26.11.2006

• Perhaps the costliest vegetable/fungus in the world!!!
• Is a type of rather ugly, odoriferous tuber of vegetable called truffle or tartufi, which is known to be harvested and eaten only for a few weeks in a year. Many people think it looks and smells aweful with a peircing odour.
• The most prized truffles come from two places in the world:
• White truffles – from Alba in the Peidmont region of Italy. Found between September and December.
• Black truffles from Provence in France. Found between December and March.
• There is an auction held in Castle Grinzane Cavour in Italy where recently a 1.51 kg white truffles fetched a whopping $1,60,406!!! At Rs. 47 a dollar, it is worth Rs. 75,39,082. Can you believe this?
• Proposed changes in IPR regime to make scientists rich
• The scientific community will have reasons to be happy. The Union Minsiter for Science and Technology Mr. Kapil Sibal has said that the proposed legislation would:
• Enable a third of the value created from an intellectual property to be given to an individual/team of scientists who created the patented product.
• Provide for ploughing back 50% of the remaining profit into the project and the rest can be kept by the institution.
• This will be applicable to all publicly funded projects, according to him.
• Crime and policing scene in India
• The crime rate in India has been on the rise in the last few years.
• The cognizable crimes in India stood at a whopping 18,32,015 cases in 2004.
• A cognizable offence is a case where the police can arrest without a warrant. All cognizable cases involve criminal offences. Murder, robbery, theft, rioting, and counterfeiting are some examples of cognizable offences.
  
  Non-cognizable offences are those criminal infractions, which are relatively less serious. Examples of non-cognizable offences include public nuisance, assault and mischief. The police cannot register criminal cases or cause arrests with regard to non-cognizable offences. In all such cases, the police have to secure permission from a magistrate or judge for registration of a criminal case.
• As against the UN recommended ratio of one police man for every 450 people, India has a poor ratio of 1:820.
• Suggestions to improve the handling of crime scenario:
• Better police-people ratio
• More equipment, sophisticated gadgets for police
• Trained scientists and forensic experts
• Fast-track justice system
• Steps to check laundering of crime proceeds
• Backache in India
• Data from AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) shows that 15-20% of population suffers from this problem and that this is assuming alarming proportions.
• Our less known Naga music
• Rewben Mashangwa, a 45 year old Naga folk singer based in Manipur is perhaps the only widely known Naga folk singer.
• He plays two local instruments other than the well known guitar:
• Yangkahui: a bamboo flute almost three feet long
• Tigteila: a folk fiddle with a bow made from horsetail hair
• What is Luge?
• It is an extreme sport played on ice. Lying flat on a two-legged machine, which has no engine or brakes and sliding on a long icy stretch, this sport is one of the games played in Winter Olympics. Typically people reach 150 kmph speeds while doing this.
  
• The lonely Indian represented in this game and in Olympics is Shiva Keshavan. He represented India thrice in Winter Olympics.
• He is ranked 25^th in the Luge world.