A Nation on the March

[Amber G.]

X-post
CNN's GPS discusses US/Ipad and India's computer.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof ... k.ipad.cnn

[Mauli]

Adani Enterprises buys Australian coal asset for $2.7 billion

Gujarat-based Adani Enterprises, part of the Rs.30,000-crore diversfied Adani Group, has acquired the coal mine assets of Linc Energy of Australia for a cash and royalty package worth $2.7 billion to expand the group’s energy business.

http://gujaratmoney.com/2010/08/03/adan ... 7-billion/

[ramana]

This was mistakenly posted in the "Know your India" thread!

In Wi-Fi classrooms, Bangalore’s poor catch up http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-wi ... up/657507/

[ramana]

From Pioneer, 11 August 2010

FRONT PAGE | Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | Email | Print | | Back


New-age Savitri wins husband back from Chambal dacoits

Staff Reporter | Greater Noida

Displaying spectacular courage and love for her husband, a woman from Greater Noida went alone to the ravines of Chambal to rescue her husband from the clutches of dacoits who had kidnapped him on August 6. The victim, Prof Ajeet Singh, was abducted when he was on his way home from Agra.

The dacoits — belonging to Bhima gang — abducted the professor and sold him to Mukhiya gang in Chambal. Gudiya, wife of the victim, was demanded a ransom over phone, following which she reached Chambal on Sunday. Moved by her daring attempt, the dacoits not only released her husband but gave ornaments and Rs 5,100 as shagun to their “sister”.

The dacoits, as reported in a Hindi daily, also called her up to know if she had reached home safe.

Talking to The Pioneer, Rajesh Bhardwaj, brother of Gudiya, said, “She left the city on Sunday. It was the first time that she had encountered dacoits and she spent around one hour in their midst.”

Ajeet said, “When I was returning from Agra, our bus broke down. The conductor told me to take a jeep which was standing there. They took me to a jungle. When I resisted, one of the passengers held me at gunpoint and took me to the ravines.”

The dacoits then gave an extortion call to Gudiya. They told her to sell her property and take the money to Dhaulpur in Rajasthan. But Gudiya somehow mobilised money and reached the ravines.

“We traversed for miles in the forest on foot before we reached the destination. Ajeet was kept at some other place and seven to eight dacoits covered us in filmy style. In the meantime, the kingpin of the gang reached the spot. The dacoits did not believe that a woman could muster courage to undertake such a trip. Mukhiya was moved by Gudiya’s dedication and bravery,” said Bhardwaj, an employee of Northern Railways.

“He regarded me as his sister and gave me cash and jewellery as shagun. When we were coming back, Mukhiya touched my feet. With the grace of god, my husband is safe. Every woman could do what I did to save the life of my husband,” said Gudiya.

Ajeet and Gudiya got married in 1998 and have two children.

Wow! Truly a brave woman. Wish Mani Ratnam made a movie on her instead of that Ravan crap.

[Amber G.]

X-posting , IMO important enough news and very significant if turns out to be verified.
Computer scientist Vinay Deolalikar claims to have solved maths riddle of P vs NP

Vinay Deolalikar (IIT Mumbai graduate, PhD from UCLA, at present at HP)
P vs NP is one of the seven millennium problems, (Clay Mathematical Institute has million dollar prize), and enormous prestige and honor awaits whoever solves it.

[Amber G.]

The paper for above is available in pdf form at:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Vinay_De ... p_8_11.pdf
Interesting to see that it starts with Slokas (in sanskrit) and describes the work
as 'Matru-Pitru Rin' (The debt to mother and father that a pious Hindu regards as his obligation to repay in this life)...

BTW excellent lecture (one of the best I have seen) for non-experts about P vs NP problem is a talk by Vijaya Ramachandran at U of Texas available at:
http://claymath.msri.org/pversusnp.mov
I you have any background or interest in the subject, I highly recommend it.. (very easy to follow even for non-experts)

[Ameet]

Early take on India's $35 tablet: 'Fairly impressive' - Link has video demo of the tablet.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20013370-1.html

[Amber G.]

Indian press has the front page news about Deolalikar :
eg: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/NRI-c ... dle/659177
or Indian-origin scientist's million-dollar math problem's answer challenged
or: Indian scientist proposes solution to math problem

BBC, ( ) Has had line something like:Million dollar maths puzzle sparks row

[Raghavendra]

On ramana's suggestion posted here

A race against time to preserve India's Parsi past http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 291973.cms

Burqa to khaki: Gujarat mother is first Muslim woman DySP http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100812/80 ... fir_1.html

Behind the success story of universal PDS in Tamil Nadu http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article562922.ece

[rohitvats]

<SNIP>

BBC, ( ) Has had line something like:Million dollar maths puzzle sparks row

I really find this response from Western Press, and BBC in this case, as something smacking of contempt. Same is the case with couple of comments (posted on Wiki) by other Mathematicians on the paper (except for one chap). It is, as if, they somehow and for some reason want the proof to fail. There is some sort of arrogance and chip on the shoulder attitude that these fellows demonstrate....I'm yet to come across a case where someone has said - OK, someone has tried to do this, let us have a look and see where it stands...I mean, people don't wake one fine day and claim to have solved one of the toughest Math problems..the fellow is staking his reputation on it and would have worked long hours and years on it...is it the case of contempt because a SDRE has tried it (how can he? we are superior onleee)? Or because of professional jelousy? I don't know.

[cbelwal]

Interestingly, gathered from this lecture that Stephen Cook predicted in 2001 that someone will prove P != NP in the next 20 years.

BTW excellent lecture (one of the best I have seen) for non-experts about P vs NP problem is a talk by Vijaya Ramachandran at U of Texas available at:
http://claymath.msri.org/pversusnp.mov
I you have any background or interest in the subject, I highly recommend it.. (very easy to follow even for non-experts)

[abhishek_sharma]

E.C.G. Sudarshan shares Dirac Medal with Italian

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/14/stories ... 032400.htm

[Amber G.]

Congratulations to EGC Sudarshan.
Wrt Deolalikar's proof, it is experted that it will be some time (may be year) before the full impact and importance is judged. At present, the paper has not been published (or peer reviewed), in fact the informal paper is still getting updated by the author - which is okay.
Some of my thoughts in the Math thread.

[Amber G.]

Paper at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ac1 ... ode=ancham
Another nice news, from MIT (and 2 IIT' guys!) and using invention by CV Raman:

(Should hit Indian News papers)
Shining a light — literally — on diabetes
Device from MIT lab could help diabetic patients monitor their blood glucose levels without finger pricks

People with type 1 diabetes must keep a careful eye on their blood glucose levels: Too much sugar can damage organs, while too little deprives the body of necessary fuel. Most patients must prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing.

To minimize that pain and inconvenience, researchers at MIT’s Spectroscopy Laboratory are working on a noninvasive way to measure blood glucose levels using light.

First envisioned by Michael Feld, the late MIT professor of physics and former director of the Spectroscopy Laboratory, the technique uses Raman spectroscopy, a method that identifies chemical compounds based on the frequency of vibrations of the bonds holding the molecule together. The technique can reveal glucose levels by simply scanning a patient’s arm or finger with near-infrared light, eliminating the need to draw blood.

Spectroscopy Lab graduate students Ishan Barman {trained at IIT Kharagpur} and Chae-Ryon Kong are developing a small Raman spectroscopy machine, about the size of a laptop computer, that could be used in a doctor’s office or a patient’s home. Such a device could one day help some of the nearly 1 million people in the United States, and millions more around the world, who suffer from type 1 diabetes.

Researchers in the Spectroscopy Lab have been developing this technology for about 15 years. One of the major obstacles they have faced is that near-infrared light penetrates only about half a millimeter below the skin, so it measures the amount of glucose in the fluid that bathes skin cells (known as interstitial fluid), not the amount in the blood. To overcome this, the team came up with an algorithm that relates the two concentrations, allowing them to predict blood glucose levels from the glucose concentration in interstitial fluid.

However, this calibration becomes more difficult immediately after the patient eats or drinks something sugary, because blood glucose soars rapidly, while it takes five to 10 minutes to see a corresponding surge in the interstitial fluid glucose levels. Therefore, interstitial fluid measurements do not give an accurate picture of what’s happening in the bloodstream.

To address that lag time, Barman and Kong developed a new calibration method, called Dynamic Concentration Correction (DCC), which incorporates the rate at which glucose diffuses from the blood into the interstitial fluid. In a study of 10 healthy volunteers, the researchers used DCC-calibrated Raman spectroscopy to significantly boost the accuracy of blood glucose measurements — an average improvement of 15 percent, and up to 30 percent in some subjects.

The researchers described the new calibration method and results in the July 15 issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry. In addition to Feld, Barman and Kong, authors include Ramachandra Rao Dasari { build lasers at IIT/K} , associate director of the Spectroscopy Lab, and former postdoctoral associate Gajendra Pratap Singh.

Michael Morris, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, says the group appears to have solved a problem that has long stymied researchers. “Getting optical glucose measurements of any sort is something people have been trying to do since the 1980s,” says Morris, who was not involved in this study. “Usually people report that they can get good measurements one day, but not the next, or that it only works for a few people. They can’t develop a universal calibration system.”

<snip>

In October, Barman will receive the Tomas A. Hirschfeld Award at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies Conference, for his work on improving spectroscopy-based glucose measurements.

Another interesting tid-bit (wonder any one else will report that): that: Dr. Ramachandra Rao Dasari got M.Sc. from Benares Hindu University and Ph.D. from Aligarh Muslim University and taught (when I was at IIT/K) at IIT Kanpur. ..at IIT/K he built one of the largest laser labs ..many lasers, used for some Indian Industries etc, were actually built at IIT Kanpur .. he worked with companies like BHEL for their laser technology/instrumentation. ..

Congrats to these guys. This will really help common people.

[Amber G.]

Some follow up news etc on Deolalikar's paper is posted in the BRF math forum.

[Amber G.]

First time India is hosting ICM (International Congress of Mathematics).
Some news items. (More posted in Math thread)
Pratibha: promote study of mathematics to spread scientific temper

History of Indian Mathematics - India Gave Much More Than Zero
about this prize and background on Indian math and his work .. see the other thread.

India not only gave the concept of zero to the world, but influenced many foreign mathematical traditions by its disocoveries. Much was not known until Radha Charan Gupta proved this by his immaculate research.

For his pioneering work he will be honoured at the International Congress of Mathematicians being held in Hyderabad during August 19-27, 2010. He is the first Indian to get this distinction--Kenneth O. May Prize.


Prof. Gupta's major contributions include work on the history of development of trigonometry in India. ...
<snip> { Read more if interested}

Also may be of interest .. another award going to Indian origin person - The ICM will also award Leelavati Prize (for popularization of Math .. One of the thing Bhaskaracharya and his daughter (Leelavati) is known for)

First Leelavati Prize Goes to Simon Singh

Also Vishy Anand will be there in Hydarabad too!
Will One Chess Player Trounce 40 Mathematicians ?

Almost all famous mathematicians are gathered for ICM.. ceromonies, and lectures are online/ streaming live (http://www.icm2010.org.in/

[Jayram]

Arjun Atwal becomes the first Indian to win on the PGA tour and the first to win since 1986 since having to Qualify the Monday qualifier to go on and win the whole event.. A Fantastic win for an Indian and fantastic for Indian Golf... Now get to see him play at the Masters too.. Incredbile..

[SwamyG]

Amber: Now Vishy has been denied that honorary doctorate by bureaucracy.

[svinayak]

Arjun Atwal becomes the first Indian to win on the PGA tour and the first to win since 1986 since having to Qualify the Monday qualifier to go on and win the whole event.. A Fantastic win for an Indian and fantastic for Indian Golf... Now get to see him play at the Masters too.. Incredbile..

I met him in 2007 Pebble beach and he had many fans

[Amber G.]

Amber: Now Vishy has been denied that honorary doctorate by bureaucracy.

Can't believe it! Though , also from Hindu:
Sibal apologises to Anand, says no 'question over nationality'
(BTW Anand won 39 games (and drew 1) in that simultaneous exhibition. ! Impressive indeed!

[SwamyG]

Amber: Vishy is more Indian than those who doubt his Indianess
India is great in spite of its system. Imagine the greatness if the system improved.

BTW, the 10th class student from Bangalore happens to be really level headed and fun guy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 428728.cms

[Amber G.]

SwamyG - Thanks for the story. Yes, Imagine indeed if system improves!
According to ToI, this was not the first time such a thing happened to UoH, apparently similar thing happened with Dr. Bhagwati's (Economist at Columbia University).
I am impressed with Anand who has taken all this with grace, showing his class.

[Amber G.]

BTW, the 10th class student from Bangalore happens to be really level headed and fun guy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 428728.cms

SwamyG IMO There is more to this "10th class student from Bangalore " than TOI put in the paper.. for example..

He wrote a paper on differential geometry and made a short presentation at the ICM. Serious mathematical stuff to be really proud of. (In fact reportedly he was "happier for that" than the chess win. He likes chess but his passion is Math.

He played in USA (he lived in Ohio at one time) and did very well in chess (and math too!)
His USCF rating is/was 2000+! - Here is a picture of him around 2008

When in U.S. Amateur Team Championships, His team Ohio Chess Cavaliers, won! and you see . and you see, Srikar Varadaraj in "surrendering in Nerf-war".

People like him much more than balances out those against all those babus.
(If interested, see one of his game where he beats a higher rated player:
link

[SwamyG]

Good find. This spring, my son started playing the rated tournaments and I know what 2000+ means So the parents did r2i or Srikar go to India to play Anand? The last USCF rated tournament he played in USA was in 2009.

[Amber G.]

^^^ I did not placed the name right away but I happen to remember seeing the name in one of the math completions (7th-8th grades) I volunteer to help organize.
(Looks like the parents have moved back to Bengaluru)

[Raghavendra]

A dargah, a Hindu caretaker and hundreds of believers http://sify.com/news/a-dargah-a-hindu-c ... hhgcc.html

[James B]

From studying under the streetlights to CEO of a US firm!

[krisna]

Bringing Solar Light to India's Rural Areas

Selco, a solar energy company, installed the lights in 2003. Since its founding in 1995, Selco, based in Bangalore, India’s technology hub, has provided 100,000 homes with solar lighting systems, mostly in the surrounding state of Karnataka.

About 70 percent of Selco’s customers live in remote areas that, unlike Bylakuppe and Doddhosur, have no electricity at all. Without power, they depend on candles and kerosene lamps for lighting.

Financing-

A two-light Selco home system typically costs 8,500 to 11,000 rupees, or $180 to $235 — But Selco works with a variety of local rural banks to help 85 percent of its customers get financing. The on-time repayment rate for its solar loans is 90 percent, said Harish Hande, its co-founder and managing director.

Selco’s efforts are one example of India’s broader push for solar energy. Alternative energy, like wind, biomass and solar, accounts for less than 8 percent of India’s power generation.

Energy problem in India

About 400 million Indians lack reliable electricity, living in a world apart from the bright offices and air-conditioned shopping malls of India’s cities.

India imports more than 70 percent of its oil and natural gas and relies on coal for more than half of its electricity generation. With economic growth forecast to exceed 8 percent this year, India’s energy consumption is expected to double between 2005 and 2030. Such growth comes with a price. India was among the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, according to an Indian government report this year.

GOI plans-

As part of a climate change plan unveiled two years ago, the Indian government laid out an ambitious National Solar Mission this summer. The mission document called for India to increase solar energy capacity to 1,000 megawatts by 2013 and 20,000 megawatts by 2022.

advantages of solar power-
1) Abundant sunshine most of the year.
2) huge population without energy.
disadvantages of solar power-
1) High cost

Coal-powered electricity costs 3.5 to 4 rupees per kilowatt-hour, compared with 17 rupees for power produced by photovoltaic cells.

2) fragmented financing plans,
3) a lack of strong government policies and incentives,
4) uneven service after sales,
5) technical weaknesses in batteries and
6) solar lamps for India’s rugged conditions.
7) education system- makes a person eager to make more money and not serve the country social consciousness.
1.5 & 6 require further R&D.
2&3 requires govt backing of better policies to help companies.
4 will get better with improvements in other areas.
7 changes in structure of education given to youngsters. better understanding of rural life in India esp to city brats.

Kudos to Mr Hande 41 owner of selco company. require more people like him.

[ramana]

Folks something interesting is happening

Financial Inclusion at work

SBI's efforts to spread banking.

[KrishG]

HCL Wins Contract For 100,000 $35 Tablets For India

HCL Technologies has won a contract to manufacture 100,000 of the Indian governments $35 tablets, to be rolled out before the 10th of January 2011, reports Mint. The Indian government is allocating Rs. 30 crore (around $6.4 million) for the project. IIT Rajasthan will test the device. (Watch: demo of the $35 Tablet, with the Android OS)

The Indian government has already announced plans to distribute 1 million of these units in 2011, to university students. That’s roughly the same target that the One Laptop Per Child project has set for the XO in India in 2010, although orders for only around 500,000 XO laptops have been placed by the state of Kerala and Gujarat.

While the two projects have been in the limelight, largely because of the cost-competition that everyone is curious about, one should keep in mind that different segments of students are being targeted here: the OLPC targets primary education, and the Indian government is targeting university level students.

Comment by Nicholas Negroponte on the article:

Giving laptops or tablets to college students is important and fine, but will not change India, eliminate poverty or help create peace in the region. Likewise, it will not eliminate isolation. Take the words "connected laptop" or "connected tablet" and substitute the words "learning and education." Bringing these to all children 6-12 in India would be transformational of India and of the world, because over 20% of the world's children live in India.

$35 is a silly number, because it is subsidized. All OLPC's children, 2 million to date in 40 countries get them free. So in this sense, ours is the $0 laptop. Zero is a hard price to beat.

[Hiten]

This blog tracks developments that aims to make ours a better country

http://www.thebetterindia.com/

[JE Menon]

FYI only. Most of the OT posts I discovered on this thread related to Negroponte and his uncle have been deleted permanently. Pls stick to the topic of thread, all related discussions in other threads or new topic (if applicable). Saves us a lot of time, and participants a lot of wasted typing effort.

[Raghavendra]

Delhi is also PhD capital of the Country http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 521400.cms

[Hari Seldon]

From a tweet:

Mukesh Ambani will be the world's richest man by 2014: Forbes : http://ndtv.in/aBWUaA

[krisna]

India's lost Buddhist university to rise from ashes

Indian academics have long dreamt of resurrecting Nalanda University, one of the world's oldest seats of learning which has lain in ruins for 800 years since being razed by foreign invaders.

Now the chance of intellectual life returning to Nalanda has come one step closer after the parliament in New Delhi last month passed a bill approving plans to re-build the campus as a symbol of India's global ambitions.

Historians believe that the university, in the eastern state of Bihar, once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy to literature and mathematics.

The new Nalanda University has been allocated 500 acres (200 hectares) of land near its original location, but supporters who have lobbied for the cause for several years admit that major funds are needed if Nalanda is to rise from the ashes.

With just 350 universities in a rapidly-developing country of nearly 1.2 billion people, the National Knowledge Commission recommends a staggering 1,500 new universities should be established in the coming decades.

Potential donors

Among those on the board of the Nalanda Mentor Group is Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, who has said Buddhist groups in the wealthy city-state have shown interest in raising funds.
Other Buddhist groups in Japan and supporters in China are also being targeted for financial support.
It has been estimated that 500 million dollars will be required to build the new campus, with a further 500 million to improve the surrounding infrastructure in what is one of India's poorest regions.

IIRC Dr Kalam wanted this to happen and had articulated the need for it. Good that this is on the way.
wishing the Nalanda university all the success and regain the fame of the olden days.

[Aditya_V]

Isn't Amartya Sen in charge of Nalanda University Project and no development has taken place and he wants no deadine for completion

[Vasu]

I've been trying to follow this closely and the last I heard, the project had to be put in suspended animation because of the global economic mess-up.

Now that the economies are picking up again, seems the university board is stirring again. Its all in the air still, nothing concrete seems to have begun on the group. The site of the university is close to the actual ruins of the ancient Nalanda. Along with IIT Bihar, this university will go a long way in raising the education profile of Bihar. May Lord grant it speed.

[jagga]

Low-cost ATMs: Vortex's pioneering gift to rural India

A newly installed low-cost ATM (automated teller machine) in Wai, Satara district in Maharashtra spews money anytime, even during a power cut, an incredible achievement in rural India, thanks to the pioneering initiative by a Chennai-based company Vortex Engineering founded by L Kannan.

A mechanical engineer from IIT Madras, Kannan decided against studying further or taking up a job to work for the rural poor.

For the last two decades, he has been working with non-governmental organisations in carrying out various developmental initiatives to create wealth and empower the poor.

Its a great news. Once we got the UID card project "AADHAR" up and running with these ATM installed in the villages, this might become a very effective tool in checking the corruption.As we all know , NREGA has got lot of corruption as the people dont get their dues. NREGA would be just one of many, as many others new social schemes might come into the effect in future i.e food vouchers, education vouchers etc.
It will be good ,If the machines somehow are made to supprt the UID cards, where people can go once a and month and get there vouchers printed by machine using UID cards.
JMT's

[Amber G.]

Indian scientists’ contribution to LHC significant

Contribution of Indian scientists in building the ‘Large Hadron Collider (LHC)’, the world’s biggest particle accelerator near Geneva to simulate the ‘big-bang’ that caused the universe, has been “proportionately more” than even American scientists.

The 100-strong team of scientists from India who participated in building the LHC at the ‘European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)’, was much less than the American Scientists contingent, but the “contribution of Indians has been proportionately much larger”, the LHC’s Project Leader, Dr Lyndon Evans said here in his first-ever visit to India.

<snip>
The Indian group was particularly strong in heavy ion physics, he added to cheers from the large audience. With huge amount of money invested in the LHC in which over 3,000 scientists from 39 countries were working, “the CERN is really the United Nations of Science”, Dr Evans said. The CERN was started in 1954 with a view to bringing Europe together again after World War-II.
<snip>

.

[naren]

Indian Army awards Sword of Honour to female cadet

The Indian Army is to name a woman as its best all-round cadet for the first time in its history.

Divya Ajith Kumar, 21, will receive the coveted Sword of Honour on Saturday at the Officers' Training Academy (OTA) in the southern city of Chennai.

She beat nearly 230 other cadets, including 70 female peers, to the prize after 49 weeks of gruelling training.

"She has come out on top in the overall merit list. She has outsmarted all others," said OTA spokesman Major R K Choudhary.

"The curriculum consists of 25 subjects. It includes academics, weapons training, tests of endurance, obstacles, drill and cross-country."

Such an inspirational young lady ! Wish her all the best. I hope that many many young women will find inspiration from her. I hope that some neighbouring countries, who ill treat their women, learn from her. She is a great example of what women can achieve given the right environment and motivation.