Indian Army To Finally Get 50,000 Bullet-Proof Vests after a long wait

Indian Army will now get 50,000 bullet-proof vests for which it had to sign an "emergency" procurement contract worth Rs 140 crores. "The jackets will be delivered from August onwards. All the jackets are to be delivered by January 2017," a defence ministry source said.

The Army's existing bulky bullet-proof vests - with poor protection - are near the end of their operational life. Given the huge shortage of such vests in the 1.18-million strong Army -  defence minister Manohar Parrikar approved this "interim emergency acquisition" through the "revenue route" soon after he took over minister in November 2014.

An earlier tender for the "capital procurement" of 1.86 lakh modular jackets was scrapped in October 2015 because the samples offered by six vendors "failed" to clear field trials. Another 1.67 lakh vests are to be supplied by 2017.

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has now come up with a prototype bullet-proof jacket, as per the newer technical specifications, using different "state-of-the-art ballistic materials". This under-development prototype aims to protect against AK-47s and self-loading rifle bullets.

"The prototype has successfully undergone stage-1 and 2 trials. It will be a contender in the fresh capital procurement case being initiated again for the first lot of 1.86 lakh jackets," said a source. 

Source- Indiatimes/TOI

For people who are doing research or Ph. D. Russian researcher gives free access to 48 million academic papers.

A Russian researcher has made available for free 48 million journal articles on what's seen as a hub for pirated academic content, Sci-Hub - a site the researcher helped set up in 2011.

Meet Alexandra Elbakyan. A Russian neuroscientist from Kazakhstan who's behind as much academic material freely accessible as she can online.

Her motive is easy to understand. Students of all kinds, Masters to PhDs, depend heavily on research others have done. Not only to gain perspective but also as crucial reference points for new research.

However, the price publishers put on such academic content makes it inaccessible to most individuals and even institutions, making it hyper-restrictive for those looking to broaden their horizons without going broke in the process.

In the early 2000s Elbakyan was doing her thesis on biometric scanning for consumer electronics. To access the research material she needed, she would have had to cough up a minimum of $300, a fortune back then for a student.

"For me, even the purchase of one such article would be a financial setback," Elbakyan told RT in an email. "So I had to go about acquiring all the articles by pirate means."

Around 2011, Elbakyan came across Fulltext - a portal where researchers could look for help on important source/reference material.

Soon after, in September 2011, she developed Sci-Hub: a site that effectively broke through practically all journal paywalls and provided access ('non legal') to tomes of scientific papers worldwide.

There are two broad steps to how Sci-Hub functions.

First, it tries to download a copy from LibGen - another similar database for pirated research content. The next step, if it can't retrieve the material from LibGen, is what will earn fan points with hackers: Sci-Hub dodges the paywalls in real-time using access keys that have been "donated" by other pro-piracy academics who have studied at institutions which had the required subscriptions (JSTOR, Springer, Sage, Elsevier and basically any high profile database). Result? You receive a PDF of the paper within a minute.

And for good peer-to-peer karma, a copy of that particular paper is immediately sent to LibGen for posterity.

Alexandra Elbakyan has, and for the sake of free knowledge, we're hoping she won't be the last.

Source- Catch News

Access denied to drinking water in school in MP. Boy dies.

Denied water from a school hand pump, a Dalit boy, a student of Khamiriya Kala primary school, tehsil Tendukheda, Damoh district, Madhya Pradesh, drowned when he tried to get water from a well.

On Tuesday, Veeran Ahirwar, son of Bedi Lal Ahirwar of Khamiriya Kala village, finished the midday meal served at the school, and went to the hand pump in the school premises to quench his thirst. But he was turned away by schoolteachers.

Though he was distressed, Class III student Veeran found a bottle and went to a nearby well, which was nearly full of water. Standing on the ledge, Veeran tied the bottle to a rope to draw water, but lost his balance and fell into the water, and died.

The incident highlights how schoolteachers still seem to follow the caste-based discrimination long abolished in India, forcing the students of lower castes to use a well to quench their thirst.

Sewak, Veeran's brother and a Class V student at the same school, didn't say much on the incident, but did mumble that some of the upper caste teachers have always given a warning look if the Dalit boys went to fetch water from the hand pump.

"We have to listen to casteist remarks, and are even threatened if we get close to the members of upper caste. I have lost my son, only because my son was not allowed to draw water from the hand pump. Should we remain thirsty because we are untouchables?" Veeran's father Bedi Lal asked Manish Bagri, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Janpad Panchayat, Damoh district.

"Please do something, so that no more innocent lives are lost in the future," he pleaded before the official, who visited the family to offer consolations.

Bagri has ordered an inquiry, and suspended five teachers of the primary school, including the principal.

However, the district collector of Damoh, Shriniwas Sharma, has put the blame on water scarcity in Bundelkhand region as the reason for the incident.

Image source - Catch News/Google

Source - Catch News

Planning of buying an iphone, then this news is for you !!!

The invites for the Apple's much-talked about 21 March event are finally out! If media reports are to be believed, Apple is all set to unveil a 4-inch iPhone se and a 9.7-inch Apple iPad Pro at the event.

iPhone SE

The phone will look like the iPhone 5s, the most popular Apple smartphone in India and have all specifications of the iPhone 6s - including an A9 SoC chip, the M9 co-processor, smarter cameras and the popular Apple Pay, Live Photos and Touch ID.

Apple has already removed its iconic iPhone 4s, its first 4-inch screen smartphone from India - a hint at the impending launch of the next device, which is expected to be as powerful as the latest iPhone 6s.

9.7-inch iPad Pro

As far as the specifications for the mammoth iPad Pro are concerned, the device is said to be similar to that launched last year. The device may sport Smart Connector to support Smart Keyboard. It may also come with an Apple Pencil.

More to come as the event draws near.

Source- Catch News

5,00,000 will die by 2050,know the reason here

5,00,000 will die by 2050, as climate change alters diets

Climate change will take 5 lakh lives by 2050, a new study has suggested. These deaths would be caused by the food scarcity, and are additional to deaths caused by other effects of global warming. The study was published in the medical journal The Lancet. Scientists behind the study predicted world temperatures to be two degrees higher than in the 1986-2005 time period. It found that there would be 3.2% lower food availability, and people would be consuming 4% less fruit and vegetables.

The Phone Call

 

Can I use your mobile phone? asked the old man.

Sure said Jai.

The train was moving fast and most passengers were preparing to sleep.

 

The old man made a quick call, returned the phone and prepared to leave. He got down at the next station.

After an hour or so, Jai was woken up from sleep, his phone was ringing. The voice on the other end was troubled and enquiring about the person who had called an hour back.

Jai listened carefully, it was the wife of the old man who had used his phone a while ago. He informed her that the man had already disembarked at an earlier station.

The woman on the other end explained that her husband was forgetful, and he had disembarked at wrong station, since she was waiting at the correct station, and train hadn't reached yet!

Situation seemed desperate. Jai promised to meet the old woman at the next station.

As the train slowed down at the next station, Jai spotted her. She explained that her husband was carrying money for treatment of their daughter, and the matter couldn't wait.

After a quick thought, Jai offered her some money, enough to begin the treatment. Just Rs 4000.

And then, Jai continued with the train journey.

 

He forgot all about it until a week later, a lady called him enquiring about his well being. This was the same girl, for whom Jai had provided a small amount for treatment at a railway station!

She thanked him, and insisted on transferring the loaned amount to his bank account. Jai said it was Rs 2000 plus massive interest! And they laughed.

Next day Rs 4000 was credited to his bank account with the message:

Thank-you traveller. May you never stop.

"I wish I could become a smartphone"

An elementary school science teacher had done with her dinner and started evaluating assignment notes done by a colleague's class students. Her husband is strolling around with a smart phone playing his favourite ‘Candy Crush Saga’ game. Meanwhile silent tears started rolling on her cheeks after reading the last sentence of one of the student's notebook.

Her husband saw her and asked, ‘Honey,What's the matter? What happened?’

Wife: ‘Yesterday, Sonia, the English teacher, has requested me to share her work load and evaluate few of the assignments she has given to her 3rd Standard students as she would be busy with a ceremony at home. The assignment was to write a paragraph on the topic -My Wish-.’

Husband: ‘OK, but why're you weeping?’

Wife: ‘Just now I read something in one of the notes which made me a bit emotional, sorry I couldn't control my tears'.

Husband curiously: ‘What’s written in it?’

Wife: ‘Let me read it out. 'My wish' is to become a smart phone. Yes, a smart phone. My parents love the smart phone more than anything else including, their only son, me. They care their smart phone so much that many-a-times they just forget to take care of me. Though my dad comes from his office tired and exhausted, he still has time for smart phone but not for me. Even when my mom is indulged in some important work, the mere sound of the ringtone would alert her and attends the call within no time, but not me, even if I'm lying around crying for hours together. They play games on their smart phones but not with me. They play it with sheer excitement and enthusiasm that I wish they could show a tiny bit of it on me too. When they are talking to someone on their smart phone, they never listen to me even if I am telling something important. I wait the whole day to tell them that I secured top grade in the class, but they don't even bother to converse with their only son, instead they talk hours together on the conference calls. Experiencing all these, I thought at least a weekend picnic/tour would buy me some quality time to spend with them.But I'm wrong, they were so busy with check-ins, photo uploads, likes and Comments about the exotic destinations that the so-called picnic was spent 90% in the virtual world of smart phone and the remaining 10% travelling.Thus i'm lonely in a family full of smart devices. So my wish is to become a smart phone. Hope I can experience the real parenthood this time :( '.

After listening to it husband got emotional and asked ‘who's the kid?’.

Wife: ‘Our only son’.

*God created humans to love and devices to use, but we're making a mess of it and loving devices and using humans*

Courageous story of Herald's person of the year 2014

The story of Aitzaz Hassan. A 16 years old Pakistani boy who saved lives of about 2,000 school children in Pakistan.

On the bright morning of  January 6, 2014, Aitzaz along with two of his friends reached the gate of Government High School, Ibrahimzai in North West Pakistan (the school is attended by around 2,000 students). He was not allowed to enter the school on account of being a few minutes late.

Right at this moment a man aged between 20-25 approached the school gate and told the guard that he wants to go inside to "take admission" to this school. At this point, Aitzaz and his friends spotted a detonating device protruding out of this man's jacket. Horrified, Aitzaz's friends ran inside the school to save their lives. Aitzaz on the other hand hustled to the bomber and confronted him while he was trying to force his way through the school gate. The bomber tried his best to run inside but could not escape Aitzaz's iron grip. Upon failure he detonated his suicide vest killing both Aitzaz and himself. No other school student was injured.

 

Less than one year and 100 miles later, this happened:

 

On this occasion, terrorists managed to enter another school building and killed around 140 school students. This time sadly, there was no Aitzaz around to stop them.

 

For his bravery and courage, Aitzaz was declared Herald's Person of the Year for 2014 and his school was renamed Aitzaz Hasan Shaheed High School.

We Are Ready For Chandrayaan II, Says ISRO Chairman Kiran Kumar

Indian Space Research Organization chairman AS Kiran Kumar on Sunday signalled the country's readiness for Chandrayaan II mission, which will be India's second mission to the moon.

Chandrayaan II is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission. It consists of an orbiter, lander and rover configuration. It is planned to be launched as a composite stack into the earth parking orbit (EPO) of 170 X 18,500 km by GSLV-Mk II.

The combined stack is then inserted into a lunar orbit of 100 km x 100 km. The lander is separated from the orbiter in this orbit. The orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon.

The lander will soft land on the moon at a specified site and deploy the rover. The scientific payloads onboard the orbiter, lander and rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface. In 2010, it was agreed that Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS will be responsible for lunar lander and Isro will be responsible for orbiter and rover as well as the launch by GSLV, a note on Chandrayaan II on Isro website said.

Later, due to a shift in the programmatic alignment of this mission, it was decided that the lunar lander development will be done by Isro and Chandrayaan-2 will be totally an Indian mission. Kiran Kumar, who is credited with the development of key scientific instruments aboard the Chandrayaan I and Mangalyaan space crafts gave an insight on achievements and contributions made by the scientists at Isro including the Chandrayaan I and Mangalyaan.

Isro chief also told students that Isro makes available the data collected by them to the students for research work at their website. 

Source - TOI

Pranab Mukherjee Declares Kerala As India's First Fully Digital State with multiple accomplishments in its pocket.

President Pranab Mukherjee will launch the Digital Empowerment Campaign and declare Kerala a digital state during his visit to the state on Saturday. It will coincide with the inauguration of UL Cyber Park, Kozhikode, the first IT park set up by a labour cooperative society in the country.

"As part of the campaign, around 40,000 student police cadets (SPCs) from 400 schools will train over 10 lakh people in panchayats across the state. The campaign envisages to bridge digital divide by 2020," said state IT Mission director Mohammed Y Safirullah. The pilot phase of the project will make 10,000 people digital literates in a span of four months. Tablets were provided to the students in August, as part of the training ahead of the campaign.

By virtue of its proactive policies and initiatives, Kerala has emerged as first e-literate state. Akshaya and IT@School projects, both launched in 2002, were landmark initiatives in digital literacy in the state, said Safirullah. "More than 33 lakh people benefited from Akshaya project so far. Over 2,500 Akshaya common service centres across rural and urban areas, has helped generate awareness regarding e-governance. Also, around 39 lakh students from 12,600 schools were trained under the IT@School project," he added.

Kerala is the first state to complete the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) project, initiated in 2011, in the country. Now, the state is equipped to provide high-speed internet via optic fibre in all gramapanchayats. The state also has the distinction of issuing over one crore e-certificates, said IT Mission official Abhilash C S. "More than 3.29 crore Aadhaar enrolments have been made so far, with nearly 100% compliance to civil registrations on time," he said.

Establishment of two state-of-the art government data centres and over 9,000 ATMs, creation of over 20 lakh bank accounts as part of Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, high mobile penetration (close 32 million connections), high internet penetration and state wide area network (KSWAN) connecting over 3,000 government offices have made Kerala become the first complete digital state.

Source- TOI

Confirmed news- Blankets in Indian Railways are washed once in 2 months. Bedroll takeaway scheme follows...

If your railway blanket smells like it hasn't been washed in a month or two, it has actually not. The confirmation comes from MoS of railways Manoj Sinha, who admitted in Rajya Sabha on Friday that blankets are washed every two months.
Bed sheets and pillow covers are washed daily. The minister's reply was in response to a query regarding the quality and hygiene of linen supplied by railways. 

Sinha said that in about two years 85% passengers can get cleaner linen as Railways is setting up 25 more mechanized laundries.

Defending Sinha's statement, the railways said blankets cannot be washed every day, which is why an extra bed sheet is provided to every passenger to cover it. A railways official said blankets are 'sanitized' every 15 days to kill germs and odour. 

Indian Railways has also started a bedroll takeaway scheme under which a passenger can book a kit online — Rs 110 for a blanket, or Rs 140 for two bed sheets and a pillow — and take it home after the journey.

Source- TOI