Kounteya Sinha, TNN

NEW DELHI: The elusive wheat genome - the most important crop globally - will be cracked within the next three years. Indian scientists have joined 16 other nations - the US, the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic,Norway, Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Japan, Australia and Argentina - in the initiative. 

The department of biotechnology (DBT) has sanctioned about Rs 34 crore for over four years to three institutes - Punjab Agriculture University, ICAR and Delhi University - for the project. 

Prof Nagendra Kumar Singh from ICAR's National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnologyin New Delhi said, "The project is likely to be completed in five years. But, we will crack the code within three years." 

Wheat has 21 chromosomes of which one will be decoded by the 21 Indian scientists. The wheat genome is 42 times bigger than rice genome. 

" India had bumper wheat production of 84 million tons this year. Once we have cracked itsgenetic code, we can develop disease-resistant wheat faster. Brown and yellow rust diseases are a big threat to wheat," Prof Singh said. 

Experts say in the past decade, global wheat production has dipped by 3.6% due to drought. It is also being threatened by tell-tale signs of climate change like rise in temperatures, less availability of water and reduced soil fertility. Besides, the micronutrient content, especially iron and zinc, in grains is lower than the required, causing anemia. 

On Wednesday, 31 Indian scientists also cracked the genetic code of arhar, the second most important pulse crop of India. This is the first plant genome sequenced indigenously. Now, this will help faster development of high yielding, disease and insect-resistant varieties of arhar for higher productivity and lower prices of pulses. 

The scientists have identified 47,004 protein coding genes in the arhar genome, of which 1,213 genes are for disease resistance and 152 genes for tolerance to drought, heat and salinity that make it a hardy crop. 

Average pulse crop productivity in India has remained low at about 650kg per hectare for the last six decades, leading to soaring dal prices on the back of increasing demands. 

Asha, the genome of popular arhar variety, was assembled using long sequence reads of 454-FLX second generation sequencing technology resulting in 511 million base pairs of high quality genome sequence information. About 85% pigeonpea or red gram ('Arhar' or 'Tur') of the world is produced and consumed in India. India imports pigeonpea from Myanmar, the second largest producer. The world acreage of pigeonpea is about 4.90 mha with annual production of about 4.22 mmt worth about $1.5 billion. India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pigeonpea with annual production of 3.07 mmt, followed by Myanmar (0.72 mmt) and Malawi(0.15 mmt). India is importing about three million tones of pulses at an estimates cost of Rs 7,000 crore annually. 

The huge gap between demand and supply has led to soaring prices of dal and food inflation.

Source:  

http://www.samachar.com/India-joins-16-nations-to-crack-wheat-genome-in-3-yrs-llfbLpfeebi.html?utm_source=times_of_india&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=samachar_homepage

Azim Premji today said “complete absence of decision-making” in the government is the biggest concern for the country and warned that if left unchecked, this could set back economic growth.

“The biggest concern now are governance issues and the complete absence of decision-making in the government, in the bureaucracy,” the chairman of business conglomerate Wipro Ltd said.

The governance issues are the same as those that have been hitting the headlines regularly in recent times, Premji said. “You must appreciate how serious it is.”

The Wipro chairman was part of a group of personalities from the world of business, the judiciary and public life who recently wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the lack of governance in the country. They had expressed concern and angst over a series of scams resulting in the deficit in governance.

Source: 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-bureaucracy-paralysed-premji/868756/

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A clash between Oakland police and Occupy Wall Street protesters left an Iraq War veteran hospitalized Wednesday after a projectile struck him in a conflict that came as tensions grew over demonstration encampments across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fractured skull Tuesday in a march with other protesters toward City Hall, said Dottie Guy, of the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The demonstrators had been making an attempt to re-establish a presence in the area of a disbanded protesters' camp when they were met by officers in riot gear.

It's not known exactly what type of object struck Olsen or who might have thrown it, though Guy's group said it was lodged by officers. Several small skirmishes had broken out in the night with police clearing the area by firing tear gas and protesters throwing rocks and bottles at them.

Police Chief Howard Jordan said at a late afternoon news conference that the events leading up to Olsen's injury would be investigated as vigorously as a fatal police shooting.

"It's unfortunate it happened. I wish that it didn't happen. Our goal, obviously, isn't to cause injury to anyone," the chief said.

An Oakland hospital spokesman said Olsen, a network administrator in Daly City, was in critical condition Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, Oakland officials allowed protesters back into the plaza where their 15-day-old encampment had been raided but said people would be prohibiting from spending the night. The campsite itself was fenced off so it could be cleaned and treated with chemicals.

About 1,000 people quickly filled the plaza for a general assembly where speakers criticized city officials but urged the crowd to remain peaceful. Despite the pleas for order, a small number of people pulled down a section of the fence and the enclosure started falling like dominoes as others jumped on the downed pieces.

"I'm going to stay here tonight," said Jhalid Shakur, 43, of Oakland. "I don't have a tent, but I'll sleep on a bench if there's space."

"We're about to build our city back," he said.

In contrast the previous night, few police officers appeared to be in the immediate area.

Mayor Jean Quan said Oakland supports the protesters' goals but had to act Tuesday when a small number of them threw rocks, paint and bottles at the police.

"We had, on one hand, demonstrators who tried to rush banks, other demonstrators saying don't do that, and we had police officers, for the most part, 99 percent, who took a lot of abuse," the mayor said. "So yesterday was a sad day for us."

Jordan said an internal review board and local prosecutors have been asked to determine if officers on the scene used excessive force. He asked witnesses with recordings of violent interactions between civilians and the officers who came from several Bay Area agencies to submit them to investigators.

The clash Tuesday evening came as officials complained about what they described as deteriorating safety, sanitation and health issues at the dismantled camp.

The same concerns were being raised by San Francisco officials who warned protesters Wednesday that they could face arrest if they continue camping in a city plaza. In a letter, Police Chief Greg Suhr said the protesters could be arrested for violating a variety of city laws against camping, cooking, urinating and littering in public parks.

"Existing and ongoing violations make you subject to arrest," Suhr wrote in the notice, but didn't say if or when arrests would occur.

Police have taken down a previous Occupy San Francisco camp in the Justin Herman Plaza and also cleared another camp outside the Federal Reserve Bank downtown.

Police estimated at least five protesters were arrested and several others injured in the Tuesday evening clashes.

Oakland City Administrator Deana Santana said protesters would be allowed to assemble in the plaza outside City Hall from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. She pleaded with those who planned to make another stand there to refrain from smashing windows, lighting fires and attempting to stay overnight.

"If we could have these simple, reasonable requests, we think we can assure safety in the streets tonight," Santana said.

Occupy Oakland: Police brutally fire chemical agents on peaceful protesters. 10 25 11

(Source: Associated Press writers Jason Dearen and Marcus Wohlsen contributed to this report.) 

NEW DELHI: India's finally got its much hyped ultra-low-cost tablet, Aakash. The tablet runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and comes with a 7 inch resistive touch screen with 800x480 reolution and weighs 350 gm.

Aakash is a collaboration between the government and a British-based company DataWind. The tablet has a 256 MB of RAM, a 32 GB expandable memory slot and two USB ports.

The tablet comes with a 12-month replacement warranty and supports formats like DOC, DOCX, PDF and PPTX etc. Aakash has standard 3.5 mm headphones jack.

The tablet will be commercially available from November for Rs 2999. The commercial version of the tablet would have no duty waivers or subsidy, as in the government's version and come with added features like an inbuilt cellular modem and SIM to access internet.

The government will be acquiring the tablet for Rs 2250 from DataWind which will be supplied to the students across the country. The device will initially be made available to post-secondary students.

He hasn’t taken a holiday since he took the top job in 2004:
INDIA: India’s workaholic Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not taken a holiday since he took the top job in 2004, according to a new in-depth profile published this week.

The 12,000-word study in current affairs journal The Caravan of 79-year-old Singh, under fire for a series of debilitating scandals in his second-term, said he shunned opportunities to get away and take a break.

Former media adviser Sanjaya Baru said the one-time economics professor had little interest in relaxation, recalling an official day-long visit to the popular tourist destination of Goa.

“I said to him, ‘sir, it’s a weekend. Why don’t we stay Saturday night, spend Sunday morning on the beach and come back Sunday evening. You don’t miss a working day’.

“You know what he asked? ‘But what do I do there?’ Only Manmohan Singh could ask what he could do in Goa,” Baru said.

Singh’s daughter Daman Singh said she could recall her father taking only one vacation with the family in the last 40 years, a three-day visit to Nainital, a hill station 232 kilometres (144 miles) from New Delhi.

“As children we just assumed that’s the way all fathers are. He hasn’t changed at all,” said the author, who is working on a book about her parents.

The report says Singh, hailed as the architect of India’s economic liberalisation, sticks to his old austere habits, shunning fancy restaurants, expensive suits and luxury cars.

Singh’s core appeal to voters as a capable and honest administrator in India’s venal politics has taken a battering in the last year after a series of major corruption scandals. AFP

Indian government auditors have heavily criticised the aviation ministry’s decision to purchase a 111 new planes for its national carrier, Air India.

The decision, which was taken back in 2005, has been described in the auditors report as a recipe for disaster. The report was submitted to parliament on Thursday (8).
The Comptroller and Auditor General also described the decision to merge the domestic and international sections of the airline as being ‘ill-timed’.
The national carrier has been losing millions of dollars in recent years, and has now turned to the government to help turn its fortunes around.
The report said the decision ‘to acquire a large number of Boeing aircraft was risky and that the acquisition had contributed predominantly to the airline’s massive debt liability which stood at US$ 8.5 billion.

The auditors also called the 2007 merger of Air India and Indian Airlines ‘ill-timed’ saying that the financial case for the merger was not adequately validated prior to the merger.
Since the merger, pilots have frequently gone on strike, complaining about poor employment conditions.

The report also questioned the bilateral agreements the ministry entered into with foreign countries which, it said, favoured international airlines.

According to the former civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, the decision to purchase more planes was to make the airline commercially viable. Patel dismissed the report stating that it was full of contradictions.