Dr Vandana Shiva, an eminent Indian environmental philosopher and activist, was conferred the Fukuoka prize 2012 on 23 July' 2012 that included a citation and prize money of about Rs 33 lakh, in New Delhi for her remarkable work in the field of science, technology and ecology. The other dignitaries present at the occasion were Takashima Soichiro, mayor of Fukuoka City, Japan; Akitaka Saiki, ambassador of Japan in India and Dr Ashis Nandy, social and cultural critic, who had received the Fukuoka Prize in 2007.Shiva is an Indian environmental philosopher who has made a great contribution to the earth and to humanity as a female Asian intellectual. Legendary sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar, sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, danseuse Padma Subrahmanyam are some of the leading figures from various fields who were earlier presented the award. Proffesor K S Valdiya The Gujar Mal Modi Science Foundation, on the other hand, has declared Khadg S. Valdiya and Ajay K. Sood as the recipients of the award for Innovative Science & Technology 2012 for their outstanding contributions in the field of Himalayan geology, neotectonics and environmental geology, and physics. Home minister P. Chidambaram will be the chief guest and present a cash prize of Rs 2,01,000, a scroll of honour and a silver shield to the professors on August 7, 2012. Proffessor A K Sood Valdiya, born in eastern Myanmar is a professor of geodynamics at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre, Bangalore and is internationally recognized for his work in the fields of geology and environmental science. He has served as a member of the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet. He is a Fellow of three national science academies of India, the Third World Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of Nepal. His fundamental studies and research on the Uttarakhand Himalayas serve as a template and a guide for interpreting the structural architecture of the entire Himalayas. Sood, is currently the president of the Indian Academy of Sciences and also serving various advisory bodies of the Government of India including the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Science Advisory Committee to the Union Cabinet and the Nanomission of DST. He served at the Indira Gandhi Research Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, before being invited to join the Indian Institute of Science in 1988, where he now holds the CSIR Bhatnagar Fellowship.The Gujar Mal Modi Innovative Science and Technology Award was instituted in 1988 in the memory of one of the great industrialists of India, late Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi.
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It's a rare phone outside of the one from Cupertino that can command the same level of hype, rumours and intense anticipation. But the Samsung Galaxy S III is no ordinary phone, the latest in a super hit series of poster child Android devices. Does it deliver, though? And is it THE Android device to own for 2012? Well, what are you waiting for? Read on and find out!Sleek and slim at just 8.6mm thick, the S III claims to be "designed for humans" and while I'm the first to roll my eyes at this piece of hyperbole, it is rather grabb-able despite its size. And it is really lightweight for its size as well, but the choice of plastic around the back makes it feel a little … plasticky and cheap. That said, so did the S2, and we all know insanely well that did! The rear cover opens up, letting you swap out the battery and access the micorSD card slot, features that are fast becoming a rarity in large unibody-design phones.All in all, the S III seems to be built to draw your complete attention to its massive 4.8-inch, 720 x 1280-pixel touchscreen. It's a stunning piece of eye candy — colours are rich and deep and it packs in a truckload of pixels for a screen this large. The new minimalist TouchWiz overlay on Android 4.0 mostly keeps out of the way and keeps the overall experience blazing fast. Samsung has brought some software tricks to the table which really show off the massive beast that's under the hood, such as Pop up play, which lets you play windowed HD video on top of another application, sort of like picture-in-picture. S Voice is much like Siri, works better with Indian accents in general but lacks personality. The Smart Stay feature, which watches your eyes (via the camera) to check whether you're looking at the screen, is a bit hit-and-miss, as is the rather untamed auto-brightness sensor. And then there are a couple of neat (though bordering on gimmicky) motion gestures. But you've got to give it to Samsung; they're innovating on usability rather than just packing in the latest and greatest hardware.There's just the small matter of a phone that recently preceded the S III. Priced significantly lower than the street price of the S III, the HTC One X offers a similar feature set, resolution and screen size, and Samsung's software additions aren't enough to out-and-out steamroll the competition. The One X has the edge in pricing and build quality, the S III the advantage in pure grunt, battery life and memory expandability. The race for the top Android has never been this tight, but the best part is that you can't go wrong with either; they're both that darn good!Rating: 9/10Price: Rs 43,180URL: http://bit.ly/LX7P0E Eyeing A Beauty Marry the power of the latest Intel processors with the instant-on responsiveness and petite form of the Macbook Air, and you begin to see why the new MacBook Pro is such a desirable laptop. Add to that a 'Retina' display that packs in an unprecedented 2880 x 1800 pixels - that's 3 million more pixels than an HDTV, 256 GB of fast flash memory and upto 7 hours of juice, and you have a potential dream machine for mobile professionals. Can't wait to get my mitts on this baby! URL: http://bit.ly/MxEtFcPrice: Rs 1,52,900 onwards Classy Apparel iPad folio-type cases are a great way to protect your investment while staying classy, and the new Targus Versavu Rotating Case & Stand for iPad (3rd-Gen) has a neat little trick up its sleeve - the hard shell encasing the iPad rotates all the way around, allowing the iPad to stand in either three portrait or three landscape orientations. You also get an elastic stylus holder on the front of the lid and magnetic lock/unlock feature, which are nice, but I'd have much preferred a little less bulk and slightly better iPad protection. URL: http://bit.ly/MEQ3C4Price: Rs 3,249 technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Online healthcare portal, BookMyDoctor.com recently announced collaboration with more than 6000 doctors in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), where patients can book their appointments online, in advance. Through a simple registration process on www.BookMyDoctor.com , patients can reach doctors/hospitals area wise and book appointments as per their convenience without any cost. It also lays down detailed insights on various health topics and offer online consultations. The site also includes information on medical events, seminars, health checkup camps, discounted health packages and more. "Every time the doctor may not have time to answer all the queries of his patients, or even patient may forget to ask an important question from him. Many doctors feel comfortable to serve their patients online to learn more," says Dinesh Arora, Director of BookMyDoctor.com.With timings restricted from 10am to 6pm, the portal functions only on weekdays where one can search doctors, doctors with their specialty, nutritionist, physiotherapist, hospitals and clinic and pathology labs, gyms/spa and beauty clinics. On the website there are various articles available on health and diseases, food, diet and nutrition.
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Six renowned technology titans including application maker Irdeto, cloud computing focused Nivio, audio-video technology company Faroudja, Sound technology company Strata, DTH service provider Videocon d2h and electronics company Phillips, came together under the leadership of ST Microelectronics to unveil the latest ‘burning' innovation, DDB or Digital Direct Broadcast. With various features like an integrated set-top box, 2D to 3D image conversion, Cloud Computing, Direct Satellite reception etc, DDB technology will help consumer to view an audio visual experience like never before.Initially, DDB technology will be introduced and supported by Videocon DTH. DDB-compliant TVs receive digital signals directly from the dish antenna and broadcast it further. Headquartered at Bengaluru (India) and US, DDB platform also possess the ability to be streamed to smartphones, tablets and other devices. Although, no information has been revealed about the price of the product.While most high-end TVs today double up as personal computers with a virtual keyboard and the TV remote as a mouse, direct digital transmission is something that none has provided so far. In many ways, DDB technology — that came into existence in 2010 — is considered to be quite similar to Samsung Smart TV for its Dual Core processor that carries out the decoding of the signals, Ankette's EVO TV and Sling Media's Slingbox for the way it can stream the live TV to phone, tablets, laptops and other devices. But what differentiates DDB TV is its one instrument operation by the remote control that is designed to include keyboard as well as the mouse of the TV within, unlike other TVs that require a plug-in of keyboard and mouse for internet and other application operation. The consortium mentioned that the concerned platform is not expected to be launched in other states of India before July 1 to tally the date of mandatory digitisation and is further expected to come in the market by late September of this year. FEATURES OF DDB TV- Direct satellite signal reception (no set top box dependency)-450 MHZ Dual core processor-Over the air software upgrade-14 bit Video processing-4 trillion colors (Erase ‘in frame' blurriness and sharpens the colors thereafter)-Net Browsing-Cloud Computing (helps to connect more than 2 users as well)-3D Technology (Cause no fatigue, even after continuous 3D view)-Faroudja Audio-video optimized-Motion enhancement and motion correction: MEMC (Eliminates motion judderness)-Strata certified audio (with advanced amplifier and transducer technology)-10 Band graphic equalizer-HDMI-CEC "Correct regulations in tandem with the introduction of Digital Addressable System (DAS) would be thetipping point for the Indian TV broadcast industry," says S. Shelgaonkar, R&D Head, DDB, adding that "Infrared and frequency based remote controls with universal plug-in and play options (UPNP) that enable connectivity between innumerable users makes our DDB platform stand out of the crowd." DDB or Digital Direct Broadcast is a TV operating system that allows television sets compliant with it to perform multiple functions.
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Indian Space Research Organisation is close to signing contracts for launching three foreign satellites on board its home-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota spaceport in south India.ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said Antrix Corporation, the space agency's marketing arm, is in advanced dialogue for three launch services contracts."There are very serious discussions taking place for both dedicated launches and for the co-passenger missions. At least three I am aware of where people are seriously interested and discussions are taking place", Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Space Commission, said."They are expecting us to indicate whether we can do (the launches). So they want us to do it. When exactly they want it", he said.Radhakrishnan also said Bangalore-headquartered ISRO would establish a Research and Development (R&D) complex in Karnataka's Chitradurga district."There (in Chitradurga) we are having about 540 acres of land. We are developing it into a complex for taking up R&D for the future", he said.Noting that the proposed complex is going to be a "major asset", Radhakrishnan said ISRO is looking at the next few decades with this initiative. "The new generation has to look at what all they have to do".He termed NASA's Mars mission as a "fantastic achievement" and an "engineering marvel".
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Standing on a stage, talking nineteen to the dozen, is a young man. A few paces away is his audience: rapt, amused, amazed and completely in his power. Every so often he elicits a fit of giggles from those listening to him. Also spontaneous and delighted applause…The young man is Karan Singh and he is a magician, illusionist, hypnotist, artist and mind-reader. He has to give his audience a "shocking" experience they won't forget in a hurry. And it has to be a fresh set of tricks each time, for no performer can afford to let his act go stale. Karan can tell you what card you're holding just by looking at you. But he has to build new stories and activities around his amazing skill of being able to look inside your head. So he's constantly scanning the world around him for anything to stimulate a new idea. It could come upon him during a coffee break, while standing in a queue, or talking with friends. But he's ready for these ideas and doesn't let them pass him by. He captures every passing idea in the cross-platform, note-taking app, Evernote. It's downloadable on your computer, tablet, phone and even an iPod. In fact, a user needs to put Evernote on all the devices to have that central place in which to put everything. It's there on all operating systems, making it one of the most available and accessible apps out there. Whatever you do also synchronises across your Evernote apps, making it possible to pick up where you left off on any of your devices. Evernote has been around since 2008, but it's an interesting example of a product that is constantly trying to develop, adapt or morph to keep pace with changing needs in a mobile world. A few days ago, Evernote overhauled its Android version, becoming infinitely more attractive and friendly and ready to use at a tap. Last month, Evernote also went and acquired Penultimate, a popular handwriting app, along with its maker. And just before that, there was the acquisition of Skitch, adding animation, shapes and sketch capabilities. Evernote is always on the lookout for a nice new app to buy, which is how it came to be a suite of apps rather than a single uni-functional thing. Evernote borders on the complex precisely because there are so many things you can do "in" it. It's not always intuitive, but those who've got past the initial figuring out refuse to use anything else. THE INTEGRATION OF MANY FUNCTIONS ON A ROBUST PLATFORM MAKES 30 MILLION USERS HAPPILY DEPENDENT ON EVERNOTE Apart from just typing in notes, you can sketch, take or import photos, put in audio notes, jot down ideas, recognise text from captured images and clip things from webpages — or the whole web page. The Web Clipper, for which you can put a bookmarklet on your browser on the PC, makes collecting research in one "notebook" easy. You can put in anything you don't want to lose track of and you can search for it when you want to call it up. Abhishek Baxi, a fellow tech journalist and ardent Evernote user (on PC and Windows Phone, which he thinks is the best platform for the app) put it to use to ensure his wedding went off like clockwork. "It was a small, but crucial tool that ensured my wedding went off smoothly; with happy relatives and cherished memories," he says. Abhishek, who uses Evernote for work, began to use it for his wedding plans the moment the date was set. It was then that the pressure of organising everything suddenly came to the fore. "That was when I created a separate ‘wedding' notebook in my Evernote account," he says. "Following tradition, while my mum was having the final word, I was the person organising everything from bookings, invitee lists, wedding attire, family giveaways, caterers and even the finances." He even shared a notebook with a friend who was helping him with wedding-related shopping. Collaboration with others is another important aspect of Evernote because you can share, comment and add to content. The add-on apps bring in new capabilities to the ecosystem. For instance, Evernote Hello (unfortunately only on the iPhone) lets you take a picture of a person you meet, add contact information, and then jot down notes. This way, you can keep information on every meeting if you want to. All of what you do in Evernote is tied into an account that you sign up for. There's a free and premium version ($45 a year), depending on amount of space and usage. The free version has limited access to files offline — remember this is a cloud-based service. Taken individually, you'll find the functionalities in this app available elsewhere too. There are thousands of full-featured note-taking apps that include text, writing, pictures, audio memos and more. There are also people widgets and scrapbooking apps. It's the integration of everything together on a robust platform that makes its almost 30 million users happily dependent on it. Evernote recently announced a $70-million Series D investment led by Meritech Capital and CBC Capital, meant to be used to expand the company with acquisitions. Their footprint is increasing, extending from China to the US. Evernote is fairly active in India and Troy Malone, general manager, Asia-Pacific, at Evernote, visits India often, especially to meet developers to create localised or otherwise innovative features and apps for the product.(The author can be reached at mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter) (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 04-06-2012)
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The recently-announced "free drugs for all" initiative by the Centre could lead to the long-pending national pharmaceutical policy getting cleared. In 2002, the Supreme Court had struck down the policy saying it did not specify how essential medicines would be made affordable and available to the masses.To start with, the government plans to make generic versions of 348 medicines covered in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) free of cost against prescriptions generated from all government hospitals and public health centres. With this, the government has not only made essential medicines affordable as the apex court had sought, but gone beyond to provide them free to anyone who accesses a public healthcare facility. In the absence of such a scheme, the government was compelled to expand the scope of drug price control to cover all NLEM medicines; but the pharmaceutical industry feared that it would bring 60 per cent of the medicines sold in India under price control and hence seriously affect their domestic revenues. Today, less than 20 per cent of the Rs 65,000-crore medicines sold in the domestic market annually come under direct price control.On the other hand, the free-for-all drug scheme is not expected to hit the industry significantly as only 25 per cent of patients in India are dependent on public healthcare facilities today. While the government estimates this percentage will go up by 40 per cent after the introduction of the scheme, the additional numbers are expected to come from the people who do not access treatment at all currently. Of the total patient population, 20 per cent are expected to be in this missing category.Pharma players feel supply of lowcost generic medicines to the government channel for free distribution could result in an incremental increase in their sales. "We welcome all such (free drug distribution) initiatives of the government to provide medicines to the poor. We support all such endeavours," says D.G. Shah, secretary-general of leading industry association, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance.As the first step towards the roll-out of the scheme, the Planning Commission has allotted Rs 100 crore for the initial phase of the programme this year. The scheme is expected to cost central and state governments about Rs 29,000 crore in the next five years. While the central government will spend 75 per cent of the funds required, the rest will be the contribution of respective states.According to L.C. Goyal, former additional secretary (health), who was instrumental in designing the programme, the pilot project should begin in chosen districts by October.The Centre has asked state governments to prepare their own list of essential drugs that should be covered under the free scheme. The model NLEM list includes over a dozen cancer drugs and therapeutic drugs against AIDS, ulcers, analgesics, anti-psychotics, sedatives, anaesthetic agents, lipid-lowering agents, steroids, among others.The government will set up a central procurement agency soon to purchase the generic drugs directly from the manufacturer through a tender-based system.A pan-India roll-out would see free medicines being given against prescriptions by government doctors from dispensaries attached to 640 district hospitals, 5,000 community centres, 23,000 primary health centres and over 100,000 sub-centres. The scheme will run parallel to the government's flagship programmes — National Rural Health Mission and National Urban Health Mission.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 23-07-2012)
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India's biggest corporate hospital chain Fortis Healthcare is restructuring, again. Months after it acquired the privately-held international hospital business of its promoters — brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh — for Rs 3,720 crore, Fortis is now splitting the operations of the integrated entity into two divisions and diluting its stake in one of the divisions to raise about Rs 2,000 crore. The aim is to bring down acquisition-related debt. Fortis's current debt burden is about Rs 5,000 crore, including the cost of acquiring the Singapore-based entity. The two new divisions will be — Clinical Establishment Division (CED) and Medical Services Division (MSD). CED will own the immovable assets while MSD will provide healthcare services using these assets. CED will be shifted to a new entity, Religare Health Trust (RHT). Fortis will dilute two-thirds of its stake in CED by bringing in foreign investors. There will be a steady flow of revenues from MSD to CED through service contracts. "This allows the company to de-leverage its balance sheet," says Vishal Bali, group CEO, Fortis Healthcare. To begin with, Fortis will move 16 hospitals, including four greenfield projects, into CED. Bali says RHT will acquire assets outside the Fortis universe and abroad. The company is yet to disclose which hosptials will be moved into CED. It owns, operates and is in the process of turning operational (greenfield projects in various phases of completion) a total of 68 small and big clinical establishments in India. The company's board has given an in-principle approval for the listing of RHT on the Singapore exchange's securities trading platform. RHT has obtained conditional eligibility for the listing on 24 May. IMMOVABLE ASSETS: The Clinical Establishment Division will own these. Also, it will come under a new entity, Religare Health TrustSERVICES: These will be under the Medical Services Division, which will provide healthcare servicesDEBT: The current debt burden is about Rs 5,000 crore In the January-March period, Fortis completed the integration of its acquired international businesses and Indian operations. In the process, it overtook Apollo Hospitals to become the largest corporate healthcare player in India. Its revenue was Rs 2,983 crore during the year ended 31 March 2012, twice the Rs 1,491 crore registered the previous year.Bali says the annual results may not reflect the revenue potential of the group as the international revenues, which contributed almost 50 per cent, were not there in the first three quarters of the 2011-12 period. "Our consolidated global revenue for the January-March 2012 quarter was Rs 1,279 crore, compared to Rs 412 crore the previous year," he says.Fortis has also restructured its supply chain business to make it more cost effective. "We have created a global supply chain organisation based in India. It will help us leverage the advantages of global sourcing of consumables, medical technology and equipment," says Bali. Anticipating the restructuring, Fortis has already registered a slew of companies to undertake dedicated "medical" and "healthcare management" services. Fortis Health Management (South), Fortis Health Management (East), Fortis Emergency Services, etc., are some of them.The company says it is diluting its stake in the core hospital business to not only attract funds but also focus on "servicing patients".(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-06-2012)
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