Plastic Industry Becoming Popular in Assam

Guwahati, Jun 9 : The rising demand for plastic products around the world is giving a boost to the plastic industry of Assam.

To explore the possibilities of the plastic-based industries in Assam and other northeastern states, a four-day Northeast International Plasto Fair 2010 was organized at Maniram Dewan trade centre recently.

Initiated by PlastIndia Foundation and Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), the objective of the event was to invite investment, and facilitate joint venture collaborations with local entrepreneurs.

Over 120 plastic-based industries from across the country participated in the fair, showing increasing interest of businessman towards northeast.

MOU’s worth Rs 10 crore were signed; keen entrepreneurs made additional inquiries of worth Rs. 50 crore and three industries from Gujarat and Maharashtra have decided to set up units in the region too.

“I think there are only 5 per cent industries in northeast, so there is a scope for nearly 95 per cent of industries in the region left. So industrialist and entrepreneurs should come here,” said Shivkumar, a plastic Industrialist from Delhi.

“The per capita consumption of plastic in northeast is just 1 kg, whereas in the rest of the country it is 5kg and in many countries it is nearly 30 kg per anum.

So we can do a lot of up scaling in the consumption, as we will get a ready-made market here,” said Bhupati Das, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries, Assam.

The Assam government has identified about 500 units in the plastic sector and in the fair; issues related to technology, finance and infrastructure were discussed.

The Centre and Assam have already undertaken an ambitious plan to encourage small and medium entrepreneurs to venture into the plastic industry, which will get a boost with the commissioning of the Assam Gas Cracker Project in 2012.

The gas cracker project coming up at Lepetkata in Dibrugarh would open up opportunities for investment in the plastic industry as a downstream project. The opening up of plastic industry will also generate employment and create revenue for native people.

”The market in Northeast is awesome. Any one putting their money in it will not lose because the market is huge and potential is large. Only that people are not aware, but once they are aware, the job is done,” said Amit Sirohi, Industrialist.

“Day by day, everything is coming under plastic; it has completely replaced metal. Now this age is called plastic age, so we can find a huge scope in plastics,” said Vishnu Choudhary, an Assamese industrialist.

NE International Plasto Fair 2010 unfolded enormous opportunities for the Small and Medium-scale entrepreneurs dealing in plastic raw material, machinery, finished products and allied sectors to explore and collaborate to take their business to greater heights.

Since peace and normalcy has returned to Assam state, the prospects are high for industrial growth.

Taliban Using HIV Bombs

Deadly ... needles become flying shrapnel

Taliban fighters are burying dirty needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The Sun can reveal.

Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices. The heroin needles are feared to be contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. And if the bomb goes off, the needles become deadly flying shrapnel.

The tactic, used in the Afghan badlands of Helmand, was exposed by Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer. Senior backbencher Mr Mercer said yesterday: "Are there no depths to which these people will stoop? This is the definition of a dirty war."

Razor blades are also being used. All Royal Engineer and Royal Logistic Corps bomb search teams have been issued with protective Kevlar gloves.

STAFF Sergeant Kim Hughes, who cleared an entire minefield in 2009, will be awarded the George Cross by the Queen today.

Brave ... a soldier risks his life to disarm an explosive



[ via thesun.co.uk ]

703 Cases Filed Against Unruly Meghalaya Cabs

Shillong, Jun 9 : Altogether 703 cases have been registered by the traffic department against taxis on charges of violating laid-down rules and regulations here in the city.

Informing this in the Assembly today, Meghalaya Transport Minister AT Mondol said his department is aware that taxi drivers were violating certain norms and indulging in over-loading, charging in excess of stipulated rates and refusing to ply on certain routes.

He said 703 cases have been filed against different taxis during the year 2009-10, and in some cases the licenses of the drivers are being cancelled.

"There are 5721 private taxis plying on the roads of the capital city, besides 787 three-wheeler autos," he said.

To ease the growing traffic congestion, the transport authority has stopped issuing further licenses to taxi drivers, except in some special cases like those of surrendered militants, the minister said.

Prime Minister To Launch Mizoram's Flagship Programme: Mizoram CM

Aizawl, Jun 9 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might launch Mizoram government's flagship programme 'New Land Use Policy' (NLUP) in the latter part of this year, state Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said today.

''I have requested the Prime Minister to formally launch the NLUP programme which he has accepted in principle,'' Mr Thanhawla, who is just returned from New Delhi, told reporters at his office here.

The chief minister reiterated that the Centre showed keen interest in the NLUP and had formally approved Rs 2,750 crore to implement the project in the state during the next five years. It was yet to be okayed by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, he informed.

The NLUP, the major poll plank of the Congress in Mizoram before the 2008 Assembly elections, basically aims to replace the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation with more sustainable land-based means of livelihood.

About 80 per cent of the state's farmers still practice the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, locally called jhum, which has resulted in degradation of forest lands and worsening of the soil condition.

The chief minister said the NLUP aimed to support 120,000 families in the first five years. He said the departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary, Industries, Forest, Fisheries, Sericulture and Soil and Water Conservation would be involved in the scheme.

The NLUP aims to restore ecological balance by providing the farmers sustainable and permanent land-based means of livelihood.

''The NLUP intends to keep 60 per cent of the state's total geographical area under forest cover and the remaining 40 per cent for land-based development,'' Mr Thanhawla said, adding, ''If the project achieves its goal, we can bid goodbye to the destructive and unproductive shifting cultivation.''

''The main strategies would include accelerating the growth in agriculture sector to around four per cent and larger investment of private sector through farming,'' he added.

College Students to Get Free Access to E-Books

New Delhi, Jun 9 : College students across India will now get free access to e-journals and e-books from all over the world with the human resource development ministry subscribing to them.

Over 2,000 journals have been subscribed to by the ministry under the project titled N-List (National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content). These will be provided to students in various colleges free of cost.

'It is a part of the ICT (information and communication technology) initiatives of the government. The resources include more than 2,100 e-journals and 51,000 e-books,' a ministry official told IANS.

The scheme covers premier technical institutions like IITs, IISc, IISERs and NITs along with 6,000 government and government aided colleges across the country. Private institutions are also eligible for membership on the payment of a fee.

'We have already covered over 1,200 colleges across the country. They have been given the logins and passwords,' the official said.

Government colleges have to pay Rs.5,000 as annual membership fee while private colleges will have to pay an annual subscription of Rs.46,000. The facility will, however, be free for the students.

'For the colleges getting financial aid from the UGC, the expenditure will be met by the HRD ministry,' the official said.

The e-resources include publications from American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Annual Reviews, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry and Tata McGraw Hill, along with major Indian journals and publications.

Fuel Scarcity Disrupts Wireless Services in Manipur

Imphal (Manipur), Jun 9 : With the economic blockade still continuing in Manipur, the wireless services have virtually collapsed due to fuel scarcity.

The mobile phone service has been adversely affected due to scarcity of diesel needed for running mobile tower generators.

Mobile tower generators in Manipur are mostly run with diesel because of the acute shortage of electricity.

On an average, each tower consumes about 4000 litres of diesel.

“Unlike other states, we are not getting enough electricity to run our towers. So, we are dependent on diesel and we run our diesel generators and because of the blockade we are not able to procure diesel,” said Usharanjan Singh, Zonal Manger of Bharati Infratel.

With the blockade continuing for more than 50 days, there are times when almost 80 mobile towers of Airtel remain non-functional due to non-availability of diesel.

There are around 240 mobile towers of Airtel alone in Manipur and out of these, 20 have become non-operational due to scarcity of diesel.

[ via ANI ]

Send Back Mizoram Refugees, Tripura Asks Central Govt

Agartala, Jun 9 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Wednesday said he has again asked the central government to take steps to repatriate 37,000 tribal refugees to Mizoram.

For the past 13 years, Reang tribal refugees have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura, adjacent to Mizoram. They fled western Mizoram after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.

Sarkar met union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi Saturday and discussed various security-related issues, including Mizoram’s tribal refugee-related issues.

“Due to the long stay of the tribal refugees since October 1997, Tripura is facing serious socio-economic, administrative and security-related problems,” Sarkar told reporters here Wednesday.

“Education, health and other future aspects of refugees and their children, specially the new borns, hangs in the balance. They should lead a normal life in their own villages,” Sarkar told Chidambaram.

Chidambaram had during his visit to Aizawl last month asked the Mizoram government and the tribal leaders to help repatriate all 37,000 Reang tribal refugees to their ancestral villages.

After the union home minister’s trip, about 235 families comprising 1,200 men, women and children were repatriated in three batches last month (May 21 to 26) to Mamit district of western Mizoram.

“There is no information with the Tripura government about when the remaining refugees would be repatriated,” Sarkar told journalists.

Apple iPhone 4 Features: 15 Things You NEED To Know About The New iPhone

As many expected, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's new iPhone 4 during his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Jobs was full of praise for the iPhone 4--Apple's "new baby"--calling the new iPhone an "extraordinary" product that is "going to change everything, all over again."

Apple hype aside, what does the new iPhone really offer? We've put together a guide to the iPhone 4's features and everything you need to know about Apple's new device.

Thinner Frame

Steve Jobs called the iPhone 4 the "thinnest smartphone on the planet." At 9.3mm thick, the iPhone 4 is 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS.

Higher Resolution Screen

At WWDC, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's all-new "Retina Display," which the new iPhone 4 will run on its 3.5-inch, 960x640 pixels screen. The iPhone's Retina Display features 326 pixels per inch (four times as many as the iPhone 3GS) and an 800:1 contrast ratio (also four times greater than the iPhone 3GS). Jobs explained the iPhone 4 would offer "78% of the pixels on an iPad right in the palm of your hand."

Improved Camera

The iPhone 4 will feature two cameras--one front-facing camera and another on the back of the device. Apple has increased the camera size from 3 to 5 megapixels. "When most people increase the megapixels, they make the pixel sensors smaller. We’ve kept them the same size so they capture more photons," Jobs said during his unveiling of the iPhone 4. The new camera also features 5x digital zoom, tap to focus, and LED flash.

HD Video Recording And Editing

The iPhone 4 will also record HD video in 720p at 30fps and will feature tap to focus video, built-in video editing and one-click sharing. While recording video, the LED flash will stay on to illuminate scenes. Jobs stunned the WWDC audience when he announced support for the iMovie application, allowing users to record, edit and render mobile HD video and upload the finished product to the Web via e-mail, MMS, MobileMe or YouTube. The New York Times predicts that these new features "will be a huge help for citizen journalists, DIY documentarians and reporters in the field." Although, another Times reporter notes, uploading movies to the web "will quickly eat up one’s data quota under AT&T’s new plans."

Video Calling With FaceTime

iPhone 4 will feature video calling through an app called "FaceTime." FaceTime will run exclusively on WiFi for now, and only between iPhone 4 devices. Apple's Joswiak claimed, "FaceTime is going to change the way we communicate forever."

Longer Battery Life

Thanks to the iPhone 4's bigger battery and its A4 chip, the phone will last longer. Apple promises 7 hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours of browsing on 3G (or 10 hours of browsing on WiFi), 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby.

New Hardware

The frame of the iPhone 4 is made of stainless steel, instead of the plastic that rimmed previous iPhone models. Jobs excitedly revealed that the systems' antennas are integrated right into the structure of the phone. The phone is built with glass on the front and back, which is reportedly "30 times harder than plastic" and designed to provide better optical quality, as well as improved scratch resistance. (The Gizmodo live blog team remarked that it looked just like the model they leaked earlier this year.)

Price

The iPhone 4 will go on sale in the US for $199 (16GB version) or $299 (32GB model). The iPhone 3GS will see its pricetag lowered to $99.


AT&T is going to make a "an incredibly generous upgrade offer," Jobs explained. If your contract ends any time during 2010, you can get new iPhone 4 if you re-sign a new contract. The iPhone 4 will still be tethered to AT&T.

New Processor

The iPhone 4 will be powered by the A4 chip found in the iPad. "This was designed by our own team. This is wonderful to have in the iPhone," Jobs said (via Engadget).

3-Axis Gyroscope

The iPhone 4 will include a built-in gyroscope--a big perk for gamers. Gizmodo explains, "This means that it can track movement with a very high precision, much higher than the built-in accelerometers in the previous iPhones. It's 3-axis, so it's capable of detecting pitch, roll, and yaw. Couple with the accelerometer, you have 6-axis motion sensing."


“I can’t wait to see what you guys are going to do," Jobs told the developers after he had debuted the gyroscope.

Availability

The iPhone 4 will go on sale in five countries June 24 (US, Japan, UK, France, Germany). The phone can be pre-ordered beginning June 15th, and will available in an additional 18 countries in July 2010, 24 more in August, and 44 more in September.

Bing

iOS 4 will allow users to search using Bing. Google will remain the iPhone's default search engine, and Yahoo will continue to be a secondary option.

iBooks

The iBooks app is coming to iPhone 4. The new and improved app will sync your iBooks between all your Apple devices. "You only have to buy it once," said Jobs. "And, iBooks will automatically and wirelessly — and for no charge — sync your place, notes, and bookmarks across all your devices." On both the iPad and iPhone, users can take notes in the margins of the e-books, as well as highlight text. The New York Times speculates that these improvements "should help Apple continue to edge out rival e-readers."

Tethered To AT&T

The rumors about the next generation iPhone coming to Verizon (or another carrier) were proved false at Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 4: Only AT&T will be carrying this new device.

More Eco-Friendly Specs

Steve Jobs highlighted the iPhone 4's "green" credentials during his demo. The new iPhone is arsenic, BFR, mercury, and PVC free, and also claims to be "highly recyclable."