Puff Of Death

What was todays shocking news in front page of a newspaper???It was none other than the report of largest ever done survey on smoking and on its effects on human beings in our country.It was really shocking as according to the survey as smoking will kill 1 million adults( aged between 30yrs to 69yrs)in the year 2010,thats merely 2 years ahead.The research has carried out by a team from India, Canada and UK,and supported by World Health Organization(WHO) and health ministry.The survey was published in New England Journal Of Medicine.

Even this study has not found any safe levels of smoking and more shockingly they had found that cigarettes are more dangerous than bidis.The major causes of deaths in urban smokers are heart attacks were as in rural areas its due to tuberculosis.

Another fact that really surprised this researchers were that smokers in India start smoking at a later age as compare to the smokers of Europe and America and even smoke less than them,but after this also, in India smoking kills not only from diseases like cancer and lung diseases but also from heart attacks and tuberculosis.

Below i just tried to compile up some major facts that has come in light from this survey about India and smoking risks in India:

• There are 12 crore smokers in India,i.e.,every 9th Indian smokes.By 2010 ,10lakhs people will die of smoking every year.
• 70 per cent of these deaths occur in the 30-69 age group---people in there productive and reproductive prime.
• Cigarettes are deadlier than bidis.
• Male bidi smokers lose 6yrs of expected life whereas women lose 8yrs.
• Cigarette smokers lose 10 yrs of expected life.
• Smoking causes deaths by tuberculosis(38%),respiratory diseases(31%),heart diseases(20%), cancer(32%) and others(23%).
• Just 2% adults have quit smoking in India,most of them only after falling ill.

So here is a request to every smokers that brother just look at the above dangerous facts and quit smoking before its too late for you also, and also dont put life of your loved ones too in danger indirectly through passive smoking.

And as a post-smoker i can also advice you peoples that its not so hard too quit,you just requires a hard determination and will to quit. You can easily leave it, as i did it man.

Source: Study Of Smoking & Death In India,(New England Journal Of Medicine) & HT
Compiled By:Saurav Chakraborty

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Tata Motors unveils NANO @ 1Lakh

Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Motors, unveiled the people's car Nano at the New Delhi, 9th Auto Expo today.

The car would be commercially launched in the second half of 2008,expected to come in market by September, and would be produced at the Singur plant in West Bengal.

Speaking at the launch, Ratan Tata, said: "The car is powered by a 624cc, 30 bhp engine and will deliver mileage of about 20 kpl."

The standard variant (without AC) of Nano is priced at Rs 1 lakh($2500) for dealers excluding VAT and transportation. There will be two deluxe variants with AC and other luxurious features.Tata Motors has also planned to launch NANO's diesel variant in coming future.

"The car has already undergone full frontal collision tests and will soon be undergoing side impact tests this year. It will be Euro-IV compliant and will meet all emission norms till 2010", Tata said.

The car is 8% smaller in terms of length than the Maruti 800, but has
21% more room internally.

"A team of 500 designers and engineers worked for four years on the development of the car. Since we started the project four years back, there has been a steep increase in input cost, but a promise is a promise," Tata said after unveiling his pet project.

Besides India, the company plans to sell the car in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia.But Tata said it would focus on the home market for 2-3 years before considering exporting the Nano to countries in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The compact but curvy Nano stands in sharp contrast to the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands that Tata is negotiating to acquire from Ford Motor Co.

Global car makers -- initially skeptical that Tata could produce such a low-cost car -- are now scurrying to make their own versions to meet the needs of cost-conscious consumers in emerging economies such as China, India and Russia.

Ford this week said it would build a small car in India within two years, and the alliance of Nissan Motor and Renault, which has made a big success of its no-frills Logan sedan, plans a $3,000 car with Bajaj Auto.

Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda Motor and Fiat have also said they are looking at small cars for emerging markets where strong economic growth has made car ownership a reality for millions.

Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty
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NDTV Good Times: A new lifestyle channel

On Wednesday, 30th.August.2007, NDTV announced the launch of its new channel 'NDTV Good Times'. It will be a free to air channel from September 7.

It's India's first Lifestyle Channel targeting the global, urban India. The channel is a tie up between NDTV and the Kingfisher brand and hopes to leverage NDTV's broadcasting and programming expertise with Kingfisher's lifestyle appeal.

The channel will have wide range of shows on health, food, fitness, leisure, fashion, travel, technology besides shows on relationships and family. The channel is targeted at viewers in the age group of 20-40 years, belonging to SEC A.The channel is in English and it is positioned as an aspirational product for viewers. It will mould programming specific to the Indian context. It claims to have at least 50-60 programmes per week to cater to the taste of its target audience. The genres include food, late night chat shows, relationships, travelling, cooking, tech and gadget shows, Indian weddings, parenting, pet care, parties, health and wellness and fashion cars and motor bikes.

Some of the well-known personalities who will host shows on the channel include actor Rajat Kapoor, TV chef Manju Malhi, who is said to be Britain’s new Madhur Jaffrey, tech guru Rajiv Makhni, cocktail specialist Shatbhi Basu, Arun Thapar of ‘Chupa Rustam’ fame and spa expert Devika Anand.

The logo of the channel has ‘NDTV Good Times’ written inside a square, red box, with the UB Group’s Kingfisher bird woven in on the top left corner.

Equus Red Cell is promoting the channel in the media. The promos for the channel are already running on NDTV network channels such as NDTV 24x7, NDTV India and NDTV Profit. Apart from television, NDTV Good Times is looking at innovations in outdoor advertising, print, event promotions and very largely through the Internet and mobile media.

Compiled by:
Saurav Chakraborty

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Finally Taj Mahal is among 7 wonders of the world...

Always counted among the man-made marvels of the world by its admirers, the Taj Mahal on Saturday found pride of place in a new list of seven wonders polled by people around the globe.

The most photographed monument is accompanied by The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico and the Roman Collosseum in the list announced at a gala ceremony in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to coincide with the date 07.07.07.

In a colourful ceremony amid songs and dance, Bollywood star Bipasha Basu announced Taj Mahal as one of the wonders. Agra Mayor Anjula Singh received the award.

Indians voted overwhelmingly in the polls cast by over a million people. The polling picked up drastically over the last one month, to see the "monument of love" through to the final seven.

The worldwide poll, in which people could vote for their favourite monument either on-line or through SMS, was conducted by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, a Swiss non-profit group.

The one-and-a-half-hour-long ceremony at Portugal's largest venue, the Estadio da Luz, saw award-presentation appearances by celebrities like Hillary Swank, Ben Kingsley, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neil Armstrong.

The celebrity-studded event also saw performances by Jennifer Lopez, Chaka Khan and Dulce Pontes.

The voting picked up last month and in the latter half of June, eight per cent of all votes came from India, which then further increased to 13 per cent.

Source: Hindustan Times
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Is 7/7/07 a lucky day?

Is 7/7/07 a lucky day? Seven is often associated with good luck and for some people it has mystical or religious associations. It's a prime number, though so are 3, 11 and 13,267. Seven appears frequently in the Bible, and there are seven days in a week, seven wonders of the world, seven seas, seven sins and seven virtues, seven years bad luck, seven dwarves, the Boeing 777 and winning numbers in craps, slot machines and blackjack (where three times seven is a blackjack). American Indians have seven directions, Christianity has seven sacraments and Hinduism believes in seven chakras. Then there's the world's most popular boy wizard: the seventh Harry Potter book comes out on the 21st day (that's three sevens) of July, 2007.

To some, 7/7/07 is simply another day or, perhaps, a magnet for superstition, astrologers and marketing companies. But to many people, the number seven holds special, even spiritual or supernatural significance.Seven is often associated with magic, wisdom, intelligence, mystery and solitude. The day has caused many people to pore over their lives, looking for the number seven -- in their age, anniversary, the day they met their spouse -- and a variety of events have been planned accordingly.

In California, yoga instructors will be meditating at 7 p.m. while Christians in Tennessee will fill the Tennessee Titans' football stadium for mass prayer. Many shops will be holding special sales, casinos are expected to do great business and if the lottery comes up all sevens, the winners are going to be splitting the money many ways.

But the big winner on July 7 will be the wedding industry. Because the date falls on a Saturday, 7/7/07 will likely be the biggest single wedding day in history. On the popular wedding site theknot.com, more than 38,000 couples are listed as marrying on July 7. That's more than three times the average for a Saturday in July. Las Vegas wedding chapels have been offering special, seven-themed packages, including, for the budget-minded, a seven-couple ceremony, costing $77 dollars per couple, complete with seven roses and seven photographs.Some companies that seem to have no business in weddings have gotten involved. Six Flags, the theme park company, is allowing seven couples to get married on the rides of their choice as part of their "Thrilled Ever After" promotion. Wal-Mart is paying for seven couples to get married in the garden and lawn area of seven Wal-Mart stores. There are also the obligatory celebrity weddings -- actress Eva Longoria and basketball player Tony Parker will marry in Parker's native France; Chef Wolfgang Puck will marry his fiancée, Gelila Assefa, though Puck claims the date was chosen because others presented scheduling conflicts.

So is all the fuss worth it, or are companies simply gleeful that the numerically pleasing day presents so much opportunity? After all, it was probably difficult to market wedding packages for 6/6/06.We'll also talk about why 8/8/08 may be even bigger than 7/7/07.

Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty
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Biodiesel for India: When do we get it finally?

Biodiesel is in. IndianOil Corporation (IOC) has already started measures to go in from commercial production of bio-diesel, with the state-owned refiner-marketer seeking 30,000 hectares of land from the Madhya Pradesh government for its jatropha plantation.

An IOC official said that the company was keen on its jatropha plantation and is awaiting MP government’s response in this regard. Going green seems to be the in thing - not to mention where the big bucks are - and the jatropha seed has been identified as the main source of making biodiesel. IndianOil Corp is in fact in discussions with other states such as Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan for land to start plantations.

Biodiesel is made by blending oil extracted from seeds like jatropha with diesel refined from crude oil. Jatropha is seen as a plant that has all in it to provide India with a socially and ecologically sound option for increased fuel consumption. The positive aspects about the plant are that it can grow in wastelands; yields four times as much fuel per hectare as soybean; yields ten times as much fuel per hectare as corn; a single hectare can produce 1,892 litres of fuel and converting the plant oil to clean fuel requires only one step.

The IndianOil Corporation estimates that India would need an annual demand of 2 million tonnes of biodiesel, with a 5 per cent blending ratio. This figure can even go up to 10 per cent without making any modification in the engine, indicating an annual consumption potential of four million tonnes.

IOC’s efforts at promoting biodiesel come at a time when there is an urgent need for increasing energy security. Related benefits of biodiesel and other eco-friendly fuels are protecting the environment, creating jobs for rural folk and develop wastelands. The move towards jatropha plantation by IOC can be seen as a welcome step in this direction.

Meanwhile, reports said that IndianOil has already completed field trials with the bio fuel. IOC’s trial with Haryana Roadways showed a 10-15 per cent reduction in emission from the 40-odd buses that used bio-diesel.

With the bio-diesel fever catching up, Tata Motors and Indian Railways have also conducted trials running locos hauling high-speed Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains.

However, there are a couple of hitches too. The government’s biodiesel plan may come unstuck due to the government's policy on procurement price. The government has set a procurement price of Rs 26.50 for each litre of biodiesel, whereas each litre made out of imported crude palm oil costs Rs 35-40. Besides, the jatropha plants allow oil extraction from seeds only after three years.

It has been reported that the IOC is trying to use this time to put in place an integrated plan for the entire value chain of biodiesel — from plantation to blending and marketing. It now remains to be seen as to when the country is really ready for the green fuel that would be a boon in today’s times.

Compiled by:Saurav Chakraborty
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Red Fort on World Heritage List

UNESCO listed the Red Fort Complex, built for Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, who ruled between 1628 and 1658.

The palace, which gets its name from massive enclosing red sandstone walls, was designed to imitate paradise, as it was described in the Koran.

"The Red Fort is considered to represent the zenith of Mughal creativity which, under the Emperor Shahjahan, was brought to a new level of refinement," UNESCO said.

Built by Shah Jehan in the 17th century, the Red Fort has much more to offer than the influence of his obsession with perfection. With its own special place in modern Indian history, the Red Fort is a collage of different periods from the Mughal to the British. The World Heritage Committee also inscribed three other cultural sites — the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape in Japan, the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa in Turkmenistan, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

It was not the first time that the Red Fort was brought before the World Heritage Committee; the case for the site was earlier submitted in 1992. One of the things that went against the Red Fort at that point was the fact that the Committee did not feel that there was an adequate management plan for the site. “Ownership is not an issue for the World Heritage Committee, but they do take the management of the site seriously. The members had felt that this had not been defined well by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at that time,” said a UNESCO source.

The Army handing over the Red Fort to the ASI in December 2003 was an important step in enabling the nomination to the World Heritage List as that ensured that it was not a military target anymore – another aspect that is taken into consideration. The handing over also gave the ASI total control of the fort.

While the inscription of the Red Fort on the UNESCO list is a moment of pride for the country, for the ASI it is especially satisfying. It has been given a chance finally to put behind the bitter controversy that its “restoration” had stirred a few years ago, and the ASI will now be able to close that chapter with a sense of achievement. But it may be still too early for the Survey to get complacent: it will face the toughest challenge now.

However, Delhi now joins Agra---which boasts of Taj Mahal,Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri---as only the second Indian city with three World Hertage Monuments,except Red Fort, Humayun Tomb and Qutab Minar are the monuments that are already present in UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty
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mGinger:Earn, money for reading sms

You can now make money by just receiving messages on your cellphone. A Bangalore company has offered to pay users to receive SMS advertisements.

Cellphone users once shunned SMS advertisements but mGinger has changed all that. It has turned the advertising cell phone into a source of income.

It's using permission-based marketing to turn SMS advertising into a lucrative proposition for users.

"What mGinger tries to do is it eliminates spam from your phone. But it does it in such a way that the ads that you do get on your phone turn into useable information," said mGinger CEO Chaitanya Nalla.

And it's simple too. All you need to do is log on to mGinger.com and register yourself with details of the kind of advertisements you want to receive.

Users get to choose the number of ads they want and when they would like to receive them.

The company will pay users 20 paise for each ad read and 10 paise per referral(get paid 10 paisa only when your referrals receive an ad.). And advertisers are excited.

"The day we launched, we got our first advertiser. So that tells us that this medium is powerful, and that advertisers are interested in such a medium," said Nalla.

The company has already run eight campaigns in different sectors, and talks are on with another 200 clients. The website, which started on April 19, has over three lakh registered users.

This may not be a money-spinner for you, but it still has users excited about the additional income. Particularly college students are looking at this as an additional source of pocket money and a reason to stay hooked to their cellphones.

You can register yourself also at given below link:
http://www.mginger.com/index.jsp?inviteId=40559


Source:Yahoo News
Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty

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Scientists find most earth-like planet yet

European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life.

They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star suggest that a planet not much larger than the Earth is pulling on it, the researchers say in a letter to the editor of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"This one is the first one that is at the same time probably rocky, with water, and in a zone close to the star where the water could exist in liquid form," said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who led the study.

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degC and water would thus be liquid."

Most of the 200 or so planets that have been spotted outside this solar system have been gas giants like Jupiter. But this one is small.

"Its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky, like our Earth, or covered with oceans," Udry said in a telephone interview.

It appears to have a mass five times that of Earth's.

The research team includes scientists credited with the first widely accepted discovery of a planet outside our solar system, in 1995.

Many teams are looking for planets circling other stars. They are especially looking for those similar to our own, planets that could support life.

That means finding water.

"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life," Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, said in a statement.

"On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

Gliese 581 is among the 100 closest stars to Earth, just 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 10 trillion km.

It is smaller and dimmer than the sun, so the planet can be close to it and yet not be overheated.

"These low-mass stars are the ones where we are going to be able to discover planets in the habitable zone first," said planet-hunter David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, who was not involved in the research.

Bennett cautioned that current temperature alone does not mean water still exists on the planet. It could have burned off ages ago, when the star was hotter than it is now.

Udry's team uses a method known as radial velocity, using the European Southern Observatory telescope at La Silla, Chile.

The same team has identified one larger planet orbiting Gliese 581 already and say they have strong evidence of a third planet with a mass about eight times that of the Earth.

Future missions, perhaps in 20 to 30 years, may be able to block the light from the star and take a spectrographic image of the planets. The colour of the light coming from the planet can give hints of whether water, or perhaps large amounts of plant life, exist there.

Source:www.stuff.co.nz

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How about trains to China, Bulgaria?

Someday you may be able to take a train from India to China in the east, and to Bulgaria in the west. And along the way, take in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand in the first case, or Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in the second.

On 08.March.2007, the cabinet will decide on whether to sign the Inter-Governmental Agreement that envisages a continuous 80,900-km rail link----The Trans Asian Railway---through three corridors. Although the principal idea is to encourage trade between South-east Asia, Central Asia and Europe, tourism too is likely to benefit.

India will be part of the Southern Corridor that’s starts in Kunming in China and covers 11,460 km before terminating in kapikule in Bulgaria. The other two corridors link the Russian Federation to the Korean Peninsula( the Northern Corridor) and the Chinese border through Lao to Malaysia( the Indochina and Asian Sub-region Corridor).The rail link will enter India at Tamu bordering Myanmar, pass through Bangladesh at Mahisasan and again enter India at Gede. It will exit India through Attari.

The agreement was adopted at the 62nd session of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) IN 2006. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were among the 10 countries which watched 18 others sign the agreement. The agreement has to be signed before next year.

The Trans Asian Railway was conceived in the 1960s to provide a 14,000-km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul, with possible onward connections to Europe and Africa. But the idea never went beyond the drawing board. The concept was revived and expanded to over 80,000 km in the early 1990s, with the UNESCAP playing the key role.


Source: Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Bacteria will steady homes in Earthquakes

Soil bacteria could be used to help steady buildings against earthquakes, according to researchers at UC Davis. The microbes can literally convert loose, sandy soil into rock.

When a major earthquake strikes, deep sandy soils can turn to liquid, with disastrous consequences for buildings sitting on them. Currently, civil engineers can inject chemicals into the soil to bind loose grains together. But these epoxy chemicals may have toxic effects on soil and water, said Jason DeJong, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.

The process so far tested only in labs, takes advantage of a natural soil bacterium, Bacillus pasteurii. The microbe causes calcite (calcium carbonate) to be deposited around sand grains, cementing them together. By injecting bacterial cultures, additional nutrients and oxygen, DeJong and his colleagues found that they could turn loose, liquefiable sand into a solid cylinder.


“Starting from a sand pile you turn it back into sandstone,” DeJong said.Similar techniques have been used on a smaller scale, for example, to repair cracks in statues, but not to reinforce soil.

The new method has several advantages, DeJong said. There are no toxicity problems, Compared with chemical methods. The treatment could be done after construction or on an existing buildings, and the structure of the soil is not changed---some of the void spaces between grains are just filled in. DeJong and his collaborators are working on scaling the method up to a practical size, and applying for funds to test the method up to a practical size, and applying for funds to test the method in the earthquake-simulating centrifuge at UC Davis’s Centre for Geotechnical Modeling.

The centrifuge is part of the national Network for earthquake Engineering Simulation, funded by the National Science Foundation. A paper describing the work has been published in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.



Source: The Times Of India
Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty

Scientists in China control's Pigeon's flight

Scientists in China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.Scientists at the ROBOT ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH CENTRE at Shandong University of Science and Technology said the electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down,Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. “It is the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world,” Xinhua quoted the centre’s chief scientist, Su Xuecheng, as saying.
Su and his colleagues, who Xinhua said had similar success with mice in 2005, were improving the devices used in the experiment and hoped that the technology could be put into practical use in future.


Source: Hindustan Times & Reuters
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty