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First Indian Manned Mission

India's state-run space agency approved its first indigenous manned mission into space on Tuesday, aiming to put an astronaut outside the earth's atmosphere by 2014.The approval came after top Indian scientists met in the southern technology hub of Bangalore to discuss the viability of the mission.“They were unanimous in suggesting that the time is appropriate for India to undertake a manned mission,” a statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.In 1984, air force pilot Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space, riding in a then Soviet spacecraft.The new proposal for a manned mission will be put to the federal government for approval and funding. The mission is expected to cost $2.2 billion.ISRO is already working on the launch of its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon in 2008, powered by an locally-built rocket.A senior ISRO official said scientists had also discussed a manned mission to the moon by 2020 as a “logical extension” of the Indian manned space mission.

Now Only 8 planets

Pluto Downgraded To 'Dwarf Planet' Status; Solar System Now Has Eight Planets
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a "dwarf planet," a designation that will also be applied to the spherical body discovered last year by California Institute of Technology planetary scientist Mike Brown and his colleagues. The decision means that only the rocky worlds of the inner solar system and the gas giants of the outer system will hereafter be designated as planets.
This illustration of the largest known Kuiper Belt Objects shows Xena slightly larger than Pluto. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI))
The ruling effectively settles a year-long controversy about whether the spherical body announced last year and informally named "Xena" would rise to planetary status. Somewhat larger than Pluto, the body has been informally known as Xena since the formal announcement of its discovery on July 29, 2005, by Brown and his co-discoverers, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory and David Rabinowitz of Yale University. Xena will now be known as the largest dwarf planet.
"I'm of course disappointed that Xena will not be the tenth planet, but I definitely support the IAU in this difficult and courageous decision," said Brown. "It is scientifically the right thing to do, and is a great step forward in astronomy.
"Pluto would never be considered a planet if it were discovered today, and I think the fact that we've now found one Kuiper-belt object bigger than Pluto underscores its shaky status."
Pluto was discovered in 1930. Because of its size and distance from Earth, astronomers had no idea of its composition or other characteristics at the time. But having no reason to think that many other similar bodies would eventually be found in the outer reaches of the solar system--or that a new type of body even existed in the region--they assumed that designating the new discover as the ninth planet was a scientifically accurate decision.
However, about two decades later, the famed astronomer Gerard Kuiper postulated that a region in the outer solar system could house a gigantic number of comet-like objects too faint to be seen with the telescopes of the day. The Kuiper belt, as it came to be called, was demonstrated to exist in the 1990s, and astronomers have been finding objects of varying size in the region ever since.
Few if any astronomers had previously called for the Kuiper-belt objects to be called planets, because most were significantly smaller than Pluto. But the announcement of Xena's discovery raised a new need for a more precise definition of which objects are planets and which are not.
According to Brown, the decision will pose a difficulty for a public that has been accustomed to thinking for the last 75 years that the solar system has nine planets.
"It's going to be a difficult thing to accept at first, but we will accept it eventually, and that's the right scientific and cultural thing to do," Brown says.
In fact, the public has had some experience with the demotion of a planet in the past, although not in living memory. Astronomers discovered the asteroid Ceres on January 1, 1801--literally at the turn of the 19th century. Having no reason to suspect that a new class of celestial object had been found, scientists designated it the eighth planet (Uranus having been discovered some 20 years earlier).
Soon several other asteroids were discovered, and these, too, were summarily designated as newly found planets. But when astronomers continued finding numerous other asteroids in the region (there are thought to be hundreds of thousands), the astronomical community in the early 1850s demoted Ceres and the others and coined the new term "asteroid."
Xena was discovered on January 8, 2005, at Palomar Observatory with the NASA-funded 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. Xena is about 2,400 kilometers in diameter. A Kuiper-belt object like Pluto, but slightly less reddish-yellow, Xena is currently visible in the constellation Cetus to anyone with a top-quality amateur telescope.
Brown and his colleagues in late September announced that Xena has at least one moon. This body has been nicknamed Gabrielle, after Xena's sidekick on the television series.
Xena is currently about 97 astronomical units from the sun (an astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and Earth), which means that it is some nine billion miles away at present. Xena is on a highly elliptical 560-year orbit, sweeping in as close to the sun as 38 astronomical units. Currently, however, it is nearly as far away as it ever gets.
Pluto's own elliptical orbit takes it as far away as 50 astronomical units from the sun during its 250-year revolution. This means that Xena is sometimes much closer to Earth than Pluto--although never closer than Neptune.
Gabrielle is about 250 kilometers in diameter and reflects only about 1 percent of the sunlight that its parent reflects. Because of its small size, Gabrielle could be oddly shaped.
Brown says that the study of Gabrielle's orbit around Xena hasn't yet been fully completed. But once it is, the researchers will be able to derive the mass of Xena itself from Gabrielle's orbit. This information will lead to new insights on Xena's composition.
Based on spectral data, the researchers think Xena is covered with a layer of methane that has seeped from the interior and frozen on the surface. As in the case of Pluto, the methane has undergone chemical transformations, probably due to the faint solar radiation, that have caused the methane layer to redden. But the methane surface on Xena is somewhat more yellowish than the reddish-yellow surface of Pluto, perhaps because Xena is farther from the sun.
Brown and Trujillo first photographed Xena with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. However, the object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of 2005.
The search for new planets and other bodies in the Kuiper belt is funded by NASA. For more information on the program, see the Samuel Oschin Telescope's website at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomarnew/sot.html.
For more information on Mike Brown's research, see http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown.

Pesticides still found in Colas

Poisoned colas: Pesticide content is now deadlier

By IBNlive.com
Wednesday August 2, 03:22 PM
New Delhi: New tests have found that eleven soft drink brands, which in 2003 were found to contain pesticide residues, still contain a dangerous level of toxins, said the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday.The CSE’s report in 2003 had led to a joint Parliamentary probe into the matter, and on Wednesday the NGO claimed the soft drinks are still not clean.At a press conference in Delhi, the NGO said it had conducted tests on 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands for pesticides.It claimed that compared to 2006, Pepsi contained 30 times higher pesticide residue on an average and Coca-Cola contained 27 times higher residue. It alleged that it found three-five different kinds of pesticide residues in all the samples.The 2006 study tested 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands, from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, spread over 12 states.The study allegedly found three-five different kinds of pesticide residues in all samples—on an average 24 times higher than Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS norms), which have been finalised but not yet notified.The levels in some samples — for instance, Coca-Cola bought in Kolkata — exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane, said a CSE press release.A Coca-Cola sample manufactured in Thane contained the neurotoxin Chlorpyrifos, 200 times the standard. “This is clearly unacceptable as we know that pesticides are tiny toxins and impact our bodies over time,” said CSE director Sunita Narain.The current study was conducted by the same Pollution Monitoring Laboratory of CSE, which had tested samples in 2003.
Pesticide Residue In CSE Tested Samples
Pepsi Cola: 15.2
Coca-Cola: 13.4
7 Up: 12.5
Duke Lemonade: 10.9
Mirinda Orange: 10.7
Thumbs Up: 10.9
Limca: 6.7
Fanta: 9.1
Pepsi Caffechino: 4"We have fully complied with the JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) directions and are even more confident about our findings," said Chandra Bhushan, associate director at CSE.In 2003, the average level of pesticide residues in Delhi samples was allegedly 34 times above the same BIS. This CSE has found pesticide residues as high as 52 times in bottles bought in Kolkata, and 42 times in bottles bought in Nainital and Gorakhpur.Similarly, bottles bought in Mumbai, manufactured in Thane and Nagpur, are 34 times above the BIS standard, CSE claimed.Soft drink companies have claimed that there can't be a final product standard and even the health ministry has not set standards.(With inputs from CNN-IBN and Agencies)

Can we imagine a country without talented engineers, scientists, doctors and other professionals?

This is exactly what is happening in India. Most of the talented professionals are running after dollars and pounds. Due to this, India faces shortage of people for high end industrial work based on research and development.
The investment the Indian Government makes for educating an individual goes waste, when people migrate. People work for improving the economy of foreign countries, rather than their own

Example
NASA is launching Satellites ,Space craft successfully,...but
Our ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F02) was unsuccessful..
Infact >30% NASA's employees are Indians.................

Indian Contributions to American and Global Progress

Indian Contributions to American and Global Progress

While traveling and giving lectures in India last winter (December, 2002), a few questions that were presented to me was how America seems to be so progressive, as if it is the Americans themselves and their lifestyle that should be followed. However, I pointed out that it is the inter-cultural contribution that makes the progress in America possible, including those made by Indians. The following includes a few of the points I made in answer to such questions.
1. Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems? Vinod Khosla. The Sun founder also had an Indian Professor in Computer Technologies at Louisiana State University.
2. Who is the creator of the Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)? Vinod Dham.
3. Who is the third richest man in the world? According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is AZIM PREMJI, who is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now.
4. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)? Sabeer Bhatia.
5. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT &T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, and Unix to name a few)? Arun Netravalli.
6. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard? Rajiv Gupta.
7. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems? Sanjay Tejwrika.
8. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart? Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar. Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the Caucasians and natives. There are 3.22 million Indians in USA (1.5% of population). 12% of the scientists in the USA are Indians. 38% of doctors in America are Indian. 36% of NASA scientists are Indians. 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians. 28% of IBM employees are Indians. 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians. 13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
9. Furthermore, the Consul General in New York, Mr. Pramathesh Rath has said that India (as of 2002) is the largest source of international students accounting for more than 11 percent or 67,000 of the over half-million studying in various universities in the U.S. In this case, Indian students for the first time outnumbered the hitherto largest source of international students, which was China.
For the period of 2002-03, Indian students remain number 1 in U.S. university enrollments, totaling 74,603, up from the previous year. This accounts for a good 13% of the 586,323 international students. This means the Indian student population in the U.S. has doubled in the last 7 years. The U.S. authorities also appreciate this since it brings in large sums of money for the U.S. economy. It also allows the Indian talent to contribute to the U.S., as well as brings home to India a work force with cutting edge skills.
10. Indian doctors, numbering more than 35,000, constitute over five percent of all physicians in America.
11. Indians constitute ten percent of all medical students in America.
12. Indians also own nearly 40% of all the small and mid-size hotels in the country.
13. Another point is that three-fourths of all graduates from the prestigious IIT university in India are in the U.S.
14. Let's not forget that it was such spiritual visionaries as Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Vivekananda, and others who first brought notice of the true glories of Indian Vedic philosophy to the American public, and helped change the public's view of spirituality, popularize the vegetarian diet and yoga, and make "Hare Krishna" a household word.
Additional facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with
WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
2. India invented the numerical system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero.'
3. The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.
5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
6. Although western media portrays modern images of India as poverty stricken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works date back to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.
9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.
10. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.
11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
13. Chess was invented in India.
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India dating back to at least 100 BC.To elaborate on these points:
A similar article to the one above was originally sent into the Indian Express newspaper, June 22, 1999, by Maxwell Pareira, and reproduced in the Annual Research Journal - 2000, by the Institute for Rewriting Indian (and World) History, which follows.
Some may dispute the facts, like, "India never invaded any country in the last 10,000 years of her history." But when many cultures were nomadic forest dwellers over 5,000 years ago, India established the Harappan culture in the Indus Valley. The world's first university, established in Takshila in 700 BC, had 10,500 students from all over the world studying more than 60 subjects. The large university at Nalanda, dating from the 4th century BC, is acknowledged as one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. And Sanskrit, through Latin, is accepted as the mother of all European languages. A 1987 report in Forbes magazine said Sanskrit was the most suitable language for computer software.
India contributed to the number system by the numeral 0, innovated by Aryabhatta. Algebra, trigonometry, and calculus originated in India. The quadratic equation was solved by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The Greeks and Romans contented themselves with rather small numbers, while Hindus (the then inhabitants of the land of Sapta-Sindhu) used units as big as 10 raised to the power of 53 with specific names as early as 5,000 BC, during the Vedic period. Today, the largest unit in use is tera, or 10 to the power of 12.
The solar year was calculated as 365.25875684 days by Bhaskaracharya in the 5th century, hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. The value of pi was first calculated by Bodhayana, who also discovered the Pythagorean Theorem in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians. The place value system and the decimal system were developed in India in 100 BC. [Further research has placed the dates mentioned in this paragraph as actually being much earlier for some of these inventions, as explained in Proof of Vedic Culture's Global Existence.]
Ayurveda is the oldest school of medicine codified by Charaka 2,500 years ago. Sushruta, the father of surgery, conducted complicated procedures dealing with cataracts, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery, caesarean section and brain surgery 2,600 years ago. Over 125 surgical instruments were in use. The use of anesthesia was also known in ancient India.
A century-old suspicion that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagadish Bose and not Marconi now stands proven. And Nature has reported that a Danish physicist and his team in the US have slowed down light from the speed of 300,000 km per second to 71 km per hour, using the Bose Einstein Condensate to stall it in its path. And the forensic use of fingerprints was discovered and developed in Calcutta.
The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6,000 years ago. The very word "navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit naugatih. Although modern images of India show poverty and underdevelopment, it was the richest country on earth until the arrival of the British. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth. According to the Gemological Institute of America, until 1896 India was the world's only source of diamonds. Furthermore, the earliest dam for irrigation was built in Saurashta. According to the Saka King Rudradaman I, a beautiful lake called Sudarshana was constructed on the hills of Raivataka in Chandragupta Maurya's time.
In regard to games, there is no doubt that the game of chess is an Indian invention in the form of Shatranj or Astha Pada. Polo originated in Manipur. The first man on Everest was Tenzing Norgay, not Sir Edmond Hillary.

Some additional facts about India are the following:1. The number of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, at more than 6,000, is second only to NYSE. 2. Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians. 3. With 800 movies per year, India's film industry overshadows Hollywood. 4. The organized lottery market in India is US$7bn (2% of GDP). 5. India consumes a fifth of the world's gold output. 6. Indians account for 45% of H1-B visas issued by the US every year. 7. Growing at 6%, in 25 years Indian GDP on a PPP basis will be at the same level the US is at today. 8. Six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years. No other country has won more than twice. 11. Bank deposits in India roughly equal 50% of its GDP OE again, among the highest in the world. 12. Indian Railways is the largest railway network in the world under single management.
13. India has the third-largest army in the world, nearly 1.5 million strong. 14. India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounting for more than 30% of global production and 25% of consumption. 15. India is the world's premier centre for diamond cutting and polishing. Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India. 16. India has the highest number of annual bulk drugs filings (77) with USFDA.
17. India is home to the largest number of pharmaceutical plants (61) approved by USFDA outside the US. 18. India's Hero Honda is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units. 19. Other than US and Japan, India is the only country to have built a super computer indigenously. 20. Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, with a staff of 1.6 million people. 21. It is the second-largest cement-producing country in the world, producing more than 110m tonnes. 22. Of the Fortune 500 companies, 220 outsource their software-related work to India. 23. There are 8,500 Indian restaurants in the UK, 15% of the country's total dining-out establishments. 24. India is the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 400m voting in the last national elections. 25. India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world. 26. India has the third-largest investor base in the world. 27. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds. 28. The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 12 years in the city of Allahabad, attracts 25 million people OE more than the population of 185 of the 227 countries in the world. In fact, in 2001, it attracted 27 million people on the main holy days in January, and 71 million over the course of the 6 weeks of the whole festival. 29. The Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today. 30. There are 3.22 million Indians in the US. 31. Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaires. From a sample of 2004 US Census based surveys, Asians are the highest earning subgroup with a median income of $57,518 compared to the national average of $44,389. 32. India is ranked the sixth country in the world in terms of satellite launches. 33. There are over 70,000 bank branches in India - among the highest in the world. 34. The State bank of India is the world’s largest Bank in terms of branches.
Additional and Interesting Quotes About India.
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. Albert Einstein.
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition. Mark Twain.
If there is one place on the face of the earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. French scholar Romain Rolland.
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border. Hu Shih. (Former Chinese ambassador to USA)
ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS. BUT, if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again see India as an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.

With all this evidence anyone can see the potential India and her people have exhibited in the past, only to have had it stifled and squashed by its conquerors over the centuries. Nonetheless, it could again become a global influence if allowed to do so, which is something that is again gradually happening after a long struggle toward freedom.

Interesing discussion ....later

Poverty

Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India
India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas

What are the causes for this ?
What are the ways to develop the people ?