NRI businesswoman in Fortune list again

Vidya Chhabria, Chairperson of the $2 billion Jumbo Group, has been featured yet again on Fortune magazine’s ‘Power Top 50’ list. The list is composed of the most powerful businesswomen who have an operating role in profitable businesses outside the US. Nominated from Dubai, Chhabria is ranked 38th on the Fortune list and is being featured for the third time in a row.

Chhabria has been spearheading the Jumbo Group’s global operations since 2002. The Group, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year, was incepted in Dubai in the early seventies as a small trading operation. Now a conglomerate that spans the Middle East and Africa, the Far East, South Asia, Europe, the CIS states and North America, Jumbo’s standing in the global market is a tribute to the forward looking policies of the UAE government. Growing literally with the nation, the Jumbo Group mirrors UAE’s blueprint for growth - dedication, diversification and entrepreneurship.

The Jumbo Group, an international industrial and trading conglomerate, enjoys a presence in over 25 countries with 28 companies covering its multi-facted operations in diverse segments such as consumer electronics, tyres and tubes, breweries, chemicals, industrial machinery and logistics management.

NRIs in US win Rhodes scholarships to Oxford

Three South Asians are among 32 American Rhodes scholars who have won scholarships to Oxford University in England.

The 32 Americans are part of 95 scholars from other countries, including India, who have been chosen for the prestigious award.

Kazi Sabeel Rahman, from Scarsdale, New York, Swati Mylavarapu of Gainesville, Florida, and Ian Desai from Chicago, Illinois, are among the 32 American Rhodes scholars to have won the scholarship. The value of the scholarship is around $35,000 a year.

Rahman is a senior at Harvard concentrating on social studies. He is editor of the Harvard International Review and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. He is a tutor in the Harvard Writing Centre, plays the clarinet, and is active on the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. He plans to do M Phil in Development Studies at Oxford.

Mylavarapu is a senior at Harvard concentrating on human rights in international development. A Truman Scholar and a national debate champion, she serves as president of the Harvard International Relations Council and editor-in-chief of Bhumi magazine. She has won many awards for her research and has exhibited her paintings. She will do her M Phil in Economic and Social History at Oxford.

Desai, from Brooklyn, New York, graduated in 2004 from the University of Chicago, where he majored in ancient studies. He was co-founder and executive director of the Chicago Society, a board member of South Asia Watch and a founder of the Kashmir Project. He spent last summer tracing the journey of Jason and the Argonauts through Greece, Turkey and Georgia. He intends to do the M St in Oriental Studies and European Literature at Oxford.

The scholars were chosen from among 904 applicants - who were endorsed by 341 colleges and universities. Rhodes scholarships provide two or three years of study at Oxford. It is the oldest of the international study awards available to American students, created in 1902 by the Will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and colonial pioneer. The first batch of American Rhodes scholars entered Oxford in 1904.

Applicants are chosen on the basis of high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor.

Former US president Bill Clinton and recently elected US House of Representative Bobby Jindal (Republican from Louisiana) are among 3, 046 Americans who have won Rhodes scholarships till now. It was only since 1976 that women have been eligible to apply.

Mobile phone device to protect cars from burglary

A Kerala cell phone research firm has developed a mobile phone-assisted wireless security system, which, according to manufactures, will totally eliminate the risk of automobile theft.

According to Hamza Anchumukkil, managing director and research wing chief of Britco, the system makes use of the cell phone network for operating the system. The customer need to spend only the cost of SMS for operating the system from any mobile phone installed with the anti-theft software, supplied along with the gadget.

“Mobile phone Automobile Security System (MASS) is based on the idea of activating car control system through data transmission from the cell phone using the mobile phone service network. A cigarette packet sized gadget, concealed in the car, sends an SMS to a mobile phone the movement the car door is opened (After fitting the device, you have to feed in your mobile phone number into Mass for activating the system). Even if the car is being towed without starting the engine you get an SMS on your mobile phone. From then on you are in control of your car. Through a series code messages, you can listen or record the burglar speaking to anyone, sound the horn, lock the doors and stop the engine. You can also draw the attention of the public through a loud speaker fitted in Mass that the car they see is in fact being stolen. All this can be activated from your mobile phone at the cost of few SMS, ” Hamza said.

He said that the Mass could incorporate facility, at a later stage, to take photograph of the burglar from the mobile phone.

“Britco & Bridco Private Limited have applied for a patent for the invention.

The device would cost between Rs. 5, 000 (US$100) to Rs. 10, 000 for the customer, depending on special features. Hamza said that he has discontinued insurance cover for his car ever since he fitted the vehicle with the Mass device.

According to him this is the first time that such a cheap anti-burglar device is developed for preventing vehicle theft. With the help of satellites it is possible to locate vehicles and control them. The device was successfully demonstrated on road before journalists.

NRI drive new Google search engine

In one of the brief bios of Anurag Acharya that can be dredged up on the internet, courtesy Google, there is the following entry. “Acharya is a principal engineer at Google. In previous lives, he has been an undergrade at IIT Kharagpur, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, a postdoc at the University of Maryland and an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He came to Google for a visit couple of years ago. He found the natives friendly and fascinating, so he stayed.”

This week, Acharya is the toast of the world’s academic community for launching from his friendly and fascinating home a new search service aimed at scientists and researchers. Google scholar, a beta version of which went on stream mid-week, will enable them to look for scholastic literature like peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts and technical reports. The new tool is already receiving rave reviews on sites such as geek. com for adding a new dimension to internet searches.

For now, the Google Scholar is free. “We, at Google, have benefited much from academic research,” says Acharya, whose last name fittingly means a spiritual teacher or scholar. “This is one of the ways in which we are giving back to the research community.” The Scholar project, Acharya explained, was the result of problems he confronted as a young student at IIT Kharagpur (which he describes as a sleepy little rural backwater town) when he found material in his library typically out of date. Google Scholar will make the world’s scientific literature universally accessible in a contemporary manner.

“We don’t know where the next breakthrough will come from. We want everyone to be able to stand on the shoulders of giants,” Acharya said in a big entry on Google, referring to the Isaac Newton quote: “If I have been further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

In random thoughts that litter the internet over the past decade, Acharya reveals himself to be an animal lover and a history buff. In one diary entry in 1993, he writes, “Another week has leaked away. One less week in my life. I wonder what I have to show for it. I wonder if it is possible to count these things.” A decade later he has something to show and it can be counted.

Non-Indians talking about Incredible Indians

Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Mark Twain said: India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most structive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

48 Indian whiz kids take on the world in Abacus

Forty-eight children, each brilliant in his own right, are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, representing India in the Fifth World Social Intellectual and Progressive (SIP) Abacus competition.

This is the first time that an Indian squad comprising of school children aged between six and 12 is representing the country at the international event that started on September 26.

The competition involves eight rounds in which the children do the calculations through ‘Abacus’, a Greek instrument with beads that also helps to improve concentration besides mathematical calculations.

After some practice, the children learn to calculate at the speed of thought and thus don’t need the instrument any more. The participating kids say that they have worked hard to make a mark on the international stage, but not by putting their regular studies on the line.