Mahi is dead - Uncovered manholes - Is there a solution?

All hopes of four-year-old Mahi coming alive out of the 70-foot-deep borewell at Kasna village here were dashed on Sunday afternoon, when Army personnel brought out her decomposed body after an 86-hour rescue operation that had kept the people nationwide glued to their TV sets.

The operation — launched soon after Mahi fell into the borewell on Wednesday night during her birthday celebrations and was prolonged by almost 48 hours as the rescue team ran into rocky terrain — ended around 1.30 p.m. on Sunday, when a team of personnel pulled her out.

The girl, wrapped in a green cloth, was immediately rushed to the ESIC Hospital at Manesar in an Army ambulance, amid loud applause by locals who had gathered at the spot in large numbers since early morning, anticipating a successful climax. But the child was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. The body was then sent to the Gurgaon Civil Hospital mortuary.

Post-mortem revealed that Mahi died of asphyxia just in a couple of hours of the fall. “She died three-four hours after she fell into the borewell,” said a doctor at the Gurgaon Civil Hospital.

The rescue team had reached Mahi in the early hours of Sunday, negotiating around a boulder in the rescue tunnel, but there was delay as it had to cut through a rock in the borewell also, where the bloated body was found stuck.

2G scam: Raja 5 days with CBI

New Delhi: The CBI today accused former Telecom Minister A Raja of causing a loss of Rs. 22,000 crore to the exchequer by favouring some telecom firms in award of the 2G spectrum licences and demanded his custody for five days, which a city court granted.


Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura and Raja's former Personal Secretary R K Chandolia, were produced before Special CBI Judge O P Saini a day after they were arrested in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

Wearing a grey safari suit, the 47-year-old DMK MP appeared cool and composed and greeted the judge with folded hands. His counsel Ramesh Gupta sought time for a privateconversation with Raja, which the judge allowed for ten minutes.

A(H1N1): officials asked to visit houses

The First Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday instructed the State government to issue a direction to officers of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Health Sub Centres to visit swine flu-affected houses and other houses to control the situation.







The Bench, comprising Chief Justice M. Yusuf Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, also wanted the government to provide all possible treatment to the 130 persons afflicted with swine flue and submit a report about the result of treatment.






“It is needless to say that the monitoring committee should continue to monitor the situation,” the Bench said after the State government submitted a report in the court on swine flue situation and steps taken by it to control the disease.

No exercise, long work hours double heart failure risk

London, Sep 7 (IANS) Sedentary men who work beyond 45 hours a week double their risk of dying from heart failure. However, men who keep fit or exercise and work long hours face no increased risk of dying from cardiac conditions.


The study examined data for 5,000 men -- aged between 40 and 59 years from 14 different companies -- which included their fitness levels over 30 years, reports the Daily Mail. The men did cycling exercise tests to assess their fitness and provided details on the average number of hours they worked every week, according to the journal Heart.


Around 70 percent of men worked between 41 and 45 hours a week, while around 20 percent worked longer hours. Over the course of the study, there were 587 deaths from heart disease caused by the narrowing and hardening of arteries.


Experts found that men who were unfit were at the greatest risk of dying from heart disease, particularly if they worked long hours.


Those who were both unfit and worked more than 45 hours a week were more than twice as likely to die from the disease than men working fewer than 40 hours.


And men who worked 41 to 45 hours a week had a 59 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to those working under 40 hours.


Physically fit men working longer hours were 45 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 38 percent less likely to die of other causes than those who were unfit.


The findings, by a team from the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Denmark, held true despite factors likely to influence the results, such as work stress and living conditions.

Japanese Company Invents Water Fueled Car

The Big Ask: Climate change, "ACT NOW!"

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

SMART LIGHTING 

It's no longer a question of whether incandescent bulbs will go, but when. Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs) are the future. CFLs cost more but are vastly cheaper over their life span because it takes eight or more incandescent bulbs to match the life span of a CFL. DAYLIGHT HARVESTING

The power of natural lighting to meet the lighting requirements of buildings is going to be at the forefront. Intelligent self-sensing controllers will help make optimum use of natural light.

ELECTRIC CARS

Powered by thousands of Li-Ion batteries, the electric car can do 0 to 60 mph in four seconds, outrunning practically every other production car on the planet.

PLUG-IN HYBRIDS

They complement biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, by helping limited supplies of homegrown liquid fuel go further. What's more, since they use the existing grid to power up at night, they'll require little additional infrastructure.

HIGH-TECH RECYCLING

Conveyer belts of mixed recycling materials can be swished through a series of smart sensors and sorters. Magnets pull out steel and iron, blowers tease out bags and paper, while shakers and centrifuges help separate other materials.

GREEN COMPUTING

Computers made from recycled materials with components designed for easy recycling will dominate the IT products landscape. Energy efficiency will be the hallmark of all future devices. WIND ENERGY Wind power has become the utility industry's first choice for an environmentally friendly source of power. SOLAR ENERGYPhotovoltaic cells will power solar energy systems. Lowering the cost of converting the sun's photons into electrons will help put solar energy on more roofs.

Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products, and Services – by Adria Vasil

You’ve heard of alcoholics, chocoholics, workaholics, and shopaholics, but you’ve probably never heard of an ecoholic unless you’ve had the good fortune to read Adria Vasil’s book or column by the same name. Vasil defines the word ecoholic right on the cover: (when you’re addicted to the planet).Officially titled Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products, and Services, the book is a vast compendium of knowledge Vasil acquired while writing her “Ecoholic” column for Canada’s NOW Magazine during the past five years.

I’m far from finished reading — it’s the kind of guide you “drop into” as need arises, but find yourself lingering over long after you’ve found your answer. But I can tell you truthfully that I love this book.

Vasil has a no-nonsense directness and calls things like she sees them. If a product’s marketing story smacks of hypocrisy or the product itself contains cleverly disguised dangers, you can bet she’ll tell you. If there’s a hidden dark side, it’s hidden no more.

Take coffee, for example. Americans, in general, love our coffee. It’s a guilt-free drink (unless you add whipped cream), right? Here’s what Vasil has to say:

People say there’s nothing quite as American as a cup of joe and some apple pie. Maybe they’re right about the apple pie, but the red berry-covered coffee bush originated in Ethiopia, not New England. Leave it to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europeans to turn coffee into a common colonial crop, complete with slave labor and low-paid workers. And wouldn’t you know it, the legacy lives on. Up to 25 million families in developing countries worldwide spend long hours each day trimming, weeding, and handpicking coffee beans for about the price of a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. It would take them 3 days just to afford a Starbucks grande latte! It’s no wonder Global Exchange calls coffee farms “sweatshops in the fields.”

Suddenly, my morning java doesn’t seem so satisfying.

10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

1. 
   
   

   Save energy to save money.
   
   
   • Set your thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer to save on heating and cooling costs.
   • Install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out.
   • Unplug appliances when you're not using them. Or, use a "smart" power strip that senses when appliances are off and cuts "phantom" or "vampire" energy use.
   • Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. As much as 85 percent of the energy used to machine-wash clothes goes to heating the water.
   • Use a drying rack or clothesline to save the energy otherwise used during machine drying.
2. 
   
   Save water to save money.
   • Take shorter showers to reduce water use. This will lower your water and heating bills too.
   • Install a low-flow showerhead. They don't cost much, and the water and energy savings can quickly pay back your investment.
   • Make sure you have a faucet aerator on each faucet. These inexpensive appliances conserve heat and water, while keeping water pressure high.
   • Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your garden. Many plants need minimal watering. Find out which occur naturally in your area.
   
   

Predator turns prey

57 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed across the Indian sub-continent, a new study has shown that they were as vulnerable to being preyed upon as those they were hunting.

BASIC to meet in Delhi, discuss targets under Copenhagen Accord

"The main challenge is that an agreement by 29 countries needs to be converted into one by 194 countries," said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

With the Copenhagen Accord setting a January 31 deadline for the nations to specify 2020 emission targets and other steps, India will hold discussion with other BASIC group members comprising China, South Africa and Brazil in New Delhi on their climate strategy.

“I have invited my counterparts in the BASIC group to attend a meeting in New Delhi in the third week of January before everyone finalises the entry into the appendix (Accord),” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

“The main challenge is that an agreement by 29 countries needs to be converted into one by 194 countries,” Mr. Ramesh pointed amid environmentalists’ demand not to endorse the Accord which they have termed “flawed” and “meaningless.”

While 194 countries, including the US, China and India, at the two-week UN summit in the Danish Capital last month took note of the Copenhagen deal, they were given until January 31 to list actions and targets to curb greenhouse gases causing global warming.

'No proof of Himalayan ice melting due to climate change'

The environment ministry on Monday published a discussion paper stating that there was no conclusive evidence to prove that the

Himalayan glaciers are melting due to climate change.

The report, released by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, however, made it clear that the views expressed by the author, Dr V K Raina, retired deputy director-general of the Geological Survey of India, are not that of the Union government and that it is meant to "stimulate discussion".

While releasing the report, Ramesh said that the discussion paper presents evidence that most glaciers are in the process of retreat while some Himalayan glaciers, such as the Siachen glacier, are actually advancing and some others are retreating at a rate lower than before, such as the Gangotri glacier.

The minister clarified that there was no doubt that the `health' of the glaciers was very poor and the situation was reaching alarming proportions but warned that there was little evidence to connect it to climate change or black carbon.

'Global recovery sees increased offshore activities in India'

The global outsourcing and offshoring industry continued to show signs of business recovery leading to increased momentum in the Indian offshore industry during Q3 2009, according to "Market Vista: Q3 2009" report by Everest Group, a global consulting and research firm. Everest's quarterly study on global outsourcing and offshoring activity reports that the new captive set ups increased to an 18-month high in Q3 2009 compared to Q2 2009.

Comparing Q3 to Q2 in 2009, the global demand for offshore services continued its momentum on the back of improving business sentiments:
* Key verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI) services and manufacturing, distribution, retail (MDR) contributed towards 36% of deal signing and retained their dominant share in total transactions.
* The market activity also increased for some emerging verticals such as healthcare where the transaction volumes doubled compared to last quarter.
* North America also showed some signs of recovery with doubling of transactions in the BFSI vertical from the region.
* Twenty-eight new captives were established in Q3—an 18-month high.
* Offshore activity increased with 36 new supplier delivery centres established in Q3 compared to 30 during Q2.
* Although there was a marginal decline of 10% in the reported global transaction volumes (BPO volumes decreasing by 14% and ITO activity reducing by 8%), there were signs of improvement in key geographies and verticals.
The Indian offshore services industry witnessed growth amidst the signs of revival in demand:
* Eleven new captive centres were set up in India during this quarter, highest in any single geography. These included names such as Standard Chartered, Ingersoll Rand and Kontron.
* One-fourth of new supplier delivery centers were established in India.
* India-centric suppliers witnessed increased transactions activity in Q3 compared to Q2.
* The cost arbitrage opportunity for Indian cities improved with depreciation of the currency and reduction in operating costs. At the current momentum, the arbitrage is sustainable for about 20 years in both ITO and BPO services.
"The Indian offshore industry is growing on the back of improving demand and continued advantages of the country as an offshore destination. India-centric suppliers are investing in delivery capabilities and setting up new centres," said Gaurav Gupta, principal and country head-India, Everest Group.
"The increase in the number of captive set ups reflect signs of recovery in the overall market. We expect the industry in India to continue this momentum in the last quarter of 2009 as well as in 2010," said Amneet Singh, vice-president-Global Sourcing, Everest Group.
Everest Group is a global consulting and research firm that comprehensively serves the outsourcing and offshoring market. An industry leader since creating the sourcing consultancy practice in 1991, Everest has earned a worldwide reputation for ongoing innovation by helping clients capture optimum value through sourcing strategies and implementation.

Save water

The time has come to address the impending threat of a water crisis which jeopardises the existence of millions of people around the world. With changes in climatic conditions, and steadily declining rainfall in many areas, the stress on water sources poses a major challenge. More than the issue of soaring food prices and the rapid depletion of the world's energy resources, it has been observed that a catastrophic water shortage could prove the biggest threat to mankind in coming years. If we value our own futures on this planet, we should sit up and take notice of the many ways we can conserve water and live in a way that does not pose a danger to the delicate natural climatic processes of the earth. You TOO can join us in our endeavour to save water. Just write in with your comments and ideas and become a part of the campaign. If you have any pictures or videos to share, upload them here and help make an impact. Keep watching this space for more on this campaign.

Priyanka turns Green

After a very successful first year that helped light-up 55 villages with solar power, NDTV and Toyota have announced the launch of Greenathon 2. Greenathon 2 will focus on our everyday activities that harm the environment like the use of plastic and wastage of water. Our campaign ambassador this year is Priyanka Chopra who is urging people to do their bit to save the environment even if it is a tiny step. "This is a fantastic initiative. I'm a part of the young generation who questions almost everything. But we need to understand that it takes little things for something to become big," said Priyanka. "Youngsters often ask - 'What can we do?' But I believe it is only the simple things we can do that can bring about a change. Get involved in such initiatives, spend a weekend doing something good for the environment and you will feel happy... let's make the earth a better place," she added. The first edition of Greenathon, a campaign initiated by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in association with NDTV and Japanese auto giant Toyota, aimed to raise funds for the 'Light a Billion Lives' project. The aim was to take solar lanterns to rural communities. The campaign ended up raising Rs 20 million and lit up 55 villages across India. (With wire inputs)