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Kamala Harris is California's Attorney General.
Pope Francis honors John Paul II before installation
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Rajiv Gandhi was 'middleman' for Swedish jet deal: US cable
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi has been named as an
"entrepreneur" for Swedish firm Saab-Scania, when it was trying to
sell its Viggen fighter aircraft to India in the 1970s by the US diplomatic
cables obtained by WikiLeaks, the Hindu reported on Monday.
Although the cable mentions Rajiv Gandhi as an
“entrepreneur”, but it also states that the US officials have “no additional
information to either refute or confirm the above information.
Later, Saab-Scania lost out on the deal and was forced to
withdraw from the “fighter sweepstakes” by the US as the deal was eventually
secured the British SEPECAT Jaguar.
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi later became embroiled in
scandal relating to another Swedish arms manufacturer in the Bofors howtizer
gun deal.
88% of IIT-B students say professors inept
88% Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) students
claim that they do not study as their professors do not manage to generate
interest in their courses.
While a few teachers are enthusiastic about teaching, others are not, reveals the second part of a survey conducted by the student's magazine Insight.
Fed up with criticism about their "poor performance" compared to previous batches, a group of IITians from the current batch had conducted a survey on the campus.
The first part of the survey focusing on why students don't study at IIT-B, published in the January issue, had revealed that if not put on a deadline for an assignment, 75% students do not spend any time on academics. While more than 75% IITians seem to be more interested in pursuing hobbies, many are hooked on to social networking and micro-blogging sites.
While a few teachers are enthusiastic about teaching, others are not, reveals the second part of a survey conducted by the student's magazine Insight.
Fed up with criticism about their "poor performance" compared to previous batches, a group of IITians from the current batch had conducted a survey on the campus.
The first part of the survey focusing on why students don't study at IIT-B, published in the January issue, had revealed that if not put on a deadline for an assignment, 75% students do not spend any time on academics. While more than 75% IITians seem to be more interested in pursuing hobbies, many are hooked on to social networking and micro-blogging sites.
Media can report open court proceedings
Media has the right to report proceedings in open courts,
the Kerala high court said on Monday.
A committee consisting of all the judges of the high court
had earlier decided that reporting of open court proceedings need not be
allowed. Justice Sankaran said media can report proceedings in open court and
there is no ban on it.
The clarification by a division bench comprising of Justice
K T Sankaran and Justice M L Joseph Francis was along with ending proceedings
related to contempt of court action against Times of India for a report based
on open court proceedings.
5 telcos get show-cause notices for understating revenues
Government has sent show-cause notices to 5 telecom firms
including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for alleged
understatement of revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore for financial years 2006-07
and 2007-08, Parliament was informed.
However, the issue has been stayed by the Kerala High Court, Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal ( TDSAT) and Chennai High Court, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"Special audit of five major private telecom group companies including the Vodafone group has been conducted for the financial years 2006-07 and 2007-08," Deora added.
The government has sent show cause notices to Reliance for revenue under stated of Rs 3,402.92 crore, Tata Teleservices (Rs 3,156.46 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,927.50 crore), Vodafone (Rs 1,490.94 crore) and Idea (Rs 848.87 crore), according to the reply.
The total amount of revenue under stated is Rs 10,826.69 crore and the total licence fee demand raised, which also includes interest is Rs 1,841.67 crore from these telecom companies, it added.
However, the issue has been stayed by the Kerala High Court, Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal ( TDSAT) and Chennai High Court, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"Special audit of five major private telecom group companies including the Vodafone group has been conducted for the financial years 2006-07 and 2007-08," Deora added.
The government has sent show cause notices to Reliance for revenue under stated of Rs 3,402.92 crore, Tata Teleservices (Rs 3,156.46 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,927.50 crore), Vodafone (Rs 1,490.94 crore) and Idea (Rs 848.87 crore), according to the reply.
The total amount of revenue under stated is Rs 10,826.69 crore and the total licence fee demand raised, which also includes interest is Rs 1,841.67 crore from these telecom companies, it added.
International
Who is Kamala Harris?
Kamala Harris is California's Attorney General.
appointed as the Attorney General of California after the 2010 California state
elections, Harris has also worked as an author and a politician and served as
District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. She was elected for this
post by defeating two term incumbent Terence Hallinan and was re-elected when
she ran unopposed in 2007.
India's $15 bn deal to buy 126 Rafale jets from Dassault
Aviation may be delayed: Govt sources
India's planned deal to buy 126 fighter-jets from Dassault
Aviation could be delayed as the two sides struggle to reach an agreement over
the role of state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), a defence ministry
source said.
India picked the Dassault-made Rafale jet for exclusive negotiations in January 2012 after a hotly contested bidding war with rival manufacturers, but it is still to finalise the $15 billion deal, one of the world's largest defence import orders.
Under the initial terms of the proposed deal, Dassault was expected to provide 18 fighters in "fly-away" condition, and then let HAL manufacture the rest in India.
However, Dassault now wants two separate contracts to be signed -- one for the ready-made ones, and another for the rest to be built by HAL, but India opposes that proposal, the defence ministry source, who is familiar with the developments, told Reuters.
"Dassault says HAL does not have the capacity and capability to assemble the aircraft," said the source, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
"HAL is our main public sector partner. And if needed, capacity and capabilities can be improved. But the proposal for two contracts is not agreeable to the government of India," he said.
The source said the dispute would likely delay finalising the deal but not derail it. Indian defence ministry officials had earlier expressed the hope that the deal could be finalised by July.
An India-based spokeswoman for Dassault did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Dassault has agreed to supply manufacturing kits and equipment to HAL on time, but will not play a further role in manufacturing after that, the Indian Express newspaper said.
Negotiations between the company and the Indian government have completely stopped over the disagreement, the paper reported, without identifying its sources.
A Defence Ministry spokesman did not have any immediate comment.
Dassault has previously expressed doubts about the technological capability of HAL to manufacture such a sophisticated fighter jet. A HAL programme to manufacture advanced jet trainers is running years behind schedule.
Rafale defeated the Eurofighter Typhoon to win the Indian government deal. The Typhoon is developed by a consortium of BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and EADS.
India picked the Dassault-made Rafale jet for exclusive negotiations in January 2012 after a hotly contested bidding war with rival manufacturers, but it is still to finalise the $15 billion deal, one of the world's largest defence import orders.
Under the initial terms of the proposed deal, Dassault was expected to provide 18 fighters in "fly-away" condition, and then let HAL manufacture the rest in India.
However, Dassault now wants two separate contracts to be signed -- one for the ready-made ones, and another for the rest to be built by HAL, but India opposes that proposal, the defence ministry source, who is familiar with the developments, told Reuters.
"Dassault says HAL does not have the capacity and capability to assemble the aircraft," said the source, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
"HAL is our main public sector partner. And if needed, capacity and capabilities can be improved. But the proposal for two contracts is not agreeable to the government of India," he said.
The source said the dispute would likely delay finalising the deal but not derail it. Indian defence ministry officials had earlier expressed the hope that the deal could be finalised by July.
An India-based spokeswoman for Dassault did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Dassault has agreed to supply manufacturing kits and equipment to HAL on time, but will not play a further role in manufacturing after that, the Indian Express newspaper said.
Negotiations between the company and the Indian government have completely stopped over the disagreement, the paper reported, without identifying its sources.
A Defence Ministry spokesman did not have any immediate comment.
Dassault has previously expressed doubts about the technological capability of HAL to manufacture such a sophisticated fighter jet. A HAL programme to manufacture advanced jet trainers is running years behind schedule.
Rafale defeated the Eurofighter Typhoon to win the Indian government deal. The Typhoon is developed by a consortium of BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and EADS.
Pope Francis honors John Paul II before installation
Pope Francis was formally installed as bishop of Rome on
Sunday in a ceremony characterized by more simplicity than the usual ritual and
pomp enjoyed by papal predecessors taking up their pastoral duties.
In yet another sign that Francis sees his mission as pontiff
as one of humble service, he used his arrival at St. John in Lateran Basilica
to honor a past pope who remains wildly popular in Rome. Francis arrived a
half-hour early to bless a plaque renaming a corner of the piazza outside the
church after Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.
South Korea expects the North to launch a missile this week.
Seoul says it's on military readiness posture and has hit out at Pyongyang's
scare tactics. Meanwhile, the US is trying to calm tensions by delaying its own
missile test.
South Korea expects North Korea to launch missile test this
week
South Korea expects the North to launch a missile this week.
Seoul says it's on military readiness posture and has hit out at Pyongyang's
scare tactics. Meanwhile, the US is trying to calm tensions by delaying its own
missile test.
Economy
Explaining Unified Financial Regulatory Agency
The government mandated the Financial Sector Legislative
Reforms Commission, or FSLRC, to rewrite laws governing the Indian financial
sector, many of them being archaic to provide for a financial sector
architecture of the future.
One of the key recommendations is the formation ofa new Unified Financial Regulatory Agency, or UFRA. The need for an unified agency was felt in the context of jurisdictional tussle witnessed among various regulators who police a range of financial products.
The FSLRC has recommended that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) should be merged into a new unified agency UFRA.
One of the key recommendations is the formation ofa new Unified Financial Regulatory Agency, or UFRA. The need for an unified agency was felt in the context of jurisdictional tussle witnessed among various regulators who police a range of financial products.
The FSLRC has recommended that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) should be merged into a new unified agency UFRA.
Technology
Scientists dig into Antarctic ice to understand warming
Nancy Bertler and her team took a freezer to the coldest
place on Earth, endured weeks of primitive living and risked spending the
winter in Antarctic darkness, to go get ice - ice that records our climate's
past and could point to its future.
They drilled out hundreds of ice cores, each slightly longer and wider than a baseball bat, from the half-mile-thick ice covering Antarctica's Roosevelt Island. The cores, which may total 150,000 years of snowfall, almost didn't survive the boat ride to New Zealand because of a power outage.
Bertler hopes the material will help her estimate how long the Ross Ice Shelf would last under the current rate of climate change before falling apart.
They drilled out hundreds of ice cores, each slightly longer and wider than a baseball bat, from the half-mile-thick ice covering Antarctica's Roosevelt Island. The cores, which may total 150,000 years of snowfall, almost didn't survive the boat ride to New Zealand because of a power outage.
Bertler hopes the material will help her estimate how long the Ross Ice Shelf would last under the current rate of climate change before falling apart.
Evidence from the last core her team hauled out needs
further study, but it contains material that Bertler said appeared to be marine
sediment that formed recently - at least in geological terms measured in
thousands of years.
That would bolster scientists' suspicions that the shelf could collapse again if global temperatures keep rising, triggering a chain of events that could raise sea levels around the world.
"From a scientific point of view, that's really exciting. From a personal point of view, that's really scary," said Bertler, a senior research fellow at the Antarctic Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington.
Scientists say West Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels by between 2 meters (6.5 feet) and 6 meters (20 feet) if significant parts of it were to collapse.
That would bolster scientists' suspicions that the shelf could collapse again if global temperatures keep rising, triggering a chain of events that could raise sea levels around the world.
"From a scientific point of view, that's really exciting. From a personal point of view, that's really scary," said Bertler, a senior research fellow at the Antarctic Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington.
Scientists say West Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels by between 2 meters (6.5 feet) and 6 meters (20 feet) if significant parts of it were to collapse.
Ted Scambos, the lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice
Data Center at the University of Colorado, said that even under the worst case
scenario he thinks it would take at least 500 years for West Antarctica's ice
to melt.
However, he said a discovery of sediment would indicate a significant portion of the ice shelf is under threat of becoming unstable again, and that the implications were "huge."
Bertler hopes the material she recovered will help her to estimate by the end of this year whether it will take 50 years or 500 years for the ice shelf to collapse at the current rate of climate change. Those answers should prove important for policymakers who, she said, may need to decide whether to build sea walls or move populations to higher ground.
Bertler's project is one of scores that take place on Antarctica every Southern Hemisphere summer. To scientists, the continent's pristine habitat offers a unique record of the planet's weather and a laboratory for studying the effects of climate change.
However, he said a discovery of sediment would indicate a significant portion of the ice shelf is under threat of becoming unstable again, and that the implications were "huge."
Bertler hopes the material she recovered will help her to estimate by the end of this year whether it will take 50 years or 500 years for the ice shelf to collapse at the current rate of climate change. Those answers should prove important for policymakers who, she said, may need to decide whether to build sea walls or move populations to higher ground.
Bertler's project is one of scores that take place on Antarctica every Southern Hemisphere summer. To scientists, the continent's pristine habitat offers a unique record of the planet's weather and a laboratory for studying the effects of climate change.
Mobility robot: 8 features about Hitachi's Ropits
Japan's high-tech maker Hitachi announced the development of
a mobility-support robot "ROPITS" (Robot for Personal Intelligent
Transport System) in Tsukuba in Ibaraki prefecture on March 12, 2013.
The use of human symbiotic robots is expected to contribute to the establishment of a low carbon society for the achievement of a sustainable society, as well as to support the needs of a future society with a high proportion of elderly people.
In order to raise the level of autonomous travel technology to a practical level, Hitachi has been participating in the Mobility Robot Experiment Special District ("Tsukuba Special District") in the City of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki prefecture since 2011.
Through pilot tests conducted on real-world footpaths, research has been conducted to improve usability and convenience as a transport support service, reliability in autonomous travel, as well as compatibility surveys with actual pedestrians.
The use of human symbiotic robots is expected to contribute to the establishment of a low carbon society for the achievement of a sustainable society, as well as to support the needs of a future society with a high proportion of elderly people.
In order to raise the level of autonomous travel technology to a practical level, Hitachi has been participating in the Mobility Robot Experiment Special District ("Tsukuba Special District") in the City of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki prefecture since 2011.
Through pilot tests conducted on real-world footpaths, research has been conducted to improve usability and convenience as a transport support service, reliability in autonomous travel, as well as compatibility surveys with actual pedestrians.
Hitachi has developed the single-passenger mobility-support
robot ROPITS with "specified arbitrary point autonomous pick-up and
drop-off function," which can be summoned from anywhere within the town
using the map in the portable information terminal.
Using this function, ROPITS is able to autonomously go and pick-up a passenger at any desired pick-up point on a footpath, or deliver a passenger to a specified arbitrary destination.
Ropits can autonomously navigate to a point specified by a portable information terminal. Ropits was developed to support the short-distance transportation of the elderly or those with walking difficulties.
Using this function, ROPITS is able to autonomously go and pick-up a passenger at any desired pick-up point on a footpath, or deliver a passenger to a specified arbitrary destination.
Ropits can autonomously navigate to a point specified by a portable information terminal. Ropits was developed to support the short-distance transportation of the elderly or those with walking difficulties.
$100 mn brain mapping project: Obama's mantra to take on
India, China
Pushing for job-creating discoveries to happen in the US
rather than in India or China, US President Barack Obama has unveiled an
ambitious $100 million project to unlock the "enormous mystery" of
the human brain.
Here is a look at how he thinks the 'BRAIN initiative' will help push job-creating discoveries in US rather than India and China: Launched with approximately $100 million in the President's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the BRAIN initiative ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.
Here is a look at how he thinks the 'BRAIN initiative' will help push job-creating discoveries in US rather than India and China: Launched with approximately $100 million in the President's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the BRAIN initiative ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.
Humanoid Robots: A look at some of the most developed
machines
Humanoid robots are smart enough to work alongside humans,
assisting in tasks where people could use a helping hand. They use artificial
intelligence to take on humans and learn various strategy.
Humanoid robots are used as a research tool in several scientific areas. Personal humanoid robots can help stroke patients recover by delivering therapies, says a new study. A personal robot could save billions of dollars in elder care while letting people stay in their own homes and communities.
Scientists also say that a humanoid robot helps train children with autism. The finding indicates that robots could play a crucial role in responding to the "public health emergency" that has been created by the rapid growth in the number of children being diagnosed with ASD.
Humanoid robots are used as a research tool in several scientific areas. Personal humanoid robots can help stroke patients recover by delivering therapies, says a new study. A personal robot could save billions of dollars in elder care while letting people stay in their own homes and communities.
Scientists also say that a humanoid robot helps train children with autism. The finding indicates that robots could play a crucial role in responding to the "public health emergency" that has been created by the rapid growth in the number of children being diagnosed with ASD.
No medal for Vijay Kumar in ISSF World Cup
London Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar could not live
up to the billing as he failed to qualify for the finals of the 25-metre rapid
fire pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea today.
The other two Indians participating in the event, Pemba
Tamang and Harpreet Singh, too failed to qualify for the medal round.
While Vijay was placed a disappointing 18th in the
qualification stage, Tamang and Harpreet did a shade better, finishing 13th and
16th respectively.
Force India, Mercedes-Benz sign long-term agreement
Sahara Force India and Mercedes-Benz today signed a
long-term agreement for the Silverstone-based team to use a full Mercedes-Benz
power train from the 2014 season onwards.
The agreement will see Mercedes-Benz supply Force India with
a complete Power Unit (internal combustion engine plus energy recovery system),
transmission and all associated ancillary systems under the new regulations for
2014.
Sebastian Vettel move stirs up Red Bull team orders
controversy
The 2013 Formula One season may be only two races old, but
it has already conjured up a new 'team orders' controversy that has divided
opinion and prompted tragic memories. Sebastian Vettel's ill-planned decision,
taken in the heat of the moment, to ignore his Red Bull team's order to stay
second behind Mark Webber in last Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix has stirred up
the eternal debate about the sport's true identity is it racing between teams
or individual drivers
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