An Indian-American scientist has developed a computer chip that can store an unprecedented amount of data - enough to hold an entire library.
The new chip stems from a breakthrough in the use of nanodots, or nanoscale magnets, and represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology.
"We have created magnetic nanodots that store one bit of information on each nanodot, allowing us to store over one billion pages of information in a chip that is one square inch," says Jay Narayan, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU).
Narayan, a product of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, conducted the study. The breakthrough is that these nanodots are made of single, defect-free crystals, creating magnetic sensors that are integrated directly into a silicon electronic chip.
These nanodots, which can be made uniformly as small as six nanometres in diameter, are all precisely oriented in the same way - allowing programmers to reliably read and write data to the chips, an NCSU release said. A nanometre is the billionth of a metre.
The chips themselves can be manufactured cost-effectively but the next step is to develop magnetic packaging that will enable users to take advantage of the chips - using something, such as laser technology, that can effectively interact with the nanodots.
In the last one month, people sitting in front of the TV might be impressed with the way Sachin Tendulkar was playing the role of anchor for Mumbai Indians, but behind the curtain every ball bowled in IPL 3 had a price of more than a lakh. All the cricket fans across the country might be relating this to the match fixing issue happened in 1990's, but some experts relate this to Satyam fraud case happened last year.
Till two new teams (Kochi and Pune) were not announced, IPL was seen as a money-spinner and a thriller for cricket fans and owners, but now it has been drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. If we think of similarities with India's biggest corporate fraud, the Satyam scandal, we find that in both the case that what were the authorities supposed to monitor the transparency in financial dealings doing.
Rediff has put down some of the points which shows the similarities between these two case. Those are:-
1. The main players
In both the cases, the chieftains are main accused - Lalit Modi heading IPL and B Ramalinga Raju lording over Satyam. Raju scripted a rosy picture of soaring profits, brand value, revenues and much more. Modi too created a tremendous brand seemingly out of nothing, but it now transpires that there is a whole lot more to it than meets the eye.
In both the cases, it was a simple error that led to their fall. Raju's scam would have never come to light had he not tried to push through the Maytas deal. His trouble began when Maytas shareholders opposed his proposal to take over the company. Modi is at the centre of a storm after he attacked former minister for external affairs Shashi Tharoor over the issue of stakeholders in the Kochi franchise, which is one of the two new teams that will make IPL debut next year.
2. The charges
Ramalinga Raju admitted to orchestrating a Rs.7,800 crore scandal by cooking up the account books. Modi is accused of indulging in betting and money laundering, not disclosing shareholding patterns, tarnishing the image of the IPL.
3. Role of auditors
In many financial scandals, just like the Satyam incident, auditors are mere rubber stamps. In the case of IPL, the BCCI or its auditors never checked the shareholding patterns or the flow of unaccounted for money. The ICAI has now asked for financial statements from IPL franchises to study the details.
4. Rest of the team?
Why blame only one person? Could Modi alone have managed the show by himself? Are not the IPL governing council members answerable too, just like Satyam's independent directors?
6. Political friends
The political connection makes all the difference. While Raju had political backing from the state, Modi too has strong political support.
When four friends planned to diversify their IT hardware distribution business and start making mobile phones, which would specifically suit Indian consumers, did not know that after two years, they will be giving mobile handset majors; such as Nokia, Samsung and LG, a run for their money, reports Economic Times.
In the two years of span, Micromax grew to become the third-largest GSM mobile phone vendor in India, after Nokia and Samsung, with a market share of six percent. According to research firm IDC, this Rs.1,600 crore brand, which sells around one million mobiles every month, has a presence in more than 500 districts through 70,000 retail outlets. Speaking on this subject, Vikas Jain, one of the four founders of Micromax Informatics, the company that owns the Micromax Mobile brand, said, "We saw that the MNC brands were not selling phones that suited Indian consumers' requirements. This void had to be filled. So in April 2008, we forayed into the handset market."
Targeting specifically at the rural masses, the company has also started selling handsets that come with features appealing to urban consumers such as music phones, qwerty and internet-enabled handsets. "We wanted to approach the market in a different manner by first going to rural and semi-urban areas, establishing a good distribution base and then targeting the big cities," said Vikas Jain.
Recently, the company came up with a universal remote control phone, one that can be paired to household appliances like the TV, AC, to act as a remote control for them. "We have to be quick in launching new products as competitors can also copy a lot of this soon enough,"
With the new trend being set up by IT firms to hire non-techies to do techies' work, it seems that working hard at engineering colleges for 3-4 years to enter this field is worthless. In the last few months, it is noticed that many of the Indian IT companies such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys are turning towards non engineering graduates for the same work that engineering graduates have been doing for long.
For instance, Nandini Sahay is currently working in one of the Indian IT firms as a Software Engineer after completing her BA degree in History and one year certificate course in computer programming. It might be a dream comes true for this village girl Nandini, whose parents feed their stomachs by earning from agriculture field in the remote area of Andhra Pradesh, but at the same time, these IT firms need to think of those millions of engineering graduates, who have worked hard for 3-4 years to enter this field, are sitting idle to get better opportunities. One of the many students, who are feeling the heat of this new trend, is Gaurav Jain, B.Tech/B.E. student at Malviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. He said, "If it is possible to train one person in just six months or one year then why engineers are taught for four years?"
So the big question - will these hiring of non-techies affect the quality of work? Mahalakshmi Subramanium, QA/QC Manager, Genpact said, "I think yes. It will affect the quality. Normally an IT graduate undergoes 3-4 years of training to become a professional. If that education is given to a non-IT graduate in just one year or six months, it's obvious that they won't be taught everything due to which their basics won't be strong and they won't be able to perform as nicely as a properly trained IT graduate can do. Even with techies, project success rate is less than 25 percent. With non techies, they are intending to smash it to zero."
But all these firms who are hiring these non-techies believe that quality of the work will not be affected by hiring non-engineering graduates, as these non-techies are being hired for testing software applications and managing computer infrastructure, in order to do more with fewer staff and at lower wages than computer engineers.
It is believed that from nearly 10 percent of their current workforce, non-engineering graduates could account for nearly 20-25 percent of the staff at companies such as TCS, Wipro and HCL, over the next one to two years. The IT company like Cognizant already has almost 20 percent of its global workforce who are non-engineering graduates. Speaking on this issue, Amitava Roy, Chief People Officer, Symphony Services said, "Hiring non-techies might work for some of the IT companies, but as far as Symphony Services is concerned; our work requires the expertise and knowledge of technical engineers. Candidates from non engineering background do not fit into our framework of expertise required and hence the hiring model." Even Srini Rajam, Chairman and CEO, Ittiam Systems agrees with Roy and said, "It's not right way to build any company. One company gains more value by differentiation of knowledge come from competition."
Some of the experts feel that basically this step is being taken by companies to cut the costs and increase the employment across the country. Normally, an Indian IT firm pays Rs. 2-4 lakh per annum to an engineering graduate, but when they hire any non-engineering graduate, they just pay Rs.80,000 - Rs.1,50,000. Nandini has got the package of Rs.90,000 per annum. One of the officials of an IT major said, "It's not everything about cutting cost. In the last few years, skill mix has changed because of a fundamental shift in sourcing behaviour - customers sourcing a broader range of services, including BPO/KPO. So, we hire according to that need."
Now, it is to be seen that these IT firms understand the real value of an engineering graduate or keep hiring non-techies in near future also, as it is possible for only these IT biggies to train non-techies to do techies' work, not the smaller firms.
India's outsourcing vendors Wipro and Tech Mahindra are currently in discussions with New Zealand's biggest phone firm, Telecom Corp, for a contract worth up to $1 billion. Telecom Corp had signed a $1.5-billion IT infrastructure management contract in 1999 with EDS, now owned by HP, which is due to expire this year.
"This is among some of the top outsourcing renewals being chased by almost everybody. Incumbents are under pressure to compete with new bidders ready to do more with less," said a person familiar with the discussions to Pankaj Mishra of Economic Times.
The telco plans to cut costs and improve profits by outsourcing non-core IT work, people familiar with the company's decision making.
Security firm BitDefender has warned iPad users of security threat through iTune updates. With more than 600,000 iPads sold since its introduction, it's clear as why malware creators have been interested in crashing this promising party, warns BitDefender.
This particular threat comes in the form of an unsolicited e-mail, promising to keep iPad software updated for best performance, newer features and security". Via a conveniently provided link, the email instructs iPad users to download the latest version of iTunes software to their PCs as a preliminary step to update their iPad software. The download page to which users are directed is a perfect imitation of the one they would use for legitimate iTunes software downloads.
Identified by BitDefender as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY, this piece of malicious code inadvertently downloaded injects itself in to the explorer.exe process and opens up a backdoor that allows unauthorized access to and control over the affected system.
Moreover, Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY attempts to read the keys and serial numbers of the various software installed on the affected computer, while also logging the passwords to the victim's ICQ, Messenger, POP3 mail accounts, and protected storage.
It is important to say that Mac users remain unaffected by this piece of malware.
To avoid falling victim to this threat and others, BitDefender recommends users to only download updates from the official Apple website.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma Monday said that the government will prefer foreign direct investment (FDI) in and subsidies to those sectors which would attract technology and investment.
"We are looking at those sectors which will attract technology and investment," the minister said on sidelines of the Annual Intellectual Property Awards 2010 ceremony, organised by his ministry in association with industry lobby, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Sharma said the government is also keen on extending concessions to those sectors which continue to be in the red, following the economic downturn in 2008.
"But we are not looking at FDI in multi-brand retail as of now," he said.
The minster hoped that the exports in 4th quarter of the last fiscal will help to overcome losses in the sector - which continued for 13 months till November last year.
He hoped they would touch $167-170 billion in the last fiscal.
India's merchandise exports grew 34.8 percent to $16.09 billion (Rs.72,400 crore) for the fourth consecutive month in February.
The minister expressed concern over fall in rate of patents by Indian applicants. "While the number of patents by Indian firms fell by 29 percent last year, in China, it went up by 30 percent. Why is there less investment for innovation? Why aren't the MNCs coming up with innovations?" he asked.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
1.Which is the most expensive domain name to be auctioned on the net till date?
Ans. Business.com for $8 mln [4.3 m pounds]
2. Which brand has the "Whistle and win contest"?
Ans. Prestige
3. Where are the Head Quarters of Asian Development Bank?
Ans. Manila
4. Which company is India’s largest synthetic textile producer?
1. The Hollerith Corporation changed its name to something iconic in the future. What is it? Ans. IBM
2. Enigma is a line of optical frame solutions from which company? Ans. Tata Eye Plus
3.It was founded in 1976 as a joint-stock company between International Aeradio Limited, a British Company, and local partners. In 1983 the ownership structure changed - United Arab Emirates government held a 60% share in the company and the remaining 40% were publicly traded. Which company's origins are we referring to?
Ans. Etisalat
4. Which Financial Giant has Rocks of Gibraltar as its logo? Ans. Prudential
