Shiv Sena MP Gaikwad meets Uddhav Thackeray
Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who was involved in a row with Air India, met party president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday and explained his position over the issue.The meeting, which lasted for 10 minutes at Shiv Sena’s central office at Dadar here, came after Air India, and other airlines, lifted the flying ban on Gaikwad after he expressed regret for assaulting an AI employee on March 23.Neither Mr. Thackeray nor Mr. Gaikwad disclosed to reporters what transpired in the meeting. However, party sources said Mr. Gaikwad explained his position over the whole controversy.Mr. Gaikwad, the MP from Osmanabad, arrived here by the Rajdhani Express this on Saturday morning after attending Parliament proceedings earlier this week.The lawmaker boarded the train from Delhi last evening hours after the flying ban was lifted by the national carrier following his letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Thursday in which he expressed “regret” over the “unfortunate incident”.After Air India, the Federation of Indian Airlines, comprising four leading private carriers, on Saturday revoked the flying ban on Mr. Gaikwad.Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo make up the grouping.In a statement, the FIA said its members are restoring the flying privileges to Mr. Gaikwad “under the assurance that our assets and colleagues shall be accorded the respect that they deserve for the hard work that they put in every day”.The decision has been taken consequent to Air India restoring flying privileges to Mr. Gaikwad after being satisfied with the statement given by him in the Lok Sabha where he expressed “regret” for assaulting an Air India staffer.On March 24, Air India barred Mr. Gaikwad from flying with it after the incident at the Delhi airport. Subsequently, the FIA barred the Lok Sabha member from flying.On Friday, sources had said the Civil Aviation Ministry asked Air India as well as other airlines to lift the ban imposed on Mr. Gaikwad citing the “undertaking of good conduct” given by him.The 56-year-old Parliamentarian had assaulted AI employee R Sukumar on March 23 after he landed in Delhi on a Pune—Delhi all-economy flight.
Panaji: Goa Congress general secretary and spokesperson Trajano D’Mello on Monday demanded that State Congress president Luizinho Faleiro should step down, failing which he should be sacked.In a press release issued here, Mr. D’Mello referred to the admission by Digvijays Singh, general secretary in charge of Goa, that the Congress made a mistake by not forming a pre-poll alliance with the Goa Forward Party.Mr. D’Mello said this “corroborates and supports my view wherein on January 26 (a few days ahead of State assembly polls), I had written to the GPCC President Luizinho Faleiro, pleading with him to even at that late stage, come to an understanding with Goa Forward … where I had made it very clear that our party was not even No. 2 in the race”. “As long as he continues as president, it will be difficult for the Congress to come back to power,” said Mr. D’Mello. He added that Mr. Singh’s assertion of a “deficit of trust” with the State leadership of the Congress was a polite way of saying that the State leadership was not in sync with the BJP national leadership.
Under the scanner after an ash-pipe exploded at its Unchahar plant in Rae Bareli, the National Thermal Power Corporation on Friday dismissed allegations that the unit was commissioned in a hurry.Meanwhile, the death toll in the accident climbed to 32, as per the NTPC, even as 50 patients are still under treatment in various hospitals in Lucknow, Rae Bareli and New Delhi. Rae Bareli District Magistrate Sanjay Khatri in his report to the government said all dead and injured had been identified and all bodies recovered from the debris after three operations by the NDRF. He also put the figure of the dead at 31, one less than quoted by the NTPC.The NTPC plant in Unchahar was scheduled to be commissioned in December 2016 but in actual happened in March this year, while the commercial date of operations scheduled in April took place in September, said the energy conglomerate.“This was done after full verification. It would be incorrect to say that it was done in a hurry,” said Gurdeep Singh, chairman and managing director, NTPC.Mr. Singh dismissed charges of lapses saying “maximum” expertise was present at the site when the boiler exploded, including the head of Operations, and heads of ash handling and boiler maintenance. He said it was a “rarest” of incidents.“Our engineers are very experienced. [Engineers with ]almost 28- 30 years [experience], those people were present at that moment… Till all facts are clear, anything said would be mere conjecture,” Mr. Singh said.The NTPC committee set up under its senior executive director S.K.Roy, started its probe and gathered data log from the plant. The committee will submit its report in a month. Experts and engineers of BHEL are already at the site. A magisterial probe by the government will also be held simultaneously.Mr. Singh, while talking to reporters in New Delhi, said the recommendations of the probe committee would be implemented in existing as well as future plants and shared with other plant operators.The NTPC has been accused of negligience and ignoring warning signs by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, with the former demanding a judicial probe into the incident. Responding to these charges, the NTPC late on Thursday clarified that the units did not trip on two occasions on the day of the incident “as being rumoured.”It also said that 500MW unit at Unchahar, was designed, constructed and manufactured by the BHEL and not by a non-Indian manufacturer.Meanwhile, seven more critical patients were airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night by the Indian Air Force, taking the total number to be airlifted to 12.Doctors at the Civil Hospital in Lucknow, where most of the injured were admitted, said a few more could be airlifted to Delhi soon.“There are 15 patients still receiving treatment [at the hospital]…the goverment is making efforts to shift the critical patients,” said A. K. Singh, a medical official at the Civil Hospital.Among those who died in Lucknow was an additional general manager of NTPC, while two other AGMs were shifted to Delhi.The NTPC has shut down the unit where the accident took place and it would take 3-6 months to put it back on track.
A Maharashtra MLC lost his cool and shouted at Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan at a jetty here for allegedly delaying his departure to the coastal town of Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district. A video of the incident has gone viral on the social media. The incident reportedly took place on November 3. MLC Jayant Patil told a local news channel that he wanted to leave for Alibaug from the Gateway of India jetty, but could not reach his boat as the actor’s private yacht was also docked there. In the video, the MLC is seen shouting at the actor saying, “You may be a superstar, but have you bought entire Alibaug? You cannnot enter Alibaug without my permission.”
As Government of India (GoI) special representative on Jammu & Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma arrived in Srinagar on Monday, separatists pitched for the release of political prisoners “to prove sincerity towards creating a conducive atmosphere.”Separatists organised a shutdown on Monday against the alleged “maltreatment of political prisoners in jails”, including second-rung leaders rounded up during the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raids earlier this year.Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was arrested by the police and shifted to the Central Jail, Srinagar, in the wake of the shutdown call and protests.“A blanket ban on political activities, incarceration of thousands of old, young, women, men specially-abled, ailing and minors, are actually glaring examples of state terrorism,” said Mr. Malik.Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani, who released pictures of Tihar jail inmates allegedly beaten up there, condemned the “ill treatment of political prisoners”.All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq demanded that “all political prisoners be released immediately if New Delhi is sincere about improving the ground situation in Kashmir”.Socio-religious group Jamaat-e-Islami demanded the “unconditional release of all political prisoners”. “The international and local human rights bodies should look into the deplorable conditions of the inmates. Thousands of innocent Kashmiris are languishing in jails only for the reason that they wish a resolution of the Kashmir issue,” said a Jamaat spokesman.Separatists’ shutdown and statements on the release of political prisoners coincided with Mr. Sharma’s visit to the Valley.A day after visiting volatile Pulwama in south Kashmir, Mr. Sharma met 30 delegations in Srinagar as an effort to continue the dialogue process, devoid of the participation of separatists so far.Among those who met him were students of Kashmir University, flood victims, employees of Radio Kashmir, etc. Sources said the delegates raised “micro issues” and “stressed on the need to address the political aspect of the Kashmir problem too”.Mr. Sharma, who is on the second leg of his visit to J&K, is likely to visit Anantnag on Tuesday. He was appointed a special representative on October 23 by the Centre.
A seven-year-old girl was raped and allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district after she went missing on Friday. Her body was found near her home on Saturday night and her autopsy has confirmed the sexual assault.The girl’s parents had lodged a complaint with the police, saying that she was playing outside her home after attending a cultural event and had gone missing. After a search, the police found her body about 200 m away from her home.Police have formed a special team to investigate the case. Jhalawar Superintendent of Police Anand Sharma said the body’s post-mortem had confirmed the rape, while a forensic team had been called from Kota for joining the probe.Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje represents Jhalrapatan Assembly constituency in Jhalawar district, situated 330 km away from the State Capital.
A panchayat was held at Kolgaon in Ferozepur Jhirka here on Sunday by Rakbar Insaaf Committee, comprising around 40 prominent people from five villages in the area, seeking a sitting Supreme Court judge-monitored probe into the alleged lynching of Rakbar, ₹50 lakh ex-gratia for his family and arrest of Ramgarh MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja on charges of criminal conspiracy in the case.Aimed at seeking ways to establish good-will and brotherhood among the two communities in the region and action against the accused in the lynching case, the panchayat was attended by several hundred people from both communities in Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.It was decided at the meeting to hold another panchayat in Alwar on August 6 if the demands were not met.Other demandsThe other major demands of the panchayat included a government job to Rakbar’s widow, to stop harassment of his family and the witnesses and arrest of Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist Naval Kishore along with the other accused.Speaking on the occasion, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said the way Rakbar died was a matter of shame for all Indians. He said that it had not happened for the first time and people like Akhlaq, Junaid and Pehlu Khan were also killed for similar reasons. Mr. Yadav said the people of the Mewat region had fought against the Mughals and the British. He said that every Indian should be grateful for the people of this region and not treat them the way they were being treated.He termed Rakbar killing an attack on the roots of India and regretted that the people holding high positions were encouraging these killers. He said that nothing could be more anti-national than to create animosity between Hindus and Muslims and the true nationalism was to foster brotherhood among the two communities.All-India Mewati Samaj president Ramzan Chaudhary said the recent attacks were a conspiracy to create an atmosphere of terror and disrupt the peace and harmony of the region. Former Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar Ansari said that it was a political battle and an epidemic and need to be fought through political means.
A day after parts of Pune city was inundated following a major breach in the right wall of the Mutha canal, State Water Resource Minister Girish Mahajan ascribed the wall cave-in to “rats, other rodents and crabs.”“As per information given to me, it appears that the wall caved in as rats, rodents and crabs had been gnawing at it and burrowing holes in its foundation. Still, we will investigate the matter thoroughly to find the precise cause and constitute a committee for the same,” said Mr. Mahajan, who was in the city to survey the spot.The Opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the ruling party’s ally, Shiv Sena, called Mr. Mahajan’s statements “insensitive.”The Opposition and a number of activists alleged that the breach occurred owing to excess discharge from the Khadakwasla dam since the past month (1,200 cusecs of water per day). This ravaged low-lying areas, destroying hundreds of slums and shanties along the Mutha riverfront area and rendering thousands homeless.NCP leader Chetan Tupe said that the Water Resources Department was in cahoots with big firms, permitting indiscriminate digging to let them lay underground cables. “[Mr. Mahajan] ought to clarify who the ‘rats’ are. Are they the big corporations laying underground cables or the State Electricity Department, who have been laying wires illicitly?” said Sena leader Neelam Gorhe.Locals accused Mr. Mahajan of paying a visit merely to secure a photo opportunity.
The Orissa High Court on Monday directed the State Bar Council to ensure that the elections to form the executive bodies of all 167 bars in the State are completed by this month-end on the principle of ‘one bar, one vote’.The High Court also quashed the February 24 resolution passed by the Bar Council in which at least 12 bar associations, including the Cuttack body, were given the liberty to hold their elections at a later date. Deciding on a PIL filed in this connection, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice K.S. Jhaveri made it clear that the elections to different bars in the State should be held simultaneously on the principle of ‘one bar, one vote’.Briefing newsmen, senior advocate Ashok Mohapatra said the court has acted in accordance to a judgment passed earlier by the Supreme Court. “Even the Bar Council of India and the State Bar Council have passed similar resolutions,” he said.‘One bar, one vote’ rule was set by the Supreme Court in 2015 to identify the number of genuine advocates practising in different courts of the country. The rule allows multiple memberships of different bars, but one voting right to one advocate.Bar associations of the State have already been provided with respective voters’ list indicating the individual advocate’s choice of bar to participate in the annual elections to form its executive body by the end of March 2019.
Back-to-back explosions were triggered allegedly by the Maoists near a proposed camp site of the CRPF in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, a senior police officer said.No one was injured and no property damaged in the twin blasts, Kalahandi Superintendent of Police B Gangadhar said.According to the SP, the first explosion was reported from an isolated place, around 200m from the CRPF’s proposed camp site at Trilochanpur, while the second occurred near Ambaguda Chowk, a few metres away, when the jawans were escorting a bomb squad to the first site.The police, along with the CRPF jawans, have launched an intensive combing operation and patrolling in the area following the blasts, he said.Trilochanpur in Kalahandi is a part of the State’s Maoist corridor.
A leading Japanese newspaper reported today that a University of Tokyo investigative committee has identified 43 papers by a former university researcher that contain falsifications and fabrications. The Asahi Shimbun also reports that the researcher, molecular signaling specialist Shigeaki Kato, will ask journals to retract the papers. The front-page article reported that the problematic data were mostly manipulated images and appear in publications stretching back 16 years. A university spokesperson tells ScienceInsider that the committee’s report, apparently seen by at least one reporter, is not being released and could not confirm the claims made by the newspaper. Kato could not be reached for comment. Questions about the Kato group’s publications arose in January 2012 when an anonymous whistleblower posted a video online exposing allegedly duplicated and manipulated images in a number of papers. Kato resigned from the university’s Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in late March 2012. According to the Retraction Watch blog, Kato now has five retractions, including one from Nature, and has five Molecular and Cellular Biology papers subject to an expression of concern.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)The Asahi article says that the report does not assign responsibility. But in a Q&A with Kato, the article quotes him as saying, “there is no doubt that there was impropriety.” He is also quoted as apologizing and explaining that he didn’t catch the impropriety because he trusted his lab members.The university official said that the committee has concluded phase one of its investigation but could not say when the probe would be completed or when results would be released.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—As the cost of genetic sequencing plummets, experts believe our genomes will help doctors detect diseases and save lives. But not all of us are comfortable releasing our biological blueprints into the world. Now, cryptologists are perfecting a new privacy tool that turns genetic information into a secure yet functional format. Called homomorphic encryption and presented here today at the annual meeting of AAAS, which publishes Science, the method could help keep genomes private even as genetic testing shifts to cheap online cloud services.Existing encryption techniques make data secure at the expense of making it unusable. Because of this, most genetic sequences are simply anonymized before being sent out for analysis. However, computational biologist Yaniv Erlich at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told meeting attendees that with a little genetic sleuthing, this supposedly anonymous data can easily track back to its owner. Erlich says he positively matched 12% of male genomes with the exact person they originated from.In 2009, the first lattice-based cryptography scheme was announced by IBM. The geometry-based encryption method allows data to be manipulated through both multiplication and addition while remaining encrypted. Researchers realized that the complex algorithms used during genetic tests could be closely approximated by the two basic mathematical operations. Lattice cryptology enabled homomorphic encryption, allowing computers to analyze encrypted data and return encrypted results without ever being able to decode the information. Cryptologist Kristin Lauter, research manager for the cryptography group at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, likened the method to locking a gold brick in a safe with a pair of gloves attached to openings in the side. A jeweler could still use the gold to make jewelry without ever having full access to the gold brick.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)However, homomorphic encryption requires substantially longer computation times than conventional methods do. At first, the technique seemed completely impractical, but Lauter and other researchers are fine-tuning what they call practical homomorphic encryption, which sacrifices computational freedom for faster performance. Running a typical high-end consumer computer, Lauter calculated the heart attack risk of a patient in about 0.2 seconds based on personal health information. While substantially faster than pure homomorphic techniques, the computation still ran a billion times slower than it would without securing the patient’s privacy. Lauter believes homomorphic encryption could be standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology within 10 years, an important step toward wide-scale adoption.”Homomorphic encryption is a huge tool in our toolbox that we need to consider in policy discussions,” Lauter says. “We can’t solve all the problems using this method, but in combination with other, faster techniques it could provide a solution.”John Wilbanks, a privacy expert at Sage Bionetworks in Seattle, Washington, says that while cutting-edge techniques like homomorphic encryption will improve privacy, keeping genetic information completely secure is impossible. “In 50 years the cost of genome sequencing is expected to be very low,” he says. “If there’s a copy of your genome out there that’s heavily encrypted, it would just be better for me to shake hands with you and take some of your genetic material. The more we increase the penalty for getting an existing copy of a genome, the more the incentive is to just make a new copy.”See more of our coverage from AAAS 2014.
A fisherman who pulled in his nets 25 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan got a surprising catch: the lower jawbone of an ancient human. The bone (pictured)—dredged from a watery grave in the Penghu Channel—is robust and sports unusually large molars and premolars, suggesting that it once belonged to an archaic member of our genus Homo, according to a report published online today in Nature Communications. The Penghu jaw and teeth most closely resemble a partial skull of H. erectus from Longtan Cave in Hexian on the mainland of China, as well as earlier H. erectus fossils. Although it wasn’t possible to date the jawbone directly, it was found with an extinct species of hyena that suggests this archaic human was alive in the past 400,000 years and, most likely, in the past 200,000 years. If so, the find suggests that H. erectus persisted late in Asia, or that there were several other types of humans still alive at the time in this region. It might even be a member of the mysterious Denisovan people, a close relative of Neandertals known only from a finger bone and two teeth from Denisova Cave in Russia and its ancient DNA. But “if Penghu is indeed a long-awaited Denisovan jawbone, it looks more primitive than I would have expected,” says paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who was not a co-author on the paper. And that question can only be answered if researchers can get DNA from Penghu.
As a teenager, one of India’s new billionaires saw a sister die of a high fever because their father didn’t have enough money for a doctor.Ravindra Kishore Sinha has come a long way since the mid 1960s of his native Patna city in the central Indian state of Bihar, one of the poorest in the country.Today Sinha, 67, wears various hats.Read it at Forbes Related Items
Over the last few years, the emerging closeness between India and Australia has often made news, but such enthusiasm has been, at times, short-lived. However, with the Indo-Pacific in flux—results of China’s growing assertiveness as well as uncertainty about American leadership—middle and emerging powers in the region find themselves contemplating the need to join hands. Australia and India are not exceptions in this regard.Read it at Live Mint Related Items
Apple intends to bring all its initiatives to the Indian market, including retail, as it sees a big opportunity in the South Asian nation where its earnings created a record in the first six months, and rose 20% in the quarter ended March. Read it at Economic TImes Related Items
The phrase Vibrant Gujarat makes a powerful and positive brand impression instantaneously. A head start, you will happily enjoy, when you are on a 24-country, roadshow to invite investors to India’s biggest investor show with the longest vintage. With an ambition to make it bigger than the previous, eight, edition, which attracted 55,000 registered visitors from 110 countries, saw the signing of 25,578 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a whopping 2,976 more than seventh Vibrant Gujarat.Read it at Connected to India Related Items
Germany will unveil an initiative at UN talks on climate change this week to attract more private investment in projects in Africa and elsewhere, Development Minister Gerd Mueller said.Mueller told the RND newspaper network that Germany would “send a strong signal” at the UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland with its Alliance for Development and Climate initiative and a pledge to spend an additional 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on climate protection.Read it at News18 Related Items
Nestled in the lap of Kolkata, India’s only potter’s town, Kumartuli, is furiously churning out over 12,300 clay dieties of the supreme mother goddess Durga for shipment by September 2006 to meet the demand of overseas Indians as far flung as the United States, Canada, England, Australia and other parts of Europe. Starting a half century ago, this potter’s town of about 250 “Kumar” (makers of clay images) families began shipping idols overseas – initially 129 Durga idols to a handful of foreign countries, primarily England and USA. Some of these “Kumars” trace their family history before Job Charnock, the agent of British East India Company, who founded Kolkata. Emerging virtually as an independent international brand of Durga-image makers, Kumartuli continues to remain an exclusive exporter of the idols of the goddess to NRIs settled in different nooks and corners of the globe during the Durga Puja held annually. The potter’s town popularized the puja of Durga in clay images some four centuries ago. Though Kumartuli has been sending images made of clay on the hay structure of Durga, her children and the demon Lord Mahishasur overseas since 1954, the demand for idols during Durga Puja in September or October every year started soaring after 1963 following the exodus of a large numbers of Indians to different parts of the world. The centuries old tradition-bound studios of the idol makers ceremonially add life to the goddess Durga by creating her lotus-shaped eyes that mutely tell volumes of life divine. The finishing touch to Durga’s eyes, known as “Chokhhu Daan” (gifting of eyes) in Bengali, is done by the oldest “Kumar” of the family. This potter’s town supplies images to nearly 93 countries worldwide with new nations joining the list every year, especially many from the former East European and Soviet Union countries, where religious ceremonies were previously banned. A spokesman of Kumartulik Shilpi Sangha (KSS), an association of the craftsmen, said the NRI’s of countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Austria and Poland, now throng to the village to select the images. U.S. based NRIs, including the Bengali Association of Southern California, Bengali Association of Greater Chicago, Dakshini, Sanskriti, Garden State Puja Committee of New Jersey, East Coast Durga Puja Committee of New York, come to Kumartuli to select dieties to ship to their cities. Additionally, hundreds of agents in Kolkata service NRIs seeking idols from the village. The Tourism Department of West Bengal estimates that almost a million foreign and NRItourists visit the potter’s town annually. Kumartuli was close to Raja Man Singh, the general in Emperor Akbar’s army who conquered Bengal in 1572 for the Mughal Empire and who came to worship Durga. The mighty Rajputs not only installed idols of the supreme mother goddess in different parts of Mewar, or today’s Rajasthan, but also created a chain of temples of Chandi, Tara, Sherawali, Chamunda, Dashabhuja and Kali, all different manifestations of Shakti or the ultimate women power mainfesting its supreme form as Durga. The Raja of Rajputana popularized the festival of Dussera or Durga Puja in different parts of India during the Mughal period.In Glimpses of the Raj, Pran Nevile writes that an English woman Maria Graham found that in 1811 people in the Imperial capital Kolkata carried clay images of Durga in massive processions for immersion in the river Hooghly, with “musical instruments, banners and bare-headed Brahmins chanting shlokas in Sanskrit.” At the time, Maharaja Rajkrishna Bahadur was a great patron of the “Bisarjan-Yatra” or immersion procession of idols of goddess Durga made in Kumartuli. The October 20, 1814 issue of Calcutta Gazette (now defunct) portrays the importance of the potter’s town vividly. Some 182 years ago, the newspaper reported that the famous “Babus” of Kolkata, such as Raja Krishun Chund Roy, Joy Krishna Roy and Neel Mony Mullick competed with each other in a show of pomp and grandeur on the occasion of “Vijaya Dashami.”The Asiatic Society of Calcutta estimates that the first formal “puja” of Durga was held around 1606 A.D. at the present Baghbazar area in Kolkata by a zamindar Pran Krishna Halder. Four years later, the Kumartuli’s “Kumars” started making the idols of “Maa” (mother goddess) Durga in clay for the neo-rich feudal lord Laxmikanta Roy Mazumder, who is the first patron of Kolkata’s potter’s town and initiator of the “puja” of Durga in clay idols. Related Items
Indian software services giant HCL Technologies’ quarterly profits doubled during the last quarter, far outpacing its peers, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys.HCL reported $69 million in net income during the last quarter, a 110 percent increase from the $33 million in profit last year. Revenues grew 21 percent to $607 million during the quarter from last year.TCS, India’s largest outsourcing firm, posted a 22 percent increase in quarterly profit, Wipro 13 percent and Infosys’s profits declined almost 2 percent from last year.HCL employs nearly 54,000 people and is emphasizing local recruitment to ease criticism about job losses in the U.S The company claims that almost 3,500 of the 15,000 employees it hired in the last financial year are from the U.S. and Europe. Related Items