Education

India to debut $35 tablet on October 5

NEW DELHI: The world's cheapest tablet computer, which will be unwrapped, will go on sale in India starting December, the maker of the device has said. Created for use by students, the tablet will first be made available to colleges at Rs 1,750 apiece ($35) although it costs Rs 3,000 to produce. The difference will be subsidised by the government as part of an ambitious plan to make information and communication technologies an integral part of education. The tablet, will run on Google's Android platform, with WiFi connectivity for internet access and cloud storage. It will have 256 MB of RAM, a 2GB SD memory card, a 32 GB expandable memory slot and two USB ports. A Canadian of Indian descent, Suneet Singh Tuli, the chief executive of the company making the device, declined to disclose its retail price, but said it will cost as much as "a vegetarian meal for two at a five-star hotel in Delhi". Tuli is the founder of Datawind, a UK-based company which also makes the PocketSurfer, a handheld device to surf the web.

Visa Limit May Increase: Hope from GOP

Bangalore: After the H-1B Visa scenario with Infosys, many IT companies had lost the hope of getting visas for their employees and businesses were hurt.

The federal government of U.S. sets a limit of 140,000 employment-based green cards a year. But now there are plans of changing the limit from 7 percent to more. This limitation can have a positive impact on countries like India and China, where green card demand is high reports Computer WorldChina and India and IT companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle want the limitation of the visa rules to be increased as it gives them as opportunity for better business and importing of skilled employees.
U.S. rep.

Jason Chaffetz said that the coalition of high tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Oracle are supporting the legislation. There has been also leading an effort for a broader set of reforms that would affect green cards and H-1B visas. But Republicans have not shown any signs backing that proposal. Regarding the per-country limit, the U.S. State Department says 'serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the annual limitation by applicants from only a few countries."

In a recent meeting in Silicon Valley, President Barack Obama talked generally about his jobs bill and took questions from people who worked in IT. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee had circulated a discussion draft of a bill that would eliminate the per-country limits on green cards. But according to U.S. rep. Chaffetz, and Lamar Smith bill, it would eliminate that 7 percent restriction effectively reducing the wait times for workers from India and China. But at the same time it could also lengthen the wait for green card seekers from other countries by creating a first come, first served global visa system.

However Obama talked about the things government can do, such as job training and unemployment aid and he mentioned that his job is to work with everybody he can.

In June, 2011, Silicon Valley's representative in Congress, Democrat Zoe Lofgren, had proposed a sweeping reform of the H-1B visa and green card programs in a new bill. According to the bill, it would make green cards available to students who earn advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at certain schools. The bill also would make green cards available to foreign entrepreneurs who create new businesses

Governor calls for sound public health approach 

The burden of heart disease and its risk factors in India calls for formulating a sound public health approach that would combine interventions with robust surveillance, the Governor K. Rosaiah said on Thursday.

Addressing World Heart Day celebrations under the auspices of The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, Mr. Rosaiah, who is also its Chancellor, said “efforts to put in place an intervention programme should be complemented with a robust surveillance mechanism so as to monitor, evaluate and guide policies and programmes.”

Pointing to World Health Organisation reports that Non Communicable Diseases accounted for 70 per cent of deaths worldwide, the Governor said it was worrying that about 26.3 per cent men and 22.5 per cent women in the 25-69 age group die due to cardio-vascular disease in India.

It was equally distressing that in spite of emerging as a sought after destination for healthcare and medical treatment, managing one's own health remained a neglected area, he said.

Pointing out that sedentary lifestyle, stress, smoking and alcohol abuse were the root causes for many NCDs, the Governor called for a concerted and coordinated awareness campaign led by the Government and NGOs. He also suggested workplace interventions.

The Governor presented Lifetime Achievement Awards and Best Doctor Awards to eminent cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.

Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, Vice-Chancellor, The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, said the WHO has been sounding an alarm about the rapidly rising burden of cardio-vascular disease in India over the past decade. He hoped that the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project and the nationally rolled out programme for prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke would considerably improve the health profile of the population. He also called for sustained awareness events as at least 80 per cent of premature deaths from heart disease and stroke were avoidable.