Wednesday 29 August 2012

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Greater Noida to have Night Safari to boost Tourism

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 07:30 PM PDT

Preliminary work on the first night safari in India is likely to begin soon in Greater Noida, a growing suburban town of Delhi.

The Greater Noida Master Plan 2021 was approved by the National Capital Region (NCR) Board last week.

The project, conceived on the lines of the famed Singapore Night Safari, had been stuck up for want of a green signal from the NCR board, officials told IANS.

“Now the biggest bottleneck has been removed. We hope to start work at the earliest,” said Anil Kumar Gupta, the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner.

Progress on the night safari, one of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s favourite projects, is being monitored by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani.

The state government is likely to proceed with the bid invitation process for developing the wildlife night park through public-private partnership mode.

“The 102-acre land for the project will not require any land use change as it is already marked for recreational green. The project has already got statutory approvals from the Central Zoo Authority and the Supreme Court,” Gupta said.

The project was conceived in 2005 by the Samajwadi Party government of Mulayam Singh Yadav but was grounded by the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The government has decided not to allow any commercial construction or housing projects within the safari area, which will have 60 percent animals from abroad and 40 percent from the Indian subcontinent.

A total of 71 species of animals, including 58 species of mammals, eight species of birds, three species of reptiles and two species of gigantic lizards, is proposed for the project.

Indian Coast Guard inducts new Inshore Patrol Vessel

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 06:30 PM PDT

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has inducted a new Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) at Visakhapatnam that will aid the maritime force to secure the eastern coastline from terror threats, smuggling, gun-running, poaching and other such crimes.

Indian Navy’s Eastern Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, who has earlier served as the ICG director general, inducted ICGS Rajkiran into service in the presence of East Coast Guard Region Commander Inspector General S.P. Sharma.

The vessel, the third in a series of eight IPVs, is designed and built by the Kolkata-based defence public sector undertaking Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers.

The 50-metre indigenous IPV displaces 300 tonnes and can achieve a maximum speed of 34 knots, with an endurance of 1,500 nautical miles at an economical speed of 16 knots.

Equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and advanced communication and navigational systems, it is ideal for close-coast missions such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue, and medical evacuation, according to a defence ministry release here.

Special features of the ship include an Integrated Bridge Management System (IBMS), Integrated Machinery Control System (IMCS) and an integrated gun mount with indigenous Fire Control system (FCS).

ICGS Rajkiran, literally meaning ‘Royal Light’, will be based at Haldia in West Bengal and will be under the administrative and operational control of the Northeast Coast Guard Region commander.

In his address during the commissioning ceremony, Vice Admiral Anil Chopra assured that the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard are working in tandem to achieve the overall objective of maritime and coastal security of the country.

He also stated that there are numerous stakeholders involved in coastal security and building synergy amongst all of them is extremely important to achieve the common goal of national security.

ICGS Rajkiran will be commanded by Lieutenant Commander Sumanta Roy, a specialist in anti-submarine warfare. It will have a crew of five officers and 30 enlisted personnel.

NRIs denied LPG Connection in India

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 05:30 PM PDT

Unable to procure a cooking gas connection for his home in Punjab has forced a British citizen of Indian origin to approach the Punjab Non-Resident Indians (NRI) commission.

The commission has, in turn, issued notice to the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

The notice has been issued on a complaint filed by Baldev Singh, who is from Punjab’s Moga district, but is now a British citizen and holds a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, a spokesman of the commission said here Wednesday.

In his complaint, Baldev Singh pointed out that while many benefits have been given to people of Indian origin for their stay in India, they cannot live without an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder.

He pointed out that to get an LPG connection, the applicant has to make a declaration that “I am an Indian Citizen”.

He said that since he is not an Indian citizen but holds a PIO card, he could not apply for a gas cylinder.

“This frustrates my intention to stay in India for a longer period,” he said.

The spokesman said that Singh was claiming relief to the extent that the declaration should include “OCI/PIO card-holders” to enable them to get gas connections.

The ministry has been asked to file a reply on or before Oct 5 to the commission.

Punjab has a huge population of NRIs, most of whom are settled in the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and other countries.

2016 Obama’s America – A Film by Indo-American rocks US

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT

Washington DC An anti-Obama film by an Indian-American conservative author that has rocked the box office is set to make further inroads across the nation, thanks to the buzz created by Republican National convention.

Mumbai-born Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” that purports to show what the nation will be like should President Obama be re-elected, will expand to about 1,800 theatres Friday, entertainment trade site TheWrap reported citing Rocky Mountain Pictures.

That’s up from the 1,091 theatres it played in over the weekend, when it took in $6.2 million between Friday and Sunday for a per-screen average of $5,940 – the best of any film in wide release. It added another $1.2 million at the box office Monday.

Produced for roughly $2.1 million, the film – with its catchphrase, “Love Him. Hate Him. You Don’t Know Him” – has made $10.3 million since its release seven weeks ago and has surpassed “Bully” as the year’s top-earning documentary.

Co-directors John Sullivan and D’Souza, along with producers Gerald Molen and Doug Sain, are in Tampa, Florida for the Republican gathering that Tuesday officially anointed Mitt Romney as its presidential candidate to challenge Obama in the Nov 6 election.

Based on D’Souza’s book, “The Roots of Obama’s Rage”, the documentary basically argues that Obama has a pro-third world view inherited from his Kenyan father, and he is actively and wilfully working to dilute America’s primacy in the world.

Trade publication Variety pegs it as a “slickly produced” documentary that could “turn a tidy profit” with content that prompts discussion about “President Obama as a clear and present danger whose socialist governing philosophy has been indelibly coloured by radical influences.”

Although it’s not likely to win fans among Obama supporters, Variety’s review continues, “there’s no gain saying the value of ’2016′ as a sort of Cliffs Notes precis of the conservative case against the re-election of our current US president”.

Kolkata Scientists discover cure for Big Tummy

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:34 PM PDT

Pill popping has become a reflex action to aid quick pain relief, often leading to gastro complications and sometimes even hospitalisation. Now, relief could be at hand with researchers at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) here synthesising a novel molecule that helps shield the stomach.

According to IICB researchers, their discovery provides relief from the stomach complications (gastropathy) arising from the use of common pain killers belonging to the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) group.

Approximately 30 million patients worldwide consume NSAIDs on a daily basis to aid in pain, inflammation, rheumatic disorders and osteoarthritis. The downside is that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalised every year due to NSAID-related gastrointestinal complications.

The IICB study chose indomethacin as the representative NSAID over others because it is most frequently used in gastrointestinal toxicity studies in experimental animals, in this case the Sprague-Dawley rats.

Indomethacin generates the deadly reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cell which damages the cell’s chemical energy (ATP) generating unit – the mitochondria.

“In order to block cell damage and the following organ damage, we have designed and synthesised a small molecule, tryptamine-gallic acid hybrid (SEGA), which successfully prevents damage by scavenging ROS, chelating the free iron and preventing cell death,” Uday Bandyopadhyay of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, IICB, told IANS.

ROS, researchers explained, are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen, also termed free radicals. If not reined in, they can release clustered iron in the mitochondria which in turn leads to production of more ROS.

The combo of free iron and ROS initiates a domino effect beginning with mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to cell damage and cell death that ultimately leads to organ damage (intestinal lining damage).

According to the study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2012, the hybrid product was formed when gallic acid (GA), an antioxidant was conjugated with 5′-hydroxy tryptamine (5HT) through amide linkage (the linkage found in proteins).

“Other tryptamine-antioxidant conjugates were synthesised and tested but SEGA was the most promising one,” said Bandyopadhyay.

All in all, the shield of SEGA seems an important defence against NSAID induced stomach disorders.

Despite Jet Airways’s Emergency Landing, an Infant Child Dies

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT

A desperate bid by a Jet Airways flight, which made an unscheduled landing at Amritsar on Wednesday morning, to save the life of a three-year-old girl went in vain as she died on way to a hospital.

The Milan to New Delhi Jet flight made an emergency landing at Amritsar’s Raja Sansi International Airport here to save the child, who had started vomiting severely during the flight. She was suffering from breathlessness after she fell ill on board the flight.

After being given medical aid at the airport, the child was immediately rushed to a private hospital here, where doctors declared her brought dead.

She was accompanied from Milan by her parents and brother. The family belonged to Pehowa town in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district.

There were around 100 passengers and crew on board the flight when it landed here. The flight left for Delhi after over one hour.

Mamata Banerjee answers Question for the First Time

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT

After all the flak she drew the last time she got a man arrested for publicly questioning her government’s policies, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday chose to answer a similar question raised by a young man at a rally at Krishnanagar WB.

“The subject is not in our control. It is a central subject, so only the central government can do something about it. In my last visit to Delhi, I asked the government and the prime minister to control prices,” Banerjee said when a youth shouted to her a query about rising fertiliser prices.

Banerjee has embarked on a five-day tour of six districts beginning with Nadia. She was addressing a rally in Krishnanagar when the young man in the crowd asked her the question.

Far from being infuriated, as in the past on such occasions, the chief minister asked the farmers to complain against black marketeers, assuring them that the government would act against the guilty.

At a rally in in Belpahari in West Midnapore district Aug 8, Shiladitya Chowdhury, a marginal farmer, said to the chief minister, “Farmers are dying because they have no money. Empty promises are not enough. What are you doing for farmers?”

Stunned by the question, an angry Banerjee branded the farmer a “Maoist” and asked the police to nab him as he was “intentionally disrupting the rally”.

Chowdhury was detained and taken for interrogation by the police.

Though allowed to go that day, he was later arrested. He was remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody before being granted bail.

BSF admits infiltration of Bangladeshis into India

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Even as the controversy over infiltration into India via the Bangladesh border rages on, the director general (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday said he was not confident that there was “zero entrance” of Bangladeshis into India.

“We have pushed back 15,000 Bangladeshis this year. The border is a complex one and I cannot say with confidence that there is zero entrance from the Bangladesh border,” BSF DG U.K. Bansal said here.

Bansal is on a three-day visit to Punjab, which has a 553-km international border with Pakistan.

“We are keeping a strict vigil at the Bangladesh border. It has its own character and problems. It is a human issue and it cannot be completely sealed as people have relatives on both sides,” Bansal said here.

He said the BSF was being extra vigilant in Jammu and Kashmir after a tunnel was recently discovered along the border in Samba sector.

“No infiltration has taken place through this tunnel,” he added.

He said more watch towers would be set up along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab. He said that in view of increased trade through the Attari-Wagah land border route, full body truck scanners were required at the new integrated check post at Attari.

Wipro to train Teachers at University of Massachusetts

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 11:29 AM PDT

Wipro Limited, a subsidiary of Indian IT major Wipro will train 120 school teachers at University of Massachusetts in Boston, US, over the next three years to foster excellence in science education among students.

“The 12-month fellowship programme is aimed at developing competencies in teachers and make them catalysts of change in schools where less privileged students from Boston and New York read,” the global software major said in a statement here Wednesday.

Funded by Wipro, the programme will select 40 science teachers from Boston and New York for the fellowship by Jan 2013 and the course will begin from Sep 1, 2013.

“The programme is part of our efforts to align with the US’s goal to engender an environment that instills and nurtures scientific temper and innovative spirit among young people,” Wipro chief executive T.K. Kurien said in the statement.

“The programme involves a set of activities to improve teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge with the aim of boosting the performance of underprivileged students,” Kurien said.

The University of Massachusetts will partner with a university in New York and multiple school districts in Boston and New York to administer the programme.

“Wipro’s science education initiative aligns with the ‘educate to innovate’ campaign to improve the performance of US students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),” Kurien noted.

University of Massachusetts Chanceller J. Keith Motley said effective STEM education was crucial to students’ success.

“We are upbeat on playing a role in providing Boston’s teachers with new skills for imparting mastery in these fields,” Motley said.

For the past decade, Wipro has been working towards empowering education in India with its ‘Applying Thought in Schools’ initiative to help in societal change and development by improving the quality of education.

The company works with teachers to enhance employability skills of engineering graduates across India through its not-for profit initiative Mission10X.

French Company to jointly make Radars with India

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 10:30 AM PDT

French aerospace and electronics major Thales has said it would partner with and form a joint venture with India’s Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to build civilian and defence radars.

“The JVC will be dedicated to the design, development, marketing, supply and support of civilian and select defence radars for Indian and global markets,” Thales said in a statement.

The decision by the directors of both companies to form the joint venture (JV) is subject to mandatory approvals of the respective governments. The two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) three years ago.

Under the current Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in the defence sector, the French company will hold 26 percent equity in the JV. The remaining 74 percent equity will be held by the state-run BEL.

The city-based Rs.5,700-crore BEL offers products and services such as radars, military communications, naval systems, electronic warfare systems, opto-electronics, solar photovoltaic systems, embedded software and electronic components.

As a leading aerospace and transport firm, Thales is present in 56 countries worldwide and employs about 67,000 people, including 22,500 engineers and researchers.
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