20.03.2007

• Mathematicians decode e8 structure
• E8 is one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. It is the name of a root system and of several associated Lie groups and their Lie algebras. It was discovered a century ago, in 1887 and until now, no one thought the structure could ever be understood.
• The E8 lattice is an 8-dimensional HyperDiamond lattice made up of one hypercubic checkerboard D8 lattice plus another D8 shifted by a glue vector (1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2). Understood anything? (Frankly, I didn’t.) Mathematicians amongst you should. Have stomach to know more about this? Eat this…
• After 4 years of intensive collaboration, 18 top mathematicians and computer scientists from the US and Europe have successfully mapped this structure.
• Ambush marketing and contracts of World Cup Cricket players
• Remember Hutch’s objection to Sachin’s endorsement of Reliance products during the ongoing World Cup?
• Under the terms of their contracts, players are not allowed to endorse products that are in direct conflict with the ICC’s official sponsors for a period of 45 days before, during and after an ICC tournament.
• Fruits and vegetable produce of India
• India produces about 14 crore (140 mn) tonnes of them.
• It is expected to touch about 30 crore (300 mn) in the next five years.
• Breakthrough research in aviation
• For improving the ability of planes to travel faster, the key appears to be mastering the technology of fuel-mixing for combustion at high speeds.
• Hypersonic space planes could revolutionize the transportation industry, much like jet planes did for subsonic commercial aviation about 50 years ago.
• Astrox, a company founded in 1987 by Gujarat born Ajay Kothari, has along with researchers at the University of Maryland, successfully designed and tested a combustor for a space plane that uses an inward-turning scramjet engine. This combustor was tested at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound.
• Sundar Committee on Road Safety and Traffic Management
• The committee submitted its report in February 2007. Want to see the full report? Download it here. Those of you with Geography as an optional may perhaps need it.
• Based on this committee’s recommendations, the government is thinking of linking allocation of a portion of the road safety fund disbursed to the state governments to their performance.
• Air India and Indian merger
• A new company National Aviation Company is formed by the government. Most probably Air India and Indian will be merged into this company.
• Lenders of the two airlines, seem to have indicated that they have no problems with the merger if the net worth of the new entity is higher than that of the existing company.
• India’s energy consumption
• According to the statistics published by International Energy Agency, the average annual per capital consumption of electricity in India for 2004-05 was 612.5 kwh.
• In US it is 13,338 kwh, Australia (11,126 kwh) and Brazil (1,955 kwh)
• New sops from government to SSIs (Small Scale Industries) under consideration:
• Raising the collateral free loan limit from Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh under the Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) scheme
• Continuation of credit-linked capital subsidy scheme beyond March 31, 2007. Under this, SSIs will continue to get 15% subsidy on bank loans up to Rs. 1 crore in 2007-08. The subsidy is being provided by the Centre on loans taken by SSIs for technology upgradation.
• Extending the deadline for submitting entrepreneurs’ memorandum to relevant authorities up to April 2008 from the current April 2007 deadline.
• Purchase preference policy for SSI units, as promised under the MSMED Act, 2006 (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act). At present 15% of the purchases by government departments and undertakings are reserved for SSIs.
• Prince Harry in Iraq
• Can you ever imagine a member of the Gandhi family in the frontline? Though they are no royals de jure, they are certainly de facto royals of India.
• Look at what happens in UK? Prince Harry aka Troop Commander Wales, will be in charge of 11 soldiers and four Scimitar tanks. He will be on military duty in southern Iraq.
• What is ICOR?
• Incremental Capital Output Ratio shows the marginal investment needed to produce an additional unit of output.
• What is a non-deliverable forward?
• It is a short term forward contract where the deal is settled based on the difference between the exchange rate agreed up on earlier and the sport rate at the time of settlement.
• They are called non-deliverable because the buyer will never get delivery of the non-convertible currency, he will get only the equivalent of the difference between the fixing rate and the settlement rate in hard currency, usually US dollars. These contracts usually range between one month and one year and are used by multinationals to hedge against currency risks in those currencies which are not freely traded.
• Tomoyo Nonaka
• She is one of the high profile CEOs of Japan. She resigned as CEO of Sanyo. She resigned, as Sanyo’s Board refused to probe suspected window-dressing of its figures.
• Cricket – see the highs and lows!!
• Surprisingly Pakistan is facing its worst World Cup luck. It got beaten out of the super eight. Its coach Bob Woolmer has died very suddenly. And Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has quit one day international cricket and captaincy.
• India had some saving grace in its quest to find a place in the super eight. It went on to score a World Cup record of 413 runs against minnows Bermuda.