Elsevier and NASI Honor Promising Young Scientists in India
New Delhi: India : Sagar Media Inc: Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services,and the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI)honor the academic research achievement of nine young scientists at the 7th NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Awards.
The ceremony, held yesterday at The Park Hotel, New Delhi,was attended by more than 150 guests representing India’s top scientific fraternity, including Shri S.Jaipal Reddy, Honorable Minister of Science & Technology of the Ministry of Earth Sciences India, who presented the awards.
Recognizing India’s increasing contribution to world science, Elsevier first launched the Scopus Young Scientist Awards in 2006 to honor the talent, knowledge and expertise of India’s early career researchers.
Elsevier’s collaborationwith NASI began in 2009 when the award was officiallyinstitutionalizedwithin the Indian scientific community. The award honors researchers who are building their careers in academic research and is designed to help them gain recognition of their work.
Into the seventh year, the Scopus Young Scientist Awards attracted more than 600 applications from multiple premier research institutions from across the country. Applications were judged by a distinguished panel of 37 subject matter experts from India’s academic community. The jury looked at: the quality and number of publications, fellowships of academies, awards and grants received, relevance of the scientific work and its outcome, and the overall presentation and discussion at the in person meeting. Special consideration was also given to novel ideas and innovations which have potential for future research and commercial application.
The nine selected winners represent academic research excellence in nine different fields of sciencewhich will help drive innovation and development at a national level.
The winners are:
Agriculture
Dr. Mukesh Jain
Staff Scientist, National Institute of Plant Genome Research -New Delhi
Biological Sciences
Dr.SathyanarayanaGummadi
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology -Chennai
Chemistry
Dr. Tapas Kumar Maji
Associate Professor – Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore
Earth, Oceanographic & Environmental Sciences
Dr. Supriyo Mitra
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata
Engineering
Dr. Yogesh M. Joshi
Associate Professor – Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Mathematics
Dr. L Sunil Chandran
Associate Professor – Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Medicine
Dr. Surinder Singh Rana
Assistant Professor- Post Graduate Institute of Medical education and Research, Chandigarh
Physics
Dr. Soma VeugopalRao
Associate Professor, University of Hyderabad
Social Sciences
Dr. K Jaishankar
Senior Assistant Professor-ManonmaniamSundaranar University, Tamil Nadu
“It is a pleasure for our academy to be associated with Elsevier for the Scopus Young Scientist Awards to promote excellence and nurture creativity in science. I hope our collaboration will continue with vigor in years to come and am confident that the NASI-Elsevier Scopus young Scientist Awards program will play its commendable role in future,” said Dr. K. Kasturirangan, President, National Academy of Sciences India.
“At Elsevier, we are very excited to be supporting and nurturing Indian research not only through our high-quality content and innovative solutions, but also through events like the Scopus Awards. Through our partnership with the National Academy of Sciences, India, we have been able to bring even more talented individuals to the award ceremony, making this experience all the more meaningful. In this way, the Scopus Awards both honor the excellent work of young scientists and bring together a dynamic group of researchers at the ceremony – we’re recognizing and building on the outstanding research being done in India today,”said Youngsuk “Y.S.” Chi,Chairman of Elsevier.
Normal life hit in Assam
By sagarmedia on August 6, 2013 | Edit
Normal life was badly affected on Monday with sporadic violence and disruption of train services across five districts of Assam and partially in another as the 64-day continuous strike called by two different outfits began demanding a separate state.
Life was hit in the Karbi Anglong district, where a demand has risen for a separate Karbi Anglong state, with sporadic incidents of arson being reported as curfew was relaxed for six hours from 8:00 AM, official sources said on Monday.
Four persons were arrested by security forces after an attempt was made to torch the forest range office at Manja, the sources said.
An all-party delegation, including Congress MLAs and MPs left for New Delhi during the day to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to grant a separate Karbi Anglong state.
A 48-hour bandh called by All Bodo Students Union and a 1500-hour one, the longest so far, by the United Democratic Peoples Front to demand a separate state of Bodoland, began during the day in five lower Assam districts — Chirang, Bongaingaon, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Sonitpur, besides part of Lakhimpur in upper Assam.
ABSU had initially called a 60-hour bandh, but reduced its duration in view of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Train and road traffic were paralysed in the lower Assam districts as bandh supporters squatted on railway tracks at Bijni and at several places on NH 31, the sources said.
North East Frontier Railway cancelled 11 trains, while most of the long distance trains, including Rajdhani Express, Saraighat Express, Kamrup Express and Brahmaputra Mail were running behind schedule, a NF Railway spokesman said on Monday.
Incidents of damage to vehicles, burning of tyres and throwing of stones were reported from Bongaigaon, Chirang, and Sonitpur districts.
The national highway was deserted as life was hit in Dhekiajuli, Thelamara, Rangapara, Balipara, Chariduar, Biswanath Chariali and Gohpur in Sonitpur district. However, the bandh failed to make any impact in the headquarters town of Tezpur.
A motorcycle was torched at Kalakuchi under Misamari police station and another in Bhalukpung area along the Assam-Arunachal border under Charduwar police station in the district, officials said.
Some vehicles, including buses and trucks, were also damaged in Balipara-Khelmati area, they said.
ABSU sources claimed that two of its members in Misamari were seriously injured when a group of people attacked them when they were asking the businessmen to close the market.
ABSU president Promod Boro told reporters at Rawta “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are responsible for their wrong decision to create a new state (of Telangana) in an isolated manner.”
“We are deprived of our fundamental rights, our right to equality, political rights and language and cultural rights to preserve and protect our identity,” he said on Monday.
He said that a council could not preserve the identity, hopes and aspirations of the Bodos.
Appealing against violence, the ABSU leader said that movement of army vehicles, ambulances and essential services should not be hindered.
NGT bans sand mining across the country
The National Green Tribunal on Monday restrained sand mining without any licence or environmental clearance from river beds across the country on a plea alleging that such activities were going on in UP with the “wilful connivance” of its state machinery.
Widening the ambit of the plea, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said its order would be applicable across the nation as the petition raises substantial environmental issues.
Initially, the bench restrained illegal sand mining on the beds and banks of rivers Yamuna, Ganga, Hindon, Chambal, Gomti, amongst others, but later modified its order saying the issue of illegally removing sand has nationwide implications.
The tribunal also directed all the mining officers and concerned police officers of all the states to ensure compliance of its orders, on the plea filed by the National Green Tribunal Bar Association.
It also issued notice to all respondents seeking their response by 14th August. The petition alleged that those who have opposed such sand mining, including field level officers, like suspended SDM Durga Sakhti Nagpal, have been victimised which is also apparent from various news reports.
It also alleged that recently a man who had raised his voice against the “powerful sand mafia” had been killed in his home by few goons in broad daylight.
Senior advocate Raj Panjwani assisted by advocate Ritwick Dutta, appearing for the association, contended that “rampant” illegal mining and transport of lakhs of tonnes of sand is being carried on every year and is causing a loss of lakhs of crores of rupees to the state exchequer.
The loss caused to the state exchequer may run into lakhs of crores of rupees, the Tribunal noted in its order.
“Uttar Pradesh state authorities have failed and/or have intentionally not taken appropriate legal action against the project proponents (those carrying out mining) and thus have abetted and wilfully connived in allowing such illegal sand mining to take place in complete violation of environmental and other applicable laws,” the petition alleged.
In its petition, the association contended that “rampant illegal sand mining in the river beds of Yamuna, Ganga, Hindon, amongst others, without prior environmental clearance or in violation of the EC is being carried out and the same is affecting the integrity of the concerned river systems and flood plains”.
“The activity of sand mining is adversely affecting the ecosystem and the overall ecology of the area,” the plea said adding the Supreme Court in a February 2012 order had taken note of adverse effects of sand mining.
The apex court had also held that any person carrying on sand mining on land which is less than five hectares, requires clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests or the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
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Five soldiers killed in attack by Pak troops
6082013
Five Indian soldiers have been killed in an attack by Pak troops on Indian post along the Line of Control in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir late last night. Those killed include One JCO and four soldiers.Pakistani troops attacked an Indian post along the Line of Control in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir late Monday night, killing five Indian soldiers.
Defence sources on Tuesday said the Pakistani soldiers intruded into the Indian Territory past midnight and ambushed the Sarla post on the Indian side of the LoC. Five Indian soldiers were killed, the sources said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “(I) was briefed early this morning about the news that five of our soldiers had been killed on the LoC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin.
“These incidents don’t help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pak and call in to question the Pak Govt’s recent overtures,” he said.
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh is taking stock of the situation, Army sources said in Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are slated to meet in New York next month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
US closes 19 missions after intercepting al-Qaeda threats
The US has extended closure of 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and north Africa till August 10 as a precaution after it intercepted al-Qaeda’s most serious threat in recent years to target its embassies.
The United States initially closed 22 diplomatic posts for the day on Sunday. The State Department last week issued a worldwide travel alert warning Americans that al-Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly in the Middle East.
A State Department official asserted that this was not an indication of a new threat stream, but merely an indication of US commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect its employees and visitors to its facilities.
“Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to extend closure of several embassies and consulates, including a small number of additional posts,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
However, a top military commander said that the US has intercepted al-Qaeda plot to target not only Americans, but also citizens from Western countries.
“There is a significant threat stream, and we’re reacting to it,” General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. “That part of it is unspecified. But the intent seems clear. The intent is to attack Western – not just the US – interests.”
Congressman Charles Albert Ruppersberger said the terror threat is credible and is based on intelligence reports.
“We can only say the intelligence that we get. And, by the way, intelligence is the best defence against terrorism. Those operatives are in place because we’ve received information that high-level people from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are talking about a major attack. And these are people at a high-level,” said Ruppersberger, who is ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
“Now, whatever that intelligence is, we act upon it because our first priority, again, is to protect the Americans in other parts of the world,” he added.
“We know that al-Qaeda and other people out there want to attack us and kill us and our allies. The good news is that we’ve picked up intelligence. And that’s what we do. That’s what NSA does,” said Ruppersberger.
He described the terrorists as saying the planned attack is “going to be big” and “strategically significant.
“The part that is alarming is the confidence they showed while communicating, and the air of certainty,” the official said, adding that the group – al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – appeared to have a media plan after the attack. Authorities do not know the exact target of the planned attack.
“We do not know whether they mean an embassy, an airbase, an aircraft, trains.” The official said that there is concern about devices that could be implanted inside the body of a terrorist.
“We are concerned about surgically implanted devices. These are guys who have developed the techniques to defeat our detection methods,” he said.
The official was quoted that they were stunned that the group broke ‘operational security’, meaning they talked likely knowing it would be picked up by intercepts.
Meanwhile, the US missions in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis have been asked to close for normal operations today through Saturday, August 10.
However, the posts in Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah and Erbil that normally remain open on Sunday were closed yesterday, are authorised to reopen for normal operations on Monday.
The CNN said an intercepted message among senior al-Qaeda operatives in the last several days raised alarm bells, that led to the closing of embassies and consulates across the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday.
The CNN said that it has agreed to a request from an Obama Administration official not to publish or broadcast additional details because of the sensitivity of the information.
“I think we’re doing what’s necessary to protect our people. We’re also protecting our sources. And, I think that’s exactly the right step,” Congressman Adam B Schiff said.
“We know a lot more about the when than the where. You can tell that from the breadth of the closures across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. But the ‘when’ was very specific in terms of a Sunday (yesterday). Obviously, that may continue and the closures may continue.
The travel warning is more extensive,” he said.
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