Tag: India (Page 17 of 18)

SC allows `Blue Lady’ to drop anchor

June 5, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a former cruise liner that environmental activists say contains toxic asbestos to enter Indian waters, but said it could only be scrapped once it was declared safe.

Greenpeace and other groups say the 46,000-tonne Blue Lady, which is sailing for the Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat to be dismantled, contains more than 900 tonnes of asbestos.

Activists say Indian yards lack the modern technology to safely handle such waste, putting the health of workers at risk.

While refusing to ban the ship, the court said customs and port authorities would verify the amount of contaminants on board and report their findings to it.

A decision would then be made on whether work on scrapping the vessel could be carried out safely at the Indian yard.

SC dismisses petition on Fanaa screening

June 5, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 1 Comment

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by film maker Mahesh Bhatt seeking a direction for the Gujarat government for the peaceful screening of the Aamir Khan starrer ‘Fanaa’ in the state.

A vacation bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice C K Thakker, however, said if theatre owners in Gujarat like to exhibit the movie, they can seek police protection for the same.

Meanwhile, theatre owners in Gujarat are unwilling to screen Aamir Khan starrer `Fanaa’ in the state, despite the Supreme Court saying on Monday that they could seek police protection to exhibit the movie.

“We have just heard of the Supreme Court decision. However, we maintain our stand of not screening `Fanaa’ as Aamir Khan has not yet apologised to the people of Gujarat for his anti-Narmada dam stand,” Manubhai Patel, President of Multiplex Owners Association told PTI.

GDP breaks into gallop, crosses 9.3%

June 1, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

Indians produced Rs25,95,339 crore worth of goods and services in 2005-06 â€” an 8.4 per cent increase over last year. And they got richer as well: per capita income is now Rs25,825 as against Rs23,222 last year.

This is the second time in three years that the economy has had a date with eight: it grew 8.5 per cent in 2003-04. Much of this was because farmers produced more: the agriculture sector grew 3.9 per cent in 2005-06 â€” an unexpected turnaround indeed.

But that is not all. More residential and commercial buildings are being constructed, and people are spending more on goods and transport, eating out and talking non-stop on the phone. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure surprised many. â€œIâ€™m shell-shocked,â€? said Rajiv Kumar, director, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. â€œBut itâ€™s nice to be in the China league.â€? China has been growing at 9 per cent for several years now.

Woman raped every half hour in India

June 1, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 4 Comments

A woman is raped every half an hour in India, while one is killed every 75 minutes — usually burnt to death for not bringing a large enough dowry.

Violence against children rose by nearly a quarter in 12 months and recorded cases of female foeticide increased by a half in 2004, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Its latest report, based on 2004 data and obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, will be submitted to Parliament in July.

The national capital, New Delhi, is the least safe place for women.

GE commits $250million to India

May 31, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

When General Electric Company, the worldâ€™s second-biggest company by market value, received $145 million as settlement for its turbines that powered the jinxed Dabhol power project in India, the American giant decided to reinvest the money in the country.

It did not lose faith after the bad experience. Instead it topped the figure up with an additional $100 million.

But all this is spare change for the mega corp. GEâ€™s chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said in Mumbai on Tuesday that he envisages an â€œ8x8x2010â€? plan for GE in India. Translated, it means generating $8 billion revenues and creating $8 billion assets in India by 2010.

Online Mumbai Navigator

May 31, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 1 Comment

This is an experimental travel planning program for the city of Mumbai developed by IITians
Its list u all the bus routes, train routes and helps in planning ur travel in mumbai

Click Here to view Online Mumbai Navigator

Mumbai Navigator has been developed by Prof. Abhiram Ranade and his students Mayur Datar (BTech 99), Koustubh Tilak (MTech 2000) and M. Srikrishna (MTech 2002) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay.

Microsoft’s FlexGo software eyes emerging markets

May 23, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

SEATTLE: Chip makers and PC firms aim to increase PC usage in the developing world with a new flexible payment program to lower the initial costs of buying a computer, the companies said on Sunday.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, said it is leading a group of technology companies in offering the first-ever “pay-as-you-go” computers in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China over the next several months.

Using Microsoft’s FlexGo software technology, a customer can buy a computer loaded with the Windows operating system then purchase prepaid cards or pay a monthly subscription fee at a cost similar to using a computer at a local Internet cafe, Microsoft said.

When the usage time ticks down, a customer can go online or to a local retailer to buy more minutes.

PM makes another appeal to medicos

May 23, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday appealed to the striking medical students to call off their strike.

“I request students to call off their agitation. They should have faith in the government to protect the legitimate interests of all sections of the student community,” the prime minister said at a function to mark the second anniversary of the United Progressive Alliance coalition.

Appealing to the agitating students protesting against proposed reservation for OBCs in higher educational institutes, he said the government would work towards “a fair, just and inclusive” education system and no deserving student would be denied an opportunity.

He said the youth of the country had to build a stronger and more dynamic India.

India is an innovation titan, leaves China in the dust

May 10, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

There is no silver bullet to innovation. The Wall Street Journal observed in a powerful commentary that New Delhi had gone the extra mile to revamp its intellectual property rights. Now the dividends were showing â€” India was cruising imperiously ahead of China in the innovation race.

â€œIt may appear as if Indiaâ€™s recent economic rise is solely due to its low-cost outsourcing opportunities for foreign businesses. But this is only part of the story,â€? said the US financial daily on Monday.

â€œIndia is rapidly evolving into Asiaâ€™s innovation centre, leaving China in the dust. Its secret weapon? Intellectual property-rights protection. In recent years, New Delhi has taken big steps to protect these rights, and the results have been dramatic,â€? it added.

NASA, ISRO sign pact for moon mission

May 9, 2006 / Chirag Mehta / 0 Comments

US space agency NASA entered into an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday to send two scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-I, the country’s first unmanned moon mission scheduled for 2008.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin signed the MoU (memorandum of understanding) with ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair to send a mini synthetic aperture radar (miniSAR), developed by the agency’s applied physics laboratory and a moon mineralogy mapper, built by the jet propulsion laboratory, an ISRO official said.