An official statement said, the sculpture that stands in the lawns of the library of the University was gifted to the institution by the Indian government.

The gesture is to acknowledge the work being done by the University in maintaining close relations with the Indian community and providing a safe environment for Indian students, Sydney based Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta, had presented the gift in October last year when the crisis related to attacks on India students was at its peak.

Dasgupta asserted globalization and education are both key in spreading message against violence, at the unveiling.

India has a growing market of cruise bikes with heavy engine, the top affluent Indian’s are demanding for these kinds of bikes. Iconic motorbike maker company Harley-Davidson is going to add two new dealerships in Bangalore and Mumbai by the end of September. It already has three dealerships in Chennai, Delhi and Chandigarh.

MD, Harley-Davidson India, Anoop Prakash said that, “India is an important market for us. The total numbers of models that we are offering in India are 12. The interest for our products has been pretty uniform.” Range of these bikes would vary from Rs 7 Lakh to 35 Lakh.

Prakash said that “Harley-Davidson had prepared a rough plan for its future course in India. Any plan of opening up other dealerships would be taken based on how the market grows”. “If it grows then even we would be setting up more dealerships,” Prakash added.

HOG (Harley Owners Group) is a exclusive group of Harley bike owners from all over world, the group come together at a place  for a long cruise and Harley-Davidson will bring this group to India also.

Director (marketing), Harley-Davidson India, Sanjay Tripathi, said that, “We are going to bring the HOG to India; globally it has a membership of 1.4 million Harley bikers”. Most Harley bikes owners were a mix of businessmen and working professionals.

Prakash said that, “There has been a cross section of people in India interested in our bikes, they cut across various age groups. It’s about the biking experience that glues everyone together”.

ICICI Bank and Harley-Davidson have a tie-up for financing.

To design telecommunication networks across India and China, researchers at the University of Southampton have been awarded a contract. To design the next generation of wireless systems across India, Professor Lajos Hanzo, Chair of Telecommunications at the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), and his team are working in a consortium with nine UK institutions and seven Indian Institutes of Technology.

Professor Hanzo says, “India has a huge rural population and our aim is to provide telecommunications for remote villages.” “This is very challenging and there are theoretical and practical constraints but huge need for this to support next generation healthcare and other services in India.” The two phase (five-year) initiative is in its first phase and is collaboratively funded between the Indian Government’s Department of Science and Technology, the information and communication industry and the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme to the tune of over ten million pounds.

In Next Generation Networks System and Services the project is referred to as the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre of Excellence. By Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and Professor Gerard Parr from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, services are being led overall.
For the future wireless communication networks there is the ultimate goal of creating a UK-China joint research and development centre, a second project in this regard is called as UK-China Science Bridges : Research and Development on (B)4G Wireless Mobile Communication (UC4G). Professor Hanzo asserted, “China and India together form a market of two billion people. The provision of effective telecommunication in these markets will have a powerful influence on industry.”

On Wednesday, indigenously developed BVR (Beyond Visual Range) air to air missile at Chandipur near Balasore in Orissa, India test-fired ‘Astra’. Defence sources said, at about 2.07 pm, about 15 kms from Balasore, the sophisticated missile was fired from a launcher at the ITR (Integrated Test Range) complex.

For night trial in inclement weather conditions Tuesday night the second consecutive trial comes after the missile was test-fired for the first time. The sources said, the data generated were being thoroughly examined by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) scientists.

DRDO scientists said, the single stage, solid-fuelled ‘Astra’ is capable of engaging and destroying highly manoeuvrable supersonic aerial targets and is more advanced in its category than the contemporary BVR missiles.

The missile can be fitted to any fighter aircraft and can carry warheads containing explosives weighing 15 kgs. The missile has a diameter of 178 mm and it is 3.8 metre in length. The sources said, it is intended for eventual integration with the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Jaguar, Mirage-2000, MiG-29, and the IAFs Sukhoi – 30 MKI.

The scientists described ‘Astra’ as a futuristic missile and said the weapon could intercept targets at supersonic speed of mach 1.2 to mach 1.4.
The sources said, “Before being made fully operational, the complex missile system will undergo some more trials, though tests of its navigation, control, air frame, propulsion and other sub-systems have been validated.”

The sources added, the exact range of trial was not disclosed, but the scientists are working to ensure ‘Astra’ performs effectively at varying altitude, like an altitude of 15km with 90 to 110km range, another at an altitude up to 30,000 ft, having a range of 44km and the third at sea level with a range of 25km. The trials of Astra were successful, which were conducted on 11th January of this year, from

Volkswagen the German car maker company unveiled “Vento”. It is an entry level sedan from Volkswagen in India. Vento will be launched in the last quarter of this year.

The car is being manufactured in the company’s plant at chakan in Maharashtra. This car will come with 1.6 litre petrol or diesel engine option. The sedan will be available with manual and automatic transmission options.

Volkswagen Group Board Member (Sales & Marketing) Christian Klingler said that, “This is the first car which has been designed and manufactured in India”.

Volkswagen previous compact car ‘polo’ already made a good impact on compact cars. After launching ‘Polo’ in February this year ‘Vento’ is the second car which is targeting the mass market of India. This will be positioned at the upper end of the mid-sized sedan segment in the country.

Price of the car is still not announced, a senior company official said that price will be announced in the first week of August and car will be available in the market in the October – December quarter.

‘Polo’ is ranging from rs. 4.34 to rs. 6.70 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) in Indian market. The largest European car maker company Volkswagen’s new ‘Vento’ is the seventh model in India.

At the current time in India company is offering compact cars ‘Beetle’ and ‘Polo’, premium sedans ‘Phaeton’, ‘Passat’ and ‘Jetta’ and sports utility vehicle ‘Touareg’ in India.

The company has invested 580 million euros on its Chakan plant in Maharashtra. This plant has the production capacity of 1.1 lakhs units per annum.

On Wednesday, the policy making arm of DoT, Telecom Commission will meet to review the Sam Pitroda Committee report on reconstruction of BSNL, which will advise on splitting of the top most post at the Public Sector Undertaking, allowing 30 per cent disinvestment and trimming the workforce. DOT said in a statement, the full Telecom Commission Meeting to consider the recommendation of the Pitroda Committee is scheduled to be held on 7th July.

BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal, who is retiring next month, A Raja is defying the Pitroda panel’s suggestions by keeping silent in choosing the BSNL successor. The Pitroda panel is advising to split the post of CMD into Managing Director and Chairman. He further added, “No interviews were held for the post of CMD, BSNL on June 8.”

To retrieve the telecom PSU Dr. Manmohan Singh had constituted a committee headed by Sam Pitroda to look into operations and financial of BSNL’s. The telecom commission is likely to impose financial penalty on the telcos.  Within a year of 50 per cent of the districts within three years of getting spectrum as per the norms laid down telcos had to cover at least 10 per cent of each district headquarter in a circle.

The government asked eleven telecom companies, including Vodafone, Idea and Tatas, who were provided licenses in 2006-2008, to submit a progress report on their commercial launches of mobile services; this is to ensure that scarce spectrum is not kept idle.  The DoT (Department of Telecom), on instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, has sent out a letter seeking a progress report from all these eleven telecom operators, who were provided with licenses in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Railway took decision to ban E-ticket agents of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for tatkal bookings. Agents will be barred from getting access to tatkal bookings from 8 am to 9 am. After receiving complaints from people against the web based ticket agents, railway decided to ban E-ticket agents.

Railway got various complaints about IRCTC website, passengers have been complaining that website crashing as soon as the booking commences in the morning.

A railway official said about complaints that agents corner tickets during the morning period and tatkal quota getting exhausted within minutes. “Taking such complaints into account, Railways have decided not to give the web-based agents and web services agents of the IRCTC access to tatkal booking from 8 am to 9 am,” he said, adding the decision will be implemented shortly.

“We want to give individuals a chance to book their ticket without any problem and if passenger complaints are addressed through this move we would implement the decision permanently,” said the Railways official. “With this move, we want to curb the menace of touting as passengers have often complained of,” said the official.

Indian railway’s 30 percent booking across the country done by the IRCTC website. Indian railway sees over 9.5 lakh reservation across the country every day. Approximately eight lakh agents are working under IRCTC. The ban will be temporary in nature and later may Indian railway take decision to make it permanent or not.

The high-level panel headed by Pranab Mukherjee Finance Minister, is scheduled to meet on 22nd July, to sort out the interministerial difference over the proposed mining legislation, a top Mines Ministry official said on Friday.

Mines Secretary Santha Sheela Nair told reporters, “The Group of Ministers on the proposed legislation will meet on 22nd July.” Last month, in the proposed mining act, the government had formed a 10-member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Mukherjee to resolve certain issues among different ministries.

Beside Mukherjee, the Group of Ministers includes Environment Ministers Jairam Ramesh, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Mines Minister BK Handique, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The Mines Ministry has sent the proposed Bill to the Group on Ministers, which will look after many issues including power for granting mining leases, conservation of minerals, and reservation of mineral-bearing areas for PSUs among others. Nair said, “After the GoM’s deliberations, the bill will be sent to the Cabinet for its approval and then the Parliament.”

In discussion differences between Mining and Steel ministries among the various inter-ministerial issues is likely to figure. Virbhadra Singh recently wrote to the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restrict some shipments and increase the domestic availability of iron ore, this was opposed by the ministry of Mines.

200 million tonne is the domestic output of iron ore, out of which half is exported. A Mines Ministry official said, the Mines Ministry is, however, of the opinion that the Law Ministry had made “reference to the case but has not made any specific suggestion.”

To make people aware about the possible danger of mishaps at unmanned level crossing, railways have launched an SMS campaign. A senior Railway Ministry official said, “The SMS campaign involves sending of safety precaution message to the local populace around the unmanned level crossing.”

The text message in English and Hindi are educative in nature and appeals to drivers of buses and tractors, to the road users and others residing near the unmanned level crossing to take necessary precaution while communicating to them. The official said, “Since majority of the people have mobile phones these days, we decided to use the SMS mode for our safety campaign.”

Messages which are sent to the target audiences are like “look around and only if no train is approaching then proceed ahead, stop at the unmanned level crossing.” There are at presently 35,363 level crossing in the railway network, and 17, 954 are unmanned, out of them.

The official said, “Accidents occur at unmanned level crossing primarily due to inadequate precautions by the road users who fail to observe mandatory sign boards, signals and basic traffic rules.” Over the last five years though train accidents at such crossing have marginally decreased from 65 in 2005 to 62 in 2009-10, still a large number of mishaps are been witnessed.

The officials also added, “Besides SMS campaign, we are also distributing leaflets, pamphlets and poster in markets, petrol pumps around the crossing as part awareness campaign”. At unmanned crossing with the help of state governments railways have also undertaken measures to construct ROBs (road overbridges) and RUBs (road underbridges).

It was about 250 such ROBs and RUBs were commissioned in 2009 – 10 under various schemes and in 2010 -11 more and more such projects being planned.  The official said, “We are enhancing the pace of manning of unmanned level crossing with an ambition to eliminate all unmanned crossing in the next five years.”

The Queen’s Baton Relay arrived in India from Pakistan through the historic Wagah Border in Amritsar on Friday, starting the 100-day countdown to this year’s Commonwealth Games.

At the international border, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee Suresh Kalmadi, received the baton from Lt Gen Syed Arif Hassan Pakistan Olympic Association President, where Mike Fennel Chief of Commonwealth Games Federation was also present on the occasion.

On 29th October the QBR was launched by Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace in London in the presence of Indian President Pratibha Patil. Now it will go for 100- day national tour for the games occurring in New Delhi from 3rd to 14th October.

Kalmadi said after passing the baton to a host of dignitaries including CGF CEO Mike Hooper and Olympic bronze medalist boxer Vijender Singh, “ It’s a great day for support in India.

The baton has gone 170,000 kms all around the Commonwealth. We have received it in a very big manner.”  He further added, “It’s a big day for India and Pakistan. It is because of Pakistan’s effort that India got the Games and it shows that our relationship with Pakistan will improve if we concentrate on the sporting angle”.  He said, “I am grateful to Mr.

Fennell and Mr Hooper, who have been supporting us. This also happens to be 100 days before the Games. Let me tell you that everything is in place, including the infrastructure. Everything is on track.” He further added, “ It’s a historic moment for us. It would get rid of the hostilities of the past.”