Think India Foundation

From cancer research to energy storage, Berkeley Lab scientist takes on big challenges

The clean-energy commute of the future could come from research conducted at facilities like Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, where Rizia Bardhan is helping to develop new hydrogen storage materials.

On a typical day, Rizia Bardhan walks through the doors of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry and immerses herself in the tricky business of tweaking optical spectroscopy equipment to study phase transitions in metal hydrides.

It’s fair to say that what she does is difficult to grasp. Why she does it is easy: “I want to help solve big problems. That’s why I’m here,” she says. Read more

Source : physorg.com

India grappling with air pollution

According to 2012 Environmental Performance Index, India is raked as a nation which breathes the highest level of polluted air.

The country has been ranked at 125th spot in terms of tackling pollution and natural resource management challenges which is harming environment the most. Read more

Source : presstv.com

India needs huge infrastructure investment: FM

Chicago (IBNS) : Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that India needed a huge infrastructure investment boost in the 12th Five Year Plan to accelerate and sustain growth in the country.

During his ongoing visit to Chicago, Mukherjee said, "Rapid development of infrastructure is the key to sustain high growth and strengthening the domestic growth dynamics of our economy. Read more

Source : indiablooms.com

Union Budget 2012-2013: Hospitals not likely to get infra status

With the finance ministry coming under increasing pressure to raise resources in a slowing economy the demand by India Inc for conferring infrastructure status to hospitals in order to avail of tax concessions is not likely to come through in the forthcoming Budget .

Infrastructure status to hospitals would entitled them to tax exemption on their entire profit for 10 consecutive years.

A senior finance ministry official told Mail Today that "health like education comes in the social sector, so we cannot accord it infrastructure status at this point". Read more

Source : businesstoday.intoday.in

Starbucks to enter India, targets 50 outlets by year-end

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp will open its first coffee shops in India in August or September, a year later than originally planned, and aims to have 50 outlets by year-end through a tie-up with the Tata group, the country's biggest business house.

Culver, president, Starbucks China and Asia Pacific attends a news conference in Mumbai (DANISH SIDDIQUI, REUTERS / January 30, 2012)

The Seattle-based chain, known as much for the trendy urban lifestyle it represents as its costly cups of coffee, enters a market with a fast-growing middle class and plenty of competition in the small but fast-growing coffee segment. Read more

Source : chicagotribune.com

Bangalore Metro northern corridor to open in Dec

Chennai/ Bangalore : The Northern corridor of 11 kms between Peenya and Sampige Road is likely to commence commercial operations by December 2012 and the entire Phase-I is likely to be completed by December 2013, Governor H R Bhardwaj said on Monday.

Delivering his address to the joint session of the state legislature, here, he said since the commissioning of first reach of 7.5 kms of Namma Metro on October 20, 2011, on an average, about 30,000 people use the Metro. Read more

Source : business-standard.com

Need to raise agri productivity before bringing food law: Pawar

NEW DELHI: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday said it would be difficult to implement the proposed food security bill without adequate funds to boost agricultural output.

Pawar, who was not fully aligned with the Congress on the food security legislation, argued that his grievance was that the total budgeted provision for entire agriculture ministry was Rs 20,000 crore and subsidy, as of today, was Rs 65,000 crore which might go up to Rs 1 lakh crore in the current year. Read more

Source : articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Vijayawada to be free of Malaria by 2014

VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has declared a war against malaria, one of the major communicable diseases affecting the mankind. With an aim to eradicate malaria completely from the city by 2014, the VMC has embarked on a mission, in association with Cinergy Company, a Mumbai-based nonprofit organisation.

For the effective implementation of the mission, the VMC has decided to seek the help of NGOs and citizens of the city. Vijayawada with a population of 11 lakh, has 111 slums. Many of the slums are on the banks of Bandar Canal, Eluru Canal and Ryves Canal and on hill slopes. Read more

Source : ibnlive.in.com

Bangalore summit to discuss global water woes

Bangalore: With one-third of the global population living in India and China by 2025, the region will face imminent water scarcity unless there is action. Now experts from the two countries as well as US, Britain, Germany and other places are set to deliberate on water-related issues at a meet here from Tuesday. Billed as the first World Water Summit in India's IT hub, the summit is aimed at generating innovative ideas to meet the challenge of managing scarce water sources.

With one-third of the global population in India and China by 2025, the region will face imminent water scarcity.

"Ensuring adequate and safe water to all sections of the population, particularly the poor is a big challenge. The objective of the summit is to deliberate on issues and generate ideas," former Karnataka chief secretary A. Ravindra, the brain behind the meet, told IANS. Ravindra is now advisor to the chief minister and also heads the Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD), a non-profit organisation he started in 2003. Read more

Source : ibnlive.in.com

Franchising offers promise to start-ups in F&B space

One of the most promising ways to build a successful business in the food and beverage space is through franchising

The mushrooming of restaurants of varied hues, in nearly every corner of urban India, attests to the ease of starting these businesses. As other experts in this paper have written about, Indians are eating out at least once a month and appear to have a great preference for Indian food. Moreover, while fine dining restaurants are doing well in pockets, it is quick service restaurants that are doing roaring business, given the value for money that they offer. The good news for such businesses is that this opportunity is by no means confined to the metros alone but stretches to smaller cities. Read more

Source : livemint.com

Finance ministry not in favour of using state grants for roads

The ministry has suggested that the highways ministry prefer the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, where the private developer has to put up the capital to develop a project and also bear the risk

New Delhi: In a clear signal of a rollback in government spending from the fiscal year beginning April, the finance ministry is discouraging the highways ministry from using state grants to develop 20,000km of roads in the 12th Five-Year Plan.

File photo of road construction on NH 202 in Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. Photograph by Harikrishna Katragadda/ Mint.

Instead, the ministry has suggested that the highways ministry prefer the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, where the private developer has to put up the capital to develop a project and also bear the risk. There are two types of BOTs—one based on tolls and the other on a government annuity payout. Read more

Source : livemint.com

Gujarat govt finds getting rid of excess power difficult

GANDHINAGAR: Already a power surplus state, Gujarat government's much tom-tommed campaign to further augment the state's power generation capacity through solar energy, too, is facing a roadblock. Well-placed Sachivalaya sources said, with another 578.40 MW of solar power all set to be added by end of this month to the overall power capacity of Gujarat of 13,314 MW, the state government doesn't know where to use it.

In fact, the state's march towards solar power will not end this month end with 578.40 MW. "By the middle of this year, we will have, in all, nearly 1,000 MW of solar power plants, highest anywhere in the country. They will be ready for operation within the next two to six months," a senior official said. Gujarat, a power surplus state by 2,000 MW, is already finding it difficult to sell the traditionally generated power it produces to the national grid and other states, and now solar power is being added to the list. Read more

Source : articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Waterways: PM decides measures

New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday decided on the measures to fast-track the development and use of inland waterways, which in turn will ease pressure on rail and road infrastructure. The move involves both the public and private sector enterprises.

For Barh thermal power project in Bihar, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has agreed to carry three million metric tonnes of coal through the inland waterways.
According to a PMO release, a tripartite agreement has been signed between the NTPC, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and a private developer, has led to competitive transportation rates for the public sector power utility company. Read more

Source : deccanchronicle.com

Resist this sinister move

Kapil Sibal wants Congressisation of syllabus 

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal’s proposal to establish a National Textbook Council deserves to be spiked immediately because it is a thinly-disguised attempt to impose the will of the Congress on what schools across the country should teach their students. The proposed council is ostensibly supposed to monitor the content of textbooks used by schools that do not follow the syllabus prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education to ensure that the curricula does not have material which is ‘insidious’ in nature, but that reasoning is only a ruse for the ‘Congressisation’ of education in the country. The State Governments are, after all, well-equipped with their own education departments to monitor content and take action. Where is the need for a central authority to begin policing the syllabus? Read more

Source : dailypioneer.com

Scientists urged to find solutions to problems faced by Karnataka

MANGALORE : Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and top space scientist and Chairman of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad U.R. Rao on Saturday urged the scientific community to find solutions to the “burning” problems of the State and the country.

They were participating in the inauguration of a two-day seminar on “Science and Technology: Challenges and Opportunities” organised by the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, headed by Prof. Rao, at Mangalore University. Read more

Source : thehindu.com

Centre backs consolidated BRT in Pune

PUNE: Inconsistencies in planning and implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad by both municipal corporations, has spurred the central government to push for a consistent and consolidated project for the Pune Metropolitan Region.

The union urban development department has asked the Pune Municipal Corporation to take up works to connect two BRT routes - the first on the Aundh-Ravet corridor and the old Mumbai Pune highway. These two routes are being developed by Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Read more

Source : articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com