Night view of Vijayawada - Photo by sivasyam

qutub minar - Photo by sivasyam

qutub minar - Photo by sivasyam 

qutub minar - Photo by sivasyam

qutub minar - Photo by sivasyam

qutub minar - Photo by sivasyam

Lotus Temple Delhi - Photo by sivasyam

Shimla - Manali Road - Photos By SivaSyam

Sony Ericsson Spiro Walkman phone

Sony Ericsson has also announced the Spiro Walkman phone. Sony Ericsson Spiro is a dual-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone.

Sony Ericsson Spiro comes with a 2.2 inch QVGA display, a 2 megapixel camera and microSD cards up to 16GB and support for MP3 and AAC files. It measures 92 x 48 x 16.75 mm and weighs 90 grams. Sony Ericsson Spiro also features a 3.5mm handsfree socket, Bluetooth 2.1, EDGE, microUSB connectivity, FM radio and social networking integration with Facebook, Twitter. It will be available in Contrast Black, Sunset Pink, Spring Green and Stealth Black colors.

Samsung NB30 Touchscreen Netbook launched

Samsung has introduced another netbook dubbed the Samsung NB30 TouchscreenNetbook. The Samsung NB30 Touchscreen netbook comes with Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor, 160GB or 250GB HDD, 1GB RAM and Intel GMA 3150 graphics.

The Samsung NB30 Touchscreen netbook has a 10.1-inch WSVGA touchscreen display with resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. The Samsung NB30 Touchscreen netbook also features a spill resistant keyoard, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, webcam, 6 cell battery, 3-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports and VGA output and Windows 7 Starter OS.

source: http://www.technologynews.co.in/

Countdown begins for rocket launch with Indian cryo-engine

The countdown to launch a heavy rocket with an Indian cryogenic engine to inject an advanced communication satellite in the geo-synchronous Orbit began on Wednesday at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhrapradesh, a space agency official said.

"The countdown began at 11.27 a.m. at our Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. All preparations for launching the geo-synchornous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) carrying the geo-stationary experimental satellite (GSAT-4) on Thursday at 16.27 IST are progressing satisfactorily," ISRO Director S. Satish told the sources.

The spaceport is located on a small island off the Bay of Bengal, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

The preparations during the 29-hour countdown includes filling up the second stage and four strap-ons of the 416-tonne rocket with about 200 tonnes of liquid propellants.

"In the run up to lift-off, the cryogenic upper stage will also be filled with propellants. Certain mandatory checks and charging of batteries on the 50-meter tall rocket and the 2.2-tonne satellite onboard will be carried during the countdown," Satish said.

Readiness of the ground stations at Sriharikota, Biak in Indonesia and the master control facility at Hasan in Karnataka, about 180 km from here, will also be tested by the space scientists and engineers simultaneously.

India to send two astronauts in space - ISRO

New Delhi: India will send two astronauts into space using an indigenous rocket and an announcement for this is likely to be made within a couple of months, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Tuesday.

In an interview to a private channel, ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan said that in the next few weeks, the government may announce approval of India's most expensive scientific programme - that of putting two Indian astronauts in space.

With this, India is set to join the select club of the US, Russia and china that have human space flight capabilities. The announcement has come two days before ISRO's test for an indigenous Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket.

Radhakrishnan told NDTV that India has technical capabilities for sending astronauts into the space. He said that the government approval for this Rs. 124 billion venture may come in a couple of months.

On being asked if it will be announced in the Prime Minister's Independence Day speech, the ISRO chief confirmed that "the approval and announcement could happen even before that."

Radhakrishnan says ISRO is ready to launch Indian astronauts by 2017. "As of now what we have is a pre-project study," he said, adding that the astronaut programme will be implemented in phases.

The first phase is to test the unmanned crew module and a service module in space four years from now. After that the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) will be used to launch the Indian astronauts.

Target to enroll 30 percent of eligible students in colleges by 2020 - Sibal

New Delhi: Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday told Parliament thatthe government has set a target of ensuring that 30 percent of eligible students should attend college by 2020.

At present, 220 million students go to schools across the country and only 12.4 percent of them are eligible to go to colleges. By the year 2020, the gross involvement ratio has to be increased up to 30 percent, he said while replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2009.

The bill, moved by the minister on Monday aiming to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, was later passed by voice vote.

Sibal stressed the need to exponentially expand theuniversity education system and called for a national effort to achieve this goal. "The house should think in terms of next generation," he said.

He said the government has not meted out any discrimination towards any states on allotting 12 central universities, which the government plans to set up across the country.

Asking each state government to identify four or five sites with 500 acres of land to set up the central universities, Sibal said an expert committee would decide the place where the institution could be set up.

The minister, however, opposed the idea of setting up central universities in remote areas where there is no connectivity.

He said the government has already allocated central universities to Karnataka,Orissa, Punjab and Tamil Nadu - states being ruled by non-Congress governments - and the Congress-ruled state of Haryana.

The minister said if the government had political consideration, it would not have allocated central universities to the states being ruled by non-Congress governments.

Sibal, who urged the MPs to set aside political differences, also called for "quality" in the field of university education.

"We need to set up a benchmark (through the central universities)," said the minister, adding that the state universities should also follow suit.

"This is not a quantitative exercise. This is a qualitative exercise," the minister said.

Justifying the government's decision to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said it was "for the sake of the people and for the sake of peace and unity".

source: indiaedunews.net

12 lakh new learners at IGNOU in 2010

New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Army for establishment of IGNOU-Army Community Colleges, which will lead to an exponential increase in its total student enrolment.

The student enrolment is expected to rise from 25 lakh in 2009 to 37 lakh in January 2010.

IGNOU's Vice-Chancellor, Professor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai made the announcement in order to emulate the initiatives taken by the university to celebrate its silver jubilee year starting November 19.

Today, learners enrolled for the university range from as low as 18 years to as high as 90 years of age including school drop-outs, factory workers, farmers, prisoners in Tihar Jail, and sex workers.