President Kalam Urges Doctors to Participate in Nanobiotechnology Research.

While addressing the Silver Jubilee function of Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, president Kalam urged doctors to minimize the use of surgery and promote a healthy lifestyle among their patients. He also urged doctors to participate in nanotechnology research as
"this sphere would play a very important role in treating patients, particularly those with heart related ailments. The quantity of medicine used under this treatment was less and would reduce the cost"

Chennai Online News

Nanotechnology Market Said to Reach $29 bn by 2008 reports RNCOS (Research and Consultancy Outsourcing Services) in a press release sep 14.

Bloomberg Update's on Sabeer Bhatia's Nano-City.

Bhatia reinforces the view that nano-city will create "The right eco-system for innovation" in India, and he believes that India has the "raw potential" to innovate successfully. He expects the funding to be of the order of 20 billion, with returns five fold higher. The sources of funding, he said will be "from a combination of my personal funds, other investors operating in real estate in India and external real estate funds that are interested in investing in India,''.

Update 2

Update 1

While we're at it, here's the link to the Prime Ministers, Dr. Manmohan Singh's Website. A true scholar and a thinker, he has met with a lot of criticism (within India) for his stand on the reservation issue lately.
However, he is also very apolitical in the truest sense, and had the courage to address the burning issue of female foeticide/infanticide in his presidential speech this independence day.

President Online!! Website gets one crore (10 million) hits on the first day! My favorite sections are the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Childrens corner, where he says the "First Scientist is a Child!"

Read the story at:
The Hindu

Flip Side to the The Not-So-Special-Anymore Economic Zones??

A nicely written article on Frontline summarizing the issues on the great SEZ (Special Economic Zones) debate...mostly from the opposition side. Addresses the issues of revenue loss due to these "duty free enclaves" to the government, the ill effects on the poor and the negative impact on the environment.

To be noted are the following paragraphs that struck me the most:

As much as 75 per cent of the SEZ area can be used for non-core activities, including development of residential or commercial properties, shopping malls and hospitals. Developers will surely use this to make money via the real estate route rather through export promotion. This represents a potentially humongous urban property racket of incalculable dimensions. India will see a multiplication of "Gurgaon-style" development, under the aegis of big builders such as DLF, Marathon, Rahejas, Unitech, City Parks and Dewan.

Neither the international nor the Indian experience with SEZs has been particularly happy. Globally, only a handful of SEZs, of the hundreds that exist, have generated substantial exports, along with significant domestic spin-offs in demand or technology upgradation. For each successful Shannon (Ireland) or Shenzhen (China), there are 10 failures - in the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, why, even India. A 1998 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on export processing zones (EPZs) says: "Customs duty amounting to Rs. 7,500 crores was forgone for achieving net foreign exchange earning of Rs.4,700 crores... ."

Also of concern is the following:

The SEZs will also be socially retrograde. No labour laws will apply to them. Workers will enjoy no freedoms and no rights, including the fundamental right of association and peaceful protest.SEZs will be exempt from environmental impact assessment. They will be under no obligation to employ local people or share profits with them.

Nanomotors run by bacteria demonstrated in Japanese Lab: Promise of a pump on a microchip and even bio-electronic generator fueled by glucose!!

"We had predicted this micromotor would work, theoretically," says author Yuichi Hiratsuka, of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology in Tsukuba. "But we were absolutely excited when we first saw it rotate."

To attach the bacteria M. mobile to the rotor, the researchers connected a 20-nm flexible polyethylene linker to proteins on the bacteria's exterior surface. At the far end of the linker, they deposited biotin, an imidazole derivative. Biotin binds tightly to the protein streptavidin, which was coated on the rotor. Et voilà, a micromachine set to swirl.

Read more on this amazing work at chemical and engg news

India and China Enter MoU on science and Technology

As Per Mr Sibal, the areas of mutual interest could include climate change, bamboo technology, agricultural sciences, genomics and nano-biotech. The setting up of a Sino-Indian Nanoscience Forum was also discussed.

Read the complete story at:

The Hindu

IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) contemplates BioDeisel production

The fortune 500 company, IOC is considering the production of Biodeisel and will make a final decision in six months. Details at:

Zee News