In order to issue unique identity cards to citizens, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) constituted under me j Chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani, has started collecting demographic and biometric data. The UIDAI is collecting two sets of information on an individual resident of India. First is the demographic information like I his or her name, date of birth, sex, age, address, father's, mother's or guardian's name, etc. which is very simple information. The second is the biometric information for the purpose of uniqueness, and that is all the ten finger prints, the face and the iris of both the eyes. The Unique Identity (UTD) cards would be given to every individual above 15 years, including NRIs and foreigners. The Authority aims to release around 600 million unique identity cards within a span of four to five years. To ensure that the date collected remains confidential, the Government is in more...

Climate change is already happening, and further increases in temperature are inevitable. Global warming will have an increasing and significant effect on the environment and the economy, with implications In virtually all nations including India. In fact, climate change is no longer a distant threat as catastrophic events have already started occurring, and are likely to increase in frequency. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) amply demonstrates that we are already experiencing climate change induced by human activities. Ever since the invention of fire, human activities have generated carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. However, till the advent of the Industrial Revolution, these emissions were well within the carrying capacity of the atmosphere. The Industrial Revolution, based on the combustion of hydrocarbons—initially coal, later also petroleum and natural gas, led to ever-increasing levels of emission and accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, precipitating more...

In the first crash of' its kind,  two communication satellites collided on  February  10, 2009 in  orbit shooting out a pair of huge debris clouds  and poising a slight risk to the  International Space Station (ISS). The collision occurred nearly 800km over Siberia and involved a US Indium commercial satellite (launched in 1997) and a defunct Russian satellite cosmos2252 (launched in 1993). Iridium satellite weighed 560 kg, while the Russian craft nearly a tonne. The incident raised questions over how it was allowed to happen and what will become of the cloud of orbital debris, which adds to one of the biggest headaches in space. The collision has fuelled concerns over l.ick of' traffic controls in space and the rising volumes of junk that endanger vital satellites and manned flights. Just a month after the Indium accident, a stray motor chunk hurtled inward the International Space Station. Cruising at an more...

Over the past several years, India has been the victim of terrorist attacks, not only in the militancy and insurgency affected areas and areas affected.  By left-wing extremism, but also in the form of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts, etc. In various parts of the hinterland and major cities. A large number of such incidents are found to have complex inter-siate and mid-national linkages, and possible connection with other activities like the smuggling of arms and drugs, pushing in and circulation of fake Indian currency, infiltration from across the borders, etc. keeping all these in view, a need was felt for selling up of an Agency at the Central level for investigation of offences related to terrorism and certain other acts, which have national ramifications. On the recommendations of several experts and Committees, including the Administrative Reforms Commission in its Report, for establishing such an Agency, the Government decided to more...

The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have orbited and landed. The first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first man- made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The United States' Apollo program achieved the first (and only) manned missions to the Moon, culminating in 6 landings between 1969 and 1972. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, on October 22, 2009. Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon mission has found water on moon on September 24, 2009, ending a more...

For the purpose of putting Indian satellites in space, the Governments established a Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) in 1965 in Thumba, followed by the erection of a Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station in 1967 at Ahmadabad. Since the creation of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 15, 1969, in the Department of Atomic Energy, ISRO has managed India's space research and the uses of space for peaceful purposes. In 1972, the Government established the Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS) to conduct the nation's space activities for ISRO at four space centers across the country. DOS reports directly to the Prime Minister and ISRO was placed under DOS on June 1, 1972, and made a Government organisation on April 1, 1975. The first Indian satellite to be put in space was Aryabhata, which dates back to April 19, 1975. It was followed by the launch more...

India is evolving from its role as the world's back office into a knowledge and innovation hub, despite the limitations imposed by the country's weak infrastructure and antiquated education system. Indian outsourcers have also evolved into world-class research and development (R&D) centers.  As a result, the call centre operators in India can now found to be helping enhance patient care for US hospitals, optimize financial transactions for Australian banks and streamline parts management for European engineering firms. Similarly, the Indian IT companies can be found developing mission-critical avionics systems, next-generation telecom technologies and complex medical devices. This is bound to benefit not just India but the global economy as well. This is a far story from about a decade ago, when prominent Indian" IT companies such as Infosys Technologies Ltd, Tala Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Wipro Ltd were bidding for small contracts to help Western companies Us me Y2K more...

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items 'from the bottom up', using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. The word 'nanotechnology' was popularized by K. Eric Drexler in the 1980's while talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few nanometers wide—motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. Drexler spent the next ten years describing and analyzing these incredible devices, and responding to accusations of science fiction. Meanwhile, mundane technology was developing the ability to build simple structures on a molecular scale. As nanotechnology became an accepted concept, the meaning of the word shifted to encompass the simpler kinds of nanometer-scale technology. The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative defines it as anything smaller than 100 nanometers with novel properties. Based on more...

Heroin has become a worldwide problem as opium production occurs in three source regions—Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America. Besides being consumed in the producing regions, opium is converted to heroin and sent to the primary consuming markets of Europe and North America. The doubling of worldwide opium production since the mid-1980s has resulted in greater heroin availability, rising purity, and lower prices. Universal increases in heroin-related medical emergencies, arrests, and crime indicate that heroin consumption remains a growing problem throughout the world. The UN Drug Control Program estimates that there are some 8 million heroin abusers worldwide. Although heroin use remains less prevalent than cannabis, it accounts for a greater percentage of drug- related health problems and criminal activity. More than one-third of the estimated 2 million heroin users in the United States are considered hardcore addicts. While most heroin users tend to be older, heroin use among more...

Information Technology (IT) is changing rapidly. Power grids, traffic control, healthcare, water supplies, food and energy, along with most of the world's financial transactions, now depend on information technology. Thus, it forms an invisible layer that increasingly touches every aspect of our lives. Some of the companies researching cloud computing are big names in the computer industry. Microsoft, IBM, and Google are investing millions of dollars into research. Cloud computing is an emerging IT delivery model that can significantly reduce IT costs and complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. Cloud computing is massively scalable, provides a superior user experience, and is characterized by new, internet-driven economics. Cloud computing could change the entire computer industry. The present method of installing a suite of software for each computer can be replaced with having to load only one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which more...