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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum
NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 1
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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum
NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 2
NewsletterOf
NORTH EAST INDIA RESEARCH FORUM
www.neindiaresearch.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/northeast_india_research/
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 3
It gives me immense pleasure to
introduce the issue of April month’s NE-
Quest to you. In this issue, Dr. H. N.
Singh of Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology, Pune discusses about water
management in India. He has provided
the distributions of climatic moisture
regions of entire India, interestingly only
12% falls under humid regions of Indian
land mass. Dr. Bhaskar Thakuria
contributed a science fiction to this issue.
Those who do deal with microchips or do
programming may sometime realize, as if
machine has its own intelligence or
emotions? Genetic engineering we all
know has advanced a long way, Dr.
Amimesh Sharma has written a short
review on this subject. Cloud is an
integral part of our life. Dr. Subrata Das
discusses about the cirrus cloud which is
a high altitude cloud. Importance of such
clouds is being realized in recent decades
due to its effect on earth’s net radiation
budget.
The entire life system on earth
depends on the sun, water and air. The Sun
controls the weather. With the
competitive industrial revolution among
different countries large amount of
anthropogenic aerosols are being pumped
into the earth’s atmosphere. Though we
are making good money by
industrialization up to certain extent, we
are pushing our atmosphere into an
uncertain and dark future. Power, Politics
and Pollution level are therefore moving
hand in hand. Because of these polluted
gas, anthropogenic suspended particles,
wasted materials, airs that we breathe and
water that we drink, food we eat are
getting worsen day by day. To add to the
woes, the cloud properties are also getting
affected by these aerosols. The distribution
of rainfall is therefore bound to get
affected; hence one can expect a change
sociological and economical aspect of a
country in near future. Question arises
what kind of earth we will leave for our
future generation? As a responsible citizen
and above all, as a human being it is our
primary duty to keep the earth clean.
At last, I thank Dr. Arindam
Adhikari for offering me the opportunity
to serve as an editor for this month’s NE
Quest. I wish that such efforts will get
stronger and stronger.
Dr. Mahen Konwar,
IITM, Pune, India
Editorial
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 4
Page Number
1. The Forum 5
2. Science News 11
3. Members in News/Award/Fellowship 16
4. Article Section
(A) Water Resources and its Management in India 17
H.N. Singh and Nityanand Singh
(B) A High Altitude Clouds: Cirrus by Subrata Kumar Das 26
(C) Brave new world of Biotech by Animesh Sharma 31
(D) Fantasia (Science Fiction) by Bhaskar Thakuria 34
5. Interview 41
6. Reader’s page 44
7. Photography 46
8. Fellowship/Advertisement/Opportunity 47
Content
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 5
North East India Research Forum was created on 13th
November 2004.
1. How we are growing.
Every forum has to pass through difficult
phases at the time of birth. NE India Research
Forum is also no exception. At the very
beginning, it was a march hardly with few
members (from chemistry only) and today the
forum comprised of a force of 380 elite
members. Now we are in a position such that
people voluntarily come and join the group
irrespective of disciplines.
0
100
200
300
400
0 20 40 60 80
Months
N o o f M e m b e r
Graph of no of members w.r.t. months
2. Discussions held in the forum
• Necessity of directory of all the members
of the forum.• Possibility of organising conference in the
N. E. India.
• Taking initiation on setting up of South
East Asian Scientific Institute.
• On selection of Best paper award.
• Let us introspect.
3. Poll conducted and results
• North East India is lacking behind the rest
of the country due to-
1. Geographical constrain = 0%
2. Bad leadership = 40%
3. Lack of work culture = 36%
4. Corruption = 18%
5. Apathy from Central Govt. = 4%
• Which area of science is going to
dominate by creating a great impact on
society in next decade?
1. Nanoscience & nanotechnology = 22%
2. Biotechnology = 11%
3. Nanobiotechnology = 38%
4. Chemical Engineering = 0%
5. Medicine = 11%
6. Others = 16%
7. None = 0%
The Forum
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 6
• Kindly let us know your view regarding
the following topic. What activities of this
group you like most?
1. Research articles = 33%
2.Information about vacancy/positions
available = 10%
3. Way to have a contact with all members
= 29%
4. Scientific discussions = 14%
5. Others = 2%
• Selection of name for Newsletter
There were total 36 proposals submitted by
members of the forum for the Newsletter. The
name proposed by Mr. Abhishek Choudhury,
N. E. QUEST received the maximum number
of votes and hence it is accepted as the name
of the Newsletter.
• How often should we publish our
newsletter '' N. E. Quest’’?
1. Every 3 months = 61%
2. Every 6 months = 38%
3. Once a year = 0%
4. Editors of Previous NE-Quest Issues
1. Vol 1 Issue 1 April, 2007
Editor: Dr. Arindam Adhikari
2. Vol 1 Issue 2 July 2007
Editor: Dr. Tankeswar Nath
3. Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2007
Editor: Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur
4. Vol 1 Issue 4 January 2008
Editor: Dr. Pranjal Saikia
5. Vol 2 Issue 1 April 2008
Editor: Dr. Sasanka Deka
6. Vol 2 Issue 2 July 2008
Editor: Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi
7. Vol 2 Issue 3 October 2008
Editor: Dr. Prodeep Phukan
8. Vol 2 Issue 4 January 2009
Editor: Dr. Manab Sharma
9. Vol 3 Issue 1 April 2009
Editor: Dr. Debananda Ningthoujam
10. Vol 3 Issue 2 July 2009
Editor: Dr. Robert Singh Thangjam
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 7
11. Vol 3 Issue 3 October 2009
Editor: Dr. Pankaj Bharali
12. Vol 3 Issue 4 January 2010
Editor: Dr. Abdul Wahab
13. Vol 4 Issue 1 April 2010
Editor: Dr. Utpal Bora
14. Vol 4 Issue 2 July 2010
Editor: Dr. Babita Baruwati
15. Vol 4 Issue 3 October July 2010
Editor: Dr. Shanta Laishram
16. Vol 4 Issue 4 January 2011
Editor: Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj
17. Vol 4 Issue 5 April 2011
Editor: Dr. Mahen Konwar
5. A domain in the name of www.
neindiaresearch.org is booked.
6. Future activities
Proper planning and consequent
implementation always play an important role
in every aspect. Some of the topics / activities
/ suggestions which were being discussed,
time to time in the forum will get top priorities
in our future activities. Those are mentioned
here,
• Preparing complete online database of
N.E. researchers with details.
• Organising conference in the N.E. region-
proposed by Dr. Utpal Bora.
• Research collaboration among forum
members.
• Motivate student to opt for science
education.• Help master’s students in doing projects in
different organisation-proposed by Dr.
Khirud Gogoi.
• Supporting schools in rural areas by
different ways.
• Best paper awards.
• Compilation of book on ‘Education system
of different countries’. Initiative for this
project is taken by Dr. Mantu Bhuyan,
NEIST, Jorhat, Assam
7. New activity
• Guidelines for the members are being
formulated by the moderators of the NE
India Research Forum. These guidelines
are placed in the forum for discussion.
• HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd is willing
to sponsor some future activities of the
forum and have asked for space to
advertise for their products in the
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 8
N..E.Quest. Starting this issue (July 2009)
N.E.Quest is providing one page for the
advertisement. Details about this deal will
be informed soon once finalised. Thanks
to Dr. Robert Thangjam for his initiative
in this matter.
• North East India Research Forum cell has
been started in the following colleges,
• Dibrugarh University
Contact: Dr. Jitu Ranjan Chetia
Dept. of Chemistry
Email: jituranjan@yahoo.co.in
• Tezpur University
Contact: Dr. Ashim J. Thakur
Dept. of Chemistry
Email: ajtthax@yahoo.com
Phone: 03712 267008/9/10 (5059)
• Manipur University
Contact: Dr. Debananda S.
Ningthoujam
Coordinator, Microbial Biotech Lab
Reader & Head, Dept of Biochemistry,
Manipur University, Canchipur,
Imphal, India Email:
n.debananda@gmail.com
• Mizoram University
Contact: Dr. Thangjam Robert Singh
Assistant Professor, Department of
Biotechnology, Mizoram University,
Aizawl, India
Email: robth@mzu.edu.in
Phone: 0389-2330861/2330859 (O)
• Govt. Science College, Jorhat
(Jorhat Institute of Technology)
Contact: Mr. Prasanta Kumar Bordoloi,
Senior Lecturer
Email: prasantabordoloi@yahoo.co.in
Mobile: 09957036339
• Arya Vidyapeth College, Guwahati
Contact: Mr. Pabitra Kalita,
Senior Lecturer
Email:pabitra_kalita@rediffmail.com
Mobile No: 09613133859
& Dr. Pradip Bhattacharyya,
Senior Lecturer
Email: prdpbhatta@yahoo.com
Mobile No: 09864087494
• Pandu College, Pandu
Contact: Mr. Sanchay Jyoti Bora
Lecturer, Department of Chemistry
E-mail: sanchay.bora@gmail.com
Mobile: 09854078814
• Bajali college, Pathsala
Contact: Mr. Arindam Talukdar,
Lecturer, Environ. and Tourism Dept.
Email: katharpankaj@yahoo.com
& Mr. Satyendra Nath Kalita,
Lecturer, Dept. of Zoology
Email: satyendranathkalita@gmail.com
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 9
• B. Borooah College, Guwahati
Contact: Dr. Diganta K. Sarma,
Lecturer, Dept of Physics.
Email: digantasarma02@rediffmail.com
To run the forum smoothly, to make it more
organised and to speed up activities, formation
of a committee/team is essential.
The combined discussion of the moderators
and senior members make the forum feel the
importance of Advisors, co-ordinator,
volunteer, webmasters etc. Of course it needs
more discussion and will be approved by poll.
8. Guidelines for the forum
The moderators formulated some guidelines
for the forum which are as follow. These
guidelines were kept open for discussion in
the forum. With time and need the guidelines
will be changed.
1. Anybody in the forum can start a
meaningful and constructive discussion
after discussion with moderators.
2. Comments from the individual members
do not necessarily reflect the view of the
forum.
3. No single moderator can take a crucial
decision. All decision would be taken by
the moderators unanimously or together
with the group as majority.
4. One should not write any massage to the
forum addressing some particular
members. It should always start with Dear
all / Dear esteemed members etc.
5. If one has to write a mail to a particular
member she/he should write personal mail.
6. Everyone has the freedom to speak but
that doesn’t mean that one should attack
personally. Of course we do have
differences. There can be debate or
discussion, but it should always be a
healthy one. One’s personal comment
should be written in such a way that it
reflects his/her view only. It should not
touch other's sentiments/emotions.
7. Whenever we are in a forum, society,
home, members should be sensitive /
caring enough to their comments so that it
does not hurt sentiment of any second
members.
8. Members should not post greetings
messages (Bihu wish, New Year wish etc)
to the forum.
9. Members should post authentic news only.
The source of the news should be
authentic. No controversial news or
comment should be posted to the forum.
10. Our main aim is to discuss science to
generate science consciousness, scientific
temperament, sensitivity, awareness and
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 10
research for the benefit of the mankind in
general and North East India in particular.
11. In severe cases, moderators can take a
hard decision unanimously or majority
wise (may be through poll). (This point
needs to be accepted by all the members).
While sending request or while fulfilling
request for articles please follow the following
points.
• The forum has been formed to help each
other. When a member requests
articles/literature to forum, members of the
forum are always happy to help the person
by supplying the articles. But at this stage
we have to keep in mind that the article
should be sent to the person who requested
it, not to the whole forum as it creates lots
of unnecessary mails in the message boxof the forum. Moreover if it continues, it
becomes an irritation also for many
members.
• It is also the duty of the person who
requests article to acknowledge the personwho helped him/her. This can be done by
writing ' Request fulfilled by......' in the
subject area while composing the mail and
write a thanking message in the main
message board. Once this is done, then if
some other members want to send the
article will know about the status of the
request. This will also help members in
keeping mailbox clean. For example
• Moreover sending articles (copyright
protected articles) to the open forum
violates copyright act. So please send the
article to the person who requests not to
everybody through this open forum.
-------0-------
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts." (Sign hanging in Albert Einstein's office at Princeton) @
Kevin Harris
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 11
Stay Happy!!
According to a story from Men's Health,
there are ways in which one can prolong youth
and "halt" ageing. There few tips that can
make us healthy and happy:
Have a look and see what you think!
• Live Higher Up
A study of people in Switzerland suggests that
those living at high altitudes had a 22 percent
lower risk of dying of coronary heart disease.
Follow up: Most people can be benefitted
from taking in 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily. It
is suggested to eat more D-rich foods, such as
seafood (Salmon, tuna, and mackerel are good
bets or take vitamin D3 supplement.
Make Relationships Last: Adults with strong
friendships and/or community involvement
lived an average of 3.7 years longer than the
normal U.S. life expectancy, according to a
2010 review by researchers at Brigham Young
University.
• Brush Your Teeth
People who brushed less than twice a day had
a 70 percent higher risk of death or
hospitalization from heart disease than those
who brushed three times or more, according to
a 2010 U.K. study.
Follow up: Brushing and flossing remove
bacteria, but many people floss incorrectly.
Floss right: Wrap the floss so it forms a C
around the front of one tooth and a C around
the back of the adjacent one. Move the floss
up and down.
Breath good air
People who live with relatively good air
quality live a few months to a year longer than
average, according to a study in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Follow up: No matter where you live, you can
trade sidewalk jogs for trail runs. Jog possibly
in the evening when the sun sets.
Accept Your Age
Feel happy with their age lived an average of
2 years longer than people who were bothered
by it.
Follow up: As people age, they tend to
compare themselves with their younger selves,
Science News
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 12
which leads to some disappointment. (Source
www.yahoo.com).
Tibetan encyclopedia provides
evidence of ancient brain surgery
Brain surgery was practiced by doctors
at least 2,900 years ago, a specialist on
Tibetan culture and literature said four
decades of research on the Tibetan Tripitaka,
an ancient encyclopedia.
"The 2,900-year-old Tibetan Tripitaka states
clearly why and how brain surgery was carried
out," said Karma Trinley, an associate
professor from the Tibetan language and
literature department of Tibet University in
Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet
Autonomous Region.
Karma Trinley, an avid researcher and reader
of classic Tibetan literature, Buddhism and
calligraphy, began studying the Tripitaka in
1970. "It describes in detail how a young
Indian doctor watched brain surgery being
performed by a veteran surgeon," he said.
The young Indian doctor, whose name was
similar in pronunciation to the Tibetan name
Tsogyel, was not allowed to join the surgery,
but merely stood by with the patient's
permission, according to the Tripitaka.
The book said that the patient was suffering
from a severe headache and repeatedly
knocked his head on hard objects to ease the
pain.
When Tsogyel saw the surgeon trying to
operate on the patient's brain with a pair of
tweezers, he shouted that the tweezers had to
be heated first.
"Tsogyel was a well-reputed doctor and was
good at all medical practice except brain
surgery," said Karma Trinley. "But the
surgeon followed his advice and the surgery
later proved successful."
He said Tsogyel's advice on sterilization
helped raise the success rate of surgery at the
time. Tsogyel later became a skilled surgeon
himself.
The Tripitaka is the earliest collection of
Buddhist writings. The information contained
in the writings was originally passed down
orally, and was finally written down in the
third century B.C.
The Tibetan Tripitaka was translated from
Sanskrit language of ancient India. It contains
two parts, the Gangyur and the Dangyur.
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 13
The Gangyur is a collection of teachings of
Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, adopted
by his disciples after his death.
The Dangyur is a collection of notes and
interpretations on the Gangyur, provided by
Indian and Tibetan Buddhist masters, scholars
and translators. It covers philosophy, logics,
literature, linguistics, art, astronomy,
medicine, architecture and calendar
calculation.
"The Tibetan Tripitaka contains Sakyamuni's
classifications of 440 ailments that were
believed to be associated with wind, bile and
phlegm, and were categorized accordingly,"
said Karma Trinley.
He added that many of the medical theories in
the book are still used by Tibetan doctorstoday.
Evidence of ancient brain surgery was first
found in 1998, when archeologists unearthed
human skulls with mended cracks on the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. These cracks indicated
that craniotomies were probably performed by
the Chinese over 5,000 years ago.
Before the Tibetan Tripitaka's description of
brain surgery was discovered, researchers
used to disagree on the purpose of ancient
craniotomies, said Karma Trinley.
"Some believed it was a religious ritual to
dispell evils or bring happiness, while others
held that it was a therapy used by witches and
wizards," he said. (Source: Xinhuanet )
Melting icebergs fertilize ocean
Efforts to remove climate-warming carbon
dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere appear to be
getting a helping hand from a surprising
source: the iron in meltwater from Antarctic
icebergs.
Icebergs calving off of Antarctica are
shedding substantial iron — the equivalent of
a growth-boosting vitamin — into waters
starved of the mineral, a new set of studies
demonstrates. This iron is fertilizing the
growth of microscopic plants and algae,
transforming the waters adjacent to ice floes
into teeming communities of everything fromtiny shrimplike krill to fish, birds and
sometimes mammals.
To grow, these plants and animals use carbon
drawn into the water from carbon dioxide in
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 14
the atmosphere. Some share of this carbon
will eventually be excreted as wastes that fall
to the ocean floor, essentially removing it as a
near-term climate risk.
“Icebergs should be considered by climate
modelers, because the more icebergs that
develop [from the breakup of glaciers], the
more carbon dioxide you’ll draw out of the
atmosphere,” says Ken Smith of the Monterey
Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss
Landing, Calif.
Smith and colleagues first fingered icebergs as
hotspots of biological and chemical activity in
a 2007 study published in Science. New data
from Antarctic cruises in 2008 and 2009 by
Smith and other scientists from nine research
institutions now appear as 20 papers in the
June Deep Sea Research Part II .
Researchers refer to icebergs’ carbon removal
as an export. “And the amount of carbon being
exported near icebergs is twice as high as in
areas away from them,” Smith says.
Counterbalancing icebergs’ carbon removal:
No one views the sea-level rise accompanying
massive ice melting as a good thing. The rate
of iceberg calving — and ice loss — in recent
years has increased there, as elsewhere, in
response to warming of Earth’s atmosphere.
Prior to the new studies, “we didn’t know the
nature of the biological communities
associated with icebergs and we certainly
didn’t know their direct relationship to carbon
exports,” says chemist Timothy Shaw of the
University of South Carolina in Columbia,
who coauthored several of the new reports.
One surprise: The proliferation of
phytoplankton — tiny plants at the base of the
marine food chain — that were witnessed in
the waters around ice floes “could onlyaccount for about half of the increased carbon
export we measured,” Shaw says. His team
now attributes the other half to changes in the
chemistry of iron and carbon use by
phytoplankton living next to and under the
icebergs.
Benjamin Twining of the Bigelow Laboratory
for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor,
Maine, points to another big surprise:
Icebergs’ iron enrichment of southern waters
could vary by a factor of 100 from one iceberg
to another, or even along walls of a given
berg. This patchy enrichment reflects
differences in chemical reactions triggered by
various organisms and to the unexpectedly
complicated turbulence associated with water
melting from the floes.
(Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/)
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 15
No pain, healthier brain
Wiping out chronic pain in the lower back
doesn’t just dull the agony. It allows the brain
to recover, too. Six months after people’s
backaches were eased, their brains showed
fewer signs of the abnormalities that
accompany chronic pain, a new study shows.
This brain recovery is “a concrete message
that certainly brings hope and relief to thosesuffering from this condition,” says UCLA
neuroscientist Dante Chialvo.
In the study, neuroscientist Laura Stone of
McGill University in Montreal and colleagues
scanned the brains of people who had
experienced back pain for at least a year.
Compared to healthy controls, chronic pain
sufferers had thinning in the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, a brain region that’s been
linked to pain modulation. This region also
showed abnormal activity when people with
chronic back pain took a simple cognitive test
while in a brain scanner, the team found.
But six months after treatment with either
spine surgery or pain-relieving injections,
scans revealed that the pain sufferers’ brains
bounced back. Their thin dorsolateral
prefrontal regions grew larger, and their brain
activity began to look more normal. These
brain changes depended on the level of pain
relief: The less pain a person reported after
treatment the greater the improvement, the
team reports in the May 18 Journal of
Neuroscience.
“We know that pain causes brain changes, and
now we know that taking pain away reverses
those changes,” Stone says.
It’s too soon to know exactly how pain
reduction influences the brain, or vice versa,
Stone says. But if it turns out that the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex controls pain,
she says, clinicians might one day be able to
reduce suffering by targeting the region with
noninvasive techniques such as cognitive
behavioral therapy, meditation or exercise.
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 16
Miss Sumi Handique has joined Tezpur
University Department of Environmental
Science as assistant professor in October
2010.
She is pursuing her PhD degree from
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi after
obtaining M.Sc. degree in Environmental
Science from the same university in 2008. Her
research topic is “Geochemistry of
Brahmaputra river and its tributaries”. She
was shortlisted for SPM (Shyama Prasad
Mukherjee) fellowship screening test in July
2008. She has successfully supervised
Ms.Nilakshi Senapati, Department of
Environmental Science, Tezpur University for
her project work entitled “Grain size and
geochemical analysis of the sediments of the
Brahmaputra river and six of its tributaries.”
Dr. Pranjal Saikia has joined recently as an
Assistant Professor in the Department of
Chemical Sciences, Gauhati University,
Assam.
Members in News
/Awards /Fellowship
Birth of an idea
Developing the Radio started in 600
B.C. more than 2,500 years ago. A Greek
philosopher, Thales of Miletus found that by
rubbing amber he produced a force that would
pick up straws.
Sir William Gilbert two thousand two
hundred years later did experiments with the
idea and called the phenomenon as electricity.
Sixty years later, Otto von Guericke, a German,
built a machine to generate static electricity.
One hundred years later, Benjamin
Franklin identified positive and negative
lightning and electricity were the same thing. In
1820, Oersted proved that electricity would
produce magnetism and about the same time,
Franklin did some experiment and discovered
the principle of electric motor. After Faraday
came Morseand Bell, who used the idea as a
means of communication - the telegraph and
the telephone. Edison made the idea glow and
lit up the world. Marconi and deForest went
Morse and Bell one better and laid the
foundation for radio. (www.todayinsci.com)
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Water Resources and its Management in India
H.N. Singh* and Nityanand Singh
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
* E-mail: narendra@tropmet.res.in
Background
Understanding the degree of criticality
of water in terms of the
interrelated/interlinked between the freshwater
and waste water as well as its proper
management has been emerged largely in the
last few decades all over the globe. Rainfall
spatial-temporal variability over India, which
is the main source for water, is quite complex;
during the same year contrasting conditions,
increasing/decreasing, expansion/contraction,
droughts/floods, can be seen in different parts,
even in the same part. The paradox of
rainwater potential and its proper management
in India lies over the regions where orography
plays a major role of its own in modulating the
whole system. Supply of freshwater will be a
critical issue in the years to come.
Information, assessment and monitoring of
sustainable global water resources will be a
priority and major challenges in near future,
particularly in the developing countries like
India where agriculture-based economy plays
a vital role in its development. Real-time
monitoring of the parameters of the wet and
dry spells can provide vital information in this
endeavor.
Article Section
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Introduction
Water is one of the most important
renewable natural resources available
abundantly with us. Though 75% of the earth'stotal surface covers by water, only 0.5% of the
total water on the earth's surface can be
utilized by us as 97% of it is in the oceans.
The water resource of a country is one of its
vital assets as water is a basic need of the
human being. It plays a major role in
agriculture, hydropower generation, livestock
production, industrial activities, forestry,
fisheries, navigation, recreational activities,
etc. With rapid growing population and its
migration to urban areas for search of its
livelihood, the pressure on our water resources
is increasing and heading towards serious
water crisis in the years to come. The
situations of the water related sectors in India
needs serious reckoning as the per capita
availability of water resources is reducing day
by day. Per capita availability of utilizable
water reduced to 1250 cubic meters in 1999
from 3450 cubic meter in 1951 (Singh V.K.,
2009). It is further expected to 662 cubic
meters per person in 2050. Many longstanding water related disputes still remain
unsolved, and the increasing demands of the
global fresh water requirement is expected to
pull to a new height of the risk in the water
related future conflicts. There is no political
boundary for the natural flow of surface water
as well as the underground water. Thus the
problem of increasing water stress cannot be
dealt with in isolation. Sustainable water
resources management is a very complicated
and inter-dependant process among various
sectors involving interstate venture or
international venture. It encounters a variety
of socio-economic problems particularly
where much of the land is either semiarid or
arid regions. With unclear laws pertaining to
the water related issues, the water supply
crunch particularly in the urban areas is a real
problem. Information, assessment and
monitoring of sustainable global water
resources will be a priority and major
challenges of the future to face the water
crisis, particularly in the developing countries
like India where agriculture-based economy
plays a vital role in its development. A few
pertinent water legislations, strict water
conservation practices, judicious & efficient
use of water and recycling can offer viable
options however it should be well defined,
well coordinated as well as well addressed in
the interests of all the citizens of the country.
The availability and demands of water
resources in India as well as the various issues
and strategies for developing a holistic
approach for sustainable development and
management of the water resources of the
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country should be very clear and addressed for
a better future. So far, the availability and
demands of water resources in India,
processing, storage and dissemination have
not been received adequate attention compare
to other developed countries. The efforts
initiated under the Hydrology Project Phase-I
and the development of the Decision Support
System proposed under Hydrology Project
Phase-II under the initiative of the Ministry of
water Resources, Govt. of India are expected
to bridge some of the gaps between the
developed advanced technologies of water
resources planning, designing and
management and their field applications
(Rakesh Kumar et al. 2005).
While occurrences of water bodies
(rivers and canals; reservoirs, tanks and ponds;
beels, oxbow lakes and derelict water; and
brackish water) across the country depend
upon physiographic settings and rainfall
conditions, the recharging of the water bodies
depends mostly on rainfall which is a highly
variable parameter (Sontakke et al. 2008) in
terms of space and time. Due to large variation
in intensity and frequency of rain-inducing
disturbances (western disturbances,
thunderstorms, monsoon/cyclonic
storms/depressions, monsoon troughs etc.) as
well as the summer monsoon and post
monsoon circulations over different parts of
the country, rainfall occurrences exhibit large
spatial variability (Ranade et al. 2007,
Sontakke et al. 2008). The intensity and
variability of the monsoon rain depends upon
several parameters of atmospheric circulation,
which interlinked with the impact of global
climate change as well as on extreme rain
events across the country. Rainfall spatial-
temporal variability over India, which is the
main source for water, is quite complex;
during the same year contrasting conditions,
increasing/decreasing, expansion/contraction,
droughts/floods, can be seen in different parts,
even in the same part. The paradox of
rainwater potential and its proper management
in India lies over the regions where orography
plays a major role of its own in modulating the
whole system. The best known example of it
is Mousinram near Cherrapunji, which
receives the highest rainfall in the world, also
suffers from an acute shortage of drinking
water during the non-rainy season, almost
every year due to the lack of proper
management of the available rainwater.
Hence, there is a great need for proper
planning, development and management water
which is considered to be the greatest of the
available assets of the country to
combat/resolve the twin problem of floods and
droughts that directly affects the decision-
making support system in water-related
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sectors such as agriculture, hydrology, water
resources and terrestrial and freshwater
aquatic ecosystems. Earliest possible action
may be initiated to store the available surplus
rainfall to the maximum possible extent in
order to have stable food grain production and
to meet drinking water supply and
hydroelectric power generation. Real-time
monitoring of the parameters of the wet and
dry spells can provide vital information in this
endeavour.
Features of large-scale rainfall spatio-
temporal variability
The hydrological cycle is being
affected quantitatively and qualitatively either
by complexity of the earth-atmosphere climate
system or man-made development activities
such as construction of dams and reservoirs,
land use change, irrigation, etc. Understanding
climatic and hydroclimatic features of wet and
dry spell is essential for effective agricultural
and hydrological operations. This problem
assumed to be of greater importance in the
wake of global climate change scenario and
thus attempts have been made in recent
decades world-wide to understand the problem
on regional/local scales.
Rainfall spatial-temporal variability
over India is quite complex; during the same
year contrasting conditions,
increasing/decreasing, expansion/contraction,
droughts/floods, can be seen in different parts,
even in the same part. The spatio-temporal
variability of annual, seasonal and monthly
rainfall over India is studied by examining
expansion and contraction of the moisture
regions and that of seasonal and monthly
rainfall from expansion and contraction of dry
and wet zones of the respective period using
highly quality-controlled data from 316
widely distributed locations for the period
1871–2006. Rainfall data up to 1900 were
obtained from Eliot (1902) and for the period
1901–2006 from the records of the India
Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune. A
digitized map of India on 1:6 million scale
with the projection system of “Albers Equal
Area Projection with Two Standard Parallels,
15°
N and 30°
N” was utilized in a GISenvironment (GeoMedia Professional 5.1) for
the spatial analysis of the rainfall data. To
understand spatial variation of annual rainfall,
expansion/contraction of different moisture
regions, viz. arid (rainfall ≤ 560 mm), semi-
arid (561–1040 mm), dry subhumid (1041–
1420 mm), moist subhumid (1421–1630 mm),
humid (1631–2450 mm) and perhumid (≥
2450 mm), are examined. This climatic
classification of the different moisture regions
is based on the average annual precipitation as
the climatic conditions of any place in the
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Fig. 1 Map of the country showing climatic moisture regions. Dots indicate the location of
316 rain-gauge stations used.
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country can be assessed with the average
annual precipitation over it (Singh, 1984).
Thematic maps of the country showing the
normal (1901–2000) position of the moisture
regions (Fig. 1) as well as their yearly
positions (figures not shown) have been
prepared using the GeoMedia GIS. The
different moisture regions of the country show
large variations from one year to another. On
the normal annual isohyetal map the arid
region occupies 383,584.6 km2 (15.32%);
semi-arid 1,103,091.5 km2 (33.79%); dry
subhumid 793285.7 km2 (24.30%); moist
subhumid 289,239.2 km2 (8.86%); humid
404,151.3 km2 (12.38%) and perhumid
174,327.0 km2 (5.34%) of the country. The
different moisture regions display intrinsically
large spatial variability
(expansion/contraction) from one year to
another albeit in an organized manner. Though
the spatio-temporal variability of wet and dry
spells is quite large, occurrence of rainfall
gives rise to a pattern of wet and dry spells in
the time domain. Overall climatic condition of
the country shows drier tendency in the recent
years/decades (Singh et al., 2009). The
sequence of dry and wet periods in the
fluctuations of the moisture regions is also
given in Table 1. On the mean isohyetal chart
of particular month, one-fourth area of the
country with lowest rainfall is identified as
very dry and one-fourth with highest rainfall
as very wet. The remaining area between these
two extremes is divided into two equal halves
and designated as dry and wet zones. Dry/wet
zones of January, February, March, April,
July, August, September and October months
showed increase/decrease during 1965-2006
compared to 1931-1964. While opposite
condition is true for the other four months
(May, June, November and December).
Water resources management in India
Being an agriculture-based economy,
development of irrigation system and its
proper management in India to increase
agricultural production for making the country
self-sustained and for poverty alleviation has
been of crucial importance for the planners.
More than 50% of the water resources of India
are located in various basins of the major
rivers and their tributaries (Lal, 2001) and rest
are groundwater component. Due to rapid
increase in the population of the country, the
demand for water for the use of various
purposes increases drastically though region
specific. To cope up the increasing demands
of water for meeting the requirements of the
rapidly growing population of the country as
well as the problems that are likely to arise in
near future with our existing water resources,
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Table 1 Dry and wet periods in the fluctuations of the six moisture regions over India.
Moisture regions Dry periods Wet periods
Arid1896–1925, 1934–42, 1965–74,
1984–87, 1999–2004
1871–95, 1926–33, 1943–64,
1975–83, 1988–98
Semi-arid 1900–12, 1950–57, 1964–2004 1871–99, 1913–49, 1958–63
Dry subhumid 1914–17, 1948–83 1871–1913, 1918–47, 1984–2006
Moist subhumid 1871–83, 1952–89, 1999–2004 1884–1951, 1990–98
Humid1899–1913, 1949–53, 1964–89,
1998–2004
1871–98, 1914–48, 1954–63,
1990–97
Perhumid1898–1910, 1935–42, 1960–87,
1995–2006
1871–97, 1911–34, 1943–59,
1988–94
a holistic, well planned long-term strategy for
sustainable water resources India is asked for.
A few pertinent water legislations, strict water
conservation practices, judicious & efficient
use of water and recycling of waste water can
offer viable options however it should be well
defined, well coordinated as well as well
addressed in the interests of the general
public. It should also be made mandatory for
the people’s participation in the forward
move. The participation of the local people in
the watershed management will be more
effective in accordance with the use of their
traditional knowledge to capture and store
rainwater for its efficient utilization and
conservation to control its runoff, evaporation
and seepage because the mode of rainwater
harvesting adopted depends on the
geographical and meteorological conditions of
the particular region. It will also help in
formulating an efficient mechanism for the
spatio-temporal availability of water to meet
the demands among themselves. The water
resources management practices are to be
more focused on data monitoring, processing,
storage, retrieval and dissemination so as to
help in planning and design of the water
resources structures in the country. New
concept of decision support systems
introduced to the water resources management
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provides the necessary inputs to the decision
makers for better water resources
management. Some important aspects of water
resources management are flood & drought
management, groundwater management,
watershed management, rainwater harvesting,
recycle and reuse of water, inter-basin water
transfer, data monitoring & information
system, applications of decision support
system in water resources and water pricing.
Most importantly, knowledge sharing through
various modes among the citizen regarding the
preciousness of water, common people’s
participation in the local level water resource
management, mass communication and
capacity building for the nation-wide publicity
are essential for effective water resources
management.
End note
In spite of the fact, there has been
large-scale decline in rainfall in recent period,
the survival of the system reasonably well
suggests better management practices of the
water bodies adopted by the people to
combat/resolve the twin problem of floods and
droughts that directly affects the decision-
making support system in water-related
sectors such as agriculture, hydrology, water
resources and terrestrial and freshwater
aquatic ecosystems. Earliest possible action
may be initiated to store the available surplus
rainfall to the maximum possible extent in
order to have stable food grain production and
to meet drinking water supply and
hydroelectric power generation. Real-time
monitoring of the parameters of the wet and
dry spells can provide vital information in this
endeavour.
Acknowledgements
The authors are extremely grateful to Prof.
B.N. Goswami, Director, Indian Institute of
Tropical Meteorology, Pune for necessary
facilities to pursue this study. The rainfall data
used in this study were provided by the India
Meteorological Department, Pune, is
thankfully acknowledged.
Reference
Elliot J. 1902: Monthly and annual rainfall of
457 stations in India to the end of 1900. India
Meteorological Department Memoirs, Vol.
XIV, 709 pp.
India Meteorological Department (IMD),
1961: Monthly and Annual Normals of
Rainfall and of Rainy Days (based on records from 1901-1950) . India Meteorological
Department, New Delhi, 204 pp.
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 25
Lal, M. (2001): Climate change –
Implications for India’s water resources. J.
India Water Res. Soc., 2001, 21, pp.101–119.
Singh H.N., Singh N., and Sontakke, N.A.(2009): Monitoring Large-scale rainfall
variations across India, Hydroinformatics in
Hydrology, Hydrogeology and Water
Resources Edited by Ian D. Cluckie, Yangbo
Chen, Vladan Babovic, Lenny Konikow,
Arthur Mynett, Siegfried Demuth & Dragan
A. Savic, IAHS Publ.(Red Book) 331, 2009,
Pp. 514-522.
Singh, N., 1984: Fluctuations of different
moisture regimes in India, Arch. Met.
Geophys. Biocl., B35, pp. 239-256
Singh V.K. (2009): Water Crisis and Rain
Harvesting, Geography and You, Jul-Aug
2009, pp. 52-53.
Sontakke, N.A., Singh, H.N. and Singh
,Nityanand (2008) : Chief Features of
Physiographic Rainfall Variations across India
during Instrumental Period (1813-2006), IITM
Research Report No. 121, 128 pp.
Rakesh Kumar, R. D. Singh and K. D. Sharma(2005): Water resources of India, Current
Science, Vol. 89, No. 5, 10 September 2005
pp. 794-811.
Ranade, Ashwini A., Singh, Nityanand.,
Singh, H.N. and Sontakke, N.A. (2007):
Characteristics of Hydrological Wet Season
over Different River Basins of India, IITM
Research Report No. 119, 155 pp.
Picture courtesy: Mr. R.K. Diamond, Loktak
Lake of Imphal, Manipur.
Author’s biography: Dr. Huidrom Narendra
Singh is presently working as a scientist at
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. His
research interest is on Hydroclimatic
Variability and Prediction with special
emphasis on Indian Monsoon, Water
Resources & Hydrological Modelling,
Applications of RS-GIS in Hydroclimatic
Variabilities. He has good number of papers in
national and international scientific journals to
his credit. Email: narendra@tropmet.res.in
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Clouds are considered as an aggregate of tiny
particles of water vapour or ice, or both,
suspended in the atmosphere [ Houze, 1993].The Earth is roofed with nearly 60 % of the
clouds. They are identified as an important
regulator in the global climate and
hydrological cycle. The cloud also affects the
Earth’s energy balance by reflecting,
absorbing and transmitting the solar radiation.
Clouds are formed when water vapour rises in
the atmosphere from the surface, cools and
condenses onto particles. At any level of
the atmosphere, clouds can be formed,
provided humid air cools enough for water
vapour to condense into droplets or ice
crystals. First attempt (1801) of cloud
classification was made by French naturalist,
Jean Lamarck . The classification of clouds
presented in Table 1 is taken from Houze
[1993] and Lynch [2002]. Cirrus clouds are
formed at high altitude, which develops either
in the form of white, delicate filaments or
narrow bands that etches across the sky. The
name ‘cirrus’ is a Latin word means ‘wisp of
hair ’.
Table 1. Clouds classification w.r.t. their occurrence
height.(Courtesy: Houze 1993])
Cloud
group
Type of
Cloud
Base Altitude (km)
Tropics Mid
latitude
Polar
Low
Clouds
Stratus
Stratocumulus
Nimbostratus
Cumulus
Cumulonimbus
Below
2 km
Below
2 km
Below
2 km
Middle
Clouds
Altostratus
2-8 km 2-7
km
2-4
km
Altocumulus
High
Clouds
Cirrus
6-18
km
5-13
km
3-8
KmCirrostratus
Cirrocumulus
A High Altitude Clouds: Cirrus
By
Subrata Kumar Das
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Cirrus clouds occupy nearly 20% of the
Earth’s atmosphere out of which 50% in the
tropical region. These clouds have the high
frequency of occurrence over the summer
hemisphere, which moves with the seasonal
movement of the Inter Tropical Convergence
Zone. The continental effects of cirrus clouds
are also reported i.e., maximum occurrence of
cirrus clouds are over the landmasses as
compared to the oceans. These clouds can
spread over the large horizontal areas and can
persist for several hours or days. Cirrus clouds
can take a variety of forms or shapes and
generally contain ice crystals. Some of the
common shapes of ice crystals in cirrus are
shown in Fig. 1. The shapes of ice particles
that compose cirrus clouds are diverse and
irregular. The different shapes of ice crystals
have varied scattering properties and thus
identified as one of the most complicated
components to model in the radiative transfer
simulations. Cirrus particle sizes are often
expressed as the maximum dimension of the
particle, which varies in the range from 5 µm
to a few mm.
Jensen et al. [1996] proposed two
formation mechanism for the tropical cirrus:
(i) convective transport of water vapour to the
upper part of the troposphere by
cumulonimbus clouds (i.e., anvil cirrus), and
(ii) in situ formation of ice crystals by slow,
synoptic scale uplift of a humid layer (i.e., in
situ cirrus). A schematic sketch of the two
formation mechanisms is shown in Fig. 2a and
2b, respectively.
Cirrus clouds can also be formed artificially
behind the aircraft’s exhaust, known as
contrail cirrus. The water droplets are
deposited on the soot and sulphuric acid,
which are emitted by the aircraft. If the
ambient temperature is cold enough, these
water droplets freezes and turn into ice
particles.
Figure 1 Examples of various ice particleshapes.(Courtesy: http://www.its.caltech.edu/
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 28
Fig. 2. A schematic diagram of the formation of (a)
anvil cirrus and (b) in situ Cirrus. (Courtesy:
Veerabuthiran [2004])
Cirrus clouds have raised a particular
interest for their role in the atmosphere’s
greenhouse and the albedo effect. Past studies
have reported that the cirrus clouds are also
one of the influencing factors for the variation
of tropical precipitation, upper tropospheric
humidity, and sea surface temperature and
thus influence the climate change [ Heymsfield
and McFarquhar, 2002 and references
therein]. It is not clear at the present time
whether the net effect of cirrus clouds is to
warm or cool the Earth’s atmosphere. Because
of the height altitude appearance, the
investigation of cirrus cloud properties, which
depends upon the concentration, phase, size,
and shape of the ice crystals, etc., are complex
and thus limited. Therefore, the cirrus clouds
parameterization in the climate system is
considered as one of the challenging tasks.
Hence, the parameterization of cirrus clouds
still remains one of the major sources of
uncertainty in the climate model forecast for a
future climate change.
There are various methods for
investigating the physical properties of cirrus
clouds such as lidar, cloud radar, microwave
and sub-mm radiometers, balloon borne frost-
point hygrometers, dual theodolite, aircraft
observations and satellite measurements
[ Dowling and Radke, 1990]. Among the
mentioned measurement techniques, the lidar
(complementary to the radar) is most
appropriate. LIDAR is an acronym for LIght
Detection And Ranging, which is an active
remote sensing device, also referred to as a
laser radar. Lidar is based on the principle that
when a pulse of laser light is transmitted to a
target, a portion of pulse light is backscattered
through either reflection or scattering or both
and collected using a telescope, providing
information about the target. Lidar offered the
capability for sensing scattering by both air
molecules and the floated particulate matter in
the atmosphere. The lidar has a better spatial
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and temporal resolution with diurnal sampling
and thus capable of explaining the dynamics
of the cirrus clouds in terms of their chemical
and physical composition. The schematic
diagram of a typical lidar system is shown in
Fig. 3.
Figure 3: A schematic diagram of lidarsystem
Now with the lidar technique, the
characterization of cirrus cloud is possible
from the ground (ground-based lidar), from
the aircraft (air-borne lidar) and also from the
space (space-borne lidar). A typical height
time intensity plot of the cirrus clouds
measured with a ground based lidar at Chung-
Li (24.5 oN, 121.1oE), Taiwan is shown in Fig.
4. The increased in backscattering intensity
clearly reveals the distribution of cirrus clouds
in the height between 17 and 18 km, which is
at the tropopause height. The cirrus clouds in
the vicinity of tropopause affect the
stratospheric radiative balance and have an
Fig. 4. Height-time intensity plot of backscattering ratio (BR) observed atChung-Li, Taiwan from 20:00-22:00 LT
(LT=GMT+08 hrs) on July 9, 2009.
impact on dehydration of the air [ Hartmann et
al., 2001]. Cirrus clouds properties have large
spatio-temporal variations. To divulge the
important aspects of cirrus clouds and
associated dynamics in the different regions of
the globe, several experimental, observational,
and campaign measurements are being
conducted using lidar and other techniques.
The outcomes of those investigations will be
helpful in understanding the radiative impact
of cirrus clouds on the Earth’s radiation
budget, atmospheric thermodynamics,
hydrological cycle, and atmospheric
circulations, etc. These studies could be vital
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Brave new world of Biotech
Dr. Animesh Sharma
Imagine that a person with some
childhood birth defect meets a doctor, the
doctor engineers and transplants the defective
organ, literally guiding a life of disability to a
normality... wait, you don’t need to imagine
this! Meet surgeon Atala,director of the Wake
Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine,
transplanting Luke with a bladder created out
of Luke’s own bladder cells. Now he is
pushing this to generate the fully perfused
solid organs like liver [1]. We have indeed
come far from blaming natural forces for our
defects to actually confronting it and trying to
control and improve. Engineered organs are a
reality and soon we will be printing out
functional organs of desired constituents
directly into the patients.
So where did it all begin? We have
been wondering about nature since time
immemorial but til 19th century we had no
clue whether life we see around is engineered
or not. This was answered beautifully
byDarwin who outlined his theory of
evolution, natural selection operating on
population leading to immense diversity in
life. Still, the very basis of this phenomena
was not understood till Mendel came up with
theory of genetics. However the real
understanding of this process had to wait till
Watson and Crick elucidated the DNA
structure, the self replicating, stable structure,
which could preserve information through
generations and yet able to change to suit the
environment.
The cells in our body contains DNA
carrying the genetic information. It is more or
less true for all the life forms. This
understanding of genetics at the molecular
level enabled us to tinker with the very fabric
of life. We are no longer mere passive product
of natural selection and evolution, rather we
are actively engineering it now. Lock’s getting
treated for his birth disorder, X-linked SCID,
severe combined immunodeficiency making
person vulnerable to all sorts of diseases,
through gene therapy is another example of
this incredible power and cloning of the Dolly
has brought this progress to its natural
conclusion. Moreover, this is not just
restricted to stem cells or organs or to cloning
a whole being, rather, it is progressing towards
creating artificial life itself. Synthetic biology
has come a long way from introducing and
expressing desired genes using restriction
enzymes to actually creating synthetic life.
American biologist, Craig Venter unveiled
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this last year where his team wrote out, letter
by letter, the whole genetic information
(genome) of an organism on the computer,
introduced it into a nucleated cell, soon to see
the cell dancing to the tunes of this new
genome until all of its machinery was replaced
with artificially synthesised chemicals. This
cell was alive and throbbing, yet completely
devoid of any of its original parents
component. This God like abilities led his
team to proclaim “Lower synthesis costs
combined with automation will enable broad
applications for synthetic genomics” [2] from
mere taking control of a cell to actually create
cells performing specific tasks so far unseen in
the natural world. Yes indeed, things are
getting cheaper day by day, on an exponential
scale. Next generation high throughput
technologies are able to generate, in a day, as
much, if not more, biological data which use
to take years. This coupled with Moore’s law
of exponential growth in computing power,
Kryder's Law for hard disk storage cost per
unit of information and breakthrough in
algorithms has opened up horizons
unimaginable few years ago. Now we can
actually imagine to simulate a cell. This opens
up a possibility for exploring biological
interventions which were earlier unthinkable
due to various concerns.
However these mind boggling
developments brings up a serious concern,
won’t like money, this will create another
social divide of people who will have
capability to utilize such powers and those
who don’t? Like the way nuclear weapon has
created national divide, won’t such biological
power, lead to further divide? Probably yes,
but this might be a much powerful deterrent to
social conflicts. Nonetheless we can surely
envision that at local level, there might be
Schematic of Genetic Engineering
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apartheid issues between genetically enhanced
biology and normal biology.
At individual level, a gene chip analysis,
assigning individual probability scores such as0.7 percent chance of suffering Diabetes at 40,
will surely make the person less employable
bringing out the concern for the accessibility
of the results. Who would really own the data?
Such scenarios make these developments look
scary, but come to think of it, at least we will
be able to save more of Lukes and Locks. So
lets embrace this brave new world of biotech.
References:
[1] Hepatology, 53: 604–617. DOI:
10.1002/hep.24067
[2] Science, Vol. 329 no. 5987 pp. 52-56DOI:
10.1126/science.1190719
Dr. Animesh Sharma is working as teaching
assistant and research fellow at Department of
Informatics (http://ii.uib.no/ ) and
Computational Biology Unit at
http://www.bccs.uni.no/units/cbu, University
of Bergen, Norway.
http://sites.google.com/site/sharmaanimesh/
Source:http://spollack.wordpress.com/
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FANTASIA
Bhaskar Thakuria
Nibid-296 and Nirob-348 were tryingto bring back that almost extinct piece of robot
to a working state and the exercise had already
taken a good amount of time. It is not usual
for them to devote so much time as the
common practice to repair such robots is to
reboot the firmware or to format all its
memory and to install appropriate software.
And if that fails then the simple solution is to
change the mother microchip. Or just dump it
to the electronic incinerator and replace the
customer with a new one.
But Miss Niharbala’s will make this a
robot a special case. It was instructed very
clearly in the will that no one should touch the
mother chip, memory chip and the special
executive circuits of ‘platinum’ (the name of
the robot as Miss Niharbala christened it!).
And with all the restrictions imposed it was a
formidable task to repair the robot without
changing those vital parts. But some old people
were so fussy about their emotional attachment
to their machines. Names like Nirob-296,
Natasa-4600, Nibid-348 were given under the
global identification number at their
christening ceremony and a quick search in the
‘meganet’ would bring out all information
about them; right from their parent’s names tothe dishes they like; and anyone can trace them
if interested. But those Miss Niharbalas, Mr.
Timothys and Miss Belucis! From those
names, you can’t differentiate them from a
place or a genetically modified fruit. Like their
names they too were unsystematized.
Miss Niharbala had some electronic
formulas patented under her name and
royalties of those made her a wealthy person.
She died at the ripe age of hundred twenty
three. She divided her wealth into two halves
and donated one half to planetary welfare
society and the other half for the maintenance
of ‘platinum’, this robot. She insured the
maintenance work of this robot to consumer
federation and their company was made
responsible for the maintenance work. If any
untoward incident happens with this robot the
company would have to pay some big bucks
to consumer federation and that would not be
less than few millions of global currency.
For long thirteen years Miss Niharbala
stayed in a ‘limousine’ flat of ‘The Lex
skyscrapers’ and the robot was her company.
She was practically forgotten by everybody in
the neighbourhood. Nor they had any interest
Science Fiction
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in her. Let alone that residence, there was
probably no one in the world who knew her or
had any remembrance of her. Global
identification holders get news of their first
degree relatives through world wide family
network service. If some of the relatives die,
they can pay homage to the deceased through
the net. Funeral service agencies take care of
the dead body and do a fine job of disposing
the body as wished by the deceased. But Miss
Niharbala did not go for any such deal. So,
Platinum had to arrange for her last rituals and
all decisions were taken by him.
As per the will, after Miss Niharbala’s
death, Platinum was restored to an old house
and there it developed the problems. Its data
processing became remarkably slow. The
monitor went blank. The solar panels seemed
to be working in an inefficient manner. His
sentinel circuits reported all these to the
company and immediately it was transported
to the main workshop by their emergency jet
bus.
There, Nirob-296 examined all its
main circuits and failed to discover any flaw
in them. The robot could process commands.
Only the monitor was blank and some clear
liquid was discharging through the mother
chip outlet. That was a big question. Where
from was the liquid coming out? Discharging
batteries are history. All the robot’s electronic
parts were made of dehydrated metal and the
body was composed of polyvinyl cotton
fibres. Nirob-296 was having an irresistible
urge to kick platinum directly to the giant
electronic incinerator. However, the reality
was--he had to do everything possible to make
the robot useful again to save his company
from losing money. The company asked help
from a robo-psychology farm. Nibid-348 was
the robo-psychology expert sent for the work.
Nirob-296 did not like these experts as they
had little knowledge about the robotic
engineering, but walks off with a heavy purse
after giving some jargon filled reports.
However, in this special case he really hoped
that Nibid-348 had some answer.
Then onwards, both were working
together with ‘platinum, the ailing robot’. As
the monitor was totally blank, it was not
possible to get any feedback from it. So,
Nibid-348 was trying to recover the robot’s
log book. Probably the log book had some
recordings to help them. They could have
some clue about platinum’s whimsical
circuits.
They attached the individual circuits
to their mainframe through auxiliary output
sockets and were recording everything. They
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also collected that mysterious liquid pouring
out from the micro chip and sent for analysis.
“Why Miss Niharbala gave it such a fancy
name? Platinum!”
“Wasn’t she hundred and thirty years old? In
her hay-days platinum jewelleries were
fashionable and expensive stuff. Then it was
not possible to do atomic reconstruction of
aluminium to platinum. One had to extract
platinum from the ores!”
“Oh! Now I get it. That’s why one of my aunts
used to call her boyfriend ‘sweet platinum’.”
“Sweet platinum!”
Both burst out laughing.
After some effort they were able to extract a
portion of robot’s log book. But astonished;
they were to find that the log book was written
in an unusual style. There was no mention of
the hardware commands that the robot
followed. Nirob-296 got upset with those log
book entries as there was nothing of his use.
But the robo-psychology expert Nibid-348 got
curious and began to analyze.
The log book was neither complete nor its
entries were technical. Those entries made
them to decide that the platinum was an
extremely slow data processor and had serious
flaws in decision making. There was no
complex neural networks calculation, no CN
(Computational Neuroethology) process codes,
not those ‘fuzzy’ logic numbers, not even
simple logical arithmetic calculation. It
resembled the diary of a moronic individual.
The first entry read – “ My first day with Miss
Niharbala. She has scheduled her
medication, diet list and the time to ready her
bath water. My job is this much. She says
after I learn this much, she would allow me
to other things.”
Another entry was – “ Miss Niharbala has
asked me for a complex task. I have to make
her understand the meanings of the
advertisements aired in the television. One
advertisement is this – a teenaged girl is on
the road. She walks past a handsome guy. But the guy appears least interested in her.
Then the name of the company comes up
which manufactures synthetic retina. What
that commercial tried to convey? Changing
to a synthetic retina would help? But, whom
and how...
I watched today’s episode of the tele-opera
‘criminal diary’. Daniel -88 shot Selsi-22.
Selsi-22 died in the hospital. The doctor
treating Selsi-22 was apprehended by the
police for his negligence. That was better. It
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would be pathetic had Daniel been detained.
The doctor should be punished! ”
Nibid-348 had difficulty putting his mind on
those. It was childish. But he went on. “I
went to the zoo with Miss Niharbala. I enjoyed
the ride. The four-footed small animal yelling
‘meow’ was wonderful. Miss Niharbala told
me it is a cat and in her childhood days those
were pets. How soon that species has become
rare! We had some fish meat for him, the
animal was delighted in that…..”
The next few texts of the robo log book gave
Nibid-348 an impression of the strong bond
shared between platinum and its master.
“Today is Miss Niharbala’s birthday. We
ordered a medium sized cake. We had with us
the cat and a bird called parrot brought from
the zoo. We enjoyed a lot. Miss Niharbala
and I shared some steps too. It was a dance,
Miss Niharbala told me. It was much fun.”
“…. I did not quite like that. A young fellow
around seventy came to meet Miss Niharbala.
He was not very interested in her. More he
was busy with the new intergalactic game
downloaded from the game library. In this
game all you have to do is to target a certain
planet and send commands to it. Depending
upon the response type, you score. These
games are really destroying the earth. Half of
the population is glued to the monitors in
some amateur computer game club.”
A faint smile flickered on Nibid-348’s lips.
The robot’s logs were like an editorial of the
philosophy pages of a news feeder. How the
‘self-thinking software’ got installed to this?
Who could do that? Even its writings were
not in the characteristic artificial robotic
language, more it resembles a human written
document. Infected by ‘human simulator
virus’? There was no chance. Any virus
infection was already ruled out. What could
have happened? It was a challenging task for
any budding robo-psychology expert like
Nibid-348. He had collected some data
processed by the platinum and was trying to
analyze even in his free time. He consulted
the robo-psychology forums in the network
and none could offer any help.
Nirob-296 was trying to do it all over again.
May be something were there that they had
ignored. He decided to examine every
processing pipeline of platinum’s mother
chip. He began sending photon commands to
each pipeline and measured the output. And
everything was just perfect but slow.
Nibid-348 continued with another recovered
log of platinum’s electronic memory.
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“Miss Niharbala’s hand was torn following a
fall from the tread mill. I repaired that by the
stapler. Her heart’s accessory electronic
conduction system is in a poor state.
Probably the batteries need to be changed. I
have to communicate with the central
information system of her insurance
company. Luckily her artificial kidneys are
working perfectly.”
Just then another log was transferred to the
main computer from platinum. It was entered
on the eve of the day of Miss Niharbala’s
death. Both Nibid-348 and Nirob-296 got
interested as that was the last day that the
robot functioned properly.
“….. Miss Niharbala is not able to lift herself
since yesterday. She said it was paining all
over. She was too weak to sit up. She wasspeaking in gasps. I sent emergency report to
the insurance company. Their virtual doctor
checked her and gave me some commands.
But it did not help her. Towards evening a
team of doctors came and fitted her with lot
of gadgets. Now they can monitor her
directly from the global therapeutic agency’s
central help line. They are sending me
commands after commands and I am
executing them. Her automatic intra-venous
lines are pumping her with medicines. But
she shows no sign of improvement. In stead
her face appears paler. She is not making any
sound. Eyes had sunk in. Her urine collection
bag is empty for last few hours.
Is she going to talk ever…?
If not how long she will go on like this...
What is there next? …The worst that
happens….
Is Miss Niharbala heading towards that?”
After that no more log entries could be
recovered. Nibid-348 and Nirob-296 tried all
they knew. But platinum had no more
records. The pouring of liquid from his
mother chip outlet increased.
Did Miss Niharbala take revenge on the
company by installing some malware to the
robot? After all, she was an accomplished
electronic engineer in her youth. But that
seemed unlikely. Miss Niharbala had nothing
against their company nor did she have the
necessary expertise to tinker with an
advanced robot circuit.
“Can this be a case of robo-autocide?” Nirob-
296 asked. Sometimes some robots destroy
its own circuits by putting extra load of
processing despite having commands to
prevent such a thing. It remained a mystery
how that happens. Nonetheless such cases
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existed. Nibid-348 had a few such robo-
autocide and most had some serious logical
fault in their circuitry. However, a large
number of such robo-autocide cases remain
unsolved. But at least they had some answer
to suggest in all of those. But with ‘platinum’
it was not fitting well. He explained to Nirob-
296, “I admit such cases are increasing these
days. But there is nothing to suggest such an
event here. Such robots become totally
invalid and don’t even power on. This one
has only become slow and its monitor has
gone blank as if it does not want to
communicate anymore.”
Both were at their wits’ end. A huge amount
of global currency was at stack. They can add
some command at a previous date and can
make the robot invalid proving it to be a case
of robo-autocide. This could save them the
currency without any legal problems. Last
year they had to do such a thing.
They looked at each other. Silent nods
were exchanged. They decided to do the
same. They had to look after their and the
company’s sake. But that needed absolute
secrecy. A trickle of the news to the
paparazzi software would bring doom to their
careers and to the company. However, both
of them were competent enough to
accomplish that absolutely believably. They
would not keep any loophole in preparation
of the report. They were confident that a
robo-autopsy expert would be fooled too.
Just at the moment the report buzzer beeped
and informed them the arrival of a new
report. They turned their attention to the
report. It was the chemical analysis report of
the mysterious fluid coming out of
platinum’s mother chip. It read –
The chemical analysis of the fluid sent for
examination reveals that the composition of
the liquid is identical to TEAR.
There was a long list of the substances
extracted. Both Nirob-296 & Nibid-348 were
not interested in the composition as they were
just oblivious about those chemicals. They
concentrated on the interpretation. TEAR?
What is that? Some abbreviation?
Nibid-348 silently invoked his virtual
palmtop. Opened the encyclopaedia entry
page and in its search field he entered –
‘T…E…A…R’.
Translation: Dr. Uddip Talukdar
*The original story in Assamese was
published in the Puza edition of Assamese
weekly Sadin, 2004 and is a part of the
recently published creative fiction – Jatra by
the author.
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Author’s Biography:
Dr. Bhaskar Thakuria was born in Guwhati
in 1976 and brought up in Assam. He has
obtained MBBS degree from Guwahati
Medical College, Guwahati in 1999 and
MD Microbiology form Assam Medical
College, Dibrugarh in 2006. Presently he is
working as an Assistant Professor at
Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences. He
has a ‘Jatra’(The journey) to his credit, a
collection of creative fiction . Playwright and
director of three full length plays staged
under the banner of ‘aarohi’ named Pratyush
(The Dawn): A play exploring the volatile
youth mentality.
Email: bhaskarthakuria1@rediffmail.com
Website: http://aarhi.com/ http:// /bhaskar-beberibang.blogspot.com/
1729 (number)
1729 is known as the Hardy–Ramanujan
number after a famous anecdote of the
British mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding
a hospital visit to the great Indian
mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan. In
Hardy's words:
“I remember once going to see him when hewas ill at Putney, I had ridden in taxi cab
number 1729 and remarked that the number
seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I
hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No,"
he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it
is the smallest number expressible as the sum
of two cubes in two different ways."
The two different ways are these:
1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103
"In the fields of observation, chance favors only the mind that is prepared”
Louis Pasteur
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Meet the Scientist Professor János Mink
(Interview by Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj)
Professor János Mink is the Head of
Department of Molecular Spectroscopy
Chemical Research Center of the HAS,
Budapest, Hungary; And Professor of
Chemistry, Faculty of Information
Technology, Research Institute of ChemicalAnd Process Engineering, University of
Pannonia, Vesprém, Hungery.
Dear Esteemed Northeast India Research
forum members. I had a privilege to meet
Professor János Mink from Hungary. I was
attending some of his lectures on Infrared and
Raman Spectroscopy. I am motivated withhis research on fundamental chemistry. Then
I take an appointment with him and inform
about our forum and newsletter, NEQUEST.
Here is some of conversation and message
from Prof. Mink.
Q. Please let us know about your
research area.
I am basically a spectroscopist, we are
working on Molecular Vibrational
spectroscopy, both experimental and
theoretical. We try to understand the
Vibrational behavior of almost all molecules,
complexes even biological system.
Q. What made you interested in this
field?
I started my research career in late 60’s. I
was one of the younger scientists in the
Central Physical Institute, Hungary
Academic of Science. That time they brought
a new IR machine and I was in-charge of
that, then I started recording spectra and tried
to educate myself to understand the
Vibrational behavior of molecules.
Q. Vibrational Spectroscopy is very
old technique to characterized
molecule. Do you think it need
more research effort?
Although it is old technique, the
instrumentation was not so developed as
today. In last 50 years lots of development
has been done on IR instrumentation. FT was
a great addition to the spectroscopy.
Sophistication of instrument made it possible
to solve very fine problems today. For
example, In 80’s it was reported by an
Interview
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 42
Americans that Emission IR spectroscopy has
limitation to certain molecules, however we
have showed that Emission IR spectroscopy
can be use to characterize with correct
method. We worked on the most popular
Zeise’s Salt and by changing the counter ion
we were able to make it soluble in organic
solvent and studied the properties of the
complex, also able to record the polarized
Raman Spectra. Vibrational Spectroscopy is
like “Working Horse”. You can use it to
characterize even nanomaterial, polymer,
biomolecules etc.
Q. In this regard, I would like to know
how IR is helpful to characterize
the big molecule such as polymer,
DNA etc. because they will have
thousands of modes of vibration as
we know from 3N-6 rule.
Yes you are right, but polymer are just
repeating unit of monomer, hence we have to
consider just vibrations of monomer. In case
of biological molecule, we will have fine
spectrum for each functional group. With fine
tuning and high resolution and high S/N ratio
we could identify the tiny change in thesystem.
Q. What do you expect from Ph.D
student
My coworkers are involving in both
experimental and theoretical. Ofcourse, one
cannot be perfect in both; however one
should know what the theory behind his
experiment is or the chemistry. Theoretical
explanation or idea help to get better result
experimentally. I always ask my student to
interpret the spectra, “Spectrum without
interpretation is nothing other than a toilet
paper”. I always suggest my students to “feel
the flavor” of spectroscopy, also ask a
computer chemist to make KBr palate, and
ask to share/discuss their experience among
themselves.
Q. How long you are going to continue
your research ?
I am enjoying my work, so I have not thought
about it. I am lucky to have good health. As
long as I have good health I will continue.
After all, health is everything. One more
thing I believe “If you keep busy yourself,
you are slowing down your ageing”.
Q. Who are the scientists influence you
most?
Prof. Pentyne, Prof Gritho, Dr. Goggein,
Prof. Hermann, Prof. Brightinger, Prof.
Sanstörm are some of the important persons.
Q. Have you been in INDIA?
Yahh, several times!!! I have been invited
continuously for the “Conference of
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Vibrational Spectroscopy” from few years.
However sometime I could not attend the
same due to hectic schedule. I also gave
lectures on 28th February in IISc Bangalore
several times on Raman Spectroscopy.
Q. What is your plan for the
“International Year of Chemistry
2011”?
We are planning to install IR technique in the
hospital; hence Infra-Red doctors are
coming!!!
Q. Please give some suggestion to the
N.E Indian Scholars/Students?
Whatever you do, do with maximum
effort/input, in that way you can compete,
Give questions yourself and find the answers.
Be honest to Science, be objective. You may
have 1% possibility in one day, but 99% can
come in other day, so donot give up!!! You
are working in poor laboratory does not mean
that you can not learn anything, distillation
also a learning technique. Try to confine your
research into your availability, try to extract
maximum from it. All the best to you all!!!
Short Biography
The Hugerian Spectroscopist born in 13th
April, 1938 at Mohács, Hungery. He started
his scientific career at Central Research
Institute of Physics in 1962. After receiving
Doctor of Science in 1980 from Hungerian
academy of Science, he moved to University
of Bristol as postdoctoral fellow. He was also
a visiting professor in Erlangen-Nürnberg
University (82-83); University of Windsor
(88, 94); McGill University (89, 94); Marie
Curie University (90); Technical University
Munich (90-91, 95, 96); Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm (93, 97); University
of Luleå (99, 2000); Stockholm University
01, 04, 06, 07). He is an author of more than
235 scitific papers in high ranking journals.
He has been a member of editorial boards of
Croatica Chemica Acta (89 onwards), Asian
Journal of Spectroscopy (93 onwards),
Applied Spectroscopy Review ( 96 onwards),
Journal of Raman Spectroscopy ( 2000
onwards), Specrochimica Acta (82-98). He is
also member of several national and
international scientific committees. His main
research area is “Application of Infrared and
Raman Spectroscopy in Analytical
Chemistry, Surface Science, Catalysis, Self
assembling Molecular Systems etc. He also
works in Theory of molecular structure,
structural study of organometallic complexes
and solvated systems. Recent advances from
his laboratory are the Medical diagnostic and
biological applications of FTIR and Raman
Spectroscopy and Microscopy.
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Dear Editor,
(N.E.Quest Vol. 4, Iss. 4, Jan 2011)
First of all congratulation for your
effort in bringing out the recent edition of N. E.
Quest. However, I would like to clarify a point
that came to my notice and feel that it will be
better to discuss on it.
Regarding the Indian National language
there has been a misconception that Hindi is
our national language. Even in some of the
school books also the same thing has been
depicted and taught which is not correct.
Hindi is our Official Language or in
other words we can say our Raj Bhasha.
The principal official language of the Republic
of India is Standard Hindi, while English is the
secondary official language. The constitution of
India states that "The official language of the
Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.
"Neither the Constitution of India nor Indianlaw specifies a national language, a position
supported by a High Court ruling. However,
languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the
Indian constitution are sometimes referred to,
without legal standing, as the national
languages of India.
Although, it has been thought that in
the long run Hindi can be adopted as our
national language on the ground Hindi does not
belong to any particular state of India nor
belongs to any particular race and which has
born and emerged in India with amalgamation
of different languages. Although a large belt of
north India speaks in Hindi dialect but not
necessarily those are standard Hindi. Different
languages such as Bhojpuri, Sadhukari,
Maitheli etc. are called variants of Hindi and
people consider themselves Hindi speaking but
these languages are prevalent prior to the
emergement of Hindi. So Hindi does not
belong to any particular individual or
community but to everyone of India. But being
that also, still there are strong resentments and
disputes to give national language status to
Hindi.
On the eve of 62nd Independence Day
Celebration there was a long debate on this
issue over media and among thinkers, politician
and bureaucrats but still remain undecided.
Unfortunately, India does not have a
National Language of its own till now hence it
won't be appropriate to write about Hindi as
our National language. That may be one of thereasons we do not have slogan written in Hindi
in IYC 2011 poster.
The Bengali language depicted there
definitely representing Bangladesh only
because this is a country which was formed and
separated from Pakistan on the basis of
language revolution and commemorating that
21st February was adopted by UN as
International Mother Tongue Day and has been
celebrated all over the world as respect towards
the respective Mother Tongue of every
individual that belongs to them.
Reader’s Page
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 45
Only appreciation goes to Hindi Film
Industry which has contributed remarkably in
promoting and spreading Hindi worldwide.
So, let us hope that in future we may
have a language, hopefully Hindi that can be
recognized as our National Language like
we have a universal Rupee Symbol now and
represent the Unity among Diversity of India
through a common language to the entire
World.
Regards,
Biswajit Roy
Some thought on Hindi ( Invited )
India is a country of multiple cast,
religion and cultures. We need to have a
language which can bring unity in diversity and
express all the elements of composite culture of
India.
Though, the Hindi as National
Language of India has not been mentioned in
the constitution but we are fortunate enough
that the Hindi has been adopted and as National
Language in all parts of the country. It reflects
that the people of the country are proud of our
country and its all symbols, languages,
cultures. Although it has been mentioned that
Hindi as a National Language has not been
mentioned in the constitution. We may recall
pre-independence India where Hindi was a
language which has united whole of the nation
from North to South and East to west. All the
freedom fighters had a language for their
communications across the country was none
other than Hindi which has gone deep to the
heart of people of India and formed a strong
belief that Hindi is our National Language. In
fact, the bond of love is more stronger than the
bond of rules and regulation. Hence, Hindi
became the National Language due to large
acceptability and attachment of the people.
Hindi is our Official Language. The
language of official work in the Central Govt.
Offices of India for which guidelines are
available in articles (343-351) of constitution of
India. Now more than 6 decades have already
passed still we could not implement these
provisions in Central Govt. machinery. A lot
of efforts are being made to propagate Hindi in
Central Govt. Offices but we the people who
work in the Central Govt. Offices are in a mood
of easy going and would never take any
pressure to do something new. Therefore, the
English which was supposed to be subsidiary
language is still holding the place of Hindi.
We should be grateful to the people of
country who accepted and adopted Hindi as a
National Language even though it has not been
reflected in the constitution.
Dr. O. N. Shukla,
Hindi Officer,
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
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NE Quest | VOL. 5 Issue 1 | April 2011 46
Photographs by Ms. Smritimala Sarmah, Tezpur University
Photograph by Dr. Diganta K. Sarma, B. Borooah College Photograph by Dr. Mahen Konwar, IITM, Pune
Photography
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National Conference on “Chemistry, Chemical Technology and Society”
Fellowship/
Advertisement/Opportunity
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Conference on Advances in Polymer Science and Nanotechnology: Design and Structure, Bar
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How to join Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
For detail please visit http://www.tropmet.res.in/How_to_Join_IITM.pdf
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APPLICATIONS INVITED FOR POST-DOCTORAL ASSOCIATE POSITION, IIT Bombay
Project details: The project is supported by the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced
Research (IFCPAR/CEFIPRA). This is a collaborative work between LEOSPHERE company, two
French research laboratories and the Indian institute of Technology, Bombay. The position is for 2 years
duration and the candidate will be located at IIT Bombay. There will be an opportunity for participatingin a field visit in France.
Position details and requirements:
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) systems have been proven to be essential tools for atmospheric
pollution monitoring, as they provide information on particles in situ concentrations and pollutants
dilution in the atmospheric boundary layer. The precise quantification of PM based on the LIDAR signal
still remains a challenging issue with practical interest for air quality agencies. The overall objective is
to develop a new methodology for the quantification of PM mass using the LIDAR system developed by
LEOSPHERE (French SME based in Orsay, France). LEOPSHERE is specialized in LIDARatmospheric observation and commercialized Rayleigh-Mie LIDARs for real time remote measurements
of aerosols.
Specific tasks are as follows:
o Understand and assist with LIDAR operation and data reduction techniques.o Organise and assist with field experiment in India.o Identify emissions sources affecting the measurement site using positive matrix factorisation
techniques.o Explore factor analytic techniques to isolate factors containing a combination of chemical,
optical and lidar signal.o Evaluate the potential to link lidar signal to aerosol emissions with specific chemical and optical
signals.
Qualifications and experience:
The successful candidate will have preferably a PhD in atmospheric science, environmental
science/engineering, civil engineering. She/he will have a good background in remote sensing,
meteorology and aerosol science, and be proficient in programming and data analysis. Excellent
communication skills are mandatory. This job opportunity is only open to persons of Indian nationality.
Contact:
Prof. C. Venkataraman at IITB, chandra@iitb.ac.in
Dr. B. Guinot at LEOSPHERE, bguinot@leosphere.fr
Dr. J.-F. Léon at Laboratoire d’Aérologie, jean-francois.leon@aero.obs-mip.fr
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Details about the Northeast India Research Forum
Date of creation of the forum: 13th
November 2004
Area: Science and Technology
Total number of members till date: 387
Moderators
1) Dr. Arindam Adhikari, 2) Dr. Utpal Bora, 3) Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur, 4) Dr. Khirod Gogoi
Editorial Team of N.E. Quest
1) Dr. Debananda Ningthoujam, HOD, Dept. of Biochemistry, Manipur University, Imphal, India.
Email: debananda.ningthoujam@gmail.com
2) Dr. Tankeswar Nath, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India,
Email: tankeswar_nath@jubl.com
3) Dr. Manab Sharma, Australia,
Email: mansharma123@yahoo.com
4) Dr. Babita Baruwati, Bangalore, India,
Email: babitabaruwati@gmail.com
5) Dr. Pranjal Saikia, Dept. of Chemical Sciences, Institute of Science and Technology, Gauhati
University, Assam, India
Email: psjorhat@yahoo.co.uk
6) Dr. Abdul Wahab, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
Email: awahab7@gmail.com
7) Dr. Pankaj Bharali, Dept. of Chemical Science, Tezpur University, Assam, India
Email: pankaj_rrlj@yahoo.co.in
8) Dr. Thangjam Robert Singh, Dept. of Biotechnology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India.Email:
robth@mzu.edu.in
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9) Dr. Sasanka Deka, Dept. of Chemistry, (Nanoscience & Nanotechnology), University of Delhi,
Delhi-110 007, India
Email: ssdeka@gmail.com
10) Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India.
Email: ajtthax@yahoo.com
11) Dr. Utpal Bora, Dibrugargh University, Assam, India.
Email: utbora@yahoo.co.in
12) Dr. Arindam Adhikari, Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, India
Email: arindam_tsk@yahoo.com
13) Dr. Khirud Gogoi, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA.
Email: khirudg@gmail.com
Cover Page designed by: Anirban Adhikari
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