• India's The Master of The Recycling Game
• A Mobile That Wroks on Penlight Cells
• India Rated Third in Energy Potential
• NRI's Firm Gets $1 Million Bio-Terrorism Vaccine Contract
• Indians Strike Astral Jackpot, Pune Telescope Ends 20-Year Search
• India's First Training Centre For Beating Heart Surgery in Hydrabad
• India Plans IT Centre in Moscow
• Indian Health Care Going Global
• New Liquid Bio-Fertiliser Formulation Developed
• 3 ISRO Units Still on US List
• World's Biggest Airlines Fly to Sutra
• Fusion Project Gets Indian Feeler

• Agni 3 test Flight by Year End
• ISRO Vision: Rs 3000 cr, 12 Satellites, 4 yrs
• Conserving Water
• Largest Nuclear Plant Operational
• Orthopaedic Gruop Head
• INS Betwa is India's First Warship With Combat Data Systems
• Made by NRIs: The Tiniest Transistor
• Handicapped Boy Creates Hindi Software
• Antioxidant Syrup From Jagsonpal Pharma
• Young Indian Pediatrician to Child's Recue in New Orleans
• Turmeric May Ward off many Diseases: US

While a lot is known about the primary producers of plastic polymers and resins, the large plastic recycling industry in the country remains in the shadows. It may come as a surprise to many but India ranks highest in the recycling of plastics worldwide. Nearly half of the total plastic produced in the country is recycled. A closer look shows how this is done. According to data obtained from the All India Plastics Manufacturers Association (AIPMA), India consumes more than 12m tonnes per annum, and by '10 will become the third-largest consumer of plastics in the world after the US and China. As per the Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment (ICPE), India's current per capita consumption is 4 kg compared to 20 kg for the Developed World. Plastics have a high volume-to-weight ratio that makes collection and transport a major cost factor. Though reprocessing requires less energy than producing it from virgin material, the additional costs of transportation and collection make both equally energy-intensive. As these costs are higher in Developed Countries, the bulk of recycling is done in countries where labour cost is low. India ranks highest in the recycling of plastics, with 60% of plastics recycled, compared with a world average of 20%. India currently consumes almost 4.2m tonnes of plastic, of which 1.5-2m tonnes are recycled. Compare this with the UK, where more than 80% of plastic waste from households ends up in landfills, about 8% is incinerated and only about 7% is recycled. There are four types of plastics that are commonly recycled: polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). There are three types of recycling that plastics can be subjected to: mechanical recycling, mixed waste recycling and feed stock recycling. Mechanical recycling involves segregating plastics according to resin type and/or colour. The sorted plastic is then washed to free it from impurities.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 22, 2005

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Agni-3, which would be India's most far reaching missile, would be subjected to flight tests as early as this year-end and would be ready for induction by the Armed services by mid 2007, DRDO Advanced System Laboratory director Avinash Chander said here today.

Courtesy: The Statesman, September 22, 2005

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Indian engineers at the Bangalore development centre of German semiconductor leader Infineon have helped create the world's first mobile phone, that works from a pair of off-the-shelf `AAA' size batteries. And when it becomes available early next year, it's also likely to be the cheapest phone of its type, costing around $20 (Rs. 900-1,000). S. Surya, Infineon's Senior Vice President and head of its eight-year-old India operation, said the phone was fuelled by Infineon's recently developed system-on-a-chip, a one-processor solution where radio and audio parts that go to make up a cell phone's innards were combined in a single slab of silicon smaller than a finger nail. Infineon engineers at the company's Bangalore-based R&D centre - 550 strong today and due to grow to 800 plus within 18 months - had also tested versions, where, by doubling the memory chips on board, one could add colour to the screen as well as multiple Indian language capability. If deals with handset manufacturers are sewn up in the next few weeks, customers could get their hands on such sans-frills phones, early in 2006, added Infineon's Munich, Germany-based Senior Director, Reiner Schoenrock.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 21, 2005

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India is planning to launch 10 to 12 communication satellites in the next four years with an investment of over Rs 3,000 crore, Chairman of Indian Space Research OrganisationG Madhavan Nair said today. "We are planning in ISRO to orbit another 10 to 12 communications satellites into GSO (Geo-stationary orbit) in the next four years. These satellites will increase our onorbit transponder capacity...", he said inaugurating a Satellite Users' Interference Reduction Group 2005 Meeting/Interference Conference. India's INSAT system today consists of eight operational satellites and 144 total communication transponders in C, extended C, Ku, and S frequency bands. The 10 to 12 planned launches are expected to add an additional 100 to 120 transponders. "We also have two of these satellites (out of total eight) carrying... ...mateorological payloads, and one satellite being an exclusive meteorological satellite", he said. Later, talking to reporters, Nair said: "Currently, we have 144 transponders. We have to have something like 256 transponders before this plan period (2007) itself. Each spacecraft will cost aound Rs 300 crore". According to him, there is a huge demand for transponders from DTH (Direct-to-Home) and VSAT sectors as well as for various applications. There is also need to replace some of the old satellites, he added.

Courtesy: The Times Of India, September 21, 2005

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India's energy potential is rated the third largest in the world, with annual installations of 875 mega watts (MW), only after Europe and US, exceeding forecasts of 500 MW, according to analysis by Danish consultants BTM Consult. This accounts for 10.7 per cent of the total MW of capacity added globally. India's cumulative wind energy capacity is currently 3,000 MW, only behind Denmark, which has a installed capacity of 3,083 MW. Europe and US have an installed capacity of 34,725 MW and 6,750 MW respectively in 2004. It is expected that India's installed capacity would touch 8,300 MW by 2009. The Centre has proposal to make renewable energy more commercially viable and cover issues of cost and quality, making a self-reliant model for the sector. Currently, only one per cent of India's electricity is generated through wind turbines. A number of corporates including Bajaj Auto, Godrej Industries, and Ramco Industries, have recently decided to set up wind energy plants, to meet their electricity requirements. Seven states in India, namely, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh account for over 99 per cent of the wind power installations in the country. As of the last fiscal, Tamil Nadu accounts for the highest share at 56.7 per cent of the cumulative capacity, followed by Maharashtra which accounts for 12.7 per cent. India and China together have seen a 25 per cent rise in capacity growth over the last few years, second to Australia. However, globally the demand for electricity currently exceeds the supply by 7.3 per cent, with a peak shortage of 11.7 per cent.

Courtesy: Business Standard: September 20, 2005

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India's first membrane bio reactor waste water recycling plant in Cubbon Park, was inaugurated by the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, in Bangalore on Thursday. This plant is a fully-automated one with 1.5 million litre capacity with sprinkler irrigation system for economic use of recycled water. This high quality treated water will be supplied to Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, High Court, Raj Bhavan, KSCA stadium and LRDE.

Courtesy: www.thehindubusinessline.com, September 16, 2005

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The US defence department has awarded a $1 million contract to a firm run by an Indian American to develop vaccines against potential bio-terrorism agents. Avtar Dhillon heads San Diego-based Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a publicly traded company. The contract is for developing gene delivery electroporation technology for application to vaccination against infectious diseases including potential bio-terrorism agents, the company said. "We believe that this grant reflects the high level of interest within the vaccine industry and now the government for the potential of the Inovio gene delivery system as well as the strength of our development efforts in the delivery of gene-based vaccines, said Dhillon, Inovio's president and CEO. "It represents a valuable step forward in commercialising the full spectrum of potential clinical applications for our technology," he added. The US Congress appropriated the funding in the Defense Appropriations Bill for 2005 and it is a continuation of the first US Army grant received by Inovio AS in Norway last year. Inovio is working closely on this project with Connie Schmaljohn, a renowned virologist and chief of the Department of Molecular Virology at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Ft. Detrick, Maryland. Compared to conventional vaccines, DNA vaccines of the kind Inovio is developing, delivered using electroporation, afford several important advantages in enhancing the onset and level of immunity generated, which may be critical in attempting to address threats posed by pandemics or bio-terrorism, the company stated. Numerous genes can be isolated from potential infectious organisms, sequenced, and then synthesized for vaccination of the population or military in order to induce a protective immune response.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, September 14, 2005

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The government officially announced today that India's largest nuclear power plant, the 540 MWe Unit-4 of Tarapur Atomic Power Plant has gone into commercial operation since yesterday. The unit had achieved criticality on 6 March and was connected to the grid on 4 June. The whole operation has been completed ahead of schedule, a government release said. Designed and constructed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd - a government undertaking attached to the Department of Atomic Energy - the release added: "TAPP-4, at 540 MWe, is India's largest nuclear reactor. It incorporates the most advanced concepts and state-of-the-art technology." With the addition of TAPP-4, NPCIL now operates 15 reactors across the country.

Courtesy: The Statesman, September 14, 2005

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The rotating neutron star is believed to be at the centre of this supernova remnant. Picture by Nasa/Chandra X-ray Observatory. After two hours of scanning the ashes of a dead, overweight star in the galaxy, astronomer Yashwant Gupta spotted a celestial child that seems older than its parent. But he's elated. The age problem, he says, can be resolved. Using an array of radio telescopes nestled in a valley 80 km from Pune, Gupta and his colleagues have discovered a fast-rotating neutron star, the leftover of a massive star that died in a supernova explosion a thousand years ago midway towards the centre of the galaxy. Their discovery closes a two-decade search by international scientists to locate a neutron star, also called a pulsar, hidden in the core of the remnants of the supernova named G21.5. A supernova is a star that undergoes a catastrophic explosion, becoming suddenly very much brighter. All pulsars are believed to have been created at the centres of massive stars following supernova explosions. The explosions eject the star's outer layers and leave behind dense cores packed with neutrons. The pulsar's rotation makes it emit radio signals and behave a bit like a beam from a lighthouse. Using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), Gupta and his colleagues at the National Centre for Radio Astronomy (NCRA) in Pune picked up radio signals from the pulsar at the core of G21.5. The pulsar rotates 16 times a second. Astronomers have catalogued more than 1,000 pulsars since the first was discovered in 1967. All are rotating neutron stars, but their rotation rates vary - the fastest spins 600 times a second while the slowest might rotate just once in eight seconds. Scientists have spent years hunting for pulsars at the cores of supernova remnants to prove themselves right. "This discovery significantly improves the meagre statistics of association between supernova remnants and pulsars," said Rajaram Nityananda, NCRA director. The G21.5 supernova is believed to have exploded about a thousand years ago. But its pulsar, initial calculations indicate, might be older. "Such age discrepancies are common in astronomy - we've made certain assumptions about the pulsar which are wrong. It's obviously younger," Gupta said. The credit for discovering the pulsar is shared by NCRA astronomer Dipanjan Mitra and Amit Acharya, a student from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, who detected its unique signals just one day before his project work at the NCRA ended. The NCRA team has reported its discovery in the latest issue of the journal Current Science.

Courtesy: www.telegraphindia.com, September 14, 2005

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Dr S. Rajasekaran of the Coimbatore-based Ganga Hospital has been nominated as President of the World Orthopaedic Concern (WOC), said to be the topmost orthopaedic society in the world. More than 3,000 surgeons from 122 countries are members of this society. After assuming charge, Dr Rajasekaran has expressed his intention to double the current fellowship budget of Rs 8 lakh to the Indian chapter, according to a release. This enhancement is expected to benefit orthopaedic surgeons in general and the 70-odd surgeons who are the beneficiaries of the WOC-SICOT (International Society for Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology) training fellowship in particular.

Courtesy: The Hindu Business Line: September 12, 2005

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Care Hospital has launched India's first beating heart surgery training centre here. Beating heart surgery, a relatively new procedure that replaces the bypass surgery, is currently being done by about 20 per cent of cardiac surgeons. Dr Gopichand Mannam, who will head the training centre, said the procedure cut short the laborious process of opening the chest and using heart-lung machines as they do in the normal bypass surgery. "There is no need for blood transfusion in most cases," he said. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday showing live a beating heart bypass surgery, he said not stopping the heart meant a lot for the patient. "It means less complications to brain, lungs and kidneys," he said. The occasion also marked the completion of 1,000th beating heart surgery by Dr Gopichand's team. Surgeons would use remote control technology and instruments with very small cuts (as small as 7 mm). Dr Gopichand said the training centre, which would train one student at a time, would help young surgeons learn the technique. Seniors had the luxury of using the procedure on patients directly as they could switch over to the normal procedure, if need be. But the young doctors did not have this luxury due to lack of enough experience. The three-week training schedule included training on a `virtual heart' (a trademark product of Chamberlain of the US). "They can perform beating heart surgery on this virtual heart any number of times," he said. The students would then use the technique on animals and, then, finally join the experts to do the procedure on human beings. The equipment per procedure would cost Rs 60,000.

Courtesy: The Hindu Business Line: September 12, 2005

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Guided missile frigate, Betwa , has reserved a place for itself in the navy's hall of fame by becoming the first Indian warship to have successfully integrated indigenous combat data systems with a wide variety of foreign/Indian weapons and sensors onboard. Commissioned into the Navy last July, the steampowered frigate has combined Bharat Electronics Ltd-designed EMCCA (Equipment Modular for Command and Control Application) systems with its gunnery, anti-submarine weapons and sensors to synchronise the ship's fighting capabilities. Other naval ships have married European/Russian technology platforms with their weapons and sensors in a fashion that enables commanders to arrive at accurate engagement decisions during combat. Dubbed as ' The Tenacious Torrent' , Betwa belongs to the Brahmaputra class of guided missile frigates. While Brahmaputra was the first warship to be equipped with the BEL combat data systems four years ago, it is Betwa that has validated the indigenous technology platform.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 08, 2005

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An agreement to set up an Indian technology centre in Moscow to promote commercial use of Russian technology will be signed during Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal's visit beginning on Tuesday. The centre to be set up under the Technological Partnership Accord signed during President Vladimir Putin's New Delhi visit in 2002, will promote innovative young Russian scientists by helping them to make commercial use of their technology. The Confederation of Indian Industry would also be involved in the functioning of this centre, sources said. Mr Sibal is scheduled to visit St. Petersburg and Irkutsk besides holding talks in Moscow with Russian officials on further expansion of scientific exchanges during his week-long visit.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, September 07, 2005

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Two non-resident Indian scientists have created history by making the world's tiniest transistor entirely from carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes are rolled up sheets of carbon atoms and are more than a thousand times thinner than human hair. The discovery heralds a new era of ultra miniature electronics where standard silicon transistors are replaced with much smaller versions fashioned from carbon nanotubes. The new transistor is a Y-shaped nanotube with two branches that meet a central stem at a junction, and current flowing from one branch to another can be switched on and off by applying a voltage to the third. Such binary logic called "gating" is the basis of nearly all transistors. "The small size and dramatic switching behavior of these Y-shaped nanotubes makes them candidates for a new class of all-carbon transistor," says Prabhakar Bandaru, a materials scientist at the University of California, San Diego who led the team that included his colleagues Sungho Jin, graduate student Chiara Daraio and physicist Apparao M.Rao at Clemson University in South Carolina. Their work published in the September issue of 'Nature Materials' has won instant acclaim from international science community. The US-based Indians were not the first to make the Y-junction, however. Four years ago renowned chemist C.N.R. Rao at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre in Bangalore produced a Y-junction nanotube and even showed that it behaved like a diode allowing current flow in one direction but not the other.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, September 06, 2005

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First, it was our nurses. Then, our highly-specialised doctors. And now, it's top hospital chains and diagnostic centres in India that are grabbing the spotlight abroad. Or at least, are trying to. They are either opening branches abroad or having tie-ups with hospitals there. So even as medical tourism is the in-thing here, 'exporting' medical chains is also in. Time and tide, after all, wait for no man. The markets are varied: Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Seychelles, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Cambodia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai... and of course, the UK, where a sizable market is being generated due to an over-burdened NHS. In pathology testing alone, there's a 600 million pound market waiting to be outsourced from UK, says Dr G S K Velu, MD, Metropolis Health Services. Harpal Singh, chairman, SRL Ranbaxy, pegs the market at 900 million pounds. Whatever it be, the potential is huge. Metropolis Health Services, a Rs 70-cr corporate diagnostic centre, for example, is already doing the lab work for Nawaloka Metropolis, a 400-bed hospital in Sri Lanka. It'll also be opening 20 satellite labs there over the next one year.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 05, 2005

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At last, the ordeal of a Vidisha boy who developed the first Hindi software of the world, has ended. The Central government has recognised the software, thanks to the rigorous follow-ups by the handicapped developer. Mr Jagdeep Dangi's software is now on the website of the Technology Development for Indian Languages. The Union ministry of information technology gave the go-ahead after software experts gave their clearance. The government will use Mr Jagdeep Dangi's software for expansion of computer knowledge in Hindi. Mr Dangi of Vidisha, who lost his right leg and left eye in childhood, did not let it affect his academic zeal and worked for years to develop the "Hindi Explorer" that matches the functions of Internet Explorer and can translate English into Hindi at the click of a mouse. Mr Dangi saw an advertisement by the Central government and C-DAC on 22 May 2005 inviting "individuals or companies" to become "partners of the Nation" by providing Hindi software. Mr Dangi applied and received an e-mail from C-DAC Bangalore office asking him to submit the software or the screen shots. He complied promptly. Mr Dangi was invited by Union IT ministry to demonstrate his software to experts at New Delhi. The Department of Information Technology, C-DAC New Delhi and C-DAC Noida MIT also "appreciated his software very much." Mr Dangi's software is an improvement on internet explorer since it provides extra functions like opening multiples files, a search bar and auto history viewers. The word translator in Mr Dangi's browser will translate English into Hindi with instant Hindi translation and pronunciation.

Courtesy: The Statesman September 04, 2005

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TARI Bio-Tech has developed a liquid bio-fertiliser formulation with a shelf life of two years. The product, developed by technocrat Mr R. Kulandaisamy, proprietor of Tari Bio-Tech, is said to be the first of its kind in the country with such shelf life. Tari is planning to establish itself in the domestic marketplace before exploring opportunities abroad. Tari has a hi-tech nursery at Vallam on the Orathanad bye-pass road in Thanjavur taluk. Recalling his foray into agri-related ventures, this engineer-turned-farmer said he started his career by doing sub-contracting jobs for BHEL. When the unit started to face difficult times, Mr Kulandaisamy decided to diversify into nursery business. He has not looked back since then. He acquired about 25 acres of land for establishing the nursery and later expanded it to 60 acres. The nursery houses both mother plants/trees and the plantings. "It is a nursery approved by the Union Government for cashew, but we also supply vanilla, citrus, guava, sapota, amla (gooseberry), banana and mango saplings, apart from medicinal and ornamental plants. It is a 100 per cent organic garden," he told Business Line. The nursery supplied close to 10 lakh plantings annually, he said and added that they had close to 60 mango varieties. Having established the nursery, Mr Kulandaisamy decided to develop the liquid bio-fertiliser formulation. At present, our monthly production capacity is 30,000 litres. We intend to scale up the production once the market picks up," he added. According to Mr Kulandaisamy, the area under maize in Thanjavur district alone was over 300 acres and Tari's bio-fertiliser production alone would not be adequate to meet the requirement. "The market is huge, but there is a lack of awareness for such products."

Courtesy: www.thehindubusinessline.com, September 02, 2005

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Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals on Thursday launched LycoRed syrup, the first antioxidant syrup in India as a preventive measure against various diseases and for fitness and general well-being. The company said LycoRed contained Lycopene, a most potent antioxidant and a cell protector that acts as an internal bodyguard protecting human cells from free radicals that damage the cell membranes and attack the DNA in the body. The company has developed the product under a technical collaboration with Israel's LycoRed Natural Products Industries.

Courtesy: The Hindu, September 02, 2005

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Even as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) expresses relief over the lifting of US curbs on three of its units, three other major units of the space agency remain on America's restricted entities' list. A top ISRO official said that the three major units still on the entities' list of the US department of commerce were the Liquid Propulsion System Centre and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. "We consider the lifting of restrictions on importing critical components as a positive development, as it eases our procurement process and enables us to place orders with US firms hereafter," the official said. "But the US decision applies only to three of our subordinate entities -- ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) and ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), which are based in Thiruvananthapuram, and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad." Since the ban was imposed in the wake of India's nuclear tests at Pokhran in May 1988, ISRO has been sourcing its high-technology requirements from other countries, especially in Europe and Japan. Though the US lifted sanctions against India post 9/11, the import of dual use technologies by ISRO and Indian nuclear facilities were restricted by retaining them on the entities' list.

Courtesy: The Times of India, September 02, 2005

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Almost all her friends and community members might have deserted her in New Orleans to save themselves from the Hurricane Katrina. But, she had a call to perform her duty. Pediatrician Sandhya Mani, 27, is one among the only 15 staff staying at the children's hospital in New Orleans treating young kids injured or fallen ill in the aftermath of the devastating Katrina. In fact, she went to New Orleans at a time when every one in the city was leaving for a safer place. Her parents Serugudi Mani and Rajeswari Mani in Baton Rouge, who spoke to Sandhya only once so far on Monday, said she was working under adverse circumstances with no power. "They are relying completely on generators. I do not know, how long they would be able to run the generators," Mani said, adding they were not able, so far, to establish a contact with her. "She is performing her duty, but we are more worried about her safety and security," said Mani, who is an environmental scientist. All telephone lines and communication systems including cell phone are down for the past couple of days.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, September 01, 2005

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When the 'Big Bird', the super-jumbo, double-decker A380 and the world's largest passenger airline, takes to the skies sometime in 2006, chances are you will find yourself at the onboard bar and won't care to find out who designed it. Well, through Japanese and European aircraft interior integrators, Pune-based software development firm Sutra Systems is designing the interiors of A380s of Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air France and Malaysian Air on the computer. Between the four, they have placed orders for 38 aircraft. Currently, Sutra is working on a nine-month project contract for Singapore Airlines. Each airline has different demands - fancier ones even want a bar and video game parlour on board - ''and that's where the challenge lies.'' Here's how it works. Sutra engineers - of the 150 on board, 30 are working on the aerospace project - design and analyse various interiors components like galleys, stowages, video control centre, first aid units, closets, class dividers and so forth according to airline specifications. ''Interior integrators send us a rough sketch, we make the model analysing various aspects such as the load factor, size etc and send it back to them. The design is finalised once the aviation authorities clear it,'' explains Atul Nagras, COO, Sutra. The company has worked on several Airbus models like A330 and A340 and on the Boeing 737, 747, 777 for the past seven years, adds Abhiram Modak, childhood friend and head, business development.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, September 01, 2005

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Discovering that people living in India have lower rates of certain cancers because of the habit of eating curry, which is liberally spiced with turmeric, US scientists have said that circumin, an active ingredient in turmeric, has medicinal properties. The researchers have given a scientific reason - circumin as a potent antioxidant that can prevent many diseases. The US National Institute of Health has four clinical trials registered that are recruiting patients to test circumin which is in turmeric for pancreatic cancer, multiple mycloma, alzheimer and colorectal cancer. "Circumin is definitely on our radar screen," a spokesman for the alzheimer's association in the US, Niles Frantz, told the Wall Street Journal when asked about a recent alzheimer's trial with turmeric. Turmeric or circumin is cheap, widely available and has no known toxicities,it is pointed out. Studies have known, the Wall Street Journal notes, that it has anti-inflammatory and cholesterol lowering properties. And it is a potential cox-2 inhibitor, the same mechanism targeted by Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller and a promising anti-cancer drug. Sales of turmeric-related dietary supplements have already increased 35 per cent in the US, according to Grant Ferrier, Editor in Chief of nutrition business journal. Circumin sales are still only USD 15 million against USD20 billion in nutritional supplements.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, September 01, 2005

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India's quest to join the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project is gathering pace with the ITER Preparatory Committee expected to formally look into the keen interest shown by New Delhi when it meets on September 13. India may also be allowed to participate in some of the technical meetings. With Washington on New Delhi's side, hectic diplomatic efforts are underway to get India included in some of technical meetings scheduled between September 7 and 15 at Cadarche in Aix-en-Provence of France, the site for the proposed reactor. India's Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar sent a letter last month to the European Commission, evincing interest in joining the ITER. He gave brief details of India's independent efforts in fusion research projects and also expressed readiness to make a ''substantial contribution in kind'' to the project that would be comparable to what other members may provide. India's inclusion in this project will be an important signal in accepting it as a responsible nuclear power as well as a recognition of its technical capabilities. For the moment, South Block is tightlipped as it waits for some official intimation on its participation.

Courtesy: The Indian Express, September 01, 2005

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