Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System

Indian has the largest constellation of Remote Sensing Satellites, which are providing services both at the national and global levels. From the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites, data is available in a variety of spatial resolutions starting from 360 meters and highest resolution being 2.5 meters. Besides, the state-of-the-art cameras of IRS spacecraft take the pictures of the Earth in several spectral bands. In future, ISRO intends to launch IRS spacecraft with better spatial resolution and capable of imaging day and night. The satellites of IRS system which are in service today are IRS-1C, IRS-ID, IRS-P3, OCEANSAT-1, Technology Experimental Satellite (TES), RESOURCESAT-1, and the recently launched CARTOSAT-1 capable of taking stereo pictures. The upcoming Remote Sensing Satellite are Cartosat-2, RISAT (Radar Imaging Satellite) and Oceansat-2.

Imagery sent by IRS spacecraft is being put to a variety of uses in India with agricultural crop acreage and yield estimation being one of the most important uses. Besides, such imagery is being used for ground and surface water harvesting, monitoring of reservoirs and irrigation command areas to optimize water use. Forest survey and management and wasteland identification and recovery are other allied uses. This apart, IRS imagery is also used for mineral prospecting and forecasting of potential fishing zones.

With regard to applications in planning and management, IRS data is being used for urban planning, flood prone area identification and the consequent suggestions for mitigation measures. Based on this experience, the concept of Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development has been evolved wherein the spacecraft image data is integrated with the socio-economic data obtained from conventional sources to achieve sustainable development.

Threat to bomb Indian community centre in Ireland

A threat letter from Protestant extremists to The Indian Community Centre in Belfast has received asking immigrants to leave Northern Ireland or face bomb attacks.

The letter from the youth wing of the Ulster Defense Association warned: "No sympathy for foreigners, get out of our Queen's country before our bonfire night (July 11) and parade day (July 12).Other than that your building will be blown up. Keep Northern Ireland white. Northern Ireland is only for white British."

Belfast has a small Indian community including entrepreneurs and professionals, including well-known businessman and consul-general of India, Lord Diljit Rana.Some Indian IT companies also have a base in Belfast and other cities in Northern Ireland. The Indian centre in Belfast is a voluntary organization which was established in 1981 in the Carlisle Methodist Memorial Church Hall. The centre works towards the promotion and greater understanding of Indian culture and traditions in Northern Ireland.

The centre which is also an information point for the Indian community, and is a regular point of contact, runs many activities. It participates in the advocacy and representation of the Indian community at all levels.

Patrick Yu, executive director at the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, said race-hate crime had grown steadily in Northern Ireland recent years, with increasing incidents of assaults, intimidation, harassment and robberies.Yu further added that the extremists "just want to scare people" and discourage foreigners from feeling at home in Northern Ireland.

Toyota Motor develops a wheelchair controlled by thoughts

Toyota Motor Corp collaboration, the BSI-Touota Collaboration Centre (BTCC), has achieved something in developing a wheelchair controlled by brain waves by means of a new signal processing technology for brain machine interface (BMI) application.

The technology used is one of the fastest technologies in the world, controlling a wheelchair using brain waves in as little as 125.

The most important advantages of the new equipment are that the wheelchair driver's orders for left and right turns and forward motion are processed every 125 milliseconds by analyzing brain waves using signal processing technology.

The brain-wave analysis information is displayed on a display in real time, giving neuro-feedback to the driver for efficient operation.

This allows the elderly, handicapped and paralyzed people suffering from severe neuromuscular disabilities to act together with the world through signals from their brains, with no voice commands.

Now they will be able to move around with the help of a robotic wheelchair which can be controlled by thoughts alone.

This technology is use to make many more inventions.

It will be a pro-people Budget, a simple Budget, people's Budget

“It will be a pro-people Budget, a simple Budget, people's Budget," Banerjee said.

The Budget in a way would reflect Mamata's vision for the Railways in the coming years and means of generating resources for key projects.

High expectations on her agenda would be the completion of Kashmir rail link project. She is expected to carry out some review in passenger fares and put aside off super fast charges that have come in for flak. She may perhaps also announce changes in the Tatkal system to make it more passengers friendly.

Filling up of unoccupied posts in the RPF and modernizing the task force along with on condition that special training to the forces in vision of the superior security threat insight is also likely in the budget.

The usual announcement of new trains and new lines are in the budget speech, more weight could be given on passenger amenities. There are complaints against non-availability of food at reasonable rate at railway stations and in addition the quality of food available in trains.