Biometric smartphones to be mainstream in 2014 - Ericsson

Biometric smartphones are expected to become mainstream next year as leading handset makers follow the lead of Apple Inc. into fingerprint recognition technology, an Ericsson report on consumer trends showed on Wednesday.

 In September, Apple APPL.O launched its iPhone 5S which was the first smartphone with a sensor to recognise fingerprints, improving security and ease of use. "A total of 74 percent believe that biometric smartphones will become mainstream in 2014," Ericsson, the world's biggest mobile network maker, wrote in the report. 

Wider use of biometric technology will be good news for Swedish firms Fingerprint Cards (FINGb.ST) and Precise Biometrics (PREC.ST), which are leading suppliers in the field. Fingerprint makes sensors while Precise Biometrics makes software for such sensors.

 In a recent interview with Reuters, Fingerprint's CEO said he expected 7 or 8 of the world's top smartphone makers, including Samsung, to launch phones using the technology next year. Ericsson interviewed over 100,000 people in over 40 countries as part of the survey.

ECONOMY NEWS OF INDIA

India’s economic slowdown and pre-election introspection has probably had its most serious impact on ties with the United States.

India’s economic slowdown and pre-election introspection has probably had its most serious impact on ties with the United States. Economics were the starting point for the expanded U.S.-India relationship, and economic and commercial issues have an unusually large impact on a country’s profile in Washington. In the five years since the global financial crisis started, the U.S.-India bilateral economic agenda has made relatively little progress. Long-standing issues important to U.S. business, such as the cap on foreign investment in insurance, have stalled. Recent Indian legislation, especially on land acquisition, has raised hackles among prospective investors. Compulsory licenses for pharmaceuticals in 2012 and 2013 may, as India argues, be consistent with India’s intellectual property laws and its agreements with the United States, but American businesses that went through the IP dispute in earlier years wonder whether India is moving back toward its former policy that basically disallowed foreign patents. The result is an extraordinarily sour mood among senior U.S. officials concerned with economic ties with India. The problems of course come from both sides. Indians are worried and frustrated over the immigration bill that passed the U.S. Senate in late June. It includes provisions that appear aimed at the heart of India’s most successful information technology companies’ business model for working with the United States, through dramatically increased visa fees and a prohibition on stationing their employees at a client’s workplace. And India’s pre-election distraction has probably met its match in the U.S. administration’s preoccupation with dysfunctional partisan warfare that threatens a government shutdown.

Econmy survey 2012-13

India must create more productive jobs, perhaps not by sarkari schemes, but through economic growth, labour reforms and a hassle-free business climate. This is the vision held out by chief economic advisor RaghuramRajan, who has continued with the tradition of his predecessor KaushikBasu and scripted a special chapter, 'Seizing the Demographic Dividend'.

There's room for RBI to cut rates, spur growth

India may be on the edge of an external shock due to reliance on short term flows from portfolio investors to bridge the current account deficit, as the inflows can reverse at short notice, causing damage to the currency. Raising exports in the short term may be difficult given the grim economic scenario in the US and Europe. 

 But imports, especially of oil, should be curbed by linking the sale price to market, says the Economic Survey 2012-13. Gold imports, touted as the root cause of the record current account deficit should be curbed, it says. India's external trade position is at its worst, with the current account deficit for the September quarter at a record 5.4% of the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP)

Raising tax-GDP ratio, broadening tax base & raising savings good for India Inc

One, while it is imperative to cut the fiscal deficit, it should be done by raising the tax/GDP ratio, rather than by curtailing expenditure and hitting development. Two, tax collections should be increased by broadening the tax base rather than by raising marginal rates of tax.Raising savings is the way to cut the worryingly large current account deficit, which is an outcome and measure of domestic savings falling short of investment. The way to reduce the savings-investment gap without sacrificing investment and hurting growth is to step up savings.

India's GDP climbed 4.8 per cent year-over-year in the January-March quarter. This was the slowest pace of growth in a decade. For the fiscal year ending March 31, growth was 5 per cent, down from 6.2 per cent the previous year, according to Business Insider.

SEBI approved Major Reforms to Attract Overseas Investors

SEBI(Security Exchange Board of India) ushered in major reforms to attract overseas investors. It has announced new Foreign Portfolio Investor regulations for easier registration process and operating framework for investors from abroad.  The new class of investors - FPIs - will encompass all Foreign Institutional Investors, their sub-accounts and Qualified Foreign Investors. They will be divided in three categories as per their risk profile.
The Know Your Client - KYC requirements and other registration procedures will be much simpler for FPIs compared to current practices. The SEBI has also decided to grant them a permanent registration.
SEBI also approved setting up 'Designated Depository Participants which will register FPIs on behalf of the market regulator subject to compliance with KYC norms.

RBI Banned Zero Percent Interest Rate Schemes for Purchase of Consumer Goods

Reserve Bank of India on 25 September 2013 banned zero per cent interest rate schemes for purchase of consumer goods. The decision has taken in order to protect consumer interest.

In this regard Reserve Bank of India issued a notification to all the Schedule Commercial Banks and local area banks.

 

 

 

 

World's Most Expensive Cars:

1. Lamborghini Veneno $3,900,000. The Veneno gets you from 0 to 60 mph in a swift 2.8 seconds allowing you to hit a top speed of 221 mph. Only three cars are being made available every year. If you want to own this hyper-supercar, you will have to be placed on a waiting list along with other aficionados.

2. Bugatti Veyron Super Sports $2,400,000. This is by far the most expensive street legal production car available on the market today (the base Veyron costs $1,700,000). Capable of reaching 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds, the Veyron is the fastest street legal car when tested again on July 10, 2010 with the 2010 Super Sport Version reaching a top speed of 267 mph (430 km/h). When competing against a Bugatti Veyron, you better be prepared!

There is a tie for #3!
3. Aston Martin One-77 $1,850,000. The name "One-77" says it all: beauty and power in One, limited to 77 units. With 750 hp, it is able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds with a maximum speed of 220 mph (354 km/h).

3. Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster $1,850,000. One of the most exotic cars out there is also one of the most expensive. It can go from 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 217 mph (349 km/h).
We have another tie for 4th place:
4. Lamborghini Reventon $1,600,000. The most powerful and the most expensive Lamborghini ever built takes third place on the list. It reaches 60 mph in 3.3 seconds from 0, to go with a top speed of 211 mph (339 km/h). Its rare (limited to 20) and slick design are reasons why it is expensive and costly to own.

4. Koenigsegg Agera R $1,600,000. The Agera R goes from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 260 mph (418 km/h). It is capable of reaching 270 mph, but this supercar is electronically limited to 235 mph (378 km/h). You will need to sign a waiver, only then does the company unlock the speed limiter.
5. Maybach Landaulet $1,380,000. The Landaulet is the most expensive sedan on the market and it can go from 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds. It is one the most luxurious cars ever made, this comes with a convertible roof that fully opens at the rear. This Maybach is made especially for CEOs and Executives who have their own personal driver.

Nuclear-capable 'Agni-5' successfully tested for second time

The country's most deterrent nuclear capable ballistic missile, Agni-5 has been successfully test fired from Chandipur Test Range in Balasore district off Odisha coast.

The missile was launched at 8.45 this morning.

The Agni-5 can carry a single nuclear warhead of over 1000 kg and can strike with precision targets in China and Europe.

The nuclear-capable missile is about 50-tonne in weight and 17.5-metre tall. It is a three-stage missile designed to carry a 1.5-ton warhead with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), allowing it the furthest reach among all Indian missiles.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the first test flight of the Agni-5 on April 19 last year was a phenomenal success after which India joined the select club of the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China who have such capabilities. (ANI)

This missle

can reach Beijing and much of Europe, bringing a step closer production of a weapon designed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.

"The test was successful," said Ravi Kumar Gupta, spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). "It hit the target in a predefined trajectory. It met all the mission objectives"

power distribution system

New Technique To Study The Impact Of Cell Phone Radiation!

Electro-Magnetic Model Electro-magnetic waves from the phone’s antenna penetrate the brain several centimeters deep. Paul Wootton Concerns about the health risks associated with cell phones date back almost to the dawn of the industry. Over the last four decades, while cell phones shrunk and multiplied and worked their way into the very fabric of human existence, the vague threat of danger has slunk along behind like a faint but troubling and unshakeable odor: do what they could, scientists couldn’t quite eliminate it, and they couldn’t quite define it, either. The best they’ve been able to do is say that the radiation coming from cell phones may or may not cause cancer.

What’s been holding researchers back up to this point is that, unlike x-rays and other forms of high-energy, ionizing radiation, low levels of radio-wave exposure don't have the power to penetrate cells and blow apart bits of DNA. For radio frequencies from cell phones to cause genetic mutations in brain tissue, the tissue must absorb an obscene dose of them, and scientists simply don't know whether or not that's happening--even in people who spend the better part of their days holding the little energy-emitting devices flush against the side of their heads.
To get a definitive answer, researchers need to be able to measure exactly how much radiation the brain absorbs during normal cell phone use--and they might finally have a way of doing it.

Radio frequencies get transferred to heat when they’re absorbed by brain tissue, and those heat signatures can be detected by magnetic resonance imaging. Unfortunately, because of the intense magnetic fields involved, you can’t just put someone inside of an MRI with a metal-laden cell phone and measure how much warmer her brain gets. In the past, researchers have used electrical probes to emit energy inside of model brains, and then measured the resulting heat signatures. But such simulations have never been close enough to the real thing to yield conclusive results.

Now, a group of researchers in New York and New Jersey have designed an antenna that emits radio frequencies in the same way as cell phones, but doesn’t include any of a phone’s pesky metal parts. They’ve already put the antenna next to a cow’s brain inside an MRI and tracked the resulting hot spots in the brain.
In the future, the antenna system should allow scientists to build an accurate 3-D map of cell phone radiation in the human brain--a crucial step in determining how much energy the organ is exposed to at a time, and whether those little doses might add up to a real threat.

facts

The South Pole has no sun for 182 days each year.

Listening to music an hour every day helps reduce chronic pain by up to 21 percent and depression by up to 25 percent.

Mosquitos don't just bite you. They also urinate on you after sucking your blood.