India needs 203 bn dollar by 2012 for healthcare

Access to quality healthcare in India is gradually diminishing, and to solve the crisis the sector would need an investment of about $202.75 billion over the next five years, says an industry body.India's healthcare situation requires a much faster growth rate as it would require about 2.2 million beds and the investment needed for that is almost $77.9 billion, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said in a presentation to the government.FICCI has suggested a five-pronged PPP (public-private-partnership) model to bridge this huge deficit.

India most expensive equity market in Asia-Pacific

India is the the most expensive equity market in Asia-Pacific region for 2007, excluding Japan, though the country can give the second-highest returns to investors after Indonesia, says a study by the global brokerage firm Citigroup.According to a new report from Citigroup, India is the overall most expensive market in the region for 2007 after considering various metrics such as price-to-earnings ratio,book value, dividend yield, cash flow, return on equity and enterprise value.Citigroup has termed India more expensive than China, Hong Kong, Philippines and Australia, while it has named Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia as the cheapest.

Unique bone marrow transplant in Chennai

A hospital has scripted medical history by successfully conducting a unrelated bone marrow transplant in an eight-year-old Ugandan boy using the cord blood cells from an American donor, at a fraction of what the procedure would internationally.Howard Kafeero from Uganda suffered from Fanconi anaemia (FA), a genetic disease that could have been fatal. Seven months ago, he was brought to the Apollo Specialty Hospital here.The doctors successfully networked an unrelated but compatible American donor whose cord blood matched Howard's needs and carried out the bone marrow transplant that saved the boy's life. Doctors say that Howard is now almost 100 percent normal.

Hatshepsut’s mummy

Egyptologists at the University of Manchester have carried out a DNA test on the mummy discovered by an Egyptian archaeological team earlier, and confirmed that it did belong to Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt’s greatest female pharaoh.An archaeological team led by Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, recently located her mummy in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, following a one-year study.They used CT scans to link distinct physical traits of Queen Hatshepsut to that of her ancestors, and narrow the search for the Pharaoh to the couple of female mummies in the KV60 tomb.

First step to register pregnancy

The Union Health Ministry and Women and Child Development Ministry will start registering pregnancies in 10 blocks shortly.The project — a first of its type which received flak from many women’s organisations — will be used to prepare a database of pregnancies and keep a track on the number of pregnancies that ultimately result in childbirth.The government expects that by October 2007, the pilot project will be implemented in 10 blocks with a high child malnutrition rate and skewed sex ratio. The WCD ministry will also implement a new scheme for girl children in these 10 blocks. Under the scheme, the girl child will get over Rs 7,000 and an insurance cover of Rs one lakh immediately after birth.Thereafter, the government will pay for her immunisation charges and education expenses till she clears her class X examinations. And after she is 18 years old, the government will give another small amount to make her financially stable.

First proof of water found on planet outside Earth’s solar system

At about 370.3 trillion miles from the Earth, the best evidence to date has been found concerning the existence of water on an extrasolar planet, or a planet circling a star other than our Sun. And, the abundance of water on such planets is key to finding alien life.Astronomers using an infrared camera onboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have identified clear signs of water on a planet that is 63 light-years (about 370.3 trillion miles) from the Earth. HD 189733b is a planet classified as a gas giant, sometimes also called a Hot Jupiter because of its similarity with the planet Jupiter.Hot Jupiters are also similar to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which also reside in our own Solar System. They are a class of extrasolar planets (exoplanets) whose mass is equal to or more than Jupiter.However, Hot Jupiters are normally within 0.05 astronomical units (AU, or about 4.6 million miles) of their parent star, unlike Jupiter, which is about 5 AU (or about 464.8 million miles) from the Sun.

India, Brazil sign seven pacts

India and Brazil invigorated their bourgeoning strategic and economic ties by signing seven pacts in areas ranging from space, trade and energy to academic exchanges.The pacts were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the stately Hyderabad House here.The two leaders held talks on a wide spectrum of bilateral, regional and global issues including quadrupling their bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2010, civilian nuclear energy cooperation, promotion of bio-fuels, UN reforms and cooperation in multilateral forums like the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

India, Ethiopia sign five pacts

India and Ethiopia, Africa's second largest country signed five pacts to intensify their relations as Addis Ababa came out strongly in support of India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.The agreements were signed in the presence of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently on a four-day visit to Ethiopia, and his Ethiopian counterpart Seyoum Mesfin.Three agreements were signed on bilateral investment protection, establishment of a joint ministerial committee and foreign office consultations between the two countries.Two more pacts were signed in the area of science and technology and education, said an external affairs ministry statement here.The minister will launch pilot projects of India's dream project in Africa - the Pan-African e-network being built with Indian funds and technical assistance - that will bring benefits of tele-education and tele-medicine to the entire African continent.

Mexican Slim beats Gates in rich ranks

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest man, worth an estimated $67.8 billion, after overtaking Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, according to a respected tracker of Mexican financial wealth.A 27 per cent surge in the share price of America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone operator controlled by Slim, from March to June made him close to $8.6 billion wealthier than Gates, said Eduardo Garcia in Sentido Comun, the online financial publication he founded.Garcia estimated that Gates was worth $59.2 billion.Forbes magazine reported in April that Slim had overtaken billionaire investor Warren Buffett for the No 2 spot in the world's richest stakes but was still behind Gates.Mexico has a huge rich-poor divide, with a tiny elite holding most of the country's wealth and around half the population living on less than $5 a day.Forbes bumped up Slim because gains from his holding company Carso and fixed-line telecom Telmex added to the Mexican's fortune while shares of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fell in the same period.

terrorism course

Scottish university's pioneering new terrorism course went live this week -- via Internet. The Certificate in Terrorism Studies from the University of St Andrews is the first transnational e-learning course offering an understanding of the latest terrorist thinking.According to reports, some 140 people have already signed up for this web-based course. Participants include police, military, coastguard and aviation officials from Britain, Australia, Canada, Scandinavia and Thailand, among other countries.