Mainstream News

India gives top security protection to country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani

"The Indian government is to provide the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, head of energy giant Reliance Industries, with full-time security from armed commandos, media reports said Monday. India’s home ministry approved the move, the Times of India said, two months after a letter threatening to harm Ambani was hand-delivered to his office in Mumbai, allegedly from the banned Indian Mujahideen militant group. Citing an unnamed government source, the newspaper said Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had approved the so-called 'Z category' top-grade security for Ambani, which is usually reserved for prominent political leaders." Continue reading →

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‘No frills’ Indian hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

"What if hospitals were run like a mix of Wal-Mart and a low-cost airline? The result might be something like the chain of 'no-frills' Narayana Hrudayalaya clinics. Using pre-fabricated buildings, stripping out air-conditioning and even training visitors to help with post-operative care, the group believes it can cut the cost of heart surgery to an astonishing 800 dollars. Already famous for his 'heart factory' in Bangalore, which does the highest number of cardiac operations in the world, the latest 'Temple of the Heart' projects are ultra low-cost facilities. 'Our target is to build and equip a hospital for six million dollars and build it in six months.'" Continue reading →

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Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

"It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually. The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia

"Foreign companies are flocking to Cambodia for a simple reason. They want to limit their overwhelming reliance on factories in China. Problems are multiplying fast for foreign investors in China. Blue-collar wages have surged, quadrupling in the last decade as a factory construction boom has coincided with waning numbers of young people interested in factory jobs. Starting last year, the labor force has actually begun shrinking because of the “one child” policy and an aging population. Foreign investment in China slipped 3.5 percent last year, after rising every year since 1980 except 1999, during the Asian financial crisis, and 2009, during the global financial crisis." Continue reading →

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South Korean toddler gets first ever windpipe transplant

"An international team of surgeons has successfully given a South Korean-Canadian toddler a life-saving windpipe transplant made from plastic fibers and some of her own stem cells. Hannah Warren, 2, was born without a trachea and is now the youngest person to ever receive a bio-engineered organ, after an operation in the United States. She had spent her life in an intensive care unit in Seoul, with a feeding tube keeping her alive. Doctors had initially given her little chance of surviving. The nine-hour transplant was a life-saving surgery for the child, who was unable to breathe, speak, swallow, eat or drink on her own since birth." Continue reading →

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World on the verge of a new industrial revolution: Mass 3D printing

"As potentially game-changing as the steam engine or telegraph, 3D printing could herald a new industrial revolution. The prospect of printers turning out any object you want at the click of a button may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But 3D printing is already here, is developing fast, and looks set to leap from the labs and niche industries onto the wider market. 'There are still limits imposed by the technology available today,' said Olivier Olmo, operational director of Switzerland’s EPFL research institution. 'But I’m certain that within 10 or 20 years, we’ll have a kind of revolution in terms of the technology being available to everyone.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWorld on the verge of a new industrial revolution: Mass 3D printing

India central bank introduces more policies to curb gold imports

"India's central bank announced more stringent measures for gold imports by banks in it's annual monetary statement. Analysts said the move is likely to impact country's gold imports this year. The central bank said banks will be allowed to import bullion on a consignment basis to meet only genuine needs of exporters of gold jewelry. RBI will issue detailed guidelines on gold imports by authorized banks by the end of this month after it sees banks also import gold on an unfixed price basis and loan basis, according to the central bank." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia central bank introduces more policies to curb gold imports

Chinese Way of Doing Business: In Cash We Trust

"Lugging nearly $130,000 in cash into a dealership might sound bizarre, but it’s not exactly uncommon in China, where hotel bills, jewelry purchases and even the lecture fees for visiting scholars are routinely settled with thick wads of renminbi, China’s currency. This is a country, after all, where home buyers make down payments with trunks filled with cash. And big-city law firms have been known to hire armored cars to deliver the cash needed to pay monthly salaries. Many experts say it is not a refusal to enter the 21st century as much as wariness, of the government toward its citizens and vice versa." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke

"Thousands of mostly small online merchants are already accepting payment in Bitcoin, The virtual money that debuted in 2009 with a value of zero and traded for the first time in 2010 at a price of three-tenths of a cent recently changed hands at $97. For Mr. Andresen, a Princeton graduate who once wrote technical standards for 3-D graphics on the Internet, Bitcoin has already begun to replace the U.S. dollar. In November, the Bitcoin Foundation, where he serves as chief scientist, began paying him in the virtual currency. So far he has persuaded his barber to accept this new money, but only from Mr. Andresen. A haircut costs half a Bitcoin." Continue reading →

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Swiss solar-powered plane to make first cross-US flight

"An innovative solar-powered aircraft is set to launch Friday from California on a flight across the United States, the first of its kind aiming to showcase what is possible without fossil fuels. The experimental Solar Impulse plane -- with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but the weight of a small car -- bears 12,000 solar cells. By day, the cells power the plane's electric motors while also charging batteries, so the plane, unlike other solar aircraft, can keep flying all night. The project was launched more than a decade ago, after inveterate adventurer Bertrand Piccard, 54, nearly ran out of fuel on his historic non-stop round-the-world balloon flight." Continue reading →

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