MOMs are from Mars

INDIANS cheered on September 24th after their scientists smoothly steered a spacecraft, the Mangalyaan, into orbit just above Mars. Since the launch last November, the Mars Orbiter Mission appears to have gone without a hitch. Standing by the craft’s handlers in Bangalore, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, puffed with pride.

The Mangalyaan carries few sensors and will discover little of scientific merit. But to point that out is both petty and beside the point. The main purpose was to get a craft there quickly and cheaply. The mission reportedly cost just $74m, which is much less than setting up a cricket team in the Indian Premier League.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) uploaded one of the photos to its Facebook page, showing an orange crater-marked surface with dark holes, taken from a height of 7,300 km.

India becomes the first Asian nation to reach the red planet.

Make in India

‘Make in India’ pitch from Sept. 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the “Make In India” campaign on September 25, aimed at reviving the job-creating manufacturing sector — key to taking the economy on a sustainable high growth path.

The campaign includes invitations to the world’s top 3,000 companies to explore investment possibilities in India. Indian Embassies around the world are expected to join the campaign.The campaign includes invitations to the world’s top 3,000 companies to explore investment possibilities in India. Indian Embassies around the world are expected to join the campaign.

 Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of "Make in India'' forward the government plans to benchmark skill training to global standards, targeting to turn India into the skilling capital of the world. The scheme will tap rural India and promote the Rural India Skills Mark (as a globally recognised stamp of quality. Named after Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the scheme Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojna, will be launched on his birth anniversary--September 25. 

The project will be launched as part of Modi's big ticket "Make in India'' initiative at Vigyan Bhavan on Thursday. 

Bigg Boss 8

Salman Khan as a dashing pilot  in the new teasers of Bigg Boss 8, has increased the curiosity level of the viewers. In the promo, the Bollywood actor and Bigg Boss host promises to take the contestants, as well as the viewers, on a thrilling flight.

This year's theme will reflect in the new set of the Bigg Boss house, located in Lonavla, which has been designed to resemble a jumbo aircraft.  Sources further revealed that the house will also have a waiting lounge and two different sections for Economy and Business class.

The new season, starting on September 21, has already locked in on some prominent celebrities who are expected to give us daily dosage of drama for 100 days. According to channel sources, actress Minissha Lamba will be one of the biggest draw this year and will be accompanied by model turned actor Upen Patel. 

Ganesh Immersion .

 With the immersion of the tallest Khairatabad Ganesh idol (60 ft) .The 11-day-long Vinayaka Chaturthi festivities concluded here on Tuesday.

Idol immersion in various water bodies in Greater Hyderabad passed off peacefully. It was for the first time that immersion went on for two days at the end of the festivities.
The annual ritual, which now become a massive event in Greater Hyderabad where an estimated 50,000 idols in different sizes have been immersed in various water bodies in the city and on its outskirts in the last two days.
On the second day too, police diverted traffic in different parts of the city that caused inconvenience to school children and office-goers.

Bhagynagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti president and VHP International president G Raghava Reddy, vice-presidents N Karodimal, Rama Raju and Krishna Reddy, general secretary Bhagavant Rao.

Apart from thanking all the devotees as well as Ganesh Mandapam Management Committees, the BGUS conveyed special thanks to the Telangana government for making the required arrangements and maintaining law and order.

It also thanked the Hyderabad  police commissioners, GHMC, water board, HMDA, RTC, railways, irrigation, electricity and transport departments as well as Dharmic  organisations and NGOs.

The GHMC took up sanitation drive all along the procession routes by deploying 162 Ganesh Action Teams (GATs), one for every 4 km. Each GAT consists of one sanitary supervisor, three SFAs and 21 workers, totaling over 3,000 workers. Nineteen 25-tonner vehicles, sixty 6-tonners and 12 JCBs were pressed into service

.

The idols were immsersed in Kapra Cheruvu, Saroornagar Lake, Rajanna Bavi, Mir Alam Tank, Palle Cheruvu, Pattikunta Cheruvu, Durgam Cheruvu, Malkam Cheruvu, Gopinagar Cheruvu, Pedda Cheruvu, Gangaram, Gurunatham Cheruvu, JP Nagar, Kaidamma Kunta in Hafizpet, Erla Cheruvu, Manjeera Road, Vinayaka Nagar Rayasamudram Lake, RC Puram, Sakicheruvu, Patancheruvu, IDL Tank,

Pragathinagar Cheruvu, Hasmathpet Cheruvu, Sunnam Cheruvu, Pariki Cheruvu, Venellagadda Cheruvu, Suraram Cheruvu, Kotha Cheruvu and Safilguda lake.

Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus to launch in India on October 17

There's good news for Apple fans in India. Apple will make its new smartphones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus available in India from October 17.

The launch will come bang in the middle of festive season, and is a departure from Apple's earlier India strategy, when the new versions of their iPhones were made available around November. Apple plans to make the new smartphones available in 115 countries by the end of this year.


The new iPhones have the power button on the side. Apple has made 1.3 million apps available on their new smartphones. While Apple claims that iPhone 6 Plus has 24 hours of 3G talk time..

Both phones have an 8MP camera with 'True-tone flash', 1.5 micron pixels. The cameras have an iSight sensor. "With these new cameras, panoramas can be up to 43 megapixels. Schiller said that face detection and blink detection is better too. 

 Apple has done pretty much everything that market and customers demand. These new iPhones have completely new form factors, the look and feel is radically different, the bigger screen sizes is in line with current best sellers, they come with higher resolution displays on these bigger screens, they have faster processors, the power button on the side is an ergonomic correction that was much needed, new sensors can make sure that you know how many stairs you climbed up .

Mary Kom Movie review

Film  :   Mary Kom
Cast   :   Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumaar, Sunil Thapa

There is no doubt that MC Mary Kom is among one of the finest sports persons India has ever produced, and her achievements can be chronicled on celluloid, but are we ready to visualise a girl from a poor Manipuri village as it is? Director Omung Kumar’s Mary Kom is a highly fictionalised account of what actually happened, and in the process it turned out to be one of those films which are made just for whistles and quick money.  

Priyanka Chopra may not have tried to look like the boxer on screen but as she says, she has worked hard to represent her spirit and personality. "We did not want to imitate her. We are making a Hindi film and we wanted the reach of the film to be wide. I am speaking a lot more in Hindi than Mary speaks and not in Manipuri. And I knew my face would never look like her we did prosthetics and lot of test. I don't look like Mary. I don't have the features like her, but I have given blood and soul for this film to make sure I represent Mary's spirit and her personality to the best of my ability," Priyanka had said in her interview.

You may miss picturesque landscapes of Manipur as most of the film is set inside indoor stadiums, but the editors have done a fantastic job. The premises keep changing before you go out for snacks. The tempo of the film is also acceptable, provided you take it as just another Bollywood ‘masala’ film. 

Slated to release on Teacher's Day, the film has already been exempted from entertainment tax in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka now hopes that the Delhi government declares the movie tax-free as well.

The world's fastest computer

Google is building the world's fastest computer 

The internet search company announced a new partnership with researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara to develop "quantum computing" technology.

The science behind quantum computing is highly technical and still very theoretical. In simple terms, quantum computers make use of quantum bits to process information, as opposed to the binary system of ones and zeros used by traditional computer processors.

China is currently home to the world's fastest computer, the Tianhe-2 supercomputer, which is capable of nearly 55 quadrillion of calculations per second. A quantum computer could make that look like a snail.

The search giant has already been working with scientists at D-Wave Systems on a quantum computer system. D-Wave is developing what some call the first commercially viable quantum computer, the "Vesuvius." It is also working with NASA on a 1,000 qubit "Washington" processor.

WhatsApp with free voice calling

 If media reports are to be believed, mobile messaging service WhatsApp is set to launch a free voice

 calling feature for its 600 million active users. 

The translation feature available in the latest version of WhatsApp has made it clear that the voice calling plug-in is on it's way.

While the voice calling feature is all set to be released on WhatsApp, there is no update if there is going to be a similar feature on Facebook, it added.

WhatsApp has witnessed a 15 per cent rise in its traffic since the announcement that Facebook is acquiring the service.
"The leaked images of the upcoming user interface shows that the app has been enabled with other language translations which will be displayed at the time a person receives a call via WhatsApp," a report on thefusejoplin.com stated. 

WhatsApp has crossed 50 million active users in India alone.

Ebola threatens food security in West Africa

Ebola Virus Disease:

 EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. EVD spreads through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people. No vaccine for EVD is available and severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. During this outbreak, EVD has killed approximately 55% of those infected. 

The FAO issued a special alert for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the outbreak, which has killed around 1,550 people since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March.

Restrictions on people's movements and the establishment of quarantine zones to contain the spread of the hemorrhagic fever has led to panic buying, food shortages and price hikes in countries ill-prepared to absorb the shock.

"Even prior to the Ebola outbreak, households in some of the most affected areas were spending up to 80 percent of their incomes on food," said Vincent Martin, head of an FAO unit in Dakar which is coordinating the agency's response.

Cash crops like palm oil, cocoa and rubber will be seriously affected, squeezing the purchasing power of many families, who will also lose income and nutrition due to the ban on bush meat.

Border crossing closures and the reduction of trade through seaports have tightened food supplies in the three countries, which are all net cereal importers, and propelled prices upwards, exacerbated by higher transport costs.

The UN World Food Program and FAO have approved an emergency program to deliver 65,000 tonnes of food to 1.3 million people affected by Ebola over a three-month period.

The price of cassava at a market in the Liberian capital Monrovia rose 150 percent in the first weeks of August, the FAO said, adding that currency depreciation in Sierra Leone and Liberia was likely to force prices up further.

A dozen McDonald's outlets closed in Russia

Russian Courts Uphold Closure of McDonald's Branches

Russia's consumer watchdog agency is forcing the American fast-food chain to temporarily close eight more outlets across the country over accusations of sanitary violations, bringing the total closur e count to 12. All are owned by the company.

Earlier in the month, the regulator made McDonald's close four restaurants, including its flagship outlet in Moscow that first opened to the public in 1990.

It's widely suspected that the closures are politically motivated. Many American and European companies are under pressure in Russia as Cold War-style tensions make it increasingly difficult for Western brands to operate

McDonald's is also facing a lawsuit from Rospotrebnadzor in a Moscow court. The regulator is seeking a ban on some of the chain's most popular hamburgers and milkshakes after the regulator said it uncovered alleged food-safety violations in two branches in northern Russia. A hearing that had been scheduled for Aug. 13 has been postponed until Sept. 11.

The closure of the Moscow restaurants kick-started a flurry of unscheduled inspections of McDonald's restaurants across the country, but last week Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said there were no plans for an inspection of the whole chain. The head of the regulator, Anna Popova, also brushed off accusations that the inspections and closures were politically motivated.