14.07.2007

• One of you pointed out in our blog comments that I have missed out on the prize given to our President by UK. Really sorry for missing out on that one.
• President APJ Abdul Kalam has been chosen for the prestigious British award -- King Charles II Medal -- in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to scientific advances in India.
• Kalam is only the second head of State after Japanese Emperor Akihito to be honoured with the award given by the Royal Society.
• Vehicle thefts in India
• India has one of the highest vehicle theft cases – with one being stolen every 5 minutes, as per the National Crime Records Bureau – and the total loss is estimated to be over Rs. 1000 crores by the industry.
• India’s R&D
• Last year corporate India spent 2.5 times more in paying for technological know-how than in developing their own.
• The two years before that, they paid close to 10 times for technology/IP than in developing their own.
• Some notable R&D activity going on in India
• Tatas
• They are spending about Rs. 300 crores on advanced building materials research. These materials might mitigate the usage of steel in construction.
• They are researching about Titanium. It is a light and corrosion-free material that can be combined with aluminium or iron to make alloys used in aircraft, space vehicles or even medical equipment used in endoscopy or angioplasty.
• Reliance
• Is working on novel proteins and is still in early stages of development.
• It takes about 12 years on an average for a new drug to travel from the lab to the patient, and costs an estimated $802 mn in the process.
• It costs over $35 mn to develop a new IT chip with a specific application. The time spent is a minimum of two years.
• The global market for semiconductors and electronic systems is $1.2 trillion (2006). The Indian market is just $30 bn.
• Operation Artemis
• It is a EU peace mission in Congo.
• Recamp
• (European) reinforcement of African capabilities in prevention, crisis response and conflict resolution.
• Multiplication trick
• All of you would be aware of our vedic mathematics capabilities. Videos explaining multiplication tricks are available on YouTube. I found this one quite interesting. Take a look…