MONTH THAT WAS

Gunmen kill polio workers

Karachi/Islamabad: Four anti-polio workers, including two women, were killed in attacks in different parts of Pakistan on people engaged in a vaccination campaign against the crippling disease, reports PTI. In Karachi, two woman workers and a man were killed and two others injured when unidentified gunmen fired at them in Qayummabad area. The team was working without any security. Four armed men were waiting in the area and attacked the team as soon as it entered the neighbourhood. Unidentified men opened fire at a vaccination team at Mansehra in the country’s restive northwest and killed one worker, The Express Tribune reported. In Balochistan province, unidentified persons snatched a car from a vaccination team. The attacks came a day after health authorities in Karachi, launched a drive to inoculate 7.6 million children as part campaign against polio. 

Nuclear plants unstable: Engineer Tanaka

Tokyo: A Japanese engineer, who helped build crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor No. 4, has warned Taiwan of the inherently unstable nature of nuclear power. 

Mitsuhiko Tanaka said that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster changed his views on nuclear power, and agreed that nuclear accidents are bound to happen someday or the other, without anybody knowing when its going to occur, the Japan Times reports.

He urged Taiwan’s government to make information publicly accessible, hoping that they won’t repeat the same mistake. Tanaka worked at Hitachi Ltd. in 1974, but quit the company in 1977 and became a writer. He wrote a book in 1990 in which he chronicled the discovery of a manufacturing defect in reactor 4 of Fukushima nuclear plant, and the subsequent cover-up by the company. He accused the government for refusing to investigate the cover-up in 1988, when he went to the then-Ministry of International Trade and Industry to report the matter. The reactor 4 of the Fukushima plant suffered a terrible meltdown following the magnitude-9 earthquake off the Pacific coast and a subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011 that robbed it of all power and disabled its cooling systems.

Warming can be tamed: UN

Paris : The next 15 years will be vital in determining whether global warming can be limited to 2C (3.6F) by 2100, with energy and transport presenting the heftiest challenges, according to a draft UN report, according to AFP. “Delaying mitigation through 2030 will increase the challenges…. and reduce the options,” warns a summary of the report seen by AFP.

The draft is the third volume in a long-awaited trilogy by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a Nobel-winning group of scientists.

Major efforts are needed to brake the growth in carbon emissions for a good chance to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, says the summary. “It would entail global consumption losses of one to four percent in 2030, two to six per cent in 2050 and two to 12 per cent in 2100,” the 29-page summary says.

These costs do not factor in benefits, such as growth in new areas of the economy, or savings from avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.

The estimates are based on the assumption that “all countries of the world” begin curbing carbon emissions immediately and that there are “well-functioning markets” to establish a single global price for carbon.

The report looks at options, but makes no recommendations, for mitigating greenhouse gases that are driving the climate-change crisis by trapping solar heat and warming Earth’s surface.

The final version of the document is due to be thrashed out at a meeting in Berlin in April.

The trilogy is the IPCC’s long-awaited Fifth Assessment Report, the first great overview of the causes and effects of global warming, and options for dealing with it, since 2007.

The draft document notes that global emissions of greenhouse gases surged by an average 2.2 per cent per year between 2000 and 2010, compared to 1.3 per cent per year over the entire 30-year period between 1970 and 2000.

VJTI team designs low priced all terrain vehicle

Mumbai: India is fast emerging as a leader of sorts in automobile manufacture, with growing demand, cheaper indigenous design vehicles and the need for economy. And keeping with this trend, a group of students from the Mumbai-based Veermata Jeejabai Technical Institute (VJTI) have designed and developed a unique all-terrain car, which will feature at the BAJAINDIA 2014 Expo, organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers, India, to be held at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh.

Built at a cost of around Rs 2.5 lakh, the VJTI buggy is indeed unique. It is an all-terrain vehicle that can be driven on any surface – from smooth city roads to rocky and hilly roads while ensuring the driver remains safe. All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) is made fully with locally available and improvised parts – from engine to tyres.

The only imported component in the buggy is its shock absorbers which were imported from Canada, explained Akash Chhawchharia, one of the 10-member team and VJTI student who designed and tested the car. According to Akash, some of the salient features of the ATV that his team has designed includes a Continuously Varying Transmission or a variant of what is commonly called ‘automatic gear,’ which dispenses with the need for the traditional clutch in cars, an entirely customised forward-neutral-reverse gear box, air springs that enhance the driving pleasure, electronic systems such as digital Rotations Per Minute (RPM) meter that was designed entirely by these students. The ATV also has an indicator that warns when battery power reduces. The petrol-driven car itself was launched on February 14 and will participate in BAJAINDIA 2014.

Unclaimed deposits for education

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank proposed that unclaimed bank deposits, estimated at over Rs 3,500 crore, be utilised for education and awareness of depositors.

As per the proposal, the banking sector deposits which have not been claimed for 10 years or more will be transferred to ‘Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme’. “The Fund will be created by taking over inoperative deposit accounts which have not been claimed or operated for a period of ten years or more or any deposit or any amount remaining unclaimed for more than 10 years…,” said the draft proposal on which comments have been sought by RBI.

As per an estimate, banks have as much as Rs 3,652 crore of unclaimed deposits lying with them, with the State Bank of India alone accounting for about 15 per cent of that. The draft further said that there would be a provision for reclaiming the amount so appropriated by the Fund. “The bank would be liable to pay the deposit amount to the depositor and claim refund of such amount from the Fund,” it added.

The Fund, the draft said, would be utilised for promotion of depositors’ interest and for such other purposes which may be necessary for the promotion of depositors’ interests as specified by the RBI. The Fund will be managed by a Committee of 11 members under an RBI deputy governor, who will be the ex-officio chairperson of the Committee. Members of public, banks, industry and other stakeholders can give comments on the scheme to the RBI.

Online booking for 23 hrs.

New Delhi: Continuing with its efforts to extend more facilities to passengers, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched an online booking facility for retiring rooms at railway stations.

"Any passenger with the PNR of a confirmed or RAC ticket may make an online booking of a retiring room. The ticket may either be a counter ticket or e-ticket. The booking can be made for all the passengers on the ticket," said a senior IRCTC official. Currently, the system is being launched only for the retiring rooms at Mumbai's CST station. The facility will gradually be extended to major stations, like Delhi and Kolkata, and important tourist destinations.

The online booking facility has been launched for both the IRCTC's tourism website (www.railtourismindia.com) and e-ticketing website (www.irctc.co.in).No registration or login-ID is required to avail of the facility. People will be able to do online bookings throughout the day, except for one hour from 11.30 P.M. to half past midnight.