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Scientists and star-gazers are hoping for a glimpse of a green comet called Lulin had their best chance on Wednesday as it reached its nearest point to the Earth. There would be another opportunity to see it on Thursday also
This unusual celestial body, which is about 300,000 miles wide and some 38 million miles away, was due to appear just after midnight, close to Saturn during its first visit to the Earth’s inner solar system.

However, Jenny Carter, who is part of a team of experts from the University of Leicester using Nasa’s Swift satellite to track the comet as it nears Earth, said their observations had been “disappointing” because of cloudy weather.

It is said that it should be quite bright, but as the days pass it will get fainter and fainter.
If there is a clearer sky tomorrow, one can see it from a place without much light pollution and with a pair of binoculars and a small telescope if one has it.

Discovered only a year ago, the comet gets its green colour from a poisonous, cyanide-like gas in its atmosphere.

The Swift satellite has recorded simultaneous ultraviolet and X-ray images of the comet.

Miss Carter said it was important to carry out

Observations of Lulin will give scientists clues about the origin of comets and the solar system.

A comet is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. These “dirty snowballs” cast off gas and dust whenever they venture near the sun.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Schools in Andhra Pradesh have deployed NComputing virtual desktops technology, which distributes the power of a PC across a number of users.

The project was commissioned in November. It is aimed to bring computer training and e-learning to 5,000 government schools with 1.8 million students. The schools have each been equipped with a computer lab with the hardware and software, trained instructors and a reliable power supply.

PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of students only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. The strategy is to utilize the excess capacity in a PC by sharing it among a number of users. As the client device is not the PC, but a monitor with keyboard and mouse, the economics of delivering computing to users will change dramatically.

It is said that NComputing would be using a version of its technology priced at US$70 per seat, and in addition provide savings in electricity costs. A full deployment including shared cost of the computer, monitor, keyboard and peripherals cost would be closer to $200.

The systems run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and use Microsoft’s Office Suite.

A number of technology companies including Intel and the One Laptop Per Child association are targeting specialized products at price-sensitive emerging markets.

It has a prototype of a low-cost access and computing device for education purposes that can run the office suite from OpenOffice.org, besides offering users the ability to do browsing. The device, whose full specifications are still not available, is likely to be priced initially at $20 to $30, with plans to bring the price down to $10 at high volumes.

NComputing said it is working with nearly 15 states in India to pilot or implement its virtual desktop computing technologies.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Gigabyte has announced to launch its new Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H motherboard. The product supports the latest Intel 45nm CPUs and integrates support for HDMI, DVI and HDCP, creating a powerful multi-media platform which allows users to do more at once.

Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H is built from Intel G45 Express chipset, using Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 3 technology with 2 oz Copper for ground and power layers.

It’s Dual channel DDR2 1066 by O.C. is set go give remarkable system performance At the same time the motherboard is integrated with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD (Intel GMA X4500HD).

It has built-in TPM chip with 2048bits encryption to highest level digital data protection and features high speed Gigabit Ethernet and IEEE1394 connection.

The new GA-EG45M-UD2H has 2 ounces Copper and supports Intel’s 45nm Core 2 Duo processors with 1600 MHz overclocked Front Side Bus.

This motherboard supports up to 16GB of DDR2 RAM with 1066 MHz (overclocked) and has dual-channel memory architecture. Gigabyte has integrated HDMI port with HDCP support and boasts smoother HD and Blu-ray video playback. Price of the product is not released yet.

Popularity: 52% [?]

State Bank of India is planning to raise Rs 3,000-4,000 crore through the issue of subordinated debt to retail investors. The bond is likely to have a tenure of 5-10 years with an interest rate of about 9%. The retail bond issue may be launched before June.

SBI also intends to raise about Rs 2,000 crore before March 2009 through a private placement of bonds.

SBI was the first bank to raise money through retail bonds. It garnered Rs 1,500 crore in 1994 by offering a floating interest rate pegged at 2% above its highest term deposit rate. The bond issue had a 10-year tenure. It had a put and call option at the end of five years and this was exercised in 1998, when bonds were redeemed. No bank has tapped the retail market since.

Tata Capital mobilised close to Rs 2,500 crore through its retail bond issue against the issue size of Rs 1,500 crore, which included a green-shoe option of Rs 1,000 crore. The success of Tata Capital  SBI has been  toying with this idea for a while, but the success of Tata
Capital intensified their plans to enter the retail bond market.

Tata Capital, a double A+ rated company, offered 12% of a five year bond, with a three year put and call option. SBI feels that as a government owned entity, it can offer lower rates compared with private counterparts.

SBI officials said, “The bond issue will have to be priced slightly higher than the interest rates that the bank is paying. SBI offers 9% on 1,000 days deposits.

The money raised will be deemed as tier II capital, which in turn will enable the bank to improve its capital adequacy ratio. SBI’s CAR stood at 13.72% as on December 2008. Even as corporate issuers stay away from the bond market, a host of banks are raising money through the private placement route.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has issued regulations that seek to improve the quality of service (QoS) provided by cable TV operators in the Non-CAS areas.

Currently, the Conditional Access Regime (CAS), where cable TV services are digitalised and customers need a Set-top-Box (STB) to view pay channels, is applicable only in select parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and the whole of Chennai. The rest of India is classified as non-CAS areas. Trai had earlier issued quality of service regulations for cable operators in CAS areas. The extension of these regulations to all parts of the country implies that customers all over the country can expect a marked improvement in the quality of Cable TV services.

There are over 80 million consumers receiving cable TV services from 60,000 cable operators in non-Cas areas. No formal regulations for QoS existed in the wake of a “highly fragmented nature of cable TV sector and because of implementation difficulties at ground level.”

Trai had earlier set QoS norms for the cable TV service in CAS (conditional access system) areas and for the DTH industry. It had also issued a consultation paper on quality of service (QoS) for cable TV services in non-CAS areas on 1 December, 2008.

The regulations will be effective from 1 April 2009. As per the regulations,

1. Every cable operator will have to establish a help desk for the purposes of receiving cable service requests, answering queries, receiving complaints and redressal of grievances of its subscribers. And the help desk should be accessible to the subscribers from 8 am to 8 pm.
2. Every cable operator will have to maintain a record of complaints and will have to maintain the record for at least three months from the date of registration of the complaint. Also, cable operators will have to present such records whenever called upon by the authority.
3. Every cable operator will have to give every subscriber the bill for the charges due for each. The bill should contain the detail of total number of pay and free-to-air channels provided by the cable operator, and for every payment the cable operator has to issue a signed receipt to the consumer.
4. Representatives of the cable operator will have to carry proper photo identification while visiting the premises of subscribers.
5. It is made compulsory for cable operators to issue bills and receipts to its subscribers.

The sector regulator has also addressed issues like procedure for connection, disconnection and reconnection; setting up mandatory redressal system; maintaining a record of complaints; maintaining technical standards like measurable signal strength and six-hour power backup.

The regulations also deal with issues like standards for provisioning of digital decoders and set-top-boxes (STBs) for voluntary CAS, compulsory technical standards to be observed by the cable operators, including a good quality, measurable signal strength at subscriber’s end, maintaining six-hour power backup, and monitoring of QoS standards.

Popularity: 23% [?]

On the occassion of Mahashivratri, a colossal 108ft statue of Shiva is unveiled by a 46 year old an Indian industrialist Mr. Kamal Jain.

Mr. Kamal Jain owns Hilltake Industries Pvt Ltd, which manufactures plastic water storage tanks and currently, has an annual turnover of NRS 250-300 million. Nearly 20 years ago Mr. Jain has left his family home and business in Siliguri and make a fresh start in Nepal. He felt a special rapport with Pashupatinath always wanted to pay a special tribute to him.

The work began in the temple town of Bhaktapur four years ago. The main artisans are from India. The statue itself has cost Mr. Jain about NRS 25 million while he estimates it would require another NRS 10 million to finish the project. In addition, there is the money spent on acquiring the land and building the temple.

He estimates it will take another five to six months for the project to be over. He was happy on Monday when hundreds of people turned up at his temple to worship the image on Mahashivaratri.

According to reports, this Shiva idol may not be the highest. There is a Hanuman statue in Mumbai that is said to be 111 ft high. However, his idol may still win the battle of heights since the pedestal of his Shiva is 40 ft above ground.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has decided to introduce age-bar in law colleges across India.

The new rulings are-

1. No one above the age of 20 can join the integrated five-year LLb course for which a student enrols after passing class XII and
2. One can’t be over 30 if one wants to join the three-year LLB degree course (for which a bachelor’s degree is must).

The BCI is the apex organisation that determines the standards and rules governing legal education in India and their advice is binding on all law-teaching institutions.

BCI vice-chairperson J R Beniwal justified the move saying, ‘‘We want to improve the standards of legal education. We don’t want to open the gates for a 70-year-old. Law education must be on par with medical and engineering education.’’

There are about 300 universities across India, a dozen national law schools in various states and over 300 law colleges. Thousands of students enrol for law courses every year.

There will be a concession in age bar for SC/ST and OBC students who can join

1. A five-year course (after class XII) at 22 and
2. A three-year PG course at even 35.

The BCI says it is introducing age bar to improve the quality of lawyers but law colleges and advocates say the move smacks of ‘‘discrimination’’. It violates the constitutional right to equality and to practise a profession of one’s choice. Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani said: ‘‘It’s unnecessary and discriminatory. How can you stop someone from studying at any age and changing his profession?’’

Popularity: 15% [?]

Admissions for all the professional courses in the state of Gujarat, for the academic year 2009-10 will be done under one single admission committee, instead of three.

The admission committee will be set up by Gujarat Technological University (GTU). This time onwards, common admission committee will conduct admissions for masters degree in business administration (MBA), masters in Computer Application (MCA), engineering, pharmacy and diploma engineering.

The GTU had previously said that they will be conducting the admissions online. Presently, there are three different committees which are taking care of all these admissions.

The GTU will declare four merit lists on which admissions will take place. There will be close to 1.5 lakh students to get admissions through these courses. Engineering and pharmacy will start the admissions first.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Use of mobile phones in public and private schools upto class X has been banned by the Maharashtra government throughout the state. The ban on use of mobiles will be applicable on both teachers and students.

Students using a mobile in the school premises, will have to pay a fine of Rs 50, while teachers and other staff have to pay Rs 100, according to the order issued by the state’s School Education Department.

The ban will be implemented by school principals, who too could be fined if caught using mobiles by Education Department officials.

The School Education Department has issued the ban some days back, but the decision on the exact date of the implementation will be taken by deputy education directors of each region, department sources said.

The Higher and Technical Education department would also implement these guidelines for college teachers and students.

Popularity: 18% [?]