{DNN} Daily News Notes: 2nd & 3rd Nov, 2012

· The National Innovation Council presented its second Annual ‘Report to the People 2012’ to the President of India. The Report was presented by the Chairman of the National Innovation Council and Adviser to the Prime Minister, Shri Sam Pitroda. The Council, with eminent personalities from diverse walks of life, was constituted to realise the vision of the Government of shaping the next decade as India's 'Decade of Innovation'. In an era marked by rapid technological advancements, ‘Innovation’ is the key driver of growth and development. An innovative approach becomes even more imperative in our context, where there is a huge reservoir of unmet needs in areas such as health, education, water, food security and energy. Innovation can provide solutions to such challenges and, in the process, also enable many more people to harness the gains from India's growth story. The Council has been working towards creating mechanisms to finance innovative enterprises focussed at the bottom of the income pyramid and is geared to launch the India Inclusive Innovation Fund. The Fund is proposed to be operationalised with an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crore. Government of India has already made a provision for allocating Rs. 100 crore as seed money for the Fund. Also, India has an estimated 5,000 small and medium scale regional industry clusters which are unable to utilize their full potential and whose productivity needs to be optimised. The National Innovation Council has been working towards seeding innovations in these industry clusters, while focussing on small and medium enterprises, by facilitating the creation of Industry Innovation Clusters to drive job creation and productivity. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research are also supporting the National Innovation Council in this effort. Further, National Innovation Council has also been taking steps to nurture innovation in schools and colleges through improvements in curriculum, spotting talented innovators among students, and awarding Innovation Fellowships. The Council is also working closely with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to give shape to these initiatives.
· The National Innovation Council (NInC), chaired by Mr Sam Pitroda, hosted the second Global Innovation Roundtable (GIR) on 1st and 2nd November 2012 in New Delhi. At the concluding session on ‘Collaboration on Innovation’, numerous experiences, insights and ideas shared by the participants were galvanised in the following areas : [1.] Open Government: The Platform already developed for this could be adopted by other countries, and India could help implement; [2.] Crowdsourcing Innovation Platform: The Open Source Drug Discovery Platform developed by India for tuberculosis drug discovery could be used as a template for crowd sourcing in new areas of drug discovery; [3.] Innovation for Education: Existing educational content could be aggregated, filtered and indexed, under the guidance of global domain experts and made available on mobile devices like “Aakash”; [4.] Innovation for Health: Health content could also be aggregated and made available, just like educational content. Further, India’s initiative for an Open Source Electronic health records system and tele-medicine could be adopted by other countries.
· In Madhya Pradesh, for the first time, the property of an official booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, has been attached under the Madhya Pradesh Special Courts Act 2011. The state Economic Offences Wing had raided the residence of Raman Dhuldhoye in Indore last year and had found assets worth about seven crore rupees with him. The property was disproportionate to Raman’s known source of income who was a clerk working at the Regional Transport Office.
· The President of India said that the institution of Lokayukta is an ally to good governance not an obstruction to development. He was addressing the inaugural function of All India Lokayukta Conference 2012. Some imp. lines from his speech: [1.] In recent times, there has been concern over the need to ensure that the corridors of power remain untainted by corruption or nepotism and that there is optimum utilization of resources and funds for their intended purposes. For the successful working of democracy, people should be confident that Government policies are formulated and implemented with honesty, transparency and fairness; [2.] As all of you are aware, Lokayukta or the Ombudsman was originally conceived in Scandinavian countries as a watchdog of the administration as well as protector of the “common man”. Despite having minimal power to implement decisions, the Ombudsman played a very useful role in these countries by bringing humanism in governance. In India, Sh. M. C. Setalvad, the distinguished lawyer, in his speech at the All India Lawyer’s Conference held in 1962, suggested the idea of establishing an institution similar to that of an Ombudsman. This idea was extensively investigated by the First Administrative Reforms Commission in 1966 and while recommending setting up of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the States, this Commission advocated ‘Ombudsmanic’ institutions as a means for redressal of citizens’ grievances, containing corruption and removing discontent amongst citizens; [3.] Over the years, as India witnessed rapid growth, the extent of public spending has steadily increased. For example, the first Revenue Budget of independent India presented by then Finance Minister Shri Shanmukhom Chetty was of Rs. 197.39 crore, with a Deficit of Rs.26.24 crore. Whereas, the last budget presented by me in March of this year was nearly Rs. 12 lakh crore. The first five year plan outlay was Rs. 2000 crore while public investment during the 11th Plan period was around Rs. 11 lakh crore; [4.] The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, in its Fourth Report on “Ethics in Governance”, recommended uniformity in the general principles regarding the structure, power and functions of Lokayuktas in all the States. Justice Manmohan Sarin in his remarks has referred to the preparation of a Model Mukhya Lokayukta and Upalokayukta Bill for the reference of State Government. It is a welcome step.
· The President of India will confer Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Awards for Women’s Development for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 on November 5, 2012 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Durgabai Deshmukh Award for women’s development was constituted in 1997 by Central Social Welfare Board, an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to honour the memory of its founder chairperson Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh. Dr. Deshmukh was an active participant in the independence movement. She founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha and as Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board, she imparted to the organisation her distinct flair for activism in the sphere of women’s welfare and development. She contributed greatly to developing the Board as a body which links the government and non-government sectors to ameliorate the status of women and children in the country. The award is presented to an organisation, which has made outstanding or innovative contribution to women’s welfare and empowerment and has at least 5 years of working experience in the field.
· The Centre will provide generic medicines free of cost to people through Government hospitals. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, the health sector has made considerable progress in the recent years. He said, the latest Sample Registration System findings have shown that India’s Infant Mortality Rate, IMR, has declined by a further three points during last year. The Prime Minister said, a major urban health initiative will be launch in the 12th Five Year Plan in order to focus on the specific health issues of the urban poor. Dr. Singh said, recognizing the need to provide for the complex challenges in the health sector, the allocation for health has been enhanced three times in the 12th Plan as compared to 11th Plan allocation. In addition, factors such as nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, housing and education, particularly of the girl child, are increasingly being underlined as the social determinants of health. He said, from one All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, the country now have six such institutions of excellence that have come up in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Jodhpur, Raipur and Rishikesh. Dr. Singh said, he was happy that in the last three years, the number of MBBS seats in medical colleges has increased by over 30 per cent and the post graduate seats have gone up by 51 per cent.
· The Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region addressed colourful cultural extravaganza called “SONABYSS-2012”. The event was organized by the North East Regional Institute of Science & Technology (NERIST) at Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh on 1st November, 2012. The Minister said that NERIST was set up by the Government of India and the institute has now emerged as a unique institute of its kind in the country having non-conventional and innovative academic programme in the modular pattern i.e. Base, Diploma and Degree. The Institute was accorded Deemed to be University status in 2005 by University Grants Commission, New Delhi. He stated that “SONABYSS” is joyously celebrated as the annual cultural festival of NERIST. When all the budding technocrats of North East India, in all their like mindedness and passionate fervor join hands to produce a cultural festival worthy of the NERIST, the result is “SONABYSS”.
· Patting itself on the back for influencing change in “policy, law, rules”, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) performance audit of itself has indicated that the auditor will venture more into policy areas. Independent units within the CAG audit its departments once in three years, and a peer review is done every four years. The audit report for 2010-11 was circulated internally on Friday. The changes in the Army’s ration system and the Railways’ Tatkal reservation system are listed among the CAG’s achievements in influencing policy. The CAG audit of itself does not divulge much about its own financial management. The CAG incurred a total expenditure of Rs 2,247.92 crore against the allotted Rs 2,258.49 crore, of which 85 per cent was spent on salaries.
· Does a tweet on reports of corruption deserve a possible penalty of three years of imprisonment? The answer seems to be yes, at least according to Congress leader and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti, who filed a complaint against small-time Puducherry businessman Ravi Srinivasan, and the Puducherry police which charged Mr. Srinivasan under Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act, 2008. Section 66-A deals with messages sent via computer or communication devices which may be “grossly offensive,” have “menacing character,” or even cause “annoyance or inconvenience.” For offences under the section, a person can be fined and jailed up to three years. Mr. Srinivasan is however appalled by the reaction his tweet has provoked. Activists campaigning for online freedom of speech say this kind of charge under the IT Act was inevitable, given the ambiguous nature of Section 66-A. The policy director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, says the clause is “overbroad,” “unconstitutional,” and does not satisfy Article 19 (2) of the Constitution which allows for restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. He points out that there is no equivalent law for any offline communication, whether in verbal or printed format. However, Chidambram’s son said that “Free speech is subject to reasonable restrictions. I have a right to seek constitutional/legal remedies over defamatory/scurrilous tweets”.
· The expert committee on taxation of indirect transfer of assets headed by Parthasarathi Shome has submitted its final report to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. With this, the hitherto unresolved tax issue involving British telecom major Vodafone has moved yet another step closer towards a settlement. Although the contents of the final report are expected to be put in the public domain in the days ahead, the stance of the Shome panel on the issue is clear as the draft report, which was made public earlier this month, had favoured prospective application of the tax law. It may be recalled that on October 22, 2010, the Income-Tax Department had passed an order determining a tax liability (including interest) of Rs.11,218 crore on Vodafone for acquiring Hutchinson's stake in Hutch-Essar through a deal in Cayman Islands in 2007. However, with Vodafone seeking legal recourse, the I-T order was quashed by the Supreme Court in January this year as the legislative intent of taxing such transactions was not clear in the Income-Tax Act, 1961.
· Power from renewable sources could emerge as a mainstream source of energy if backed by right policies and initiatives, leaders of the wind energy sector said while announcing details of the forthcoming ‘Wind Power India 2012’ international conference and exhibition in Chennai. Led by WPI-2012 organising committee chairperson V. Subramanian, who formerly was Secretary to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), they said new estimates, as per recent studies, showed manifold increase in wind power potential in the country over the previous estimate of 45,000 MW.
· Though cyclone Nilam spared Chennai and made a landfall near Mamallapuram on Wednesday, its effects could be felt hundreds of kilometres away in Delhi on Friday. The city’s residents woke up to a misty and foggy morning and the conditions are expected to linger on till Saturday evening. “Nilam has moved in the north-west direction towards the middle of India carrying moist winds towards North India,” said an Indian Meteorological Department official.
· Wipro announced that it was hiving off its non-IT businesses into a separate unlisted entity, to be named Wipro Enterprises Ltd. The company claimed that the demerger would enable the two entities to focus on their respective ‘growth strategies’. IT services business generated 86 per cent of the company’s overall revenues, and 94 per cent of the operating profit in 2011-12.
· Formation of River Basin Organisations (RBOs) between basin neighbouring countries is at the heart of an international conference here on Hydro-Diplomacy: A Tool for Sharing Waters Across Waters. International river basins are said to be home to 40 per cent of the global population. However, highlighting the challenges involved in transboundary sharing of river waters, West Bengal Minister Subrata Mukherjee raised the issue of sharing Teesta waters with Bangladesh. The conference has been organised by IUCN, an inter-governmental organisation with multiple financers. After working on it for 15 years, IUCN succeeded with the help of the Finland Foreign Affairs Ministry in the formation of the Mekong Water Commission between the basin countries of Cambodia, Laos PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. China has not joined the Mekong commission, nor was it represented at the conference here.
· Just as China has moved towards ending its ban on new nuclear projects after the Fukushima disaster by giving the go-ahead for constructing power plants, the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said in Beijing that India “had also come to the conclusion” that nuclear power would have to play a key role in achieving energy independence. While Japan and some countries in the West, such as Germany, have moved away from nuclear energy in the wake of Fukushima, the China (which is operating 16 nuclear power reactors and has 26 more under construction) on October 25 signalled its intent to push forward its ambitious plans for the nuclear sector, albeit at a slower pace, after undertaking an extensive safety review. [Click here for Infographic]
· Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was conferred the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by Ambassador of France to India, on behalf of the French authorities. This prestigious distinction comes in recognition of her invaluable contribution to the world of cinema and the development of Indo-French cooperation in cinema, art, and culture. Recipient of several Indian film awards, she was also the youngest Indian actress to receive the Padma Shri in 2009. She starred in the filmDevdas in 2002, which was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and the most successful Indian movie in France. She was also the first Indian actress to be a jury member at Cannes. Earlier Indian recipients include Shahrukh Khan, Raghu Rai, Nandita Das, late Habib Tanvir, and Upamanyu Chatterjee.
· Dr. Rakesh Mohan has assumed charge as Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition to India, Dr. Mohan will also be representing three other countries in the constituency, viz. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan on the Board of the IMF. Dr. Mohan was earlier Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He has also been the Chairman of National Transport Development Policy Committee and of the High Level Committee on the Financing of Infrastructure. The term of Dr. Rakesh Mohan at the IMF will be for a period of three years.
· The Government of India is hosting a meeting of the Ministers of Renewable Energy of ASEAN countries and India in New Delhi on 7th November 2012. In the meeting, the Ministers in-charge of Renewable Energy of ASEAN member countries and India would deliberate upon and discuss policy and regulatory framework for promotion of renewable energy in ASEAN member countries and INDIA. Prior to the Ministerial level meeting, a two-day workshop on renewable energy of experts and policy planners from ASEAN countries and India is being organized. The workshop would have the benefit of discussing possible topics/projects for industrial R&D to be considered under ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund (AISTDF) which is managed by “Global Innovation and Technology Alliance” (GITA, a Section 25 Company).
· India is to provide Nepal an assistance of three crore and four lakh Nepali rupees (under the Nepal- India Economic Cooperation programme) for construction of a three storied school building for Shree Bhagawati Secondary school at Inaruwa in the border Terai district. The new building is expected to help in the development of better facilities for over one thousand students, where fifty per cent are girls in one of the oldest schools in the district.
· In the 3rd Bilateral Meeting between Indian and Korean Finance Minister, the two ministers and their delegations discussed a wide range of issues ranging from macro-economic trends and outlook, fiscal cooperation, revision of the Double taxation avoidance convention (DTAC), expanding information sharing between the taxation authorities, cooperation in modernising the customs system of each country, public procurement cooperation and measures to develop co-financing infrastructure projects. The first bilateral meeting of Finance Ministers of India and South Korea was held in Seoul in September 2006 and the second meeting in New Delhi in January 2011.
· India has emphasized deeper economic ties in the Indian Ocean region including maritime security. In his address at the Ministerial Meeting of the 20-nation Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) at Gurgaon, Indian External Affairs Minister said, as focus of global economic growth shifts to Asia, it will occupy an even greater salience in India's strategic perspective. The grouping was set up in 1997 with the primary objective of promoting sustained growth and balanced development of the region and of its member states. Further, admitting that the grouping’s name, Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), was cumbersome, Salman Khurshid said a change of name was on the cards and the legal position in this respect was being examined. Also, a 15-year-old grouping of 19 littoral countries of the Indian Ocean has sought to energise itself by admitting the U.S. as a dialogue partner. But that left China, already a dialogue partner, “certainly” hoping for an upgrade to full member status.
· Italy has lost its position as the world's premier gold jewellery exporter, overtaken by India and the United States, and risks slipping further due to its high cost base and tariff barriers. Soaring prices of gold and high salaries, have inflated Italian jewellery manufacturers' costs. Demand for jewellery is one of the first things that drops in a recession in Italy. The Italian industry flourished on the expertise and skills built up by family-owned businesses over generations and the international prestige of "Made in Italy" design and manufacturing. Italy is seen as an international trend-setter in jewellery design. But now India and the United States have overtaken Italy as exporters in volume terms. There is also intense competition from lower cost gold jewellery manufacturing origins such as mainland China, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Indian manufacturers can export gold jewellery to the United States duty-free up to a certain volume, whereas all Italian gold jewellery exports to the United States had to pay duty. Indian and Brazilian manufacturers pay low duties when they export gold jewellery into EU markets.
· India has said the U.N. Security Council in its present structure is “completely out of tune” with global realities and serves “no one’s purpose”, asserting that an expansion in the 15-member body should have permanent representation from Asia, Africa and Latin America. India, which assumed this month’s Presidency of the Security Council ahead of the expiry of its two-year term as a non-permanent member on December 31, 2012 said the U.N. body has remained “polarised and politically divided” on key issues like Syria and this strengthens the need for its reform. On the use of veto, India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Hardeep Singh Puri said while the provision should be retained, there needs to be a discussion on the precise conditions and circumstances under which veto should be used by countries. “There could be a veto restraint agreement. The five permanent members think the Security Council working methods are their exclusive prerogative. Things take a long time to change but change always comes,” he added.
· India will showcase its low-cost $49 Aakash tablet at the United Nations, highlighting the country's innovation involved in the most competitively priced tablet computer. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said that the Indian mission intends to distribute a limited number of Aakash tablets to some member states. He said while the tablet would be called “frugal innovation” in UN terminology, it is a “competitively priced innovation.” Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Canada-based Datawind, which had won the Indian government’s tender for making and supplying the tablets, will also be present on the occasion. Further Mr. Puri said, the Indian mission will also organise a cultural event at the UN featuring the Shahi qawwals, who will be flying in from Ajmer for a Sufi music concert at UN on occasion of India's presidency.
· Indian-American record-setting NASA astronaut Sunita Williams along with another cosmonaut have troubleshot an ammonia leak in the International Space Station's cooling system, accomplishing the chief objective of their marathon six-hour excursion outside the orbiting lab. Each of the space station's eight huge solar panels has its own associated power system, and circulating ammonia helps cool this gear down. The leak has the potential to affect one of these power channels if it was not fixed. This was the seventh space walk for Williams who holds the record for space walking time for female astronauts with over 44 hours during six previous excursions.
· The decision to rename Lahore’s Shadman Chowk after revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh has been delayed amid protests from some right-wing organisations, including the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD). The matter has been referred to a committee set up to look into all proposals to rename different roads of the city, and a decision is expected in the near future as the Punjab government is keen on seeing this through before the elections due next year.
· The International Criminal Court (Hague, Netherlands) says, former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is well enough to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Gbagbo faces four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from violence after he lost the presidential election in Ivory Coast in November 2010. Ivorian rebel forces arrested him in April, 2011. His arrest marked an end to months of fighting that killed 3,000 people and displaced more than one million.
· An Albanian former political prisoner Lirak Bejko, who set himself on fire in protest at delays in government compensation for communist-era dissidents has died. He was one of 20 former dissidents who began a hunger strike over the compensation issue in September. The government refused to talk to the protesters, saying that their action was politically motivated.
· Hundreds of former political prisoners in Paraguay, marched against the proposal to repatriate the remains of the late dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Alfredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay for 35 years and died in exile in Brazil in 2006. A truth commission set up in Paraguay said that more than 400 people have been executed or disappeared and almost 20,000 were imprisoned during Alfredo Stroessner 's 35 year rule. The proposal to bring back his remains, comes as his supporters prepare to mark the centenary of his birth on November 3.
· The Taliban and other militant leaders could stand as candidates in Afghanistan’s presidential election, to be held on April 5, 2014 after President Hamid Karzai steps down, said the top poll official of Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai, serving his second term as leader of the war-torn nation, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and no clear successorhas yet emerged. The vote — only the third since the fall of Taliban in 2001— is seen as crucial for stability after the withdrawal of NATO troops, scheduled to take place in the same year. Under the Afghan system, voters elect the President as an individual rather than as a representative of a party.
· The African Union has requested the Security Council for enhanced civilian and maritime support for the A.U. Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and a review of the arms embargo. According to an A.U. statement, lifting the embargo is necessary to strengthen the Somali security forces in their battle against al-Shabab, an insurgent army linked to al-Qaeda, while maritime support will enable better surveillance of the coastline. The Amisom peacekeeping force was created in January 2007 with an initial six-month mandate that has been successively renewed. In February, the Security Council passed a resolution expanding Amisom’s role, and increased the size of the force from 12,000 to 17,731 troops. The next review is scheduled for January 2013. At present, military operations are conducted by a coalition of Somali forces, Amisom, and allied militias. The government hopes to integrate the autonomous militias into the Somali Army once al-Shabab is defeated. Somalia has been plagued by civil war since the collapse of the dictatorship of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. In September this year, a U.N. monitored transitional government gave way to a permanent Central government headed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected by a nominated Parliament.
· Hurricane Sandy destroyed 70 per cent of the crops in southern Haiti and caused heavy deaths of livestock, said officials in the Caribbean nations. Haiti has reported 54 deaths. Roughly 370,000 people are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake. The island’s recovery from Sandy comes as the heavily indebted country is trying to forge a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In Cuba, Sandy killed 11 people, ripped rooftops from homes and toppled power lines. Much of the damage was in Santiago, the second-largest city.
· In summer this year, the Arctic Ocean ice melt reached a record high level. Now, with the southern hemisphere summer approaching, scientists’ attention is focused on climate change effects on the Antarctic Ocean. An important issue is the effect melting ice and the subsequent attraction of fishing activities have on the rich bio-diversity of the Antarctic Ocean. The ocean is still relatively less exploited by human activity. Environmentalists have for quite some time now, mooted the idea of creating Marine protected zones (MPAs) — areas where fishing would be restricted and some areas where fishing would be totally banned. However at an international summit, the 25 members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting at Hobart, Australia could not agree on plans to establish three enormous protected areas in Antarctica (around the Ross Sea, around Eastern Antarctica, and in areas exposed by collapsed ice sheets close to the Antarctic Peninsula). The proposals were by Australia, U.S., New Zealand and the U.K. Further, only one large section of Antarctic waters is currently designated an MPA, an area of about 94,000 square km near the South Orkney Islands.
· These two lady researchers of Brazil have claimed that the enormous increase in the brain size in humans came about because humans began to eat cooked food while our closest cousins, the great apes did not know how to use fire and ate everything raw. They claim that this sudden and large increase in brain size was an important event in human evolutions thanks to the use of fire. Human’s brain-to-body ratio is far higher than that of the other primates, as many as 86 billion brain cells or neurons, compared to just 28 billion in the great apes. Though it is only about 2 per cent of the total body mass, it consumes 20 per cent of the total body metabolic rate. In other primates, the number is just 9 per cent. To maintain such an energy-expensive organ, the amount of food we need to eat, or more precisely the number of calories we need, is huge indeed. The greater the need for calories, the greater the time needed for feeding. This means more time spent on foraging for food and greater time needed for ingestion and digestion, plus of course the calorie content of the diet. And the amount of calorie intake depends on the number of hours spent on feeding and digestion. It has been estimated that gorillas spend about 10 hours a day for feeding themselves. And it is estimated that as they do so, their total body mass goes up to 120 kg or so. The metabolic cost of maintaining such a size of body is estimated by what is known as the Kleiber scale as 70 x (body mass){+0}{+.}{+7}{+5}kilocalories per day. The Brazilian ladies build on this point. They point out that the energy intake in cooked food is higher than in raw. And that it costs about 6 kilocalories per day to operate a billion neurons. In a typical daily intake of about 1800 kilocalories, 20 per cent or 360 kilocalories go to operate our brain. Given these numbers, one can see the value of eating cooked food. In order to get 1800 kilocalories per day on raw food, a human weighing 70 kg would have to spend over 16-18 hours eating! Cooking thus not only would have let early homo erectus gain time away from foraging and eating, but also to think more using the greater brain size he would have gained!
· Sachin Tendulkar will be honoured for completing 100 international centuries, while Virat Kohli (who was honoured with the ICC’s ODI Cricketer of the Year Award earlier) will get the Polly Umrigar Award for being India’s top international cricketer for 2011-12 at the BCCI Annual Awards ceremony . The ceremony will also witness former India captain Sunil Gavaskar receiving the prestigious Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.
· India has nothing to boast of in terms of achievements at world stage in athletics, but the country has topped in the number offenders caught for doping under IAAF rules. In the latest IAAF list of dope offenders updated till October 31, a whopping 40 Indian athletes figured in the list out of 204 dope offenders all over the world. Among the top Indians in the list were double Asian Games gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji and other top quarter-milers Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose who were caught by the NADA in Indian athletics' worst doping scandal that hit the headlines last year. The tests of all the 40 Indian athletes were done in the last three years. India has never won an Olympic medal in athletics and the country has just one medal in World Championships -- a bronze won by Anju Bobby George in long jump in 2003. [Click here for Infographic]