Man drank wife's blood

This real life incident has the making of a scene from some vampire movie. A 22-year-old woman in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh has told the police that her husband drank her blood for the past three years. "He used to take a syringe and draw blood from my arms," Deepa Ahirwar said. "He would then empty it in a glass and drink it. For three years he did this on a regular basis, threatening me of dire consequences if I revealed this to anyone."

Deepa was married to an agricultural labourer, Mahesh Ahirwar, in Shikarpura village in 2007. A few months after the marriage, Mahesh started drawing blood from his wife's veins and consuming it. He said it made him strong and did not stop even when Deepa was pregnant. It was after she gave birth to a son seven months ago that she started protesting. She told the police that she would feel drained and nauseating after the blood extraction. When she resisted, her husband beat her up.


Earlier this month, Deepa, with the baby in her arms, escaped to her parents' house under the Patera police station area. When she narrated the story to her farmer father, he took her to the local police station to register a case against Mahesh. But the police said that the case was not under their jurisdiction and the matter should be reported to the Hindoriya police station as the victim resided with her husband in that area.

Deepa and her parents took the matter to Hindoriya, where they were directed to the women counseling section. Neither Hindoriya nor Patera registered a case against the absconding Mahesh. When the residents of Shikarpura came to know of Mahesh's deeds, they took up Deepa's cause. The Hindoriya police have now registered an FIR that she was physically tortured by her husband.

Unmanned aerial vehicle Bangalore

It was a dream come true for five Bangalore students when their 'baby' took off on the tarmac, which is generally used by sophisticated US naval aircraft. Not just that, by flying their unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), these students also stood first in Asia and third in the world displaying their technological prowess.
For the last one year, it has been the dream of students to build aero models. "We would take these aero models made out of thermocol out of Bangalore to fly it manually. But, we never took it seriously as to whether we can build an UAV ourselves. Then, we were doing research in IISc when we met Dr Prashanth, who heads the micro nutrient department in St John's hospital. Prashanth, who has a hobby of building UAVs, encouraged us to do UAVs and this was when we took it as a challenge and completed in three months flat. Our UAV is made of balsa wood while its wings are manufactured using thermocol. The engine is electrically powered for which we have coded to take instructions. The instructions are sent from a laptop to the autopilot device installed in the UAV. This auto pilot, we fondly call as paparazzi," explained Prasanna R, a team member.

Then with the UAV in their arms, these mechanical engineering students of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology headed to Maryland, USA to participate in the ninth Annual Student Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) event from June 15-19. The competition was about building an UAV capable of autonomous flight (auto piloted) and live imagery while airborne and identifying some ground targets and determining their GPS coordinates, explained Prateek Khanna, another student.

Participant Rajharsee Rahul said, "Our mission was to fly autonomously (without human intervention) using an autopilot controlled by ground station laptop and survey the given area. The competition was very tough. Students from 34 universities from across the world were participating."
In the first round, these students were shortlisted from a preliminary test while the second round was based on safety measures and the third was the actual flight session. The final round had four phases; presenting the journal paper, followed by an autonomous flight, oral presentation and image processing, added Srikanth Singh, another student.


The competition was sponsored by companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Compass Systems etc, said Prasanna.
The team was awarded the 3rd place for autonomous flight and 4th place in the journal paper out of 36 international teams present there. They received a cash prize of $2700 (about Rs 1,35,000).
Now, the students are planning to have an UAV club in college and share their experience with other students to ensure better performance in next year's competition. "Now, we can build an UAV in two weeks," said Vishnu B N, a team member.

Infosys techie

An Infosys techie who quit his lucrative job to become a farmer; another software engineer who spends his time quizzing when he is not programming ; an engineer who now goes backpacking around the world. These are stories of people who have stepped put of their comfort zones to not-so-comfy but much happier lives. They have also become case studies in Rakesh Godhwani's book, 'Plunge : Reinvention for the New Generation' launched on Tuesday.

"When you stop cribbing , you will discover something . There is a phase of life between 'grihasta' and 'sanyasa' called 'vanaprastha'. This is when people do things for the welfare of people and not just for their sake.

Strangely, this phase of life is disappearing. The plunge is about this period when you do something that gives you and others happiness," said IIIT-B director Prof. S Sadagopa . He recollected that Godhwani had quit his high flying IT job and made a lifestyle change. He joined the IIM-B alumni association , stopped using his car and rode around on a cycle. All for his love of teaching.


"I was a terrible writer. Sometimes I had 57 mistakes on one page. But when you want something, the whole world conspires to make it happen. The same happened to me. A friend had quit his IT job to be a farmer. I was fascinated by the story and experience of sitting at his farmhouse under a glowworm-lit evening. That's how my book began," said Godhwani who then captured several unique stories of people who made a drastic career shift.

IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra said after nearly 5 years of finishing their management course, 15 to 20% alumni become entrepreneurs which shows that many are willing to take risks and seek happiness in offbeat careers.

Study of the Bhagavad Gita

The decision of the government to introduce study of the Bhagavad Gita in government schools has evoked resentment, and a majority of the people, whose opinions were sought, were opposed to it.

The arrest of a leader who had protested against the preaching of the spiritual contents of the Gita in a junior college in Kolar by Gangadhareshwara Saraswati Swamiji, has fuelled the resentment further.

V Ambarish, Kolar district president of Students Federation of India, who was arrested in connection with the above incident, began fast at the local jail, demanding the arrest of the Swamiji. In view of the furore, the Bhagavad Gita campaign has been put on hold in Chikballapur district for the present. The programme has faced stiff resistance in Kolar and Chikballapur districts.

Various scholars including Prof G Venkatsubbaiah and Nirananjan Aradhya, educationist, Dr Mahabaleshwar Rao, veteran writers, Hampa Nagarajaiah and  Amrit Someshar and also former Kannada Sahitya Parishat president, Chandrashekhar Patil, have opposed the move, with some of them even terming it anti-constitutional. Wakf minister, Mumtaz Ali Khan, opines that it would be better, if alongside the Bhagavad Gita, teaching of the Quran and the Bible is also introduced in schools, as all the religions preach the same principles.

While the programme has reportedly received good response in some districts, there are others who term it as an attempt at saffronization of education. Minister for primary and secondary education, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, claims that this programme was awaiting clearance since long, and that this campaign is aimed at preaching moral and ethical values to the children when they are young. Stressing that the Bhagavad Gita is universally acclaimed book without religious overtones, he said that the programme is not backed by any hidden agenda.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has informed the Bombay high court that candidates, who opt for an Indian language medium (other than Hindi) for the written Civil Services exam, can henceforth either choose the same Indian language, English or Hindi for the interview.

Similarly, even those candidates, who give the main exam in English, can now choose English, Hindi or any other Indian language for the interview, opted by them for the compulsory Indian language paper in the written part of the test, UPSC said, in an affidavit, recently.

The affidavit was submitted in response to a PIL filed by IAS aspirant Chittaranjan Kumar, challenging the existing rule that requires a candidate to give the interview in English, if he had appeared for the main examination in that language.

The candidates, who are, as per the present policy, exempted from the compulsory Indian language paper, will have to appear for the interview in English or Hindi only, the affidavit said, adding that these were the recommendations submitted by an expert committee, formed specially to look into the issue.

The recommendations had been accepted by the UPSC and forwarded to the Government with a request to send comments or observations. After hearing from the government, the UPSC would incorporate the necessary changes and implement them, the court was told.

Accordingly, Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice GS Godbole disposed of the petition.

Kumar, who appeared for the written part of the 2008 civil services examination in English, wanted to give the interview in Hindi.

Earlier, the High Court had approved the committee of experts appointed by the UPSC to review the impugned rule and file a report by June 23.

The PIL argued that if the existing rule is changed, the candidates appearing for Civil Services examination shall get an opportunity to speak in their own language in which they feel comfortable at the time of interview and thus score more marks in the oral test.

This way, students from the grassroots level will grab more seats by securing higher rank and break the tradition of elites getting into the civil service, the PIL argued.

The PIL contended that impugned rule was pro-rich and anti-poor. It said the interviewers should judge a candidate on the basis of his or her personality and not on the basis of speaking English.

The existing rule violates fundamental rights under the constitution and is also against public policy of the nation, the PIL argued.

Indian women / indian business women

 
Indian women are more optimistic in the world compared to their counterparts in the developed nations. Despite facing a lot of stress, women in India splash money on health, vacations, beauty products and electrical appliances and are gaining greater control over their lives, according to a survey.

A survey of 6,500 women across 21 developed and developing countries revealed that Indian women are most optimistic about opportunities for growth, with 78% of the lot confident about better financial stability and better chances for education for their daughters.

"Indian women are now more able in making simple day-to-day decisions. It is getting increasingly important for marketers to understand their attitudes," said Surekha Poddar, executive director, customised research, Nielsen Indian Region. While 58% said they had more opportunities to reduce stress compared to their mothers, 78% believed that their daughters would have more opportunities than them. Despite getting increasingly indulgent in clothes, health and beauty, more than three-fourth of the surveyed lot gave more importance to saving for their children's education.

"Women in India see greater hopes for their daughters in terms of growth opportunities. This is starkly different from the women in developed countries, who have been empowered with the freedom of choice for a while now," said Poddar.

In terms of media consumption too, 51% of Indian women are now viewing more television than they were two years ago, as compared to 40% of the female respondents globally. 77% of Indian women believe that their daughters will have more opportunities in accessing technology.

"Indian women are slowly being influenced by their use of technology and access to the internet, though their remains a significant reliance on traditional media," Poddar said.

 
However, greater empowerment of women has led to greater stress too. Around 87% of Indian women said they often felt pressured for time, while 64% said they felt stressed all the time, as opposed to 54% and 38% of women respectively, in the developed countries. "Balancing traditional responsibilities with the new-age pressures is a big challenge for Indian women. Her growing expectation from herself to perform both these tasks efficiently results in stress," Poddar added.

Kind hearted indians .

India has emerged as one of the leaders in charitable giving among emerging markets, compared to other nations such as China and Brazil. In 2010, Indians gave 50% more since 2006 as a percentage of GDP at approximately $5-6 billion, up from $2 billion in 2006, according to a report released by global consultancy firm Bain & Company.

Private charity contributions were largely dominated by money pumped in by foreign funds with individuals constituting only 26% of the overall $5-6 billion. In the US, on the other hand, individual philanthropy totals up to as much as 75% of all private giving while in the UK it stands at 60%.

The report, which includes a survey of over 300 wealthy individuals, said there was optimism that philanthropy is poised to rise further in India as the population of rich individuals grows and more advanced systems come into place to help people give more. The report added that 40% of wealthy Indian individuals plan to increase philanthropic donations over the next five years.

Talking to TOI, Bain & Co's Arpan Sheth, author of the report, said, "In the last 18 months private philanthropy has gone up primarily due to an increase in wealthy individuals, a shift in attitude of high net worth individuals, and the younger generation of entrepreneurs increased their intent to give."

Although, India's private charitable donations between 0.3% and 0.4% of the GDP in 2010 was up by 0.2% in 2006, it's still far behind the developed countries. While in the US, private philanthropy accounted for 2.2% of the GDP in 2009, in the UK it was 1.3% in 2010.

"The culture of each market is different from the other. In the developed markets, the institutions for giving are also much advanced unlike here in India. But the real disparity is because individual donations in India still constitute only 26% of all private charitable contributions," said Madhur Singhal, the co-author of the report, here on Wednesday. In contrast, individual philanthropy mounted to 75% of all private giving in the US while in the UK it stood at 60%.

The most popular causes for philanthropy were education, housing and shelter, and food with the majority of 40% saying education was the top cause of donation. The survey also pointed out that wealthy Indians are giving away between 1.5-3% of their annual household income into charity however, the wealthiest of Indians are donating much less as compared to their US counterparts who contribute about 9% of their income.

Singhal from Bain & Co added that Indian corporates will have to lead the way as far as private giving goes to up the contribution. The report said individual contributions from current estimates of $1.5 billion to as much as $4.6 billion by 2015.

India grants petty patents

India's spirit of jugaad is finally going to get legal backing. Innovators who have for long been dismissed as copycats or blamed for piracy would soon get intellectual property rights, at par with patents, with the industry department going to move a bill.

The move to grant 'petty patents' or 'innovation patents', also called utility models, follows a near strong support to a proposal floated by the department of industrial policy and promotion, at least from domestic players. The idea was to give intellectual property rights to the small scale industry's innovations that lead to inventions which do not strictly conform with patent laws.

Under the Patents Act, protection is granted if there is novelty, inventive step and industrial application. It is denied in case there is a mere discovery of new forms of known substances, rearrangement or duplication of devices and inventions due to traditional knowledge.

Agencies such as Defence Research & Development Organisation ( DRDO) have told the department that development of weapons systems and platforms for services, with dual use applications, stand to benefit.

Similarly, the science and technology department has supported the move and suggested that the proposed protection be made available for 8-10 years.

The biotech department has argued that petty patents should be granted to mechanical devices, including those for patient care, some chemicals and industrial designs.

But global giants such as Intel have opposed the move and have argued that if at all protection is provided, it should be limited to mechanical devices and not for high-tech devices. "No, there is no overwhelming need/ empirical data to support the position that India today needs a utility model law," said Matrix Labs, a subsidiary of Mylan Inc, which is one of the world's largest player in the bulk drugs space.

Japanese companies, which have submitted a joint feedback to the government, have argued that protection against potential misuse should be built in.

While officials said that work on preparing the draft legislation was starting, the details would be thrashed out after further consultations. What is, however, certain is that industries such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology would be kept out as the government does not want additional protection to affect public health. The science and technology ministry has said that only biomedical and pharma industry should get patent protection as large sums are pumped in for research and development.

By enacting a law that would boost protection of creeping and incremental innovations, India will join the league of over 50 countries ranging from Japan and Germany, which have had utility models for long, as well as China and the Netherlands that provided protection later.

"It is compliant with global intellectual property rights norms so we do not see any problem," government sources said.

In a discussion paper released in May, the department had listed several innovations ranging from clay refrigerator or Mitticool that does not use electricity, to gas stove switch, where the stove is switched off after a predetermined number of pressure cooker steam release whistles are sounded.

Since 2000, the National Innovation Foundation has built a database of over one lakh ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices from across the country and has filed for close to 200 patents in India and the US. Out of these, 33 patents have been granted to grassroots innovations in India and four in US.

The bill will provide a legal framework that offers quick, cheap, simple and non-demanding registration.

Richest god in the world/ god rich

Gold ornaments, gold and silver coins, stone studded crowns, idols and figurines inlaid with precious stones and jewels estimated to be worth a whopping over Rs.90,000 crore have been found from the cellars of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here.

With one more "secret" vault yet to be opened, the figure in all likelihood will go up further. But sources said the figures could only be speculation as it wasn't possible to determine the antique value of the precious gems and jewellery. "These are antique pieces and it's not possible to determine their prices," said historian and former director of Indian Council of Historical Research M G S Narayanan. In other words, the worth of the treasure could be intimidatingly higher.

The Supreme Court-appointed committee on Sunday refused to confirm reports about the value of the recoveries, saying that its mandate is limited to making an inventory of the assets.

Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said the treasure would remain with the temple. "The wealth belonged to the temple and it will be preserved where it was found. There is religious and historical significance to the findings. The state will ensure its security," Chandy told reporters on Sunday.

Chandy said the police would patrol the shrine 24X7 and a control room had already started functioning. "Permanent security arrangements will be put in place only after consultations with the chief priest of the temple and the Travancore king who is the caretaker of the shrine," the CM said.

A source said the seven-member panel was stunned by what it found in the secret vault marked `A' during its inspection on Thursday. There were close to 1,000 kg of gold coins, some of these from the East India Company era and Napolean's period, about one tonne of gold in the form of rice trinkets, sack full of diamonds said to be from Burma and Sri Lanka, a rope made of gold and thousands of pieces of rare 'sarappoli' necklaces.


The stock-taking continued next day as only 30% of the assets could be counted on Thursday. Again there were surprises in the form of a three-and-a-half feet tall idol of Lord Vishnu studded with diamonds, emeralds and rubies, an 18-feet-long ornament used to adorn the deity and weighing 35 kg and 1 feet tall human figurines weighing 1 kg each. There were coins marked 1772 indicating they were from the era of former Travancore ruler Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma better known as `Dharma Raja' for his strict adherence to the rules of 'dharma'.

Entry was strictly forbidden for the media and public to the site. There are six vaults marked A to F in the shrine. The A and B cellars have never been opened after 1872. The panel had set out on the job on June 27 and opened three vaults marked C, D and F till Wednesday.

The observers, retired Kerala high court judge Justice M N Krishnan and Justice C S Rajan, said it was difficult give an exact date when the stock-taking would be completed. The B and E vaults remain to be opened.


Narayanan said there were specific documents called 'Mathilakam records' which speak about the history of the shrine and about how the assets came into it. "The temple has been known since the 9th Century and figures in the writings of that time. Native ruler of Travancore (then pricely state) Marthanda Varma had given away all the wealth to the deity and ruled the kingdom as the Lord's agent."

"Travancore was a very prosperous state and with its port facilities, traded in spices, sandalwood and ivory. The foreign currency recovered from the vaults may have come in through the trade route," he added.

the family's tragedy, great scarfice

For days, Mumpy would listen quietly as the elders discussed how only an eye surgery could save her father's vision and a kidney transplant her brother's life. But both surgeries were beyond the family's meagre means. So, Mumpy hit upon a plan, which to her 12-year-old mind seemed the answer to all troubles. She would kill herself, which would save the dowry, too, and her organs would give her loved ones back their lives.

Mumpy did stick to her plan. But the suicide note in which she had scribbled down her wishes was found the day after she was cremated.

The incident took place in Dhantala's Jhorpara on June 27. Her father's and brother's ailments had left Mumpy Sarkar, a Class VI student, anxious. One of the kidneys of her brother Monojit, a Class XI student, was damaged and the other was getting weak. Father Mridul Sarkar, a daily wager, was also gradually losing his eyesight.

"The family had approached the local MLA for help. We had decided to grant them some money for the boy's treatment. But the tragedy happened all of a sudden," said Dhantala panchayat pradhan Tapas Tarafdar.


Mumpy had taken elder sister Monica, a Class VIII student, into confidence and had urged her to commit suicide as well for the "cause". When Mumpy told Monica about her plan on the morning of June 27, the latter laughed it off and left for school. Their father was away at work and mother Rita had gone to fetch rice.

"Finding herself alone at home, Mumpy consumed Thiodan, a pesticide. Then, she ran to meet her father, who was about half a kilometre away. She told him that she had dreamt that someone had poured poison into her mouth and her stomach ached. Her alarmed father took her to a local pharmacy immediately where she was given some medicines. But her condition worsened soon and she had to be rushed to the local Baranberia hospital. From there, she was referred to Anulia hospital. But the doctors declared her brought dead," Tarafdar said.

It was only the day after her cremation that Mumpy's father found a note on her bed. Addressed to her mother, the girl requested her to make use of her eyes and kidney for the treatment of her father and brother. This left the aggrieved family inconsolable. "We were too late in understanding the feelings of a very sensitive child," Mridul wept. Mumpy's mother has gone into shock.

Indian own london

Wealthy Indians are keeping the family bonhomie alive in the heart of London, buying not one but a cluster of houses or apartments for themselves, their children and small teams of personal staff. Tony areas like Kensington, Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia are some of the popular destinations for such clusters.

The homes typically are a network of residential properties on a street or an apartment block. The central idea behind such purchases is that it will give the children a sense of independence, staying just a few houses away from their parents, with support staff being just a buzz away.

High networth individuals from India and the Middle East are the main cluster buyers in London. In fact, there has been a marked increase in the number of Asian buyers. "Asians are our biggest single group of purchasers now, accounting for 44% of sales in 2010. Of this, 17% were Indians. In 2008, only 7% of the purchases were made by Asians," Shirley Humphrey, sales and marketing director of Harrods Estates, a property broking firm, said. According to her, a weak British pound and low interest rates have contributed to the appeal of cluster buying in prime residential areas.


The buyers are typically industrialists and entrepreneurs, and the expenditure could be anywhere between £1 and £10 million ( Rs 7-72 crore) for a cluster. According to Harrods Estates, the average prices at Knightsbridge is £3,000 per sq ft (around Rs 2.16 lakh). Similarly, capital values in Mayfair are anywhere between £2,000 per sq ft and £3,000 per sq ft (Rs 1.44 lakh-2.16 lakh), while those in Kensington sell on an average of £1,193 per sq ft (Rs 85,896).

Jaideep Singh, head of real estate consultancy Knight Frank's India desk in London, says Indian families are increasingly looking to buy multiple properties within a short radius.

"We have a client whose explicit instruction was to find him a place close to his sister's house so the children could spend time there," he said.

Noel de Keyzer, director at property brokerage Savills' central London office, says Indians are looking for the best addresses or the finest garden squares for their cluster homes. Grosvenor Square, Upper Grosvenor Gardens, Upper Brook Street are such popular addresses in London. Second tier locations include parts of Montagu Square and Bryanston Square. According to Keyzer, many are buying large traditional central London houses, often with a separate mews house at the rear that affords additional privacy and a separate space for guests and staff. But apartments are also preferred for reasons of security and the concierge services available in them. Usually, smaller apartments within a block are purchased for the staff.


"Cluster buyers typically own properties around the world and are in London only for a few months every year, prompting the question of whether to leave the staff behind or travel with an entourage. To get around the issue of leaving behind skeletal staff, buyers often favour a primary residence in a building with security and concierge service," Humphrey said. 

Baba ramdev biography / baba ramdev biodata

He's a yoga guru, who fashions himself after a 'yoddha sannyasi' or warrior monk. Born as Ramkrishna Yadav in Ali Saiyadpur village in Mahendragarh district of Haryana in 1965, Ramdev's earliest influences, apart from yoga, were revolutionary writings on the lives of Ram Prasad Bismil and Subhas Chandra Bose.


He learnt the value of pranayam when it cured him of the disabling effects of a paralytic stroke he got as a child. His faith in curative nature of yoga enhanced, Ramdev defined 'swasthya swavalamban' — self-reliance in health  as the centrepiece of his worldview. He says only a healthy body with a healthy mind can lead to a healthy society and nation.

But what is Ramdev's politics? Does he have an economic vision? He is a swadeshi zealot — calling him a votary would be gross understatement. An uber social conservative, he harangues foreign medicine and culture, froths at liberal views on homosexuality. At one of his congregations in Haridwar some time back, he invited a scrum of journalists to speak to a largely rural audience of around a couple of thousands in Hindi. He insists on spelling yoga as 'yog' because that's how it is pronounced.

The baba eats fruit and vegetables, drinks a lot of juice, and is lean, without a sliver of fat on his body. An
engaging conversationalist, he sizes up his interlocutor with something approximating intuition. And he has a good memory.

Ramdev, unlike politicians, appears to the folk as someone strongly attached to what he feels and thinks: A man of convictions, a contrast with politicians. His ochre robe — saffron is worshipped in the heartland — make it difficult for politicians to spit at him and run, usually a safe political tactic.

But the baba, who owns a Scottish island at Cumbrae thanks to his NRI bhakta couple Sam and Sunita Poddar who bought it for two million pounds, has a savvy business side to him. While he recently said the turnover of his enterprises is around Rs 1,100 crore, sources close to him placed the worth of his entire business empire at Rs 15,000 crore.

Ramdev is the face of a multi-crore healing business in Haridwar which includes a 300-bed multi-speciality hospital, a Yoga Research Centre known as Patanjali Yogpeeth, a university, and an ayurvedic pharmacy. He is also associated with a food park known as Padarth and Yog Gram. Ramdev recently began another massive project known as Patanjali .

Temples in Goa have dress code

A few of the important temples in Goa have recently laid down a strict dress code for visitors, aimed at, especially, those from the foreign countries; while one prominent temple has banned foreigners altogether.

Why a dress code? Temple authorities say that the devotees were upset over 'scantily dressed' tourists in 'beach-wear' entering the temples.

Mahalasa Narayani Temple at Mardol, 20 km from Panaji, has put up a board: "Entry Restricted for Foreign Tourists".

Mangueshi temple at Mangueshi village, and Ramnathi temple at Ponda have put a dress code in place.

"We are not against the foreigners, but their dresses and conduct in the temple is highly objectionable, so the management has decided to ban them," said Vinod Kamat, President, Mahalasa Narayani Temple.

The locals were recently outraged after some foreigners, out of ignorance, wore garlands. The garlands were supposed to be offered to the deity.


"They would wear garlands themselves, and later dump them before the deity, which was highly objectionable," Kamat said.

"There has to be some discipline." Before the ban, on an average a hundred foreigners visited the temple every day.

Mangueshi Temple, located next to Mahalsa Temple, has imposed dress restrictions. The temple president, Jayant Mandurkar, said the dress code was same for both domestic as well as foreign tourists.

Schoolboy gastic band operation.

 
A 20 stone 10-year-old has become the youngest boy ever to have a gastic band operation.
Schoolboy Ksithijj Jindger was so overweight that his parents took the drastic step of paying for weight loss surgery.
The youngster was already eight stone by the age of three - and despite his parents' best efforts to make his portions smaller he continued to balloon in size.
Ksithijj, from a wealthy suburb of Chennai, India, had been spoilt with rich, fattening meals since he was a little boy and could not stop growing.
Doctors have never carried out the dangerous surgery on anyone so young before, but surprisingly it was a success, and a year later Ksithijj has shed an amazing nine stone, making him 11stone at 11.
'We're so pleased,' said his mother. 'He used to be so overweight, we worried he might die before he saw his 11th birthday.'
Ksithijj's mother had been serving up calorie-rich curries and bread which caused Ksithijj weight to soar to a shocking fourteen stone by the time he was five.
'We did not understand we were doing the wrong thing,' she said.
'Obesity never used to be such a big problem here. He loved eating and I wanted to spoilt him, but his weight got out of hand.'
Ksithijj got so big he could not run around like other boys and got out of breath just walking a few steps, or climbing up stairs.


He weighed two and a half stone at two, and after that his weight kept growing, so he was 16.5 stone at seven, and 20-stone when he was nine and a half.
His mother and dad took Ksithijj to their GP, who told them to put him on a strict diet and exercise programme.
But the couple were so worried the diet would not work, they decided he should have gastric surgery and amazingly were able to find an Indian doctor willing to carry out the controversial op on a little boy.
Weight-loss surgery is not normally carried out on teenagers under 16 in the UK.
But in places like India, where obesity is starting to become a problem for the first time, younger and younger patients are now going under the knife.
Thankfully, the surgery helped Ksithijj lose his massive appetite, as he could no longer eat large meals, and he began having small portions of healthy, plain, vegetable dishes.
'He looks like a completely different boy now,' said his mum. 'He has grown up and yet he is half the size.
'He can play cricket with his friends now and he has started going to the gym.
'We're glad we took the drastic action, even though our GP told us it was too dangerous.
'Our GP now refuses to give medical treatment to any of the family, because he didn't agree with what we did.'
Ksithijj is still rapidly losing weight, and recently lost three stone in just three months.
He hopes to soon be the average size for his age and then to maintain his weight by staying away from calorie-ridden traditional meals.

Facebook investigation

Social networking sites are not just for chatting with your friends. They can also be used to trap wayward husbands, as one woman from Coimbatore discovered. With the help of Facebook, she was able to trace her husband who abandoned her a year ago, moving to Saudi Arabia, where he planned to remarry.


When Mahalakshmi, the young mother, got wind of her husband's plans to remarry, she lodged a complaint with the city police commissioner.  she fell in love with R S Karthikeyan of Uthamasolapuram in Salem, who sold rods for a living, and married him in June, 2008. A year later, they had a baby girl.

Trouble erupted when Karthikeyan and his parents demanded 15 sovereigns of gold and `1 lakh as dowry from Mahalakshmi's parents. Since the latter could not provide the dowry, Karthikeyan refused to let his wife visit her parents. He also abused her often. When an anguished Mahalakshmi informed her parents about the abuse, they asked both mother and daughter to leave immediately and come stay with them. However, Karthikeyan refused to let his wife take their child Nimisha. Mahalakshmi filed a complaint with the police and was able to rescue her daughter from her father in 2009.

Meanwhile, with the help of the police, Mahalakshmi thwarted her husband's attempts to remarry. Having received a severe warning from the police, he agreed to live with his wife again. However, the happiness was short-lived. In a drunken fit, Karthikeyan thrashed his wife and drove both mother and child out of the house. A month later, he visited his wife and gave her his phone number. Mahalakshmi could not reach him at this number.

When Mahalakshmi got wind of her husband's marriage plans in Saudi Arabia from a friend who refused to give her his contact details, an idea to trap him struck her. Knowing that Karthikeyan had a Facebook account, she created a false account under her relative, Satish's name, but he refused to fall prey to her tactics. She immediately changed her tracks by creating a fake profile of a suitable bride and sent him love messages. This time around, Karthikeyan readily departed with his contact details.

Soon after, Mahalakshmi called him. A shocked Karthikeyan informed her that he was keen on getting married again. He promised to compensate her adequately. An angry Mahalakshmi petitioned the city police commissioner. A case has been registered with the all-woman police station at R.S.Puram.

Technology to set up a milk dairy

Four software engineers, former employees of Wipro in Bangalore quit their jobs four months ago and made a paradigm shift right out of the world of technology. They turned entrepreneurs, and set up a milk dairy in Kodihalli village of Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan district.

In the milk business, there's no escape from mooing cows, dung and calving, but Shashi Kumar, Ranjith Mukundan, Venkatesh Sesasaye and Praveen Nale have no regrets about giving up 15 years of high-flying careers and plum salaries.

Says Shashi Kumar, "We planned to take up dairy farming as our business venture and set up Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods Ltd, headed by G N S Reddy and T Prasana, who have been in the business for many years. It has 21 partners, including the four of us. Our aim is to promote rural entrepreneurship in the agro sector to create employment and prosperity in villages, to prevent the educated unemployed from abandoning agriculture and migrating to cities."

So they applied their understanding of technology to their business, to benefit both farmers and consumers. The milk dairy will be set up at a cost of Rs 15 crore on 24 acres, and 300 marginal farmers (those with less than 4.5 acres of land) will be selected within a 15-sqkm radius of Kodihalli village to supply milk to the dairy.


"The farmers will be educated on modern cattle-rearing methods, milking machines and increasing milk production. The dairy will be set up in five months and we will be recruiting 500 villagers," says Ranjith Mukundan.

"The company will help the farmers get loans from banks to set up satellite farms and purchase cows. The milkman will sell milk directly to our company without any middlemen, the transportation of milk and regular medical check-ups of cows will be free for milkmen registered with our company," he added.

The advantages of setting up satellite farms are many - each will be equipped with sensors, GPS, pedometers and other equipment to monitor and trace the movements of cows, how much milk a cow produces every day, and to check the animals' body temperature and keep tabs on their health. All this data will be monitored by the dairy, and we have developed a software for satellite farms, Ranjith added.

Robotics engineer / Artificial intelligence future

 
robots are the helping hands everyone has always wished for. Deriving its origin from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labour;Though the first thing that comes to mind vis-a-vis a robot is an imitation of a human from Star Wars, the Terminator or Star Trek it's not always a man versus machine game. Robots we encounter in our daily lives are those that perform tasks that are too dangerous, boring or onerous, thus being the helping hands.
With over a million types of robots, their presence is seen in almost every industry especially the auto, medical, manufacturing and space industry. Robots are used in industries for speeding up the manufacturing process. They are also used in the fields of nuclear science, sea exploration, servicing of transmission signals and bio-medical equipment design.
 
Created as a result of the perfect blend of the human imagination and technological developments, robots can be described better as mechanical devices that are capable of performing a variety of complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance. It is an artificial agent guided by computer or electric programming and is able to do tasks on its own.
A combination of intelligence, energy, movement and senses, robots require these characteristics to fulfil their purpose. The branch of study that develops these robots is robotic engineering. It deals with design and application of robots and the use of computer for their manipulation and processing.
Professor Patricia H. Reiff, director, Rice Space Institute and a professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, while highlighting new career trends says, "Robotics is very critical these days and one of the most upcoming career options. The expansion in space research these days will also boost robotics and its development."
To follow this career and develop an interest in robotics, an engineering background is a must. Mechatronics is the area of knowledge and practice interfacing mechanical and electronics engineering. Robotics is a subset of mechatronics, which involves automated machinery and components that move. Robotics being an inter-disciplinary course prefers students who have completed their graduation in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, instrumentation engineering or computer engineering with an interest in robotics and artificial intelligence.
Though the specialisation is offered at an undergraduate level in a few private engineering colleges across the country, it is not the preferred choice. The popularity and growing demand for robotics is at the Master's level.
A course in robotics trains and educates a student in the field of artificial intelligence, computer-aided manufacturing, computer integrated manufacturing system, computational geometry, robot motion planning, digital electronics and micro processing. The different facets of building a robot include working on developing the hardware, software, intelligence control and adaptive control of this machine.






























Robotics is not all about designing the robots. Its maintenance, developing new applications and conducting research are equally important. Specialising in design and control in robotics is close to mechanical engineering. For hardware design of robots, a B.Tech. in electrical or electronics and communication engineering forms a good base.

Computer engineers can look at hardware design in robotics and the controls part requires aspects of electrical engineering. This field also requires the application of computer-integrated manufacturing, mechanical engineering, electrical and software engineering and biological mechanics.
In India, work on robotics began in educational institutions and research centres such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science. Now this field is the preferred choice of many budding engineers and contests are held among students across the country to encourage talent.
 
Robotics engineering can be studied at the IITs in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. A few other institutes that offer this specialisation are the National Institute of Technology, University of Hyderabad, Jadavpur University and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science.
A specialisation in robotics is a popular choice for students going abroad to study. This field offers job opportunities and a robotics engineer can apply his mastery in diverse fields like modern warfare, surgery, nano-technology and space-exploration. Many funding programmes and scholarships are available for research and PhD. students. Developing a robot comes with the goal of finding a solution to the problem. Along with the technical know-how, interest in research is essential. This field has no boundaries and will continue to grow until the machines take over!

guns and bullets like cheap onions.

The gun house owners in this town, which seems to have become a paradise for gunrunners and getting fake arms licenses, welcome their customers with their arms wide open as was witnessed by this correspondent, who walked inside one such shops on Tuesday afternoon with cash and exited to get bullets like sweets in his hands.

No questions were asked, no identity was disclosed, no licence for firearm was asked to be shown-all it took was a monetary negotiation that finally settled down for Rs 150 for per cartridge of .32 bore.

As per the directions of the Union ministry of home affairs, which are blatantly being violated by the owners of arms and ammunition shops, an arms dealer has to maintain a record of the ammunition sold by classifying the date of use, place where the ammunition was used, numbers of bullets fired and the purpose behind usage of the ammunition.


The guidelines further stated that after getting report from all the arms dealers, district magistrates is to send all such reports to the respective state governments.

But the arms dealers of this town don`t keep a database of the ammunition sold by them and what is more concerning is that bullets of .32 revolvers or .12 bore guns are available in these places for anyone who is ready to shell out a little more than the original price.

Requesting anonymity, an official in the `asla shakha` of the local district magistrate office admitted that the arms dealer have to submit their sales record of ammunition to the concerned District magistrate`s office, but here it never happens.


"If an arm dealer sells any arm or ammunition to the registered licensee outside the state, he has to inform the district magistrate accordingly," he informed.

Several arms dealers in the district were found to be involved in the fake arm licence scam, which had rocked the state government in 2001.

The district was once again in the thick of similar controversy in July 2010 when some government employees and arms dealers were found preparing fake arms licences by forging the signature of the additional district magistrate. And these arms dealers continue with all their unlawful activities under the nose of the law enforcement agencies.

Akshaya tritiya / Indian gold earrings /indian gold jewellery

Indians' insatiable appetite for gold is well-known. This was on display on Akshaya Tritiya this year. Despite gold prices shooting through the roof over the last few years, thanks mainly to the unstable global economic situation, Indians spent a record amount on buying gold by swiping plastic cards, i.e. debit and credit cards on this Akshaya Tritiya, considered by many to be the most auspicious day for buying the yellow metal.

Consider this: On Akshaya Tritiya (Friday, May 6) the number of card swipes at jewellery outlets had jumped almost six times the average number of swipes on other Fridays, data from Venture Infotek, the country's leading transactions processing company showed. In terms of value of card-based transactions for all establishments are considered, the jump was a staggering 111% above average.


"This rise can primarily be attributed to the number of customer footfalls at jewellery shops across India, even though gold prices have touched new heights," Sameer S Nemavarkar, CEO, Atos Worldline India (Venture Infotek), said.


According to RBI's latest monthly data on spending through debit and credit cards, average daily spend was about Rs 330 crore, while the figure goes up to Rs 400 crore on Fridays. On the Friday that was Akshaya Tritiya, the total spends through cards had jumped to about Rs 850 crore.



Among the metros, Chennai was a clear leader where the number and value of card transactions increased by 31% and 128% respectively. Bangalore followed with a 15% rise in the number of card transactions while the jump in the value of transactions was a phenomenal 104%. Such a jump in the number of transactions came despite a rise of about 30% in the price of gold in India, from about Rs 16,600 per 10-gram last year to about Rs 22,000 this Akshaya Tritiya.


Among other metros, by value of transactions, Kolkata recorded a spurt of 63%, Mumbai 59% and Delhi 49%, the data showed. According to the latest data, of about 5 lakh point-of-sale terminals in the country on which plastic cards are swiped, Venture Infotek manages about 2.2 lakh terminals.


Industry watchers pointed out that while the higher price of gold partially contributed to the enhanced value of transactions this Akshaya Tritiya, the marketing overdrive by World Gold Council, branded as well as small-time jewelers, also contributed to this spurt in spends this year.

Married India / Early marriage statistics / cause and effect of early marriage

 
That India marries off its daughters in such a hurry that they have little time to grow out of their teens is a fact that no longer raises eyebrows. But what should come as a shock to a country that preens itself over its growing economic prowess is that we fare worse than sub-Saharan Africa, or for that matter, all of Africa put together, when it comes to child marriage.

If that's not bad enough, sample this. The degree to which child marriage is practised in India is more than double the figure for Pakistan, a country we don't quite look up to as a role model. While India would like to believe that it will one day break into the league of countries such as the US and UK, we can take solace from the fact that a worldwide scorecard on child marriage shows that we're better off than Bangladesh, Mali and Burkina Faso. The US and UK dont even figure on the list.

A 2011 data sheet called `The World's Women and Girls', released by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau, shows that 47% of women in India between the ages of 20 and 24 were married by 18. This is higher than the average for South Central Asia (45%), of which India is a part. The average for Africa as a continent works out to 34%. Most African countries fare better than India, including Ghana, Sudan and Nigeria. While Pakistan's score works out to 24%, even Afghanistan, with a pathetic score of 43%, does a better job than India when it comes to curbing child marriage.

Vibhuti Patel, director, post graduate studies and research (PGSR) and head of the PG economics department at SNDT University, who was an early advocate of India's feminist movement, points to the rather strange link between child marriage and the success of some of India's welfare schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

SSA helps schoolgirls till Class IV, after which there are a large number of dropouts and ICDS children in the age group of 0-6. As a result adolescent girls, who mostly drop out after Class VII as they can't cope up with math, science and English, don't have to look after their younger siblings. ``In the absence of any programmes targeting adolescent girls in terms of vocational training or life-skill development by the state or by civil society groups, many parents are worried that these girls, who are now free of responsibility and have a lot of time on their hands, may end up in premarital relationships and turn unwed mothers,'' she said.

That's why parents in even progressive states like Gujarat and Maharashtra marry off their daughters at an early age, said Patel.

Pointing to the health consequences of child marriage, P Arokiasamy of the International Institute of Population Science, Mumbai, says child marriage has much to do with the low status of women in India.


Arokiasamy says the practice has more to do with culture than development. Sex ratio in Africa is better than India since several tribal societies are matriarchal. In India, regions where the status of women is low, such as Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, have more child marriages. Even in Andhra Pradesh, which has a low fertility rate, a large proportion of women are married in their teens. Meanwhile, states like Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir fare a lot better.


South Central Asia (of which India is a part)---45

Africa------------------------ --------------------------34

Sub-Saharan Africa----------------------------------38

Northern Africa--------------------------------------17

Western Africa---------------------------------------42

Eastern Africa----------------------------------------41

Middle Africa----------------------------------------42

Southern Africa---------------------------------------6

Central America-------------------------------------27

Caribbean---------------------------------------------30

South America---------------------------------------23

Western Asia-----------------------------------------18

South East Asia--------------------------------------18