Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment:

Asian Development Bank would provide $48 million (Rs. 250 crore) loan to Reliance Power for its 40 MW Dahanu solar power project at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
The Export Import Bank of the U.S. is also providing funds for the project

In a move that would give the much-needed push to broadband penetration in the country, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) on Monday transferred indigenously-developed Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to seven telecom equipment manufacturers, including private players.
Besides, voice telephony, high speed Internet access and IPTV, the C-DOT GPON has provision to carry cable TV signal too, all on a single optical fibre.
Another important advantage of GPON is that it can carry information from a central office to subscribers up to 60 km away without needing any intermediate repeaters thus doing away with the requirement of power, shelter and upkeep services at the intermediate locations.
It will help fulfil our requirements of major national programmes like the National Optical Fibre Network and the State Wide Area Network. Besides taking care of our needs in defence, railways and other strategic sectors, the technology can also be used for providing broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas
With this transfer, a requisite production infrastructure has been set-up for state-of-the-art technology manufacturing in the country…it will help provide a secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services in the country

The e-procurement system developed by the Kerala State IT Mission for ensuring transparency and efficiency in public procurement will come into force in the Public Works, Irrigation, Transport and Police departments
The project, under the National e-Governance Plan of the Central government, is being implemented by the IT Mission with the technical support of the National Informatics Centre.
This will lead to a 5 to 10 per cent cost reduction and save the processing time too. One main advantage is that it will check the formation of cartels by contractors.

Bangladesh is taking a cue from Kerala's leveraging of e-governance and mobile applications for prompt delivery of government services to citizens.
The Kerala model was presented at eAsia 2011, an annual international Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) meet for development.
Kerala being a pioneer in the field of deploying ICT in governance was recommended to Bangladesh by the World Bank which is funding majority of the projects there. About 65 per cent of the country's population is below 25 years.

Count the beads, identify their colours and control your fertility.
CycleBeads, a simple, inexpensive, non-clinical and easy-to-use natural family planning method, could well be the answer to the problem of burgeoning population of India — the second-most populous nation
Cyclebeads is based on the Standard Days Method (SDM) and is claimed to be a very effective method for women to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
This method is designed for women with cycles between 26 and 32 days.
CycleBeads is a colour-coded string of beads that represents the days of a woman's menstrual cycle. A woman simply moves a ring over the beads to track each day of her cycle. The colour of the beads lets her know whether she is on a day when she is fertile or not.
CycleBeads are manufactured and distributed in India by the Government of India-owned HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL), the largest contraceptive manufacturer and leader in innovative family planning healthcare products
With 95 per cent effectiveness, it is comparable to other modern user-directed contraceptive methods.

Mia is only one-year old, but her tongue was five inches long, more than twice the normal length. And she needed a tongue trimming so that she could live.
She was born with a chromosomal (11) abnormality that led to a condition called Beckwith-Weidemann Syndrome.
As a result, the child had an enlarged tongue, umbilical hernia, and severe hypoglycaemia (low sugar)
The other common features of this syndrome include large enlarged internal organs, an increased risk of childhood cancers, kidney problems among others.
But the tongue made it difficult for her to feed, swallow and breathe. She was on a liquid diet, being fed in spoonfuls, again with difficulty. Speech was definitely impaired, and there was excessive drooling. The baby had never closed her mouth since birth.
The only solution was surgery. It is a simple procedure, but there is a possibility of losing tongue control after trimming, or complications during the procedure causing the tongue to swell, choke and cause even death
The central portion of the tongue was removed, taking care to ensure that blood vessels and taste buds were retained in the tongue. The two ends were then stitched together, achieving a smaller tongue within a span of one and a half hours.
The surgery cost about Rs.50,000 – Rs.60,000, provided at a subsidised rate by the hospital and has been funded by the Seychelles Government

Seychelles is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state. It also has the highest Human Development Index in Africa.
Britain eventually assumed full control upon the surrender of Mauritius in 1810, formalised in 1814 at the Treaty of Paris. Seychelles became a crown colony separate from Mauritius in 1903.
The Seychelles president, who is both head of state and head of government, is elected by popular vote for a five-year term of office.
The British administration employed indentured servants from India to the same degree as in Mauritius resulting in a small Indian population. The Indians, like a similar minority of Chinese, were confined to a merchant class.
As the islands of Seychelles had no indigenous population, the current Seychellois are composed of people who have emigrated to the island. The largest ethnic groups are those of African, French, Indian, and Chinese descent.