solar power plant of 5 MW each at a suitable location in Gujarat, a move that will strengthen the renewable energy portfolio of the company.

Tata Power has entered into an agreement in this regard with the Gujarat government “to explore the possibility of setting up a 5 MW geothermal power plant in phase I,” the Tata group company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“The company also signed an MoU for developing a 5 MW solar power plant in Gujarat,” the filing added.

“We are happy about this strategic partnership with the government of Gujarat. This partnership not only strengthens our renewable portfolio but also creates opportunities to expand our presence in the growing renewable energy market in India,” Tata Power Managing Director Prasad Menon said.

Tata Power is one of the largest integrated private power and energy company with an installed generation capacity of over 2,300 MW and a presence in all the segment of the power sector viz generation (thermal, hydro, solar and wind), transmission, distribution and trading.

Shares of the Tata Power settled at Rs727.40, down 2.80% on the BSE.

PTI

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World Bank names blacklisted Indian IT firms

January 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mon, Jan 12 – The World Bank on Sunday said it plans to publish in the future the names of all companies it bans from doing work with the poverty-fighting institution, and immediately listed three Indian companies.

The Bank said the move aligns its disclosure practices for companies involved in wrongdoing that work on development projects financed by the World Bank and those that provide goods and services directly to the institution.

“This change was made in the interest of fairness and transparency,” the Washington-based lender said in a statement.

Until now, the World Bank has only published the names of debarred companies involved in Bank-financed projects, but has not listed blacklisted firms that receive direct contracts from the institution under its corporate procurement program.

“There are currently three companies that have been debarred along with their affiliates under the Bank Group’s corporate procurement program,” the Bank said.

It said it debarred Satyam Computer Services, India’s fourth-largest software company, for eight years in September 2008, and Wipro Technologies, India’s No. 3 software company, for four years in June 2007 both for “improper benefits to bank staff”.

In addition, it said it had also barred India’s Megasoft Consultants for four years in December 2007 for “participating in a joint venture with Bank staff while conducting business with the Bank”.

All three companies were involved in different contracts and their debarments are not related.

The World Bank has long been under pressure to step up its fight again fraud and corruption within the institution and in projects it finances in developing countries.

Satyam’s chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju resigned last week after revealing years of accounting fraud in India’s biggest corporate fraud. Raju admitted last week that about $1 billion, or 94 percent of the cash on the company’s books was fictitious.

The World Bank acknowledged only in December it had debarred Satyam following press reports that the company had been blacklisted three months earlier for “improper benefits” given to Bank officials.

In Mumbai, Wipro Ltd said in a statement its revenues from the World Bank were insignificant and the decision by the Bank to bar it would not affect business and earnings.

Shares in Wipro fell more than 12 percent after the World Bank said it had barred the company from its direct contracts.

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High insulin levels increase breast cancer risk

January 10, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Washington, Jan 10 (ANI): An American study has revealed that high levels of insulin increase the risk of breast cancer in women.

Lead researchers Marc Gunter and Howard Strickler, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, revealed that they examined the role of insulin in breast cancer while controlling for oestrogen levels.

This attains significance because, while the proneness to breast cancer has been attributed to high oestrogen levels in many obese postmenopausal women thus far, insulin has never been recognised as an independent risk factor.

During the study, the researchers examined the association between incident breast cancer and baseline fasting insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (a related hormone), and oestradiol levels in 835 women enrolled in the Women””””s Health Initiative Observational Study who developed breast cancer and a randomly-selected sample of 816 women in the study who did not develop breast cancer.

Upon dividing the women into four groups based on their fasting insulin levels, the team found that the subjects with the highest insulin levels had nearly a 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer than those with the lowest insulin levels.

When the researchers separately analysed women who were not using hormone therapy, they found that individuals with the highest insulin levels had a 2.4-fold increased risk of developing breast cancer compared to those with the lowest levels.

The finding remained unchanged even when the researchers took into account multiple other breast cancer risk factors, including oestrogen levels.

“These data suggest that hyperinsulinemia is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and may have a substantial role in explaining the obesity-breast cancer relationship,” the authors conclude.

The study has been reported in the Journal of National Cancer Institute. (ANI)

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Stethoscope that detects hidden heart problems on the anvil

January 9, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

London, Jan 8 (ANI): Irish researchers are developing a stethoscope that is capable enough to detect hidden heart problems, and lead to rapid diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

Dr Scott Rickard, from University College Dublin is an expert in audio identification techniques. His expertise brought him to the attention of FBI where he pioneered an eavesdropping technology, which can identify a speaker”s location in a crowded room.

With the help of two closely spaced microphones, it was possible to separate and localise an arbitrary number of speakers.

“So if you were in a room and 10 people were speaking, you could tell who said what, when,” the BBC quoted Dr Rickard as saying.

But detecting heart disease just by listening is a more difficult exercise.

The research team led by Dr Rickard has designed and built a new “super” stereo stethoscope that uses six microphones instead of one.

Rickard said: “It is essentially just six little round microphones about the size of a US quarter, connected to a computer.

“On the screen you can see the lub, dub sounds of your heart, a little peak for the lub and a little peak for the dub evolve across the screen.”

The sounds hidden between these peaks can significantly tell about heart disease.

Rickard uses a musical analogy to describe them.

“We might all hope that our hearts sound like Mozart, unfortunately at some stage they might sound like Metallica.

“We are building a detector that basically tells the difference between Mozart and Metallica – that might seem easy but it”s not,” he said.

Currently, a team of cardiologists at St Vincent”s hospital in Dublin are testing the stethoscope and collecting data to boost its scientific credentials. (ANI)

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