A Tribute - September 2013 Read online



 

  A monthly spectrum into latest development in the Field of Science , Technology and Innovation in India .

  Edition-1

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  Editors Desk::

  we start this monthly magazine as a tribute to the wonderful contribution made by our scientists over the generations to the field of Science and Technology, we are nation who performed the first cataract operation and it’s said that the word atom was also first coined as a Tejomatra by one of the great saints of India who were scientists of the bygone era, we are also a land where astrology and astronomy originated.

  India in the modern age has produced remarkable scientists like Ramanujan, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Sir C.V.Raman, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Satyendra Nath Bose, Jagadish Chandra Bose and many more such eminent personalities, Team Incnpaper through this monthly magazine would like to motivate and keep the current generation of young Indians and Scientists informed about the wonderful work done by Indian Research Institutes and Scientists.

  Index

  Science and Technology: Top Science and Technology News of the Month

   Indian Institute of Science scientists crack mystery of black holes...

   Second Vehicle Assembly Building at Satish Dhawan Space

  Centre, Sriharikota.

  Government Approves setting up of Two Semiconductor Wafer Fabrications Manufacturing Facilities.

   Intel offers a new chip for India.

   AGNI – 5 A huge Success 

   Makeover for India’s biggest telescope…

   India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft moves to Sriharikota..

   Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2013.

  Lounge Talks:: Casual Blogs on events which caught our attention

   A leader and his context...

   By gone …Nokia, Ericsson era …

  For more articles Visit :: www.incnpaper.com ... Lets Inspire a Generation

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  Indian Institute of Science scientists crack mystery of black holes

  A scientist from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, and his student have successfully applied Albert Einstein’s gravity theory to unlock the mysteries of black holes.Banibrata mukhopadhyay associate professor, department of physics, IISc, and his student Indrani Banerjee worked for over two years for their landmark discovery. Their study on black holes has been acknowledged by the scientific community across the globe, including professors from Harvard University. The duo has published its findings in the international journal Physical Review Letters.

  Black holes, as stars are known postdeath, are not visible to the plain eye. Though not visible, black holes devour everything in their neighbourhood given the gravitational pulls they exercise. It was hitherto believed that mass and spin are the determining properties of black holes and they would go a long way in determining the influence of black holes on their neighbourhood as well as their pre-death star existence.

  Their new study, says Banibrata, who worked in Harvard for three years before joining IISc in 2007, throws more light on black holes and their properties, particularly the correlation between mass and spin or rotation. They have proved that mass and spin are not independent of each other but actually interdependent. They have established that mass of the star could be used to calculate the spin.

  “The spin of the observed black holes is still a debatable issue — the exact value of the spin is not known. On the other hand mass can be determined more easily. Rotation of the black hole is determined by the mass and rotation of the initial star. The larger the mass of the initial star the greater it tends to have a high rotational speed and turn into swiftly spinning black holes. The smaller the mass of the initial star the slower its rotation and spin. This property shows that spin and mass are correlated. Hence if mass is known, the spin can be predicted. Eventually, only one fundamental parameter characterizes the black hole,” Banibrata explained.

  Indrani, a PhD student of physics, said, “First we were working on how stars collapse and end up into black holes. During the research, the thought of discovering the properties emerged,” she said.

  . {index}

  Second Vehicle Assembly Building at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota .

  Top of Form

  The Union Cabinet today approved for realization of Second Vehicle Assembly Building at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR) at an estimated cost of Rs. 363.95 crore with a foreign exchange component of Rs. 7 crore.The Second Vehicle Assembly Building will provide enhanced launch frequency of PSLV and GSLV by facilitating parallel integration operations. It will also provide redundancy to existing Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for integration of GSLV MK-III and also as a prime integration facility for third launch pad and future general launch vehicles.Project teams formed by the Department of Space at SDSC-SHAR will realize the systems through the contractor by floating tenders package wise. An engineering consultant will be engaged to carry out configuration development, detailed engineering and preparation of tender documents by dividing the total work into various packages. The SVAB is targeted for realization within 42 months.{index}

  Government Approves setting up of two Semiconductor Wafer Fabrications Manufacturing Facilities.

  The Government has approved setting up of two Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication (FAB) Manufacturing Facilities in the country. These FAB facilities are expected to provide big boost to the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing eco-system in the country.

  The Government had in 2011 constituted an Empowered Committee to identify technology and investors and to recommend incentives to be provided to set up two FAB facilities in the country. The Empowered Committee had issued a Global Expression of Interest inviting technology providers and investors to set up the FAB facilities. This Committee submitted its recommendations to the Government in March 2013.

  The details of the two FAB facilities proposed to be set up are as follows:

  (i)                 M/s Jaiprakash Associates along with M/s IBM (USA) and M/s Tower Jazz (Israel). The outlay of the proposed FAB is about Rs 26,300 crore for establishing the FAB facility of 40,000 wafer starts per month of 300 mm size, using Advanced CMOS technology. Technology nodes proposed are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I, 28 nm node in Phase II with the option of establishing a 22 nm node in Phase III. The proposed location is Greater Noida.

  (ii)           M/s Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) along with M/s ST Microelectronics (France/Italy) and M/s Silterra (Malaysia). The outlay of the proposed FAB is about Rs 25,250 crore for the fab facility of 40,000 wafer starts per month of 300 mm size, using Advanced CMOS technology. Technology nodes proposed are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I and 45, 28 and 22 nm nodes in Phase II. The proposed location is Prantij, near Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

  The Government has also approved the package of incentives for the two consortia. This package includes incentives already available under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and deduction available for expenditure on R&D under the Income Tax Act. In addition, FAB facilities will also be eligible for investment linked deduction under Section 35AD of the Income Tax Act. The Government will provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) in the form of an interest free lo
an for a period of 10 years.

   The Government has also required the technology providers to take equity of at least 10% in the proposed projects. The Government will also get 11% equity in the said projects. The details of the incentives will, however, be worked out based on appraisal of Detailed Project Reports to be submitted by the two consortia within a period of two months.

   An Expression of Interest would be published inviting proposals from other leading companies intending to establish FAB in India to be submitted in 4 weeks. Government of India would extend the special package of incentives to the qualified proposals.

  Giving these details here today while interacting with the Media, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Information Technology , said that all this will help set up a critical pillar required to promote Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) in the country. The Semiconductor Wafer FABs when set up will stimulate the flow of capital and technology, create employment opportunities, help higher value addition in the electronic products manufactured in the country, reduce dependence on imports and lead to innovation. The proposed FABs will create direct employment of about 22,000 and indirect employment of about one lakh.{Index}

  Intel offers a new chip for India.

  Global chip maker Intel has developed a new processor to enable Indian enterprises meet demand for new services with greater efficiency and flexibility, a company official said.

  Our new Xeon processor offers 45% more efficiency and 50% higher performance to benefit Indian enterprises in the service-oriented mobile world,” Intel Asia-Pacific director Narendra Bhadari told reporters at a preview.

  The company also unveiled a new version of its Atom processor and the fourth-generation core processors to enhance security and productivity in data centre with faster boot and application start times.

  “Our goal is to re-architect data centre to provide a common, software-based foundation for both data centres and cloud service providers spanning servers, networking, storage and security,” Bhandari said.

  The company’s global data centre develops solutions to help enterprises keep pace with demand for cloud services and managing data generated from billions of users and connected devices worldwide.

  “Our new products and technologies will allow us to expand into new segments of the data centre in India by becoming the means to deliver new services to businesses and consumers than reducing cost and increasing productivity,” he said.

  As data centres enter a new era of rapid service delivery, the company is betting on growth opportunities across network, storage and servers to deliver scale and efficiency.

  “We are looking to accelerate our progress in the Indian enterprise segment with solutions that address the high performance needs of the fast evolving space,” Bhandari asserted.

  The National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Mumbai has deployed the latest Xeon processors in its servers to meet its huge computing requirement, as the world’s largest bourse in terms of equity trade.

  “We align our technology needs with Intel’s new processors to meet our increasing compute needs and reinforce our leadership position in the equity market,” NSE director N. Muralidharan said.{index}

  AGNI – 5 A huge Success 

  India has successfully test-launched its new ballistic missile, Agni-5, which can carry a nuclear warhead not just to Beijing and Shanghai but even the Northern-most tip of China – Habin City.

   The test-launch, done from Wheeler Island at 8:43 am, off the Odisha coast, for the second time in two years, is seen as a major step in India’s efforts to become a regional power that can counter the dominance of China.The Agni-5 is about 17 meters long and weighs 50 tons. It is a three-stage missile designed to carry a 1.5-ton warhead with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), allowing it the furthest reach among all Indian missiles. The Agni-3 is India’s current longest-range missile and can cover a distance of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles).

  The versatile missile system can be launched from a road mobile vehicle or even from a special railway bogey where it can be kept hidden and moved around at will . The first test of the Agni-5 missile was conducted in April 2012 when guidance systems – critical in determining the efficiency of missile – worked perfectly.

  The development of Agni-5 began in 1983. Sources say that a few more tests will be required before the missile is ready for induction and deployment, most likely in 2017.Agni-5 gives India the ability to launch nuclear weapons from strategic bombers and submarines. It will give India the ability hit back or have second-strike capability even after a nuclear attack.

  The Su-30 MKi and the French-made Mirrage 2000 aircraft are capable of delivering nuclear missiles from the air. The INS Arihant, an indigenously-made nuclear-powered submarine is undergoing sea trials and expected to join the Indian Navy by 2016-2017.

  India has also proven its ability to launch nuclear missiles from under the sea. Over a dozen test successful test of K-15 missiles – nuclear missiles which will be launched from the submarine – have been conducted in the last few years.{index}

  Makeover for India’s biggest telescope…

  India’s biggest telescope near Pune has just received a makeover that will help scientists to scan the edge of the universe with more clarity, looking for telltale signs of unknown esoteric cosmic objects dotting the baby universe.

  The Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune has been upgraded with new front-end and back-end systems, components and advanced electronics increasing its sensitivity by three times. It also received round-the-clock power supply. The upgraded telescope was thrown open to the researchers on Sunday by Govind Swarup, the “grand old man” of Indian astronomy.

  It was Swaup’s brain, that was behind the concept, design and installation of India’s first radio telescope at Ooty and GMRT, which played a pivotal role in discovering new facets of the universe, invisible to optical telescopes.

  Spread over 30 sq km of area around Khodad, near Narayangaon town of Pune district, GMRT is the world’s largest radio telescope facility operating at low frequencies. It comprises 30 fully steerable, 45 metre diameter antennas, which captures radio signals and sends them to the research centre, where these signals are decoded.

  Designed in the 1990s, the telescope has been in operation since 2002 and is used by astronomers across the world for cutting edge research on astronomy and astrophysics. It scans the sky at radio frequencies and tries to discover new cosmic objects based on the signals it receives.

  The Rs 60-crore upgradation package for GMRT will increase the telescope’s sensitivity by three times and keep it on the forefront of the international scenario in the field for many more years to come.

  “With the upgradation, we can look further deep and see the universe in very old age. The upgraded telescope now provides wider bandwidth to observe the baby universe,” said Dipanjan Mitra, another scientists from NCRA, who operates the telescope. In the first phase, 8-15 antennas were fitted with new components. The entire work was expected to be completed by 2015, Chandra said.

  Over the years, Indian astronomers used GMRT to find pulsars (pulsating stars) and observe hidden cosmic objects emitting radio-waves. The make-over will increase the telescope’s utility and bring it on a par with other global telescopes, which can now be linked with GMRT for seamless observations from two corners of the globe.{Index}

  India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft moves to Sriharikota..

  India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft was shipped out of the city on Wednesday for the October 28 launch from the Sriharikota spaceport, setting the stage for final preparations for the odyssey to the red planet.

  “It was put in a special container where we have the monitoring of the environment inside”, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told PTI.

  Accompanied by a convoy, the truck-trailer carrying the container is slated to reach Sriharikota today afternoon. Gandhi Jayanti day was
chosen for the journey as traffic would be less.

  A national committee of experts and pre-shipment review panel had earlier given their go-ahead for the Rs. 450 crore ambitious venture.

  Primary objectives of the mission are to demonstrate India’s technological capability to send a satellite to orbit around Mars and conduct meaningful experiments such as looking for signs of life, take pictures of the red planet and study Martian environment.

  Bangalore-based ISRO said the Rs. 150-crore spacecraft would be launched on October 28 at 16 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds (4.15 pm), weather permitting.Launch campaign has already commenced at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 90 km from Chennai, from where the 1,350-kg MOM spacecraft is slated to be launched by the Rs. 110 crore Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25).

  The first stage of the PSLV-C25 with strap-ons has already been assembled, with the rocket ready for satellite integration by October 10.The satellite will carry compact science experiment instruments, totalling a mass of 15 kg. There will be five instruments to study Martian surface, atmosphere and mineralogy.

  After leaving the earth’s orbit, the spacecraft will cruise in deep space for about ten months using its own propulsion system and will reach Martian transfer trajectory in September 2014. The spacecraft subsequently is planned to enter into a 372 km by 80,000 km elliptical orbit around Mars.

  The main theme of MOM appears to be to seek to reveal whether there is methane, considered a “precursor chemical” for life, on the red planet. Methane sensor, one of the five payloads (scientific instruments) on board the spacecraft, would look to detect the presence of Methane.{Index}

  Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2013

  Shanti SwarupBhatnagar Prize is the most coveted national recognition for young scientists and engineers for their R&D work done in India. The Prize was instituted in 1957 in the honour of late Dr. (Sir) Shanti SwarupBhatnagar, an eminent scientist, founder Director and principal architect of CSIR. Over 450 scientists and technologists have been so far conferred upon this Prize in various disciplines of science for their outstanding R&D contribution. Each Prize carries a citation, cash prize, a plaque and an honorarium till superannuation.