India - the most romantic country in the world

India - the most romantic country in the world

The Christian Science Monitor
Mushy Bollywood
India and romance are inseparable, going by Bollywood standards. Judging the “syrupy confection of boy-meets-girl doled out in almost every movie made here, India must be the most romantic country in the world,” writes The Christian Science Monitor. The story talks about the many words that Indian films have for love. According to culture watchers and filmmakers, the result “is a country teetering between its traditional rules and the giddy individualism of the West, with profound effects on India’s urban youth.”

The newspaper goes on to quote Santosh Desai, president of McCann Erickson, who says, “this is the first generation that believes tomorrow will be better than yesterday.” He talks about a sense that the world is opening up with the “lifting of constraints.”

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=42125&headline=India~is~the~most~romantic~country~in~world

Why we’ll be a knowledge superpower

Why we’ll be a knowledge superpower

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri

New Delhi, February 20, 2005|00:59 IST


US infotech industry lobby, AeA, says countries like India are “eroding” the US’s status as the world’s tech superpower. New Scientist has dedicated its latest issue to Indian tech — from software to satellites to pharmaceuticals.

Is the US losing its tech edge? YES. But very slowly. US tech trends have been drifting south. The percentage of patents that are filed by US firms is down. Growth rates for US science and engineering articles are weak. Less Americans are getting science and tech degrees. Foreign Affairs recently pointed out that the war on terrorism has so drained R&D expenditure that civilian R&D will “decline in real terms over the next five years.”

But these are trends. US science and engineering publications grew at only 13 per cent between 1988 and 2001 while India’s grew by 25 per cent, but the US still produced 20 times more than India in 2001. US R&D expenditure is bigger than the next five countries put together. The lead is gargantuan.

Is it a long wait for India then? NOT necessarily. There are two trends that are helping push India on to the knowledge fast lane. One is brain circulation. The US has compensated for American disinterest in lab careers by attracting brains from overseas. But foreign applications to study tech in the US have fallen dramatically — engineering fell 34 per cent alone in 2003. 9/11 is partly to blame: visa rejection rates have risen. But a bigger factor is that Indians and Chinese are finding opportunity knocking louder at home. And nothing moves knowledge better than brains physically moving.

The other is globalisation of tech. US firms are now outsourcing R&D overseas. India is a favourite destination. Says the New Scientist, "more than 100 IT and science-based firms have located R&D labs in India." And it's not just software. GE's Bangalore lab is renown for its material sciences division. An Indian firm recently bagged a contract to commercialise a US nanotech drug-delivery patent. Crucially, Washington is wary of China but sees India as a safe tech partner.

Is India's tech power status guaranteeed? NO. No one quite knows why knowledge economies happens. But it is clear you need, at a minimum, a competitive market, a decent educational system, patents to protect innovators and a risk-taking mentality. India has got it half-right in each category. The road is still under construction.

But Indians can shock and awe. After Bill Clinton's week-long presidential visit to India, the US ambassador was asked what was the visit's big moment. He said, "It may surprise you: The State Department's wires really began burning over a female Indian scientist who presented a paper on nanotechnology to Clinton's science team."

The New Scientist has no doubts. It's India special issue's title is "The next knowledge superpower."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1249604,0008.htm?headline=Why~India~will~be~a~
knowledge~superpower?

Coming soon, the soldier as a weapon system

Coming soon, the soldier as a weapon system Rakesh Goswami Mhow (MP), February 19, 2005|20:55 IST

The Army will no longer be only marching on its stomach. It will soon be taking a large byte of the virtual world. The future Infantry soldier will scan the battle on the visor of his helmet; have navigational aides like the GPS; and don a protective suit to guard against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. He will have highly sophisticated weapons to have more protection, more firepower and a higher degree of situational awareness. During training, he won't go to the mountains to train in combat in rocky terrain; he won't go to the firing ranges to better his aim. He'll just sit in a virtual reality laboratory and press 'Alt-Tab' between dessert and mountain or between attack and defence. For effect, two to three soldiers will perform the same combat task that 10-15 men do in the current scenario. The Army is planning to make the future Infantry soldier a weapon system. The project, called F-INSAS (Future Infantry Soldier As A Weapon System), will start with the setting up a virtual reality-based training (VRBT) laboratory at The Infantry School in Mhow. Once this laboratory is set up, there will be less live firing during training; the soldier wouldn't need to travel to specific locations for training in particular terrains or climatic conditions. This will cut down expenditure on ammunition as well as on transportation and save time. Says The Infantry School Commandant Lt. Gen. DP Singh: "In 10-15 years from now, the Infantryman will be a weapon system. The VRBT will bring a great deal of flexibility in training." It sounds unbelievable. In the present circumstances, the soldier goes to the desserts to train in that terrain and to the mountains for training to operate in rocky terrain. Post VRBT, he will sit in the laboratory and just switch between software to travel from one training area to the other. "Training," Lt. Gen. Singh adds, "is an expensive proposition. The expenditure on ammunition is a matter of concern. We will simulate realistic combat situations in a synthetic environment in the virtual reality lab." The new concept will involve training of real soldiers with real equipment to fight in a virtual environment. The school proposes to use the higher end of simulation to create 3-D effects, acoustics and feel of touch and later integrate motion with it, he adds. "The benefits of VRBT can be exploited multi-dimensionally by training soldiers in different tactical and combat scenarios and terrains," says Faculty of Studies director Col RJ Sharma, who is officer in charge of the project at The Infantry School. "It can also be used to place a small Infantry sub unit in a defensive battle scenario, where it repels an attack of a virtual enemy combined with the effects of a real battle - the soldier in the laboratory will even feel battle smells," he adds.

How a village star hit NASA radar

How a village star hit NASA radar

Behind 15-year-old topper’s success, his parents and an amazing rural school

ALKA PANDE

NARHI NAGRA (BALLIA) FEBRUARY 19 In an unremarkable 450-square foot half-constructed home, where smoke from the chulha has blackened the walls, sits a 15-year-old, awash with regret. Saurabh Singh is now officially one of the brightest schoolboy scientists in the world. NASA results don’t lie and Saurabh, a diffident boy from eastern Uttar Pradesh has become the first Indian to top its International Scientist Discovery Examination for 2005-06. It is the same examination in which President A P J Abdul Kalam, as a young boy, finished seventh and later Kalpana Chawla finished 21st. But Saurabh is still upset that he missed out on a world record. His result speaks for itself: Aeronautics (A++); Physical Chemistry (A++); Organic Chemistry (A++); Magnetism (A++). Then the horror. He scored a mere A+ for Electronics and he is furious with himself. “I didn’t monitor the time properly and got nervous and made a mistake in the last one,” he says. It seems almost surreal to watch this boy from a lower middle-class family—his father Ramkeshwar is an assistant teacher at Naherji Inter College—sitting in a 10x10 feet room, lighted only by a 40 watt bulb, speaking so nonchalantly of how he conquered science. It is a compelling tale that must, of course, begin with a brilliant boy, just five feet four inches tall, who is still working out Physics formulae under the dim bulb and who thought nothing of studying 16 to 18 hours a day for months. But the story is incomplete without his father Ramkeshwar, who thought nothing of forking out Rs 46,000 to ensure him sophisticated coaching, or his mother Nirmala Devi, an auxiliary nurse and midwife who has worked away from home, in Fatehpur, for years so the family could make ends meet. And it cannot ignore a certain Reena Singh who started Gyan Peethika Senior Secondary School on the suburbs of Ballia in 1993. It was this school, 40 km from his home, that he attended for his Classes IX and X, staying in a hostel and learning to dream. Reena has made it her life’s mission to make sure she offers village children the facilities that can make their dreams come true. With the help of her two US-based daughters, she has set up a school complete with a multimedia lab and 25 computers. The place is even fitted with CCTV cameras. The school, which offers Science, Commerce and Information Technology has also applied to start courses in Biotechnology and Fashion Designing. It even has a separate wing for competitive examinations where Saurabh first honed his skills. “We used to read about great people and he said that one day we would read his name too,” said his hostel room-mate Pankaj Singh. Reena made sure that she sharpened Saurabh’s English language skills. “The children here are oozing with talent and just require some motivation,” she said. No wonder that when NASA chief Sean O’Keefe asked Saurabh a question on English grammar, he gave the right answer — even though he replied in Hindi. “The NASA chief applauded,” says Saurabh. The boy certainly keeps good company. After his stint at Gyan Peethika, he was packed off to Kota for coaching in Science and Mathematics. There again, he says he was fortunate to run into Umesh Singh, a Physics teacher so devoted he would actually stay up all night with his students as they prepared. Now the results are out and Saurabh is already a celebrity in his own right — again, no coincidence as Reena’s daughters were on their laptops within minutes of the news, sending out the news to the media and VIPs. Each member of the UP Legislative Council has promised to donate a day’s salary to help Saurabh. His own idol, President Kalam, has expressed a desire to meet him. And Gyan Peethika school has announced a Saurabh Singh scholarship worth Rs 40,000. When he spends next year at Pennsylvania, he will know that back home he himself has become a role model.

URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=65044