Mohali, September 29: The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said today that the country was on the threshold of breaking new ground in the field of research in pharmaceuticals, where it was close to carrying out clinical trials for anti-HIV vaccine and using molecular biology in gene therapy to cure cardiac ailments and other disorders. He expressed satisfaction over the growth in the Pharmaceuticals Industry of the country, which has grown from a mere Rs 10 crores business in 1947 to Rs 27,000 crores, including exports worth Rs 12,000 crores. He said that the pharmaceuticals industry, which was second only to Information Technology (IT), had a major scope for growth in the era of globalisation. He said that the research for vaccine against HIV had reached an advanced stage of development and getting ready for clinical trials, which would be a major milestone for the nation and also for other countries. Quoting the report on "Health Care in India" prepared by a panel of leading doctors and medical technologists in the country, Dr. Kalam said that the expert team identified tuberculosis, HIV and water-borne diseases, as three major diseases which require methods to be combated by next decade.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 30, 2003

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Paris, September 29: India could soon commence construction of a prototype Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, making it the first country in the world to develop such a reactor as the mainstay of its nuclear power programme. This is a new kind of reactor that uses a mix of thorium and uranium as fuel and yields more uranium than it actually consumes. It would thus enable India to become self-sufficient in its supplies of uranium. After monitoring its performance for a year or two, the company could go full steam ahead to construct other AHWRs, which could become the mainstay of the country's nuclear power programme by 2020. This will enable India to use its large thorium deposits for producing nuclear power. Mr Kakodkar, who is in Paris on an official visit, said India is currently adding nine new units to its nuclear power programme which will take the installed capacity of the Nuclear Power Corporation from the current 2,700 MW to over 6,700 MW by the year 2008.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, September 30, 2003

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Hyderabad: Hyderabad will host the country's first biotech incubator at the Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park to start-up firms in scaling up their production and commercialising their products. With an estimated outlay of Rs 30 crore, the department of biotechnology would set up the incubator during the current year, according to the Union secretary Ms Manju Sharma. She was speaking at the inauguration of Biotech India International 2003, Pharma India 2003 and Interkama India 2003.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 29, 2003

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Bangalore: After a month's delay, India's exclusive communication satellite Insat-3E was successfully launched in a precise mission by European Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana, giving a boost to telecommunication and television services. Ariane 5 injected the 2775-kg Insat-3E into geosynchronous transfer orbit in the 29 minute of its flight in a multi-step intricate mission, sources said. Two other satellites - E-bird for Europe's Eutelsat and Smart-1 for the European space agency - were also launched on board its 162nd flight with Insat-3E being the highest payload. The master control facility at Hassan in Karnataka took control of Insat-3E whose performance was described as "normal" by Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 29, 2003

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London, September 28: Indian scientists are developing the first herbal contraceptive pill, using a recipe rediscovered in a 2,500-year-old medical text. The drug's origins lie in ayurveda. The main ingredients of the herbal contraceptive, pippalyadi yoga, are two shrubs that grow in the Himalayan foothills: false pepper (embelia ribes) and long pepper (piper longum). These are mixed with borax, a naturally occurring mineral. The drug is about to undergo clinical trials on humans, and scientists hope that it could be on the market within two to three years, offering a relatively cheap, non-toxic contraceptive.

More recently, Europeans seeking inner well-being have embraced ayurvedic medicine. Scientists too are starting to recognise its merits: trials on a herbal diabetes treatment used by Indian forest dwellers have been completed and the product is due on the market soon. Traditionally, pippalyadi yoga is taken as a powder mixed with water. In its modern form, the herbal contraceptive would be taken as a daily pill for three weeks each month. It is believed to inhibit a woman's ovulation. In all, dozens of plants are mentioned in India's ancient medical texts as being effective in preventing pregnancy. While hundreds of claims for natural birth control products have been made around the world, none has yet met the standards demanded in clinical drug trials.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, September 29, 2003

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Mumbai, September 28: India is supplying critical scientific manpower and high-tech components needed for building a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - an accelerator used in particle physics research - a mega scientific project of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) worth billions of dollars. The LHC would be used for partially simulating the conditions of the big bang in the laboratory for scientists to study them. Indian scientists are taking part in the construction of special detectors with a large sophisticated instrumentation, needed for studying new particles. The Indian participation is through the Centre for Advanced Technology at Indore, a leading research station of DAE. The Department has identified a number of high components for LHC.

These are over 2,000 superconducting magnets, 6,800 precision magnet positioning system jacks and about 6,000 quench protection electronics and quench protection system power supplies. The Indian inputs also include engineering design and studies of specific systems of LHC, manpower support for magnet measurement, development and control software for the LHC machine. While the design and development of the components are done by the DAE Laboratories, the production is tasked to different Indian firms, notably the Kirloskar Electric Company Ltd., Bangalore, and the Crompton Greaves Ltd., Bhopal. The Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Anil Kakodkar, handed over the 1,000th superconducting magnet to L. Evans, project director of LHC, in Mumbai recently.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 29, 2003

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New Delhi: Experts from WHO and other agencies have observed that the progress made by India in the anti-TB campaign under the DOTS strategy is the fastest in the world. ''India's revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP) has achieved the fastest expanding DOTS programme in the world,'' said Dr Leopold Blanc, coordinator, TB strategy and operations at the WHO Geneva headquarters, on Friday. Blanc was part of a 40-member joint review mission that had travelled across 20 districts in five states to assess the achievement and effectiveness of the new programme. Appreciating the quality of the programme, he said that the country ''has achieved remarkable progress'' in fighting TB. The team reviewed about 10,000 patient records during the extensive tour.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 29, 2003

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Thiruvananthapuram September 28: The successful launch of India's latest communications satellite, the INSAT-3E, on an Ariane 5 rocket in the early hours of today marks the beginning of a busy period for the Indian Space Research Organisation. A whole series of manoeuvres are necessary to take the INSAT-3E from its present orbit to its final position and to get it ready for operational service. At the same time, ISRO is also getting ready to launch its newest Indian Remote Sensing satellite, the IRS-P6 or Resourcesat. Resourcesat will be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, in mid-October.

The Ariane 5 rocket placed the INSAT-3E, as well its two co-passengers, Eutelsat's e-Bird communication satellite and the European Moon probe, SMART-1, in an oval orbit. While SMART-1 makes its way to the moon, the INSAT-3E and e-Bird will head for the geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above the equator.

The Union Government recently cleared ISRO's proposal to build its first radar imaging satellite (RISAT) at a cost of Rs. 378 crores. Radar gives the satellite all-weather and day-night imaging capability. The cameras on the IRS satellites depend on light reflected from the ground below. These cameras cannot function at night or when clouds block their view. Agricultural analysis can benefit from radar data through the monsoon season when the IRS cameras may be of little use. Flood monitoring will also improve. In addition, defence and security services have been wanting radar satellites to strengthen their ability to monitor activity along India's borders. RISAT, which is scheduled for launch in 2006, is expected to match the Canadian Radarsat-2's resolution of three metres. Radarsat-2 is expected to be launched in 2005.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 29, 2003

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New Delhi, September 27: The Press Trust of India (PTI) today launched its online delivery system (ODS), making its flagship news services, both English and Hindi (PTI Bhasha) and photo service, available on the Internet. The services are now available on PTI's website www.ptinews.com.

In a message, PTI Chairman, M.P. Veerendrakumar, described the launch of the ODS as yet another milestone in the technological up-gradation of the agency, which has already digitalised its photo service. The agency's news services are also available through satellite all over India. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Razdan said the launch of the ODS fulfilled a long-pending demand from the media and non-media, as also Internet subscribers, that the PTI services be made available on the net. The PTI products would now be available in any part of the world where Internet facility is available, he said.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 28, 2003

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New Delhi, September 27: Scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have developed a new wound-healing technique that could be used for a wide range of applications, from burns to diabetic foot ulcers, leprosy ulcers and animal bites, which are generally very difficult to heal. A significant feature of the development is that it is a spin-off of basic research in radiation chemistry and radiation technology pursued by scientists belonging to the BARC's Chemistry and Isotope Group. The technique is based on the principle of hydrogel, which is increasingly becoming popular in the developed world. Apart from wound healing applications, hydrogel process is also used in the production of contact lens, artificial cartilages or membranes, vascular prosthesis, gel-coated catheters and other similar products. Noting that hydrogel wound dressings are presently available mainly in developed countries as they are too expensive, an official spokesperson said the BARC scientists' breakthrough is also remarkable as the indigenously developed product would be much cheaper and, therefore, be accessible to a larger section of people.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 28, 2003

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A Group of nine mechanical engineering students of Delhi College of Engineering has developed an all-terrain vehicle on a 300 cc engine developed by US company Brics and Stratton.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, September 28, 2003

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A self-proclaimed "Newtonian," he has challenged Newton's First Law of Motion. Meet Arindam Banerjee, an IIT, Kharagpur alumnus in electronics and communication and author of the critically acclaimed To the Stars. Mr Banerjee completed his post graduation in computer science from IIT, Delhi and at present works as a research technologist at Telstra, Australia. The senior scientist spoke exclusively to our correspondent, Ratnottama Chakravorty.

Q. You have challenged Newton's First Law of Motion.
A. There's no question of challenging Newton. I am a Newtonian. What I want to say is that Newton's first Law of Motion needs to be modified.

Q. How would you like to modify Newton's theory?
A. Well, according to Newton, a body moves from rest (with respect to any initial frame of reference) when an external force is applied to it. My objection lies with the word "external". My experiments show that a body can be moved from rest with the help of internal force. That in turn, breaks the law of conservation of energy. I can prove it mathematically.

Q. What are the implications of the law of conservation of energy being broken?
A. For one, there can be perpetual energy without burning fossil fuels. The practical outcome of this could be a machine or battery that never runs out of power because it is self-recharging. There will be no need to burn fossil fuels which automatically translates into a pollution-free environment and a healthy ecological balance. This concept can help create machines capable of unlimted acceleration which can even explore stars.

Q. What then is your conclusion?
A. Energy can neither be created nor can it be destroyed, it can only change form.

Q. Very recently, you also challenged Einstein's ideas of energy generation from fusion.
A. Yes Michelson-Morely experiment, the basis of Einstein's theories of relative, does not show the invariance of the speed of light irrespective of the speed of the lightemitting sources. There is a bungle. So the formula c=mc2 needs to be revised.

Q. When do you think will the world agree with you?
A. If you mean the whole world, it will take another two to three years. But scientists from Cambridge and also from India have appreciated my work. Many of them have agreed with me too.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, September 27, 2003

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New Delhi: The Army is now gearing up operationally to deploy the Pakistan-specific 700 to 800-km range 'Agni-I' and 2,000-km-plus 'Agni-II' by raising new units to handle these nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. The Army is raising two 'Agni' units - the 334 Missile Group for 'Agni-I' and the 335 Missile Group for 'Agni-II' - near Secunderabad, which are likely to be shifted to the SFC later. The 'Agni' missiles constitute one crucial leg of the nuclear weapon triad - land-based mobile missiles, fighter bombers and sea-based platforms - which India wants to operationalise in the coming years as part of the ''credible minimum deterrent'' against Pakistan and China. Incidentally, India also plans to test-fire the China-specific 3,000-km-plus 'Agni-III' by the end of this year. The Armed forces already have the 150-250 km range 'Prithvi' tactical missile in their armoury. The Army, for instance, has the 222 and 333 Prithvi Missile Groups. The government has now also cleared the raising of another two 'Prithvi' units for the Army, namely the 444 and 555 Missile Groups.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 25, 2003

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Bangalore: The country's fledgling $400-million biotechnology industry, viewed as the next big business opportunity for the nation after software, is expected to see 25 to 30 per cent revenue growth this year, an industry survey said. Industry magazine BioSpectrum said the sector, which includes companies in contract research services, medicines and industrial products based on biotechnology, was poised for strong growth.

The one billion people-strong country is banking on its huge pool of engineering and software workers, to woo foreign investment in the sector. Bioinformatics, which combines software skills with biotechnology to crack genetic data, is seen as a hot opportunity.

Exports account for 53 per cent of revenue in the sector that employs about 6,400 people, up nearly 70 per cent from a year ago. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which are already software hubs, are aggressively pitching for foreign investment and have launched initiatives to build biotech parks. Pharmaceutical firms such as Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Ranbaxy Laboratories have over the past years gained expertise to tap the surging global market for low-cost generic drugs.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 25, 2003

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Sometimes the most workable solution may not be the most high tech. Anand Parthasarathy reports on an interesting new system that might help track India's three million road transport carriers. IT BOASTS no fancy technology - no hand-held computers, no satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS). But a home-grown solution launched this month by a Bangalore-based company - BOW Network - looks like a realizable system for transport operators as well as lay customers to keep track of their goods as they are carried across India by road.

BOW stands for Bharat on Wheels: To track these vehicles, the company makes use of STD phone booths - and a specially designed BOW card which looks like a credit card. Fleet owners can provide a card to each driver which he will carry to the nearest tracking point, basically a designated STD booth on trunk routes, at major trucking stops and petrol bunks. The booth operator will transfer details of the truck coded on the card together with a simple numbered message to a local telephone number using a Voice Response System. At the receiving end, a franchisee of BOW, uploads all incoming messages by email to a central hub, where it is processed and placed on a website.

Fleet operators can thus keep track of where each of their vehicles has reached. In addition the system provides the driver with access to emergency help in case of sickness, breakdown or accident. BOW Network's Managing Director P.S. Selvaraj explains that the service would prove cost effective for fleet operators since the initial cost of each card ( Rs 1100) and the monthly service charge ( Rs 100 for local permit and Rs 300 for national permit vehicles) would work out much less than the amount that each driver spends monthly on STD calls to the head office while en route - typically around Rs 2500..

For regions where the phone service is not digital, making Voice Response systems inoperative, BOW has created a `smart card' where the local franchisee can upload the information using a card reader. Lay customers who send their personal goods by truck are also served by the BOW system. They can purchase `trip cards' valid for one trip alone costing Rs 75 ( for 5 days) or Rs 125 ( for 10 days) and provide it to the driver. They can then track their goods on the Internet site which will reflect every message the driver logs. And how to motivate the driver to oblige? Every time he logs in at an STD booth, the driver will receive a Rs 2 token. This also allows him to participate in a quarterly draw where the prize is Rs 50,000.

In the days since September 8 when the system went on stream, major lorry owners associations in the southern states have recommended their members to try out the monitoring system .In six months the BOW is hopeful of signing up nearly 2 lakh vehicles and as for the end customer - watch out for the BOW cards soon on sale in your neighbourhood supermarket. You might give it a try, the next time you ship something using the road.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, September 25, 2003

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Bangalore: With increasing demand for high quality information technology services, ITIL (IT infrastructure library) is emerging as the standard of choice. ITIL, developed as an international standard over 20 years, is seen to be the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practices for IT service management (ITSM). It is now being used by hundreds of organisations around the world. The awareness level has gone up both globally as well as in India as far as getting services certified with this standard.

With Indian companies pursuing large outsourcing deals, ITIL compliant services are being asked for. "The point here is to get your entire IT infrastructure modified in such a way that it should translate to a satisfying end user experience. The cornerstone of an efficient IT organisation should be the use and reuse of effective ITSM processes clearly outlined under the ITIL," Au-Yeun says.

"Today most of the CIOs understand what ITIL means. People understand why processes and process activities have to be defined in such a way that they deliver consistent service to customers," "There are also large firms in the manufacturing, petroleum and telecom space that are looking at buying solutions that are ITIL compliant.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 24, 2003

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Bangalore, September 22: With the launch of INSAT 3E, the Indian Space Research Organisation's communications satellite, on September 28, the country's tally of communication transponders in space will go up to 128, G. Madhavan Nair, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman ISRO, said here today.

INSAT 3E, the penultimate spacecraft in the INSAT 3 series, will be launched aboard the French Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport of Kourou, French Guyana. It carries 24 C-band transponders and 12 extended C-band transponders. The satellite, with a life of 14 years, will be launched between 4.32 a.m. and 4.51 a.m. Indian Standard Time. A successful launch of INSAT 3E - after successive delays, the last due to a component alert - is important not in the least because its transponders will take on the traffic now being handled by 23 transponders on INSAT 2DT which is nearing the end of its life. The transfer of traffic from 2DT to 3E is expected to start in the first week of December.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 23, 2003

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India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) has decided to build two bunkers to protect the Union Cabinet in the event of a nuclear strike. The first such shelter will come up in South Block, according to a decision by the NCA's political council. The decision was taken on September 1 at the council's first meeting since it was constituted after New Delhi proclaimed its nuclear command structure in January.

The meeting headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was attended by his deputy L.K. Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, who heads the NCA's executive council, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy and Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Forces Command Air Marshal Teja Mohan Asthana.

According to sources, the political council decided to construct bunkers where the Cabinet could take shelter so that the country's political leadership was not wiped out and from which the government could operate. The council agreed to suggestions by Krishnaswamy and Asthana that the first nuclear weapons-proof bunker would be built within South Block which houses the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the ministries of defence and external affairs. According to sources, there was no unanimity over the location of the second bunker. Fernandes and Jaswant Singh are believed to have sought more details about the seven or eight sites that were suggested.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, September 22, 2003

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The Union Cabinet's nod to the proposal of the Department of Atomic Energy to set up a 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam brings to fruition more than 25 years of research and development on fast breeder technology. The breeder reactor forms the second stage of India's nuclear power programme. Unlike a thermal (light and heavy water) nuclear reactor, a breeder reactor generates more fissile plutonium than it consumes in the process of generating energy. The approval for the Rs.3,492-crore project marks a major milestone for the department, which went about mastering the technology with dedication. It is a vindication of India's capability to work on cutting edge technologies with little assistance from abroad. The highlight of the fast breeder programme is the mastery of a technology using indigenously prepared mixed carbide fuel in the smaller Fast Breeder Test Reactor commissioned in 1985.

The compulsion for India to look beyond thermal nuclear reactors arises from the limited availability of natural uranium and other resources within the country. The known resources of 60,000 tonnes of natural uranium deposits, with only 0.72 per cent being fissile uranium, can at most generate 12,000 MW over a 30-year period. Moreover, the five lakh tonnes of thorium, nearly one third of the world's reserve, would help generate nearly 500,000 MW during the third stage and provide energy security for a long time.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 22, 2003

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Bangalore: Spurred by the urge for excellence, Indian women are foraying into the rarified entrepreneurial space. Their success has been particularly stunning in the challenging new age businesses such as biotechnology and information technology. Bangalore is seen to be home to the largest number of IT and biotech women entrepreneurs, many of them highly successful.

The brigade of boardroom honchos here include such well known names as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairperson of Biocon, Avestha Gengraine CEO Villoo Patell, Revathy Kasturi, president of IT firm Tarang, Alopa CEO Vijaya Varma, Shanthala Gokul, MD of Signet Computers, Hema Hattangdi, MD of Enercon Systems, and Shanti Kannan of Aarohi.

They bear testimony to women's innate ability to research, innovate and overcome. Karnataka governor T.N. Chaturvedi says over 30 per cent of biotech entrepreneurs in India are women. At a national conference on 'Women entrepreneurs in trade and commerce' organised by FKCCI on Friday, he said 40 per cent of the researchers in the Indian biotech industry too belonged to the fairer sex.

Around 30 per cent of Biocon's workforce are women, while for Avesthagen, the figure is as high as 50 per cent. Inspired by the success of Silicon Valley Indians, Vijaya Varma left her cushy job at Wipro to start Alopa, a broadband product company, about four years ago. Alopa today boasts of a global footprint with customers in Europe, Mexico and the US. Shanthala Gokul, MD of Signet Computers, a memory chip company, began her entrepreneurial journey seven years back when she along with two other colleagues pooled in Rs 25,000 each to join the IT rush. "Today, Signet is a Rs 7 crore company, which gives me a real sense of fulfillment," Gokul said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 20, 2003

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Hyderabad: The boom in embedded software solutions worldwide has opened new avenues for Indian IT professionals. Japan has emerged as the potential destination for Indian techies because of their superior technical skills and knowledge of English. "Japan needs about 3 lakh IT engineers for its flourishing telecom and consumer electronics industry. Indians are strong in embedded technology. Another big plus is that they are proficient in English and can adapt themselves easily to new technology, mostly developed in the US. This gives them an edge over the Chinese and other Asians. These professionals get between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh a month. I-POC has so far sent 80 engineers to Japan after training them at its centres in Pune and Hyderabad. Many of them have joined a software park at Gifu.

The company plans to send 200 more such professionals in the next two years in view of the "growing demand for Indians" there. Right now, about 1,500 Indians work in Japan. But this figure is bound to jump in the next few years. The presence of a strong pool of Indian IT workers with knowledge about Japanese IT vocabulary and that country's market would definitely help in moving the work here. "Japan has been plagued by recession since late 90s. Several Japanese companies are off laying their workers. So job security cannot be taken for granted. But outsourcing to India might become a reality. It also makes good business for the Japanese companies as they can save money that way," he explained.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 20, 2003

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Hyderabad: Having bagged three patents for the world's first combination vaccine - containing DNA and low doses of cell culture vaccine - for treating rabies, Indian Immunologicals (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board) is now gearing up to launch the product by the middle of next year. "The combination vaccine is expected to cost less than the existing ones in the market. Indian Immunologicals along with IISc, Bangalore, has conducted various studies to scale up and undertake commercial production of the vaccine," Dr Amrita Patel, chairman, NDDB, said here on Friday.

Rabies, a highly fatal viral disease. The human death toll in developing countries, according to industry's statistics, is about 60,000 cases in Asia Indian Immunologicals has also set up a new R&D centre at a cost of Rs 42 crore for launching combination vaccines like DPT, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, diphtheria, and measles. "The new facility is line with NDDB's philosophy of using technological innovation and our constant search for better ways to serve farmers and the people of India. "These clinics are playing a crucial role in educating and informing consumers at the grass-root level by providing a new dimension to the preventive medicine. Making these clinics one-stop vaccination centres.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 20, 2003

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Bangalore, September 18: Among a host of alternate therapies to invade the health care sector, the latest is ozone therapy. A hospital in Bangalore which was set up three months ago, specialises in ozone therapy and offers treatment for ailments like cancer, arthritis, chronic fatigue and heart ailments, among others. Ozone therapy is said to stimulate the body through the regeneration of tissues and cells and kills toxins and cells like the cancer cells.

"The ozone therapy can be applied for weight loss as well, since it treats the metabolic rate. The therapy also works effectively for removing blockages in the coronary vessels. With chronic diabetes, it strengthens the pancreas, increases the use of oxygen in the peripheral tissues and increases the use of sugar by the issues.

The 5,000 sq feet three-month-old hospital has successfully treated 92 patients, where a sizeable number suffered from arthritis, diabetes and stress-related factors. In most cases, a word-of-mouth publicity has brought them here. As it is in the case of Ms Anu Nagendra, who has undergone 28 major operations for arthritis in the US has finally come here for treatment. Ozone therapy is based on the concept of re-circulatory hameo perfusion. "Through a process of diffusion, ozone is passed into the body, where it splits into oxygen and polyatomic oxygen or nascent oxygen. Being a free radical, polyatomic oxygen combines with other free radicals like various forms of pollution and neutralises their effect," Dr Surendran adds.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, September 19, 2003

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New Delhi: NASSCOM has launched its UK chapter in London. Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said the chapter aims to serve as the voice of Nasscom in UK and the adjoining region, raise awareness about Indian IT industry. The chapter will also act as a catalyst for Indian companies looking to set up offices in UK.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, September 19, 2003

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Bangalore: India appears to be gaining ground over Silicon Valley, with an increasing number of start up and early stage IT companies preferring to have most of their human resource pool here, while maintaining a lean team in the US. Cost advantage and a diverse range of technical talent in India are said to be driving this trend, which is fast gaining ground. A new breed of IT entrepreneurs are now choosing India as a base. For instance, Net Devices, the California-based networking start up, plans to use India not only for its engineering activities, but also as a sales and support centre.

July Systems, the wireless data communication provider, is using India as a base not only for most of its product development, but also for sales and support activities. July's head of engineering and product architecture is also located in India - a rarity among US-founded technology companies. Moreover, it is using India as a marketing and support base. Though real estate costs have shrunk in Silicon Valley and large scale lay-offs have made technical manpower abundant, India continues to be cost-effective Yet another factor is the mature eco-system - vital for a start up - that India is able to offer.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 18, 2003

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New York: India's IT and BPO sectors are predicted to become the world's third largest by 2008, despite growing resentment against outsourcing in the US.Speaking at a luncheon by the India-America Chamber of Commerce in New York, chairman and chief executive of Cognizant Technologies, Kumar Mahadeva, said India will be the principal beneficiary of BPO from the US.

"India's IT and BPO sectors will be the third largest in the world by 2008 after the US and Japan, although it is only scratching the surface today with a two per cent market share," he said. The contribution of these two sectors to India's gross domestic product (GDP), will increase from the current level of two per cent to seven per cent, in 2008. Their share in exports will also increase from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, he said.

"In the last financial year, India exported services of $8.5 billion to the US. This gave the US a cost saving of $10 to $11 billion, which was invested by US companies, leading to more jobs, or distributed as dividends and bonuses, increasing consumer spending and investment," he said.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 18, 2003

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Washington: Vipul Prakash dropped out of Delhi University in 1997 at age 19 "for want of undisturbed coding time." His first start-up Sense/NET, one of India's first privately owned Internet service providers. Prakash conceived a spam-fighting tool called Vipul's Razor, which he made available online as free open-source software. A year later he and Jordan Ritter, Napster's former software chief, co-founded Cloudmark. This turned Vipul's Razor into a tool called SpamNet that today boasts 500,000 users. Initially free, it now costs $3.99 per month.

Recently Technology Review magazine, MIT's magazine of innovation, is rewarding Vikas Prakash's verve by naming him among the World's Top 100 Young Innovators (called the TR100). Prakash is one of the four Indians who figure in the list. All four work in the United States. Among them, Ravikanth Pappu, a principal at the company ThingMagic, devised an identifier that makes it extremely difficult to forge credit cards. Pappu's tech innovation in "embedded intelligence" can also ensure that software runs only on certain computer chips and a given camera takes only particular photographs. Balaji Narasimhan, the third Indian on the list is a chemical engineer at Iowa State University who has devised time-release polymers to replace multiple vaccine injections and boosters.

Courtesy: www.economictimes.com, September 15, 2003

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Bangalore: Encore's Simputer, the made-in-Bangalore mobile computing device, was named by Time magazine as one of the ten best technological innovations for a sustainable world and is now being test-run at around 100 customer sites across the world. Moser-Baer, the world's third largest optical media manufacturer, produces low-cost CD-recorders at its Noida plant and recorded Rs 1,000 crore of exports last year. WeP, formerly Wipro ePeripherals, has recently sent its first consignment of dot-matrix printers to China with Chinese language support. India can boast of some hardware success stories such as these.

Many like Ram Agarwal, managing director of WeP, a leading computer peripherals company, are convinced that India has the capability to become a hardware superpower. "We have everything going for us. We have skilled manpower, best expertise in hardware design and a huge market to address. Global companies like Texas Instruments, Force Computers, Analog Devices, Motorola, ST Microelectronics and Intel are all engaged in hardware design in India.

An estimated $1 billion worth of hardware designs has been exported out of India. One study estimates that by 2010, this might well be over $7 billion. Neeraj Jaitley, general manager of Wipro Infotech, notes that India has built a critical mass in areas such as picture tubes, printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electro-mechanical parts.

Courtesy: www.economictimes.com, September 15, 2003

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Startups with significant Indian American founders or key executives in management are continuing to attract significant funding from venture capital firms, even in this difficult economic climate.A recent article by The Wall Street Journal surveying the hottest investment trends - including alternative energy, medical devices, wireless networking and video chips - featured two companies with significant Indian American involvement.

In the alternative energy sector, Lowell, Mass.-based Konarka Technologies Inc., named after a temple in Orissa dedicated to the Hindu sun god Surya, develops plastic sheeting that can transform sunlight into electricity. Kethineni Chittibabu and Srinivasan Balasubramanian are two of the startup's principal scientists. Chittibabu, who has an M.S. in chemistry from IIT-Madras and an M.S. in polymer science and technology from IIT-Delhi, h