Russia to enhance its troops in southern region.

Russia will enhance the defense capabilities of its troops deployed in the country's "southern region," including the Black Sea Fleet, a deputy defense minister said. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said after thoroughly analyzing "the outcome of the South Ossetian conflict," the Defense Ministry had proposed an array of measures to strengthen its troops in the country's southern region, as well as the Black Sea Fleet.
He said the Ground Forces would be provided with new multiple rocket launching systems and reconnaissance assets, while supplies of arms and military equipment would be generally increased.
In the Air Force, the modernization of MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack planes and Mi-28H Night Hunger helicopter gunships is to be completed and new warplanes (including Su-27SM, Su-30MK-2) and combat helicopters (including Ka-52, Mi-28N, Mi-24M, and Mi-8MTB5) will be supplied.
The Air Defense Forces will be provided with new Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile systems.
Popovkin said naval units would be supplied with new Lada Project 677 diesel-electric submarines, modernized versions of the Varshavyanka-class submarine, and Bal-U mobile coastal missile systems.
The Russian Navy dismissed last month media reports claiming that its Black Sea Fleet, based in Ukraine, had been put on alert and was preparing to urgently go to sea.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet currently uses a range of naval facilities in Ukraine's Crimea as part of a 1997 agreement, under which Ukraine agreed to lease the bases to Russia until 2017.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced last summer that Ukraine would not extend the lease of the base in the Crimean city of Sevastopol beyond 2017, and urged Russia to start preparations for a withdrawal.
Russian media previously reported that Moscow was also looking at possible naval facilities in Yemen, Syria and Libya, among other countries. Russian military officials are also on record as saying Moscow could build up its presence in the Mediterranean to make up for the possible loss of Sevastopol.

Persian New Year-Nowruz

Nowruz, or the "new day", marks the start of the Persian solar calendar and falls on the vernal equinox, which is this Friday. It has been celebrated in Iran and other parts of Asia for thousands of years. At Nowruz you eat a huge meal with your family, and then for the next 12 days the whole country shuts down as everyone visits their relatives. At every stop you have to eat from their Nowruz table - that almost always means sweets."
The table is the symbolic centre of the Nowruz celebrations. On top of a beautiful tablecloth are laid auspicious objects to bring health, prosperity and luck, including apples, garlic, vinegar, berries and the aforementioned wheatgrass. Just before the moment of the equinox, family members - each wearing at least one new piece of clothing - gathers round the table. At the minute when the sun crosses the equator they say a prayer while passing rice and coins from hand to hand to, again, bring prosperity. After wishing each other a happy new year they tuck into the sweets, washed down with glasses of black, sugary tea.
Every Persian meal starts with naan-o-paneer-o-sabzi - sprigs of fresh herbs such as dill, mint, flat-leaf parsley and coriander, alongside small cucumbers, spring onions, radishes, walnuts and sheep's cheese - all waiting to be rolled in strips of flat bread and eaten. After 12 days of visiting family, the whole of Iran, weighed down with stoves for tea, kebabs and rice, heads out to picnic, throw out the bad luck (and wheatgrass) and bask in the spring. If it's not possible to get out into the countryside, the patches of grass at the centre of roundabouts are regularly commandeered.

Woman behind the design of One Laptop Per Child computer has a new project: a screen that combines TV,computer display & electronic paper.

The woman behind the design of the innovative One Laptop Per Child computer has a new project: a screen that combines a TV, computer display and electronic paper. Dr Jepsen has a new venture, Pixel Qi, which spun out of OLPC as an attempt to try and commercialise the innovative screen technology sported by the organisation's XO computer. And it's first major product is certainly ambitious: a computer screen that can switch between a traditional display and electronic paper. Speaking at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in San Jose, Dr Jepsen confirmed that the company's new 3T system will be a screen that can switch between three different modes.
First, it has a full colour screen equivalent to current computer displays; at the other extreme, it acts as an extremely low-power, higher-definition 'paper' that's readable in sunlight and similar to Amazon's Kindle. As well as these two modes, it also has an in-between state that is low power but able to cope with video.
The real motivation behind the scheme is to reduce the amount of power that the screen uses – allowing people to use the smallest amounts of power when they are simply reading on their screen. This vision, she said, drove her work at One Laptop Per Child and could be crucial for lowering the overall energy footprint of computers.
As a result of that pioneering work, OLPC helped open up the netbook market – small, low-cost, low power laptop computers which have now become one of the fastest-growing areas of the under-fire computer industry.
"Last year, before the economic crisis started to happen, the analysts predicted we'd ship about 8 million netbooks."
"That didn't happen because of the crisis, but we rounded out the year selling not 8 million, but 17 million units. And netbooks are predicted to shift about 50 million units this year." She also hinted at another innovative – a low powered television set that can display high definition video but can run without being plugged in. "We've had a lot of pull," she said. "People want TV even if they don't have power.. an HDTV that's under 10W and can be human-powered. We've figured out a way to do that."

UK's first electric supercar

It is faster out of the blocks than a V12 Ferrari and can do 0-60mph in four seconds. It will go more than 140mph and can be fully charged up over lunch. But the first British electric supercar is not being built by one of the world's great car companies. It has instead been knocked up in a few months in a Norfolk garage from off-the-shelf parts mostly available on the web.
An A-team of British motorsport engineers was commissioned by Ecotricity wind power company chief Dale Vince last August to "blow the socks off Jeremy Clarkson and smash the stereotype of electric cars".
All have worked for Lotus and between them have developed nearly every car that a generation of petrolheads has swooned over - such as the McLaren F1, Lotus Elan, the Corvette 2R1, the Jaguar XJR15 and the De Lorean. The project leader was director of engineering, and all six problem-solve for the world's top motor sport teams. "The brief was to prove to middle England that electric cars can be quick to develop, beautiful to look at, cheap to run, and run entirely on wind power," said Vince.
The team went on to eBay, and found a second-hand Lotus Exige which they pulled apart. Seven months later, the car, which still has no name, is raised on blocks in the Norfolk garage but is just a few weeks away from full testing.
The consensus is that no large auto company could have developed anything so fast or for the £200,000 budget. "Ford would have taken years and it would have cost millions of pounds," said Ian Doble, project leader.

Hydropower Generation in Pakistan

China will provide technical assistance to Pakistan for hydropower projects on the model of the Three Gorges Dam, which is one of the largest hydropower complexes in the world.While the installed hydropower capacity is of 6,493 MW, enormous potential exists to exploit this unlimited indigenous resource of energy. According to estimates, it is economically possible to generate some 34,000 MW additional hydropower, and 150 sites for projects of cumulative capacity of 20,000 MW have been identified. Pakistan has total installed power generation capacity of 20,456 MW. However, dependable or de-rated capacity is in the range of 14,000 to 16,000 MW during the year, due to a variety of factors, whereas demand for electricity is increasing at an average annual rate of over eight per cent. Thus , there is gross power shortage at national level, demand being projected to around 22,000 MW by the year 2010.

To meet surging demand, an additional 4,000 MW generating capacity, all based on gas and oil, will be created by December 2010, in private as well as in public sector, besides another 325 MW nuclear power plant to be commissioned by then. In contrast, only 516 MW hydropower is expected to add to the system.
In fact, the share of hydroelectric power generation in the overall energy mix is persistently decreasing--from 57 in the1980s to 42 in the1990s to current 32 per cent of the total installed capacity. The good news is that the government plans to increase it to the level of 20,000 MW by 2017. As a result of recent restructuring, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), re-named as Water Resources and Power Development Authority, is focusing on implementing multipurpose water projects, including medium and mega hydropower generation projects, either reservoir-based or run-of-the-river type.
In addition to expediting various on-going hydropower projects and rehabilitating/modernising the operational power stations, WAPDA has recently embarked upon a series of new hydropower projects. Hydropower projects of cumulative capacity of 419 MW are scheduled to go on stream during the period 2009-2010. These are Allai Khwar 121 MW, Khan Khwar 72 MW, Duber Khwar 130 MW, all located in Kohistan area, and Jinnah 96 MW to be located on Jinnah Barrage. In addition, NWFP has commissioned Malakand III hydropower project, of 81 MW capacity, which is expected to achieve commercial operation shortly.
There is a long list of the new projects being implemented or to be launched by WAPDA. The Chinese contractors have commenced construction of 47-km long network of tunnels for the 969-MW NeelumJhelum hydropower project, whereas tenders for various works of Diamer Basha Dam project, designed for an installed power generation capacity of 4,500 MW, have been invited. Also, Wapda has launched Golen Gol 106MW hydropower project to be constructed in Chitral. Construction of Kurram Tangi Dam project (hydropower generation of 83 MW) is planned to re-commence soon. Construction of the Akhori Dam project is on cards, having a power generation capacity of 600 MW. Likewise, design and engineering work on Keyal Khwar project of 122 MW capacity has been undertaken.
Feasibility studies related to another eight hydropower projects are in progress being conducted by the consultants appointed by Wapda. These projects, expected to complete by 2017, would have an installed capacity of about 12,000 MW and would require $16.7 billion to construct. It may take two years to finalise studies enabling Wapda to launch the projects Kohala hydropower project on the Jhelum River in the AJ&K will have a capacity of 1,100 MW, whereas Bunji hydropower project (Gilgit) will generate 5,400 MW on its completion. Dasu of 3,700 MW capacity is a run-ofthe-river scheme, 69-km downstream Diamer Basha Dam. Lower Palas Valley of 621 MW and Lower Spat Gah hydropower project of 610 MW are proposed to be located at Patan, Kohistan. The remaining projects are Phander (Gilgit) 80 MW, Basho (Skardu) 28 MW and Lawi (Chitral) 70 MW. In addition, pre-feasibility or initial studies are being conducted for Thakot hydropower of 2,800 MW and Patan of 2,800 MW, both proposed on Indus River, and Harpo of 33 MW near Skardu.

The success of Microfinanace

The success of microfinance programmes as agent of poverty alleviation is well known. Enthusiasts can point to repayment rates of over 95 per cent, the high participation of women, associated improvements in the health and education of children, and the potential for the macrocredit system to become financially sustainable in the long-term.
The success of microfinance has been marred by severe criticism of high interest rates, exploitation of women borrowers, unchanging levels of poverty and a failure to cater effectively the target groups. The very poor individuals are often described as high risk as they cannot offer collateral and have no stable source of income.
Loan repayment is one of the major challenges to microfinance, given that a poor repayment culture has plagued numerous microfinance initiatives. The causes of default in microcredit can be divided into four main categories. These are organisational, household/financial, group dynamics, geographical location and environmental degradation/haphazardness.
High repayment rates are insufficient to drive the microfinance revolution. High interest rates are seen as necessary for generation of profitability and for reduced reliance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) on external funding.
Different studies show that the poor are extremely sensitive to increases in interest rates, which results in a reduced demand for financial services. Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund provides loans for microcredit to different organisations like the Rural Support Programme networks and other NGOs at six per cent interest rate.
Lending microcredit organisations give loans to the poor at the interest rate of 22-28 per cent. Many organisations are suggesting interest rate hike from 28 to 32 per cent which is not feasible. The total administrative and other costs of Rural Support Programme Networks and other NGOs ranges between 2—4 per cent only. Apart from six per cent interest on microcredit loan, PPAF provides free training and other opportunities including infrastructure facility through the same microcredit lending programmes.
According to the World Bank, another 90 million people all around the world have again become poor. In Pakistan, about 70 per cent live below the poverty line. In the prevailing situation, an increase in the interest rate can be more harmful to borrowers.
Studies in India, Kenya and the Philippines have found that the average annual return on investments by micro businesses range from 117 to 847 per cent. If they are so lucrative, why are not businesses sustainable? These and other studies have shown that failures are because of high inflation rate, surging food prices, lack of training and high interest rates.
Capitalising micro-businesses is one piece of the solution, but without a wider, holistic effort, this kind of credit will mainly benefit the entrepreneurs and slightly less poor who are able to develop business plans and make them work.
Additionally, microcredit models often fail to build borrowers’ capacity to do anything but develop a market analysis and basic business plan. A large number of the poor especially women are marginalised within their communities and even their families, and lack confidence and experience in trying something new.
They have responsibility not only for contributing to family income but to caring for children and the ill, collecting water and fuel wood, preparing their family’s meals, maintaining the home and any number of assorted family responsibilities. If the bigger picture of workload and marginalisation is not addressed in a significant way throughout the microcredit lending process, women will continue to struggle with an impossible burden.
Microcredit lending institutions should think about a new approach for improving the microcredit system. Small loans with lower interest rates and surrounding conditions, will give more sustainable help to the poor to start a simple business.
Microcredit unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit. Simply to survive, the poor rely on their own ingenuity. When given an opportunity to succeed, they do it with a determination to break the vicious cycle of inherited misery.

Billionaire Club

The business magazine has published a list of billionaire; according to this report the financial crisis has hit the billionaire as well. The billionaire list shrank by nearly a third. The Bill Gates, the Microsoft Legend have lost $18 billion from last year's list, but he still owner of $40 billion and stood on top. Warren buffet and Carlos slim stood on second and third positions with $37billion and $35billion of assets respectively, they have lost $25billion in the previous year.

The Forbes list includes the names of assets owner who possesses more than of one billion US$. In the last year the Billionaire Club was consist of 1,125, now it has shrank to 793 billionaires. The Financial Crisis destroyed $1.4 trillion in wealth of the billionaire.

For the entire list of billionaire from Forbes click the link below or click here :

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires_land.html

Future of mobile phones

No more than 10 years ago the mobile was purely a device for making voice calls. Now it is a camera, music player, organiser and texting device in addition. This is only the start of an evolution over the next 20 years that will turn it into our trusted and indispensable companion in life. The mobile has changed beyond recognition over the last 20 years but that is just the start of things to come in the next two decades.
It is predicted that on a typical day it will start working even before you wake. Because it knows your travel schedule it can check for problems on the roads or with the trains, and adjust the time it wakes you up accordingly, presenting you with the best route into work. Mobiles will continue to get steadily better, with higher resolution touch-screens, speech recognition that really works and much greater memory and storage capabilities.
Running on these mobiles, and also on home and wide-area networks will be increasingly intelligent software, able to learn behaviour, predict needs and integrate with a growing number of databases, such as transport updates from major providers.
So instead of the train company sending you a text to tell you of delays, it will send it to your mobile, which will analyse it in conjunction with your travel plans and modify those plans if needs be.
This evolution will be a slow but steady progress, as each few years mobiles get slightly better, intelligent software evolves and the various providers of all the necessary input data, such as transport organisations and shops, gradually make the data available in formats that become increasingly useful.

Bluetooth Mobile Phone Spying

Ultimate Bluetooth Mobile Phone Spy is what one can use his mobile phone for espionage wire tapping. What is your partner up to? What are your colleagues at work talking about? What's your boss saying about you? What is the person next to you on the bus texting? The very latest technology and programs to allow you to spy on any bluetooth enabled device, mobile phone, or laptop - this technology covers them all. Everyone heard of the government wiretapping scandal, now you can use the same technology by purchasing the E-Stealth Ultimate Mobile Phone Spy 2009 Platinum Edition. Just download the software and then it works on all types of phone like aLL phones. Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Blackberry, iPhone. This will work in all countries, on all networks. The beauty is that you can find with home your business associates, and friends have been in contact with. Whether you are suspicious of an affair, or would just like information that will help progress your career, you can now do all of the following using your mobile phone, and the person you are targeting will not suspect a thing. view contacts list, read text messages (sms), view calls made / calls recieved, set the target phone to call you whenever it makes or receives a call, view photos, many more functions, have complete power, dominate anyone's phone, all the above information can easily be downloaded to your phone, make calls via the phone you have targeted. Once the target phone has been remotely set you do not need to be in Bluetooth range to listen into calls.

Cultivation of Jatropha for Bio-diesel in Afghanistan to discourage poppy.

Most of the foreign exchange of Pakistan is consumed by the import of fuel. The annual demand for diesel is about 10 million tons, a large portion of which is imported. President Asif Ali Zardari has recently set up a committee to formulate a proposal for 50 per cent reduction in diesel imports by alternative sources of energy. Jatrophoa offers great prospect to offset the impact of import of diesel and as alternate for import of fuel. Jatropha, known as ‘Ratanjyot’ or ‘Jangli Errund’, is a small shrub three to five meters in height. The fruits are bi-lobed capsules, ovoid green, and in cluster of 7-10, which on ripening turn yellow or dark coloured.
A comparative study has proved that among non-edible oil plants, Jatropha curcas is one of the most important plants for production of bio-diesel. It is also a sustainable option among bio-energy crops largely grown in most parts of the tropical and subtropical countries on marginal and non-productive lands.
India has already cultivated Jatropha curcas on 500,000-600,000 hectares. British Petroleum (BP) has invested 32 million pounds sterling in a joint venture with the British bio-fuel firm D.I. Oils to further expand Jatropha cultivation and production. About 80 oil extraction units and several local micro-refineries provide bio-diesel on small scale for running local tractors, irrigation pumps, jeeps and village power generators etc.
China has cultivated Jatropha on two million hectares and plans to grow it on another 11 million hectares. Similarly Myanmar plans to plant it on several million hectares, and Philippines on 50,000 hectares. To discourage cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, Americans have provided saplings of Jatropha with the offer to buy bio-diesel from it. The US intends to plant Jatropha over one million hectares in Afghanistan.
In Africa, Jatropha is also being cultivated in various countries with that purpose in mind. In southern Egypt, the desert area has been converted into greenbelt by large scale planting of Jatropha. In South Africa, the Emerald Oil International (Pvt.) Ltd. has initiated a bio-diesel plant in Durban, which will produce 100,000 tons of bio-diesel per year and plans to import Jatropha curcas oil or its seeds for oil extraction from African states.
The jatropha plant produces nuts after two to three years. The economic yield, however, stabilises after 4-5 years and continues to produce seeds for 50 years. The nuts of Jatropha possess high oil content between 35 and 40 per cent. These plants yield about 1-3 tons of seeds per acre, depending upon the soil condition and management techniques. In well managed areas, one acre of Jatropha produces about 0.45 to 0.6 metric ton of oil. The oil has triglycerides, which when chemically treated with lower alcohols in the presence of catalyst results in fatty acid esters, which possesses striking resemblance with petroleum derived diesel and is called bio-diesel. From 4kg oil approximately one liter of biodiesel can be produced.

Internet Explorer and MS Window 7

Internet Explorer has been added to the list of Windows 7 components that users can remove from the OS. In earlier versions of Windows, users could disable, but not actually unload the browser. In addition to IE8, that list also includes: Windows Media Player; Windows Media Center; Windows DVD Maker; Windows Search; Handwriting Recognition (through the Tablet PC Components option); Windows Gadget Platform; Fax and Scan; and XPS Viewer and Services (including the Virtual Print Driver).

Solar Lights

In present era we are facing energy crisis. Environmentalists are crying for green technologies. But Sun sends each day 10,000 times more energy than required by the earth duelers.

The good news is that some companies like IKEA are coming out with green products especially green lighting. IKEA revealed a year ago that solar-powered products are going to be available in its stores, and soon the announcement will come to fruition. You've seen the types before - lights designed for outdoor use that harness the energy of the sun. What's great is that IKEA is offering a variety of styles for people to choose from. There are posts, globes, chains, paper lanterns and lamps among the first wave of IKEA solar-powered lighting which will be available within a couple of weeks or so in stores.
The devices are all equipped with rechargeable batteries that store the energy harnessed from the sun during daytime. At night, the devices switch on their LED lights consuming a lot less energy than incandescent lights, so the power harnessed lasts longer. The products are now showcased in IKEA's web site, if you want to take a look at what you'll get in a few weeks' time.

Green Karachi Plan

Green Karachi Plan
Federal Government announced green Karachi plan under which 13 billion Rupees will be spent for parks and planting 20 million plants in the city. The purpose of this plan is to ensure international standards of one plant per citizen. The government announced in total nine plans to be carried out in Karachi. The private sector will also be enticed to participate in the green Karachi plans. First of all within six months at boot basin Shaheed Banazir Bhutto Park will be constructed. In Liyari, the world largest green park on six thousand acres will be constructed. One billion rupees will be spent on the plantation on the sides of 24 roads in Karachi. One and half billion rupees will be spent on the construction of reservoir on 1800 acres in the Mangu peer hills

Auction of Memorabilia of Gandhi

Memorabilia of Mahatma Gandhi were sold at auction for $1.8m to an Indian businessman on Thursday despite the owner of the collection’s last-minute effort to retrieve the items, which included a bowl, a pocket watch, a pair of leather sandals and spectacles. After furious bidding a representative of Vijay Mallya, the billionaire chairman of United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, outlasted the other collectors.
Tony Bedi, who did the bidding for Mr Mallya, said that the items would be turned over to the Indian government and put on display. He said that he thought they were worth at least $6m.The sale of the items had become the subject of an international dispute and earlier this week Mr Otis offered to sell the rare collection to India to advance the cause of non-violence. But the negotiations broke down when the Indian government offered to pay only the reserve price of up to $30,000.
Ravi Batra, a lawyer who said he was representing Mr Otis, said that his client was pleased that the items were won by a reputable person who intended to return them to India and that they would ratify the auction. He would not comment on how much of the $1.8m Mr Otis would collect or what he would do with the money

Mobile battery charging with currency note and plant leaf.

Are you tired of charging of your batteries on electricity and waiting for hours for the batteries to be charged? Here is simple solution for your worries.!!!

Do you know how to charge the battery of a mobile with currency note, with dwarf palm plant leaf (peash) and peepal leaf? You would be amazed to hear that I have seen people in Balochistan charging the mobile batteries with currency note and with dwarf palm leaf plant. The Nepalese do the same with peepal leaf. The trick is very very simple and I did it myself, it did work.

What you have to do is to get a new currency note of any domination then fold it into very fine funnel. The tip of note should be fine enough to fit the mid bar of slot where you place the battery. The currency note tip should not touch the negative and positive point of you mobile. Now put the battery into the slot and then switch on the mobile and remove the currency note. Your mobile battery is full with charge.

Similarly, same you can do with dwarf palm leave or peepal leave. Put the tail tip of the leaf on the middle bar and then insert the battery. Switch on the mobile, the battery is full of charge. Wow!!!!! What a simple way!!!

online and mobile tools can help stricken travellers

Yesterday's ski tragedy in Verbier has highlighted the ways in which online and mobile tools can be harnessed to help stricken travellers. Tragic events unfolded yesterday as a group of British skiers became separated from two of their party in the Swiss resort of Verbier. The rescue operation took on a global perspective when members of the party - a group of UK technology entrepreneurs - used the micro-blogging site Twitter in trying to locate the missing skiers. Despite the concerted efforts of the online community and the mountain rescue teams, developments which were instantly relayed on Twitter, one of the skiers, co-founder of Dolphin Music Rob Williams died in the incident.

The sad events have highlighted the ways in which online and mobile tools can be harnessed to help travellers in emergency situations. A Twitter update by one of the group, trying to find the mobile number of the second stranded skier, Dolphin Music co-founder Jason Tavaria, was re-tweeted across the site. In the following hours, a combination of GPS, Google Maps and signals returned from his iPhone may well have helped save his life - Tavaria was found alive by mountain rescue.
"On a basic level, the virality of Twitter can be crucial for crowdsourcing during emergencies," says Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch UK. "In this instance it helped to spread the net as far as possible - anyone who was awake at the time could do what they could. In other ways, Twitter can be used as a radar; there are mobile applications for the site that can tell you exactly who is twittering within a certain radius of you."

How to sell on eBay.

Selling on eBay to a greater extant is like selling in any other marketplace. The only difference is that the barriers to entry are virtually non-existent. Now what the skills you need are very simple, if you can make money selling items at the local flea market or swap meet, if you can make money running a retail or online store, if you can make money doing sales at any level, you have what it takes to succeed on eBay.
if you have either business sense or some common sense selling on eBay is easy for you and that is what you can turn fortune for you. The rest is just formal requirement like having accounts at eBay and having product that you are keen to sell on internet.

Switching over to coal fired power generation can save billion for Pakistanis.

In Pakistan, the present power generation and industry are fired by furnace oil, diesel, petrol and gas. Hydro-generation also adds to the national power pool by anything between 400 MW to 6,500 MW depending upon the season and the prevalent hydrology.This, in turn, makes up to 22 per cent of the power needs, while the rest 78 per cent is met through expensive and mostly imported oil. That Pakistan needs 3,50,000 barrels of oil imports a day against 50-60,000 barrels per day of local production highlights the problem in its entirety.
The power sector alone needs 30,000 tones of furnace oil a day, which at today’s price needs an expenditure Rs1 billion per day. Local gas, which could have saved the day, is in perennial short supply.The present shortage of 0.192 bcfd of gas will balloon to more than double with the scarcity reaching the figure of 0.507 bcfd during 2010. Although the government has set a drilling target of 100 wells for the current year to increase local production of oil and gas, chances of any reduction in shortages soon are bleak.
However, as quick addition of solar and wind power is a highly difficult preposition, we need to look at coal, sugar molasses (for ethanol production), naphtha and biomass to add on to the national oil and gas stocks. Consequently, the present oil fired power stations will have to be converted to coal under a national programme. It has to be on a sustainable basis unlike the earlier conversion of generating plants to gas between 2000 and 2002, only to be told in 2007 about the non-availability of the fuel.
Hubco is planning to switch over to coal fired generation soon. The huge expenditures to be made for the conversion would be recoverable within the first 1-3 years of coal fired operations, making the change-over an economical undertaking. The government can help by giving incentives to improve upon the viability of the conversion projects.
As the Thar coal deposits of 175 billion tons are of the lignite quality, a resource younger in age by 15,000 years in comparison to the bituminous coal deposits in Balochistan, NWFP and the Punjab, these can be tackled separately through the Thar Coal Energy Board. More so, because it would require new and specialised power generation located at the mine mouths.
Experts consider that with the help from authorities, the explored mineral can sustain the conversion of power projects to coal. Similarly, just 2-3 years in all are required for the completion of the job. As the conversion possesses extremely high return on investments, arranging finance for conversion would not be difficult.

india buidling three more small dams on the Indus River

India has started building three more small dams on the Indus River – the lifeline of Pakistan’s agriculture – and according to reports, substantial excavation and concreting work has already been completed.

These include 45MW “Nimoo Bazgo” project at village Alchi, 70Km from Leh, 130MW “Dumkhar” project located 128km on Leh-Khalsi Batalik road and “Chutak” on River Suru – a major tributary of the Indus River – in Kargil district.

The latest reports suggest that powerhouse of Nimoo Bazgo project is complete and 48 per cent concreting of 57-metre dam up to crest level has also been completed. The Chutak project is scheduled to be completed as early as 2011.

Though these dams also pose a threat of flash floods in Northern Area because of the ratio of Indian dam failures in such regions – so far, nine of them have collapsed – but the bigger question i.e. when India is constructing dams on every possible site, why Pakistan policy makers are silent over the issue?

BBC World Challenge 08- won by Pakistanis

BBC world challenge is a global competition aimed at projects showing enterprise and innovation at grassroots level. The year 2008 competition has been won by Plan Bee by the Hashoo Foundation - Pakistan in Northern Areas. This Pakistani project helps female beekeepers boost their income by selling high quality honey. The northern areas of Pakistan are among the poorest and most isolated regions in the country. Effective development assistance has yet to reach these hilly, remote areas and it is the women and children who are most affected. The only workable and sustainable solution is to capitalise on local resources, building on what is achievable as well as culturally acceptable.
Nominations for World Challenge 09 have started,vt aims at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level (the "Competition"). They want to hear from their viewers and readers about the social entrepreneurs who are making a difference without costing the earth. It could be you or someone you know.
Rules of nomination:
Projects/small business that show initiative, the innovative use of technology or an invention.
Projects/Small business that increase investment into the local community.
Projects/Small business that take a responsible approach to the environment in which they are operating.
Grant:
Each grant will be awarded to one person nominated by the relevant project/small business to represent the project/small business and accept the grant on its behalf (the 'Representatives'?), and BBC World News, Newsweek and the Jury accept no obligation to any other people linked to the project/small business. In the event of a tie for first place, the top two Finalists will receive a grant of $15,000 each and the third Finalist will receive a grant of $10,000.
The Representatives will be brought to The Hague, The Netherlands to receive the grants. The grants will be awarded by BBC World News in an awards ceremony which will be filmed and shown as the last programme in the World Challenge series on the BBC World channel (the "Ceremony").
Each Representative will receive one fully paid economy class return flight to The Hague, accommodation for the duration of the Ceremony, and transfers to and from the Ceremony. The Representatives will be responsible for ensuring that they fulfil Dutch entry requirements, including without limitation, being in possession of a valid passport and obtaining any visa that they may require. In addition the Representatives will bear all other expenses incurred on the trip, including without limitation: any necessary vaccinations, insurance and unlisted transfers, phone calls and other services within the accommodation and any shopping and meal expenses.
If you know some worthy projects then do not waste time it is great forum. Further details are available at: http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk
Good luck!!!!

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Change in terms of use by Facebook

In future, the Facebook has announced, proposals to change its terms of service will be circulated to users in order to get feedback. Some may go to a public vote, while it also said that its legal contract with Facebook addicts will be simplified into a "bill of rights and responsibilities". the social networking site has decided to stem off future criticism by putting some changes to public vote and asking users to sign simplified 'bill of rights'
The move comes just a few days after an embarrassing climbdown, after changes to the site's terms of use led to outrage among many of the site's 175m users. The concerns, over a shift in wording that appeared to give Facebook perpetual ownership to every piece of data on the site, eventually led to Zuckerberg making a drastic U-turn.
Although executives at the site said they did not intend to offend or annoy users with the earlier changes, they recognised that data ownership was a sensitive issue for many people.
Facebook's vice president of communications and public policy, Eliot Schrage, said: "Because of the nature of the information our users share, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard."
Facebook has suffered from backlashes before – when implementing its news feed or its controversial Beacon advertising system, for example. But this latest change effectively hopes to stem future controversies in the bud by putting part of the company's up for public approval (although Facebook will, of course, still control which issues are up for public discussion and vote)
Zuckerberg, who seemed stuck for words on a few occasions, said that although the announcement was precipitated by last week's farce, the changes had been discussed for a "long time".

Next release of Apple's Mac OS X operating system includes "geopositioning"

Apple's Snow Leopard to include "geopositioning" for your computer,
The next release of Apple's Mac OS X operating system will have the capability to pinpoint your position, the latest release notes of Apple's Snow Leopard operating system - still in preparation - show that the company is going to build in geopositioning for desktop and laptop computers, bringing it into line with its GPS-enabled iPhone.
This sees includes the CoreLocation framework which lets you determine the current latitude and longitude of a computer. The framework uses the available hardware to triangulate the user's position based on nearby signal information.
Now, what could you do with that? Well, apart from fitting in with the new location-enabled services in the latest version of Apple's iLife, one can see that there's going to be lot of people offering apps that will tell you where your precious computer is at all times - including if/when it's stolen.
The new seed includes some other stuff and it is being reported that it runs quite noticeably faster, at least on Apple's own apps compiled under the new gcc compiler. And it tells us that great progress has been made in the Grand Central Dispatch (libdispatch) and OpenCL APIs.
Grand Central and OpenCL, you'll recall, are the methods being used to get the graphics processing units (GPUs) to take over some of the processing load from the CPU.
There's also now Microsoft Exchange support. Though a few bugs do remain, such as
-The date shown in the iCal Dock icon does not update correctly. The prediction of launch if all goes well is May this year.

Transfer and save your vinyl or tape collections into digital files

In India and Pakistan there is huge collection of vinyl tapes(audio and video cassettes), now the technology is there to digitalis these collections into CDs, MP3 etc. Use Your Existing Audio Player to Convert Vinyl & Tape to Digital.If you already own a record player or tape cassette deck and want to transfer and save your vinyl or tape collections into digital files on your PC or MAC for copying to CD or MP3, “U-Record” is all you need.

Features:
• Simple to use:- Connect U-Record to PC or Mac, install software to computer, connect your existing player to U-Record (using phono or line input) and begin digitising
• PC and Mac compatible
• EZ-RIPPER (for PC only) and Audacity* software (PC and Mac) make ‘burning’ vinyl / tape to your computer extremely easy
• Measures just 115 x 115 x 35mm
*Audacity editing software helps to clean up recordings as well as providing the full range of editing functions including pitch control, selections, dividing, noise removal and labelling.
Includes:
• USB Cable
• User-friendly installation software
System Requirements:
• PC’s: Windows XP or Vista
• Mac: OS9 or higher
• USB1.1 or higher

New gadegets and new trends in Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley which is famous for computers and software produciton has seen some new trends wherein the target is shifting from USA to Asian consumer markets. For example Telegent, which produces a mobile-phone chip that enables devices to pick up analogue TV broadcasts, is one of a growing number of valley companies innovating for the rest of the world. It sells products in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, though not in the United States. It's a kind of technological jujitsu.
"We leverage the brainpower in the valley," said Weijie Yun, co-founder and chief executive of four-year-old Telegent, which has 80 engineers in Sunnyvale, California."This has allowed us to do something unique."
Nonetheless, start-ups creating technology primarily marketed in other countries are "increasing pretty rapidly," said William Miller, a professor at Stanford University's graduate school of business.
No official numbers are available on how many of these under-the-radar companies have sprung up in Silicon Valley, but industry insiders such as Jin Yi, former marketing director of networking group Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association, or HYSTA, estimate there are two dozen or so.
It's a different twist to globalisation. Rather than merely seeking out low-cost talent abroad, these companies hire brilliant minds in the valley to create products that, at least initially, are designed for other cultures.
"At one time, they were just producer markets," Stanford's Miller said. "Now they have become consumer markets. That's a dramatic change."
UTStarcom, an Alameda, California, company that specialises in internet protocol and communications technology, is so enamoured of overseas markets that last year it ditched its division that made handsets for the US market, selling it for about $240m to an entity controlled by AIG Vantage Capital. But UTStarcom continues to make and sell cell phones in China. Now, at least 75% of its $1bn in annual revenue comes from outside the United States.
"These markets have typically been ignored," said Craig Samuel, UTStarcom's chief technology officer. "Silicon Valley has a unique ability and innovations that appeal to the rest of the world. The big brands are addressing these markets. But are they taking full advantage of them? Probably not."
Legend Silicon makes HDTV chips based on China's technical standards for home and car TVs, as well as for Hewlett-Packard laptops made for Chinese consumers. The company plans to roll out HDTV semiconductors for mobile phones in a year or two.
However there are some risk doing business in Asia therefore doing business overseas without deep knowledge is going to be fatal. In many Asian countries, the way the business is done is based upon relationships and who you know, and less on what you have and what you know.
Telegent Systems, which began shipping its power-sipping chips in April 2007, has so far supplied more than 20m mobile phones worldwide - including 5m in China - with its technology. CEO Yun claimed that while other companies battle over digital standards, his company is the first to provide the technological backbone for mobile analogue TV, which snatches free programming off the airwaves. He first looked to Asia because that region is the world's trendsetter when it comes to cell phones.

Trans-Saharan gas pipeline to EU reducing dependence on Russian gazprom.

Total, the French oil major, said on Wednesday that it was ready to participate in a planned Trans-Saharan gas pipeline, seen by European governments as a potential route to reducing their dependence on Russian energy. Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, has already expressed an interest in the €15bn scheme as part of a wider strategy of gaining access to Nigeria’s vast gas reserves, seen as crucial to future energy security in Europe and the US.
Total’s announcement suggests western energy companies are also starting to look seriously at the pipeline in spite of the huge technical and commercial challenges of pumping gas from Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta to export terminals on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast.
Guy Maurice, managing director of Total Exploration and Production in Nigeria, told an oil and gas conference in Abuja, the capital, that the pipeline would be a long-term strategic investment for Nigeria. “Total is ready to be involved in this project,” Mr Maurice said.
Disruptions in Russian supplies to Europe have heightened anxiety in the EU, which depends on Russia for a quarter of its annual gas consumption of 300bn cubic metres. The planned Trans-Sahara pipeline could provide 20-30bn cubic metres.
Gazprom appeared to steal a march on rival energy companies interested in the project when it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, in September last year to cooperate on gas exploration, production and transportation.
Gazprom has, however, said it would start work in Nigeria by investing at least $2.5bn to develop government plans to build a network of pipelines and processing plants to harness gas for local use.
Sonatrach, Algeria’s state oil company, is also interested in working on the pipeline, although a consortium to build the project has yet to emerge. Mr Ilyanin told reporters that Gazprom would be willing to consider working with other companies, perhaps including Total, to make the pipeline a reality.
Gazprom’s offer to develop Nigeria’s domestic gas industry appeals directly to the ambitions of Umaru Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s president, who has made harnessing gas to fuel local power generation and industry a priority since he came to power in May, 2007.
Nigeria’s government has long complained that Western majors such as Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil have been content to export the country’s oil and gas while doing little to ensure the energy spurs development in Nigeria.
Western companies counter that the government has failed to provide the kind of regulatory framework that would make investing in gas infrastructure to serve Nigerian markets a viable proposition.
Nigeria has drafted plans for a new pricing system as part of a wider overhaul of the oil and gas industry, but energy companies say the government needs to guarantee them a higher price for gas to spur significant investment in harnessing it for local use. Nigeria boasts the world’s seventh largest reserves of gas.

Value addition and value creation-from Farm to Kitchen plate

Pyarey hum watanoo!! Pakistan is blessed with enormous natural resources. Our economy is mainly agri dominant. There is dire need to diversify our economic inputs. Solely depending on agriculture sector can only provide good startup but unless and until we focus industrial input starting from small industrial units things will not change. Small scale industry will be a good initiative. But here again come the problems of electricity even that is solvable, as compared to other European countries we are blessed with enormous sun shine. One would wonder to know that daily Sun provide 10,000 more energy than consumed by the earth duelers. Yesterday in a drawing room discussion there was lot of gossip with some friends and colleagues every body was arguing and blaming why we can not progress. From inside I was blaming the drawing room politics. It is prevalent culture rather I should say dominant culture we always enjoy drawing room politics in reality things are bit different. I suggested to friends that solely looking towards government that it should provide job for every citizen will be living in fool paradise. There is greater need to explore alternative sources of living. The time has come that we should immediately explore alternate sources of earnings. Creating alternate means of living for the people of backwards areas and allover Pakistan will immediately resolve the law and order problems in Pakistan.

It shall not be out of place to mention few things which can benefit us if we plan carefully. Value creation and value addition from Farm to kitchen plate is an idea where we can explore adding some value to our agri products. If one happens to visit Bhalwal, largest citrus and mandarins producing area in Pakistan, you would see this attitude prevailing over there. But we need more value creation in Balochistan as well. The natural resources being taped in Balochistan can best be value added and value crated by simple planning. The smokeless coal briquettes, the phoenix, copper refineries, hybrid seeds technology, hybrid seeds production farms, coal power generation, coal briquettes coal washer plants, are few to mention. For example chromium as raw material is being bought much cheaper, but the same product if refined can earn lot of revenue for the locals.

If see agriculture as whole the post harvest losses are immense same is about the pre-harvest losses. The integrated paste management, the idea of bio pesticides and bio fertilizers should benefit the agric sector in Pakistan.

A permanent ceasfire with Taliban

A "permanent ceasefire" in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, is being looked upon with suspicion by West. It would not be out of place to mention that peace can only prevail through dialogue why world is bent upon creat more trouble for the people who have suffered the most. Around 1,200 people have been killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 have fled Swat in 18 months of fierce fighting over the beautiful valley that was once a centre of tourism. Three thousand militants have been battling up to 12,000 troops.
The new US administration has launched a review of its policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and British officials are hoping the World Bank will set up a development fund to channel aid money to the violent border regions of Pakistan. The fund would receive hundreds of millions of pounds which the government hopes will be pledged this year to fund roads, clinics and schools.
The plan, which officials stress would have to be initiated by the Pakistani government, is part of a wide-ranging strategy aimed at boosting development in the tribal areas to fight Islamic militancy and counteract the effects of missiles fired by unarmed drones operated by the CIA.
Of the massive American aid to Pakistan since 2001, little has been used for development. In recent months, the country has been forced to ask for emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund to avoid a default. The US Congress is considering a $1.6bn development aid request from the Obama adminstration. Officials at the World Bank said they had yet to hear of the plan for a fund.
One Whitehall source said the idea was to stop development money for the tribal regions arriving "in penny packets" and to make sure it reached its target.

West contemplates buying Afghan poppy

Western governments are contemplating to buy every year the entire poppy crop of Afghanistan or legalise the use of heroin because they are finding it increasingly difficult to curb the Afghan drugs trade which is said to be fuelling the war in the terror-torn country.According to a report in the Times on Friday, when the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government eight years ago, Afghanistan’s opium production was virtually zero because the clerics had largely eradicated poppy cultivation. Last year Afghanistan produced 7,700 tonnes of opium worth about $2.9 billion, accounting for 90 per cent of the world’s illegal supply.The US alone spends $1 billion a year in Afghanistan on a counter-narcotics strategy that Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region, calls “the single most ineffective policy in the history of American foreign policy”. Britain, for its part, spent £2.5 billion last year on military operations against a Taliban insurgency inextricably linked to the drugs trade.So wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to purchase the entire crop? James Nathan, a former State Department official and now a professor at Auburn University in Alabama, believes so. “Purchasing the whole crop would take it away from the traffickers without cutting more than half the economy out of Afghanistan,” he wrote recently.He estimated it would cost between $2 billion and $2.5billion a year; a fraction of the $200 billion Afghanistan has cost the US taxpayer so far. The opium would be stored in the US, and perhaps released for medical emergencies.A less radical proposal comes from the International Council on Security and Development, a UKbased NGO, which wants Afghanistan to produce legal opiate medicine such as codeine and morphine. The ICSD proposes granting international licences to poppy farmers, placing Afghanistan alongside Turkey, India and Australia as a legal opium producer.However, the plan to purchase the entire crop takes into account only the price of the opium, ignoring the enormous potential cost of running the operation year after year. It also assumes the corrupt Afghan government is capable of carrying out such an enormous logistical task.Another risk is that taking most of the crop off the international market would drive up the price of illegal opium.The legalisation proposal is criticised for overestimating demand for opiate medicines, and being too complex to have any short-term effect.

Relations on internet dangerous

	ذاتی ملاقات کے بغیر سماجی روابط کے حیاتیاتی اثرات مرتب ہوں گے

ماہرین کا کہنا ہے کہ انٹرنیٹ پر لوگوں کے ساتھ ’نیٹ ورکنگ‘ صحت کے لیے مضر ہے کیونکہ اس میں لوگ ذاتی طور پر آپس میں نہیں ملتے۔

ڈاکٹر ایرک سگمین کا کہنا ہے کہ فیس بک جیسی ویب سائٹ لوگوں کی سماجی زندگی بہتر کرنے کے لیے ہیں لیکن اس سے لوگوں کے بیچ موجود دوری ختم نہیں ہوتی۔

ڈاکٹر ایرک سگمین نے یہ تحقیق انسٹیٹیوٹ آف بیالوجی کے جریدے بیالوجسٹ میں شائع کی ہے۔ان کا کہنا ہے کہ ذاتی ملاقات کے بغیر سماجی روابط رکھنے پر حیاتیاتی اثرات مرتب ہوں گے۔

انہوں نے کہا ہے کہ تحقیق میں یہ بات سامنے آئی ہے کہ ذاتی طور پر ملاقات کے بغیر دوستی رکھنے سے جینیات کی کارکردگی متاثر ہو گی، حیاتی کیمیا کی مقدار میں تبدیلی، شریانوں کی کارکردگی اور ذہنی صلاحیت پر اثر پڑے گا۔

ان تبدیلیوں کی وجہ سے صحت پر مضر اثرات مرتب ہو سکتے ہیں اور سرطان، فالج، امراض قلب جیسی بیماریاں ہو سکتی ہیں۔

ڈاکٹر ایرک سگمین کا کہنا ہے کہ انٹرنیٹ پر دوستی کرنے کی وجہ سے لوگ مزید تنہا ہو گئے ہیں۔’انٹرنیٹ پر دوستی کرنے والی ویب سائٹ میں سب سے زیادہ اضافہ ہوا اور خاص طور پر نوجوان یہ ویب سائٹ بہت پسند کرتے ہیں‘۔

ڈاکٹر ایرک سگمین نے کہا ہے کہ الیکٹرانک میڈیا کی وجہ سے سنہ 1987 سے ذاتی طور پر ملاقاتوں کی تعداد گرتی جا رہی ہے۔ اس تحقیق میں یہ بھی کہا گیا ہے کہ ذاتی ملاقات سے انسانی جسم پر مثبت اثر پڑتا ہے جو کہ ای میل پڑھنے سے نہیں ہوتا۔

FIA and Microsoft on Piracy in Pakistan

As per media reports microsoft and Federal Investigation Agency on Wednesday jointly organized a training session for FIA officials to increase their awareness of copyright infringement. The session was aimed at identification of different forms of copyright infringement, detection of counterfeit software, and investigation of software evidence to prosecute culprits in the court.
Country Manager Microsoft Pakistan, Kamal Ahmed, shed light on Microsoft’s commitment to safeguarding interests of the consumers and said, “The ability of the government and IT eco-system to create new jobs and a better quality of life through information technology is strongly affected by how they handle piracy.
According to a statement issued here, Microsoft and FIA had realised the need to ensure a proactive counter-strategy to protect the interests of Pakistani consumers who end up paying original price for pirated software.
In the year 2008, Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by the Business Software Alliance downgraded IT competitiveness of Pakistan to 62nd.
An alarmingly high rate of software piracy which stands at 84 per cent negatively impacted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the software industry and research and development within the economy.
Training programme, delivered by experts from Microsoft, was attended among others by representatives of all branches of FIA including crime circle wing, cyber crime wing.
Corporate Attorney, Antipiracy Microsoft, Middle East and Africa, Dale Waterman, presided the session and said, “The commitment of FIA in countering software piracy sends a very clear message to counterfeiters that Pakistani government is serious about stopping this form of criminality and are willing to protect their citizens from the harm caused by pirated as well as counterfeit software.”
He said that currently, about eight out of 10 softwares being run on PCs were pirated. This resulted in huge losses not only to legitimate businesses but also to the national exchequer in terms of lost taxes and duties. FIA had a leading role in addressing this situation and Microsoft is keen for working with FIA to support them in delivering this commitment.

Khetran Tribal Whirling Dance

Khetran is a tribe living in the Barkhan District, Balochistan. The traditional tribal dance which also known as martial dance and its war cries are well known. There are seven different styles of khetran (Kehtran) dance for example DRESO, chau pheri, pidra, gatay etc. Mostly people dance in the marriage ceremonies.

A clip of such dance from a marriage ceremony held in Nahar Kot is attached to have taste of such dance.

Bamboo Forests and end of poverty

A shift toward more bamboo production by small scale farmers in Vietnam could reduce poverty and help circumvent worldwide demand for timber as a building material. Perhaps due to its many benefits, bamboo has been touted as an environmental miracle crop. It's a significant carbon sink, it grows fast, is more termite-resistant than timber, and can be used for everything from food to clothing material to scaffolding for building construction.

But are environmentalists being bamboozled? Despite its benefits, increased bamboo production could raise a lot of concerns too. Perhaps the biggest concern about bamboo comes from the fact that it can't be sustainably grown on a large scale in North America and Europe, meaning it has to be imported from abroad. Currently 80% of the world's bamboo production comes from China, where regulatory standards for organic and sustainable production are either non-existent or largely opaque. There's also a concern that increased demand for bamboo could encourage farmers to ramp up their use of pesticides to boost yield, which would readily accumulate as run-off in the moist regions where bamboo grows best.

There is also increased distress that bamboo is environmentally inappropriate as raw material for textiles and clothing fabrics. Because of its rugged fibers, bamboo must be cooked in strong chemical solvents and turned into a viscose solution before it can be reconstructed into proper weaving material. The chemicals used are pollutants that could threaten human health and wildlife if the manufacturing process is untidy– a likely consequence of manufacturing these products in the developing world.
And let's not forget about everyone's favorite endangered Chinese export– their lovable Giant Pandas. Since Pandas eat bamboo almost exclusively, wouldn't harvesting bamboo contribute to the destruction of their habitat?
Although concerns about bamboo as a textile and clothing fabric are warranted (and consumers should probably avoid bamboo textiles unless they're particularly well-informed), bamboo is a remarkably suitable replacement for timber as building material. It forms a very hard wood that is extremely light weight and exceptionally durable.
For farmers and local communities in developing countries like Vietnam, it's impossible to deny the economic benefits of growing more bamboo. The Prosperity Institute estimates that 60% of the value of bamboo production goes right back into the pocket of the farmers who grew it. And as demand for the gregarious grass increases around the globe, rural economies in Southeast Asia could garner huge benefits by growing and selling bamboo to foreign buyers.
As many as 1.5 billion people already rely upon bamboo or rattan in some significant way, according to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan. So even if bamboo isn't an omnibenevolent eco-crop, it's not bad, and it's here to stay.
And so far, there's no reason to believe that increased bamboo production will necessarily put the Panda at risk. The species' of plant used for construction are different varieties than the ones Pandas consume. That said, consumers concerned about the spot-eyed herbivores should always take the time to be conscious of where their forested products come from, especially if they're from China. Deforestation, agricultural encroachment and road-building remain the biggest threats to Panda habitat.

Focus on livestock and dairy farming

To meet increasing food requirements and to achieve more sustained growth in agriculture, it is necessary to focus on livestock and dairy farming. Around 30-35 million people in rural areas are engaged in livestock farming. This sector, if promoted, can contribute significantly to alleviate poverty.

Farmers play a vital role in agricultural production and hence need special focus.The second important segment is service providers. Their role and behaviour directly affects the efficiency of farmers in handling livestock. All departments providing basic needs of livestock like, veterinary hospitals, medical stores, loan-giving institutes, market players, suppliers of fertiliser for fodder etc., to farmers fall in the category of service providers.
After crops, livestock is the second important source of farmer’s income. So, most farmers’ families living in rural areas have animals and they desire to enlarge the number of animals to enhance their income.
Further, women are the central part of the farming system. Over 65 per cent of farmers said that their women work at farms with them. Handling of livestock like feeding, milking, etc. are mostly carried out by females. Basic reason of their devotion to livestock is the comparatively less physical work.

The development of livestock suffers because of their lack of knowledge and training. They fail in saving their livestock. If they are granted access to finances and if proper attention is paid on their skill improvement, they would make more significant contribution to raising livestock production and providing food security.

There is a need to focus on agricultural policy especially on increasing livestock output by utilising farmer’s potential. It is only possible by solving problems confronted by farmers.
Service providers: While replying to queries, 84 per cent of farmers said that they were not satisfied with the performance of the veterinary doctors. Most of the hospitals are in towns, and it is very difficult for them to take their animals for check-up. Severity of diseases or unavailability of transport is also a hindrance which may, quite often, result in death of animals.
Another factor, the farmers said, was the disease of the udders which deprived the farmers of milk for a few months which was a big loss.
Most vaccines are temperature sensitive and if not used within specified time and not kept under required temperature, expire. In most medical stores in villages such facilities are not available, and as a result, the use of expired vaccines become harmful for animals. There is a need for proper arrangement for storage of such medicines.

The following suggestions can help promote livestock production:

As most farmers are unable to feed their animals proper and balanced diet to acquire the required quantity of milk and meat due to lack of knowledge and finance, there is a need to provide them with simple techniques to prepare balanced and cheap fodder with the available materials in the village like molasses, bread crams, peals of vegetables and fruits, floor, wheat, rice and sugarcane.
Farmers should also be provided with short and intermediate easy-term credit through one window operation for investment in livestock. The existing cumbersome process of loan disbursement needs to be simplified.

Subsidy is normally given to farmers on inputs needed to boost output; such subsidies should also be given on animals and their fodder and farmers should be facilitated to buy animals in installments. Moreover, animals should be provided with insurance cover to minimise farmers’ losses.

Buffalos and cows are a major source of milk and meat. But goat and sheep can be more income-generating source which remains ignored.

There is a need to promote farming of these animals as they produce two to four offsprings twice a year, whereas cows and buffalo give birth mostly to a calf once a year. At present, there are 53.8 million goats and 26.5 million sheep. These can be doubled and even tripled in a single year by promoting goat and sheep farming.

At present 5.45 million tons of meat (beef, mutton, and poultry) and 84.39 million tons of milk is produced yearly. Through proper farming more animals can be produced and, meat production and milk output enhanced.

Indigenisation of fuel- a recipe of energy crisis

In Pakistan whole energy sector is in a turmoil. Power, gas, (all forms viz CNG, LPG, LNG) and POL products are in short supply. One day there are lines for buying petrol, the next day, CNG stations seek respite from sale during daytime and inform customers about night time sales only.
In the wake of 1973 oil imbroglio wherein ques were observed to get the petrol , the US decided that no repeat of the situation should occur. National oil reserves were built, oil prospecting speeded up, gas brought into use instead of burning it, and an ambitious and stringent energy efficiency programme was launched.
What are the lessons to be learnt for Pakistan?Energy security is of utmost importance even if the existing world order had to be turned upside down. Understanding the dynamics of energy security, China and India prowl for fast track acquisition of energy resources outside their borders. China has acquired rights to future oil and gas finds in the horn of Africa to the delight of the countries there.
In Pakistan, the present power generation and industry are fired by furnace oil, diesel, petrol and gas. Hydro-generation also adds to the national power pool by anything between 400 MW to 6,500 MW depending upon the season and the prevalent hydrology.This, in turn, makes up to 22 per cent of the power needs, while the rest 78 per cent is met through expensive and mostly imported oil. That Pakistan needs 3,50,000 barrels of oil imports a day against 50-60,000 barrels per day of local production highlights the problem in its entirety.
The power sector alone needs 30,000 tones of furnace oil a day, which at today’s price needs an expenditure Rs1 billion per day. Local gas, which could have saved the day, is in perennial short supply.The present shortage of 0.192 bcfd of gas will balloon to more than double with the scarcity reaching the figure of 0.507 bcfd during 2010. Although the government has set a drilling target of 100 wells for the current year to increase local production of oil and gas, chances of any reduction in shortages soon are bleak.
Because Pakistan ranks at the 101 slot of the International Competitive Index (ICI) from the earlier position at 92 and that the national productivity is fast slipping, there is a need to reduce the cost of doing business. This is only possible through indigenisation of fuel on the fast track and as a national goal.
Similarly, though it may sound ambitious, the country should place full reliance on renewable energy sources like wind power. The solar power is expensive to harness and needs a multi-pronged strategy but the concerned departments other than AEDB too need to look into possibility of focusing on solar power generation. Wapda and the Pepco should be suitable organisations to take up solar power generation in a big way while the private is shy.
However, as quick addition of solar and wind power is a highly difficult preposition, we need to look at coal, sugar molasses (for ethanol production), naphtha and biomass to add on to the national oil and gas stocks. Consequently, the present oil fired power stations will have to be converted to coal under a national programme. It has to be on a sustainable basis unlike the earlier conversion of generating plants to gas between 2000 and 2002, only to be told in 2007 about the non-availability of the fuel.
Hubco is planning to switch over to coal fired generation soon. The huge expenditures to be made for the conversion would be recoverable within the first 1-3 years of coal fired operations, making the change-over an economical undertaking. The government can help by giving incentives to improve upon the viability of the conversion projects.
As the Thar coal deposits of 175 billion tons are of the lignite quality, a resource younger in age by 15,000 years in comparison to the bituminous coal deposits in Balochistan, NWFP and the Punjab, these can be tackled separately through the Thar Coal Energy Board. More so, because it would require new and specialised power generation located at the mine mouths.
Experts consider that with the help from authorities, the explored mineral can sustain the conversion of power projects to coal. Similarly, just 2-3 years in all are required for the completion of the job. As the conversion possesses extremely high return on investments, arranging finance for conversion would not be difficult.
A majority of captive power should also be converted to coal use. As a first step, no new captive generation should be allowed to be run through gas or oil. Additionally, the other processes should also be converted to coal fired/steam units as far as possible. Actually, the goal has to be indigenisation of fuel, led by coal use and followed by local gas and oil finds.
As indigenisation would spare gas from power generation, the same could thereafter be value added in the chemical, pharma and allied sectors.This is the way to assure energy security and sustainable growth.

Soviet veterans warn US on Afghan surge

Soviet veterans marking 20 years since their defeat in Afghanistan warned the United States it would never truly control the country, citing bitter memories of a fiercely proud people and unforgiving landscape. The withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan in February of 1989 ended a decade of fighting that killed an estimated 15,000 Soviet troops and convinced a generation of soldiers they had been sent to fight a war they could not win. The United States, preparing to pour more troops into Afghanistan to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency, is reliving their nightmare, they said. “It’s like fighting sand. No force in the world can get the better of the Afghans,” said Oleg Kubanov, a stocky 47-year-old former officer with the Order of the Red Star pinned to his chest at an anniversary concert in Moscow. “It’s their holy land, it doesn’t matter to them if you’re Russian, American. We’re all soldiers to them.” Thousands of veterans, some in dress suits, some in combats, gathered on Friday for a lavish concert organised by Moscow City Hall. As they embraced and posed for pictures before the show, many cited America’s troubles as proof their campaign in Afghanistan had been hopeless from the start. Reports that President Barack Obama plans to boost US forces there to 60,000 revived bitter memories for members of the Soviet deployment that steadily climbed to a peak of more than 100,000 troops as the insurgency deepened in the mid-1980s. There are 36,000 US troops in Afghanistan today, split between the 55,000-strong Nato force and separate US missions, both charged with protecting a transitional government from Taliban forces. “Numbers don’t solve anything,” said Shamil Tyukteyev, 59, who led a regiment in Afghanistan from 1986-88. “You can’t put a soldier outside every house or a base on every mountain.We saw it ourselves, the more troops, the more resistance.” Soviet tanks and troops rolled into Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up a puppet Communist government in Kabul. But hopes of a swift victory were dashed as Soviet forces found themselves bogged down in a guerrilla war waged by a fierce Mujahideen force that was backed by US arms and money and had access to bases in neighbouring Pakistan. After a decade of pouring in more and more troops and money, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ordered a withdrawal in 1989. “They’ll send more in and they’ll lose more,”Andrei Bandarenko, 42, a former special forces officer, said of the US plans. “What does Obama know about the situation on the ground? We had our own fool who knew even less.” Two decades on, Bandarenko is still bitter at being forced to withdraw through the mountains in mid-winter temperatures of minus 27 degrees Celsius — a trip he sketched for friends on a commemorative map pinned to the wall of the concert hall. The Soviet military leadership, he said, never came to terms with the difficulties of fighting a native force in barren mountains where temperatures could dive from 40 degrees Celsius to freezing within hours. Like the US, the Soviet Union tried to mould Afghanistan into a unified state, papering over an ancient web of tribal and ethnic rivalries, he said. “There is no common language between the ethnic groups, between the clans,” he said. “They are impossible to control.”