Eco-awareness camp for students
Udhagamandalam, India: A three-day eco-awareness camp for school students organised under the aegis of the Department of Education and the Nilgiris District Environment Association got underway here on Tuesday.
Visit
According to District Environment Coordinator K.Chandrashekar, 150 students from eight schools in Standard VI to IX are participating in the camp.
Among the places which the participants will visit are Pykara, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Moyar, Masinagudy and Singara. They will remove discarded plastic items at various places.
Experts
He added that experts in the field of environment protection would address the students.
The camp was inaugurated by Biologist and Green Campaigner S.Rajan.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031751480300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Sensex surges to two-month high
Robust gains in Reliance Ind and positive cues from Asia help sentiment
MUMBAI, India: The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, Sensex, on Tuesday surged to its nearly two-month high with a 218-point rally helped by robust gains in heavyweight Reliance Industries and positive cues from Asia and Europe.
The BSE’s 30-share index rose by 218.19 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 17383.18, the highest closing level since January 20. During the day, the index had risen 1.47 per cent to a high of 17416.55.
Experts attributed the rally to heavy buying by foreign investors, who have made a net inflow of over $2 billion so far this month.
They further said that emerging markets had become their top-focus area on expectations that the U.S. would continue with its low interest rate regime.
The U.S. central bank Federal Reserve’s interest rate monitoring committee, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to consider its next course of action.
Advance tax
On the domestic front, a good set of advance tax numbers also helped improve buying sentiment in the market.
“The markets rallied on the back of good advance tax numbers and U.S. Fed meet. It is expected that there will not be a sharp rise in the interest rates for the short-term,” Angel Broking Vice-President (Research) Sarabjit Kour Nangra said.
The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Tuesday will discuss the monetary policy strategy and to give a description of the economy is also keenly awaited.
Major gainers
Reliance Industries, which has the maximum weight in the Sensex, gained 3.80 per cent to Rs. 1,066.80, helping the market post smart gains. “RIL, which was underperforming the market, has started to outperform. As the amount of March quarter advance tax paid by RIL doubled, investors were upbeat on an imminent increase in profit,” SMC Global Vice-President Rajesh Jain said.
Advance tax collections from top corporate houses of Mumbai region grew over 3 per cent to more than Rs. 11,000 crore during January-March 2010 as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.
RIL has paid Rs. 770 crore as advance tax in the latest quarter, higher from Rs. 365 crore in the year-ago period.
Other major gainers were Tata Steel (2.82 per cent at Rs. 627.15), L&T (2.80 per cent at Rs. 1,597.80), M&M (2.66 per cent at Rs. 1,134.70) and Sun Pharma (2.54 per cent at Rs. 1,667.60).
Among the Sensex stocks, there were 25 advances against 5 declines. Bharti Airtel was the biggest index-wise loser (1.60 per cent at Rs. 294.75), followed by ACC (1.26 per cent at Rs. 969.60).
“The FOMC meet will give an idea as to where the interest rate is heading in the U.S. This will act as a big trigger for the U.S. market, which has been range-bound for quite sometime, and in turn will impact Indian stocks,” Mr. Jain said.
Meanwhile, global markets were holding steady with China’s Shanghai index locking 0.53 per cent gain and Europe’s FTSE rising 0.65 per cent in early trade. — PTI
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031755081800.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Temple doors open to Dalits
Dalits can now enter village hotel and barber shop
Over 100 Dalits made a historic entry into temple
Changes:Dalits of Kannali village in Mandya district inside the temple on Tuesday.
MYSORE, India: For the first time in their lives over 100 Dalits of Kannali village in Mandya district entered Chennakeshavaswamy and Eshwara temples on Tuesday.
Though they had served the village deities by beating drums during festivals and cleaning the temple premises, they were barred from entering the temple. Overjoyed by the newly acquired right, the Dalits offered special prayers.
All this came about as a fall out of an incident where a Dalit was attacked by “caste” Hindus. During a festival on March 13, Chandu (28) a Dalit youth climbed ‘one’ step of the Chennakeshavaswamy temple while beating the drums. Enraged by this, some of the “caste” Hindus attacked and abused him.
Some educated Dalit youth decided to register a complaint with the police and met station head of Mandya rural police. However, the police did not register the complaint immediately but said they would do so the next day.
Meanwhile, Mandya MLA Srinivas convened a meeting of the Dalits and “caste” Hindus to bring about a compromise.
Responding to the MLA’s plea, Kempaih (50) Dalit leader of Kannali said they would not press charges if they were allowed to enter the village temple, hotel and barber shop. The “caste” Hindus agreed reluctantly and assured them that changes would be made in phases.
Negotiation
However, the Dalits insisted that they be allowed into the temples on Ugadi. Finally, the “caste” Hindus yielded to pressure said, Vasu of Karnataka Janapara Vedike, who was with the Dalits when they entered the temple on Tuesday. Mr. Kempaih said Tuesday was a historic day in the life of the Dalits, he added.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031763580600.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Eco-awareness camp for students
Udhagamandalam, India: A three-day eco-awareness camp for school students organised under the aegis of the Department of Education and the Nilgiris District Environment Association got underway here on Tuesday.
Visit
According to District Environment Coordinator K.Chandrashekar, 150 students from eight schools in Standard VI to IX are participating in the camp.
Among the places which the participants will visit are Pykara, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Moyar, Masinagudy and Singara. They will remove discarded plastic items at various places.
Experts
He added that experts in the field of environment protection would address the students.
The camp was inaugurated by Biologist and Green Campaigner S.Rajan.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031751480300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
“Good rabi harvest may bring down food prices”
C. Rangarajan commends the Union budget Photo : M.Vedhan.
INFORMATIVE: C. Rangarajan Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (second from left ) and G.Thiruvasagam, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, releasing a souvenir at an international conference in Chennai on Tuesday. M.S. Sundara Rajan, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Bank ( second from right) and M. Ranganatham, Registrar, University of Madras, are in the picture.
CHENNAI, India: While the rise in prices of food products is “troubling,” a good rabi harvest is expected to bring down prices in the next few weeks, said C. Rangarajan, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, on Tuesday.
Dr. Rangarajan said the outlook on rabi arrivals [starting April] was good and that would ease some concerns of consumers even as the inflation rate closed in on double-digit figures.
Delivering the inaugural address at an international conference on “Global Financial System in the post-crisis era: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges” at the University of Madras, Dr. Rangarajan added that the government would have to wait a few weeks before deciding on a rollback of fiscal stimulus measures.
He said the revised estimates for the fiscal deficit in 2009-2010 showed it at 6.7 per cent of the GDP. This was unsustainable and the Union budget of 2010-2011 had brought the deficit down to 5.5 per cent. He commended the Union budget for striking a “proper balance between the need for fiscal consolidation and the need to provide adequate stimulus for growth.”
The government had responded well in tackling the need for stimulation following the financial crisis, but reforms in the regulatory framework were required for the long term, Dr. Rangarajan said.
Ruling out an abandonment of “financial innovations” including derivatives, which he said were satisfying a felt need of customers, he said the regulatory measures were needed to discourage excessive risk-taking and leveraging by banks.
“Too little regulation may encourage financial instability but too much of it can impede financial innovations which are badly needed,” he said.
M.S. Sundara Rajan, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank, said the financial crisis had provided India an opportunity to position itself as an attractive destination for global capital. But issues including the ballooning fiscal deficit, transparency, governance norms and an adequate method for the measurement and management of fiscal risk needed to be sorted out, he said.
G. Thiruvasagam, vice-chancellor, University of Madras, said it was time to think about rehabilitative and preventive measures to protect the Indian economy.
The two-day conference is being organised by the Department of Commerce of the Madras University and is supported by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Indian Bank.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031755870700.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Using Carbon Nanotubes to Produce Electricity
The researchers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have uncovered a new phenomenon of carbon nanotubes. They found that carbon nanotubes discharge powerful waves of electricity under certain circumstances. MIT team named it as thermopower waves. They are pinning their hope on thermopower waves to produce electricity to be utilized in small electrical appliances or maybe in large-scale applications too. This project was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
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This discharge of electricity from carbon nanotubes is a very rare occurrence. Traditionally we derive electricity from water, sun, wind, coal or heat produced by burning of fossil fuels. The thermopower wave, “opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,” said Michael Stranowho is MIT’s Charles and Hilda Roddey associate professor of Chemical Engineering. His work was published in scientific journal Nature Materials.
Carbon nanotubes are submicroscopic structures. They are just billionths of a meter in diameter. Carbon nanotubes resemble honeycombs. For the past twenty years scientists are focusing their energies on carbon nanotubes, graphene sheets and buckeyballs. They find these three most promising for clean and green energy research. These three substances can be valuable for the medicine, nanotechnology, geoengineering, biology, and for the electronics industry.
Researchers associated with this project find the whole phenomenon quite unusual. They have observed that as the moving pulses of heat pass through the carbon naotubes, electrons also travel along. This movement of electrons is responsible for generation of electric current. Strano says, “There’s something else happening here. We call it electron entrainment since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.”
Researchers coated carbon nanotubes with a layer of reactive fuel that can generate heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited by a laser beam or high voltage spark at the one end of the nanotube. This ignition resulted in fast moving thermal waves. When this thermal wave enters into carbon nanotube its velocity increases thousand times than the fuel itself. When heat waves contact the thermal coating they produce a temperature of 3,000 kelvins. This ring of heat runs to the length of the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The unusual occurrence is that electrons also travel with the heat inside the tube. Strano says that events like this “have been studied mathematically for more than 100 years” but he was the first to envisage that such waves could be guided by a nanotube or nanowire and that this wave of heat could thrust an electrical current all along that wire.
Strano explains, “There’s something else happening here. We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” He confirms that the thermal waves are behaving like ocean waves. We have observed that when ocean waves travel they carry the debris on their surface. Strano thinks that this property is responsible for the high power output by the system. Strano suggests the possible use of this discovery. He says that one possible use could be enabling new kinds of ultra-small electronic devices having sensors or treatment devices that would be injected into the body.
Ray Baughman, director of the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, shares his views regarding the whole project that it “started with a seminal initial idea, which some might find crazy, and provided exciting experimental results, the discovery of new phenomena, deep theoretical understanding, and prospects for applications.” Because it revealed a previously unknown phenomenon, he says, it could open up “an exciting new area of investigation.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/carbon-nanotubes-produce-electricity/
Courtesy
AENews Network
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