Archives November 2012

Over the past several years, India has been the victim of terrorist attacks, not only in the militancy and insurgency affected areas and areas affected.  By left-wing extremism, but also in the form of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts, etc. In various parts of the hinterland and major cities. A large number of such incidents are found to have complex inter-siate and mid-national linkages, and possible connection with other activities like the smuggling of arms and drugs, pushing in and circulation of fake Indian currency, infiltration from across the borders, etc. keeping all these in view, a need was felt for selling up of an Agency at the Central level for investigation of offences related to terrorism and certain other acts, which have national ramifications. On the recommendations of several experts and Committees, including the Administrative Reforms Commission in its Report, for establishing such an Agency, the Government decided to more...

The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have orbited and landed. The first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first man- made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The United States' Apollo program achieved the first (and only) manned missions to the Moon, culminating in 6 landings between 1969 and 1972. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, on October 22, 2009. Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon mission has found water on moon on September 24, 2009, ending a more...

For the purpose of putting Indian satellites in space, the Governments established a Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) in 1965 in Thumba, followed by the erection of a Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station in 1967 at Ahmadabad. Since the creation of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 15, 1969, in the Department of Atomic Energy, ISRO has managed India's space research and the uses of space for peaceful purposes. In 1972, the Government established the Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS) to conduct the nation's space activities for ISRO at four space centers across the country. DOS reports directly to the Prime Minister and ISRO was placed under DOS on June 1, 1972, and made a Government organisation on April 1, 1975. The first Indian satellite to be put in space was Aryabhata, which dates back to April 19, 1975. It was followed by the launch more...

India is evolving from its role as the world's back office into a knowledge and innovation hub, despite the limitations imposed by the country's weak infrastructure and antiquated education system. Indian outsourcers have also evolved into world-class research and development (R&D) centers.  As a result, the call centre operators in India can now found to be helping enhance patient care for US hospitals, optimize financial transactions for Australian banks and streamline parts management for European engineering firms. Similarly, the Indian IT companies can be found developing mission-critical avionics systems, next-generation telecom technologies and complex medical devices. This is bound to benefit not just India but the global economy as well. This is a far story from about a decade ago, when prominent Indian" IT companies such as Infosys Technologies Ltd, Tala Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Wipro Ltd were bidding for small contracts to help Western companies Us me Y2K more...

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items 'from the bottom up', using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. The word 'nanotechnology' was popularized by K. Eric Drexler in the 1980's while talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few nanometers wide—motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. Drexler spent the next ten years describing and analyzing these incredible devices, and responding to accusations of science fiction. Meanwhile, mundane technology was developing the ability to build simple structures on a molecular scale. As nanotechnology became an accepted concept, the meaning of the word shifted to encompass the simpler kinds of nanometer-scale technology. The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative defines it as anything smaller than 100 nanometers with novel properties. Based on more...

Heroin has become a worldwide problem as opium production occurs in three source regions—Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America. Besides being consumed in the producing regions, opium is converted to heroin and sent to the primary consuming markets of Europe and North America. The doubling of worldwide opium production since the mid-1980s has resulted in greater heroin availability, rising purity, and lower prices. Universal increases in heroin-related medical emergencies, arrests, and crime indicate that heroin consumption remains a growing problem throughout the world. The UN Drug Control Program estimates that there are some 8 million heroin abusers worldwide. Although heroin use remains less prevalent than cannabis, it accounts for a greater percentage of drug- related health problems and criminal activity. More than one-third of the estimated 2 million heroin users in the United States are considered hardcore addicts. While most heroin users tend to be older, heroin use among more...

Information Technology (IT) is changing rapidly. Power grids, traffic control, healthcare, water supplies, food and energy, along with most of the world's financial transactions, now depend on information technology. Thus, it forms an invisible layer that increasingly touches every aspect of our lives. Some of the companies researching cloud computing are big names in the computer industry. Microsoft, IBM, and Google are investing millions of dollars into research. Cloud computing is an emerging IT delivery model that can significantly reduce IT costs and complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. Cloud computing is massively scalable, provides a superior user experience, and is characterized by new, internet-driven economics. Cloud computing could change the entire computer industry. The present method of installing a suite of software for each computer can be replaced with having to load only one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which more...

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis necessitated that major advanced and emerging countries come together to stabilize the global financial market. This resulted in the establishment of the Group of Twenty or G-20 bringing together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. The inaugural meeting of the G-20 took place in Berlin, on December 15- 16, 1999, hosted by German and Canadian finance ministers. The growing recognition that key emerging-market countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance was also one of the reasons for the establishment of G-20. The G-7 took the initiative to promote dialogue and analysis between them and the emerging-market countries. The G-22 met at Washington D.C. in April and October 1998 to involve non-G-7 countries in the resolution of global aspects of the financial crisis then affecting emerging-market countries. Two subsequent meetings comprising more...

Ozone is a colourless gas found in the upper atmosphere of the Earth. It is formed by the action of ultraviolet radiation on oxygen. Ozone forms a layer in the stratosphere, which protects life on Earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. The depletion of ozone layer in the Earth's upper atmosphere may cause severe environmental and health problems. Ozone is formed when oxygen molecules absorb ultraviolet photons and undergo a chemical reaction known as photo dissociation or photolysis, where a single molecule of oxygen breaks down to two oxygen atoms. The free oxygen atom, then combines with an oxygen molecule and forms a molecule of ozone. The ozone molecules, in turn, ablorb ultraviolet rays between wavelength 310 to 200 nm and thereby prevent these harmful radiations from entering the Earth's atmosphere.  In the process, ozone molecules split up into a molecule of oxygen and an oxygen atom. The more...

The game of football or soccer is a team sport; winch involves kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The  word football  Is applied to whichever form of football is the more popular  in each particular part of the world, and is hence also variously applied to   ‘gridiron football', a name associated with American football and  canadian football; Australian rules  football; Gaelic football;  Rugby  league; Rugby union; and other related games. These variations are known as 'codes'. The various codes of football share some elements in common. They  Are: two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; a clearly  area in which to play the game; scoring goals or points, by moving the  ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, a over a line; goals or points resulting from players putting the ball Between two more...