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Posted by: Administrator
on Jul 13, 2010
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The prestigious Time magazine has apologised to Indian-Americans following the publication of a column by journalist Joel Stein which offended and outraged the large community, especially those in New Jersey.
"We sincerely regret that any of our readers were upset by Joel Stein's recent humour column 'My Own Private India.' It was in no way intended to cause offence," the Time magazine said after large number of Indian-Americans demanded an apology from the magazine and the columnist.
"I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people," responded Stein, who in his column 'My Own Private India' gave his own impression of how his home town of Edison in New Jersey has changed over the years with the desi influx.
Nearly one in every five resident of this New Jersey city are Indian Americans; thus making it one of the few such cities in the United States.
"For a while, we assumed all Indians were geniuses. Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer so sure about the genius thing. In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor," Stein wrote in the issue dated July 5.
"Eventually, there were enough Indians in Edison to change the culture. At which point my townsfolk started calling the new Edisonians 'dot heads'. One kid I knew in high school drove down an Indian-dense street yelling for its residents to 'go home to India'," Stein wrote.
Indian-Americans also launched an online petition demanding Time and CNN to remove the article from their online edition.
"Such prestigious magazine like Time should not have allowed such an article to be published in the first place. We respectfully request Time magazine to remove the article from the web and have Mr. Joel Stein write an apology letter that shows some remorse," the petition said.
Posted by: Administrator
on Jun 27, 2010
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A team led by an Indian-origin professor has devised a method of using mobile phones for conducting eye tests, a technique it hopes will be useful in places lacking hi-tech eye equipment.
The device, called NETRA, which means eye in Hindi, has been designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab associate professor Ramesh Raskar, visiting professor Manuel Oliveira, student Vitor Pamplona and postdoctoral research associate Ankit Mohan.
The two-minute eye test can be carried out using a small plastic device clipped in front of a cellphone's screen.
The patient looks into a small lens, presses the phone's arrow keys until sets of parallel green and red lines just overlap. The process is repeated eight times with the lines at different angles for each eye.
The entire process takes less than two minutes after which the software loaded in the phone provides prescription data.
"Our device has the potential to make routine refractive eye exams simpler and cheaper, and, therefore, more accessible to millions of people in developing countries," Oliveira said in a statement.
The technology takes advantage of the huge improvements over the last few years in the resolution of digital displays and their widespread proliferation on cellphones.
Posted by: Administrator
on Jun 18, 2010
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INTRODUCTION TO CHERRAPUNJI
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Posted by: Administrator
on Jun 11, 2010
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Varanasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras or Banāras and Kashi, is a city situated on the banks of the River Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest of India.
The city has been a cultural and religious centre in North India for several thousand years. The Benares Gharana form of Indian classical music developed in Varanasi, and many prominent Indian philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians resided or reside in Varanasi.
Varanasi is home to four universities: Banaras Hindu University, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. Residents mainly speak Hindi and Kashika Bhojpuri, which is closely related to the Hindi language. People often refer to Varanasi as "the city of temples", "the holy city of India", "the religious capital of India", "the city of lights", and "the city of learning.
American writer Mark Twain wrote: "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."
The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi for it lies with the confluence of Varuna with the Ganges being to its north and that of Assi and the Ganges to its south.
According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, around 5,000 years ago, thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country. It is one of the seven sacred cities of Hindus. Many Hindu scriptures, including the Rigveda, Skanda Purana, Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, mention the city.
Varanasi is a holy city in Hinduism, being one of the most sacred pilgrimage places for Hindus of all denominations. More than 1,000,000 pilgrims visit the city each year. It has the holy shrine of Kashi Vishwanath (a manifestation of Lord Shiva), and also one of the twelve revered Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva.
Hindus believe that bathing in Ganga remits sins and that dying in Kashi ensures release of a person's soul from the cycle of its transmigrations.
Posted by: Administrator
on May 31, 2010
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NEW YORK: Most international musicians barely get noticed in the bustling Big Apple, but AR Rahman is a show-stopper — and very profitable.
Fans have paid prices of up to $1,000 (Rs47,000) for 11 concerts in North America between June 11 and July 5, which are already thought to be sold out.
Posted by: Administrator
on May 27, 2010
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Fourteen-year-old Sahal Kaushik, who holds the 33rd rank at all-India level in the IIT JEE exam, emerged the Delhi region topper in the entrance examination.
At the press conference to honor the toppers, Sahal, who was too shy to speak on stage, handed the mike over to his mother Ruchi Kaushik. But that was just for a while, off the stage, the boy giggled with his friend and answered media questions quite comfortably.
"He mixes where he wants to. He has participated in competitions at the international level and mixed very well with everyone," says Ruchi. A doctor by profession, Ruchi was her son's first teacher.
The first signs showed when he was two. “He could spell four to five letter words then. At three, he could recite multiplication tables of up to 100,” said Ruchi Kaushik, his mother. “I just knew he would not fit in the formal system of education.”
So Ruchi quit her job as a doctor and homeschooled her son.
Posted by: Administrator
on May 24, 2010
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Kamminlung Singson was sitting next to me on a four-hour hopping flight from Delhi to Imphal. He had one year of training in a short-term programme of Indian Army and was on his way back home to Churachandpur, about 60km from Imphal. He was supposed to travel by train up to Guwahati and then take a bus, but the highways to his hometown, NH 39 and NH 53, had been blocked by Naga rebels for almost 30 days at that time, so he had to somehow arrange for an air ticket. Not many Manipuris can afford an air ticket, he said sadly.
How’s is the situation, I asked?
Very bad. UGs are ruling and people are suffering. Imphal to Churachand Pur ticket has gone up to Rs 150 per person, which was just 40 rupees a few months back, he said.
Posted by: Administrator
on May 21, 2010
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Former president A P J Abdul Kalam has stressed the need for an awakening among the youth for a corruption free government and administration.
Describing the 54 crore youths of the country as its biggest asset, he said India would definitely become a super power by 2020 if youngsters worked towards the goal.
Posted by: Administrator
on May 18, 2010
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Four thousand five hundred semi-literate dabbawalas collect and deliver 175,000 packages within hours. What should we learn from this unique, simple and highly efficient 120-year-old logistics system?
Hungry kya? What would you like: pizza from the local Domino's (30 minute delivery) or a fresh, hot meal from home? Most managers don't have a choice. It's either a packed lunch or junk food grabbed from a fast food outlet. Unless you live in Mumbai , that is, where a small army of 'dabbawalas' picks up 175,000 lunches from homes and delivers them to harried students, managers and workers on every working day. At your desk. 12.30 pm on the dot. Served hot, of course. And now you can even order through the Internet.
The Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is a streamlined 120-year-old organisation with 4,500 semi-literate members providing a quality door-to-door service to a large and loyal customer base.
Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.
The dabbawala originated when a person named Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started the lunch delivery service with about 100 men.Nowadays, Indian businessmen are the main customers for the dabbawalas, and the service often includes cooking as well as delivery.
Economic analysis:
Everyone who works within this system is treated as an equal. Regardless of a dabbawala's function, everyone gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month (around 25-50 British pounds or 40-80 US dollars).
More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunches get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries.
How has MTBSA managed to survive through these tumultuous years? The answer lies in a twin process that combines competitive collaboration between team members with a high level of technical efficiency in logistics management. It works like this...
After the customer leaves for work, her lunch is packed into a tiffin provided by the dabbawala. A color-coded notation on the handle identifies its owner and destination. Once the dabbawala has picked up the tiffin, he moves fast using a combination of bicycles, trains and his two feet.
Team work
The entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffins are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, and taken to the nearest railway station. At various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution, so that a single tiffin could change hands three to four times in the course of its daily journey.
Posted by: Administrator
on Mar 20, 2010
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Akhil Mathew, an 18-year-old resident of Madison, New Jersey, Tuesday night won the third place in the Intel Science Talent Search, America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition honouring the next generation of American innovators.
The Intel Foundation that gives the annual Intel Science Talent Search award and is administered by the Society for Science and the Public declared Akhil the third place winner with a $50,000 cash award for his math project on Deligne categories, a setting for studying a wide range of algebraic structures with ties to theoretical physics. The honour was announced during a gala dinner in Washington DC.
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