Two South Asian pioneers who have brought about a redical change in how Third World nations protect the environment have been awarded this year's Volva Environment Prize.

Madhav Gadgil, one of the world's foremost ecological experts and best known for creating India's first biosphere in the endangered Western Ghats, and Bangladesh's Mohammad Yunus, who through his revolutionary concept of microcredit empowered poor millions worldwide, were conferred the prestigious award established by the Swedish automaker.

The prize, established in 1989, is to be presented by the EU commissioner for the environment, Margot Wallstrvm, in a ceremony in Brussels Oct. 29.

The two winners will equally share the prize money of 1.5 million Swedish Kroner, or about $95,000 each.

The prize jury included Gita Sen, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and a visting professor at the Center for Population and Development Studies and Harvard University.

Courtesy: The Times of India, July 25, 2003

The government of Saudi Arabia has offered ONGC a slice of the world's largest oil reserves. In an unusual move, the Saudi government invited ONGC to take up exploration and production activities there.

Senior officials of the Saudi oil sector have sent a formal invitation to ONGC to participate at a high-level meeting in London in the third week of July. ONGC officials confirmed that ONGC Videsh Chairman Atul Chandra would be attending the meeting on behalf of ONGC.

Although the invitation is to ONGC directly by the Saudi government functionaries, ONGC has decided to send their representative from OVL as all foreign investments are routed through OVL. "They have sent us an invitation indicating that they see in ONGC a potential partner for future business in the oil sector", ONGC officials said.

Saudi Arabia, which has the largest reserves of about 262.697 million barrels, earns $ 62,981 million per year on account of exports of petroleum products. The biggest oil major operating in Saudi Arabia is Saudi Aramco and sources feel that if ONGC is able to strike a good deal there could even be possibilities of taking up projects jointly with this oil major.

The invitation from the Saudi government assumes great importance in view that the oil industry operations in Saudi Arabia are primarily state-owned and there are very limited foreign players.

The invitation indicates that Saudi Arabia is planning to open up and allow new players like ONGC to take up both development of oil fields and stakes in existing producing fields, sources said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 11, 2003

You'll have to wait 284 years if you miss it this time.

A historical celestial event is all set to thrill the star gazers next month when the planet Mars comes closer to earth - closer than ever recorded in the history - providing a better chance of its view. "On August 28, Mars would be the closest to the earth since the last 73,000 years with the distance between the two being about 55.8 million killometres, "Dr. N Rathnasree, director of the Nehru Planetarium, said. Mars would not get closer than this to earth until year 2287 when it would be 70,000 Km closer. "Mars and Earth come closer to each other once very two years to a phenomenon called opposition. But not every opposition is the same", Rathnasree said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 07, 2003

Paris: Astronomers say they have found a Jupiter-like body circling a distant star in a planetary system like ours, an intriguing discovery that raises the prospect of someday finding a planet resembling Earth.

Hugh Jones of Liverpool John Moores University said his team had discovered the system, illuminated by a star dubbed HD 70642, some 94 light-years from Earth. Jones was presenting the finding at a conference at the Paris Astrophysics Institute here Thursday.

The star is similar to the sun in structure and brightness and appears to be about the same age, Jones said. The planet is traveling around the star in an orbital path similar in shape and distance to the one that Jupiter follows around our Sun.

Those similarities have led the planet-hunters in Jones' team of British, Australian and American scientists to conclude that they have tumbled upon something exciting - the possibility of finding another Earth in the Milky Way galaxy.

"We are honing in on the search for planets like the Earth", said Alan Penny of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory west of London. Nearly 110 extrasolar planets - planets orbiting stars other than the sun - have been found within the past decade, but none really resembled our solar system until now, Penny said.

"This is the first one that is really like our own solar system of the 110 that we've found," Penny said in a telephone interview. "We think it's a substantial step on the way to finding another Earth."

No large planets have been found between the Jupiter like planet and the star, leading scientists to conclude that an Earth-sized planet could be nestled in between.

Courtesy: The Times of India, July 04, 2003