News Digest : 11 Aug 2014

News Digest : 11 Aug 2014

 

INNOVATION નવી ઉંચાઈ પામવા નવું કરો !

સંદેશ | ૬ ઓગસ્ટ ૨૦૧૪ | Read More

કોલેજોના અધ્યાપકોને ૧૦ લાખની ગ્રેજ્યુઇટી ચૂકવવા સરકારનો નિર્ણય

સંદેશ | ૬ ઓગસ્ટ ૨૦૧૪

ગુજરાત રાજ્યની યુનિર્વિસટીઓ તેમજ વિવિધ કોલેજોોમાં ફરજ બજાવતકા અધ્યાપકો અને કર્મચારીઓને રૂ. ૧૦ લાખની ગ્રેજ્યુઇટી ચુકવવા રાજ્ય સરકારે લીલીઝંડી આપી ઠરાવ પસાર કરી દીધો છે. આમ તો રાજ્ય સરકારના કર્મચારીઓની જેમ અધ્યાપકોને ગ્રેજ્યુઇટી નિવૃત્તી સમયે ૩.૫ લાખ મળતી હતી. પરંતુ વર્ષ ૨૦૦૯ બાદ રાજ્ય સરકારના નાણાવિભાગે કરેલા ઠરાવ બાદ ગ્રેજ્યુઇટી રકમ રૂ. ૧૦ લાખ કરવામાં આવી હતી. Read More

પવન-વિદ્યુત ક્ષેત્રે ચીનની હરણફાળ

સંદેશ | ૧૧ ઓગસ્ટ ૨૦૧૪| Read More

Retired babus, serving favourites call the shots in state govt : Some Officers Hold Charge Of Several Depts While Many Others Have Little Work

The Times of India | 11 Aug 2014

Retired officers on extension and officers holding additional charge are increasingly calling the shots in Gujarat government. More than 30 key posts, including that of chief secretary; chief principal secretary to the CM; and the two secretaries (C J Gothi and H D Vyas) for parliamentary and legislative affairs, are occupied by all retired officers on extension. Several other important departments such as industry and mines; ports and transport, health and family welfare; and fisheries and animal husbandry department have been headless for quite some time. Read More

Best ways to cut tax under Sec 80C

The Times of India | 11 Aug 2014

Deduction under Sec 80C has increased. Instead of random investments, use the additional limit to fill gaps in your financial plan. Imagine you have won a gift voucher worth `50,000 at the local hypermarket. When you go to the store, there is a vastarray of items you can purchase with it. Salespersons try to draw your attention to their counters, pitching their merchandise aggressively. Will you buy whatever new gizmo they are trying to sell? Or will you utilise the money to purchase something you actually need for the household? The additional `50,000 deduction given to taxpayers under Section 80C in this year's budget is also like a gift voucher from the government. Read More

Let There Be English: But abolish the caste system which currently exists around the language

The Times of India | 9 Aug 2014

Less than three decades ago only the finest, most cultured, highly educated people in India spoke English. If you were one of these people, those were wonderful times. Just speaking the language made you `high class'. This rarified set was less than 5% of the population and just saying `Hey , how are you?' instead of `Aap kaise hain?' would set you above the 95%. Read More

Origami robot inspired by protein folding

Engineers have built a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes and moves without any human intervention. The advance, described in Science, demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process. Read More

Robot adapts to injury and continues to walk

A Franco-American research team has developed a mechanism that lets a robot adapt to injury. In their paper Antoine Cully and and Jean-Baptiste Mouret of the Sorbonne in Paris and Jeff Clune of the University of Wyoming describe how their algorithm allows a robot to adapt to damage in under two minutes. Read more

Catalyst converts carbon dioxide into fuel

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago have synthesised a catalyst that improves their system for converting waste carbon dioxide into syngas, a precursor of petrol and other energy-rich products. Amin Salehi-Khojin, UIC professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, and colleagues are said to have developed a unique two-step catalytic process that uses molybdenum disulphide and an ionic liquid to reduce - transfer electrons - to carbon dioxide in a chemical reaction. The new catalyst is claimed to improve efficiency and lower costs by replacing expensive metals such as gold or silver in the reduction reaction. Read more

RISC-V: An Open Standard for SoCs

Systems-on-a-chip (SoCs), where the processors and caches are a small part of the chip, are becoming ubiquitous. Thus many more companies today are making chips that include processors than in the past. Given that the industry has been revolutionized by open standards and open-source software -- like TCP/IP and Linux -- why is one of the most important interfaces proprietary? Read More

IBM Puts Brain On-a-Chip

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The most brain-like computer chip to date has been produced by IBM for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA's) Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, in collaboration with Cornell Tech and iniLabs, Ltd. Read More

Canada Ahead of US in Chip Ed

PORTLAND, Ore. — "When US researchers find out about what we do, a lot of them wish they had something like CMC to support them," Ian McWalter told us. McWalter is president and chief executive officer of Canadian Microelectronics Corp. (CMC), an industry organization that aims to give academics access to the whole system of chip making -- from front-end design and conceptual tools all the way to a packaged device and testing. Read More

Wireless Charging Startup Taps RF

NEW YORK — As products using coil-based wireless charging standards roll out, one company hopes radio frequency charging will take hold in the burgeoning wearables market. Bay Area-based Energous aims to juice devices with up to 10 Watts. Using the Energous' WattUp platform, devices are connected via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy at 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz as well as 5.7 GHz to 5.8 GHz. Bluetooth locates the device in need of charging and focuses the radio waves to charge the devices automatically. Read More

Google's $1M Power Inverter Challenge – How Small Is Possible?

If you can figure out how to shrink the functionality of a kilowatt-scale power inverter into a device the size of a laptop -- i.e., design a device that is about 10 times smaller than current available inverter technology -- then Google will give you $1 million. The Internet company, along with the IEEE (which came up with the technical requirements), recently issued the "Little Box Challenge" open competition in hopes of spurring the creation of a smaller power inverter that could be used at home (see image below). Read More

Small 18V power protection switch launched

Texas Instruments has introduced its smallest bidirectional 18-V, 5-A protection switches with high power efficiency. These tiny devices reduce solution size and extend battery life in portable and adapter-powered devices, and enterprise and client solid state drives (SSDs). Read More

Planar transformers for 500W-2KW applications

Standex-Meder Electronics, manufacturer of miniature switches, sensors and relays, announces the SX41 Series of planar transformers for 500W-2KW applications. Available in standard or custom designs, the SX41 delivers high performance for power conversion applications in the welding, automotive, telecommunications, renewable energy, and aerospace industries. Read More