Mar 29, 2016

Arvind Kejriwal named among world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune

3/29/2016
Arvind Kejriwal has been named among the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine with the Delhi Chief Minister being the sole Indian leader on the list topped by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
  • Fortune’s third annual ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ list features men and women from across the globe from the fields of business, government, philanthropy and the arts who are “transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same.”
  • 47-year-old Aam Aadmi Party chief is ranked 42nd on the list and is the sole leader from India.
  • However, South Carolina’s Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley is also on the list at 17th while another Indian- American Resham Saujani is at the 20th spot
The list includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2), Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at (3), US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (22), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde (36), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair and CEO Melinda Gates and Susan Desmond-Hellmann (41), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (48) and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay (50).
Giving company to Kejriwal from South Asia is Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the number 10 spot.

Mar 28, 2016

Andhra Pradesh Government inaugurates country’s first lift irrigation project

3/28/2016
Andhra Pradesh government inaugurated India’s first river linking project viz. Pattiseema lift irrigation project connecting Godavari River with Krishna River from the ongoing Polavaram Multi-purpose Irrigation Project.
The project has been completed in a record time of one year by the Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL).





Points to note
  • The project has capactiry to lift 80 tmc (trillion metric cubic feet) of flood water from Godavari River in a span of 110 days during the flooding season between July and October.
  • Water is pumped up to a nearby point and discharged into Polavaram Right Main Canal that flows under gravity to a tributary of River Krishna about 170 km.
  • The project contains 24 pumps and 24 motors of 5,300 HP and 6,300 HP respectively with a combined capacity to discharge 8,500 cusecs of water.
  • The project requires 113 mw of power to run all the 24 pumps as each motor require 4.7 mw of power to lift the water.
The first pump of this Godavari-Krishna linking project was installed and switched on in September 2015. It will benefit the people especially farmers in the Krishna delta in terms of timely availability and adequate quantities of water.
Polavarm project: It was declared as a national project under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 and was being funded by the Union Government. It is being built on Godavari River.

ISRO establishes GIRI Radar System near Tirupati

3/28/2016
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has installed the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer (GIRI) Radar System near Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
It was installed at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), which is an autonomous research institute of the Department of Space (DoS).

Features of GIRI Radar System
  • Primary objective: Carry out unattended observations for studying the forcing from the sun like variation in solar flare, solar flux and magnetic storm on the ionospheric irregularities.
  • Study unattended observations from the underneath atmosphere on the ionospheric irregularities (for e.g. waves generated by weather phenomena).
  • Provide important information about the angular location of plasma irregularities during the onset phase. Also establish its relationship to background ionospheric state parameters and sunset terminator.
  • Applications: Investigations made using this system are expected to improve the Equatorial Plasma Bubble (EPB) forecasting. It will further be detrimental for satellite based navigation/communication applications.
  • Components: The GIRI has a 30 MHz radar system that will be engaged in meteor and space weather research.
  • It consists of a rectangular antenna array of 160 two-element Yagi Uda-antenna. It will be arranged in a 20×8 matrix with 20 transmitter units. It also has 6 digital receivers including data processing systems, a host computer and a radar controller.

Mar 27, 2016

South Korea tops Global Average Internet speed

3/27/2016
Content delivery network services provider Akamai Technologies released its Fourth Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds, broadband adoption metrics, notable Internet disruptions, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation.



  • The report revealed that global average connection speed increased 8.6% to 5.6 Mbps from the third quarter, a 23% increase year-over-year.
  • South Korea had the top average connection speed at 26.7 Mbps, while India was the slowest in the Asia Pacific region with average speeds of 2 Mbps.
  • The peak speed in India was also lower than South Korea’s average — at 21.2 Mbps.
  • Also, in the fourth quarter of 2015, 32% of unique IP addresses across the world connected to Akamai at average speeds above 10 Mbps, an increase of 15% over the previous quarter. Year-over-year, this was a 34% increase.
  • When it comes to mobile connectivity, the report places United Kingdom on top with the fastest average mobile connection speed at 26.8Mbps, and Spain in second place at 14.0 Mbps.
  • Iran had the lowest average connection speed, at 1.3 Mbps, followed by Vietnam with an average connection speed of 1.8 Mbps.

Feb 29, 2016

Oscar Awards: 88th Academy Awards

2/29/2016
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The “Oscars”.
The 2016 Oscars Winners – Complete List
  • Best Picture: Spotlight.
  • Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant).
  • Best Actress: Brie Larson (Room).
  • Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies).
  • Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl).
  • Best Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant).
  • Best Original Screenplay: Tom McCarthy (Spotlight).
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Adam McKay (The Big Short).
  • Best Original Song: Writing’s on the Wall (Spectre).
  • Best Original Score: The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone).
  • Best Production Design: Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Best Editing: Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant).
  • Best Sound Editing: Mark A. Mangini and David White (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Best Sound Mixing: Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul (Hungary).
  • Best Documentary Feature:
  • Best Documentary Short Subject: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.
  • Best Live Action Short Film:
  • Best Visual Effects: Mark Williams Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris and Andrew Whitehurst (Ex Machina).
  • Best Animated Feature Film: Inside Out.
  • Best Animated Short Film: Bear Story.
  • Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road).
  • Most awards: Mad Max: Fury Road (6 Awards) followed by The Revenant (3) and Spotlight (2).
  • Most nominations in 88th Academy Awards: The Revenant (12), Mad Max: Fury Road (10) and The Martian (7).
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