Getting a passport could soon be hassle free

If long queues outside shoddy passport offices gives you the jitters and, the thought of brokers and touts stops you from getting your passport by right, here is some good news for passport seekers.

Getting a passport will soon be hassle free with the revolutionisation of the current process, which at best, can be described as arduous.

It is learnt that External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who hails from IT city Bangalore and, is very tech savvy, is walking that extra mile to facilitate the implementation of the landmark Passport Sewa E- Governance initiative.

Sevety-seven hi-tech state-of-the-art IT-enabled Passport Sewa offices are likely to come up across the country under the new initiative.

Krishna recently inspected two such centers in Bangalore. The presence of cutting-edge technology such as a centralised IT system, which includes a data centre and a disaster recovery centre to which, all proposed centers will be connected, biometric verification, availability of online services for fixing appointments, three national call centers and a grievance redressel system, status of application via SMS and outsourcing of front-end activities, acquiring a passport will be easier and simpler.

If that's not all, the 24x7 national call centre in 17 languages will also be a part of the new project.

The Passport Sewa project is a perfect example of public-private partnership, involving the Ministry of External Affairs and Tata Consultancy Services.

Keeping in view security and sensitivity, the MEA has not surrendered sovereign functions to the TCS and has only outsourced front-end activities.

If fully implemented, then a passport can be got in three days following police verification.

Tatkal applicants could get the passport the same day. Currently, it takes around 30 to 45 days for non-Tatkal passports and a minimum of seven days for getting a Tatkal-routed passport.

Under the proposed system, the number of public dealing counters will also increase from the current figure of 345 to 1250. Public dealing hours will also increase from four to seven hours.

According to sources, new centres could come up at Gurgaon, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Hubli, Dharwad, Mangalore, Baroda, Rajkot, Kottayam, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ambala, Varanasi, Kanpur, Jodhpur and Sikar etc.

Although the project looks impressive, it also has its share of problems and challenges. The IT-enabled project could leave many passport officials out of work. Already, unions in passport offices have opposed the proposal. The other big challenge will be to train underskilled MEA staff on cutting-edge technology.

Robot guards may patrol future frontiers

If scientist have their ways, then robot border guards would be patrolling the frontiers in the near future.Amid the ever-present angst over illegal immigration, cross-border terrorism and contraband smuggling,some nations are turning to novel broder-surveillance technologies, potentially backed up by robots.
According to a in New scientist, the idea is to scatter arrays of sensors in a border area in ways that give guards or robots plenty of time respond before their targets make good an escape.
The need to secure borders in evident across the globe, from India, which is constructing a 3.400Km, 3 meter- high barbed wire and concrete border wall to close itself off from Bangladesh, to Libya, where foot patrols are being augmented with new people sensing technologies.
liya has an agreement with the European Union to try to limit the flow of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa traversing its borders before crossing the Mediterranean and entering Italy.
To help it enforce this deal,Libya is spending 300mn euros on technology for it calls a "large border security and control system",made by Selex Sistemi integrate,part of Italian aerospace firm finmeccania.

'Hot' Electrons in solar cells

Researchers at Boston college have observed the "hot electrons" effect in a solar cell for the first time and successfully harvested the elusive charges using ultra thin solar cells, opening a potential avenue to improved solar power efficiency.
when light is captured in solar cells, it generates free electrons in a range of energy states. But in order to snare these charges, the electrons must reach the bottom of the conduction band.
The problem has been that these highly energized "hot" electrons lose much of their energy to heat along the way.

Britney beats obama as most searched celebrity

Pop diva Britney Spears has beaten US President Barack Obama as the most searched for celebrity on the Internet in the last decade. The singer shot of the fame in 1998 with her debut track Baby One More Time,
and during her time in the limelight she has been married twice,given birth to two children and suffered a public meltdown, which saw her hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold in 2008 and her drama filled life has resulted in her being named the most popular celebrity on the web, according to search engine ASK, reports contactmusic.com
US leader Barack Obama, who was elected president last year,came in second, while soccer ace David Beckham was the third most searched star.
Late British royal diana,Princess of wales and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair rounded out the top five

Sachin Tendulkar's 20 year in cricket

Sachin Tendulkar has expressed his disappointment at India not playing enough Tests in the near future. Besides the three Tests in the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka, which begins in Ahmedabad on November 16, India play only two more Tests, in Bangladesh in January, in the 2009-10 season. There are no further Test series planned at least till the end of the 2010.


"We should play more Test cricket for sure. It is obviously not great news that we are only playing five Tests this season," Tendulkar said at a media event on Friday to commemorate his completing 20 years in international cricket.

Test cricket, he said, was the true testing ground for any youngster and the best way to fast track his development. "Ideally for any team to progress you need to play more Test cricket as that is where the real cricket is according to me. Test cricket is cricket of the highest level and since it is played across five days at the end of each day it allows you to regroup, re-think, come up with fresh ideas and plan for the next day. Sometimes in Twenty20 and ODIs even before you realise the match is over."

As a 16-year-old Tendulkar cut his teeth in the 1989 Test series against Pakistan and immediately understood it was not going to be easy. In the final Test of that series, Waqar Younis drew blood after striking Tendulkar on the nose. Ajit Tendulkar, his elder brother, the man whom Sachin counts as his biggest influence as a player, was sitting in the stands. Ajit might have winced but his brother didn't: "When I was hit by Waqar that got me more competitive and I decided not to move from the middle and I would continue to fight," Tendulkar animatedly recounted the incident to a 75-odd media contingent.


Though the event was by invitation only for a select group of journalists, a lot of media personnel - aware of the unique opportunity it presented - gatecrashed the event. Tendulkar remained unruffled and for the next five hours remained seated in the middle of the room, answering hundreds of questions, even if most were repeated. Displaying the same proficiency he has shown against various forms of bowling, Tendulkar moved seamlessly from English to Hindi to Marathi in his responses, paying detailed attention to the questioner's every word.

While his zeal for the game continues to amaze, he is not at all surprised by it. He says it is because he is passionate about what he does and is confident and clear about what he wants to do.

It's not his fans alone who wonder how Tendulkar has been strong in various situations and stayed competitive over the last two decades; MS Dhoni, the India captain, recently said he did not rule out Tendulkar being in contention to play the 2015 World Cup.

Tendulkar, though, said he wanted to live in the moment and plan for the near future instead of dwelling on what could happen five years down the line.

"It would be nice if I can go on that that long (till 2015) but I don't want to think that far and concentrate on the next phase," he said. "My focus is on the near future. I've enjoyed every bit so far and I feel there is cricket left in me and everything is going really well."

About the 3G

With the foray of 3G or third generation in India, Mobile users will be able to watch TV, read mobile magazines, watch video clips, make video calls, browse and download at much higher speeds, all these would be in addition to the already existing services available on mobile devices.


Despite the delay in the introduction of 3G and the controversy surrounding the spectrum-allocation, mobile companies and millions of subscribers are looking forward to the proposed 3G auction, which is expected to be held on Jan 14, 2010. This time the auction will include some international participants wishing to make an entry into the lucrative Indian market.

Inline with the launch, not just Telecos but also Tech giants like HP, Google, Oracle have showed considerable interest in the run-up. HP has launched 4 new products and will sync with telecom providers for 3G services. Google is mulling participation in the auction through an Indian partner, in order to bid for the 3G bandwidth. While companies like Oracle are looking to become technology providers to various operators.

So how does this exercise that involves such high-stakes (expected revenue around Rs 25,000) going to be held? Well, the DoT, or Department of Telecommunications, intends to carry out this exercise in 4 steps - bid invitation, pre-qualification, auction process and final grant of spectrum.

At present the government has earmarked 200 Mhz of band frequencies between 900-1000 Mhz and 1800-1900 Mhz for 2G. For the additional 3G spectrum the government will allocate some of the space presently controlled by the India's defense forces. The additional spectrum of 30MHz to be sold in the auction will lie between 2100-2200 Mhz.

Once the winners are decided, they will have to abide by the regulations, which include -

- Spectrum-allocation winners would be required to pay 0.5% for the first 3 years and 1% thereafter.

- During the first 5 years, winners will not be allowed to trade or sell or even merge with another company

India having already witnessed a monumental growth in the Mobile market and with predictions of huge rise in the broadband penetration, you can expect 3G to not just tap the existing user base but also to make inroads into the 100 million first-time users over the next few years. Until the auction, hold your breadth as 3G gets to unleash its prowess

Rihanna says domestic violence could happen to anyone

Pop singer Rihanna is due to speak for the first time about the night she was beaten by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, saying in a TV interview that this could happen to anyone.
R&B singer Brown, 20, was sentenced to five years probation and community service in August for attacking Rihanna, 21, on the eve of the Grammy Awards in February. He has since apologized for the assault but has remained largely out of the media spotlight.
In an interview with Diana Sawyer due to be aired on ABC's programme "Good Morning America" on Thursday and Friday this week, the Barbadian singer says Brown was "definitely my first big love."
"This happened to me ... it can happen to anyone," she told Sawyer according to a statement from ABC.
Brown and Rihanna were among the fastest rising R&B artists in the United States before the assault which led to Brown losing several commercial sponsorships and triggered a national debate on violent relationships.
Rihanna released a new single, "Russian Roulette", in October and her fourth studio album "Rated R" is due to be released by label Def Jam Records later this month.