News-Analyse: Apr 15, 2010

Radioactive sources in Delhi being found

In what substantially raises the danger of accidental radiation exposure at the Mayapuri junk market, nuclear experts combing the area on Wednesday detected two new sources of the radioactive material, cobalt-60, at a shop least one kilometre away from the site where the hazardous metal was found earlier.

The source of the latest cobalt-60, experts said, seems to different from the previous discovery which had led to serious injuries to seven handlers.

Virtually launching the Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2012 on the symbolic day of B.R. Ambeskar’s birth anniversary, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi called upon the youth of the state to come forward to “change the political culture’’.

Saying that it was time to move forward from the caste-communal politics of past decades, Rahul Gandhi did what he has been doing in rest of the country, invited the youth to attach themselves to his bandwagon for change.

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has said a scientific system to monitor tigers will soon to be implemented in all reserves across India with the aim of countering the poaching of the big cats.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Ramesh said:"Tiger's status and habitat apart from the state of other wildlife besides patrolling strategies in the jungles would be tracked and assessed with the help of this integrated software.

An improvised explosive device (IED) detected in a coach of the New Delhi-bound Sampark-Kranti express at Mahoba railway station in Uttar Pradesh was defused early Thursday, averting a major tragedy.

According to state Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal: "The IED was planted in the toilet of a three-tier coach where it was noticed Wednesday night by a woman passenger who promptly informed the cops at the station."

Indian authorities on Thursday fanned out rescuers across the eastern states of West Bengal and Bihar that were lashed by a storm on Tuesday night as officials pegged the toll in the calamity at over 125.

The state of Bihar was the worst hit with at least 81 people killed in eastern parts of the state while nearly 100,000 were rendered homeless.

Disaster management principal secretary of Bihar Vyasji said relief work has been undertaken and Rs 1.5 lakh would be paid the families of dead.

Artificial Blood vessels from Jatropha? After bio-diesel, this humble tropical weed could now help Indian researchers to indigenously develop blood vessels.

A biodegradable polymer recently developed from Jatropha has attracted researchers from IIT-Madras to work towards a project in this direction. The IITians are not alone. A Thiruvananthapuram-based medical institute Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST) and a Belgium-based multi-national company have also evinced interest in the polymer developed by a Gujarat-based national research institute.

The countdown to the launch of a 50-metre, tall, 416-tonne rocket with an Indian cryogenic engine to inject an advanced communication satellite in the geo-synchronous orbit has started at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, a space agency official said on Wednesday.

"Filling of liquid propellants in the four strap-on motors (42 tonnes each) that will be hugging the rocket is set to begin soon. Fuel filling of the second stage (40 tonnes) got over recently," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S Satish said from Sriharikota.

People in India, the world's second most populous country, have more access to a mobile telephone than to a toilet, according to a new UN report.

"It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," Zafar Adeel, director of United Nations University's Canada-based think-tank for water, the Institute for Water, Environment and Health, said.