Category Archives: Science and Technology

Faded Genes

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We are going to have to ask for the experts to comment on this one. The BBC reports (thanks for the tip Mytri):

Indians infected with the AIDS virus are more likely to contract the disease than people in the west, a new study has found.

Scientists say that Indians have lower immunity to the virus because they have genes that hasten the disease.

India says more than five million of its citizens are infected with the HIV virus, second only to South Africa.

Activists say the number of Indians affected by HIV/Aids is much higher than the government says.

Scientists at India’s premier medical school, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), studied 200 people with HIV infection and 2000 healthy people over two years for the study.

I always try to look at genetic anomalies in terms of evolutionary pressures. In cases where none are obvious I just shrug my shoulders and wait for an explanation.

“Protective genes are low among Indians while the harmful genes are more common,” Dr NK Mehra, head of the study told the BBC.

Ummmm. That explanation doesn’t quite make it clear (to me at least). In a somewhat related story the Hindustan Times reported last week that Indians and Pakistanis in England have the lowest number of sexual partners (ouch).

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Sir Branson, ustad of the photo op

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Richard Branson inaugurated the first London to Bombay route for Virgin Atlantic last Thursday (via Zoo Station). He cavorted atop a jet wing in a Virgin-colored sherwani and took the Andheri-to-Churchgate local with the dabbawallahs to deliver hot lunches to his staff. In his spare time, he played a cricket match at the Oval Maidan next to Bombay U, paraded before the Gateway of India in a chariot and wore the infamous light bulb-festooned black leather suit that Amitabh wore in Yaarana. He’s also throwing in a couple of free airline tickets for two dabbawallahs to represent at Prince Charles’ wedding (thanks, Turbanhead). This guy’s theatrics put Steve Jobs to shame.

Getting a taste of British-style bureaucracy, Branson nearly got deported for an expired visa; ringing up the prime minister got that sorted. Branson said he’d been wanting this route for 10 years and pushed for unrestricted access to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, even more aggressive than India’s open skies agreement with the U.S.

In 2000, he inaugurated the Delhi route:

His performance in Delhi in 2000 was even more impressive. Clad in Punjabi dress, he did the bhangra and then rode his way on a cycle rickshaw…

Photo galleries of Branson’s visit: 1, 2

Boozing in Bhutan

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As if the beautiful scenery, burgeoning democracy, and religious devotion to penises wasn’t enough, Bhutan gives us another reason to book our next vacation there: They love to party!

In Thimphu, trendy bars and pubs have mushroomed. They are popular with young city-dwellers who drop by most evenings for a drink after work. During a night of pub-hopping in Thimphu, I saw most places choc-a-bloc with young men and women. Alcohol swigging, swirling cigarette smoke and uninhibited laughter. In one, a few couples were dancing to loud music. The health secretary, Dr Thinley, says the government is working on awareness campaigns to encourage people to drink in moderation, and also keep a check on the liquor brewed from rice at home. [BBC News]

Sure, the incessant carousing has led to rampant alcoholism, but so does marriage, and you don’t see anybody leading a crusade against that. Well, at least not against heterosexual marriage.

BBC News: Bhutan faces up to alcohol problem

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Child needs bone marrow transplant

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From the parents of Rajan Vyas, a 6-year-old boy battling leukemia:

You can save the life our our 6 year old little boy, Rajan Vyas, who is suffering from leukemia, and is waiting to receive a potentially curative bone marrow transplant. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. Many Asian-Indians are waiting for a marrow transplant, but currently the bone marrow reigistry has very few Asian-Indian donors. We MUST come together for those in our community, including our neighbors from Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Even if you don’t match Rajan, you can save the life of others waiting for a South Asian donor match. Registering with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP®) is simple:

– You need to be in generally good health
– You are between the ages of 18-60
– You complete a health screening questionnaire
– You painlessly give a small amount of blood for tissue typing

All testing fees are waived for minorities

TESTING IS SIMPLE, PAINLESS, AND COULD SAVE A LIFE
PLEASE GET TESTED TODAY!
Click here to find the donor center in your area

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The butterfly effect

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I love book excerpts. Like film trailers, they offer up the juiciest bits from potentially marginal titles. Here’s a good one from NYT columnist Tom Friedman’s latest, The World is Flat. Hedge (fund) hog and sound bite artiste Dinakar Singh compares minds to perishable inventory in dockside godowns:

”India had no resources and no infrastructure… It produced people with quality and by quantity. But many of them rotted on the docks of India like vegetables. Only a relative few could get on ships and get out. Not anymore, because we built this ocean crosser, called fiber-optic cable. For decades you had to leave India to be a professional. Now you can plug into the world from India. You don’t have to go to Yale and go to work for Goldman Sachs.”

”… the railroad overinvestment was confined to your own country and so, too, were the benefits,” Singh said. In the case of the digital railroads, ”it was the foreigners who benefited.” …That overinvestment, by companies like Global Crossing, resulted in the willy-nilly creation of a global undersea-underground fiber network, which in turn drove down the cost of transmitting voices, data and images to practically zero, which in turn accidentally made Boston, Bangalore and Beijing next-door neighbors overnight.

In Friedman’s butterfly formulation, the Global Crossing bankruptcy let IIT kids enjoy both cash and kachoris. It’s the global version of ‘work in your pajamas’: enjoying family, festivals and food at home.

Mughals vs. natives, round 2

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In bragging rights for who’s got the biggest, impressive buildings are a frequent battleground (Erotic Gherkin, anyone?). In the old days, they were monuments stocked with semiprecious stones, and the craftsmen were blinded after completion; today, they’re miles-long malls with built-in ice rinks, Prada stores and rugrats in tow:

Menon… is embarking on his new venture – Sobha Global Mall — in Bangalore with a cost of Rs.15 billion ($345 million). “As of today, our upcoming mall project will be the largest in India, spread over 17 acres with a built-up area of 2.8 million sq. feet,” Menon said. “Apart from a shopping complex, an amusement park, 192-room plush hotel, convention centre, multiplex and smart offices, the mall will boast of an Olympic size ice skating rink, the first of its kind in the sub-continent,” Menon added.

How does that compare to the Mall of America, owned by the Iranian-American Ghermezian brothers? It will be 33% smaller, and that’s before the MoA’s expansion:

… the managing partner of Mall of America, wants to nearly double the size of the largest mall in the U.S. with a $1 billion, European-themed addition featuring boutiques, hotel towers, an ice rink, a concert hall and a casino.

It’s Tiffany vs. Bhindi Jewelers: I foresee a global charms race. It’s hard beating Middle Easterners for grandiosity, although Noida is trying. See Harrods and the Burj al-Arab — there’s a reason why Texans and Saudis get along.

Baazee renamed eBay India

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Corrupt public servants are advised to note the change of web address in future shakedown attempts:

Leading online marketplace Baazee.com has rechristened itself ‘eBay India’. This follows the completion of integration process with Nasdaq-listed $3.3 billion eBay Inc, which acquired the former for a consideration of $50 million in August last year, making it a 100% subsidiary. [The Financial Express]

The Financial Express: Baazee is now eBay

Previous post: Baazee.com CEO arrested over sex clip Continue reading →

Mystery shrouds dwindling tiger population

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Siegfried & Roy successfully exact revenge:

Indian forest officials and state governments have been scandalised at news that there is not a single tiger left in one of the country’s main wildlife reserves…Manmohan Singh, India’s low-key prime minister, has belatedly leapt to the defence of the national symbol, dispatching detectives to Rajasthan and setting up a national wildlife crime prevention bureau. It is almost certainly too late, however, to save India’s tiger economy. [Financial Times]

Not to point fingers, but detectives should take a gander at car seat covers in New Jersey. They need look no further to determine the fate of their precious tigers.

Financial Times: Scandal of Indian tigers that disappeared Continue reading →

Just to get high

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hotair.jpg The BBC and several other news orgs report that Indian textile magnate Vijaypat Singhania (who seems to be a contemporary of Howard Hughes) will attempt in November to set a new hot air balloon altitude record:

The record breaking attempt will take place in November in the western Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay).

Mr Singhania, 66, will have to fly in a pressurised capsule in sub-zero temperatures to achieve a feat that he describes as MI 70K (Mission Impossible 70,000).

The 1.6 million cubic feet capacity balloon, which is being built in UK, is as tall as a 30-storey-building, according to the organisers.

The flight could take up to five hours – three hours to go up, and two hours to come down.

Officials from Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), which ratifies aviation records, will be present.

“Vijay is going for the biggest feat – this is the heavy weight championship of hot air ballooning,” UK-based adventurer, Brian Milton, who is coordinating the flight told the BBC news site.

Now for my fellow aviation geeks out there, I have a bit more. As impressive an attempt as this will be, it pales by comparison to other high altitude feats. Singhania will be in a pressurized capsule (he’d die within seconds otherwise) but a century ago, similar feats were attempted sans pressurized cabin:

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Indian scientists create “tea pill”

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A group of scientists in India announced they have created a “tea pill,” which promises to deliver the same effect as a cup of the freshly-steeped original to those who are just too damn lazy to boil or microwave water:

The four-member team based in the northeastern state of Assam — the heart of the country’s tea industry — said the pill was ready but it would take six months to be available commercially. “The pill is absolutely safe, (it) can be chewed or placed under the tongue,” Mridul Hazarika, director of the Tocklai Experimental Station, told AFP. It can also be enjoyed in the “conventional manner by dipping the tablet in a cup of hot water,” Hazarika said. “We are sure the tea tablets will be able to freshen and cheer up a person with nearly the same effect as having a hot cup of brewed tea.” [AFP/Yahoo!]

AFP/Yahoo!: No time to make hot tea? Take a pill

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