Solar Bicycles: Easy on the Pocket, Friendly with the Environment
February 21, 2012, Daiji World
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Bangalore, Feb 21: People who want to use clean renewable energy for their rides, have another option now. Unlike solar cars which are costly to use and maintain, the solar bicycles, aptly titled ‘Sun Cycles’ by its developors Subhadra Industries, are cheap and easy to maintain. What is more, the bicycles people are already using can also be transformed into solar bicycles.
Once the battery is fully charged, the bicycle can cover a distance of 25 km. The battery has to be replaced once every three years. It comes with a two-year guarantee. These bicycles can take a total weight of 90 kg. READ….
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Gun culture spreads in India
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2012
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Vikramjit Singh stands in the parking lot of a posh club in Chandigarh discussing one of his favorite subjects: guns. He owns 10 or so; he can’t remember exactly. They may come in handy if the old family feud resurfaces.
In a Hatfield-versus-McCoy saga that haunts the 25-year-old student, his grandfather was shot to death here in the western state of Punjab and his father imprisoned for a retaliatory murder. Although the two clans signed a truce a few years back, Singh isn’t taking any chances.
“Having a gun 24/7 is a necessity,” he says. “You don’t know if their relatives will crop up again. And an expensive weapon is a status symbol. You can’t flash just any old gun around.” READ….
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Iran Not Funding Coverage, Urdu Editors Say
By HARI KUMAR, February 20, 2012, New York Times
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Last week, India Ink examined a diplomatic cable from 2006 which alleged, among other things, that the Iranian government had paid for the placement of stories in some of India’s Urdu newspapers.
When we asked several editors of Urdu newspapers for their response, they refuted many of the allegations in the cable. Their papers did not accept funds in exchange for news coverage, they said, and they had not even received advertisements from the Iranian government for several years. READ…..
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Turner Construction to spearhead $2.5B in Indian real estate
Indus Business Journal, Issue Date: February 2012
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New York’s Turner Construction Co., London’s Acropolis Capital Group and India’s Sahara Prime City Ltd. joins forces in Sahara Turner Construction Ltd. and plan to develop and construct multiple townships across India to the tune of $2.5 billion over the next five years. The partnership will be managed by Turner and the company will provide construction services and lead in the development of townships. Turner also said that, over time, it will serve clients in other markets such as infrastructure, health care and hospitality.
The formation of this company underscores Sahara Prime’s commitment to the delivery of affordable housing at a high standard of quality and on a timely basis, the company said. READ….
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J&K abandons New Delhi funded academic programs
by MUDDASIR ALI, Greater Kashmir, February 19, 2012
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Though Jammu and Kashmir falls in seismic zone-V making it prone to high magnitude earthquakes, state government is sleeping over a Union Ministry of Home Affairs funded program to set up a hi-tech Disaster Management Center (DMC) here for carrying out research in the field of seismology.
Not only this, a Union Ministry of Rural Development sponsored program for strengthening Panchayat Raj system in JK is upto similar fate, while Government of India subsidiary Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), has asked JK to return allocated funds after the latter failed to utilize the same during the past five years to set up a research institute for urban development. READ…
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Farmers stall work in another mega-power plant in Bihar
February 18, 2012, Bihar Times
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Within days of the foundation laying of 1980 MW Nabinagar Thermal Generating Company at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district, work in another mega-power plant in the same block of the district has run into rough weather. Farmers have been on warpath for about a fortnight as they alleged they got much less for their plots.
Work in the 1000 MW plant, being set up jointly by the Indian Railways and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has come to a standstill following agitation by the farmers whose land has been acquired for the plant. READ….
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Naveen seeks clarification on PC’s ‘shared responsibility’ .
February 18, 2012, Bhubaneswar, The Pioneer
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With Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s broadside of the Central Government over the “draconian” NCTC finding its echo at least in eight States, including West Bengal where UPA ally Mamata Banerjee is at the helm, the UPA Government on Saturday appeared to be in a tizzy, forcing Home Minister P Chidambaram to take a placatory stand at Kolkatta. But it provided further space to Patnaik to continue his diatribe on the issue.
While questioning the propriety of the UPA Government in not taking into confidence the State Governments in the matters of internal security, Patnaik slammed Chidambaram for his reference at Kolkota that internal security was a shared responsibility of the Centre and States. Patnaik expressed his surprise and sought to know ,”If it is a shared responsibility why they (Union Government) are not sharing vital information with the State Governments like the notification (on NCTC) which was passed on February 3, while they want to put it into operation from March 1.” READ….
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SIMI-backed party alarms NIA
February 10, 2012 by Rakesh K Singh, The Pioneer
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SIMI-backed Popular Front of India is fast becoming a major internal security headache for the Government. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is tracking the outfit, has specific information on its efforts to mobilise Muslims for seeking a “state within state” to address the community’s woes.
What has alarmed Government is the outfit’s rapid growth among Muslims and Dalits and its alliances with certain regional parties. “This could make it the biggest internal security threat by 2014 parliamentary polls if its growth is unchecked,” top NIA sources said.
The radical outfit recently shifted its headquarters from Kerala to Delhi. It has held a secret meeting recently “in a bid to garner support for its separate Muslim state agenda”.
The demand for a separate state for the community, sources said, has prompted rattled agencies to step up surveillance on the outfit’s leaders. They did not elaborate on the venue of the secret meet or the leaders who attended it. They said specifics could endanger the moles planted in the outfit’s ranks. READ….
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