22.03.2008

• India to vote against OXML of Microsoft
• You might remember this debate about document formats and India’s vote at the ISO meet Geneva. This is the latest development on that issue.
• India will vote against Microsoft’s OXML being adopted as a standard, along with existing ODF, by the Geneva-based international standards body, ISO, where representatives of member countries are slated to decide on the matter by March 29. The decision was taken at a standards committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards. Ironically, all major representatives of Indian IT industry - Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Nasscomm - voted, at Thursday’s meeting of the standards committee, to adopt OXML as a standard. However, they were overruled in the 22 member committee, dominated by academia, government bodies and Microsoft’s global rivals, Red Hat, Sun and IBM.
• Tatas to come out with the car that runs on air by end 2008?
• Though it is not officially announced as yet, Tata Motors may soon be in a position to roll out cars that run on compressed air instead of fuel. This is because of an agreement the company inked in early 2007 with France’s MDI to deploy the latter’s pathbreaking air-powered auto-engine technology for the Indian market. The technology was at the development stage when the deal was signed.
• If this happens, this will be a much bigger event than the launch of Nano.
• Even if the car were to have some limitations, I guess it will be adopted very widely in India. And it will herald a revolution of different kind.
• Will an engine running on air and delivering driving power, be not put to use different uses? Will automobile the only application that will harness it? For me it looks like it will spread into different areas.
• Fiscal deficit under control
• The fiscal deficit in the third quarter ending December 31, was down to Rs 77,578 crore compared to Rs 94,854 crore a year ago.
• Higher revenue collections were the prime reason for this excellent performance. The revenue collections during the first nine months of this fiscal went up to Rs 3,89,345 crore compared to Rs 3,06,528 crore a year-ago.
• The revenue receipts of the Central Government for 2008-09 are projected at Rs 602,935 crore and the revenue expenditure at Rs 658,119 crore.
• On Bhagat Singh
• There is a good article on Bhagat Singh in The Hindu today. Read it here.
• Bhagat Singh became a national hero immediately after the Assembly Bomb Explosion on April 9, 1929. He was the ideologue of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA)
• He was hanged on March 23, 1931.
• He stood for rationalism and spoke against caste oppression. Bhagat Singh’s principle represented socialism and communism. He was an atheist.
• Germany’s parliament is the greenest building in the world?
• The German Reichstag is expected to become the greenest parliament building in the world, thanks to a decision to rely solely on renewable energy.
• From late summer the building is due to swap to green power sources such as water, wind and solar energy, replacing the conventional power that it has largely relied upon until now.
• Its extensive refurbishment in the late 1990s, including Norman Foster’s glass cupola, had already won it plaudits. Ecologists praised the building’s energy efficiency, which has led to a 94 per cent cut in its carbon emissions. Its roof makes passive use of solar power and natural light and its thick, well-insulated 19th-century walls help retain warmth in winter and reduce the need for air conditioning in summer. Biofuel generators in the basement produce 40 per cent of the building’s energy, for lighting, heating, the flow of air conditioning and water, while the rest comes mainly from coal and nuclear supplies.