north east online - north east india news: May 29, 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009

Tata Motors launches 'World Truck'

Mumbai, May 29: Tata Motors, India's leading manufacturer of both heavy and light automobiles, launched a new line of trucks, named 'World Truck' here on Thursday, May 28.

The launching of the new series of trucks also marked the company's objective to bring international standard top quality trucks in the Indian market. The range, which comprises of multi-axle trucks, tractor-trailers, mixers and special application vehicles, is a bid by Tata Motors to prove itself as a global auto major.

"There will be various offerings coming from this. There will be tractors for taking higher levels of movements across high speed tracks. There will be tippers which will be meeting construction and mining requirements. So, it is an entire range of products which will be coming through this," said P M Telang, Executive Director, Tata Motors.

The company however has not mentioned the price levels of its latest models and the varied versions.

"It's about changing the way trucking happens in India and bringing it closer to the sort of levels that you see in more developed countries and rest of the world. So, it is a range of models and when you talk of range of models, there is no one price we can talk about," said R Ramakrishnan, Head of Marketing, Medium and Heavy Trucks, Tata Motors.

China set to launch its first Mars probe

New Delhi, May 29: China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, is expected to be launched later in '09 according to an official of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).

The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition.

Yinghuo-1 will be launched by a Russian carrier rocket, accompanied by the Russian aerocraft Phobos-Grunt.

"The Russian aerocraft is making a sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars," Zhang said.

According to Zhang, Yinghuo-1 would go into Mars orbit in 2010 after a 10-month, 380-million-kilometer journey, Zhang said.

But, unlike the Russian craft, Yinghuo-1 won't land but would only orbit and observe, he added.

The Chinese probe is 75 centimeters long, 75 cm wide and 60 cm high. It weighs 115 kilograms and was designed for a two-year life, Zhang said.

"Yinghuo" means light from firefly in Chinese.

"Yinghuo-1 is expected to discover why water disappeared from Mars and explain other environmental changes of the planet," Zhang said.

The project is China's third major space exploration plan after the manned space project and the moon exploration program.

"It was also the first time that China would explore another planet," Zhang said.

ANI

Nepal celebrates first Republic Day

Kathmandu, May 29 (ANI): Nepal''''s first Republic Day is being celebrated on Friday throughout the nation with various programmes, exactly one year after the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a republic on May 29, 2008 ending the 240-year old monarchy.

In his message to the nation, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has urged everyone for consensus to reach the goals and conceded the first year was not very easy.

''''The chief goal for now is the completion of peace process and new constitution,'''' President Yadav said in the message. ''''The Republican set up will be strong only after we attain those goals.''''

In what can be seen as his answer to the Maoist demand for civilian supremacy, the president said civilian supremacy can be established only when the basics of democracy such as rule of law, press freedom, judicial independence, freedom of expression and human rights are reflected in each activity and behavior of the government.

Stating that in the past 60 years Nepal has seen a number of Constitutions, he hoped that the new Constitution would not be just another experiment.

Vice President Paramanda Jha, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and other political leaders have also issued messages to the nation on the occasion.

Maoist chairman Prachanda has urged for an institutional development of republicanism.

Nepal is the newest republic in the world. The 240-year long monarchy was abolished last year.

Earlier, in 2006 April, a mass uprising for nineteen days had forced the last king of Nepal, Gyanendra Shah, to give up power, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)

North Korea test fires sixth missile

Seoul, May 29: North Korea has reportedly test fired another short-range missile off the country's east coast, a South Korean news agency reported on Friday, May 29.

This accounts to the sixth missile test North Korea has carried out since Monday, May 25. Following the test-fire the country's foreign ministry released a statement saying that it will respond if the UN Security Council (UNSC) agreed any fresh sanctions over the tests.

"If the UN Security Council provokes us, our additional self-defence measures will be inevitable," the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said that any 'hostile acts' from UNSC will only mean the 'demolition of the armistice'.

On Thursday, May 28 the US and South Korean forces were placed on the second highest surveillance alert level, the joint forces announced.

A Raja vows to work on 3G; what about broadband?

New Delhi, May 29: Communications and IT Minister, Andimuthu Raja has said that apart from lowering mobile tariffs, auctioning for the 3G spectrum is on top of his priority list.

Retaining the prestigious ministry for the second consecutive term, A Raja in his interview with CNBC-TV 18 said, "Auctioning of 3G spectrum is on top of my priority list."

He said that the exercise started earlier would continue and that he aims to complete the auction in months months 'in worst case scenario'. When asked if the he saw the revenue from the auction going above the expectations considering that the markets have more or less revived, he said, "I hope so, definitely it will go up."

Apart from this the Lawyer-turned-politician's agenda consists of ensuring 'that at least in the college level, ‘a paperless governance’ should be guaranteed'.

Media reports seem to reflect that the entry of 3G and Wimax would do great things for the broadband scene in India and improve internet connectivity specially in the rural areas. However this only seems to prove that the government does not have a more concrete and feasible proposal to increase internet penetration and implementing broadband connectivity in the country.

While the government frequently releases sops but what the country ultimately has to do is sit and watch for both implementation and functioning.

Microsoft's Bing ready to take on Google

Seattle, May 29: Software giant Microsoft Corp in its latest effort to take on its rival Google Inc unveiled a new search engine called 'Bing'.

Bing, known as a 'decision engine' is the latest effort from the Seattle based software firm to earn some momentum in the search market. The site 'Bing.com' has been in development for several years. It will be available to users by next week.

"Search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search," said Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive.
A key feature of the Bing, is 'guided search', which categorises searches and attempts to get users to useful information speedily. The system also integrates with a number of other technologies, bringing news and maps straight to searchers, as well as linking in to the company's Cashback scheme, which in effect pays users a small dividend every time they buy a product through the site.

CBSE Class X results of Delhi zone are out

New Delhi, May 29: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class X board exams results were declared on Friday, May 29 in the three zones of Delhi, Guwahati and Allahabad. Girls once again outshone boys.

The overall pass percentage recorded a 1.76 pc increase from 2008. The pass percentage this year was 88.84 per cent.

The results are available in the CBSE website http://www.cbse.nic.in./. In the Ajmer, Chennai and Panchkula regions, the results had been declared on Tuesday, May 26.

In 2009 nearly as many as 8,24,421 students -3,31,922 girls and 4,73,499 boys- took the Class 10 CBSE exams in India.

Veerappa Moily assumes charge as Minister of Law and Justice

New Delhi, May 29 (ANI): Veerappa Moily assumed charge as Law and Justice Minister here on Friday.

He was welcomed by Secretary, T.K.Vishwanathan and other senior officers of the ministry.

Immediately, after assuming charge, Moily had a meeting with all senior officers of the ministry and reviewed the status of various programmes and issues relating to it. (ANI)

Virbhadra Singh assumes charge of Steel Ministry

New Delhi, May 29 (ANI): Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh assumed charge here on Friday.

He was welcomed by Steel Secretary P.K.Rastogi and other senior officers.

Talking to reporters after taking charge, he said that one of his key priorities would be to ensure that the expansion programmes of the public sector giants the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is completed in time in a cost effective fashion.

"While the capacity of SAIL will go up to 26 million tons that of RINL will go up to six million tons after the expansion. Both the expansion programmes will involve an expenditure of over Rs.70, 000 crore," he said.

He added that steel sector in India and China have recorded positive growth during the first quarter of this calendar year while the global steel production has contracted by 23 per cent during the same period.

"Another focus area will be to bring in a rational, seamless and transparent regime for allocation of raw material resources to existing and prospective steel producers," he said. He further said, the Ministry of Mines would be requested to undertake consequential amendments to Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 to bring amendments to force.

"There is a need to restructure some of the smaller steel PSUs and for attempting mergers to capture the benefits of improved synergies. The companies under restructuring/merger mode include the Bird group of companies, the HSCL, the BRL and the SIIL," he said (ANI)

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