India to be a developed nation by 2028: Blackberry founder

James Laurence Balsillie, founder and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion, feels that in the next 20 years, India will reach the developed nation status with $20,000 per capita income in terms of purchasing power parity.

"I am impressed by the breathtaking transformation underway in India," he said, that has made India "the world's fourth-largest economy in purchasing-power terms, growing at 6 to 8 percent," Balsillie said. He was the keynote speaker at Canada-India Business Council Diwali dinner October 7 at Toronto's Marriott hotel.

India, he added, would "reach developed nation status [$20,000 per capita income in terms of purchasing power parity] in 2028."



Blackberry users in India are growing rapidly 'and we anticipate having millions of customers more before long,' Balsillie said.



He called the Blackberry 'an essential tool' for business that is 'profoundly empowering and democratic' as it allows 'millions of people in India to leapfrog legacy, technology and transit straight into the 21st century.'



Few countries, he said, 'are making that transition as dramatically as India.'
People the world over, he said, "respect India's incredibly rich heritage, [and] are deeply impressed by the pace of its current achievements. Indian scriptures, literature, and philosophy are read for their profound insights into human nature and social relations. Indian mathematics, from the concept of zero to the development of the decimal system, underlie modern science."



Balsillie also lauded the success of Indian businesses -- like Mittal Steel, Tata Motors , Infosys , the Mahindra Group, the Jindal Group, etc -- and "the growing impact in the world markets of Indian entrepreneurs."



He reeled off statistics and information about India, where "average literacy rates are rising, and the percentage of people living below the poverty line has been cut in half in one generation. All this progress is being made in. . . the world's most populous democracy. . . [that has] strong governance institutions, an engaged civil society, an irreverent press, a respected judiciary, vigorous Opposition parties and numerous ethnic groups and languages."



Indians, he said, are "playing increasingly prominent roles in Canada's economy and politics, including at the highest levels."



The Indian Diaspora, he said, "is a source of extraordinary benefit to Canada, in terms of talent, family and business contacts, and worldliness."



He called Indo-Canadians "crucial to Canada's openness to the world and to our success."
Balsillie is involved in establishing think tanks like the Centre for International Governance and the Balsillie School of International Affairs for which he has brought in Professor Ramesh Thakur from Tokyo as the director.



CIGI and Balsillie School will work with the Canadian International Council, the Asia-Pacific Foundation and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.



Balsillie suggested "the establishment of a permanent Canadian education presence in India, in order to recruit Indian students to undergraduate and graduate programs across Canada; an annual high-level policy dialogue that brings together business leaders, academic experts and government officials' exposure of Canadians to visiting Indian business and institutional leaders;" and the creation of "a young scholars program to facilitate and manage a regular and structured exchange of the best and brightest of our two countries emerging academic talent."



He also floated the idea of annual CIC fellowships by the C-IBC for the study of contemporary India.
"The world is changing faster than many people can comprehend," he concluded, "and a dynamic India [is] a major agent of that change."



He, however, admitted that this change "is uneven, with far more progress evident in economic governance than in political governance, where it is badly needed. The world's capacity to understand and manage change needs urgent upgrading."



"We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world," he said, quoting from the Buddhist scripture Dhamapada. "May the festival of lights [Diwali] illuminate our thoughts," he added.



RIM, inventor and maker of Blackberry phones, works with five telecom service provider partners in India -- Bharti, Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications , BPL Mobile and Tata Communications. Balsillie was in India two weeks ago with his wife Heidi.



Besides his meetings with Indian business leaders and CEOs, Mr and Mrs Balsillie also visited a number of historic Hindu temples, and the Mahatma Gandhi Museum in Delhi and in Mumbai.

All about India's moon mission

AIndia's first Moon mission, Chandrayaan is all set to add a golden chapter to India's space endeavour when it takes off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on October 22.
Here's all that you wanted to know about India's first Moon mission

What is Chandrayaan-1?
Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific investigation -- by spacecraft -- of the Moon. The name Chandrayaan means Chandra (Moon), Yaan (vehicle). Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian planetary science and exploration mission.
When, and from where, Chandrayaan-1 will be launched?
Chandrayaan-1 will be launched on October 22, 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota (SHAR).

How long will it take Chandrayaan-1 to get to Moon?
It will take about 5? days for Chandrayaan-1 to get to the Moon.
How close to Moon will Chandrayaan-1 come while orbiting the Moon?
Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be in a 100 km polar orbit around the Moon.

What are Chandrayaan' s scientific goals?
The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the Lunar surface in visible, near Infrared, low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions.
Specific scientific goals are:

To prepare a three-dimensional atlas (with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10m) of both near and far side of the moon.

To conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of elements such as Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium with a spatial resolution of about 20 km and high atomic number elements such as Radon, Uranium & Thorium with a spatial resolution of about 40 km.

By simultaneous photo geological and chemical mapping we will be able to identify different geological units, which will test the hypothesis for the origin and early evolutionary history of the moon and help in determining the nature of the lunar crust.

What are the basic components of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft?
The basic components of the chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are:
The scientific payloads: the instruments that will gather science data.
The solar array that provides power to the spacecraft. Chandrayaan also carries a battery that stores the power generated by the solar array and feeds it to other systems.
The thrusters perform fuel burns to change the spacecraft's trajectory and attitude.
The various functional requirements of the spacecraft such as Attitude and Orbit Control, Command processing, House keeping telemetry, Sensor data processing, Thermal management, payload data handling operation, duel gimbaled data transmission antenna pointing, onboard mission management etc would be taken care by the Bus Management Unit (BMU).
The spacecraft also carries two star sensors and inertial reference unit based on miniaturized gyros providing absolute attitude.

What are the scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1?

There are altogether eleven scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Five of them are Indian and other six are from European Space Agency (3), NASA (2) and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1) selected through ISRO Announcement of Opportunity (AO). Two of the ESA instruments have Indian collaboration.

What type of propulsion system will Chandrayaan-1 use? How much propellant will it carry?
Chandrayaan-1 will use bipropellant integrated propulsion system. The propulsion system consists of a unified bi-propellant system for orbit raising and attitude control.
It consists of one 440N engine and eight numbers of 22N thrusters, mounted on the negative roll face of the spacecraft. Two tanks each with a capacity of 390 liter are used for storing fuel and oxidizer.

How will mission controllers communicate with the spacecraft?
If the spacecraft encounters a problem, it can establish contact with controllers on Earth through the Deep Space Network.

Can the team fix the spacecraft from Earth?
If a component on the spacecraft fails, controllers on Earth can instruct Chandrayaan to bring a backup online. If the spacecraft points in the wrong direction, its attitude can be corrected. If the spacecraft deviates from the desired trajectory, a controlled burn (thruster firing) can be performed to put it back on track.
Most minor problems can be corrected from Earth with existing onboard instruction systems.

How is the spacecraft powered?
The spacecraft is mainly powered by its solar array, which includes one solar panel covering a total area of 2.15 X 1.8 square meters, generating 700W power. The panels are made of materials rated to withstand extreme temperatures -- 119 degree C to minus 165 degree C.
The power produced by the solar array is stored in a Lithium-ion battery, and then distributed from the battery to the spacecraft subsystems. The power system is designed to support various phases of the mission. The power will supplement the mission with equal efficiency in both noon/midnight and dawn/dusk orbits.
The power system consists of power generation, energy storage and power conditioning elements. 36AH Li-Ion battery powers the spacecraft during orbital and lunar eclipses. Power electronics system controls the solar array power to supply the load and charge the batteries.

What is the total budget for realising Chandrayaan-1 mission?
The budgetary estimate for realising the proposed Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 stands at Rs. 386 crore (about $76 million). This includes Rs 53 crore (about $11 million) for Payload development, Rs. 83 crore (about $17 million) for Spacecraft Bus, Rs 100 crore ($20 million) towards establishment of Deep Space Network, Rs 100 crore ($20 million) for PSLV launch vehicle and Rs 50 crore ($10 million) for scientific data centre, external network support and programme management expenses.

What other missions are scheduled to study Moon?
The first leap in Lunar observation was made by Galileo Galilei who used his new invention the telescope to observe mountains and craters on the lunar surface.
The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2 in September 1959. Luna 9 was the first probe to soft land on the Moon in February 1966 and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface.
The first robotic lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet Lunokhod 1 in November 1970.
Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American mission Apollo 11. The last man to walk on the Moon was in December 1972 by Eugene Cernan during Apollo 17 mission.
Moon samples have been brought back to Earth by three Russian Luna missions (16, 20, and 24) and the US Apollo missions 11, 12 and 14 through 17.
The European Space Agency has launched European spacecraft Smart1 on September 27 2003 to explore the Moon, survey the lunar environment and create an X-ray map of the Moon.
Japan has two planned lunar missions, LUNAR-A and Selene.
India plans to launch a lunar orbiter for simultanious chemical and mineralogical study of the lunar surface. The People's Republic of China has also expressed ambitious plans for exploring the Moon (Change series).
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of USA is designed to map the surface of the Moon and characterize future landing sites in terms of terrain roughness, usable resources, and radiation environment with the ultimate goal of facilitating the return of humans to the Moon.

Thanks http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/17sli1.htm

Saina Nehwal wins CYG badminton gold

Saina Nehwal went through some anxious moments before winning the girls' singles gold in the third Commonwealth Youth Games, at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, in Pune, on Friday.

India's top woman shuttler and Beijing Olympics quarter-finalist was made to sweat by 15-year-old Sikki Reddy before posting a 23-21, 22-20 victory on the fifth and penultimate day of the Games.

The bronze medal went to Panuga Riou of England , who beat Malaysia's Tiffany Currier Chase 18-21, 21-16, 21-16.

However, Sikki did get an opportunity to lay her hands on gold. She partnered P C Thulasi to beat Mary Alexandra Bruce and Shan Michelle Li Man of Canada in the doubles final.

In the men's singles top seed Guru Sai Dutt endured a tough challenge from countryman Aditya Prakash before prevailing 21-18, 20-22, 21-18.

Martin Campbell of Scotland won the bronze medal.

It needed a string of unforced errors from Sikki to enable Saina pocket the first game after she was down 17-18. Saina capitalised on her opponent's errors to take the lead at 20-18.

Sikki bounced back to level scores at 21-21 but then the India No 1 drew on all her experience to close the game with a spectacular smash.

The second game was no different as each time Saina tried to put Sikki on the mat, she would bounce back.

Saina extended her lead to 6-2 before Sikki closed down the gap to 8-5. Some errors by the Hyderabadi ace saw Sikki back on level terms at 9-9 before the 15-year-old opened up a two-point lead.

With the game oscillating from one to the other, it was Saina's turn to forge ahead. She was just two points away from victory at 19-13 when her opponent won four consecutive points as the crowd egged her own.

However, an overhead smash helped Saina stretch her lead and when Sikki's shot went beyond the line, the match was all over.

Saina lauded her opponent, who also trains at the Gopichand Academy.

"Sikki has been playing very well recently... She is giving a tough fight to all the players. She can go well from here," she said.

Domestic airlines CEOs to discuss bailout package

Hyderabad: India first-ever civil aviation exhibition and conference, India Aviation-2008 is taking place at the old Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.

The four-day event from October 15-18 is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Federation of Indian Chambers and Industry (FICCI).

With the aviation industry facing a difficult time due to the ongoing global financial crisis and high fuel prices difficult time for the industry, the CEO's of domestic airlines will be meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss a bailout package with the Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

The sector is staring down at losses of over Rs 4000 crore and want a financial bailout of about Rs 5000 crore, which could be a mix of soft loans and decrease in high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) taxes to a uniform four per cent across the country.
The air show itself has participation from all aircraft manufacturers including Airbus which has brought its A380, the world’s largest aircraft.

More than 200 exhibitors from leading aviation and allied industries from around the world are taking part in the show.

Amitabh Bachchan is recovering

Amitabh Bachchan, who was admitted to the Lilavati hospital on his birthday last week for treatment of abdominal pain, is on the road to recovery, a hospital spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"Big B [Images] is definitely improving and the doctors are happy with this. He is in constant conversation with his family who have been besides him throughout," the spokesperson said.

The Bollywood icon has thanked his fans for their good wishes and prayers, the spokesperson added. The hospital has, however, declined to comment on reports that Bachchan is likely to be discharged on Tuesday.