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Delhi residents spend more than other Indians

April 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Residents of Delhi spend more per month compared to people in any other state with large chunk of their money being spent on food items, said a Delhi government report released here Monday.

According to ‘Household Consumer Expenditure in Delhi’ brought out by the directorate of economics and statistics, the monthly per capita expenditure in urban areas of Delhi is the highest in the country.

Releasing the report, Delhi Finance Minister A.K. Walia said: ‘The average monthly per capita expenditure of Delhi has increased from Rs.1,972 in 2007 to Rs.2,078 in 2008. At the national level, the monthly per capita expenditure is Rs.1,472.’

About 37 percent of monthly per capita expenditure of Delhi residents was on food items, the report said.

The report also revealed that about seven percent of total households were headed by female members of the family.

Walia said that as per the survey, the literacy level in urban area of Delhi was 85 percent in 2008.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: A.K. Walia, expenditure, female, Government, survey

Pakistan’s rocket-shelling plunges market price of land beyond border

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Chak Allah Bakhash (Punjab), Sept. 15 (ANI): The prices of farming land have plunged following past week’s rocket-shelling incident in the India-Pakistan border villages.

Local farmers say that it was already quite tough to find buyers for the land situated beyond fencing and the latest rocket-shelling incident has caused the prices to drop further.

Fenced from three sides, Village Chak Allah Bakhash at the International border has nearly 150 acres of land beyond fencing.

Balwinder Kaur, one of the natives in village Chak Allah Bakhash, said that it was already difficult for her to meet the daily expenditure.

Sucha Singh, another villager, said: “My family owns a piece of land across fencing and has been facing many difficulties while cultivating the land at the border. There are no takers for our land.”

Nearly 553 km long barbed fencing of the Punjab border along side Pakistan resulted in thousands of acres of land being left beyond fencing.

The price of the land spread before fencing line is nearly three times higher than the vast land spread beyond the fencing.

An acre of land, located before fencing, is available for approximately 600,000 to 10,00,000 rupees whereas more fertile land, located beyond the fencing, is worth about 200,000 to 300,000 rupees per acre.

Mandatory frisking by security men at the border gates of the fence and restricted working hours and few objections could be some of the reasons for a lesser price of land beyond fencing.

The farmers are worried that it would be difficult to find buyers for their lands. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)

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Mamata Banerjee lauds Rahul Gandhi’s train ride

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sept 17 (ANI): Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has lauded Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s train ride as part of his party’s austerity drive.

Mamata Banerjee, who inaugurated the newly spruced up terminal of New Delhi railway station in the capital along with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday, lauded the austerity act.

Gandhi travelled in an air-conditioned chair car of the Swarn Shatabdi Express on Tuesday, a day after his mother Sonia Gandhi travelled in an economy class flight from New Delhi to Mumbai.

Rahul travelled from New Delhi to Ludhiana to inaugurate a four-day camp of young Congressmen.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked the Congress leaders to observe austerity to cut down expenditure in the wake of draught declared in parts of the country.

Earlier, the Congress Party had decided that its ministers and lawmakers would also take a 20 per cent cut in salaries.

The Congress Party has also urged the government to keep prices of essential commodities in check with special emphasis on oil seeds and pulses. (ANI)

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Smoking may aggravate malnutrition in developing countries

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 24 (ANI): Smokers may exacerbate the problem of malnutrition in developing countries because they tend to finance their habit by dipping into the family food budget, say a pair of researchers.

Steven Block and Patrick Webb, of Tufts University, have revealed that their fidning is based on a study conducted in Java, Indonesia.

They say that their findings suggest that the costs of smoking in the developing world go well beyond the immediate health risks.

The researchers surveyed 33,000 households, most of which were poor, and found that the average family with at least one smoker spent 10 percent of its already tight budget on tobacco.

They observed that 68 percent of a smoking family’s budget went to food, and 22 percent for non-food, non-tobacco purchases.

On the other hand, said the researcher duo, the average non-smoking family spent 75 percent of its income on food, and 25 percent for non-food items.

“This suggests that 70 percent of the expenditures on tobacco products are financed by a reduction in food expenditures,” the researchers write.

They note in their report that that decreased spending on food appeared to have real nutritional consequences for children of smokers, with the study finding that smokers’ children tended to be slightly shorter for their ages than those of non-smokers.

The decrease in child nutrition associated with a parent who smokes is “an intuitive but rarely documented empirical finding,” the researchers write.

The team further pointed out that the poorer nutrition in smoking families came not only because they bought less food in total, but also because the food they ate tended to be of lower quality.

They said that, compared to non-smoking families, families with a smoker were found to spend a larger budget share on rice and a smaller share on meats, fruits and vegetables, which are nutrient-rich, but more expensive.

“The combination of direct health threats from smoking coupled with the potential loss of (food) consumption among children linked to tobacco expenditure presents a development challenge of the highest order,” the researchers conclude.

The study has been published in Economic Development and Cultural Change. (ANI)

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Daylight could help fight obesity

August 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 22 (ANI): A new study, conducted by researchers at The University of Nottingham, has suggested that daylight could help control weight.

Previous studies have revealed that the activity of calorie-burning ‘brown fat’, also known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), is reduced with obesity. Therefore, promoting BAT function could prevent or reduce obesity in some people.

Now, the new study has shown – for the first time – that daylight is a major factor in controlling BAT activity.

“Our research has suggested a previously unknown mechanism for controlling BAT function in humans and this could potentially lead to new treatments for the prevention or reversal of obesity,” said study’s lead author Michael Symonds, Professor of Developmental Physiology in the School of Clincal Sciences at the university.

Winter was traditionally a time of the year that was accompanied with increased thermal demands and thus energy expenditure, but the body’s requirements for BAT has been reduced in recent times by central heating plus global warming.

BAT is capable of producing up to 300 times more heat per unit mass compared with all other tissues.

The researchers studied well over 3500 patients. The presence of BAT was documented and correlated with monthly changes in daylight and ambient temperature.

Their results showed that BAT was more common in females and that changes in BAT activity were more closely associated with day light than ambient temperature.

BAT is activated by the cold and is unique in being able to produce very large amounts of heat – but little is known about the main factors that regulate the amount of BAT in our bodies.

“Our research demonstrates a very strong seasonal variation in the presence of BAT. The study focused on the impact of daylight and ambient temperature, as these are two key factors in determining BAT function in small mammals. Our exciting new findings may help us find novel interventions aimed at promoting BAT activity particularly in the winter,” Symonds said.

The study has been published in the journal Diabetes. (ANI)

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Indian Missions to have Indian Community Welfare Fund

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 20 (ANI): The Union Cabinet today approved setting up the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) in the Indian Missions in 17 countries to meet contingency expenditure incurred by the them for carrying out various onsite welfare activities for overseas Indian citizens who are in distress.

The proposed ICWF is aimed at providing several services. They are boarding and lodging for distressed overseas Indian workers in household/domestic sectors and unskilled labourers; extending emergency medical care to the overseas Indians in need; providing air passage to stranded overseas Indians in need; and providing initial legal assistance to the overseas Indians in deserving cases.

Other objective is expenditure on incidentals and for airlifting the mortal remains to India or local cremation/burial of the deceased overseas Indian in such cases where a sponsor is unable or unwilling to do so as per the contract and the family is unable to meet the cost.

Overseas Indian workers duped by unscrupulous intermediaries in the host countries, runaway house maids, those who become victim of accidents, deserted spouses of overseas Indians or undocumented overseas Indian workers in need of emergency assistance or any other overseas Indian citizens who are in distress would be the main beneficiaries of the Fund.

The Fund will also be utilised to meet the expenditure for airlifting the mortal remains of overseas Indian citizens to India on the recommendation of the respective Heads of Missions. ANI)

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Polio eradication strategy approved

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 20 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its approval for implementation of the polio eradication strategy with an estimated expenditure at Rs.3203.98 crore for the year 2009-2010 to 2011-12.

The main objective of the project is to achieve the goal of zero transmission of polio and obtaining international polio free certification for accomplishment of this goal.

The annual strategy for polio eradication is decided on the basis of the recommendations of the India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) consisting of national and international experts.

The IEAG has recommended a total of six National Immunization Day (NIDs), Nine Sub National Immunization Day (SNIDs) and forty Mop Up rounds for the period 2009-10 to 2011-12.

Pulse Polio Immunization (PPI) was started in India in 1995-96. This is the largest public health intervention ever taken up anywhere in the world.

The estimated number of children aged between 0-5 years to be vaccinated in a National Immunization Day is around 172 million.

Sub National Immunization Day, in the high risk states/areas will cover about 69 million children between 0-5 years.

Mop Up immunization round will be undertaken in the districts and in the surrounding areas, where polio cases will be reported, covering about 7.5 million target population. (ANI)

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Climate change could deepen poverty in developing countries

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 20 (ANI): A new study has determined that climate change could deepen poverty in developing countries.

In the study, a team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains, on those in 16 developing countries.

Urban workers in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zambia were found to be the most at risk, as the cost of food drives them into poverty.

“Extreme weather affects agricultural productivity and can raise the price of staple foods, such as grains, that are important to poor households in developing countries,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, the associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and interim director of Purdue’s Climate Change Research Center.

“Studies have shown global warming will likely increase the frequency and intensity of heat waves, drought and floods in many areas. It is important to understand which socioeconomic groups and countries could see changes in poverty rates in order to make informed policy decisions,” he added.

The team used data from the late 20th century and projections for the late 21st century to develop a framework that examined extreme climate events, comparable shocks to grain production and the impact on the number of impoverished people in each country.

“The occurrence and magnitude of what are currently the 30-year-maximum values for wet, dry and hot extremes are projected to substantially increase for much of the world,” said Diffenbaugh.

“Heat waves and drought in the Mediterranean showed a potential 2700 percent and 800 percent increase in occurrence, respectively, and extreme rainfall in Southeast Asia was projected to potentially increase by 900 percent,” he added.

In addition, Southeast Asia showed a projected 40 percent increase in the magnitude of the worst rainfall; central Africa showed a projected 1000 percent increase in the magnitude of the worst heat wave; and the Mediterranean showed a projected 60 percent increase in the worst drought.

A statistical analysis was used to determine grain productivity shocks that would correspond in magnitude to the climate extremes, and then the economic impact of the supply shock was determined.

Future predicted extreme climate events were compared to historical agricultural productivity extremes in order to assess the likely impact on agricultural production, prices and wages.

According to Thomas Hertel, a distinguished professor of agricultural economics and co-leader of the study, “Food is a major expenditure for the poor and, while those who work in agriculture would have some benefit from higher grains prices, the urban poor would only get the negative effects.” (ANI)

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AYUSH to be integrated with mainstream health services

August 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 13 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the continuation of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for AYUSH Hospitals and Dispensaries.

This was introduced during the 10th Five Year Plan with certain modifications for supporting the mainstreaming of AYUSH under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) at a total expenditure of Rs.650 crore.

The basic objectives of the scheme are to encourage the opening of general and specialized AYUSH treatment centers in allopathic hospitals with a view to integrate AYUSH health services with mainstream health services in the country, and to provide assistance to the State Government for the procurement and supply of essential drugs to AYUSH hospitals and dispensaries.

The scheme envisages provisions of the preventive, promotive and curative healthcare covering Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Hemoeopathy all over country.

Under the scheme grants-in-aid will be provided to the State / Union Territory Governments for the following activities:

(i) Establishment of System Specific Outdoor Treatment Centres in the Primary Health Centres (PHCs).

(ii) Establishment of AYUSH Specialized Therapy Centre with Hospitalization Facilities in the Community Health Centres (CHCs) with IPD facilities.

(iii) Setting up of AYUSH Wings in Districts Hospitals (DHs)

(iv) Supply of Essential Drugs to Hospitals and Dispensaries.

(v) Upgradation of AYUSH Hospitals / dispensaries other than PHCs/CHC/DHs at the District/Sub-district level.

(vi) Setting up of Specialized AYUSH facilities in Government Tertiary Care AYUSH Hospitals with Public Private Partnership (PPP).

(vii) Providing Managerial assistance at the Central/State levels and other facilities to support the mainstreaming of AYUSH under NRHM.

The approval will facilitate the mainstreaming of AYUSH under the National Rural Health Mission by ensuring AYUSH services and quality drugs to the people in the rural areas.

It will also facilitate the revitalization of traditional systems of medicines at all levels.

The modified scheme will be implemented during the remaining three years of 11th Plan that is 2009-10 to 2011-12.

The scheme will facilitate the revitalization of the AYUSH sector, widen choice of people in availing quality health care and medicines.

It will strengthen AYUSH infrastructure and employment for medical practitioners.

The scheme will provide AYUSH health care facilities to the people at large and will be implemented in all the State/Union Territories of the country. (ANI)

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Delhi Stock Exchange teams up with IBM to re-start its operations

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 15 (ANI): IBM today announced that it has signed a 10-year information technology (IT) services agreement with Delhi Stock Exchange, one of the leading stock exchanges in India. As part of this Rs 11 crore agreement,

IBM will provide business continuity and disaster recovery services to DSE as well as remotely host and manage its IT infrastructure.

This will help the exchange meet the stringent business continuity guidelines as laid out by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) before it could resume its operations after a hiatus of six years. By engaging with IBM in a complete operational expenditure (pay-as-you-go) model, DSE will also save 100 percent capital expenditure on IT.

Signed in June 2009, this agreement demonstrates IBM’s focus to help clients ‘Do more with Less’ by engaging in an increasingly popular operational expense (opex) model. It also leverages IBM’s global experience of over 40 years to provide business continuity and resiliency services to help clients minimize the costs and time-frames associated with recovering business operations in the event of a disaster.

DSE was one of country’s largest stock exchanges – almost at par with Bombay Stock Exchange in the 90′s, and has been in existence for over 60 years.

In 2002, however, the exchange became inactive due to negligible trading volumes. Seven years later, the exchange is now looking at resurrecting itself to its former glory-one where it used to be bustling with over 2,800 companies listed.

IBM will play a key role in helping DSE go live for trading by providing a highly secure environment and a robust resiliency solution with the goal of zero data loss once the exchange becomes operational later this year.

“As DSE looks to claim back its position as one of country’s leading stock exchanges, the agreement with IBM couldn’t have happened at a better time,” said Mr HS Sidhu, Executive Director and CEO, Delhi Stock Exchange. “As the world’s leading IT services company, IBM will bring immense value to the exchange by providing time-tested and world-class managed services-that would help DSE become operational and successful once again.”

Vijay Gupta, Chairman – Business Development Committee, Delhi Stock Exchange remarked, “DSE will play a key role in the stock trading landscape of India, once re-launched. IBM’s commitment to helping DSE achieve that goal is commendable. IBM’s strong value proposition of providing managed services in an opex model was also one of the key reasons why DSE decided to choose IBM for this strategic relationship.”

Under this agreement, IBM will build, host and manage the entire disaster recovery infrastructure for DSE from its data center. IBM will also provide 24×7 monitoring services for hardware and networking devices from its command center.

Neeraj Sharma, Director, Integrated Technology Services, IBM India/South Asia, “Companies today want to do more with less in these economically challenging times. DSE’s trust in IBM is a testament to IBM’s value proposition and world-class capabilities to help its clients improve the operational efficiency and cost effectiveness as well as accelerate time-to-market for services.” (ANI)

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Sarah Palin Committee raised 733,000 dollars in six months

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): Outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Political Action Committee raised almost 733,000 dollars during the first six months of 2009, out of which the fundraising committee had 450,000 dollars in cash on hand, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission.

“It was a great first half. Just to put it in perspective, we did it with one event and one e-mail from the governor back in February,” Politico quoted Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for Palin’s PAC, as saying.

Stapleton noted that SarahPAC was actually “dark,” meaning it took in no money, from a period in mid-April until early June as Palin focused on raising money for her legal-defense fund instead.

Palin has been hit with a series of ethics complaints since last year, allegations which she cited in her July 3 news conference announcing her resignation.

Stapleton said Palin has no plans yet for further fundraising and will not focus on that until after she has left governor’s office next month.

Although Republicans hope that Palin will prove to be a campaign-finance ATM, but she hasn’t exactly been a big fundraising help for them.

Since its formation in late January, SaraPAC appears to have made just two political contributions -5,000 dollars to Palin’s 2008 running mate, Senator John McCain, and 5,000 dollars to Alaska’s Republican senator Lisa Murkowski.

The majority of the money raised by SarahPAC, so far, has come in the form of donations less than 200 dollars each.

According to its FEC records, SarahPAC’s biggest expenditure during the reporting period was 103,000 dollars it spent on EDonation.com, a Virginia-based firm that specializes in online fundraising.

When Palin leaves the governor’s office at the end of the month, she’ll be able to use SarahPAC to underwrite the cost of politically related travel and appearances, and to donate up to 10,000 dollars each to federal candidates. (ANI)

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Government set to spend more to boost economic growth: Mukherjee

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 11 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the government would resort to more borrowings to increase ‘public expenditure’ for a higher economic growth.

The minister said this while addressing the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India here in the national capital on Saturday.

“Obviously I choose to come back to the path of our growth trajectory. And as the private investment cannot be expected to meet the full requirement in immediate time, that’s why it was decided to step up the public expenditure and it had to be depended heavily on larger borrowing, but we will manage it with the cooperation and support and competence of RBI,” Pranab Mukherjee said.

“There should not be any apprehension that private sector would be crowded out. We will meet requirements of the private sector from the market and government borrowing will be managed in such a manner that there is no deception in the market in favour of government’s borrowings,” he added.

Earlier on July 2, the finance ministry had said that growth could rise to 7 percent this year-towards the high end of the range of private forecasts-and subsequently increase to 8.5 to 9 percent if the government adopted sweeping reforms and accelerated infrastructure development.

The government had slashed factory duties and stepped up public spending to pump the economy as the growth rate tripped to 6.7 percent in 2008-09 from 9 percent or more seen in the previous three years. (ANI)

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Bombay HC issues notice to Praful Patel on election petition

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, July 11 (ANI): The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has issued a notice to Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel on a petition challenging his election from Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha constituency.

The Bench has asked Patel to file his reply by September 18 in response to a petition filed by BJP’s defeated candidate Shishupal Patle.

The petition filed under Section 80 of the Representation of Peoples’ Act has contended that Patel had resorted to ‘corrupt practices’ and his election expenditure was far more than the Rs 25 lakh ceiling prescribed by poll panel.

Patle also questioned the credibility of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He claimed that the number of votes cast had been more than the number of voters listed, in as many as 73 booths.

Patle had won in 2004 election by a slender margin, while this time Patel settled the score with a win by over 2.5 lakh votes. (ANI)

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Eating more and using less energy made dinos gigantic

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sydney, July 9 (ANI): A US scientist has said that some dinosaurs grew larger than today’s elephants because they ate more and used less energy.

According to a report in ABC Science, the study suggests two factors, energy expenditure and food intake, influence the size of animals.

Using a mathematical model, study author Dr Brian McNab of the University of Florida, determined that animals that expend more energy and have a faster metabolism, which is typically linked to temperature regulation, have a smaller body mass.

Fast metabolism is a characteristic of large warm blooded animals. They use food to generate heat and maintain a constant body temperature, he writes.

Cold blooded animals, like most reptiles, have a slow metabolism and rely on the environment for body warmth.

McNab has proposed that, rather than use all their energy to maintain body temperature the way warm-blooded animals do, large dinosaurs used their energy to grow.

Large present-day mammals, like the African elephant, haven’t reached sizes similar to dinosaurs because they use most of their energy on temperature regulation, he added.

McNab said that due to their size, large dinosaurs were able to maintain a constant body temperature through thermal inertia and a small surface-to-volume ratio.

As a result, McNab concludes that dinosaurs like sauropods were homeothermic – had an intermediate body temperature.

Palaeontologist Dr John Long, of Museum Victoria, said that the idea that dinosaurs had intermediate body temperatures is not unusual.

He said that some large cold blooded animals can maintain a constant body temperature regardless of the environment – much like warm blooded animals.

“If you think of the giant turtles that live in the cold waters of the Atlantic they can have much higher body temperatures than the sea water around them,” said Long.

He said that the bigger an animal is, the less energy it takes to maintain a constant and higher body temperature.

“They can generate heat through their muscle metabolism,” he said. (ANI)

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Gargantuan dinos the ‘couch potatoes’ of prehistoric world

July 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 7 (ANI): A new research has determined that due to their huge sizes, dinosaurs were the ‘couch potatoes’ of the prehistoric world.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the research was done by Dr McNab from the University of Florida.

Having easy access to food, coupled with their sedentary lifestyle when not hunting, helped the creatures grow into the biggest beasts to have ever walked the earth, according to Dr McNab.

Paleontologists have argued that dinosaurs’ size was in some way due to the way they regulated the temperature of their blood.

Dr McNab believes that the availability of food resources was more important, however.

Using a model based on a vertebrate’s energy expenditure, mass and eating habits, Dr McNab explained the body size of existing and extinct mammals, including baleen whales, an ancient rhinoceros and modern elephants.

He used the example of the larger mass found in some marine mammals which reflect greater resources in their environment.

While Dr McNab said that thermal biology differences are easily seen in small organisms, he suggested dinosaurs were neither cold nor warm blooded but maintained an intermediate temperature between mammals and reptiles, thanks to their size.

Some dinosaurs ate lizards, turtles or eggs, while others hunted other dinosaurs. The majority ate plants however.

Many of these plants, which can be seen in fossils, had edible leaves, including evergreen conifers such as pine trees, redwoods and their relatives, ferns, mosses and in the latter stages of the dinosaur age, flowering fruit plants.

According to Dr McNab, “Like couch potatoes sitting within easy reach of high calorie foods, the gargantuan size of dinosaurs most likely stems from the abundance of resources available, coupled with low energy expenditures.”

“Some dinosaurs reached masses that were at least eight times those of the largest, ecologically equivalent terrestrial mammals,” he said.

“The factors most responsible for setting the maximal body size of vertebrates are resource quality and quantity, as modified by the mobility of the consumer, and the vertebrate’s rate of energy expenditure,” he added. (ANI)

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Wimbledon final tickets being sold for 8,500 pounds

July 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 3 (ANI): Tickets for the Wimbledon men’s final are being sold for 8,500 pounds each.ccording to The Sun, Wimbledon top brass have pledged to prosecute black market touts trying to cash in on Murray mania.

But well-heeled debenture holders who provide funds for Wimbledon can sell their tickets.

An All England Club spokesman said: “It is thanks to debenture holders that we can undertake projects like the Centre Court roof. In return, we think it only fair that these investors are allowed to trade their tickets if they want to.

“But I must point out that most debentures are bought by out-and-out tennis enthusiasts.”

Wimbledon themselves actively encourage the sale of debenture tickets by approving a website set up especially for the purpose of selling on the ‘white market’.

But ticket agencies get in through the back door by snapping up unwanted debenture holders’ seats so they can make booming profits from enthusiasts.

The All England Club issues debentures every five years to raise funds for capital expenditure.

The last batch in 2006 realized 46 million pounds and each single debenture cost 23,150 pounds. (ANI)

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Energy intake reaches a limit despite abundant food supply

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 1 (ANI): Contradicting Charles Darwin’s theory, scientists have now shown that despite abundant food supply, energy intake reaches a limit even in animals with high nutrient demands, such as lactating females.

Darwin and his contemporaries postulated that food consumption in birds and mammals was limited by resource levels, which meant that animals would eat as much as they could while food was plentiful and produce as many offspring as this would allow them to.

Scientists at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology in Vienna have now suggested that energy intake reaches a limit due to active control of maternal investment in offspring in order to maintain long-term reproductive fitness.

The new research led by Dr Teresa Valenca showed that Brown hares could increase their energy turnover and rate of milk production above normal levels when their energy reserves were low, or when their offspring were kept in cooler temperatures.

That indicated that, ordinarily, the hares were operating at below their maximum capacity.

It also showed that this is not due to any kind of physiological constraint, such as length of digestive tract or maximum capacity of mammary glands.

As the hares were also provided with plentiful food, there could be no limitation of energy turnover due to food availability.

The way that females regulated their energy expenditure according to pup demand and their own fat reserves but did not exceed certain levels was in line with the group’s theory that using energy at close to the maximum rate has costs for animals which may compromise their ability to successfully reproduce in the future.

For example, if a hare puts most of its energy into a litter of pups then it will have little left over for growth and body repairs, which may shorten its life or make it less able to produce or care for young in the future.

Thus, by actively limiting the rate of energy turnover, a mother can prevent this and maintain a higher level of reproductive success over her lifetime.

The study will be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow. (ANI)

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Paradip Port to have iron ore terminal

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 1 (ANI): An agreement has been signed between Paradip Port Trust and Blue Water Iron Ore Terminal Pvt. Ltd for construction of a deep draught iron ore terminal.

K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman, Paradip Port Trust signed the concession agreement on behalf of the Port and Harindar Pal Singh Banga, Vice-Chairman, Nobel Group signed on behalf of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) here today.

Union Cabinet Minister of Shipping G.K. Vasan and other senior officers including Secretary (Shipping) A.P.V.N. Sarma, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor and Joint Secretary (Ports) were present on the occasion.

Under the agreement, the iron ore terminal will be developed by the concessionaire at an estimated cost of Rs. 506.30 crores.

Paradip Port will provide supporting facilities like dredging of channel and berth, railway lines and back-up area at an estimated cost of Rs. 85.05 crores.

Besides this, the Port will also incur an expenditure of Rs. 20 crores towards shifting of the CISF complex and Rs. 15 crores towards upgradation of electrical reception facilities in order to facilitate implementation of the project.

On completion of the iron ore terminal, capacity addition to the Port will be ten MTPA. Since the dredging of the channel is in progress and the depths at the proposed channel and berth will be 17.1meters, it will facilitate handling of cape size vessels upto 1, 25, 000 DWT.

The concessionaire, Blue Water Iron Ore Terminal Pvt. Ltd. have offered a revenue share of 36.802 per cent to the port during the concession period of 30 years.

The concessionaire will complete the construction of the project facilities within 36 months from the date of award of concession.

This is the first project under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to be implemented in the port sector as per the new Model Concession Agreement approved by the Cabinet and the tariff has been fixed up front by the TAMP.

As part of the PPP scheme of Government of India, Paradip Port Trust floated global tenders for construction of deep draught Iron ore berth on BOT basis.

Five bidders were short listed including the successful bidder, the consortium of Noble Group Ltd., Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd. and MMTC for this port sector BOT project.

The consortium has formed a SPV, Blue Water Iron Ore Terminal Pvt. Ltd. under the companies act to implement the project. (ANI)

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How Royals blew Brit taxpayers’ money

June 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Jun 30 (ANI): Brit taxpayers had to dole out 250,000 pounds for a makeover of Princess Beatrice’s university digs, stated a bill revealed by the Queen on June 29.

The fund was used to redecorate a private four-bed apartment at St James’s Palace for Beatrice, 20, who started her history of art degree at Goldsmiths University, London, last September.

The annual report into Royal finances revealed the money was spent on rewiring the rooms, plus installing a new kitchen, two new bathrooms and a wood floor in two reception rooms.

Graham Smith, from the campaign group Republic, has branded the huge cost a “scandal”.

“This puts the rows about MPs’ expenses and duck houses in perspective. This bill eclipses any put in by MPs in their expenses,” the Sun quoted him as saying.

“The level of scrutiny being given to MPs expenses should apply to Royal spending,” he said.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has also condemned the St James Palace expenditure.

“It’s staggering,” campaign manager Susie Squire said.

“Many taxpayers will find this unjustifiable, not least because Beatrice does not carry out official engagements,” she stated.

But a senior Royal aide has defended the 256,000-pound bill, saying the age of the property meant high restoration costs.

“The apartment had been used by a member of household staff,” he said.

“It’s a normal apartment which was on our list for improvements for some time.

“It co-coincided with the Princess going to university in London and it was therefore appropriate for her to occupy it,” he added. (ANI)

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Beijing Olympics generated China a profit of 146 million dollars

June 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Beijing, June 20 (ANI): The Chinese Government has declared that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games generated a profit of more than one billion yuan (146 million dollars).

According to the National Audit Office (NAO) website, the total operating cost of the Games was 19.343 billion yuan and the operating revenue was 20.5 billion yuan.

China also spent 19.49 billion yuan on building 102 Olympic projects in Beijing and the five other cities that co-hosted the Games, the report said.

Thirty-six spots were competition venues and the rest were used for training.

The operating revenue came mainly from broadcasting rights and marketing programs.

The expenses included 5.092 billion yuan on broadcasting, accommodation, transport and medical services; 1.272 billion yuan on the opening and closing ceremonies, torch relay and other promotional activities; and 1.424 billion yuan on human resources.

China plans to use the earnings to set up special funds for the development of sports, improving sports facilities and organizing events for the common man.

“The scheme to set up the funds is under discussion,” China Daily quoted an official, as saying.

The cost of Beijing Games was lower than that of the Athens Games, which cost 2.4 billion dollars, and reportedly made a profit of 155 million dollars.

“According to fixed exchange rates, the cost of the Beijing Games was slightly lower than that of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and as we know the budget for the next Games is more than that for Beijing. So the Beijing Olympics was not the most expensive,” chinanews.com.cn quoted an NAO official as having said.

The website further said: “BOCOG controlled the expenditure, and its revenue was much more than the originally estimated 410 million yuan.” (ANI)

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