Indian Post of Department: The Indian Post today delivers 157.5 million mails every year to a billion people through a network of 1,54,149 post offices and 5,64,701 letterboxes. Its services range from e-post, life insurance, bill payments, money transfer and savings instruments. It boasts of 160 million depositors, which could be more than any bank’s has deposits worth Rs. 78,000 crore and nearly 2.5 million policy holders. The Indian Post is bigger than any bank or courier service.

22-11-04

Premji In Billionarires List: Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji, has made it to the Financial Times’ list of world’s top 25 billionaires who have done most to bring about significant social, cultural and political changes in the way people live. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates headed the list followed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Mr. Premji, with an estimated net worth of $6.7 billion, has been ranked 11th and is the only Indian in the list of top rich men. Mr. Premji, chairman of India’s largest technology company by market capitalisation, does more work on education in poor rural areas, giving $5 million a year, and works closely with the charitable foundation of Mr. Gates.

30-10-04

Mughal-e-Azam Returns: K. Asif's epic film, Mughal-e-Azam, has gone through a digital conversion, restoration and colourisation project at the Indian Academy of Arts and Animation (IAAA) in Mumbai. And composer Naushad has re-recorded the music that he had composed for the blockbuster movie nearly 50 years ago. The film will soon be released in colour cinemascope and digital sound. Nearly 100 technicians have worked on it day and night for nearly one year, colouring just one minute of film a day. When the Rs. 15-million film was first released in August 1960 it had smashed box-office records to collect Rs. 35 million, which in present day rupee terms is Rs. 893 million, the fourth largest grossing Hindi film of all time. Reviving old classics may catch on in Bollywood. B.R. Chopra's 'Naya Daur' is also being digitally spruced up for re-release. Ramesh Sippy's record-breaking cult film 'Sholay' has already hit cinema halls 29 years after its initial release. Released first in 1975, 'Sholay' reached its cult status after it ran for five successive years at Minerva (Mumbai), three years in regular shows and two in the matinee. The film has been upgraded to a cinemascope version with four-track sound. Guru Dutt's 'Pyasa' may also be revived. 'Mughal-e-Azam' is scheduled for a Diwali release.

21-10-04

Surat Gets Air Connectivity: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has now given the green signal for the commencement of flight operations of ATR-42-320 type aircraft from Surat's Magdalla Airport. Surat is thus finally on the air map of the country. Air Deccan has been permitted to operate its 48-seater aircraft. The airline plans to begin operations from October 25. The proposed route: Mumbai–Surat–Bhavnager –Mumbai. A Mumbai-Surat-Bhavnagar-Surat-Mumbai route is also under consideration.

20-10-04

Mobile Phones Overtake Landlines: October 16, 2004, was an important day in India's 150-year-old telecommunications history. It was on this day that the number of mobile phones – about 44 million – exceeded the number of fixed telephones in the country. The mobile phones are growing at a rate that is over 10 times faster than the rate at which fixed lines are being added. This growth is being fuelled by falling handset prices and competition driven usage rates. Interestingly, in the town of Malappuram in Kerala the total number of telephones – fixed and mobile – has exceeded the total population of 59,000, a statistic rarely encountered anywhere in the world outside of the big metros.

19-10-04

Gujarat Tree Census: According to the tree census conducted recently in Gujarat, there are over 251 million trees in the non-forest areas of the state. These trees yield 14.8 million cubic metric tonnes (CMT) of timber and 17.5 million CMT of firewood. Gujarat has only 9.73 per cent of forest cover, compared to the national average of 23 per cent. The region-wise figures are:
Saurashtra-Kutch: 80.4 million trees
Central Gujarat: 73.8 million trees
South Gujarat: 48.5 million trees
North Gujarat: 48.1 million trees
There are a total of 195 species of trees in the state. Of the 20 most prevalent species, Neem is found in all the districts and has a 13 per cent share. Eucalyptus has a 10.6 per cent share, and Desi Baval has a 10.8 per cent share.

16-10-04

Private Water Distribution: The Gujarat government proposes to invite private sector participation for water distribution in farms through drip irrigation. This may save on energy now being wasted by farmers on tubewells. It will also help to conserve water. The details of the pilot project are being worked out by Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd. (GSFC). The government is also considering the possibility of following this system – if found to be successful – to distribute water to farms from the Narmada Canal.

A Bike For Rs. 176,000: Kinetic Engineering has introduced India's most expensive motorcycle. It's called Comet 250 and costs a cool Rs. 176,000. It's a 'limited edition machine' and will be sold only in select cities. The bike is a product of Korea's Hyosung Motors. It comes in 'completely knocked-down kits' (CKDs) and is assembled at the Ahmednager plant of Kinetic. The company plans to sell only 500 units of Comet 250. Almost all the parts of the bike are imported, except those that are mandatory for homologation (roadworthiness test) requirements.

Accreditation Of Hospitals: The Indian government may introduce compulsory accreditation of hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, diagnostic centres and private medical practitioners. The purpose is to standardise healthcare systems. The institutions will be graded into categories depending on the facilities they offer. The Health Ministry is also working on legislation to make this compulsory for all healthcare institutions. The recommendations for accreditation were made during a workshop jointly conducted by the government, Indian Medical Association, Medical Council of India and World Health Organisation. At present, the registration of nursing homes and hospitals is a state subject and normally permission is not needed to start a clinic. Permission is granted to any medical practitioner registered with the Medical Council of India.

12-10-04

Kevadia Tourism Project: The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. (SSNNL) has set up a new cell to develop the Narmada Dam site at Kevadia Colony as a tourist destination. The cell will also seek private sector participation. Some prospective developers attended the recent investors' meet held at Gandhinagar to discuss the project and its implementation strategy. The prospective investors included a Mauritius-based water sports agency, representatives of India Tourism Development Corporation and a few others. The Nigam has also approached Sahara Group to invest in the project. The bidding procedure is expected to be completed by year-end. The Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology (CEPT) has prepared a master plan for the project and has identified 11 packages with a total estimate of Rs. 1,700 million. The packages, including a golf course, hotels and water parks, are to be developed on 1,400 hectares of land downstream of the Narmada.

05-10-04

The Tata Style: … Sudha, a student from the Indian Institute of Science, wrote to protest against a TELCO advertisement for engineers which excluded women. JRD (Tata) made sure she was called for the interview. Sudha, the first female on the TELCO shop floor, later married Narayana Murthi, founder of Infosys, who, following in JRD's footsteps, adopts a similarly humanitarian approach in running his business. … From an article by Coomi Kapoor in The Indian Express

'Stephania': Too many Indian colleges are places for lectures, rote-learning, memorising, regurgitation; St. Stephen's encouraged random reading, individual note-taking, personal tutorials, extra-curricular development. Elsewhere you learned to answer the questions, at (St. Stephen's) College to question the answers. Some of us went further, and questioned the questions. That is the Stephanian spirit. … From an article by Shashi Tharoor in The Hindu

Ayurvedic Contraceptive: Scientists at the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS) claim to have developed a herbal contraceptive pill with a '99 per cent success rate' and 'no side effects'. They have developed the 'first' herbal contraceptive pill, Pippalyadi Yoga, using a recipe that was discovered in a 2,500-year-old medical text. The efficacy of the drug with different doses has been tested during phase-I multi-centric, toxicological, terratogenic and safety studies at PGI (Chandigarh), JIP-MER (Pondichery) and KEM Hospital (Mumbai).

Automobile Design Centre: The National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad plans to launch an Automotive and Mobility Design Centre at a cost of Rs. 100 million. It will be a facility available to the automobile industry. Experts from Britain's Royal College of Art, America's Pasadena School of Art and Germany's Pforzheim School of Design will carry out the initial work and train the personnel at the centre. A postgraduate programme in this field will also be started by NID. The centre, to be set up at the institute's extension campus at Gandhinagar or at Delhi, is likely to be functional by March 2005.

India's Diamond Industry: Did you know that 11 out of 12 diamonds set in jewellery anywhere in the world are cut and polished in India? Here are some more interesting facts about India's silently prosperous diamond industry:
>>> India's software and service exports grew 30 per cent in 2003-04 to touch $12.50 billion. Diamond exports for the same period rose by 21 per cent, to hit $8.62 billion. But India's share of the global software market is less than 1 per cent. While 11 of every 12 diamonds set in jewellery across the world come from cutting and polishing units in India.
>>> The Indian diamond industry cuts and polishes diamonds worth Rs. 400 billion every year.
>>> India exports 60 per cent of the total value of cut and polished diamonds in the world and around 95 per cent of the total number of diamonds in the world.
>>> India contributes less than four per cent of the world's $60 billion diamond jewellery market.
>>> The bulk of the industry is controlled by Gujaratis, mostly Jains from a village called Palanpur, in Gujarat. In the last 100 years, diamond merchants have moved out of their villages in Gujarat to Mumbai, or to Antwerp, Hong Kong and New York.
>>> The rough diamonds are imported from mining centres in Russia, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, or from the distribution centres in Antwerp, Belgium. They are then cut and polished in Gujarat and Mumbai, and exported to USA, Japan, Belgium and Hong Kong, to be set in jewellery.
>>> While Mumbai is the stronghold of traders who import rough and export polished diamonds, Gujarat is the main hub of diamond cutting.
>>> Many Indians are also setting up factories in China.
>>> Around 1 million workers across Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad, Bhuj and Surat and parts of Mumbai keep the industry going. On an average, polishers and cutters earn Rs. 5,000 a month, while assorters get upwards of Rs. 10,000.

Voters' Obligations: The vital importance of democratic elections was eloquently expressed by Winston Churchill when he said: "At the bottom of all tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into a little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper." … One of the important recommendations of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution is that the duty to vote at elections and actively participate in the democratic process of governance should be made a fundamental duty in our Constitution. If voters do not perform this duty, then our legislatures and Parliament will be filled with people whose description was vividly given by Sri Aurobindo, who said: "We have as an average politician a person who does not represent the people or its aspirations. What he does usually represent is all the average pettiness, selfishness, egoism, self-deception, and these he represents well enough, as well as a great deal of mental incompetence, and conventionality, timidity and pretence. Great issues often come to him for decision. But he doesn't deal with them greatly. Noble ideas are on his lips but they become rapidly the trap of a party." … From an article by Soli Sorabjee in The Indian Express

01-10-04

Government Meets NRI Demand: The Indian government seems to have given in to the demands of the NRI community. It has withdrawn the remittance tax on NRI deposits proposed in the Union Budget following protests by the non-resident community. The tax may now be considered afresh in April 2005, when the next Budget is due.

30-09-04

First E-Literate District: Kerala, the state with 100 % literacy, has now transformed the backward district of Malappuram into Indian's first e-literate district by deploying the word's largest rural wireless broadband network. Payment of electricity bills and getting birth certificates can be done by emails. Police stations are accessible to people through information kiosks set up by the government in a public-private partnership. Over 600 such kiosks have every 2 km, thus enabling e-education, online health care assistance and voice chat. The panchayat has started a computer literacy programme that offers 15 hours of PC and Internet training to one member from each of 600,000 families in the district.

Moonlighting Abroad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has decided to give willing employees a two-year break for work or travel abroad. Employees can resume work on the same post in AMC if their plans abroad do not materialise. When they resume they can still avail of the perks and post-retirement benefits.

23-09-04

Mahatma Gandhi's School To Re-Open: The 151-year-old Alfred High School – the institution that groomed the Mahatma – will re-open on October 2, over three years after the earthquake left it badly damaged. Extensive work has been done on the building, now called the Mohandas Gandhi Vidyalaya. The National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) is carrying out the work. The old building, constructed in 1853, has 16 rooms and a prayer hall. The old building has been strengthened and an extension has been made to accommodate more students. The school will now have 36 classrooms, a playground, five laboratories, a workshop, a prayer hall, a library and a computer room.

13-09-04

Rs. One Billion For Paintings: A Mumbai based technocrat  has paid internationally-acclaimed painter M.F. Husain. Rs. 1.01 billion to draw 100 painting he plans to use to raise funds for philanthropic work. Guru Swarup Srivastava, an IITian who now runs an export firm dealing in iron ore and its transport to China and Hong Kong, said that he had paid the money to Mr. Husain and offered to buy the next 75 paintings that Mr. Husain will paint.

Wind Form Contracts: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will award EPC contracts for setting up a 30 MW wind power farm at a cost of Rs. 1340 million in coastal Gujarat. It will take about 1.5-year s for the project to be executed. The power from the wind farm would be supplied to the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB).

11-09-04

Woman As Air Marshal: Air Vice-Marshal Padmavathy Bandopadhyay is all set to add another first for women in the Indian defence forces. Close on the heels of Punita Arora becoming the first woman Lieutenant General in the Indian Army, Air Vice-Marshal Bandhopadhyay, 59, of the Indian Air Force is all set to become the country's first woman Air Marshal. She was the first woman to become an Air Vice-Marshal as well, in 2002. She became the first woman to finish the Defence Service Staff College course in the late 1970s, became the first woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India, and was the first Indian woman to conduct research at the North Pole with an Indo-Russian group.

07-09-04

New Molecule Against TB: Indian scientists reported a discovery of a new molecule against tuberculosis, which may help reduce treatment duration from the current six-eight months to two months. The new molecule called 'Sudoterb' is a result of public-private partnership under the 'New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative' project launched by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It has been discovered by Lupin Laboratories in partnership with four institutions. The partnership has applied for permission to start clinical trials to the drug controller. Beside Lupin Laboratories, the partner ship included Bose Institute, Central Drug Research Institute, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Indian Institute of Science, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, National Chemical Laboratory and University of Hyderabad.

18-08-04

Audi To Enter India: Amit Burman, the youngest in the family that owns the Dabur Group, will introduce Germany's Audi luxury vehicles in India. His venture – EuroMotors – has been appointed the authorised importer-distributor for Audi vehicles in India. In the initial phase, the company will sell the Audi A6 and TT Coupe in India, at Rs. 3.2 million and Rs. 3.5 million respectively. This makes Audi the second Volkswagen brand after Skoda to establish a presence in India. The firm is considering the feasibility of a manufacturing base in India.

12-08-04

Poorest-Of-The-Poor: Have you wondered what the cliché 'poorest of the poor' really means? This category of citizens is eligible for 35 kg of subsidised foodgrains every month – wheat at Rs. 2 per kg and rice at Rs. 3 per kg. The category includes people in both urban and rural areas:

… Landless agricultural labourers
… Small and marginal farmers
… Rural artisans like craftsmen, carpenters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths
… Slum dwellers
… Porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, handcart pullers
… Snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers
… Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons     or disabled persons above 60 years of age who have no     assured means of subsistence
… Primitive tribal households

There are an estimated 65 million Indian families living below the poverty line (BPL). Of these, roughly 20 million qualify (if that be the correct term) to be classified as the 'poorest of the poor'.

Sanitation Campaign Launched: A 'Total Sanitation Campaign' (TSC) has been launched in Gujarat with the help of UNICEF. The purpose of the $ 2.5 million project is to try to increase sanitation standards to at least one toilet and proper supply of water in every village of India. The TSC programmed has been in operation in the districts of Meshing, Racket, Sutra, Headband and Gandhi agar for the last three years. After observing the results of the three-year pilot project, it has now been launched it in all the state's districts. The programmed is for a period of five years and UNICEF. Emphasis is placed on human waste management and development of personal hygiene. The programmed is being initiated at the gram pinhead level through aanganwadis and primary schools. The target is school children and adolescents, as they are more likely to effectively carry the 'knowledge' to their folks at home. Incidentally, almost 64 percent of the state's population defecates in the open and only about 11 per cent of the primary schools have proper toilet facilities. Only 21 per cent of the people living in rural areas have access to sanitation, as against 82 per cent for urban areas.

Market For Voting Machines: India's experience with its indigenously manufactured Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has been so successful that Singapore and Mauritius have now expressed interest in buying EVMs for their own elections. Also, the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London was so impressed by the large-scale use of EVMs by India that he wants to keep a sample machine in his office to motivate other countries into using the machines. The EVMs, manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), cost Rs. 12,000 each. They may be somewhat more expensive for foreign buyers.

Doctors & Criminally Liability: The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that a doctor is not criminally liable if a patient dies due to an error of judgment committed by him. The doctor will not escape having to pay damages, but did not necessarily have to face criminal charges. This judgment does not dilute the court's verdict which brought doctors under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act. For fixing criminal liability on a doctor or surgeon, the standard of negligence required to be proved should be so high as could be described as 'gross negligence' or 'reckless'. Where a patient's death results merely from error of judgment or an accident, no criminal liability should be attached to it. Mere inadvertence or some degree of want of adequate care and caution might create civil liability but would not suffice to hold him criminally liable. It is not merely lack of necessary care, attention and skill. When a patient agrees to go for medical treatment or surgery, every careless act of the medical man cannot be termed as 'criminal'. It could be termed 'criminal' only when the medical man exhibited gross lack of competence or inaction and wanton indifference to his patient's safety and which is found to have arisen from gross ignorance or gross negligence.

11-08-04

Taj's 350th Birthday: Shah Jahan's monument of love, the Taj Mahal, is getting set to celebrate 350 years of its existence later this year. The central and Uttar Pradesh governments are planning to mark the occasion in a big way, including the opening of the monument at night too. The year-long celebrations will begin on September 27, World Tourism Day.

03-08-04

Net Video Phone: Only Rs. 15,000 for a telephone that allows you to make international calls at cheap Internet rates and see the person you are speaking to in sharp CD-quality video? Ittiam Systems, a company specialising in digital signal processing, has created the prototype for this gadget. The know-how and the Intellectual Property (IP) are likely to be licensed by three global phone makers and the products branded under multiple names. The product is targeted at the individual home or small office customer. It is expected to be priced internationally at about $300.

GOCL Markets Bio-Diesel: Here is some good news on the alternative energy front. Ankleshwar based Gujarat Oleo Chem Limited (GOCL) has become the first Indian company to commercialise the production of bio-diesel from vegetable based feedstock. The bio-diesel was ordered by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for field trials with the Indian Railways and Haryana Roadways. Incidentally, the Sierra Railroad in California, USA, plans to convert 1,500 locomotives to bio-diesel to meet international pollution norms. At Haryana, IOC is running 20 buses since April on 5% bio-diesel and diesel blends. India is 'rich' in wasteland that can be used for the cultivation of bio-diesel seeds and thus provide employment to many people. Bio-diesel can also reduce the use of fossil fuels and help to cut pollution-control costs. The USA and EU countries have started utilising bio-diesel in many military applications.

31-07-04

Luxury Cars: Ten top billionaires have pledged Rs. 500 million to buy India's most expensive car – 'Maybach'. This super luxury saloon from Daimler Chrysler India costs a cool Rs. 50 million. The 'Maybach' made its Indian debut this year. It will be produced on order and the delivery will take six months. Bentley too plans to sell the 'Arnage R' (Rs.30 million) and the 'Continental GT' (Rs. 16 million) and BMW may introduce the super luxury 'Saloon 7' series.

New SIA Flight: The first international airline to operate from Gujarat, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has started thrice-weekly direct Ahmedabad–Singapore flight. Ahmedabad is the sixth Indian destination to be serviced by SIA. There are now 35 weekly non-stop flights between India and Singapore.

26-07-04

Brain Fingerprinting: Ahmedabad played host recently to a two-day national workshop on 'Brain Fingerprinting', a technology which can facilitate the investigation of crimes. Brain Electrical Activation Fingerprinting (BEAF) is a non-invasive technique of questioning an accused person or a witness. It has still not been legally sanctioned as an evidence gathering method. India and USA are the only countries to study this form of investigation. In 2003 the District Forensic Laboratory at Gandhinagar had set up a BEAF section and the technique has been tested in over 10 cases. The pioneer in this area is considered to be C.R. Mukundan, formerly a professor of Clinical Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore. Brain fingerprinting involves the recording of brain waves through sensors fitted into a helmet which the person being examined is made to wear. If an audio or visual stimulus is given to the person, the brain waves emitted reveal whether he recognises the stimulus and therefore whether he was part of or witness to a particular event. Such a non-invasive technique should help to reduce human rights violations and increase the efficiency of investigations. The workshop was also attended by delegates from Singapore, a country which has expressed interest in the technology.

23-07-04

Bicycle-Wheel Tractor: A farmer in Maharashtra has made a 'tractor' that has a single bicycle wheel to plough the field. The cost was just Rs. 1,000. Some farmers in Andhra Pradesh found this invention so helpful that they ordered 15 such tractors. This is among the 4,500 innovative agricultural and animal husbandry practices that are currently being documented in four languages – Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil and English – by the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI). SRISTI is an Ahmedabad based NGO. The innovations being documented have been developed by farmers from different states. This project – 'Grassroots Innovations Indian Language Data Base' (GILD)' – has been funded by the Indian government. Once completed, the database will be put on the website of National Innovation Foundation (NIF).

21-07-04

Woman Heads Mumbai Crime Branch: Meera Borwankar, 46, has become the first women chief of the 300-member Mumbai Crime Branch. She is an MA in English Literature (supercop K.P.S. Gill also has the same qualification). The crime branch, an elite wing of the police force, deals with organised and white-collar crime and a posting here is much sought after. An IPS officer of the 1981 batch, Borwankar has also studied Policy Analysis in Law Enforcement at the University of Minnesota, USA. The daughter of a police officer from Punjab, she was honoured with the President's Medal for meritorious service in 1997.

New Anand Station: The new railway station building at Anand was inaugurated on 18th July. The renovation project cost Rs. 7.4 million. The station handles 108 trains daily. The project had been sanctioned because a survey had revealed that the railway station could not cope with a population of 1.5 million. Nearly 160,000 people used the premises daily. With an average daily earning of Rs. 4.1 million, Anand is an important stop on the Vadodara- Ahmedabad route.

Indians In Britain: Indians comprise the largest ethnic minority group among Britain's population of some 60 million, according to a study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). About 4.6 million people describe themselves as 'non-white'. Just over 92 per cent of British residents are white. Among ethnic minorities, Indians are the largest group, followed by Pakistanis, people of mixed race, black Caribbeans, black Africans and Bangladeshis. The number of non-white Britons has risen by 53 per cent in the past decade. A total of 8.3 per cent of the residents (4.9 million) were born abroad, almost double the proportion recorded in 1951. However, according to research undertaken by Britain's Commission for Racial Equality, 94 per cent of white people say that most or all of their friends are of the same race, while 54 per cent claim not to have a single black or Asian close friend. The survey also showed that more than eight out of 10 white people have no practicing Muslim friends, with only one in 10 claiming to be close to a Hindu or Sikh. In contrast, 47 per cent of ethnic minority people said that most of their friends were white. Two-thirds of them believe that they are marginalised from the rest of society. The poll surveyed 2,065 white people and 808 from ethnic minorities.

16-07-04

Dew Harvesting: Professor Girija Sharan of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, believes that dew, properly collected, can meet the drinking water requirements of a desert village. By harvesting the dew that collects on rooftops, each house can get about 20 litres overnight. Sharan has tried out the idea in Kothara, an arid village in the Kutch district of Gujarat. Dew is nearly as clean as distilled water. His project has won a World Bank award for innovation. He suggests that roofs be made of sloped tin or plastic sheets. Plastic pipes fitted to the edges of the roof gather the dew and run it to a container at ground level. He recommends that non-toxic plastic be used for the roof lining and pipes, but the search continues for material that villagers will find cheap and durable. Plastic and tin cool quickly and so will easily gather dew from the atmospheric water vapour, but they do not withstand the extreme weather of Kutch. Thatched roofs, tiled roofs and concrete roofs are also not suitable. A roof of 124 square metres yields nine litres of water daily and one of 200 square metres nearly 20 litres. A residential school in the village has fitted itself for dew harvesting and serves as a model for the villagers. Dew formation occurs through nine months. During the monsoon the collection very low. The water has been found to be potable and with hardly any dissolved salts.

Indian Firms In Fortune 500: Reliance Industries has become the first Indian private sector firm to be listed among the Fortune 500 companies worldwide. State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) also figure in the list compiled by Fortune magazine. IOC with a revenue of $25.316 billion occupies 189th position. BPCL with a revenue of $12.053 billion is ranked at 450. HPCL occupies the 462nd position with a revenue of $11.750 billion. Reliance Industries occupies the 482nd position with a revenue of $11.327 billion. None of these four companies is listed among the top 50 Asian companies.

13-07-04

Mughal-e-Azam: K. Asif's epic Mughal-e-Azam is going through a digital conversion, restoration and colourisation project at the Indian Academy of Arts and Animation (IAAA) in Mumbai. And, in the city's Empire Music Studio, composer Naushad is re-recording the music that he composed for the blockbuster movie nearly 50 years ago. By the time that the film is released in colour cinemascope and digital sound in November 2004, nearly 100 technicians would have worked on it day and night for nearly 365 days, colouring just one minute of film a day. When the Rs. 15-million film was first released in August 1960 it had smashed box-office records to collect Rs. 35 million, which in present day rupee terms is Rs. 893 million, the fourth largest grossing Hindi film of all time.

1.028 Billion Indians: India's population has reached 1.028 billion, with 532 million males and 496 million females at an annual growth rate of 1.94. The population is likely to exceed China's by 2035 when it would touch 1.46 billion. It reached 1 billion in May 2000. The 2001 census shows Uttar Pradesh to be the most populous state (166 million), followed by Maharashtra (97 million), Bihar (83 million) and West Bengal (80 million). Lakshadweep has the lowest population (61,000). The Scheduled Caste population has touched 166 million (16.2 per cent) and Scheduled Tribe 84 million (8.2 per cent). The child sex ratio (0-6) slipped from 945 females per 1000 males in 1991 to 927 in 2001. The average literacy rate for the above-seven population stood at 64.8 against 52.2 in 1991. The census showed that 75.2 per cent of the males are literate, against 53.6 per cent of the females.

Small Seed, Big Idea: Many year ago, wondering how the Left wins every election in relatively backward Bengal, I asked a CPM lawmaker what his party did for voters. He said that poor folks fretted about how to fund their daughters' weddings. One day, a party worker from the boondocks came up with an idea, adopted quickly by the party, which solved the problem for many, They made sure that every time a girl child was born in rural Bengal, a party worker would plant a sapling of a segun (teak) tree at the girl's house. In 16 years' time, the sapling would be a mighty tree, which the parents would chop and sell, in those days for about Rs. 100,000, enough for a village wedding. That lawmaker is today's Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee. And it's a brilliant idea that delivers with absurdly little cost. Instead of a lakh whenever there's wedding, an investment of a rupee or less gets the job done. Ideas like this, not taxpayer money, will turn the country around. …. From an article by Abheek Barman in The Indian Express

12-07-04

Cartosat-I Will Map India: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is putting the finishing touches to Cartosat-1, a satellite that will have special cameras to map India in less than 24 months. ISRO plans to launch the satellite, using the PSLV system, early next year. This Rs. 2.4 billion eye-in-the-sky will be able to capture an area as wide as 30 km in a single shot. The images will be stereoscopic since two cameras will work simultaneously to provide other dimensions of the terrain, including height. Cartosat-I will weigh 1500 kg and have a life span of 5 to 6 years. It will be lodged at a height of 617 km its mapping capabilities can touch the 1:5000 scale. For enhanced accuracy, ISRO and the Surveyor General's department are installing about 3000 ground reference points (GRPs) in various part of the country.

New Solar Cooker From Rajkot: Students at Rajkot's VVP Engineering  College have designed an indoor solar cooker that is cost effective and quick and incorporates many features missing in conventional solar cookers. The solar cooker comprises of two parts – concentrator and heater. The concentrator, kept outdoors, is a parabolic frame with 200 mirrors in different directions to track the rays of the sun. At the centre of the frame is a black container in which water is kept. This water is heated by solar energy and the heat is transferred to a coil through a pipe. This coil, kept indoors, plays the role of a heater on which the vessels are kept for cooking. The temperature of water can be raised to 80 degrees within 15 minutes. The cooker can also be used for frying. The cost is only Rs. 7,000. A meal for 10 persons can be prepared within 90 minutes. It also has the facility of storing energy, so it can be used even in the absence of the sun's rays. The design is so simple that villagers can make it at home. Some features:

- One kg of potatoes can be boiled in 25 minutes
- The cooker can also be used for frying
- The price of Rs. 7,000 is less than that of the conventional solar cooker.
- It can store energy, so it can be used even on a cloudy day.
- It can be converted into a community cooker by making minor changes.
- The parabolic concentrator allows multi-tasking.
- It can be used for pasteurisation, decontamination of medical equipment, distillation of water and as a solar furnace.

Tree Census Of Gujarat: According to a tree census conducted by the Gujarat Forest Department there are 250 million trees in Gujarat outside the reserved forests, the average density being 14 trees per hectare. The Dangs district was not included in the census as it is largely a forest area. Though 250 million appears to be a high figure it represents only three per cent of the total geographical area of Gujarat; the national average for India is 23 per cent. The district-wise figures per hectare are:

06-07-04