News
1.Kalam calls for developing hypersonic space vehicle
2. 500 Indian peace keepers in Congo awarde UN medals
3.‘Bogus’ HIV+ testing kits health risk
4.Delhi to make Lane Driving mandatory.
5. “Om” to resound in US Senate
6. Indians can deposit up to $100,000 in banks abroad
1.Kalam calls for developing hypersonic space vehicle
India Gazette Friday 29th June, 2007 (IANS)
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Friday called for taking up a global partnership development mission for the next two decades to design and develop a hypersonic, re-usable space vehicle with higher payload efficiency and lower cost.
He urged international experts to develop a system with a take-off weight of 275 tonnes for 25 to 35 tonnes payload optimised for launching multi-purpose mission including new orbiting space stations, space habitat and space solar power station.
The eminent scientist and father of India’s missile programme inaugurated a two-day international conference on ‘high speed trans-atmospheric air and space transportation’ here Friday.
More than 60 experts from India, Japan, Australia, Russia, South Africa and Israel are attending the conference, which aims to share and consolidate knowledge and experience gained in conceptualisation, design, development and testing of advanced aerospace technologies.
‘There is a need for all countries to work together to develop a single-stage-to-orbit, fully re-usable launch vehicles which can bring down the cost of the launch from the present $20,000 per kg of payload to $200 per kg,’ said Kalam.
‘This should call for innovative partnership among nations overcoming technological and other barriers which may appear impossible today,’ he said adding that India will be a partner in this effort.
The president said the real value of space exploration for human advancement would occur only when a fully re-usable space transportation system was developed with very high payload efficiencies.
Pointing out that the payload fraction of current generation expendable launch vehicles in the world does not exceed one or two percent of the launch weight, he said to put one or two tonnes in space requires more than 100 tonnes of launch weight, almost 70 percent of it is oxygen.
‘In the next two decades, I visualise the integration of multiple technologies of supersonic aircraft, missiles and spacecraft to transform into an unmanned supersonic long-range and low radar cross section aircraft replacing manned fighter aircraft,’ he said.
Stating that the space development is constrained by the current large costs of access to space, he called for synergy between aeronautical and space disciplines.
‘While I visualise in another 50 to 75 years, an industrial complex on the Moon and a beginning of human habitat at Mars emerging, one of the major driving factor will be the low cost of access to space, which would require certain disruptive technologies to emerge,’ he said.
‘The aeronautical community can partner the space community to design reusable launch vehicles that perform like an aircraft while flying in the atmosphere, and like a rocket while flying in the outer space,’ he said.
2. 500 Indian peacekeepers in Congo awarded UN medals
United Nations, July 4: As many as 500 Indian personnel of the UN peacekeeping contingent in Congo have been awarded the MONUC medal for their efforts in bringing peace to their area.
The North Kivu MONUC Indian Brigade, which comprises three Indian Battalions, three Aviation Contingents, a Level-III hospital and Military Observers, had organised, for the first time, a combined MONUC medal parade ceremony in Goma on June 28. The ceremony was attended by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General William Swing, MONUC Director of Administration Ms Hazel Scott, and North Kivu Governor Julian Paluku, among others.
Mr Swing and North Kivu Brigade Commander, Brigadier Pramod Behl reviewed the parade, which comprised contingent from the Indian elements. A fly-over, comprising of MI-17, MI-35 and Cheetah helicopters of the aviation contingents, gave an added touch to the ceremony.
In his address, Mr Swing praised the leadership of the North Kivu brigade, both past and present, in bringing peace to the province. He specifically underlined the crucial role played by the brigade during the Sake episode, when ‘’swift and effective action averted a major crisis.” The Secretary-General’s Special Representative also conferred a ”mission citation” to the North Kivu Brigade — the first time that such an honour was bestowed by MONUC since the peacekeeping mission was established by the Security Council in 1999. He also lauded the crucial roles being played by the Indian aviation contingents, both in North and South Kivu., and praised the services of the medical staff and the military observers associated with the Brigade.
Brigadier Behl, noting it was the first combined medal parade in Indian peacekeeping history, also mentioned Indias glorious role in peackeeping since the early 1950s, and its total contribution amounting to almost a 100,000 troops to some 23 UN missions across the globe.
The United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) was established by the UN Security Council to facilitate the implementation of the Lusaka Accord signed in 1999. With more than 17,000 troops and police, MONUC is the largest and most expensive mission in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO). — UNI
3.‘Bogus’ HIV+ testing kits health risk
Kolkata, July 6, 2007
A noted India-born AIDS researcher in the US says that defective or sub-standard medical kits supplied by the government’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) for testing HIV in different blood banks and hospitals in India has put a large number of Indians at serious health risk.Kunal Saha, the researcher-based in Columbus, Ohio, was appointed by the World Bank to investigate allegations of sub-standard HIV testing kits being distributed in India.Now he is all set to expose the scam after having obtained permission from the bank to go public with the findings about “the bogus HIV testing kits supplied by NACO and used by hospitals across India,” Saha said.Saha and other members of the World Bank team discovered that that there was “fraud” in distribution of HIV testing kits that has put Indian patients in serious danger of contracting AIDS from contaminated blood, he said.“In a letter, the World Bank has informed me that they have no intention to restrict me from my ethical obligation (as a medical doctor) ‘to safeguard public health’ in India,” Saha told IANS from Columbus on Friday.
“The obligations imposed by the confidentiality agreement are intended to preclude improper disclosure of information obtained in the course of your work; however, they are not intended to restrict your ability to comply with your ethical obligations as a medical doctor to safeguard public health,” Palacio wrote.
A team from the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) of the World Bank came to India in March-April 2007 to investigate allegations of corruption in the distribution of HIV testing kits in different parts of India. Saha came with the World Bank team as a medical consultant from the US.
Two other doctors from India were also in the World Bank team, which visited a number of hospitals and blood banks across India, including several major centres in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The final World Bank report is yet to be released formally.
World Bank funds a substantial portion of India’s battle against HIV/AIDS. — IANS
Delhi to make lane driving mandatoryTuesday, July 17, 2007 10:24 IST
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has reiterated her determination to tame the privately operated Blueline buses and said that authorities will soon devise a timetable of their operation and make lane driving mandatory.
“We are concerned about the increasing number of accidents and plan to make lane driving mandatory. Top police officials too have expressed their agreement over the subject,” Dikshit said.
The chief minister held a meeting over the unruly Blueline buses and their involvement in fatal accidents - leading to at least 61 deaths this year so far. Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf, the chief secretary of Delhi, PWD engineers and some top police officials attended the meeting.
Dikshit said that her government was committed to ensuring the safety and security of commuters and pedestrians. She also expressed her displeasure in the meeting over the continuing negligent driving by Blueline bus drivers despite an assurance given by the bus operators last Friday.
Dikshit underlined the need for installing traffic signals on major crossings, announcements regarding discipline on roads, installation of CCTV cameras and deployment of additional traffic police officers with motorcycles to ensure safety of pedestrians.
“The traffic police should also ensure that all Blueline buses are plying in prescribed lanes for which strict vigilance and surveillance would be required,” she said.
Dikshit earlier this month had vowed to phase out the fleet of 4,200 Blueline buses from city roads before 2010.
For eons, Westerners viewed India simply as a land of snake charmers and elephants. Of sadhus and religious gurus. Of Benaras and the
Indians can deposit up to $100,000 in banks abroad -Sunday, August 12, 2007-13:09 IST
Mumbai: As part of efforts to flush out excess foreign capital, Reserve Bank has allowed resident Indians to open accounts in banks outside the country and transfer up to $100,000 (about Rs 41 lakh) a year in them without its approval.
Individuals can now open, maintain and hold foreign currency accounts with banks outside India, the Reserve Bank said, while clarifying the provisions of the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
The RBI clarification comes on the heels of the union government tightening External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) to restrict inflow of foreign capital to prevent appreciation of the Indian currency.
RBI and the Centre have been encouraging people and corporates to invest overseas to tide over the problems created by excessive inflow of foreign capital.
The RBI said under LRS, resident individuals can remit up to $100,000 in a financial year to acquire and hold immovable property, make investment in financial instruments or purchase any other asset without any prior approval.
Resident individuals, RBI clarified, could utilise the amount deposited in foreign bank accounts to invest in mutual funds, venture funds, unrated debt securities and promissory notes under the scheme.
Under the LRS, which was originally announced in 2004 to simplify and liberalise foreign exchange facility available to resident individuals, an individual will have to quote his or her Permanent Account Number to avail the benefit of the scheme, it said.