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BRIGHTEST NEWSCompiled by :
Sunil Metrani & Cajetan Fernandes
BOLLYWOOD
WINS HEARTS ROUND THE GLOBE.
BOLLYWOOD is
going through a highly successful run, meeting and beating its famed U.S. counterpart
Hollywood. The west may have the biggest stalls in the world’s media bazaar, but its
not the only player. For hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world, it is
Bollywood not Hollywood, that spins their screen fantasies. Bollywood based in Mumbai, has
become a global industry. Proof of Bollywood’s global appeal was the result of the
BBC poll last year in which viewers around the world pulled in their votes to declare Amitabh
Bacchan as the Millennium’s biggest star, even ahead of British legend Sir
Lawrence Olivier and glamour icon Marilyn Monroe. His fans were
found to be from Rajasthan villages to Australian cities to New Jersey suburbs. Shows by
Bollywood movie and music stars run to packed houses and keep the passion alive. Indian
stars appear on stages in New Jersey, California, Florida and Chicago for sold out
concerts.
AT BERLIN in
the forum section of the 50th Berlin International Film Festival, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam had a midnight screening, finishing at 3:00 a.m. The Germans were seen
exclaiming thees beyootiful ethnic-ethnic woman (Aishwarya Rai) who narrowly
misses getting pregnant thanks to a kiss from her shirtless boyfriend (Salman Khan),
marries the man Dad shortlists (Ajay Devgan), a luvverly chap who scours
Budapest to restore her, to her shirtless wonder, but on second thoughts she
marries the luvverly
fella again. The audience loved every moment of it. They were clapping or were in
a swoon, when they were not falling-off their chairs laughing. With half a dozen songs
that exuded a terrific energy, they were hugely entertained. The feel good feeling of our
popular culture was heady.
IN ISRAEL, Dil To Pagal Hai
is making many a heart crazy. Two years after it hit the box office
in India, the movie is running to full houses for the 5th successive week in
Tel-Aviv. This musical love story seems to have captured people’s imagination, with
thrilled Israelis both young and old going head over heels o’er the movie’s
theme song which can be heard from every other window of Israel. Sub-titled in Hebrew, as
"Halev Mistagya" (for
Crazy Heart) faces of Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karishma Kapoor appear on big
posters all over the streets of Tel-Aviv. Indian music, films, clothing and books have
brought in a socio-cultural phenomena of Israelis getting attracted towards India, its
culture, religion with all their hopes and dreams.
IN
PAKISTAN, Hindi films have remained India’s most pleasant and even artistically
influential ambassador. Here too, there is no escape from Bollywood. Being vastly superior
to the Pakistani Film Industry, a lot of people from Pakistan and Afghanistan watch Hindi
movies. Such is the fascination of Pakistanis for Bollywood films that in places like
Houston, the Pakistani audiences outnumber the Indians. There is hardly any place in
Pakistan, where one can avoid Bollywood songs and the glamour of Indian Film industry. All
along the Grand Trunk Road between Lahore and Islamabad, one can see the hotels playing
Indian film music or video. Those playing the latest Indian hits are the most frequented.
The news of an Indian film being telecast on PTV virtually brings the nation to a
standstill, with people flocking from the provinces of Punjab & Sind and getting
themselves booked in the hotels at Lahore, like it happened when Mughal-E-Azam and Pakeeza, were aired. Its not just Pakistan’s
public life that Bollywood dominates, homes are no exception. Young girls preparing for a
relative’s wedding practice to the latest Indian hit than to a Pakistani song.
Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit being the heartthrobs of the younger generation.
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INDIAN,
US NAVIES FRIENDS AGAIN
New Delhi: In the first visible easing of posture in defence ties after the Pokharan
blasts of May 1998, the US has invited the Indian Navy to participate in its Millennium
Independence Day naval celebrations at New York harbour on July 4. India will send one of
its Delhi-class destroyers - INS Delhi or INS Mysore.
The ship will pay goodwill visits
to a number of European ports en route. "The US invitation is a symbolic gesture to
build friendship, and an opportunity to showcase our Navy," confirms a top Navy
officer. The Indian Navy was last invited to the US in 1987, when it was represented by
the frigate INS Godavari. The invitation comes on the heels of the visit by the
Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Command, Admiral blair, to New Delhi last month. The
US, which participated in the Indian Navy's "Malabar Exercises" in 1992, 1995
and 1996, had called off joint exercises after Pokharan-II. "This indicates
increasing interest in military cooperation between the two countries," says naval
expert Rahul Roy-Chaudhury. It is expected to lead to the resumption of joint exercises in
the Indian Ocean. Prior to the Malabar Exercises, the Indian military had never interacted
with the US in joint manoeuvers. "It could be an effort to slowly resume normal
contact and take the relationship back to the earlier status quo," says foreign
policy expert Kanti Bajpai, who feels this could be part of the build-up to President Bill
Clinton's visit in March. Bajpai says naval interaction is relatively easier.
"Exercises with air or land forces involve having foreign troops on your soil,"
he points out. Former Naval Chief Admiral RH Tahiliani says exercises enable navies
to know each other. "There's exchange of tactical communication with common codes and
signal books. Big powers like to keep tabs on the ability of others," he observes.
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DIAMONDS
GLITTER FOR INDIANS
Mumbai: Indian jewellery designers stole the De Beers Diamonds-International awards (DIA)
show for the new millennium, bagging three prestigious awards at a ceremony recently held
at Louvre Museum in Paris.
Considered the "Oscars"
of the jewellery industry, it is the world's largest and most prestigious jewellery design
competition. The three spectacular pieces bringing repute to India have been designed by
Reena Thakur of Delhi, Kriti soni and Khaiyam Jaliwala of Mumbai. The awards honour the
most original and influential designs in fine diamond jewellery from around the world. DIA
show put on display $8m worth of diamonds, weighing approximately 2,000 carats.
The winning designs were chosen
from among 2,530 entries. Sixteen countries represented in the collection this year.
Japan tops the list with five winners, followed by India, Italy and Brazil with three
each, the USA, France and South Africa with two, and Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany,
Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, the UK and the UAE with one winner each.
The show had over the years,
fulfilled its role of encouraging jewellery design and helping designers step up the
ladder to join the mainstream, he added. Discovered in India more than 4,000 years ago,
diamonds are the most appropriate symbol for the millennium.
Source: The
Economic Times
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ANOTHER
MILESTONE FOR ISRO
Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday crossed an important
milestone in the development of indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage for India's
Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) when the first cryogenic engine was
ignited at Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre Test Complex at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.
In a press release, the ISRO said
that the engine had employed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The test of the first
cryogenic engine had several accomplishments such as fabrication, assembly and integration
of the complete cryogenic engine, validation and commissioning of the test stand, chill
down trials of the engine and association system, production of cryogenic propellants to
required specification and validation of appropriate safety procedures besides collection
of valuable data during the 15-second test, the release stated.
Source: The
Hindu
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MORE INDIANS GO IN FOR PC's
New York: India has emerged as the fourth largest market for personal computers
(PCs) in the Asia-Pacific region in '99, excluding Japan. India, which replaced Taiwan as
the fourth largest market after China, South Korea and Australia, had more than a million
units of shipment for the first time in '99, according to preliminary results of a market
review released by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
According to IDC,
India registered a growth of more than 42 per cent that was supported by consumers, small
businesses and falling price points in a particularly price-sensitive market. Apart from
the economic recovery which, IDC said, was the greatest market accelerator in '99, other
factors that contributed to the market's momentum throughout the year in the entire region
were, internet proliferation, price erosion and low PC penetration. IDC noted that while
there was a Y2K sales disruption in the large and medium business sectors of developed
markets in the last quarter, strong buying from consumers and small businesses offset the
impact. Competitively, IBM reclaimed the market's top spot in '99 as its market share
increased from 8.1 per cent to 8.4 per cent, followed by Compaq with a market share of 7.3
per cent for the same year.
Source: The
Economic Times
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SAHARA
LAKE CITY - THE 1st ISO 14001 HILL CITY
In an unprecedented and historic move, RINA (Registro Italiano Navale) - the
International Clasification Society and Certification Agency based at Genova in Italy
awarded ISO 14001 to Amby Valley, Sahara Lake City for its environmental management
system. This is a unique achievement for this Hill City which earlier had marched into the
Guinness Record for its record number of saplings plantation drive, as it is the first
time that any hill city has ever been awarded an ISO 14001 Certification. Spread over 5000
acres, Amby Valley, Sahara Lake City, is India's first planned Hill City and amongst the
finest in the world. It will boast of a futuristic model of delightful lifestyle driven
residential community. The City will be well equipped with its own ecofriendly transport
systems, heliport, three tier security systems, besides a host of public amenities like
hospitals, banks, post offices, schools, parks, shopping malls, aqua sports, show theme
parks, sports centre, yoga and health centre, amusement parks, 18-hole night golf course
will be amongst a host of recreational activities that will be in tandem with the
ecofirendly environment and healthy living that would form a part of this City. The
project is billed as one of the finest models for planning where adequate focus is
also given on a comprehensive regional development that will be in tune with the best
practices of environmental management.
Source: The
Afternoon
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SYSTEM ENGINEER AT 13
Chennai: A. V. Dinesh, a 13-year-old Class 8 student of a city school, has become
a systems engineer certified by internationally-acclaimed computer giant Microsoft,
clearing all its examinations. The boy cleared Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
examinations in last June and all other examinations on February 16 this year, his father
Narasimha Rao said. He said his son was the youngest to become a systems engineer
certified by the Microsoft. The boy is a student at Shrine Vailankanni School.
Source: The
Asian Age
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BILL GATES II COMING FROM HYDERABAD
London: Want to hear who'll be the next Bill Gates. His software firm, i2, is
currently Wall Street's favourite child. His worth? $3.6 billion and rising.
Hyderabad-born former Indian sailing champion Sanjiv Sidhu's company has more than 100
millionaries on its payrolls but the founder himself is still a relatively unknown figure.
That's because i2 operates in the unglamorous but high-yield world of supply chain
management. It all started a few years ago when Sidhu realised that modern business was
becoming too complex to be run by just humans. He quit his job at Texas Instruments and
started i2 from his apartment in Dallas with the help of his wife. Citing cognitive
science research, i2 claims that even the sharpest of managers cannot process more than
six or seven variables in his head at the same time. Sidhu believes that only a computer
can contemplate the almost infinite number of possibilities which are thrown up in the
modern business environment on a day-to-day basis. What i2 actually does at the moment is
deliver Internet-based planning software to clients to aid managers and corporations. A
colleague has claimed that Sidhu's approach to supply chain management has been shaped to
a great degree by the "method-in-madness" chaos of the Indian railway system.
Source: The
Asian Age
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U.S.
PATENT FOR INDIAN HERBAL SHAMPOO
New Delhi: Indian herbal compositions are not only gaining worldwide appreciation
but acquiring patent rights as well - a US patent has been granted recently to two Indians
for a herbal shampoo. The Chennai-based Indian company has been granted a patent for a
shampoo composition comprising fresh coconut, reetha, mahua, fenugreek and a flower
"Hibiscus rosa sinesis". The patent has been awarded for providing an efficient,
non-toxic, biodegradable, herbal powder shampoo composition. The inventors of this patent
claimed that some of the dry shampoos currently available contain starch which sticks to
the hair and is not easily removed. Some other dry shampoos have substances such as carbon
and alumina which are not biodegradable and are difficult to remove from the hair. The
present invention, they claimed, overcomes such inefficiencies and is free from
side-effects. Recently, Indian experts were concerned when a patent was filed on the
Indian curry. Experts at the patent facilitating cell, while urging the industry to be
more vigilant, also expressed their apprehensions on its awareness levels. Patents have
been granted in the U.S. on the use of neem and, more recently, on an extract of jamun,
bitter gourd and brinjal.
Source: The
Times of India
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MOTOROLA'S SINGLE-CELL WAM AT BANGALORE
New Delhi: Motorola India is developing a single-cell WAM (wireless access manager)
technology - a low-cost code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless in local loop (WiLL)
- cellular technology for the local markets at its Bangalore facility. This is the first
time that a multinational corporation is developing a cost-effective cellular technology
specifically for the domestic market. Company sources said the technology would be
introduced worldwide at a later stage. At present, a cellular network requires a base
station, a wireless access manager (WAM) and a switch as basic building blocks for
servicing a few thousands of subscribers. The high costs involved in installing cellular
network makes it uneconomical for telecom operators to set up base stations in villages
and towns with low population. A single-cell WAM envisages merging of the base station
with WAM. The cell can be designed to service a group of 200 to 500 subscribers. By
switching to the single-cell WAM technology, the cost per subscriber can be brought down
by 30 to 40 per cent. Motorola has already launched its CDMA V5.2 link commercially on
Bharati Telecom's Madhya Pradesh network. This, incidentally, was the first commercial
deployment of Motorola's V5.2 link in the world. The company has bagged an order to
install a total of 1,50,000-line systems over three years, where 50,000-lines system has
to be installed in the first six months of this year, said Motorola officials.
Source: The
Economic Times
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ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA WITH AN INDIAN-SPECIFIC SITE
New Delhi: Recognising the appetite of the knowledge hungry Indians, the newly-launched
Britannica.com will become the first international portal to launch an Indian website
after customising it. The Indian website of Britannica.com is also the first
country-specific website for Encyclopaedia Britannica and will guide the customisation for
websites for Australia and the United Kingdom.
The Indian website -
URL www.britannica.com - will grade the
"best" India-centric websites with the Britannica "seal of approval"
and classify them into 19 categories so that it can guide users to find out more details
on specific subjects. At present, Encyclopaedia Britannica is speaking to five I-T
companies to create competencies so that they can grade sites for it. Incidentally, the
entire web-review operations for Encyclopaedia Britannica world-wide is done in its India
office. Among the features of the Indian site is an update on cricket team and players as
well as rankings for the major teams and cricketers. Further, every specific information
from Encyclopaedia Britannica on the Indian website will have references to books and
magazines on the particular subject, any book or magazine.
Source: The
Economic Times
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'ASHWAGANDHA' TO RULE INDIAN PHARMAS
New Delhi: The well-known Indian medicinal plant, Ashwagandha, (Withania Somnifera), could
be a gold mine for different food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, says an
exhaustive volume on different aspects of the plant brought out by the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The CSIR laboratory Central Institute of
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants based in Lucknown that brought out the study has collated
all the information available about Ashwagandha including its composition, cultivation,
egronomics, various tests conducted about the efficacy of its extracts, their further
potential. Ashwagandha was known to Indian medicine as early as 1000 BC. Mianly indicated
as aphrodisiac, diuretic, restorative and rejuvenative drug, it could have strong impact
on certain type of cancers, on morphine related drug addiction, on certain type of
bacteria and fungus and also an anti-viral agent. But all these need to be further
explored as these properties have been so far established only in animal tests. The most
active component Withaferin A contained in the leaves of W Somnifera, has anti-tumour and
radiosensitizing effects in an experimental tumor in vivo, without any noticeable
systematic toxicity. Cultivation of this Indian plant could give a profit of Rs 10,000 per
hectare. Large-scale availability of this plant would induce a huge industry based on it.
It could be a health food additive, popular as teas and powders. Another economical use of
this plant is as source of commercially important secondary metabolities.
Source: The
Observer
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INDIAN TO SEARCH CUBAN WATERS
An exploration firm run by an Indo-Canadian claims to have found gold bullion, coins,
precious stones and artefacts in the wreckage of what is believed to be a 17th century
Spanish fleet deep under the waters off the Havana Harbour in Cuba. "We have amazing
artefact discoveries that may belong to a Spanish fleet as old as mid-1600s," said K
Sethu Raman, the Indian-origin treasurer and director of Visa Gold Explorations Inc.
The Researchers
believe that this debris, worth $100 billion, belongs to a fleet in the mid-1600s. The
5,000-square km area where the discovery was made and for which Visa Gold has an
exploration joint venture with the Cuban government is littered with shipwrecks, including
25 sunken galleons, said Doug Lewis, company president. Raman has been interested in the
site for years. He signed the first letter of intent with the Cuban government in 1993 and
a final agreement was concluded in February 1998. The agreement provides the company
rights of exploration, excavation and recovery of wrecks of Spanish galleons in the area,
making Raman's company the first foreign firm to be granted rights to search for
shipwrecks in Cuban waters. "In 1492 Christopher Columbus went to South America in
search of Indians. Now I am the first Indian after 500 years to search what he and his
Spanish conquistadores lost in the bottom of the sea when they carried out their
expeditions," Raman said. "Spanish colonial people, starting from the
visit of Columbus in 1492, used to carry gold, silver, emeralds and rubies from the
Phillippines, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. Havana was the capital of the new world for the
Spaniards," Raman said.
Source: The
Observer
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URDU
ON THE NET
Mumbai: An Urdu Research Language Consortium (URLC) in Hyderabad is creating a
website consisting of texts from the Urdu language. Soon texts in Urdu language will be
available on the Internet. URLC was formed in 1996 by the University of Chicago in
conjunction with South Asia Library. The consortium includes seven libraries including
those from Harvard, California, Columbia, Washington, South Asia and Chicago universities.
The website can be opened at http://www.lib.uchicago.edukeksuksouth
asiakurlc.html. URLC has a collection of rare texts which includes 20,000 books, 1,000
manuscripts and 4,000 magazines and newspapers. Incharge of Urdu Research Laboratory
Atluri Murali said the website was created after an increasing demand from international
universities for means to study Indian languages. "People have realised that unless
you simultaneously study South Indian history, they are not really going to understand
this subcontient at macro level. So, there is emphasis now on South Indian history, the
result is there is demand from American universities to access to these languages. So,
first was the Tamil collection, and now it is going to be Urdu collection. And there are
talks of building similar web in Kannada and Telugu," Murali said.
Source: Observer
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INDIA'S
HIGH-TECH HIGHWAYS ARE GOING PLACES
New Delhi: Come May 2001, and India will have its first really hi-tech and fully
private bridge, with magnetic strips to recognise and bill cars so they can just flash by
the 22-lane toll plaza without even bothering to stop on the Noida Toll Bridge which will
cut travel time from Delhi to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to a fourth. And to ensure the
specialist toll collection company, Intertoll of South Africa, doesn't shortchange anyone,
rumble strips on the road will, on the basis of the weight put on them, actually tell a
neighbouring computer terminal just how cars, trucks, buses or two-wheelers used the
bridge that day. And if you think that's too long to wait to see this high-tech bridge in
operation, just go to the site, past Maharani Bagh in the Capital, to see high-tech at
work. No moving of earth by trucks for this 6-kilometre long 8-lane bridge which costs Rs
400 crore. Mitsui Marubeni Corporation of Japan, the prime contractors for the bridge,
have got huge dredgers to suck the sand and water along the river's basin. The sand is
used for the bridge's embankment, the water's sent back. Noida Toll Bridge Company
is using innovative means to build this bridge.
The country's first
build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) bridge is being built by the NOIDA Toll Bridge Company
at an estimated cost of Rs 408 crore.
So, a fifth of the
construction's already complete, and no one's any wiser since there's no pollution, no
noise or disturbance. A separate casting yard, with noise barriers, for the bridge has
been put up in Sector 15 A in Noida, far from the main bridge itself. A Jaipur-Kishenganj
90-km stretch was four-laned just 6 months ago, and the toll road cuts travel time from
Delhi's NH 8 to Jaipur to a mere two-and-a-half hours. And the Gujarat government in
partnership with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services is currently working on
six-laning a two-lane highway from Vadodara to Halol in Gujarat - that is expected to be
completed over the next few months. Feedback Ventures, the parent firm of Bhaumik's
Feedback Infrastructure, is doing the four-laning of the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway and
expects the toll road to be operational in the year 2001.
Source: Indian
Express
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MOVE
TO MAKE EDUCATION FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
New Delhi: A two-day conference of State Educationl Secretaries which concluded
on Saturday has endorsed a proposal to move a Bill to amend the Constitution to make
elementary education a Fundamental Right for all children up to 14 years and a Fundamental
Duty of parents and guardians of children in the age group. Murli Manohar Joshi said that
it also approved a move to enact Central legislation to provide for free and compulsory
elementary education.
Source: Indian
Express
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