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India ranked 94th in Corruption Perception Index ratings says Transparency International

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:28:15 +0100

India's image on tackling corruption has not improved with Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) placing it at 94th rank out of 176 nations this year.

Though India was ranked at 95th position last year, the international watchdog said it has started evaluating the positions through a different formula beginning this year and hence this cannot be compared to last year's ranking.

However, the last year's rank of 95 would be 96 if it is calculated using the new methodology which implies there was a "slight improvement" in the index.

This year, India has a score of 36 out of 100 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) which is a result of an average of 10 studies including World Bank's Country Performance and Institutional Assessment and Global Insight Country Risk Ratings.

India was ranked 72 among 180 countries for the first time in 2007 and since then the country's rankings have been showing a decline. While India was placed at 87 in 2010, the position was 95 in 2011.

This year, India is ranked below neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and China, while Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much worse than India when it came to corruption in public sector undertakings.

Sri Lanka, which is slowly limping back to normalcy after a three-decade civil war, is ranked at 79 while China is ranked at 80.

Denmark is placed at the top spot with a score of 90 while Finland and New Zealand follow very closely. Countries that occupy the bottom ranks in the index are Myanmar, Sudan Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.

"Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and governments have to make efforts to tackle it from all sides. This can only happen if all stakeholders work together," said P S Bawa, Chair of Transparency International India.

Anupama Jha, Executive Director of Transparency International India, listed the efforts being taken by the watchdog to create awareness about corruption among people and steps being implemented to curb the menace.

According to the 2012 CPI, majority of the 183 countries scores less than 50 -- a clear indication that corruption is perceived to be rampant world wide.

S K Agarwal, Co-chair of Transparency International India, hoped that the "Supreme Court will soon deliver its verdict on a PIL on debarring criminals from contesting elections".

This year, the Transparency International has updated its CPI methodology allowing for year-over-year comparisons for all editions published from this year.

The new Indian politician

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:24:09 +0100

It's that leader who has a moral stance, is able to govern and can master the art of politics

Ask anyone about the qualities required to be a successful Indian politician. Chances are you will get a cynical response. Craftiness, ability to fool people and lust for power is what many people will say. This stereotype has developed over decades, through numerous examples of politicians being self-serving, unethical and manipulative. Some even believe this is the only way to succeed.

However, this isn't true anymore. Although the old school is still entrenched, there are some signs of change. Several politi-cians have made a name for themselves differently. Recently, Dinesh Trivedi won national sympathy, despite losing his ministerial post. Even Sheila Dikshit, Nitish Kumar, Narendra Modi, Tarun Gogoi, Naveen Patnaik, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Manohar Parrikar are hardly known for their Machiavellian politics.

Those that were manipulative - Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi - can't seem to hold people's support. Even Mamata Banerjee, elected with much fanfare a year ago, is losing credibility fast given her self-centred, anti-development focus. Akhilesh Yadav, new on the scene, is seeing signs of early discontent that he'd better fix if he wants a long innings.

All this is a good sign for India. There could be a day when Indian politics runs on the vision, ideologies, policies and execution capabilities of the leader alone. This could take 10 to 20 years, depending on how lucky we are in seeing such leaders emerge and how fast the number of gullible voters declines. However, the direction seems irreversible. Indian politicians better learn the rules of the new game fast. Old methods may fail or give short-term successes at best. Once a critical mass of Indians develops a taste for the new Indian politics, hundreds of old school politicians will become obsolete. The adapt-or-die situation hasn't been reached, but it could be as soon as the next 10 years.

So what will be the new basis on which India's GenNext will evaluate politicians? Given recent data points of success and failure, three distinct criteria have surfaced. These are: a moral stance, governance abilities and the art of politics. True long-term success stories will come to people who excel in all three areas.

One, the moral stance, refers to a set of values, which define the core of what a person (or party) is all about. Who are you as a person? Are you ethical? Are you honest? Do you have principles or are you an opportunist? Are you willing to lose your power for the right cause? It is in this department many of our current crop of politicians lack, while new voters are quickly developing a taste for it. Trivedi became a star overnight, simply because he said 'my country comes above my personal power'. It was such an attractive, endearing statement - the kind never heard from Indian politicians. He may have lost his post, but he will be the most memorable rail minister ever.

Lack of a moral stance is the UPA's biggest failure. Nothing seems genuine, as the coalition has covered up scams and done too little to root out corruption. The PM, considered honest, did not put his job on the line for the right thing. Rahul did not take bold decisions. All this led to the current moral crisis of the Congress.

Two, the element of governance. A political victory is not a prize or trophy. At best, it is a job offer. Work needs to be done. Given we are a poor country, development is obviously the focus, apart from some fiscally responsible welfare schemes. True wealth generation will only come when we open up our economy, encourage private innovation and integrate with the world. Infrastructure projects often are among the biggest expectations from politi-cians. Those who fail at all this eventually lose elections, no matter how morally right they were.

The need for governance skills is the reason many of our babas and saints are finding it difficult to make the jump to politics, despite claiming extraordinary moral uprightness. You don't just have to be honest. You have to make India move ahead. The UPA hasn't been as bad in this area. It's at least tried out a few modern policies. Many BJP state governments have also scored high. Mamata hasn't shone in this area, despite being seen as honest.

The third, and this is what Indian politics was all about, is the good old-fashioned art of politics. You could be honest and have great governance skills. If you can't play the political game, you can't win. You have to understand India and win people's trust, even if it involves some manipulation. Mamata excels at this. So did Mayawati a while ago. The Congress generally plays the art of politics better than the BJP, somehow managing to keep a secular card alive despite its blatant divisive politics. Managing caste equations, allies, consensus are all people-management skills that an Indian politician must know, at least for the next two decades.

The three-skill framework better predicts long-term success. The smartest Indian politicians don't kick up a fuss over non-issues and pretend to be pro-people every week. They develop the above skills, work and eventually succeed. Manipulators rise for a short while and dissipate just as fast. Greed for power is understandable for a politician. However, short-term greed is plain stupid. Long-term greed is what eventually pays off in life. It is also good for the country. Build a career. Build a better India. The country deserves it.

Biographies Of Indian Scientists

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:16:15 +0100

Indian scientists have played a stellar role in the development of India. In the short span of its post-independence history India has achieved several great scientific achievements. Indian scientists have proved their mettle in the face of international sanctions and have made India one of the scientific powerhouses of the world. Here is a brief profile of famous Indian scientists.

C.V. Raman Biography:

Born: November 7, 1888

Died: November 21, 1970

Achievements: He was the first Indian scholar who studied wholly in India received the Nobel Prize.

C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman was born on November 7, 1888 in Tiruchinapalli, Tamil Nadu. He was the second child of Chandrasekhar Iyer and Parvathi Amma. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics, so he had an academic atmosphere at home. He entered Presidency College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his B.A. examination, winning the first place and the gold medal in physics. In 1907, C.V. Raman passed his M.A. obtaining the highest distinctions.

During those times there were not many opportunities for scientists in India. Therefore, Raman joined the Indian Finance Department in 1907. After his office hours, he carried out his experimental research in the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at Calcutta. He carried out research in acoustics and optics.

In 1917, Raman was offered the position of Sir Taraknath Palit Professorship of Physics at Calcutta University. He stayed there for the next fifteen years. During his tenure there, he received world wide recognition for his work in optics and scattering of light. He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1924 and the British made him a knight of the British Empire in 1929. In 1930, Sir C.V. Raman was awarded with Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on scattering of light. The discovery was later christened as "Raman Effect".

In 1934, C.V. Raman became the director of the newly established Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore, where two years later he continued as a professor of physics. Other investigations carried out by Raman were: his experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent India. He retired from the Indian Institute in 1948 and a year later he established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, where he worked till his death.

Jagdish Chandra Bose Biography:

Born: November 30, 1858

Died: November 23, 1937

Achievements: He was the first to prove that plants too have feelings. He invented wireless telegraphy a year before Marconi patented his invention.

Jagdish Chandra Bose was an eminent Indian scientist. He was the first to prove that plants and metals too have feelings.

Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Jagadish Chandra Bose had his early education in village school in Bengal medium. In 1869, Jagadish Chandra Bose was sent to Calcutta to learn English and was educated at St.Xavier's School and College. He was a brilliant student. He passed the B.A. in physical sciences in 1879.

In 1880, Jagdishchandra Bose went to England. He studied medicine at London University, England, for a year but gave it up because of his own ill health. Within a year he moved to Cambridge to take up a scholarship to study Natural Science at Christ's College Cambridge. In 1885, he returned from abroad with a B.Sc. degree and Natural Science Tripos (a special course of study at Cambridge).

After his return Jagadish Chandra Bose, was offered lectureship at Presidency College, Calcutta on a salary half that of his English colleagues. He accepted the job but refused to draw his salary in protest. After three years the college ultimately conceded his demand and Jagdish Chandra Bose was paid full salary from the date he joined the college. As a teacher Jagdish Chandra Bose was very popular and engaged the interest of his students by making extensive use of scientific demonstrations. Many of his students at the Presidency College were destined to become famous in their own right. These included Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha.

In 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose decided to devote himself to pure research. He converted a small enclosure adjoining a bathroom in the Presidency College into a laboratory. He carried out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and polarization. It would not be wrong to call him as the inventor of wireless telegraphy. In 1895, a year before Guglielmo Marconi patented this invention, he had demonstrated its functioning in public.

Jagdish Chandra Bose later switched from physics to the study of metals and then plants. He fabricated a highly sensitive "coherer", the device that detects radio waves. He found that the sensitivity of the coherer decreased when it was used continuously for a long period and it regained its sensitivity when he gave the device some rest. He thus concluded that metals have feelings and memory.

Jagdish Chandra Bose showed experimentally plants too have life. He invented an instrument to record the pulse of plants and connected it to a plant. The plant, with its roots, was carefully picked up and dipped up to its stem in a vessel containing bromide, a poison. The plant's pulse beat, which the instrument recorded as a steady to-and-fro movement like the pendulum of a clock, began to grow unsteady. Soon, the spot vibrated violently and then came to a sudden stop. The plant had died because of poison.

Although Jagdish Chandra Bose did invaluable work in Science, his work was recognized in the country only when the Western world recognized its importance. He founded the Bose Institute at Calcutta, devoted mainly to the study of plants. Today, the Institute carries research on other fields too.

Jagdish Chandra Bose died on November 23, 1937.

M. Visvesvaraya Biography:

Born: September 15, 1860

Died: April 14, 1962

Achievements: Architect of Krishnarajasagar Dam; devised steel doors to stop the wasteful flow of water in dams; honored with Bharat Ratna.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was an eminent engineer and statesman and played a key role in building of modern India.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860 in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore (present day Karnataka). His father Srinivasa Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and Ayurvedic practitioner. His mother Venkachamma was a religious lady. He lost his father when he was only 15 years old.

Visvesvaraya completed his early education in Chikkaballapur and then went to Bangalore for higher education. He cleared his B.A. Examination in 1881. He got some assistance from the Government of Mysore and joined the Science College in Poona to study Engineering. In 1883 he ranked first in the L.C.E. and the F.C.E. Examinations (equivalent to B.E. Examination of today).

When Sir M. Visvesvaraya cleared his engineering, Government of Bombay offered him a job and appointed him Assistant Engineer at Nasik. As an engineer, he achieved some marvelous feats. He planned a way of supplying water from the river Sindhu to a town called Sukkur. He devised a new irrigation system called the Block System. He devised steel doors to stop the wasteful flow of water in dams. He was the architect of the Krishnaraja Sagara dam in Mysore. The list is endless.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya lead a very simple life. He was a strict vegetarian and a teetotaler. He was known for his honesty and integrity. In 1912, Maharaja of Mysore appointed Visvesvaraya as his Dewan. Before accepting the position of Dewan of Mysore, he invited all his relatives for dinner. He told them very clearly that he would accept the prestigious office on the condition that none of them would approach him for favours. As Dewan of Mysore, he worked tirelessly for educational and industrial development of the state. When he was the Dewan many new industries came up. The Sandal Oil Factory, the Soap Factory, the Metals Factory, the Chrome Tanning Factory , were some of them. Of the many factories he started the most important is the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya voluntarily retired as Dewan of Mysore in 1918. He worked actively even after his retirement. Sir M. Visvesvaraya was honored with Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his invaluable contribution to the nation. When he reached the age of 100, the Government of India brought out a stamp in his honor. Sir Visvesvaraya passed away on April 14, 1962 at the age of 101.

Some of the honours and laurels conferred on Sir M. Visvesvaraya

1904: Honorary Membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken period of 50 years

1906: "Kaisar-i-Hind" in recognition of his services

1911: C.I.E. (Companion of the Indian Empire) at the Delhi Darbar

1915: K.C.I.E. (Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire)

1921: D.Sc. - Calcutta University

1931: LLD - Bombay University

1937: D.Litt - Benaras Hindu University

1943: Elected as an Honorary Life Member of the Institution of Engineers (India)

1944: D.Sc. - Allahabad University

1948: Doctorate - LLD., Mysore University

1953: D.Litt - Andhra University

1953: Awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Town Planners, India

1955: Conferred ' BHARATHA RATNA'

1958: 'Durga Prasad Khaitan Memorial Gold Medal' by the Royal Asiatic Society Council of Bengal

1959: Fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Vikram Sarabhai Biography:

Born: August 12, 1919

Died: December 31,1971

Achievements: Considered the Father of the Indian space program; instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947; was Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists played a major role in the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Apart from being a scientist, he was a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary.

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919 at Ahmedabad in an affluent family of progressive industrialists. He was one of eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi. He had his early education in a private school, “Retreat” run by his parents on Montessori lines. Some of the great men of India such as Gurudev Rabindranath, J. Krishna Murthi, Motilal Nehru, V. S. Shrinivasa Shastri, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Maulana Azad, C. F. Andrews, C. V. Raman et al. used to stay with the Sarabhai family when they visited Ahmedabad. Mahatma Gandhi also once stayed at their house while recovering from an illness. Visits by such great men greatly influenced Vikram Sarabhai.

After his matriculation, Vikram Sarabhai proceeded to Cambridge for his college education and took the tripods degree from St. John's college in 1940. When World War II began, he returned home and joined as a research scholar under Sir C. V. Raman at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore His interest in solar physics and cosmic ray led him to set up many observation stations around the country. He built the necessary equipment with which he took measurements at Bangalore, Poona and the Himalayas. He returned to Cambridge in 1945 and completed his Ph.D in 1947.

Vikram Sarabhai was instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947. The laboratory was established in a few rooms in M.G. Science Institute of the Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded by his parents. Subsequently, it got support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Atomic Energy.

Vikram Sarabhai did research on the time variations of cosmic rays and concluded that meteorological effects could not entirely affect the observed daily variations of cosmic rays; further, the residual variations were wide and global and these were related to variations in solar activity. Vikram Sarabhai visualized a new field of research opening up in solar and interplanetary Physics.

The year 1957-1958 was designated as International Geo-physical year (IGY). The Indian program for the IGY had been one of the most significant ventures of Sarabhai. It exposed him to the new vistas of space science with the launching in 1957 of Sputnik-I. Subsequently, the Indian National Committee for Space Research was created, of which Vikram Sarabhai became Chairman.

With active support from Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, set up the first Rocket Launching station (TERLS) in the country at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the Arabian Coast, as Thumba is very close to the Equator. The first rocket with sodium vapour payload was launched on November 21, 1963. In 1965, the UN General Assembly gave recognition to TERLS as an international facility.

After the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash, Vikram Sarabhai was appointed Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966. He wanted the practical application of science to reach the common man. He decided to acquire competence in advance technology for the solution of country’s problems based on technical and economic evaluation of its real resources. He initiated India’s space programme, which today is renowned all over the world.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was awarded with Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal in 1962 and Padma Bhushan in 1966. Vikram Sarabhai passed away in his sleep on December 31,1971

Srinivasa Ramanujan Biography:

Born: December 22, 1887

Died: April 26, 1920

Achievements: Ramanujan independently discovered results of Gauss, Kummer and others on hypergeometric series. Ramanujan's own work on partial sums and products of hypergeometric series have led to major development in the topic. His most famous work was on the number p(n) of partitions of an integer n into summands.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu. His father worked in Kumbakonam as a clerk in a cloth merchant's shop. At the of five Ramanujan went to primary school in Kumbakonam. In 1898 at age 10, he entered the Town High School in Kumbakonam. At the age of eleven he was lent books on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney by two lodgers at his home who studied at the Government college. He mastered them by the age of thirteen. Ramanujan was a bright student, winning academic prizes in high school.

At age of 16 his life took a decisive turn after he obtained a book titled" A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics". The book was simply a compilation of thousands of mathematical results, most set down with little or no indication of proof. The book generated Ramanujan's interest in mathematics and he worked through the book's results and beyond. By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to undertake deep research. He investigated the series (1/n) and calculated Euler's constant to 15 decimal places. He began to study the Bernoulli numbers, although this was entirely his own independent discovery. He was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. But he neglected his other subjects at the cost of mathematics and failed in college examination. He dropped out of the college.

Ramanujan lived off the charity of friends, filling notebooks with mathematical discoveries and seeking patrons to support his work. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa's College. His aim was to pass the First Arts examination which would allow him to be admitted to the University of Madras. Continuing his mathematical work Ramanujan studied continued fractions and divergent series in 1908. At this stage he became seriously ill again and underwent an operation in April 1909 after which he took him some considerable time to recover.

On 14 July 1909 Ramanujan marry a ten year old girl S Janaki Ammal. During this period Ramanujan had his first paper published, a 17-page work on Bernoulli numbers that appeared in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In 191,1 Ramanujan approached the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society for advice on a job. He got the job of clerk at the Madras Port Trust with the help of Indian mathematician Ramachandra Rao.

The professor of civil engineering at the Madras Engineering College C L T Griffith was interested in Ramanujan's abilities and, having been educated at University College London, knew the professor of mathematics there, namely M J M Hill. He wrote to Hill on 12 November 1912 sending some of Ramanujan's work and a copy of his 1911 paper on Bernoulli numbers. Hill replied in a fairly encouraging way but showed that he had failed to understand Ramanujan's results on divergent series. In January 1913 Ramanujan wrote to G H Hardy having seen a copy of his 1910 book Orders of infinity. Hardy, together with Littlewood, studied the long list of unproved theorems which Ramanujan enclosed with his letter. Hardy wrote back to Ramanujan and evinced interest in his work.

University of Madras gave Ramanujan a scholarship in May 1913 for two years and, in 1914, Hardy brought Ramanujan to Trinity College, Cambridge, to begin an extraordinary collaboration. Right from the start Ramanujan's collaboration with Hardy led to important results. In a joint paper with Hardy, Ramanujan gave an asymptotic formula for p(n). It had the remarkable property that it appeared to give the correct value of p(n), and this was later proved by Rademacher.

Ramanujan had problems settling in London. He was an orthodox Brahmin and right from the beginning he had problems with his diet. The outbreak of World War I made obtaining special items of food harder and it was not long before Ramanujan had health problems.

On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research. He had been allowed to enrol in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications. Ramanujan's dissertation was on Highly composite numbers and consisted of seven of his papers published in England.

Ramanujan fell seriously ill in 1917 and his doctors feared that he would die. He did improve a little by September but spent most of his time in various nursing homes. On February 18, 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and later he was also elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. By the end of November 1918 Ramanujan's health had greatly improved.

Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 arriving on 13 March. However his health was very poor and, despite medical treatment, he died on April 6, 1920.

APJ Abdul Kalam Biography:

Born - 15 October 1931

Achievements - This eminent scientist and engineer has also served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. APJ Abdul Kalam is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country. He firmly believes that India needs to play a more assertive role in international relations.

Apart from being a notable scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country and is also often also referred to as the Missile Man of India. People loved and respected Dr APJ Abdul Kalam so much during his tenure as President that was popularly called the People's President.

APJ Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 at the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and received honorary doctorates from about 30 universities globally. In the year 1981, the Government of India presented him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan and then again, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and the Bharat Ratna in 1997. Before Kalam, there have been only two presidents - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain - to have received the Bharat Ratna before bring appointed to the highest office in India.

Read on about the life history of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who's also the first scientist and bachelor to occupy the seat of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. His perspectives on important topics have been enunciated by him in the book 'India 2020'. It highlights the action plans that will help develop the country into a knowledge superpower by the time 2020. One thing for which he received ample kudos is his unambiguous statement that India needs to play a more assertive role in international relations.

And Dr APJ Abdul Kalam regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower. Even during his tenure as President, APJ Kalam took avid interest in the spheres of India's science and technology. He has even put forward a project plan for establishing bio-implants. He is also an ardent advocate of open source software over proprietary solutions to churn out more profits in the field of information technology in India.

First Steve Jobs movie gets red carpet premiere

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:03:50 +0100

The first movie about Apple's legendary co-founder got its world premiere on Friday, just 15 months after Steve Jobs' death.

"Jobs," starring " Two and a Half Men" actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of a U.S. national release in April.

"Jobs" chronicles 30 defining years of the late Apple chairman, from an experimental youth to the man in charge of one of the world's most recognized brands. It is the first of two U.S. feature films about Jobs, who died in 2011 at age 56.

"Everybody has their own opinion about Steve Jobs, and they have something invested in a different part of his story. So the challenge is to decide what part of his story to tell, and not disenfranchise anybody," director Josh Stern told Reuters ahead of the screening.

"Hazarding a guess and venturing into too much speculation is always dangerous, especially with a character who is so well-known...," Stern added.

Kutcher, 34, said on Friday he was honored to play Jobs but also terrified because of the former Apple chairman's iconic status.

"To be playing a guy who so freshly is in people's minds, where everywhere you go you can run into people who met him or knew him or had seen a video of him ... that's terrifying because everyone is an appropriate critic," Kutcher told Reuters.

"Everyone can tear you apart. Everyone can look at any detail, a piece of clothing or a speech pattern and go 'No, no, this is not what it was,' and that's really scary," the actor said.

steve jobs:

Steve Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Apple's destiny has been closely tied to Jobs, the short-tempered and charismatic leader who rescued the computer maker from near death in 1996 after a 12-year absence from the company he co-founded.

His role in turning around the company into the electronics powerhouse of today is well-documented: the global spread of the iPhone, the rise of the iPad that single-handedly created the tablet market, and continued strong growth from a resurgent Mac line of computers.

He had surgery in 2004 for an unusual type of tumor on his pancreas called a neuroendocrine tumor -- which often is not quite as deadly as pancreatic cancer. The tumors can cause hormone imbalances, like the one that prompted Jobs to take medical leave in 2009. Jobs had a liver transplant in 2009, and organ transplant recipients sometimes have recurring health issues for life, in part because they often must take immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection.

In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Oregon. One semester later he dropped out. Jobs started Apple with a fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak in his family garage in Los Altos, California in April 1976. Jobs, then 21, was the "sales" guy, while Wozniak worked as an engineer.

Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco to then unmarried graduate student Joanne Carole Schieble and a Syrian father Abdulfattah Jandali, Steven Paul Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs, a middle-class American couple. Steve Jobs's quest for spiritual enlightenment brought him to India in the summer of 1974. Jobs came to India with one of his best friends from Reed College, Dan Kottke.

One of the most admired CEOs, Jobs takes home a $1 salary. However, he owns some 5.5 million shares in the company, which are worth some $1.8 billion.

Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991. The couple have a son, Reed Paul Jobs, and two other children. Steve also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan. She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity, claiming that he was sterile; he later acknowledged paternity

Best PC Game Mods of all time

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:52:26 +0100

Deus Ex:

Synopsis: Ion Storm's first-person RPG gave the player power. Not just in the form of deadly weaponry, which was certainly present, but also over the game itself. In each expansive level multiple routes to the end were available. With hacking skills you could take control of security bots to wipe out enemy patrols, or if concentrated more on raw firepower, you could blast your way to the end instead. With an intriguing science fiction storyline, vivid characters, plenty of ways to augment your character skills and armaments, and some really great level design, this game was as entertaining as it was thought-provoking. Ultimately, Deus Ex stands out for accommodating player desires for complex ways to control their gameplay experiences, instead of being forced along a linear path. An unforgettable experience.

Warcraft 2: The Tides of Darkness:

Synopsis: There are a few iconic genre games that are hard to pass over when it comes to a top 25 list. We had to pass some of them over this time around in the hopes of adding newer, sleeker models, but we had too much trouble passing some of them up. One we couldn't overlook was Warcraft II. Not only did it really begin the move to multiplayer over the Internet, but really helped drive the RTS genre home as not only viable, but hugely successful. Besides that, playing Warcraft II today is still pretty enjoyable thanks to stylized cartoon graphics and wonderful, if simple by today's standards, sound. While a bit goofier than your average RTS, the world is still vibrant and units well realized. Who knew that a war between Orcs and Humans, a war that had raged through countless pieces of fiction, would spawn into a gazillion dollar franchise in a completely different genre series. There are so many good memories with this game that all three of us PC editors insisted it be somewhere on the list.

Call of Duty:

Synopsis: World War 2 shooters had been done to death when Infinity Ward honed the genre to razor sharp perfection with Call of Duty. From the initial paratrooper drops in the hours before D-Day to the final struggle for Berlin, gamers were instantly transported to a world that was at once both thrillingly cinematic and eerily real. The game's realistic AI and squad based combat makes you feel more like part of an actual unit rather than a one-man killing machine. Add in some of the best sound design we've seen and Call of Duty is one of the most convincing and exciting simulations of FPS warfare we've ever seen. Better still, the game offers up a wide range of multiplayer battles that are still our first choice when it comes to online action.

World of Warcraft:

Synopsis: You'd have to have been living in a cave on Mars for the last five years not to know about Blizzard's World of Warcraft. The company, widely known as the creators of one of the industry's leading RTS franchises proved that it could crush the competition just as easily in the world of online RPGs. The subscription numbers (and server queues) alone are more than enough evidence of the title's success but if you need further proof, you only have to consider the inviting design, stylish graphics and richly storied, quest filled game world to see why it's inclusion on our list of the best games ever is a foregone conclusion. While it doesn't eliminate the grinding and downtime that are part and parcel of the MMO experience, World of Warcraft hides them better than most games and also offers up enough rewards to keep us questing long after we should have gone to bed

Star Wars TIE Fighter:

Synopsis: Fans of space combat games will always have a soft spot to games like Wing Commander or Elite, but no game before or since has captured the drama and action of the genre as well as TIE Fighter. Benefiting from the lessons learned from the X-Wing game that launched the franchise, TIE Fighter boasted some of the best flight mechanics and mission design ever seen in a space combat game. Long before Knights of the Old Republic gave us a chance to see what it's like to serve the Empire, TIE Fighter presented the opportunity for the player to become the villain. The Collector's Edition went one better by adding improved polygonal graphics and brilliant sound design. There have been a few imitators since this classic game was released, but none have come close to delivering the excitement and joy that we still find running secret missions for the Emperor.

Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings:

Synopsis: When it comes to old-school RTS games, no one did it bigger or better than Ensemble's Age of Kings. Though it lacked the sophisticated tactical action of Starcraft, Age of Kings' rock-paper-scissors combat model and its subtle balancing of a wide range of civilizations makes it one of the most enjoyable RTS games ever. Sure, the historical setting required a bit of similarity among the unit types but the advantages and disadvantages of each civilization were so intriguing that no one side played like any other. Possessing one of the most engaging resource models in any RTS before or since, Age of Kings was just as much about your infrastructure as it was about your armies. The RTS has definitely evolved a lot over the last eight years but Age of Kings still represents the peak of what historical RTS games used to be.

Civilization IV:

Synopsis: One of the Civilization games was absolutely going to be in the top 5 in this list, it was just a matter of which one we chose to occupy the spot. For years, it was largely understood that Civilization II was the best in the series offering up complex strategy in a palatable and even graceful format. Some out there would probably still argue that it's the best of the bunch, but we decided the latest went above and beyond that great title with more improvements than can be counted. From the revamped damage system to the diplomatic improvements and inclusion of religion, Civilization IV provides the most addictive 4X experience on the market. Even worse for those of us incapable of quitting to desktop is the inclusion of a very workable multiplayer solution. Turn-based strategy has never been easy this way, but Firaxis managed to make it easy, make saves work, and make it easily as much fun as the single player if not more so. Civilization IV is a brilliant game

X-COM: UFO Defense:

Synopsis: It may be old as hell and you may have to actually disable DirectDraw to get it to run these days but there's still no PC game that can compete with the mighty X-COM. Conceptually it's one of the finest strategy games to ever appear on any system. Putting the player in charge of a worldwide defense against an alien invasion, the original X-COM combined elements of sophisticated base management, high-tech research, engaging roleplaying, thrilling tactical combat and a tense, terrifying story to create an experience that has yet to be duplicated by any other game. Leading your squads on missions to reclaim crashed UFOs or fighting house to house in an effort to repel alien terror attacks on major cities throughout the world were the highlights of the game but X-COM has plenty of other pleasures in store, from juggling personnel and equipment to keeping the nations of the world happy enough to sustain your budget. Simply put, there's no excuse for strategy fans not to break this one out and play through it again.

Scientists use DNA to store MP3, holds 2.2 petabytes per gram

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:18:07 +0100

Further exploring the role biological processes could one day play in the evolution of technology, researchers from the European Bioinformatics Institute claim to have successfully encoded 154 Shakespeare sonnets and an MP3 of Martin Luther King's famed "I Have a Dream" speech into a single DNA strand -- or in other words about 739KB of information. Perhaps the most amazing part though, is researchers were able to read those files again with 100 percent accuracy. Will we eventually store our digital lives as strands of DNA?

The fact DNA can store information is of little surprise; DNA strands are essentially chemical-based instruction manuals for developing highly complex organisms with a seemingly infinite variety of permutations.

"We realized that DNA itself is a really efficient way of storing information," one researcher noted. It was this thinking led the team of scientists to consider using DNA as a digital storage medium. "So over a second beer, we started to write on napkins and sketch out some details of how that might be made to work," he continued.

In fact, DNA is so fantastically efficient, researchers believe they can cram about 2.2 petabytes of information into a single gram of DNA. "We recovered 757,051 bytes of information from 337 pg of DNA (above), giving an information storage density of ~2.2 PB/g (= 757,051/337 × 10-12)", the paper claims. That's remarkably better than today's storage technologies. By comparison, it would take several hundred 3.5-inch 4TB hard drives to match that kind of storage density.

Importantly, researchers also believe their DNA encoding scheme produces data that is reliable and long-lived. Their methods of DNA-based storage include error-correction and redundancy which protect against data loss. The big drawback though, for now, appears to be price.

According to those involved with the experiment -- using current methods for DNA manipulation -- the approximate cost per gigabyte is somewhere around $12,400/MB. "It's an unthinkably large amount of money," one researcher noted. However, his team feels that in about 10 years, DNA storage could become more cost-effective than traditional storage methods for large enterprises.

Aside from obvious cost concerns, the researchers' omission of write and retrieval speeds could prove to be another sticking point. One of the documents notes, "The experiment was not optimised for speed" but the timeline therein indicates processing times measured in "days" rather than seconds. It's unclear how much improvement can be made in this area.

latest mobiles

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:13:29 +0100

iphone 5s:

The iPhone 5S rumors are heating up. This year's batch includes bigger screen size, wireless charging, improved camera and the possibility of a fingerprint sensor for security.

Bigger Screen Size

To compete with larger phones like the increasingly threatening Samsung Galaxy S3, Apple insiders believe the iPhone 5S will need a screen enhancement. Though Apple CEO Tim Cook maintains the current 4-inch display as optima, the buzz is leaning towards a 4.8-inch Retina Display; the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S3.Wireless Charging

Apple fan boys have been geeking out over wireless charging for the last couple iPhone installments. There may be significant evidence this year may finally be the year. Last month, Apple patented Wireless Power Utilization, a wireless charging system with NFMR, near-field magnetic resonance. Get excited!

12-Megapixel Camera, Enhanced Flash and A7 Processor

The camera and processor seem to be two of the standard upgrades for every new iPhone launch. The next iPhone is believed to come with a 12-megapixel camera, a 4-megapixel upgrade from last year and enhance rear flash capabilities. Following the Apple trend, the iPhone 5S is also likely to bump up to an A7 chip processor to assist with increasingly complex tasks.

Fingerprint Security Sensors

A juicier, more "wow" worthy new iPhone rumor is the possibility of fingerprint sensors for security. Apple recently purchased mobile network security company AuthenTec for $356 million. No surprise where the rumors started, AuthenTec manufactures fingerprint sensors. Does this mean instead of a pass code the iPhone 6 will only unlock to my unique fingerprint?

iPhone 5S, 6 Release Date

Many believe the iPhone 5S could be scheduled for a mid 2013 release, while most maintain a late 2013, early 2014 launch for the iPhone 6.

Samsung Galaxy S4 to feature wireless charging, April 15 launch:

We've known for some time that a new Samsung Galaxy S smartphone has been in the works. Past rumors suggested a possible April 2013 launch date for the Galaxy S4; however, a recent scoop by Samsung-enthusiasts Sammobile indicates a far more precise date of release: April 15. It's likely we'll see an announcement in March at one of Samsung's "Mobile Unpacked" events.

Alongside a supposed shipping date, Sammobile also claims to have more granular details about the Jelly Bean device.

For starters, the Galaxy S4 will sport a high-capacity 2600mAh battery. That's definitely a step up from the S3's 2100mAh pack, giving the S4 a roughly 20 percent advantage over its predecessor in terms of battery power. The new phone is also rumored to feature wireless charging, likely the fruit of Samsung's involvement as a founding member of the A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power) consortium.

Earlier rumors indicated the S4 would pack a quad-core Cortex-A15 processor, 2GB of system RAM, a 13MP rear camera and a sizeable 5-inch 1080p display. The latest information corroborates most of those specifications, but upgrades the CPU to eight cores with an eight-core Mali-T658 GPU and a Super AMOLED display. The S4 will supposedly ship in white and black.

The smartphone has been known internally as "Project J", but that appears to have changed to "Altius" recently. It's suspected that the Galaxy S4 will actually be branded as the Samsung Galaxy S IV, especially since the company has used roman numerals in the past for the S III and S II.

WOF: What should be the next major development in smartphones?

Smartphones have come a long way since the first PDAs with phone capabilities hit the market. But as the market matures it's getting increasingly difficult for companies to come up with truly revolutionary new features year after year.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few things I'd like to see in the next few years: longer lasting batteries, perfected voice recognition, devices powerful enough for some serious gaming beamed onto the living room TV, and on the carriers' side 'affordable' unlimited mobile broadband.

But what about all the other futuristic things that are promised to us at trade shows? Flexible displays and built in HD projectors? NFC-based mobile payments? Perhaps wearable computing projects like Google Glass will take off and bring the smartphone functions into the fold? In this Weekend Open Forum we want to ask, what do you think will be the next major development in the smartphone world?

India Education

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:00:45 +0100

Today education system in India can be divided into many stages.

Pre- Primary - It consists of children of 3-5 years of age studying in nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten. At this stage student is given knowledge about school life and is taught to read and write some basic words.

Primary - It includes the age group of children of 6-11 years studying in classes from first to fifth.

Middle - It consists of children studying in classes from sixth to eighth.

Secondary - it includes students studying in classes ninth and tenth.

Higher Secondary - Includes students studying in eleventh and twelfth classes.

Undergraduate - Here, a student goes through higher education, which is completed in college. This course may vary according to the subject pursued by the student. For medical student this stage is of four and a half years plus one year of compulsory internship, while a simple graduate degree can be attained in three years.

Postgraduate - After completing graduation a student may opt for post graduation to further add to his qualifications.

Education Governing Bodies

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): This is the main governing body of education system in India. It has control over the central education system. It conducts exam and looks after the functioning of schools accredited to central education system.

The Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE): It is a board for Anglo Indian Studies in India. It conducts two examinations 'Indian Certificate of Secondary Education' and 'Indian School Certificate'. Indian Certificate of secondary education is a k-10 examination for those Indian students who have just completed class 10th and Indian school certificate is a k-12 public examination conducted for those studying in class 12th.

The State Government Boards: Apart from CBSE and CISCE each state in India has its own State Board of education, which looks after the educational issues.

The National Open School: It is also known as National Institute of Open Schooling. It was established by the Government Of India in 1989. It is a ray of hope for those students who cannot attend formal schools.

The International School: It controls the schools, which are accredited to curriculum of international standard.

Medical Courses

This course at undergraduate level is known as MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery). It is of four and a half year's duration plus one year of obligatory internship. Various medical colleges conduct entrance examination for admission to this course. An all India level examination is also conducted by CBSE for admission to colleges all over India based over 15% reserved seats. The important medical colleges of India are:

All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi

Air Force Medical College (AFMC), Pune

Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana

Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore

Grants Medical College, Mumbai

Institute of Medical Science (BHU), Varanasi

Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry

Maulan Azad Medical College (MAMC), Delhi

Lady Harding Medical College (LHMC), Delhi (for girls only)

Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Science , Wardha

Engineering Course

The bachelor of Engineering (BE) or bachelor of Technology (B Tech) is a four-year course. It has wide range of options. Some of them are:

Aeronautical and Aerospace engineering

Agriculture engineering

Computer engineering

Electronic and electrical engineering

Industrial engineering

Marine engineering

Mining engineering

The best engineering colleges of India are:

Delhi college of Engineering, Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology, KANPUR

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Institute of Technology, BHU

NIT Karnataka, Surathkal

National Institute of Technology, Warangal

Management Course

In India education in management is one of the most sort out courses. The institutes, which impart education in management, are known as "Business Schools". In India management education is given at two levels, undergraduate and post-graduate. Undergraduate degree courses include BBA, BBS, BBM. Postgraduate degree course is known as MBA (Masters of Business Administration). Some of the important Business schools of India are:

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Indian Institute of Management, Indore

Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi

Symbiosis, Pune

JBIMS, Mumbai

XLRI, Jamshedpur

The other professional courses offered by Indian universities include, Architecture, Dental, Fashion Designing, Travel and Tourism.

Distance Education in India

Indian Education system offers distance education to those who cannot join regular schools or colleges. National Institute of Open Schooling offers school education through distance learning.

University Education is also offered thorough distance learning. Many college courses like in arts (history, economics, literature, Islamic studies), commerce (finance, banking, accounting) are offered by Indian universities. Apart from these, professional courses in management, mass media, para medical, engineering, law, travel and tourism are also part of distance education in India.

Education Policy

The national policy of education (1986) and program of action (1992) lay down the objectives and features of Indian education policy. It includes:

Development of International cooperation and peaceful coexistence through education.

Promotion of equality. It could be achieved by providing equal access and equal condition of success to children.

A common educational structure (10+2+3) for the whole of India.

Education for women's equality. The Indian education should be used as a tool to change the status of women in the society.

Equalization of SC population with others in the matter of education. This is ensured by giving incentives to parents who send their children to schools, providing scholarship to SC students for higher studies, reservation of seats in institution of higher studies in India, recruitment of SC teachers.

Opening of primary schools in tribal area for promotion of education in ST people.

Development of curriculum and study material in the language of tribal people.

Emphasis on the education of minorities.

Adult education - Initiation of National Literacy Mission, for teaching illiterate people of age group 15-35. And making them aware of the day-to-day realities of their surroundings.

Special emphasis on early childhood care and education by opening up of day care centers, promotion of child focused programs.

Increasing the scope of Operation Blackboard for upliftment of standard of primary education in India.

Secondary education curriculum should expose the students to differentiated roles of science, the humanities, and social science.

Redesigning of courses of higher education to meet the increasing demand of professionalism.

Providing enhanced support to the research work in Universities. Efforts to relate ancient Indian knowledge with the contemporary reality.

Setting up of Open Universities and Distance Learning centers to promote the goal of education as a life long process.

A combined perspective of technical and management education.

Minimum exposure to computers and training in their use to be the part of professional education.

The All India Council for Technical Education will be responsible for maintenance of norms and standards, accreditation, funding, and monitoring of technical and management education in India.

Multiple task performance for teachers such as teaching, research, development of learning resource material, extension and management of the institution.

Providing teachers a better deal to make education system in India work in proper way, as teachers are the backbone of the system. Providing better facilities to institutions and improved services to students.

Development of languages in great deal.

Measures to be taken for easy accessibility of books at minimum costs to all sections of students.

Strengthening of science education for the development of spirit of inquiry and objectivity in the minds of students.

The purpose of examination to be to bring about qualitative improvement in education. It should discourage memorization.

Methods of teacher recruitment to be recognized one to ensure merit and objectivity in the system.

Overhauling of the system of teacher education and establishment of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) to organize courses for elementary school teachers.

Reviewing of educational developments by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE)

Involvement of local communities for school improvement programmes.

Review of the implementation of the parameters of the policy every five years,

Strengthening the base of pyramid of Indian population for proper development of education system in India.

National Policy of Education (1992) laid down many objectives for the development of education system in India but it has not been successful in achieving all of them. It has specified that the examination system should discourage the memorizing but it is what is going on. The education in India seems to encourage rote learning instead of experimentation and questioning. There is some disparity in assessment as all the State Boards have different standards of evaluation.

The reservation on the basis of caste and religion is also a negative point in Indian education. Corruption is visible in the allocation of seats of institutions of higher studies and student politics is another sore point. These are some of the issues, which need to be worked upon.

Though there are disparities between the objectives and their implementation in education but still education system in India has come a long way and will continue to improve in the future.

Some important facts about Indian education:

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to the world and 'charaka' is known as the father of Ayurveda. He developed this system some 2500 years back.

Takshila was the first university of world established in 700 B.C.

Nalanda University, built in 4 AD, was considered to be the honor of ancient Indian system of education as it was one of the best Universities of its time in the subcontinent.

Indian language Sanskrit is considered to be the mother of many modern languages of world.

Place value system was developed in India in 100 B.C.

India was the country, which invented number system.

Aryabhatta, the Indian scientist, invented digit zero.

Trigonometry, algebra and calculus studies were originated in India.

Latest Fashion Trends India

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 08:05:08 +0100

1. Welcome to our Latest Fashion Trends

2. Fashion Accessories For WomenFashion AccessoriesHave Known ToAugment TheAppearance Of AnyOutfit Worn By Women. – These Accessories Are A Sort Of Embellishment That Adds A Special Touch To A Woman’s Attire.

3. Designer Hand BagsDesigner or brandedhandbags are knownas luxury fashionaccessories becauseof their expensivenature. – Available in different designs & styles, designer purses & handbags provide women with opportunity to choose different handbags for.

4. Earrings DesignsA right pair of earringscan add a lot of styleto your outfit and toyour appearance. – The innovative patterns and designs add a fun and funky flair to the dressing style.

5. Ladies Fashion Shoes– This calls for the need Another important to buy fancy ladies thing is to consider shoes that are your body shape and specifically designed for size. informal parties and functions.

6. Indian Designer Saree• Not only the Indian women, but women living in other countries too show huge passion towards sarees• Indian sarees have always been attractive for women.

7. Salwar Kameez– Salwar Kameez is one Salwar Kameez can of the traditional wear of rightly be termed as one Indian women. of the most well-known and highly appreciated wear globally.

Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster Launched in India

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 08:05:29 +0100

The Italian luxury sports car manufacturer, Lamborghini that launched the all new Aventador LP700-4 Roadster in the global markets, has today launched it in India at Rs 4.77 Crore (ex-showroom, Delhi), which makes it one of the most expensive supercars sold in India today. The all new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster is the most exciting series production Lamborghini ever built and the new benchmark in the world of open-top luxury super sports cars.

Lamborghini that already sells the Aventador coupe in India, has now positioned the roadster right above that. The new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster can immediately be recognized by the unique profile of its upper area, which extends along newly designed geometric lines from the removable roof to the engine hood.

The new Aventador LP700-4 Roadster boasts record performance. It accelerates from 0 to 100kmph in only 3 seconds flat and has a maximum speed of some 350kmph. These numbers, combined with a drive train featuring a centrally located, 6.5 litre aspirated V12 generating 700bhp, an ISR 7-speed gearbox and push-rod suspension make the new Aventador Roadster a unique super sports car with no direct competition.

The Roadster's V12 also includes a cylinder deactivation system when the engine is working at partial capacity, while the innovative, instant Stop & Start system includes high-performance capacitors known as supercaps to awaken the engine. This is an absolute first in the super sports car segment.

The two-piece roof is made entirely from carbon fibre using various technologies such as RTM and Forged Composite®. These technologies guarantee maximum aesthetic performance and stiffness although each component is extremely light, weighing less than 6 kg. These two parts are removable, easy to handle, and being lightweight and simple to attach, can be stored in the front luggage compartment. In just a few seconds the Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster can be admired in all its luxurious beauty.

The Aventador Roadster is also equipped with door windows with chamfered edges, which always ensure a perfect fit into the hard-top seal, and underline the sharp side profile of the car.The body of the new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster sports a two-tone finish, as the wind-shield pillar, the two roof sections and the rear window area up to the “fins” are painted in gloss black. The visual effect is that of a completely open vehicle with sleek lines combining perfectly balanced sportiness and elegance.