Tomorrow's world on BBC -Feb 2 96
This BBC science program on Feb 2 96 ,showed new technologies being pioneered in India.
One was a solar and battery powered rickshaw. Although it costs three times as much, the running costs were only one fifth of petrol ones. It runs 70 miles beween charges -80 in good sunlight. There is a motor in each wheel. It is in production right now and with its sleek design and solar roof would make a very trendy import into the West. However it is not known how long the batteries will last before needing to be changed.
A bandage with potato peel backing can be used in burns dressings and does not need any anaesthetic when being peeled off in contrast to normal dressings. Wound heeling is much improved.
A railway line 500 miles long with 16 miles of bridges and 50 miles of tunnels has been completed in less than 5 years through the western Ghats using entirely Indian equipment and engineers.
Indian movies are being made using the latest computer techniques -Raj Kumar is the first one. A pity in a way as the real sets look so much more natural !
Indians are reprogramming all the supermarkets in the US in anticipation of the year 2000. bank accounts and railway ticketing for Europe is being run from India by satellite.
A new fibre optic cable is being laid to connect India and the Far East to Europe and will be ready in two years.
A new management program depicts in coloured worlds the interaction between differenbt parts of a project.
This and other reports from South Asia will be kept on ukindia.
There are more articles -on Tomorrow's world program on Feb 2 from Bombay -solar power , use of poatao peelings in surgery and much more - a must see- and on an exhibition of Hinduism. There is also an article about an encyclopaedia of indian cinema.
Links have been added to qualtiy British papers -Guardian , Telegraph , Times , Economist and to the BBC. Also to women's and kids pages.
A list of Indian concerts at the Bhavan in London this and next month is given on the shows page.
Please contibute to the Urdu shairi page and to the ideas page
US spy satellites have detected preparations in the Rajasthan desert which the State Dept says points to Indians readying the site for a nuclear explosion. The Indian army denies these allegations. The US failed to condemn France and China for continuing to conduct these tests weakening its moral authority. Of the six nations known to have exploded nuclear bombs - US , USSR , Britain , France , China and India , it is only India which has not tested a thermonuclear device.
Elephants love beer
Its reported for Srimbabuli north of Calcutta that elephants which were denied the beer made by villagers came back to knock down many of the huts and killed one person .
Militants turn against Hizbul
The Hindu fundamentalist leader Bal Thackeray has become an agnostic since the death of his wife . He has taken down all photographs of the god Ganesh saying he should have protected her when she went on a prayer meeting and forgot to take her emergency medicine with her.
The men's magazine 'Loaded' came under criticism when it showed a photograph of a Ganesh idol drinking Carling Premier beer. Mr Patel defended taking the mickey out of Lord Ganesh. Reports that the idol toppled over dead drunk were denied as were others that a fatwa was being planned.
Many doctors are rushing to get themselves insured following a ruling that medical negligence comes under the consumer protection act ensuring that cases are heard quickly rather than the usual 20 years or longer when most litigants have died off. The maximum a doctor can currently insure himself for is $400,000 but this limit may have to be raised. Many doctors blame American satellite channels for their lurid stories of multi million dollar medical negligence settlement shows.
World running out of food
Dr Swaminathan warns that the world has only 49 days supply of food left
and since 1990 440 m people have been added while food production has not gone up.
The EEC has run out of its surpluses.