Scenario I: An illiterate person walks into an ATM, utters his password in Bhojpuri to withdraw money. Or a labourer working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) speaks his voice signature to mark his attendance for the day. Scenario II: The door at a top-secret Indian defence establishment open son a voice recognition system that allows only certain officials access to the premises. If you think this is stuff out...
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Rural India's swift digital TV embrace by Sharmistha Mukherjee
Digital TV penetration in rural India is three-fold higher than in urban areas, says a report compiled by the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) on the pay TV sector. Though nearly 80 per cent of households in urban areas have television sets, more than double the 38 per cent in rural areas, the adoption of technology has been much faster in the latter. Digital TV penetration is 34 per cent in rural...
More »Lethal impact by R Krishnakumar
The issues relating to the victims of endosulfan, sprayed in the plantations of Kasargod district in Kerala, have snowballed once again. “Earthworms emerged from the soil, and, subsequently, died. Then birds came to eat the earthworms and they died as well.” “Some termites were killed in a cotton farm sprayed with endosulfan. A frog fed on the dead termites, and was immobilised a few minutes later. An owl which flew over...
More »2010 on track to being one of three warmest years on record, UN reports
The year 2010 is almost certain to rank among the three warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, with the possibility of topping the chart, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported today. The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for January–October is estimated at 0.55 degrees Celsius, plus or minus 0.11 degrees, (0.99 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 0.20 degrees) above the...
More »Asia struggles to boost food output as inflation bites by Naveen Thukral
Asian governments, battling soaring food inflation, are pumping ever more resources into agriculture but will struggle to offset rapidly expanding demand in top consumers China and India. China, stung by consumer prices running at a 25-month peak, has been selling state stockpiles. It has also ordered banks to urgently offer support to farmers, an example of the sort of firepower these governments can deploy. With China and India also in many cases...
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