Tag Archives: India

Mather Lecture

Renowned expert Charles J. Vörösmarty addresses global water crisis

The world’s streams, rivers and lakes are under increasing stress because of human water management – and mismanagement – that threaten aquatic biodiversity and the water supply, Charles J. Vörösmarty said recently during the second annual John R. Mather Visiting Scholars Lecture.

Vörösmarty, professor of civil engineering with the City College of New York, presented “Global Water Crisis: The Slippery Slope” on May 3 at the University of Delaware’s Roselle Center for the Arts.

“The contemporary water system is really defined increasingly by the actions of humans,” he said. (more…)

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Microsoft Announces Largest Cloud Customer Ever: All India Council for Technical Education to Reach 7 Million With Live@edu

*AICTE adopts cloud to improve technical education and prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.*

NEW DELHI and REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced today that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration.

Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users — roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population — making AICTE Microsoft’s largest cloud customer ever. Live@edu is the first step in AICTE’s deployment of Microsoft cloud computing for education. AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes. (more…)

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Berkeley Lab Study Shows Significantly Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India than Previously Estimated

A new assessment of wind energy in India by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates— about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India’s renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity.

“The main importance of this study, why it’s groundbreaking, is that wind is one of the most cost-effective and mature renewable energy sources commercially available in India, with an installed capacity of 15 GW and rising rapidly,” says Berkeley Lab scientist Amol Phadke, the lead author of the report. “The cost of wind power is now comparable to that from imported coal and natural gas-based plants, and wind can play a significant role in cost effectively addressing energy security and environmental concerns.” (more…)

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IBM Strengthens Presence in India with New Office in Ludhiana, Punjab

LUDHIANA, India – 23 Mar 2012: IBM today announced the opening of a new branch office in Ludhiana, Punjab as part of the company’s continued geographic expansion across India.

The Ludhiana branch is IBM’s seventh new office to be opened in India in the past 12 months after those in Coimbatore, Indore, Guwahati, Dehradun, Raipur and Visakhapatnam. IBM is currently focused on increasing its presence in smaller, rapidly developing cities as India’s regions play an increasingly important part in the country’s economic growth. (more…)

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Study Links Past Changes in Monsoon to Major Shifts in Indian Civilizations

A fundamental shift in the Indian monsoon has occurred over the last few millennia, from a steady humid monsoon that favored lush vegetation to extended periods of drought, reports a new study led by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The study has implications for our understanding of the monsoon’s response to climate change.

The Indian peninsula sustains over a billion people, yet it lies at the same latitude as the Sahara Desert. Without a monsoon, most of India would be dry and uninhabitable. The ability to predict the timing and amount of the next year’s monsoon is vital, yet even our knowledge of the monsoon’s past variability remains incomplete. (more…)

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When Continents Collide: A New Twist To a 50 Million-Year-Old Tale

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

India and Eurasia continue to converge today, though at an ever-slowing pace. University of Michigan geomorphologist and geophysicist Marin Clark wanted to know when this motion will end and why. She conducted a study that led to surprising findings that could add a new wrinkle to the well-established theory of plate tectonics – the dominant, unifying theory of geology. (more…)

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Tulip Telecom and IBM Build India’s Largest Data Center to Address Rapid Growth of Mobile Consumers in Emerging Markets

– 900,000 square foot facility uses advanced green design for maximum efficiency
– New IBM SmartCloud services allow Tulip to deliver Infrastructure, Storage and Platform-as-a-Service to customers
– Modular Data Center design and high reliability supports up to 100 megawatts of power

Bangalore, India – 07 Feb 2012: IBM today announced it has worked with Tulip Telecom Ltd. to design and help build the largest data center facility in India to deliver new cloud and networking services. (more…)

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From Cancer Research to Energy Storage, Berkeley Lab Scientist Takes on Big Challenges

*Rizia Bardhan, a postdoc at the Molecular Foundry, selected to Forbes’ ’30 under 30′ list*

On a typical day, Rizia Bardhan walks through the doors of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry and immerses herself in the tricky business of tweaking optical spectroscopy equipment to study phase transitions in metal hydrides.

It’s fair to say that what she does is difficult to grasp. Why she does it is easy: “I want to help solve big problems. That’s why I’m here,” she says. (more…)

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