18.12.2007

• Respectable progress in innovation and R&D from India
• In recent years India has made enormous strides in innovation and research as the driver of economic growth. This has also given a boost to the patenting activity in the country. The number of research publications from India had been stable at around 15,000 papers per year until 2000, when there was a pronounced upturn. In the last five years, they have grown 45% to cross 25,000 mark. Since the late 1980’s the citations India receives has considerably increased. For instance, research papers from India received 256,253 citations in the last five years showing a fourfold increase since the 1980’s.
• Look at what we noted about the number of patent applications received in our country. Follow this link.
• Some facts and figures about our transport sector
• The growth in commercial vehicle segment in the recent years (2002 to 2007) has been partly due to Government’s highway building programme. Yet only 7,500 km of the planned 25,000 km has been built.
• State transport corporations have a total fleet strength of just over 100,000 in a country where 1.4 mn cars and multi vehicles are sold each year.
• Of a total truck fleet of 2.8 mn, around a million are estimated to be more than 12 years old indicating a huge potential for replacement demand though the realization of this demand would depend on how strict regulators are about phasing out ageing vehicles.
• On judicial activism
• Recently we noted the contents of a Supreme Court judgment about judicial activism. A topic like this is bound to generate lot of heat and did for sure.
• Look at today’s debate on that by three legal luminaries. It is worth a read. Read it here.
• There are strong views expressed both for and against the issue. Striking a judicious balance by the Court while taking up issues that will have a potential of trespassing the jurisdictions of the executive and legislature, will remain a challenge for it as long as it exists. While we cannot find any fault with a legal luminary like Justice (Retd.) VR Krishna Iyer describing judicial activism as the ‘oxygen of rule of law’, how many of the legal fraternity can this ‘oxygen’ be trusted with, without their trampling on the domains of the other two pillars of democracy?
• I explained to you what is ‘obiter dicta’ while noting on this subject earlier. One more legal phrase that is worth our attention is ‘ratio decidendi.’ It means the reason or rationale behind the decision in the judgment.
• It would be worthwhile to take a look at what we noted on the subject earlier on 09.04.2007, 11.05.2007 and 12.12.2007.
• We have heard of hybrid vehicles. But hybrid ships?
• Their time too appears to have come.
• A giant kite designed to help slash the spiraling cost of fuel consumption could herald these hybrid ships.
• This kite is tethered to the bow of the ship. Flying at a height of 100 to 300 meters, this will tug the ship along, allowing it to operate its engines at reduced speeds, thus cutting back on fuel consumption.
• Language lessons
• W00t: Merriam Webster’s dictionary has selected this as the word of the year.
• This is often used in the online gaming world. It is used to express joy – it could be a triumph or for no reason at all.
• It stands for “we owned the other team.”
• Notice that the word has zeroes between the letters ‘w’ and ‘t’ in it.