BT, nanotechnology research centre at your doorstep
Staff Reporter
Deakin University signs MoU with Bangalore University |
To be funded by State Government
Infrastructure, faculty in hand: BU
BANGALORE: Soon, Bangalore University’s sprawling Jnana Bharathi
campus will house a “world class” research centre specialising in the
field of biotechnology and nanotechnology.
A Memorandum of Understanding for this ambitious project has been
signed between Deakin University, Australia, and Bangalore University.
According to the MoU, the purpose is to create a Deakin India
Research Institute (DIRI), that will benefit Indian communities and
industry. It also aims to create a collaborative and rewarding
university-industry research model in India, BU Vice-Chancellor N.
Prabhu Deva announced here on Tuesday. The funds for the project will
be allocated by the Government of Karnataka. The MoU is for a duration
of five years.
This India-owned institute would meet the growing demand for
research in India, Bangalore University officials said at a press
conference here on Tuesday. DIRI proposes to produce at least 500 PHD
students over the first five years, the university said.
The university claims that it already has the infrastructure and necessary faculty for the two disciplines.
The two institutes will cooperate in the area of academic staff
cooperation on collaborative research, lectures and conferences, staff
exchange, development of student exchange programmes and identifying
special short-term academic programmes and projects of mutual benefit
for both institutions.
Watch brand Omega was
launched in an exclusive boutique of the company at UB City and also the
Omega Ploprof (the first few letters of plongeurs professionnels — the
French words for “professional divers”).
The watch is water-resistant up to 1,200 metres and is available
either with a mesh shark-proof bracelet or a rubber strap, and is
priced at Rs. 3,17,100.
Omega’s vice-president Raynald Aeschlimann introduced the
watch’s features and a diver, described
its myriad features.
The voter list prepared for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
elections will be displayed on Thursday at the offices of the revenue
officers concerned and the voting centres coming under the 198 wards in
the 28 Assembly constituencies. The BBMP, in a release, appealed to the
public to file their objections, if any, relating to the list, with the
Electoral Registration Officer or Deputy Electoral Registration Officer
on or before 5.30 p.m. on October 6.
Special Correspondent
Preparations will be completed by September 15: Chikkamath |
EVMs procured for all the 198 wards
Assembly poll voters’ list to be followed
BANGALORE: The State Election Commission will complete its
preparations for holding the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)
polls by September 15.
State Election Commissioner C.R. Chikkamath said at a meeting of
officials, representatives of political parties and non-governmental
organisations on Wednesday that the voters’ lists for all the 198 wards
were ready and the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) required for the
BBMP polls had reached them.
Except for preparing the final booth-level voters’ list, all the preparations for holding the BBMP elections were complete.
“We will complete all the preparations by September 15, which is the
time given to us”, Mr. Chikkamath said responding to a reporters’ query.
The State Election Commission (SEC) announced the launch of a new
portal for the BBMP polls that can be accessed at
http://www.bbmpelections. info
The portal seeks to help voters locate their name with respect to
new electoral parts and the corresponding polling station in the newly
delimited ward.
For conducting the BBMP elections, the voters’ list for each
delimited ward had been prepared by adopting the existing voters list
of Assembly constituencies, Mr. Chikkamath said.
He called upon the voters to make use of the portal.
Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Urban district G.N. Naik said there
were 65 lakh voters in Bangalore. But he regretted the poor response
from the voters for the enumeration drive that began on July 1. “There
was poor response to the drive at the Voter Facilitation Centres (VFC)
that were set up in each of the 28 Assembly constituencies in the
city,” he said.
Mr. Chikkamath said the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
coverage in Bangalore was a dismal 64-65 per cent. “It does not go well
with the Bangalore’s image as an IT destination,” he said.
“In contrast, there are certain villages in Rajasthan, where the EPIC coverage is almost 98 per cent,” he said.
Responding to a question from a representative of a political party,
Mr. Naik said additions, deletions and modifications to the voters’
list would continue till at least 10 days before the last date for
filing of nominations for the elections.
Deletion
Mr. Naik sought to reassure the meeting that names would be deleted
from the voters list only after the due process of law was completed.
“Our enumerators will go to the address during the door-to-door
survey. If they are not found at the address, a seven-day notice will
be given in the house or to the neighbours, ” Mr. Naik said.
http://www.bbmpelections.info/bbmpele/ksecUIPDFSearch.aspx
Unique ID will provide access to various state benefits: Nilekani
Narayan Lakshman and Shyam Ranganathan
| It will take around 18 months to issue the first UID, says UIDAI chief |
— Photo: M. Vedhan
FIRM ON MISSION: Unique Identification Authority of
India chairman Nandan Nilekani at an interactive session at The Hindu
in Chennai on Wednesday. He said the project will be rolled out in 18
months and 600 million people covered in four years.
CHENNAI: While the Unique
Identification project will not
solve all the problems of the
poor it will open “a ramp of
access” to various benefits
from the state, said Nandan
Nilekani, chairman, Unique
Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI).
“The whole idea is to unlock
access to people who are
outside the system.” Citing
the example of people from
Bihar in Bangalore who, for
the last 10 years, have had
“zero contact with the formal
system,” he said, “In our cities
there are millions of people
who are non-persons.”
He clarified that the UID
would not confer any citizenship
rights or other privileges
but would only be used as a
means of uniquely identifying
the residents in the country.
At an interaction at The
Hindu here on Wednesday,
Mr. Nilekani said he had received
a few hundred mails
from Indian professionals
round the world expressing
interest in participating in
this “complex, high-risk
project.”
“The largest database [in
the United States] of this kind
is of 120 million people. We
are talking about 1.2 billion
people. It is the only country
where we are talking about
online authentication,” Mr.
Nilekani said.
But the target was achievable:
“If anyone can do it,
India can,” he said. It would
take around 18 months to issue
the first UID and 600
million people would be covered
in four years.
In response to questions
on the ease of enrolment, especially
for the poor, Mr. Nilekani
said the barriers to
getting a UID number would
be reduced because, “we will
have a large number of registrars
and because we will
have a proactive strategy
working with civil society
NGO groups for outreach.”
Project costs
On the project costs, Mr.
Nilekani clarified, “Remember
that in a country where
spending maybe 100-200
thousand crore rupees on all
kinds of subsidies and direct
benefits, this is a one-time
expenditure that will lead to
a perpetual improvement in
the quality of benefits.” The
return on investment would
be “well worth it from an
economic perspective.”
Addressing concerns about
the UID database being misused
by an “Orwellian State,”
Mr. Nilekani said, having one
large centralised database
would necessitate being
“careful in terms of checks
and balances, in terms of the
legality, in terms of privacy,
and making sure that this database
is not misused in some
way.”
But he added that “. the
social benefits of giving UIDs
to the people who are left out
today are so massive that we
should do it and come up
with a way to mitigate the
risks on the privacy issue.”
Even government agencies
such as the police would only
have access to the database
“under the appropriate laws,”
Mr. Nilekani explained. “As
long as the legal system was
followed, on the principle of
security, the database could
be “opened up for a suspect,”
he said.
Biometrics
He conceded that there
could be errors in authenticating
people based on biometrics.
“Biometrics is not
an exact science,” he said.
While fingerprinting was
the most straightforward
biometric available, iris scans
were more reliable, he said.
But the equipment for iris
scans was expensive and the
process was cumbersome.
Many people could object to
it as being invasive and there
were also very few suppliers
of iris scan technology, he
said.
A Biometrics Committee
with stakeholders from different
Ministries would
come up with the final biometric
set and take a decision
on whether iris scans were
required or not in the next
few months, Mr. Nilekani
said.
Voter list
The voter list prepared for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
elections will be displayed on Thursday at the offices of the revenue
officers concerned and the voting centres coming under the 198 wards in
the 28 Assembly constituencies. The BBMP, in a release, appealed to the
public to file their objections, if any, relating to the list, with the
Electoral Registration Officer or Deputy Electoral Registration Officer
on or before 5.30 p.m. on October 6.
NEW DELHI: The Mayawati government is continuing with construction
activities at the memorial sites in Lucknow.
Affidavit filed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary
that the order was not violated. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Sthal is different projects and coined new names for them to show they were
not covered by the restraint order.
Hence construction activities were being carried out.
The State’s contention was that it was only maintaining and cleaning
the sites, removing garbage and unused building materials.
In a fresh affidavit filed on Tuesday, the State government denied
any fresh construction activity on the sites in question. “Whatever
construction was being carried out was only with regard to certain
structures, which are not the subject matter of dispute,” it said.