Some facts about Insects

INSECTS
Largest Insect	Goliath beetle (found in Africa) Weight (male) 100g
Longest Insect	Tropical stick insect Length up to 33 cm
Largest locust Swarn	A Swarn of desert locusts that crossed the Red Sea in 1889. Swarn estimated to contain 250,000,000 insects weighing about 500,000 tonnes and covering 5,000 sq. km
Largest Butterfly	Queen Alexandra bird wing (found in Guinea) Wing span 28 cm, weight 5 g
Most Dangerous Ant	Black bulldog ant (found in Australia and Tasmaina) One bite can kill a man.
Fastest Wing Beat	A tiny midge can beat its wings 1000 times a second.

Reccession Hits Maruti Production

Faced with a steep drop of about 27 per cent in the domestic demand for passenger vehicles in November this year, the country's leading manufacturer of cars by sales, Maruti Suzuki, has effected cuts in production for December to the same extent it pruned production in November, which was over 6 per cent.
The move comes for the third consecutive month since Maruti effected a 5 per cent production cut in October this year. The cut in production reflects the company's revision of its growth projections from 10 per cent to 5 per cent for this year.

Most of the production cuts have taken place at the company's Gurgaon plant which has an annual installed capacity of 3.5 lakh units (single shift). This plant manufactures the company's compact car models like the Alto, Wagon R, and Zen. While the Mannesar plant churns out strategic models like the Swift, Dzire, and the newly-launched A-Star.

The company's bestselling models like the Swift and Dzire which early this year had a waiting period of around 60 days still continue to keep the company's production facilities at Mannesar at full capacity. However, the current waiting period has come down to about 30 days. Company officials indicated of a possibility in the future of manufacturing Swift at the Gurgaon plant. "That's an option, which has to be examined," says RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki.

Company officials indicated that growth for this year would be the same but not less than the growth achieved last year. "It may be just about the same level as last year," says Bhargava.

Maruti Suzuki, which launched the A-Star in the domestic markets in November this year, will begin exports from January next year to its parent Suzuki in Japan. "We have not finalised the volume for supplying to Nissan but we expect to start supplying to them by February-March next year," Nakanishi said.

World Bank barred Satyam from Doing Business

The World Bank has barred India's Satyam Computer Services from doing business with it for eight years, in one of the severest penalties by a client against a large Indian outsourcing company.

The aid institution yesterday confirmed a report that said that it had barred Satyam, India's fourth-largest outsourcer by revenue, for providing "improper benefits to bank staff" in exchange for contracts and providing a "lack of documentation" on invoices.

"The report is true," the World Bank in New Delhi said. It declined to provide further details. Satyam said: "We do not comment on individual clients."

India's information technology outsourcing sector is one of the country's main export drivers, generating about $40bn in export income a year by handling clients' computer systems, software and business processes such as mortgage applications.

The industry's reputation for maintaining high standards of corporate governance and data security is critical to ensuring that it continues to attract the business of Fortune 500 clients and government and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank.

The sanctions come at a bad time for Satyam, which is in crisis over an abortive attempt by its board to pay $1.6bn for companies controlled by the family of B. Ramalinga Raju, its chairman, without seeking wider shareholder approval.

The World Bank action follows reports from Fox News in Washington that between 2003 and 2008 the institution paid Satyam hundreds of millions of dollars to write and maintain its software.

The World Bank found irregularities related to its contracts with Satyam but, for reasons that remain unclear, Satyam stayed in control of the bank's network until early October this year, Fox said.

Som Mittal, chairman of the National Association of Software Services Companies (Nasscom), which represents India's information technology outsourcing industry, said yesterday that he could not comment on individual cases.

Parliament Session Prorogued

The government on Wednesday decided to get Parliament prorogued and to have a new brief session in the middle of February next year, scotching speculation about prolonging further the Monsoon session.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, met on Wednesday and decided to recommend to President that the session that concluded yesterday be prorogued.

Earlier at a press conference, Ravi dismissed reports that the government had decided to prorogue the session under pressure from Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Ravi said it was not fair to drag the Speaker's name in the issue and added that he was "surprised" to see media reports in this regard.

"It was never the intention of the government to prolong the session," Minster of State for Parliamentary P K Bansal, who was also present, said.

Opposition parties charged the government with continuing the session till new year in order escape a no confidence motion because under rules a discussion on the same subject cannot be taken up twice in one session.

Government has already said that Parliament would be meeting in February ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to pass the vote on account

What google is planning now?

Going against the principle of network neutrality , Google has approached key internet carriers with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, reports WSJ .

If successful, Google users will be able to access the company's services faster than those who haven't paid up, defying the content providers' stance that all users have a right to equal network access.

Cable and phone companies operating data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic the same, but Google's new proposal (openedge) would force their servers to be placed directly within the service provider's network. This setup would accelerate the speed of Google's service for its users.

However, major cable operators have been reluctant to forge a deal because of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines on network neutrality, according to the same source.

Wikipedia Launches Mobile Version

Those seeking information can now have it without spending too many Kbs by accessing the just launched Wikipedia mobile site.

Thats correct! Even though we've had several alternatives to access Wikipedia pages while on the move, there was nothing official from the site itself. But this does not hold true anymore! Wikipedia mobile is now live and can be accessed at mobile.wikipedia.org.

The usual Wikipedia start page has been replaced by a search page where you can query your entries. There is no use of graphics except for the Wikipedia logo - this is seen as an attempt ensure that the site is not very heavy and loads quickly and is optimised even for the most basic of phones with a WAP browser.

Indigenous cryogenic engine crucial test Successful

ISRO has just got closer to having an indigenous engine. In a significant milestone, the indigenous cryogenic engine being developed has passed a "flight acceptance hot test" at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.

ISRO's next GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) launch slated for mid-2009 will be the first to use this indigenously developed cryogenic engine, said ISRO spokesperson S. Satish. The 2.3-tonne GSLV Mk II will launch a geostationary satellite along with a navigational and technological payload, most likely next April. The engine will provide a payload capability of 2,200 kg for GSLV.

The hot test was carried out on Thursday for a duration of 200 seconds and the engine developed a thrust of 73 kN (kilo Newtons) in vacuum. The engine works on a 'staged combustion cycle' with an integrated turbo-pump running at around 42,000 rotations per minute. Another unique feature of this engine is the "closed loop control" which ensures optimum utilisation of propellant for the mission.

Chanda Kochar will be new ICICI CEO

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank, India's second-largest lender, said on Friday Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar would succeed Chief Executive K.V. Kamath who retires in April 2009.
Kamath, chief executive since 1996 at India's top private sector bank, will become non-executive chairman from May 2009 replacing N.Vaghul who retires.

Crude Oil Below $34

Crude Oil Prices fell to their lowest level in past four years due to concerns about falling demand with economic slowdown and rising inventories. Further correction in crude prices is expected in coming few weeks. January contract on Nymex tumbled by over 26% against the previous week and closed at $ 33.87 per barrel. On MCX the same month, contract closed down 15% at Rs 2051 per barrel. Prices have fallen 77% from record $147 a barrel reached on July 11. In the domestic market, a similar fall in prices, as the global markets, was arrested due to currency movement. The rupee has risen 2.8% this week against the dollar to 47.25 level.
Earlier in the week, Opec announced to cut down the production by 2.2 million barrels per day with effect from January but this was offset by the piling inventories and low demand. Having failed to arrest the fall in prices, Opec members may meet again later in January to discuss further reductions.

Radar coverage for entire Indian coastline

The Central government on Saturday decided to provide radar coverage for the entire coastline of the country. It also cleared the setting up of nine additional Coast Guard stations for better coastal security. The decisions came in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks.
India has over 7000 km long coastline and its vulnerability was exposed in the Mumbai terror attacks where the terrorists used the sea route to reach the country’s financial capital. Post Mumbai attacks, there has been an urgency on the government’s part to strengthen the coastline.