Amazing Nano Dream: Small wonder or big blunder?

As Ratan Tata drove to the ramp what was perhaps the most-hyped four-wheeler of the year, excitement was palpable at the Auto Expo show in New Delhi. Christened Nano, and famously priced at Rs 1 lakh (about $2700), the car was unveiled on Wednesday to a thunderous applause.
Designed for the mass market, the Nano has been hailed as the defining moment of the history of the Indian automobile industry and the one that will make possible a consumer revolution of sorts.
However, it has only a 624 cc petrol engine and can’t run effectively on the highways. Even the famed Rs 1-lakh tag is not really that. The car will cost the consumer close to Rs 1.2 lakh after all taxes have been levied.
CNN-IBN show Face The Nation asked the question: Is Tata’s Rs 1-lakh car more of a marketing hype than real consumer value?
On the panel to try and answer the question were Chairwoman VGC, Preeti Vyas Gianetti, Director CSE, Sunita Narian and editor, Autocar India, Hormazd Sorabjee.
Is Nano truly a people’s car?
Since the Nano is the next big thing and there has been huge media hype over the car, should an automobile be hyped in this way? Should it be given this much glamour given the costs of car in today’s times?
Preeti Vyas Gianetti was of the opinion that if one had such story to tell then the punches shouldn’t be held back. She felt that the Tata Group had made an appropriate display of the kind of product they had come out with.
“The hype matches with the promise made by the product and what is supposed to be serving in terms of consumer needs. The design of it is excellent and I would want to own a car, which looks so smart and sexy,” said Gianetti.
The critique is that the Nano and the new cars are imposing a huge social curb on society. The society is subsidising the car. The society is already paying for the cost so is another car not going to add to the coat of the car owner?
Agreeing that the question asked was a valid one Gianetti however, said that the manufacturer was to be posed with the question or the government was to be asked the same question.
“I think that it goes beyond a car and it is a much larger issue. We are facing that at every level of our interaction in the social world in India today. Since incomes are rising there is clearly a demand on the kinds of products and services each consumer wants for himself or herself,” said Gianetti.
Sunita Narain did acknowledge the fact that consumers couldn’t be stopped, but according to her, one couldn’t have “cheap and dirty motorisation either,”
“The bigger point that we have been raising is the regulatory system and therefore my argument is not really with Mr Tata or with any other car manufacturer. My argument singularly is with the government. I think that the government has completely compromised with the regulations that should govern the car industry and have compromised them to such an extent that today it is creating trouble for the public,” said Narain.

Amazing Guinness Record Largest & Smallest Revolver

Amazing Truck .... Longest Truck in the World

The truck flows play the indispensable role as the freight traffic tool in the transportation, recently US's truck engineer in order to enhanced as many as possible of the load-carrying capacity of the truck , they made the big trucks length surpass 80 meter.

This kind of truck cab is especially spacious, in front of the steering wheel has piled up with each kind of control button.

Watches from the distant place, when truck curve looks just like a row small freight vehicle.

Amazing Luxury Mirror Read SMS

The Amazing +336+ Mirror, designed by Robert Stadler of Radi Designers. The mirror able to receive SMS messages sent from a mobile phone.The messages appear as luminous text, running on the mirrors’ surface when one gets close to the mirror.Limited edition of 20 with the price US$10,000.00.

How cyanide cause rapid Death !!!!!!!!!!!!

Poisons act in a variety of ways, but the most deadly of them is by inhibiting enzymes. They may do this by tying up an enzyme in the form of a stable complex, by denaturing it, or by blocking its formation from its apoenzyme and cofactor.
Cyanide acts almost instantly and only a small amount is needed for a lethal dose. The average fatal dose is only 50 or 60 milligram. Cyanide is used as gaseous hydrogen cyanide (H-C=N) and as solid salts, which contain the cyanide ions (H=N). The gas is used for extermination of insects and rodents in ships, warehouses, and railway cars and on certain fruit trees.
Cyanide has more affinity with iron atoms. So it gets tied immediately with the iron atom, which forms haeme part of the Haemoglobin. This makes the iron atom unavailable to carry oxygen atom to the tissues through haemoglobin. So oxygen deficiency at the tissue level occurs. This is called Hypoxia.
Since the poisonous substance causes it, it is also called histotoxic hypoxia. In histotoxic hypoxia the brain is affected first. It results in loss of consciousness in 10-20 seconds and death in 4-5 minutes.
Cyanide blocks the oxidation of glucose inside a cell by forming a stable complex with the oxidation enzymes. Certain enzymes of our body cells, like cytochrome oxidases, contain iron and copper atoms. They normally act by providing electrons for the reduction of oxygen in the cell. Cyanide ties up those mobile electrons, rendering them unavailable for the reduction process.
Thus, cyanide brings an abrupt end to cellular respiration. When this process, which is holding the life of an individual is stopped abruptly, it causes death in a matter of minutes, since all the cells in the body die immediately.
Administration of antidote for cyanide poison is not possible, since the fatal end comes immediately within minutes to a person who has consumed the poison. But if the quantity consumed is below the lethal dose sodium nitrate and sodium thiosulphate may be used to treat cyanide poisoning.

Indians accuse Hogg of using abusive language

The simmering feud between the Indian and Australian teams took another turn on Sunday with the visitors lodging a complaint against left-arm spinner Brad Hogg for using abusive language during the second Test.
India lodged a formal complaint against Hogg during the disciplinary hearing into Harbhajan Singh's alleged racial abuse directed at Andrew Symonds.
The new development has only intensified the already charged atmosphere in the two camps, who have been engaged in a virtual war of attrition in the second Test which ended ina 122-run loss for India on Sunday.
Horrendous umpiring decisions, which proved costly for India, and the blatantly unsporting conduct of the Australians has left the Indians infuriated with captain Anil Kumble saying at the post-match press conference that "only one team played in the true spirit of the game."
In what has been a week of high drama marked by charges and counter-charges, the latest development only reflects the bitterness between the two teams.
The Australians have accused Harbhajan of racially abusing Symonds during the third day of the Sydney Test and lodged a formal complaint with the umpires, who, however, have gone on record saying they heard nothing offensive.
Harbhajan was subsequently asked to appear for a hearing by ICC Match Referee Mike Procter.
The off-spinner has been charged under rule 3.3 of the ICC's Code of Conduct that deals with using language or gestures that insults a person on the basis of race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.
If found guilty, he could be banned for two to four Tests or four to eight One-Dayers. But Harbhajan has vehemently denied saying anything racial during the altercation.

An Aussie first ever to be banned for racist remarks

Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was banned for three tests on racial abuse charges, but what is interesting to note is that it was an Australian player who was first to be banned in the history of cricket for racial abuse.
Darren Lehmann of Australia was suspended for five-day ODIs over a racial remark in the earshot of the Sri Lankan dressing room during the 2002-03 cricket series.
Lehmann shouted an obscenity during a triangular One-Day International against Sri Lanka in Brisbane — this after he was run-out in a match during the series.
But since then, the Australians claim they have been on the receiving end. During the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist accused his Pakistani counterpart Rasheed Latif of racial abuse.
Rasheed Latif was later cleared by the ICC of racism due to lack of evidence against him, but Indian off-spinner, Harbhajan Singh was not so lucky.
Bhajji was banned for three tests on Sunday night after he was found guilty of racial abuse for allegedly calling Australian all-rounder, Andrew Symonds "a monkey".
India has now launched a counter-attack against Australia by charging Oz spinner Brad Hogg with using abusive language during the second Test.
The Indians lodged a formal complaint during Harbhajan's disciplinary hearing.
The Indian team management says Hogg called some Indian players 'bastards'. Match referee Mike Procter has accepted India's complaint and a separate hearing will be held in Perth.
Meanwhile, controversial umpire Steve Bucknor has been removed from officiating in the third Test in Perth.
Bucknor and fellow umpire Mark Benson were responsible for a string of bad decisions in the second Test in Sydney that went against India.
Both the Indian team management and the BCCI lodged complaints with the ICC against Steve Bucknor, asking for his removal from the remaining matches.

I warned Benazir of terror threat, she ignored it: Mush

New Delhi: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has denied all involvement of the military and intelligence agencies in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Musharraf said he had, in fact, warned Benazir about the threat to her life but she had ignored his warning.
"She was informed of the threat weeks back," said Musharraf. "She wanted to go back to Liaqat Bagh. The intelligence agencies knew that there is a threat. "
Musharraf said that Benazir took the decision to go there even though the government tried to stop her.
"We stopped her from going. This time, she again decided to go and she went on her own. She went, ignoring the threat."
The President added that foreign intelligence had also known of threats to Benazir.
"Our own intelligence and a foreign Intelligence warned us about a threat to Bhutto. We advised her not to take chances. During my last telecon with Bhutto, I warned her about the security threats," Musharraf insisted.
Speaking about the probable assassins, he said, "Anyone who wants to assassinate must weigh the pros and cons. Who is the maximum gainer from doing this? Would the government be the maximum gainer or somebody else who will gain more?"
Musharraf was vehement in his denials of reports that the military was involved in the assassination, in any capacity.
"No intelligence agency in Pakistan is capable of inducting a man for a suicide attack," he asserted.
"In the last three months, there have been 19 suicide bombings, most of them against the military and the Intelligence. If the same military and Intelligence use the same people, it's a joke!" he snapped.
Musharraf said he knew he, too, was under threat.
"I have lived like this over the years," he said, adding, "I cannot say that I am very secure. I know how to protect myself."
"We have to face things boldly. We have to defeat those who are causing this threat," he said.

Terrorist can't take over our nukes, asserts Musharraf

Islamabad: There is no possibility of extremists coming to power in Pakistan or of terrorists taking over the country's nuclear arsenal, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday.
Interacting with the international media during a programme for state-run PTV, Musharraf dismissed international concerns about the safety of the country's strategic assets due to the heightened political uncertainty and the crisis caused by the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
"There is no possibility of extremists coming into government in Pakistan and therefore taking over the (nuclear) assets...through the political or the democratic system," he said.
There is also no threat to the nuclear arsenal "from terrorists and extremists", he said.
"We guard our strategic and nuclear assets very zealously. We cannot accept any kind of threat to them at all," Musharraf said, adding there is "excellent custodial control" over the atomic arsenal that is "as good as any other nuclear country".
Musharraf also rejected the perception that al-Qaeda is growing stronger in Pakistan and had extended its influence from the restive north-western tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to parts of the North West Frontier Province and other regions.
The Pakistani President, however, admitted that, "Taliban is the main concern that we need to tackle more effectively".
Nineteen suicide bombings carried out in the last three months of 2007 had been traced to Pakistani Taliban commanders Baitullah Mehsud from South Waziristan and Maulana Fazlullah of Swat valley in the NWFP.
He also ruled out suggestions that it would be easy for the security forces to trace and apprehend Mehsud as they were already intercepting his communications and phone conversations.
"Getting him means battling thousands of people (from his) Mehsud tribe and it means collateral damage," he said, adding the security forces had to act cautiously.
Al-Qaeda provided the "masterminds, resource suppliers, financiers and facilitators" while the actual attacks are carried out by the Taliban, Musharraf said.
Musharraf has blamed Mehsud for masterminding the suicide attack on Benazir, but her Pakistan People's Party and the Taliban commander himself have denied involvement in her assassination

Case against Sania Mirza for 'disrespecting' Tricolour

Bhopal: Sania Mirza is in the news yet again for the wrong reason. Just a few days after getting respite from the Mecca Masjid controversy where she had to apologise for shooting a commercial in the Masjid premises, a Bhopal resident has filed a case against her for allegedly showing disrespect to the national flag.
On Thursday, Prakash Kumar Thakur of Bhopal filed the case in the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to the National Honour Act of 1971.
The case has been filed against Sania and as also Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Mani Shankar Aiyar for allegedly disrespecting the Tricolour.
Thakur alleged that Sania has disrespected the Tricolour by putting her feet towards the flag during a function whose reports were carried in newspapers.
He alleged that the act of Sania had hurt his sentiments following which he has filed a case in the court of CJM Ajay Shrivastava.
He added that he had made Aiyar a party to the complaint because he is the Sports Minister.
The will be taken up on January 7 for hearing, court sources said.

25-yr-old blogs his way to LSE

Ankur Shanker is a trained engineer, but the 25-year-old loves economics. The London School of Economics is willing to admit him, but like most middle class Indians, he doesn't have enough money.
While most people would take loans or try for a scholarship, Ankur's trying something different.
"I've started a blog, www.milliondollarstory.blogspot.com. By April, I hope to earn $1,10,000 through it," says he.
Silly pipe-dream you say? But it's actually working. In just one month, 5,000 people have been to his site and Ankur's already earned more than $200.
Here's how he does it.
"There are a lot of free advertisement programs on the Internet. You fix one on your homepage. Now, every time a visitor comes to your site, the program owner pays you some money. If the visitor actually clicks on an advertisement, you get even more money," says he.
Two years ago, this website earned its owner a million dollars by just selling advertising space. An Indian girl soon tried the same stunt and she earned a neat packet too.
But Ankur's trying something different. He's posting short stories on his blog, hoping people will keep coming back for more. A new story everyday, 180 in all by April.
"I have a full time job, so I write my stories whenever I have the time. It takes me around three hours to copy edit and finalise one story," says he.
Two hundred dollars in 30 days isn't bad, but Ankur needs 500 times that much to get to London.
He says, "Maybe the blog itself won't raise all the money, but the publicity it generates just might do the trick. If a corporate sees this and decides to sponsor my studies at LSE, I promise to return and work five years exclusively for him or her."

Monkeys pay females for sex: Scientists

Male macaque monkeys 'pay' for sex with females by grooming them, a new research has found. The availability of females even affects the 'price'.
Where there are fewer females, males must groom their partners for up to twice as long before they are able to have sex, the research found.
The male use grooming as a form of currency to buy sex from the female, the study conducted by Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, found.
Sexual activity among a 50-strong group of long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, increased after bouts of male-to-female groom, according to findings published in Animal Behaviour Journal and reported in New Scientist.
On average, females had sex 1.5 times an hour. This increased to 3.5 times an hour immediately after the female was groomed by the male.
Gumert said unlike examples of 'reciprocal altruism' — in which one organism provides a service to another in return for getting something back at a later date — the value of sex fluctuated.
When there were several females in the area, the male monkeys would have to do only eight minutes of grooming before being able to mate. If there were fewer females than males around, a male would have to groom its partner for up to 16 minutes before sex, the research found.
The macques' behaviour is an example of a 'biological market', a theory developed by Ronald Noe of Strasbourg University, France and Peter Hammerstein of Humboldt University, Berlin.
"There is a very well-known mix of economic and mating markets in the human species. There are many examples of rich old men getting young attractive ladies," Prof Noe said.

Rs 91-lakh tax slapped on Rani for Shirdi plot

Actor Rani Mukherji who had purchased 11,000 sq ft of land in Shirdi back in 2005, has now been told by the district administration to pay Rs 91 lakh tax if she wants the property transferred in her name.
When Rani had bought the land in 2005, she was unaware that it was farmland and could not be sold.
Though the actress paid Rs 1 lakh and 32 thousand for the registration, she was told that the ownership could not be transferred in her name as it was government land leased out to a farmer.
According to Rani’s lawyers, they will not be paying the required amount for the transfer.
The original owner of the land was a farmer who with the permission of the government had started a brick kiln in 1981. However, property prices of the area appreciated tremendously since then, so the original owner started to sell the land in bits and pieces, reports IANS.
Sampat More was also one of the buyers but he did not have his name registered in the documents and sold the land to the actress, who purchased it without verifying the document, according to IANS.

Amazing Sudy:Mobile users to blame for clogged traffic

If you're late for work, a driver using a cell phone may be to blame. US researchers said on Wednesday that people who use cell phones while behind the wheel impede the flow of traffic, clog highways and extend commute times.
"It's a bit like breaking wind in the elevator. Everyone suffers," Peter Martin of the University of Utah's Traffic Lab said in a telephone interview.
Prior studies have equated the risk of driving while talking on a cell phone with driving while drunk. Some 50 countries have banned use of hand-held phones while driving.
The latest study shows the impact of cell phone use on traffic patterns. "It has to do with the reaction to changes in speed," said Martin, who teaches civil and environmental engineering.
"When a driver who is not distracted is in a traffic stream and the vehicle in front slows down, the driver will brake in response. When a vehicle speeds up in front, the driver will respond and speed up," he said.
Martin and a team of researchers devised a study involving 36 university students, each of whom drove through six 9.2 mile-long (15 km) freeway scenarios in low- to high-density traffic at speeds that resembled driving on an interstate highway.
The drivers used a hands-free phone during half their trips and no phone in the other half. They were told to obey posted speed limits and use turn signals but the rest of the driving decisions were up to them.
What they found is that when the drivers were distracted by a phone conversation, they made fewer lane changes, drove slower and took longer to get where they are going. In medium- and high-density traffic, drivers were about 20 percent less likely to change lanes.
They also spent about 25 to 50 seconds longer following slow-moving vehicles before changing to an open lane. And they drove about 2 mph (3.2 kmh) slower than the undistracted drivers and took 15 to 19 seconds longer to complete the 9.2 mile (15 km) trip.
For an undistracted driver, these accommodations might make driving safer. "But if you are doing that so you can take your mind off the road and talk on the phone, that isn't safer," said University of Utah psychology professor Dave Strayer, who led the team.
Those delays can add up, especially in light of studies that suggest as many as 10 per cent of US drivers are using a cell phone at any one time. "Delays in traffic streams of very small amounts grow into massive numbers when you project it across a highway and across a nation," Martin said.
The next step is to use computer models to determine just how much those delays are costing drivers in time and extra fuel costs that result from traffic delays. "What we've done here indicates already that those numbers are likely to be significant," Martin said.

7 detained for molestation in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Wednesday detained seven people in connection with the molestation of two girls by a group of New Year revellers outside a prominent Mumbai hotel on Monday. One of those arrested hails from Andheri East while two others are from Sion.
The arrests were made after the police registered an FIR taking cognizance of the photographs published in a national newspaper which showed two girls being molested by a group of people. The two girls were allegedly molested when they were leaving a New Year eve party.
The two were walking to Juhu Beach along with their partners after leaving the JW Marriot Hotel at around 0145 hours (IST) when a large mob teased the women. When one of them reacted and swore back, the mob closed in and pounced on the girls.
A man tore off one girl's dress while another led the assault, with dozens joining in. The ordeal continued till two lensmen spotted the incident and called in a traffic inspector.
The police had not registered an FIR till Wednesday afternoon as no complaint had been lodged with them in this regard. But later in the afternoon, the police recorded the statements of the two photographers who had clicked the pictures and registered a formal FIR.

'I don't want to see my face on TV'

On December 31 night, as the world partied away to usher in the new year, two NRI women were molested by a group of nearly 60 men near Mumbai’s Juhu beach.
While one of the victims spoke with CNN-IBN on condition of anonymity, the other spoke with a Mumbai tabloid on Thursday. Recounting the horror she described how the hooligans assaulted her.
In an interview to a city tabloid, she said, "I just want to get over the horror. I want to stop seeing my face on TV. When we came out of the hotel (early) on January 1, I did not sense any trouble. But when we were walking, the crowd just kept getting closer."
"They touched my butt and pinched me. They also began grabbing my sister-in-law. People just watched as my husband tried to protect me," PTI quoted her as telling the newspaper.
The victim’s husband, too, recounted the sequence of events. "We are the victims. We were at J W Mariott from 9 PM on December 31 and at around 2 AM we (he, his wife and two cousins) decided to leave (the hotel) and take a rickshaw back to hotel Royal Gardens,”
"Just as we stepped out, we saw a group heading towards us. They reached us and immediately began grabbing my wife. Since we were walking against the crowd it was difficult to move ahead. But then it got worse. It seemed like the whole crowd was on my wife and my cousin," he recalled.
"Then somebody pushed all of us on the ground. It seemed like they were 50 people around .... all trying to get at my wife and cousin."
The victim's husband said he and his brother tried to fight the crowd but they were too many people.
“That's when some photographers started clicking us. All of a sudden from the crowd, there emerged a man wearing a red T-shirt who tried to help us and started shouting for the police. The cops arrived in a few minutes and the crowd thinned out," he said.
Explaining the reason for not filing a police complaint, the victim's husband said, "We could not identify any of the molesters as it happened too fast. For the record neither the police nor the J W Mariott hotel should be blamed. We are all based in California and I got married just a day before this horrible incident. I have been coming to Mumbai for the last five years, but this experience on New Year has changed my perception about Mumbai," he was quoted as PTI as saying.

'Post-9/11' in list of 2008's banned words

Resist the urge to say you will "wordsmith" your list of New Year's resolutions rather than write one. And don't utter, "It is what it is" when you fail to meet your first goal.
Those are two of the 19 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University's annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations.
Heading the 2008 list of banished words and phrases is "post-9/11", which has been to put to sleep for its overuse.
Among this year's picks are "surge," the term for the troop buildup in Iraq. "Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power," Michael Raczko of Swanton, Ohio, said in nominating the word.
The list also included "waterboarding," "perfect storm," "under the bus" and "organic." Also: "It is what it is," which Jeffrey Skrenes of St. Paul, Minn., said "accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant."
Sadly for grammar's guardians, the lighthearted list isn't binding, as evidenced by the continued use of past banned words and phrases such as "erectile dysfunction," "i-anything" and "awesome."
Still, university spokesman Tom Pink, part of a committee that evaluates submissions, takes his syntactic success where he can find it.
His office once received a letter from an Arizona Supreme Court justice who said he posted that year's list on a bulletin board and prohibited all attorneys from using those words.

Meet the material girls and the big-buck boys

Most random conversations over coffee eventually lead to relationship-related talk, is what one has figured in 2007. Fashion designer, free lance writer, brother, aspiring model, senior editor, dear friend, anonymous critique… All conversations have eventually lead to talks about men-women, status quo, marriage, money and sometimes, love and sex.
If one weren't talking, umpteen researches on everything from virginity to how your boss was affecting your sex life were constantly in the news. While 2007 proved to be the Year of the Sex Research, it was also a year of candid conversations.
One wall-to-wall conversation and a fun survey brought out some interesting interesting differences between men, women and how their changing relationship with money.
M for marriage or M for money?
The only two women who have ever purely discussed money with me have been the manager of my bank (wanted me to buy a gold coin) and a life insurance agent.
Men and women think differently of money. Most women speak of money in terms of spending: Money is that which pays your bill or lets you shop or that which you can save so that you can shop later. Most men who think money, think of it big. "When I am the partner in the firm," or "when I am a millionaire" (or even marry a millionaire's daughter), it's not about immediate spending.
Women hardly talk of becoming CEOs or region heads or millionaires… Unless they are (a) very young and single (b) jilted in love thus only thinking career (c) chronically committed to single-dom/ can't find a man (d) have a family to think of; and even then the family will always take precedence over making the bucks.
A recent research announced how in a marriage, women give preference to the man's career – say if it came to changing cities and jobs – over theirs. Even when removed from the marriage situation, women were only too happy to leave the money and go for love.
A random 'survey' of 18 people – nine men, nine women, 23-30 years old, all earning well, most live away from families, diverse nationalities and occupations – proved the same. The question asked was simple: 'If it came to a choice between marrying/being with the person of my dreams and choosing the job of my dreams (minimum million USD PM), I would choose…?'
Of the 69 % chose marriage over dream job, majority were women. Of the 45 % who chose the job/ money, majority were men. The few women who chose money (or considered it) quickly pointed out how they would have chosen love if life (and men) had taught them otherwise.
Basically, women ONLY think money when there's either a he-has-left-me involved or perhaps a what-if-he-leaves-me. If at all women think of secure future, financial independence and marriage in the same sentence, women think of marrying a man who earns well (and will not leave them).
NEXT PAGE: Girls make homes and boys make money?

Farmers hook on to the net to reap a rich harvest

IITians are helping farmers find answers to their crop problems. And they do this with SMSes.
Standing in the middle of his vineyard with a laptop in hand, 30-year-old Sandeep Khode is perhaps the face of the new techno-savvy Indian farmer, who gets expert agricultural advice by posting queries online at www.aaqua.org.
"This site helps me get good advice and is also a great way to keep a tab on the market," says Sandeep Khode, a grape farmer.
A Brainchild of IIT Bombay, aaqua (Almost All Questions Answered) does just what its name suggests, with advice on everything from how to improve your crop to tips on marketing the produce.
"The idea was to bridge the technological divide,” says Prof Krithi Ramamritham, Dean, R&D, IIT Bombay.
Farmers can register on the website free of charge. They can then post their queries in English, Hindi or Marathi. Experts at the agricultural universities answer the queries. They can even text their queries to the number 56767666.
The website also has a handy database of frequently asked questions. With nearly 4000 registered users, farmers from across the country have been logging into a whole new kind of Green Revolution.

Tech 2008: A platter full of hi-tech gadgets

It is party time for all the tech buffs as there are a heap of things that one can look forward to this New Year.
We live in a scientific age, an age that leads to a future of advanced technology. However, as the year ends, let us speculate on some of the many new technologies the future holds, especially, the year 2008.
Necessity is the mother of invention. And for 2008, Tata's Rs one lakh car might be the innovation in transport. Despite the simplistic design and minimal features, Tata's brainchild zooms ahead with its competitive pricing and economic engine, even as 40 more models get set to enter the market.
Besides a small car revolution, one might just be able to pay for ones car with a wireless telephone, which will be called a mobile phone in the future.
The year 2008 will see the convergence of another technology. Gone are the days when your credit card could be stolen or skimmed. Your cell phone can now make your credit transactions safe and risk free.
As on the cell phone front, Apple’s iphone and the google phone get set to land on Indian shores, the cell phone wars will escalate to announce one clear winner for 2008, which is the customer.
While online social networks plan to interlink, allowing you to jump from one community to another, individuals and large companies spend an increasing part of their days on virtual worlds, like second life.
As the common man looks to a virtual world, the country's scientists look to the skies, as they prepare to launch the moon rover Chandrayaan - 1, the first Indian spacecraft to land on the moon.
Little wonder then that the technology of the future, is history in the making.

Who or what killed Benazir? Mush has no answers

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s government may have requested the help of Scotland Yard in the enquiry into slain PPP chief Benazir Bhutto's assassination, but skepticism continues in the country over the government's intentions, especially considering their flip-flops over what caused Benazir's death.
With the cloud of mystery over the former prime minister’s death thickening, the pressure on Musharraf also rose which led him to summon the world's most famous detective agency.
“We have decided to summon a team from Scotland Yard in United Kingdom to look into the investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” Musharraf said.
In reaching out to the UK to help, Musharraf is hoping that he can satisfy the agitating people of Pakistan. Most Pakistanis are skeptical about the government's investigation into Benazir's assassination so far with many lawyers even openly accusing the President of planning it.
However, Musharraf has squarely blamed jehadi groups for the killing. “Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah, who is in the Swat area, are behind the killing of Benazir Bhutto,” he said.
Despite these claims, there are still many questions, which have been left unanswered like where were police officials during the security lapse on Benazir’s last rally. Many are also asking why Benazir was allowed to stand through her car's sunroof despite security warnings.
So, what is behind the government's flip-flop on what killed Benazir – sunroof lever, suicide bomber, a man who shot at point blank range, or a sharp shooting sniper concealed at a height?
Why was no autopsy done even though it is mandatory to clear the air on whether she died of a heart attack, a brain concussion, or did she haemorrhage to death?
In a press conference to counter Musharraf's address, Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari also asked, why the government did not apply to international agencies earlier. “We will get international support and get to the bottom of the matter,” Zardari said.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of the government's handling of the situation has been the destruction of evidence. Within hours of Benazir's assassination the entire area was washed of the bloodstains, removing doubts that the investigation will not be easy.