The mother of all business schools will soon be in India. Well, almost. The world's most sought-after business school has decided to open a new research centre in India, to help develop case studies to train the global managers of tomorrow. While a final decision is yet to be reached, it is learnt that the centre will be located either in the country's business capital Mumbai, or IT capital Bangalore. When the centre opens, it will be Harvard Business School's (HBS) fourth international research centre. The first was opened in Hongkong, the second in Buenes Aires. The third was opened in Tokyo just two years ago. Why India? It was logical, said Prof Warren McFarlan, senior associate dean of HBS and the man who started teaching HBS' first course in IT management back in 1962. "India is not just about IT or business process outsourcing. We see it as an incubator for giant global corporations driven by IT strategy." Adds Prof McFarlan, who also heads HBS's Asia-Pacific and Japan initiatives. There is also the massive and growing presence of Indians and persons of Indian origin at Harvard. "Ten per cent of our faculty were born in India and had their education there. We currently have about 40 students from India in the first and second years of our MBA programme," he reveals. A key focus area will be understanding the differences between the two emerging global IT superpowers - India and China. While the Asia research centres have already generated 144 exhaustive case studies over the past five years, the India centre is expected to deepen understanding of business process and corporate development in India, with a global perspective.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, March 30, 2004

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India on Monday test fired medium range multi-target surface-to-air missile Akash twice from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, about 13 km from Balasore, official sources said. The indigenously built Akash missiles were test flown from separate mobile launchers at about 3.55 p.m. and 3.57 p.m. With a range of 25 km, Akash is one of the five missiles currently under various stages of development by the DRDO. The DRDO is developing medium range anti-aircraft missile Akash and the Rajendra radar to build a reliable air defence shield. The state-of-the-art radar, Rajendra can keep track of 64 aircraft simultaneously with various ranges. The 650-kg missile Akash is capable of carrying 50 kg payload.

Courtesy: The Hindustan Times, March 30, 2004

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One of the latest technologies developed at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is a chappati-making machine. India's top defence scientist V.K. Aatre proudly announced last week that the DRDO machine is capable of making 2,000 chappatis in an hour. The chappati-maker has been approved by the Army. And it was not in jest that Aatre pronounced this project "as important as the Agni (ballistic missiles)". The DRDO's Mysore lab has worked on food packets for vegetarians. Its Food Research Laboratory at Leh has been carrying on research in growing vegetables at high altitudes. Generals in Kashmir and Ladakh have strongly opposed moves to close it down. But it's the neem contraceptive programme, which takes the cake. Apparently a spin-off from a DRDO life- sciences project, this contraceptive is in the second phase of trials.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 29, 2004

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A cheap handheld computer, designed by Indian scientists for use by the poor, was being launched for retail sale on Friday after a delay of nearly three years. The Simputer was envisioned to sell for about $200. But plans for the computer were set back by a lack of investment and poor response from large buyers. The device will be available in stores soon, said chief executive Swami Manohar of Picopeta Simputers, one of two companies licensed to make the computers. The other is Encore Software. The price will be close to the original target, Manohar said. He said government-owned Bharat Electronics, based in Bangalore, has agreed to manufacture the Simputer, which was developed in 2001 by scientists at the Bangalore-based Institute of Science in response to low levels of computer use in India. Only nine out 1,000 Indians own a computer. They have been unaffordable to most people, especially the rural poor, because of low wages and high taxes on computers.

Courtesy: The Hindustan Times, March 27, 2004

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India is likely to test-fire its surface-to-surface 3,000 km range Agni III ballistic missile later this year, Chief of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri Dr V K Atre said on Tuesday. Disclosing this here to reporters on the sidelines of a Press conference on the DRDO's role in promoting important breakthroughs in life sciences, Dr Atre said the recent tests of the upgraded version of Prithvi II missiles with an enhanced range of 250 km were successfully carried out using indigenously developed global positioning system (GPS). The GPS was installed in the missile for greater accuracy. India was perhaps the only country in the world where its soldiers performed military operations in as varied terrain as burning deserts and freezing glaciers. The DRDO had developed the expertise in countering chemical warfare, including detection kits and personal and collective protection for soldiers in a nuclear environment. A high-powered Government body had given the go-ahead to the DRDO to store such chemical agents at designated spots all over the country. However Dr Atre refused to divulge details about their exact location.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, March 24, 2004

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Cisco Systems Inc., the company dealing in networking for the Internet, on Tuesday inaugurated its first "Optical Compliance Lab" for the Asia Pacific region in Bangalore. The lab will do bench-testing and customised testing of Cisco's optical products for its customers in India and the Asia Pacific region, a company statement said. It will also enable Cisco to demonstrate its optical products in India to customers and the government for regulatory approvals for the products, it said. " India is a key market in this region and also an IT engineering hub for the world," she said while explaining the reasons for selecting India as a destination to set up the lab.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, March 23, 2004

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With the entire country going electronic in the coming Lok Sabha elections, over 10 lakh electronic voting machines are scheduled to be deployed around the states. The two southern companies which have made this possible are Bangalore-based BEL and ECIL from Hyderabad which are supplying around 5 lakh EVMs each.The EVMs have been built as per the specifications of the Election Commission. They are specially designed to collect, record, store, count and display voting data. Since 1989, these machines have been selectively used in several parliamentary and Assembly elections around the country, covering varied educational, linguistic, geographic and climatic conditions to test their usage and effectiveness. "But this is the first time the entire country is voting through EVMs. With this, India will be the only country in the world deploying electronic voting machines instead of ballot papers during general elections," says Mr J.B. Venkatratnam, general manager at Electronic Mass Manufacturing Department, ECIL. Interestingly, several countries in Asia, Africa and the USA have approcoached the companies to design prototypes of the EVMs to suit their Constitutions and election patterns. Many of these countries may also be deputing their officials to observe the functioning of the EVMs in the forthcominng elections, according to Mr Venkatratnam.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, March 23, 2004

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India is likely to join the highly ambitious project promoted by a select band of countries in the developed world to build a plant to demonstrate the technical viability of nuclear fusion as a source of energy. The possibility of India's participation in the project has brightened after the Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government, David King, made a proposal here on Thursday that instead of joining as a full member, India could become a partner of Britain. This would help reduce the financial commitment for India. Already, scientists have been able to generate 10 times more energy as output compared to input through fusion reaction. But the experiments have all been on a small scale. The international project called ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) seeks to have a facility that would be able to demonstrate the viability on a commercial scale. The joint committee meeting also discussed the possibility of India participating in an international project, under which a computer-based grid is being set up to help scientists from the countries involved to exchange scientific information.

Courtesy: The Hindu, March 21, 2004

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The industry and BITS Connect - a Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) alumni initiative - have announced a Rs 200-crore project to conduct semiconductor research and development in India. The initiative, called the Oyster Lab (OLAB), will be India's first campus-based VLSI design facility with electronic design automation equipment and powerful computing infrastructure. The lab would be located in the BITS campuses in Pilani and Bangalore to facilitate active industry collaboration. "The Oyster Lab at BITS is a Rs 200-crore initiative to embark on pioneering semiconductor R&D work in the country," Satish Gupta, senior vice-president, Cradle Technologies said. The launch of OLAB by BITS Connect comes close on the heels of commissioning of Neuron - Interconnecting Minds - a Rs 7-crore initiative that wired BITS through a powerful backbone providing broadband access, IP telephony, streaming media, video-conferencing and wireless access on BITS campuses across Pilani, Goa and Dubai. Cradle Technologies, OpenSilicon, Logicvision, Magma, Mentor Graphics and Sun Microsystems are the industry participants in the new R&D initiative.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 20, 2004

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The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, is developing a satellite in memory of Kalpana Chawla, the India-born U.S. astronaut killed as space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on February1, 2003. The director (Projects) of the VSSC, R.V. Perumal, disclosed this while inaugurating a symposium here. Dr. Perumal said that the satellite has been named "Kalpana''.

Courtesy: The Hindu, March 20, 2004

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Flex Industries Ltd has been awarded the Aimcal award. It has been the first time that an Indian company has been chosen for the prestigious award. The company has been awarded for its technical excellence in the decorative/display category. The award was received by Pradeep Tyle, senior President, Flex. Aimcal is the Association of the Industrial Metallisers, Coaters and Laminators in US and has over 200 members from across the globe.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, March 19, 2004

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The next generation of the Internet, called IPv6, is being created in a small town in Rajasthan as you read this. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, has become the first Indian university to join the IPv6 working group that includes world famous universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. To add to this, BITS just got itself one of the most advanced campus networks in the world, using one of the oldest networking systems - their alumni association. When alum Mukul Chawla and BITS vice chancellor Dr S. Venkateswaran first talked about alumni helping their alma mater, they didn't know what they were starting: BITS Connect is now a global movement connecting alumni across the planet. Fifty million dollars later and still counting, they now have Neuron - a high capacity network. Designed by Chawla, a product manager at Cisco Systems, and BITS professor J.P. Mishra, the network cost Rs 7 crore - shared equally between the institute and the alumni. Mishra says it will give students access to everything - from recorded classroom lectures to professors sitting in the US. Then there is a high-tech chip design lab called Oyster Labs with equipment worth 50 million dollars, raised by BITS alumni. In a year's time, the lab will pose a challenge to similar labs run by industry giants like Intel and IBM, Mishra said.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 18, 2004

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General Motors, the world's largest carmaker, has said it would set up an R&D centre in Bangalore, the first outside the US, with an investment of $21 million. General Motors India (GMI) president and managing director Aditya Vij told PTI the proposed centre would employ 400 engineers. "We will design the engineering centre in India, which will ultimately support our auto manufacturing presence not only in India but also in the Asian region," he said. The move assumes significance in the wake to GMI's proposed acquisition of the car assembly unit of failed Daewoo Motors India. The Indian arm of the US carmaker also aims to break even in 2004 on an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. The company is also in the process of augmenting production capacity at Halol (Gujarat) plant to 50,000 units from 25,000 units with an investment of Rs 1,261 crore.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, March 18, 2004

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US mobile phone technology company Qualcomm plans to set up a software development and chip design unit in India to benefit from the country's relatively cheap development costs, a top company official said. India's rapidly improving telecoms infrastructure and a growing army of lower cost English-speaking workers has been a magnet for global corporations seeking to reduce costs. Many companies source their software requirements from India's booming software services industry, or have set up their own units in the country. Qualcomm is already a major player in India's flourishing wireless sector, the fastest growing market in the world, through its chips in CDMA handsets being sold by several operators in the country. Qualcomm owns most of the patents to CDMA, or code division multiple access, the world's second most widely used wireless technology standard. It supplies about 90 per cent of the chips for CDMA phones. The technology is being used by Reliance Infocomm Ltd, India's top CDMA-based mobile services firm, to provide wireless facilities to 6.5 million users out of India's total installed base of more than 31.5 million customers. Jacobs said he expected 13 million CDMA handsets to be sold in India in the year to September, 2004 because of roaring demand for mobile services in the country where three in 100 people own a mobile phone compared with more than 20 in China. He said Qualcomm had shelved plans to take a minority stake in Reliance Infocomm as the company had already rolled out its nationwide network without Qualcomm's cash. "At this point there are no discussions. At the end of the day they (Reliance Infocomm) were able to launch the network without any investments from Qualcomm," Jacobs said. Qualcomm had plans to invest up to $200 million in Reliance's telecoms business in exchange for a four per cent stake.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, March 18, 2004

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The world's first transgenic rohu, bigger than ever before, has come to life in a lab. It's transgenic, yes, but in scientific parlance, it's auto transgenesis. In other words, scientists have worked on enhancing the effects of this fish's own genes rather than inserting genes from animals or microbes. It is hoped that this would bypass apprehensions on the ethics and risks of inserting foreign genes to achieve the same effect. Indian Council of Agricultural Research national professor T J Pandian, whose team worked on this project for years at Madurai Kamaraj University, said on Tuesday that this commercially-important fish is growing six to seven times faster in a lab - bigger than ever before. The team has isolated the gene responsible for the growth hormone, sequenced and cloned it.

Courtesy: The Times of India, March 10, 2004

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Train accidents and probes to determine the cause of such accidents are commonplace for the world's largest railways network. However, thanks to a software developed by R&D wing of TCS, Indian Railways may be able to predict faults on railway tracks and prevent possible accidents. The TCS R&D division and Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), devised sophisticated statistical models for predicting track failures by making use of track inspection data. As a result, maintenance engineers can quickly spot tracks that could widen dangerously, or rails that could wear excessively and cracks that could expand severely causing the rail to fracture. TPI makes these predictions available at the click of a button and facilitates prompt decision-making for taking care of the track, Professor Mathai Joseph, director of TRDDC said.

Courtesy: The Times of India, March 10, 2004

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is eying life sciences as one of its growth engines. The firm is readying an exclusive software package for biological research. The package - named Bio-Suite - contains computational tools and algorithms, which help in deciphering vast amounts of genetic data and protein functions. The software is aimed at expediting the drug discovery as also bringing down the cost of research. The TCS package is aimed at providing information about functions of genes and proteins and identifying new drug candidates through smaller samples. "The human genome sequencing has unleashed vast amounts of data. The challenge now is to properly analyse this data using computational tools. TCS is planning to exhibit their product at the forthcoming Biotech Israel summit. With the bioinformatics industry in India still at a nascent stage, the company is eying the $1.5-bn global market.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, March 09, 2004

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Noted scientist and director of the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA), P.G.S. Mony, was today presented Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur, France's most prestigious award, for his contribution to Indo-French co-operation in science and technology. Presenting the award here, the Ambassador of France to India, Dominique Girard, lauded the role of the founder director of CEFIPRA for making it a successful instrument of Indo-French cooperation that has become a role model for international scientific collaboration. The award was instituted by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to recognise distinguished qualities acquired during a public or a civil career, or in private enterprise. Mr. Mony, who did his M.Tech. At the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and worked for 31 years as an engineer in the Indian programme for developing nuclear plants, played the leading role in the establishment of CEFIPRA in 1987.

Courtesy: The Hindu, March 02, 2004