Virgin Atlantic unveils first commercial spaceship

California: Virgin Atlantic on Monday unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship, a sleek black-and-white vessel that represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry.

An artist's conception of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo during a sub-orbital flight into space is pictured in this undated publicity photograph from Virgin Galactic.

The company hopes the winged, minivan-sized SpaceShipTwo will rocket tourists into zero gravity beginning in two or three years.

"This will be the start of commercial space travel," Virgin Atlantic Airways founder and billionaire Richard Branson said at the launch in California's Mojave Desert. "You become an astronaut."

The project, with a $450 million budget, would see the construction of six commercial spaceships that would take passengers high enough to achieve weightlessness and see the curvature of Earth set against the backdrop of space.

An artist's conception of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo during a sub-orbital flight into space is pictured in this undated publicity photograph from Virgin Galactic

A twin-hulled aircraft named Eve would carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of about 60,000 feet before releasing it. The spaceship would then fire its onboard rocket engines, climbing to about 65 miles above Earth.

The trip would take about 2-1/2 hours, with passengers experiencing about five minutes of weightlessness.

Some 300 aspiring astronauts have put down deposits for the $200,000 ride, which includes three days of training.

Eventually, Virgin Galactic, the offshoot of Virgin Atlantic, may offer suborbital travel that could dramatically cut the length of flights.

"Subject to American government permission, we may well start developing a program to try to take people from continent to continent, you know, two hours from Los Angeles to Australia," Branson said in an interview with Reuters TV.

"Can't promise that we're going to be able to do it, but if you don't try things you don't succeed, so we'll definitely give it a go," he said.

BRANSON SAYS SAFER THAN NASA

Other potential business ventures include flying scientists and experiments and launching small payloads into space.

Branson hired aircraft designer Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites to build the commercial spaceship fleet after a Rutan prototype named SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first private piloted spaceflight.

Commercial space flight has been a dream for decades, but the 2004 flight was the first proof that industry might be able to achieve it without the help of government, which historically has dominated space travel.

A lethal 2007 explosion during a rocket engine test by Scaled Composites, however, illustrated the danger and risk to creating a safe and profitable venture.

Branson, in the Reuters Television interview, said that the flights would be safer than NASA's Space Shuttle.

"I think because it's so much younger, it's just that much safer than what NASA has done using old technology which is 50, 60 years old," he said.

SpaceShipOne, which is on display at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, made three suborbital flights.

A 10-month atmospheric test flight program is expected to begin on Tuesday and would be followed by extensive test flights into space before passenger travel in 2011 or 2012.

Dynamic Architecture: Rotating Buildings in Dubai and Moscow

Revolution in Architecture: We have seen tall buildings, we have seen strange buildings, but have you seen buildings in motion that actually change their shape? Sounds unbelievable but not to Dr. David Fisher.

Visionary architect Dr. David Fisher is the creator of the world’s first building in motion - the revolutionary Dynamic Tower. It will adjust itself to the sun, wind, weather and views by rotating each floor separately.This building will never appear exactly the same twice.

               Dynamic Architecture

It is amazing but you will have the choice of waking up to sunrise in your bedroom and enjoying sunsets over the ocean at dinner.

In addition to being such an incredible engineering miracle it will produce energy for itself and even for other buildings because it will have wind turbines fitted between each rotating floor. So an 80-story building will have up to 79 wind turbines, making it a true green power plant.

               Dynamic Architecture

There are currently two projects of such Dynamic Architecture in the world - Dubai and Moscow.

Dubai Project

             Dynamic Tower In Dubai

The Dynamic Tower in Dubai will be 1,380 feet (420 meters) tall, 80 floors, apartments will range in size from 1,330 square feet (124 square meters), to Villas of 12,900 square feet (1,200 square meters) complete with a parking space inside the apartment. It will consist of offices, a luxury hotel, residential apartments, and the top 10 floors will be for luxury villas located in a prime location in Dubai.

              Dynamic Tower In Dubai

The Dynamic Tower in Dubai will be the first skyscraper to be entirely constructed in a factory from prefabricated parts. So instead of some 2000 workers, only 680 will be sufficient. Construction is scheduled to be completed by 2010.

Moscow Project

The tower will be 1312 ft (400 meters) tall. The investments into the tower construction is going to be more than $400 million. The beginning of construction is planned for the end of 2008, and the commissioning of the tower into operation will
be for 2010.

              Dynamic Tower In Moscow

Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks

Switzerland:With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?

DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.

Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. “Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be travelling there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn’t referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!

Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country’s wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?

Black money in Swiss banks -- Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

Top five

India---- $1456 billion
Russia---$ 470 billion
UK-------$390 billion
Ukraine- $100 billion
China-----$ 96 billion

Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind -- the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.

What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ’Swiss bank accounts,’ the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.

In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe. The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens.

Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker -- in his widely celebrated book titled ’Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System’ -- estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970. It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody’s guess.

What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means. Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term ’tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts?

India's English growth 'too slow' a study says

India is falling behind countries such as China in its attempts to increase the use of English among its population, a new report says.

The study by the British Council says a "huge shortage" of teachers and quality institutions is hampering India despite a growing demand for English skills.

The study says China may now have more people who speak English than India.

India's emergence as a major software and IT hub has in part been possible due to its English-educated workers.

'Poor English'

The study, English Next India, by British author David Gradoll says English is a "casualty of wider problems in Indian education".

"The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent India from falling behind other countries which have implemented the teaching of English in primary schools sooner, and more successfully.

"China may already have more people who speak English than India."

The report says India will need many more people speaking English to sustain its economic growth.

"Much of the world is catching India up in terms of the English proficiency of their populations"

Increasing demand for English language schools, a rising number of jobs which require English skills as well as growing social mobility are driving demand for English in India, the study says.

But the spread of the language, according to the report, is being hindered by a shortage of English language teaching in schools.

The report says Indian universities fall far short of rival countries in the quality of teaching and research, and "poor English is one of the causes".

Also, the report adds, it is "impossible" to improve standards of English without addressing the problem of "very low levels of academic achievement" of students studying in government and private schools.

The study says a range of approaches is required to improve English proficiency in India, and no single method will help.

English has been spoken in India from the days of colonial rule, but there are no precise estimates on how many Indians speak, read and write English.

One estimate suggests 333 million people in India "use English", but India's National Knowledge Commission says "even now, no more than 1% of our people use English as a second language, let alone a first language".

China vs. India - Entrepreneurship

There are scores of articles in every major newspaper and every major magazine comparing India with China on various economic progress indicators. There are even books written about Tiger of India pitted against Dragon of China. To those who base their opinions on such reports, articles and books, it looks as though India is posing a strong completion to China, when in fact every measurable economic indicator suggests that China is clearly leading India on all fronts. Moreover the gap between these two countries is only widening with each passing year. And yet, many Indian commentators continue to complacently believe that India has some edge somewhere when in fact none exists.

The tone of these reports and analysis comparing India with China suggest that India is actually inching towards China. That is not the case. In reality China is leaving behind India by a bigger margin every year. It is becoming tougher and tougher for India to catch up. In the last few years, Chinese have built the biggest dam on the planet, built the longest bridges, built the fastest cities, built their own planes, submarines, ships, magnetic trains, and even the highest railways while India continued to lay another layer of asphalt on its decrepit roads after each rainfall.

India is not even showing a promise of catching up. None of its policies suggest this. None of its initiatives give a glimmer of hope. Even the Indian industry is not thinking big. It is still content to play a small game.

Is English really India’s edge?

Indian commentators continue to tell us that all this China-leading-India comments are based in myth, because Indians have English which Chinese don’t have.

Is English really India’s edge? Only when India looks at itself as servicing the West using its BPOs then yes, English gives India the edge. However, if the competitor is bent on actually creating its own technology product industry to take on the West, does English still matter?
When was the last time a Japanese car company could not sell its cars because the makers were not good at English? When was the last time someone in Europe balked at buying a Sony Walkman because its makers couldn’t speak English? When it comes to China, how come their lack of good English not stop Huawei from becoming world #2 in telecom equipment? How come it did not stop Lenovo, Haier and ZTE from becoming leading global brands? Just to give a perspective to Indian readers – 2 telecom equipment companies of China, Huawei and ZTE put together made USD 30 Billion in 2008 while the entire IT-ITES industry of India put together made USD 58 Billion in 2008-09.

China is changing the rules of the games. It is taking on the West where the West has dominated so far, bringing the fight closer to the technology leaders, while India has conveniently told itself that it will not even play this game.

Indians are in self-denial. They foolishly believe everything Thomas Friedman tells them, and they are happy serving their European and American masters setting up BPOs, KPOs, LPOs, software services, helping them do their things in a cheap and cost-effective way, while Chinese are poised to take on these European and American masters head on. It’s as though the Chinese have completely overthrown their colonial inferiority complex.

For many years now, Indians gloated over the characterization that India is good at software services while China is good at manufacturing. This was a convenient characterization that only Indians believed because the books were written in English which only Indians could understand. Chinese blissfully unaware of what Friedman said were not constrained by this characterization and hence clearly violated all hierarchies.

Indians limited themselves to serving the West. When they looked in the mirror, they said, “I am an Indian. I am good at services. I should just stick to it”. That India is only good at software services became a cultural phenomenon with every major industry bigwig repeating it on various forums. Even Indian government fell into this trap where all incentives and subsidies were geared only to promote the software services companies. Go to a hardware park in India and compare it with a software park in India, you will recognize the step-motherly treatment meted out to the hardware companies.

India made no attempts at taking on China in manufacturing. Nor did they attempt to take on the West to go up the value chain to actually deliver technology and products. The Flat World theories told them that they can just concentrate on what they were good at, that is Software Services, KPOs, BPOs and LPOs, giving up on manufacturing forever thereby handing over the race on a silver platter to China, and giving up on technology products thereby continuing to serve the West.

China not only won the race in manufacturing and consolidated its position, it is now entering the technology product space, the domain held closely by the European, American and Japanese technology leaders. What more, it has started to beat these leaders at their own game. Huawei has recently won the contract to supply 3G equipment in Norway, the bastion of Nokia. While India made feeble attempts with C-DOT and ITI who are not even able to sell into BSNL, China has launched not one but two major telecom companies – Huawei and ZTE, that not only sells within their countries, they sell to BSNL also.

China vs. India

CK Prahlad in his closing comments at Nasscom Summit of February 2009 advised that Indian companies should foster more startups because they are the ones which bring vibrancy to the economy. His advice comes late, and even when it comes, it falls on deaf ears.
Infosys, TCS and Wipro, the giants of Indian software services which Thomas Friedman lauds, did not do much to sponsor or promote startups in India (barring few exceptions).
Their presence in India did not help any startup, except that many ex-employees went out and started companies on their own without any support or encouragement from these parent companies.

Meanwhile, China has launched extensive nationwide program to promote entrepreneurship in China. I was told that even a district head, equivalent to Indian District Collector, could invest up to half a million US dollars to a company that sets up shop in his district. Writing about China, a report says:

An analysis of documenting the tremendous growth of the Chinese entrepreneurial and cultural initiatives since the demise of Communist leader Mao Zedong reveals that this accounts for the Chinese economy’s double digit growth in the last couple of decades.

It is clear to some countries that startups are essential for the growth in economy. Not so, thinks India. Indian has never believed in startups. They don’t think they add up to anything. The government is obsessed with giants because they look at them as employment provider – therefore the bigger the employer the better it is. Not a single major initiative has been taken in the last few years to promote startups in India. While the government boasts of loans to SMEs, when startups actually approach the banks, they feign ignorance of any such initiative.

All initiatives and decision making bodies in India are headed by people who have been good software services and therefore there is not a single policy that actually aids home grown brands, products and technologies. STPI still thinks that software is exported only as floppy, ftp or a CD. If you put that software in telecom equipment, a mobile handset, or a DVD player, then it does not recognize it as software and hence are not given the incentives. If Apple existed in India, there is not category for recognizing it. The prevailing mood is clear – you serve a foreign master you get the incentives; you try to become a master you don’t get any incentives.

Also, there are not many places a startup can raise funds in India. That’s why most startups continue to be family-owned or family-backed. First generation entrepreneurs find it impossible to raise money. The number of VC firms in India is limited while the government funds are small. Most government funds are small and therefore their mandate does not allow them to fund big ideas, while the miniscule few bigger size funds do not fund loss-making companies which completely rules out startups.


China, on the other hand, is actively promoting startups through various forums and incentives. Though it is a communist country it hosts millions of entrepreneurs and VC firms which is aiding its economy.


China currently has over 200 million entrepreneurs and it houses 200 venture capital firms. The country accounts for 24.6% of the total entrepreneurship activities across the world, far ahead of Indian at 13.9% and the US at 14%, according to a survey by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

About 116 Chinese companies are listed on NASDAQ, as against 2568 US firms, Israel’s 63, and a handful from India, says the study.

China is even popularizing entrepreneurship as a cultural attitude with various initiatives including TV programs.

…a Chinese reality TV show “Win in China” has received applications for entrepreneurial ventures from over 1,20,000 aspirants. Of these, 108 were chosen for prize money and working capital of $5 Million.

Indians don’t know what to do. They are confused. They don’t know if they are socialist or capitalist. The reality is that they are clueless – they are neither capitalist nor socialist. China is both socialist and capitalist playing these two cards really well. The only floating hope for Indians has been their mastery of English. And the following observation should submerge that hope as well.

To give competition to India and other cost-effective English speaking countries like the Philippines, millions of Chinese students are learning English systematically. “China will become the largest English speaking geography in the world by the end of this year”, Compton added.

Courtesy:Guest article by Sujai Karampuri, CEO/Founder of Sloka Telecom from his/>

Google PC will start in seven seconds or less

CALIFORNIA:New Google Inc software will start up a computer as fast as a television can be turned on, the search company said on Thursday as it showed off its Chrome operating system designed for PCs that do their work on the Web.

Google gave the first public look at its Chrome OS four months after declaring its intention of developing the PC's main software, a move that pits it directly against Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc.

True to Google's Internet-pedigree, the Chrome OS resembles a Web browser more than it does a traditional computer operating system like Microsoft Windows, matching Google's ambition to drive people to the Web -- where they can see Google ads.

Google said the software will initially be available by the holiday season of 2010 on low-cost netbooks that meet Google's hardware specifications, such as using only memory chips to store data instead of slower hard drives, the current standard.

Netbooks running Chrome OS will only be able to run Web applications and the user's data will automatically be stored on the Web in the so-called cloud of Internet servers, Google executives said at an event at the company's Mountain View, California headquarters on Thursday.

"It's basically a Web browsing machine," said Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li, referring to the netbooks powered by Chrome OS.

Such a machine is made for a world of near-constant, extremely fast Web connection, without the type of software that made Microsoft famous, since most of the work would be done by big machines on the Web which take directions and send information to relatively uncomplicated devices like a Chrome PC.

Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google's Chrome OS, said that computers running Chrome OS will be able to start in less than seven seconds.

"From the time you press boot you want it to be like a TV: You turn it on and you should be on the Web using your applications," Pichai said.

MORE WEB USE DRIVES MORE GOOGLE ADS

Google said it is giving away the software for free, similar to its Android smartphone software, with the idea that improving the Web experience will ultimately benefit its Internet search advertising business, which generated roughly $22 billion in revenue in 2008.

"They're doing it to get further and further entrenched in whatever people are doing to go online, whether that's a browser, an operating system or in applications," said Todd Greenwald, an analyst with Signal Hill Group.

"If Chrome is the OS then the attach (access) rate on Google searches will be a lot higher," he said.

But analysts noted that the differences between conventional PCs and Chrome OS netbooks might give some consumers pause.

"If they view it from the conventional perspective, then it falls short," Gartner analyst Ray Valdes said of Chrome OS, citing its lack of compatibility with traditional software and its limited offline capabilities.

Google officials said Chrome OS netbooks will be able to provide some functions when offline, but that the product was primarily designed to be connected to the Internet.

But Valdes said if Google can deliver on the products' promises, such as fast performance, then consumers may view Chrome OS netbooks as distinct class of products with attractive benefits.

"I think that it's initially going to appeal to small subset of the general consumer population," said Valdes. "The question is can they build on that and expand that over time."

Google made the computer code for the Chrome OS available to outside developers on Thursday, allowing developers to tinker with the software and potentially design new applications to run alongside it.

With Chrome, Google is seeking to challenge the dominance of Microsoft Corp's Windows, which runs on nine out of 10 personal computers.

The Chrome OS also challenges makers of traditional, desktop software, including Microsoft and its lucrative Office suite of productivity software, since Chrome OS only runs Web applications.

Google's Pichai, noted during a demonstration on Thursday, that Chrome OS-based PCs would be interoperable with Web-based versions of software, such as Microsoft's online version of its Excel spreadsheet.

Google said all data in Chrome will automatically be housed in the so-called cloud, or on external servers, but also cached on the computer's internal hardware to boost performance.

If a person loses their netbook, Google Engineering Director Matt Papakipos explained, they can buy a new one, log in and within seconds have a machine with access to all the same data as their previous device.

"What really makes this a cloud device is that all the user data is synced back to the cloud in real time," said Papakipos.

Shares of Mountain View, California-based Google fell $3.66 to $572.99 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

Australian PM apologizes to "Forgotten Australians"

CANBERRA: Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made apology on Monday to thousands of Australians who suffered in state and church care, saying the nation looked back in shame.

The prime minister said sorry for the abuses children suffered up until the late 1970s.

Rudd told those gathered that Australia was "sorry for the physical suffering, emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care".

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a national apology to the forgotten Australians and former child migrants at a ceremony in the great hall at Parliament House in Canberra November 16, 2009. Rudd apologised on Monday for years of abuse and pain suffered by thousands of orphans and children sent to Australia from Britain, often without the knowledge of their parents.

"As a nation we must now reflect on those who did not receive proper care. We look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to turn," Rudd said.

"Robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not as innocent children, but regarded instead as a source of child labor," said the prime minister.

He told the audience further that "To those of you who were told you were orphans, brought here without your parents' knowledge or consent, we acknowledge the lies you were told, the lies told to your mothers, fathers and the pain these lies have caused for a lifetime."

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd comforts a victim after giving a national apology to the forgotten Australians and former child migrants at a ceremony in the great hall at Parliament House in Canberra

The audience included former child migrants separated from their families in Britain and shipped to Australia, as well as others placed with foster parents or in orphanages run by the states and churches.

Many suffered ill-treatment and some sexual abuse. They have been dubbed the "forgotten Australians".

Dinosaur footprints found in New Zealand

HAMILTON:Seventy million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been found in New Zealand, a geologist said.

The footprints were found in the South Island region of Nelson - the first evidence of the dinosaur's existence in the country.

Geologist Greg Browne of the New Zealand government-owned research organisation, G.N.S. Science, found the footprints while he was investigating rock and sediment formations in Whanganui inlet at Golden Bay, said a press release of Tourism New Zealand here.

The footprints were in six locations spread over an area of about 10km.

Browne said the prints were made by sauropods - large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails and pillar-like legs.

Palaeontologist Hamish Campbell said the find was 'hugely exciting' and added: 'We will now go and examine rocks of comparable age'.

Browne said the footprints were made in beach sands and were probably quickly covered and preserved by mud from subsequent tides.

'What makes this discovery special is the unique preservation of the footprints in an environment where they could easily have been destroyed by waves, tides, or wind.'

Up to 20 footprints were found at one location and the depressions are roughly circular, with the largest about 60cm in diameter. Most are smaller, typically between 10cm and 20cm in diameter, and were probably formed by dinosaurs between 2m and 6m in length and weighing several tonnes, said Browne.

Dinosaur bones, mostly vertebrae, have been found at three locations - northern Hawkes Bay, Port Waikato, and the Chatham Islands.

Browne said the footprints added a considerable amount of information about how dinosaurs moved, how fast they moved and how big they were.

'This discovery opens the way for further study on a range of dinosaur-related issues in New Zealand.'

Browne's discovery will be published in the December issue of New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics.

Stem cell banking, a Rs 100-crore business in India

New Delhi: Almost non-existent a few years ago in the country, stem cell banking is now a flourishing business with more and more people wishing to store their baby''s cord blood as a form of bio-insurance, even though it comes at a heavy price. Cord blood storage is fast gaining momentum as a less traumatic alternative to treat neurological illnesses, and as a guarantee for the family against a host of diseases.

Stem cell treatment is a therapy in which new cells are injected into damaged tissues and banks generally charge anything between Rs 60,000 and Rs 80,000 to harvest the cord blood for private use. Increased awareness about the benefits of stem cell therapies has led to mushrooming of several firms providing treatment and blood storing services in less than six years.

According to Stem Cell Global Foundation (SCGF), a Delhi-based organisation promoting research, stem cell banking is a Rs 100 crore business in India and at an annual growth of over 35 per cent, it is expected to touch Rs 140 crore by 2010. The overall market for stem cell research is also growing very fast and it could reach Rs 2,200 crore by next year, said Karan Goel, chairman and founder of the foundation.

"The reason behind the exceptional growth is because therapies using stem cells are giving hopes to millions of patients afflicted with chronic diseases and not responding to conventional treatment".

Chandrayaan-II mission to be completed by 2012-13

Bangalore: Chandrayaan-II moon mission, which will help in analysis of mineral composition and undertake terrain mapping of the moon, will be completed by 2012-13, project director of Chandrayaan Dr M Annadurai said today.

"The Rs425-crore project will be completed by 2012-13. As opposed to Chandrayaan-1 which was a moon orbiter, in Chandrayaan-II, the two moon rovers will actually land on the moon surface," and "Chadrayaan-II will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with two moon rovers, one from India and one from Russia, which will land on the moon and move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above," Annadurai said.

Annadurai said the Chardrayaan-I which was the 70th satellite to go on the moon "created history with discovery of water there (moon)".

"The Rs386-crore project (Chandrayaan-I) which took four-and-a-half years to be completed has provided 6 terabits of data which will take the scientists three years to mull over," he said.

Annadurai gave the credit of Chandrayaan-I success to the "teamwork of the 3,000 scientists who worked tirelessly on the project".

"The students of today have the capacity to lead the world in 2020 through innovation", he said.

U.S. slaps more punitive penalties on Chinese goods

WASHINGTON: The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday slapped punitive penalties to imports of coated paper and salts from China, a move might escalate trade disputes between the two countries.

The ITC has made affirmative determinations in its preliminary phase countervailing and antidumping duty investigations concerning certain coated paper from China and Indonesia, said the ITC in a statement.

It also approved an investigation of charges that Chinese producers are dumping three types of salts, namely, tetrapotassium pyrophosphate, monopotassium phosphate, and dipotassium phosphate in the United States.

But the trade panel made a negative determination with respect to sodium tripolyphosphate.

Meanwhile, the panel also made negative determinations in its preliminary phase countervailing and antidumping duty investigations concerning certain standard steel fasteners from mainland China and Taiwan.

The two more new trade cases against China followed the U.S. Commerce Department's Thursday decision to set preliminary antidumping duties on imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from China, the biggest U.S. trade action against China.

China strongly opposed the U.S. decision, claiming that it is a protectionist move.

The United States denied China's market economy status and took discriminative measures to impose anti-dumping duties, bringing serious impacts to China's steel sector exports, said China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman Yao Jian in a statement on Friday.

We hope the United States can get rid of the bias and admit China's market economy status soon to tackle the double standards thoroughly and give Chinese enterprises equal and fair treatment, Yao said.

U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 Years

WASHINGTON: U.S. unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent in October, the highest in more than 26 years, the Labor Department reported Friday.

In the past month, the employers cut 190,000 jobs, more than the 175,000 economists had expected but fewer than the 219,000 lost in September.



The October reading of unemployment rate was also worse than the 9.9 percent expected by economists. Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S economy has lost a net total of 7.3 million jobs.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the surge in the unemployment rate was a "sobering" figure that underscored the economic challenges ahead.

"Although we lost fewer jobs than we did last month, our unemployment rate climbed to over 10 percent, a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead," he said.

"I promise I won't rest until America is prosperous once again," the president vowed.



According to the Labor Department, the manufacturing sector shed 61,000 jobs last month while construction industries axed 62,000 jobs. Retail trade employment fell by 40,000 over the month.

Meanwhile, professional and business services added 18,000 jobs, and employment in the education and health services grew by 45,000jobs over the month.



The average work week in October was unchanged at 33 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.

The Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the United States, has said that the nation's unemployment rate will remain elevated into 2011. Many economists believe the labor market may not get back to normal meaning a 5 percent unemployment rate until 2013.

Australia's international education sector boosted by China and India

CANBERRA: The growth in Australia's international education sector has been boosted by students from India and China, who accounted for more than one-third of the export market.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed on Thursday that China and India were the two biggest source countries for students, contributing 5.1 billion Australian dollars (4.5 billion U.S. dollars) to the sector in 2007-08.

The international education sector overall was worth 13.7 billion Australian dollars (11.97 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007-08.

The federal government has been working overtime to improve the reputation of Australia's international education services -- the nation's third biggest export sector -- after a spate of attacks against Indian students and  a 4 members of Chinese family was killed and a chinese student was found died near the sea because of ethnicity in Australia.

Indian student enrolments were 121,000 at June 2009, up an annual average 46 percent over the same period.

The ABS stated the number of enrolments from Chinese students was 146,000 at June 2009, up an average annual 16 percent over the past six years.

The growth rate of Indian students was even greater.

A thousands of students are marched through the streets of Sydney and Melbourne in protest over a number of issues, including student safety.

  In Beijing, overseas study agencies say parents are concerned about security in Australia, but there has been no decrease in interest in studying at the country's universities.

"Despite a number of recent attacks on Asian students, Australia remains one of the safest countries in the world for international students to come and study. Most students go about their day-to-day business safely," the spokesperson said.

And Recently three Universities in Australia have been closed without no reasons and the foreign students remains helpless.

HP acquires IBRIX

CALIFORNIA: HP has announced a definitive agreement for the company to acquire IBRIX, a leading provider of enterprise-class file serving software that includes data protection, high-availability features and data management services for extreme scale-out, cloud and high-performance computing deployments.

Customers with large-scale, data-intensive application environments find that storage performance often becomes a bottleneck for their workflows. IBRIX's solutions allow enterprises to easily and cost-effectively store massive amounts of user-generated data.

"Customers need highly scalable storage solutions that efficiently and cost-effectively manage massive amounts of information," said Jim Wagstaff, Vice President & General Manager StorageWorks Division,Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking, HP Enterprise Business.

"This acquisition expands our portfolio to better support the needs of this market segment. In addition, IBRIX's highly scalable software leverages industry-standard hardware allowing customers to fully maximize their existing investments."

IBRIX's software is currently available with HP StorageWorks storage area networks (SANs), HP ProLiant servers, HP BladeSystem, and HP ProCurve Ethernet switches and management software.

China Vs India - Growth Factor

India has not grown as fast as China, but it appears as if India might grow faster over the next decade. There are two key differences in the growth of these two nations. First, China has seen significant investment in infrastructure and FDI, while India's growth has been without any meaningful investment in infrastructure and FDI. Second, India's growth has emerged through an era of capital deficiency, while China's growth been the result of flinging increasing amounts of capital at it. In power, telecom, and to some extent roads/highways and ports, India appears to be addressing the issue of infrastructure. On FDI too, foreign ownership is now less of an issue except in a few sensitive sectors. As infrastructure expands, so will the India's growth. So far it was restricted to a handful of sectors such as IT and pharma, which were relatively less affected by lack of infrastructure. Thus, India now appears set for

CHINA VS INDIA- GROWTH FACTOR

multi sector growth. For example, new and large opportunities have emerged in textiles where India was thwarted because of quotas despite being the largest yarn producer of the world. Quotas have now been abolished. The auto sector could be another driver. Development costs in India are among the lowest in the world. India already has a large home base in two-wheelers with three of the world's top 10 manufacturers of the world. In passenger cars too, India is fast becoming an export centre. Though unlike the past decade which was led by services, the next 10 years may see India driven by industry.

In manufacturing india can accelerate its growth rate if its manufacturing sector makes a larger contribution. For this to happen, several policy changes have to be made. The two key ones, to my mind, are labor market reforms -- labor market regulations currently hobble manufacturing, while leaving services relatively unscathed -- and the facilitation of investment in infrastructure, particularly power and transport.

India and China: An Economic Comparison

India and China are the world’s next major powers. And in a global economy, affected by the financial crisis, where most advanced countries are slumped into recession, India and China are growing. In a PPT India and China it has statistically compared the economies and industries between these two countries.

Both the countries have an important role to play in the world economy, with China embracing private entrepreneurship and India facilitating globalization within its economy.

Growth of the Indian and Chinese Economies

Both India and China have registered strong economic growth since 1980 and opening up to international trade and capital. The Indian and Chinese economies have benefited from FDIs that have provided new goods and services and therefore a spurt in industrial growth. The Chinese and the Indian economies rank number 1 and 2 respectively as the fastest growing economies in the world.

But the growth of the Chinese economy has been more spectacular than India and China today has surpassed India on the more important economic and welfare indices. China’s per capita GDP growth has averaged 8% since 1980, which is double that of India’s per capita GDP growth rate. The Chinese economy is much larger than the Indian economy and labor-intensive manufacture exports contribute almost 40% to the Chinese GDP compared to only 16% in India.

Welfare Indicators of India and China

As compared to India, China also scores higher on welfare indicators such as living standards, poverty ration, female adult literacy and life expectancy by a wide margin.

Since 1990, China has tripled per capita income and has eased 300 million out of poverty. While India still presents a picture of extreme poverty, Indians are playing invaluable roles in the research and development centers of global tech giants, sprouting all over India. Indian companies are also excelling in producing high-quality goods and services at very low prices, competing for a global marketshare.

Growth Focus for India and China

Technical and Managerial skills in both China and India are becoming more important than cheap assembly labor. China will continue to dominate mass manufacturing and is still investing in building multibillion-dollar electronics and heavy industrial plants. While India is a leading force in software, design, services and the precision industry.

A huge and demanding consumer class is also pushing through innovation in India and China. Chinese and Indian consumers want the latest technology and features.

China and India, are set to transform the global economy of the 21st-century, through its young, dynamic and driven workforce, powering worldwide growth and change in a range of industries.

Future Growth of India and China

Will China and India be able to keep up their current growth rates? What should the two countries do to sustain this level of growth and bring up the level of prosperity? In a PPT India and China it has statistically compared the economies and industries between these two countries.

Continuing to implement policy reforms will be a major factor contributing to the growth of these two economies. Since both India and China boast of large markets, with a huge population that is mainly poor, a good policy framework is essential to the continued growth of these economies. Over time growth will result in a better quality of private entrepreneurship and public institutions.

India ranks performs better than China on the managerial quality and innovativeness of entrepreneurs. But India has failed in the quality and effectiveness of its public institutions while China concerted efforts and investments in the public sector has resulted in notable achievements in infrastructure and raising the quality of life in China. Given that China is encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit and has already established effective public spending, the future growth prospects of China seem much better than India.

India and China have followed different development strategies and though India is not outperforming China overall, it is doing better in key areas. In the next few decades, India is expected to become the third largest economy and China the number one and India and China contributing to more than half of the world’s manufacturing output.

Both the economies have to continue growing rapidly to provide jobs to the tens of millions entering the workforce annually. India’s long-term potential maybe higher, because of the one-child policy, China’s working-age population will fall rapidly in the next few years. While India would have a much younger and a substantially larger working-age population.

India’s problems lie in bureaucratic red tape, rigid labor laws, and its inability to build infrastructure fast enough. It will take India many years to build the highways, power plants, and airports needed to rival China in mass manufacturing. With China now focusing on software and pledging intellectual property rights protection, India fears that a lot more design work will move to China, to be closer to the manufacturing bases.

China and India is expected to disrupt workforces, industries, companies and markets in the future and how they integrate and manage their growth with the rest of the world will determine the nature of the global economy of this century.