Deccan Herald - Supplements

Q: How do I transfer music from my old iPad to my new one?

If you bought all of your music from the iTunes Store and downloaded it directly to your old iPad, you can use the iTunes Store app on the new iPad to download all your past purchases again to the second tablet. You need to be logged in with the same Apple ID account you used to make the original purchases, or be set up to use the content with Apple's Family Sharing feature.

To download songs again, open the iTunes Store app and tap the Purchased icon at the bottom of the screen. Tap the "Not on This iPad" button to see a list of all your previous iTunes purchases. Tap the cloud-shaped Download icon next to each song you want, or the Download All Songs button at the top of the screen to grab the whole collection.

If you have been using Apple's iTunes program on your Mac or PC to copy music to the old iPad, you can sync the same music library to the new tablet. Just connect the new iPad, select its icon when it pops up in the iTunes window and click the Music icon.

In the main part of the iTunes window, check the Sync Music box, click the Apply button and then the Sync button. Songs from the iTunes Store that were bought on the iPad can also be downloaded again to the computer, and you can use iTunes (or Apple's iCloud service) to transfer other files by backing up the old iPad and "restoring" its contents to the new model.

If you have songs on the old iPad that did not come from the iTunes Store (or that are no longer for sale there and cannot be downloaded again), you can also use a program like iMazing or Macroplant's iExplorer to tap into the iPad's media libraries and copy the music files back to a computer. Once the songs are on the computer, you can import them into iTunes or your third-party music-management program of choice and transfer them to the new iPad.

Q: Can I change the settings on my Windows 10 laptop so I don't have to enter a password every time I start the computer?

The password screen that appears each time you start Windows 10 is a security feature Microsoft added to help protect your computer from other people. If you do not share the laptop with anybody else and do not use it in public where others may have a chance to tamper with it, disabling the login screen is less of a security issue, but keep in mind that it does remove a level of protection.

Press the Windows and R keys on the keyboard to open the Run box and enter "netplwiz." Press the Enter key. In the User Accounts window, select your account and uncheck the box next to "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer." Click the Apply button. In the box that appears, type your password where prompted. Click the OK button.

Restart the computer. You should not be asked for a password now to get into your Windows 10 PC. Later, if you wind up creating another user account for someone to share the laptop (or you take the computer on the road where someone else could potentially get into your files), consider reversing your steps and reactivating the password requirement in your Windows 10 settings.

Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, has been available on iOS for a while, but the app has just had a big upgrade. Cortana, which is free, now is more stable, loads faster, supports the 3-D touch option on newer iPhone 6s devices and has a new monthly reminder feature.

Microsoft has also upgraded its Bing search apps for iOS and Android to add a few extra features, including a bar code scanner for price comparisons on Android.

Bollywood star Ranveer Singh may have mastered the art of acting over the years but if there is one thing which the actor still has not achieved, it is waking up early morning.

The 'Ram Leela' actor says he is trying to change his habit of getting up late and believes one can be productive if you wake up in the morning.

"I am not a morning person at all. Before 12 (in the afternoon) my engine doesn't start, my mind does not function before 12. But I am trying to change that (the habit) because one can definitely be more productive in life if one wakes up in the morning," the 30-year-old actor told reporters recently.

"My motivational speaker is telling me, I am trying my best but it is not working. I will work harder," he added.

Ranveer had a successful 2015 with his performances in 'Dil Dhadakne Do' and 'Bajirao Mastani' which earned him critical and box office appreciation. He will be next seen in filmmaker Aditya Chopra's 'Befikre' opposite 'Shuddh Desi Romance' actress Vaani Kapoor.

Led by technology and investment, India is bringing in a new paradigm shift in its industrialisation journey backed by new industrial corridors. Even though trade routes and harbours played a pivotal role in the beginning, when industrialisation was norm of the day, the Second World War really promoted industrial development supported by 'discriminating protection' which flourished cotton textiles, sugar and iron and steel industries.

As India also grew with the global industrial revolution, which already finished three phases, getting onto fourth wave, the country is gearing up to be a part of it by focussing on infrastructure-supported industrialisation, which is reflected in the emergence of industrial corridors, where various nodes and industrial hubs, and smart cities are planned. The UPA government's 'National Strategy for Manufacturing' prepared in 2006 and the current NDA government's Make in India campaign support corridors. India started its journey on industrial corridors with the establishment of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) in 2005. It enhanced the industrialisation process between two cities, and various nodes were also established for further development of towns. Besides private city Lavasa near Pune and 24 new cities, the 1,500 km-long DMIC goes along with the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor.

So what exactly is an industrial corridor? Besides allocating a package of infrastructure spending to a specific geographical area, industrial corridors help in flourishing industrial development by creating manufacturing clusters and ancillary industries. Besides smart cities, these corridors will be well-connected by road, rail, air or sea.

Interacting with Deccan Herald, Grant Thornton India Partner Vikram Bapat said industrial corridors will help in the next wave of industrialisation, as they will ring-fence fertile agricultural land for industrial use, and thus benefit both sectors. "By enabling the growth of ancillary units, these industrial corridors will reduce freight and transportation costs. Once GST is rolled out, it will rationalise the supply chain and bring in optimal tax structure," he said. Bapat also pointed out that the industrial corridors will help attract talent in large numbers and achieve 100 million job target easily.

Manufacturing-led industrialisation

Manufacturing is the keg pin of industrialisation as the society is moving towards massive consumerism supported by growing disposable income. India imported $300 billion of capital and consumer goods last year, and if 80 per cent of it is produced from India, it will create massive job opportunities and investment. The corridors will become catalysts in this journey.

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said India's manufacturing sector's contribution to GDP is only 17 per cent and the government plans to take it 25 per cent in the current year. Cisco India & SAARC Sales MD Purushottam Kaushik said, "The industrial corridors planned by the government will not only link smart cities, but will also be the main driver of the pledge to Make In India by ensuring seamless connectivity for industrial growth."

Chandan Mitra, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, and entrusted with the task of preparing a report for expediting projects, told Deccan Herald that the industrial corridor will lure investment and accentuate industrialisation of India. "The industrial corridors are coming up along with the freight corridors, which will also connect ports, and will help in the transportation of capital goods," he said. Besides land acquisition and infrastructure development, the panel will look into all issues concerning the corridors financial aspects.

Policy framework

India's first industrial corridor DMIC got Rs 17,500 crore grant from the Centre and $4.5 billion from the Japanese government for the first phase, which started in 2011. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) holds a 26 per cent stake in DMICDC. But the institutional framework for the formation of node/city-level SPVs for corridors are yet to come up.

According to Bapat, there is a need for a separate strategy to incentivise corridor projects to bring in more investment . "One idea could be to institutionalise the corridors and create single-window agencies that can cut through inter-state issues and help businesses to set up seamlessly," he said. On the role of central and state governments, he said the model for administering corridors should be like that of National Highways.Rumours are rife that the government plans to approve a proposal to establish a National Industrial Corridor Authority (NICA) for implementing corridor projects in the current Budget.

Corridors planned

Besides DMIC, the government plans the development of Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC), Bengaluru- Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC), Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC), Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) and Chennai-Kolkata Industrial Corridor. DMIC is one of the world's largest infrastructure projects and is expected to fetch $90 billion investment. Six states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, have formed SPVs for the development of DMIC's nodes.

DMIC Chief Executive Alkesh K Sharma said that they are in the final stages of completing the pre-PPP process, which includes forming SPVs and creating the basic infrastructure like transportation, water treatment, sewage treatment, among others. "This work will be completed in the next 4-5 months and by August, we feel we will be able to invite anchor investors to set up their businesses there," he said. In the North East, the government mulls a similar mega infrastructure project — requiring a basic investment of Rs 11,000 crore (not including land and power) — which will link the states of the region with each other and to multiple border points.

Multilateral agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), JBIC (which are supporting DMIC and CBIC) and the Asian Development Bank (which has completed a conceptual development plan for VCIC) have evinced interest in investing these projects. On the CBIC, the nodal agency JICA has completed the master plan, and three nodes have been identified. ADB has completed a conceptual development plan report on VCIC and two nodes have been identified for master planning. The AKIC feasibility study is under progress.

Opportunities

Cisco's Kaushik said the Make In India and industrial corridor projects hold tremendous value for the company. "The latest report from Sustainability Outlook pegs the smart city market in India at $45-$50 billion over the next five years. We are working with the government on information and communication technology for the smart cities proposed under the DMIC. These include Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, Shendra-Bidkin Mega Industrial Park in Maharashtra, Manesar Bawal Investment Region in Haryana and Khushkhera Bhiwadi Neemrana Investment Region in Rajasthan," he said.

Indo-German Chamber of Commerce Director General Bernhard Steinruecke said that German companies are not looking at large investment in the corridor but only parts of that. "We have been looking at Mumbai-Bengaluru corridor and looking at its feasibility study. I came to know that there is a competition between the UK and Germany in this project," he said.

Scope for Industrialisation

India imported $300 billion of capital and consumer goods last year, and if 80 per cent of it is produced from India, it will create massive job opportunities and investment. The corridors will become catalyst in this journey.But to make the corridors successful, we have to be part of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which will be shaped by a fresh wave of innovation in areas such as smart robotics, materials that are lighter and tougher, and a manufacturing process built around 3D printing and analytics.

Here we have to come up with new technologies, new products, new brands and enter new markets so that Make in India will become a grand success. Even though we have entrepreneurs who have performed well, we need strategic alliances with countries like the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to emulate and correct ourselves to go ahead.

DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant said, "Industrial corridors will help in many layers of manufacturing, from Industry 4.0 to labour intensive manufacturing, which will bring largescale investment, employment opportunity, productivity gains," said Kant.

Massive investment in industrial corridor will pave the way for large human displacement and destruction of fertile agricultural land. According to economist Joseph Schumpeter's Creative Destruction Theory, an entrepreneur's introduction of radical innovation into the system will bring in creative destruction of economic value and it will really force sustained long-term economic growth. Let us believe Schumpeter and industrial corridors will help India's efforts to lead the world in the fourth wave of industrial revolution.

Tata Capital Housing Finance Limited (TCHFL), the wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Capital, has set an ambitious target of achieving Rs 20,000 crore book size in the next three years from the present Rs 12,440 crore. Deccan Herald's Umesh M Avvannavar sat down with the TCHFL Managing Director Vaithianathan Ramachandran to understand the trends and initiatives in the housing finance market in India.

Can you please explain the journey of TCHFL till now?

Tata Capital Housing Finance was formed in 2009. TCHFL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Capital, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons. We formed housing finance because it is regulated by the NHB (National Housing Bank). If we do affordable housing under the NHB, we will be able to get funds for long- term, and this is one of the benefits for HFCs (Housing Finance Companies).

From 2009 to till date, we have been growing at a CAGR of 35-40 per cent and in the last year, we ended the book with around Rs 9,200 crore. As on date, we are at around Rs 12,440 crore book size, and we will end the year with Rs 13,000 crore.
However, we are planning to take the book size to Rs 20,000 crore in the next three years.

Ours is a profit making organisation from the beginning. Our NPAs are around 0.7 per cent as against the industry standard of 1 per cent. We have over 1,000 employees on roll and 850 field employees.

What are the categories that you cater to in the housing industry?

We cater to varied industries, right from the construction finance to housing loan. In the housing finance segment, we are both in affordable housing and in the normal segment. Our affordable housing portfolio as on date is around Rs 1,800 crore, and construction finance is Rs 1,200 crore. Our average ticket size of the book for home loan is Rs 27 lakh.
Three years ago, the industry was growing at around 20-21 per cent, whereas at present it is growing at 18-20 per cent. We want to grow our business at 30-40 per cent. We are present in 70 cities with 80 branches. In two years time, we will expand our business to 100 cities. We want to be a player in all the segments of the housing finance business. If you take HFCs players in India, we are at the sixth position right now.

Housing For All by 2022 is PM Narendra Modi's ambitious project. How do you see the growth happening in the industry and what about Tata Housing?

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is a Housing For All scheme that focusses on enabling better living. The NDA government has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states for implementation of this scheme. If you take a loan of Rs 6 lakh and below, and if your income level is Rs 3 lakh and below per annum, then the government of India through NHB will provide interest subsidy of 6.5 per cent. It is a very good initiative and we have also started working on it. The low income housing, 1 BHK, and economic weaker section housing are the areas that will grow in the next two-three years
We have started funding the drivers and clerk IV employees of the central government. If you take Mumbai, people cannot afford to own houses in cities, and so they opt for Rs 15-18 lakh budget house. We try wherever they fit into the scheme and award it.

What about recovery problems faced by the industry? Have you taken any steps?

We are covered under the SARFAESI Act (The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002). We need not approach the court. If there are some three instalments outstanding, we can issue a notice and ask him/her to pay within 60 days.

If that person is not paying within 60 days, another 30 days time is provided. After that we can put up a notice in the place of the property. We will sell that particular property and if there is any balance, we will return it. This Act is applicable to the HFCs. In the last budget, the government granted powers to all the HFCs. This made us enter the housing loan business with confidence. If a customer is not paying, then we can make use of the Act.

How important is the Karnataka market for TCHFL ?

Till date, we have Rs 925 crore book size in Karnataka. We have our presence in cities like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi and Mangaluru. We are doing affordable housing in Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi. Bengaluru is one of the best markets for mortgage housing loans, and especially for Rs 40 lakh-65 lakh ticket size.

Are there any challenges that you face in the industry?

We have to get a long-term fund in this industry, and for which we need equity capital. Fortunately, our management Tata Sons, through Tata Capital, is fully supporting us. We take long-term funds from the NHB. Apart from this, we also approach the bank.
DH News Service

It is said that most of the flats are unsold in Bengaluru. How is the demand for housing in the City?

Even in Bengaluru, properties that are above Rs 1 crore have less demand. The demand for properties around Rs 40-50 lakh is not bad and it is growing. Sluggishness exists in case of properties that are above Rs 1-3 crore. Usually, investors used to buy those properties, but now they are not approaching. So, all developers are now shifting towards affordable housing segment, which is between Rs 40 lakh and Rs lakh range.
DH News Service

There are many PSBs, private banks and finance companies. What is your USP?

Customers have to visit banks, but we go to the customers' place and serve them. Also, we guide them. We update customers about the projects approved by us. Our USP is once we grant a loan; the legal title should be 100 per cent pucca. We don't grant a loan on the property that does not have a proper legal title. Our legal evaluation is very strict.
Loan sanctioning takes some 48 hours for the salaried customer.

Nobel Laureate George Bernard Shaw said, "The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished." And, to accomplish communication, content and context are key. Well, at least that's the digital marketing mantra for 2016!

Mindful of the fact that consumers today, are always connected, "Optimising and modifying content to ensure customers receive messages at the right time and in the right format is extremely imortant," said Mark Henning, Head of Media & Digital, AMAP, Millward Brown.

Millward Brown, part of market research company Kantar Group, is a market research agency with expertise in areas such as effective advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. The company, in its annual Digital & Media Predictions report, this year, said, "Successful marketing is all about delivering the right content to the right person in the right context."

Ennummerating the major predictions for this year, Henning said:
First and foremost, rather than thinking of digital as one big mess, markets are going to start realising that within digital there are different platforms and channels, which deserve direct attention.

Second, on video advertising, we think that across the globe, billions of dollars are going to be wasted on online video advertising. While it will continue to be a big medium, its effectiveness is doubtable. Mostly due to connectivity issues and lack of customisation.

"You can't take a TV ad and use it on the digital medium. That would be the biggest failure in digtal marketing," added Ashish Karnad, Director, Media & Digital Solutions, Millward Brown (South Asia).

"In the online space, generating intrigue, skip resistance and branded impact in the first 2, 5 or 10 seconds are three very different structural creative challenges. Advertisers should stop thinking about one 30-second video ad and focus on 30 one-second intervals, where they can engage or lose viewers," the Millward Brown report said.
That said, video ads have witnessed the fastest growth with 56 per cent CAGR since 2011, as per IAMAI's Digital Advertising Report 2014.

Bringing a new dimension into perspective, Apurva Chamaria, Vice President and Head — Strategic Marketing at HCL Technologies, said, "Digital is allowing the return of long duration videos. Marketing is to engage, and digital allows you the freedom of time and story-telling unlike TV, which is constrained by high costs."

He cites Maggi's 'Mom Knows Best' campaign and Tanishq's 'Mother-Daughter Bond' campaign that featured Deepika Padukone with her mother, as shining examples of how content on video, through elaborate story-telling has been able to achieve contextualisation. Zenith Optimedia estimates that global online video ad spend totaled $10.9 billion in 2014, and it forecasts it to grow at an average of 29 per cent a year to reach $23.3 billion in 2017.

Digitally social

Social selling, however, is the next big thing, said Chamaria. Referring to China's chat-based app WeChat that has pioneered the enablement of diverse functionalities, he said, "The popularity of chat-based apps is gaining in India and China, unlike in the West. It only makes sense to take it further by making it additionally functional like what WeChat is pioneering."

Taking a leap ahead of its contemporaries, WeChat has rolled out additional functionalities such as taxi booking, buying film tickets, check-in for flights and bills payments, among others on the app.

He cited the example of Café TC (Turquoise Cottage) that embarked on digital marketing campaign that was led by a Whatsapp ticker as an innovative and effective move in the direction. "Smarter merchants will start enabling transactions on such apps that are inevitably present on an average user's smartphone, thereby making interaction simpler," he said.

Across the industry, eCommerce and FMCG sectors are leading the path of digital advertising. The digital ad spends by the eCommerce Industry has been growing at a CAGR of 59 per cent since 2011, said the IAMAI report.

"The finance sector is also doing good stuff," added Chamaria.
Ultimately, those companies that are not just hopping on the digital marketing ride, but are driving it, stand to win big, the industry concurs.

Digital ad spend on mobile devices is at 14 per cent in India, whereas on Desktops and Laptops, it is 86 per cent. Although traditional media still holds strong ground in the Indian ad space, digital advertising is catching up fast and is expected to overtake traditional media within the next 5-10 years, the IAMAI report said. While the growth is going to be led by videos and mobile penetration, contextualisation remains key, without which not much can be achieved. "Contextualising is like hedging today, you have to do it, and the best marketers are going to start developing specific, mobile-based content," said Karnad.

Guides by Lonely Planet
(Android/iOS)

The latest app for travellers from Lonely Planet, this does a good - and free! - job of transferring some of the city guides from its books to the small screen. Dozens of cities are available at launch, with maps that you can store offline - a useful touch.

Airmail (iOS)

Many Mac users have known about Airmail's slick desktop email software for a while. Now it's got an excellent version for iPhone. It works with many popular email services, has plenty of features to speed up your inbox management, and even has a neat Apple Watch app.

Metamorphabet (Android/iOS)

This wonderful children's app has been out for a while on iOS, but is new to Android. It's an interactive alphabet designed for touchscreens, with animations illustrating words for children as they tap and swipe their way through the letters.

Kickstarter (Android/iOS)

Another app belatedly making its way on to Android, this belongs to crowdfunding service Kickstarter. It's a great way to browse new projects trying to raise money, as well as seeing what friends are backing.

Movesum (Android/iOS)

There are plenty of apps and gadgets - and often gadgets with apps - for tracking your steps and helping you get more active. Movesum is a smart twist, showing how many calories your walking has burned, and encouraging you to revise your daily goals.

Music Memos (iOS)

A brand new music app from Apple, but for recording songs rather than listening to them. Aimed at songwriters of all levels, it helps you record songs or short ideas, add a virtual drummer and bassist; tag the clips to find them later; then export or share them.
ONCE: One match per day

(Android/iOS)

Tinder isn't the only app in town for dating. Once's schtick is that it recommends you one match every day: you can only see one another, with the promise of human matchmakers rather than just algorithms helping out.

Playlist a Day (Android/iOS)

"One a day" is clearly a theme this month. This app comes from Warner Music Group, delivering a new music playlist every 24 hours. You'll need to be a paying Spotify subscriber to use it, and expect plenty of Warner's artists to feature.
Millie Marotta's Colouring

Adventures (iOS)

Look away now if the trend for adult colouring books gets your goat: this takes the idea to iPad. The pictures that you're colouring are beautiful, though: nature images from the work of illustrator Millie's popular books. Other apps do it, but this feels the most like real colouring.

Mimicker Alarm (Android)

It's not all work at Microsoft: the tech giant's experimental apps team has a new way for you to wake up. To turn off the app's alarm clock, you have to "mimic" something: from pulling a certain face to saying a certain phrase. Silly? A bit, but it does wake you up.

GAMING APPS

Crashlands (Android/iOS)

Its description as a "crafting RPG" may remind you of Minecraft, but Crashlands is a different beast. After crash-landing on an alien planet, you have to forage for tools, battle wildlife and build your base while uncovering a gripping story. A real treat.

Twofold Inc (Android/iOS)

If you like puzzlers but are tiring of the match-three "Saga" formula, Twofold Inc is the antidote. It sees you tracing lines of coloured squares with your finger to fill up bars at the top of the screen, against increasingly tough "moves" limits. Original, and very addictive.

The Westport Independent
(Android / iOS)

Papers, Please remains one of the most thought-provoking mobile games, and this is cut from the same cloth. You edit a newspaper in a "postwar" country sliding into dictatorship, and have to swap headlines and censor stories as you see fit. Or, if you're brave, leave them alone …

Downwell (Android/iOS)

If you grew up in the era of the Spectrum home computer, Downwell's retro graphics will bring pangs of nostalgia. But even if not, its simple but clever falling-down-a-well gameplay will soon cast a spell on you. Power-ups play a key role as you play, die and repeat.

Exploding Kittens (iOS)

Exploding Kittens is a quirky card game that was funded to the tune of $8.8m on Kickstarter. That success has helped its creators turn it into a mobile game, which is just as fun. Be warned: you need two players with it installed on their iPhones to even play.

Adventures of Mana (Android/iOS)

Fans of the Final Fantasy console RPGs have had plenty of chances to play older games in the series on their mobile devices. Adventures of Mana is the latest remake - of a game that more casual players may not know - and offers a colourful slice of RPG history.

Countdown (Android/iOS)

Plenty of people play Countdown on their sofas - by playing along in their heads with the TV game show. Now there's an alternative: this official mobile game, with letters and numbers rounds as well as conundrums to solve. It works well, including a two-players-on-one-device mode.

Pocket Mortys (Android/iOS)

You'll get most out of this game if you're already familiar with Adult Swim's Rick and Morty cartoon, but it's fun for newcomers too. Unashamedly inspired by Pokemon, it's packed with humour as you catch and train different versions of the Morty character.

Circa Infinity (iOS)

Want a new twist on a platform game? This provides it: your tiny stick-character runs and leaps around a series of circles, working your way into the centre while avoiding enemies. It seems tough at first, but as you get used to the rhythm, it becomes a compelling challenge.

Laser-tag game that zaps up a shield or 'bot' assistants

This new addition to the noisy world of laser tag claims to occupy "the third space between the screen-dominated indoors and the vanishing outdoors", which means that it has all the hysterical trigger-happiness of a multiplayer first-person shooter without the risk of obesity.

Comprising a garish electronic tunic and a wrist-mounted gun, what sets the SuperSuit apart from its rivals is a collection of outlandish features, including the use of remote control bots, and the ability to create a shield by waving your hand in a figure-of-eight. £140 will buy you enough gear for two players when the game is released later this year.

Let your talent shine as a one-man band

"Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship," sang Bob Dylan, anticipating the Zoom Arq by a good half century. But this tambourine-like device does more than jingle-jangle. The detachable ring hooks up, via Bluetooth, to a base-station that features a bevy of digital effects together with 468 instrument sounds, while the hand-held component boasts pressure pads, a midi-controller — complete with built-in accelerometer — and, crucially, a record button. Launching in April, it will make you the ultimate one-man band, but, with a retail price of $599.99 (around £417), you might need to proffer a large hat.

On the move with a tiny folding scooter

The miniature electrical vehicles craze has now produced this little number: a tiny folding scooter made by Crazyfire. Weighing only 4kg, the ZAR has two skateboard-style wheels at the rear, with suspension and a proper inflatable tyre at the front. Folded, it measures only 40cm in length. The top speed is 20kph, and you can check your journey distance and battery life on the inevitable app. £299 on Kickstarter.

Get a kick out of a football that develops your skills

For the Sunday leaguer who wants to combine their hobby with data-analysis, this sensor-riddled football could provide an edge. InsideCoach gathers information on velocity, spin and even perseverance, and is mainly aimed at younger players. The app that accompanies the ball includes specific skill-training. "Early bird" models are available on Kickstarter for about £70.

No need to get wet with unforgettable umbrella

In an era where no mundane activity must go un-gadgeted, Wezzoo's Oombrella might well have struck gold. Tapping into the national obsession, this jaunty weather wand promises to do more than merely shield you from the elements. Not only will it let you know if rain is on the way, but it will also upload your local weather data on to a shared platform — handy for those who find glancing at the clouds embarrassingly analogue. What's more, it will wing you a notification and its co-ordinates should you be remiss enough to lose it on your way home.

Having taken CES, the consumer electronics and consumer technology tradeshow, by storm earlier this year in Las Vegas, the Oombrella is set to launch on Kickstarter next month, with the first backers getting theirs for €59 (£45).

Douglas Rushkoff emerged as a media commentator in 1994 with his first book, Cyberia. He has published 10 books detailing an increasingly fierce critique of digital society.

Along the way Rushkoff has coined terms that have slipped into the lexicon such as "digital natives", "social currency" and "viral media". He has also made several documentaries and written novels both graphic and regular; consulted for organisations from the UN to the US government and composed music with Genesis P-Orridge.
His latest book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity, is published by Portfolio Penguin.

What do you find most objectionable about the kind of economy that technology appears to create?

What's most pernicious about it is that we are developing companies that are designed to do little more than take money out of the system — they are all extractive. There's this universal assumption that we have to turn working currency into share price.
You call this the "growth trap"?

The growth trap is the assumption of business that growth and health are the same thing — and I understand how they got back that way — that when you have a debt-based monetary system it has to pay back to the central banks more than was borrowed and that requires growth. So if you have a currency that requires growth in order to have value you're going to have all these businesses biased towards growth rather than everything else.

For example?

Uber has nothing to do with helping people get rides in towns. Uber is a business plan. It's a platform monopoly getting ready to leverage that monopoly into another vertical whether it be delivery, drones or logistics. The prosperity of all the people who used to be in the cabbie industry ends up sacrificed to the growth of this company. Corporations are like these obese people, they suck money out of our economy and store it in the fat of share price. That's not business, that's value extraction.

You left Facebook in 2013. How is that working out for you?

Professionally, I'm thinking it may be good for one's career and business to be off social media altogether. Chris Anderson was wrong. "Free" doesn't lead to anything but more free. Working for free isn't leverage to do a talk for loads of money; now they even want you to talk for free. What am I supposed to do? Join YouTube and get three cents for every 100,000 views of my video? That is crap; that is insane!

So business-wise I'm thinking that every time I post an article summarising what my book is about I'm hurting the sales and I end up delivering my ideas in a piecemeal, context-less fashion which ends up communicating less. And it makes my ideas much more easily applied for evil by corporations. That's the lesson I should have learned in 1994 when I published Media Virus and my concept got turned into "viral marketing", which took a slither of an idea and used it for pernicious applications.

Do you still advocate taking a digital sabbath?

I came up with this thing which I now don't like: the digital sabbath. It feels a little forced and arbitrary, and it frames digital detox as a deprivation. I would much rather help people learn to value looking into other people's eyes. To sit in a room talking to people — I want people to value that, not because they aren't being interrupted by digital media but because it's valuable in its own right.

Would you want to be able to book a taxi from your email programme? How about being able to send emails from your music organiser? Or maybe you'd like to be able to order a pizza while using your dating app?

Unlikely scenarios, all three; and yet many of the apps that we use would like to be able to encompass functionalities as diverse as that. It was part of the integrated approach that Microsoft's Windows Phone introduced in 2010 with its "People Hub" idea.

That didn't have much success, arguably because it was too early and the implementation wasn't great. But the idea that when you communicate, you want to be able do all sorts of communication — whether via Facebook or Twitter or text or email — is one that is catching on in a big way. As a result, some apps are beginning to suffer from a sort of late-teenage bloat.

Eery app, after all, wants to be the one where you spend all your time. But on mobile, the risks associated with overloading the user interface mean that established products tend to splinter instead.

WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, dwarfs most western products both in scale - it has around 700 million active accounts - and ambition: despite being first released only in January 2011 as a text/voice/photo-sharing app, it has expanded to provide functionality so that you can order cabs, buy film tickets, play games, check in for flights, pay bills … the list goes on and on.

So why don't we have a WeChat in the West? Facebook comes closest, but as noted above, it's splitting apart on mobile. China, WeChat's home ground, never went through the same desktop evolution — it jumped direct to mobile,. We tend to praise apps that "do one thing well" — and then grumble because they can't do some specific thing that we alone want to do.

This desire to be everything to everyone marks WeChat out — but it's obvious that Facebook and WhatsApp want to do the same; in India, WhatsApp already serves some commercial functions as a link between businesses.

Global ambition may mean globally large app functionality, rather than siloed mobile apps with single functions like Uber.

In a few years, individual apps may have been swallowed into bigger ones. Need a cab? In the future it might be as easy as opening your camera app; Uber is already part of Messenger in some US cities.

Spring music festival

In the annual Spring Music Festival, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira presented the "Sangeetha Vedanta Dhureena" award (purse of Rs one lakh) to well known vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan, last week.

Shanmukha and Haripriya, who are better known as Priya Sisters, opened their concert here with a well knit varna of Mysore Sadashiva Rao. Their alap and nerval for "Chintayamam" was tidy and wholesome, the kriti enriched with some sprightly swara phrases. Some of the compositions like - Sarasa Samadana, Swaminatha Paripalaya, Marugelara - brought nostalgic memories, in old timers. Raga Bindumalini belongs to Chakravaka (16th mela) varga.

The raga became popular through the Tyagaraja kruthi "Entamuddo". Priya Sisters chose Bindumalini and presented evocatively, though elder sister Shanmukha Priya, was faltering and fell short in meeting the requirements.

Mysore Srikanth on violin, Pathri Satish Kumar on mridanga and B S Purushottam on Khanjari - gave good support on their respective instruments.

Vocal duet

Ranjani and Gayathri, who gave a vocal duet in the Spring Music Festival, are most sought after musicians these days and they proved once again that they are crowd-pullers also. The weighty alap of Kambodhi was enough to reveal their sensitive touch and musical erudition. Through this raga and composition, the sisters paid homage to Papanasham Shivan, on the occasion of his 125th jayanthi.

It was followed by a small but fine keertana of Tyagaraja "Yeti Yochanalu" in the raga Kiranavali. They crowned the concert with an attractive Dwiraga Pallavi. Kannada and Kaanada flowed gracefully with an intelligent graha-bheda also. With ragamalika swara, the Pallavi was a real treat.

H N Bhaskar on violin proved as a worthy accompanist, while the percussionist Sai Kumar and G S Ramanujam supported with good understanding.

Devotional compositions

Sadguru Sri Thyagabrahma Aradhana Kainkarya Trust presented a special dance programme called "Bhadrachala Ramadas Charitramu". Bhadrachala Ramadas, the great composer of devotional songs in Telugu, lived in the 17th century. His real name is Kancherla Gopanna Garu and he was appointed as the tahsildar of Bhadrachalam taluk.

It is believed that Saint Kabir Das appeared to him in dream and gave him the 'Upadesha' of Taraka mantra and his devotion towards Rama increased and he started composing beautiful songs in praise of Lord Rama. People started calling him Ramadasa. Rama Dasa used to celebrate Ramotsava every year, with great devotion and enthusiasm. He renovated the Sri Rama Temple in Bhadrachalam, using the revenue of the State. For the offence, he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and kept in a cell in the Golconda fortress. It is said the Lord Rama and Lakshmana appeared before the King and paid the entire amount owed by Ramadas to the ruler and got Ramdas released. The King, it seems realised his mistake and apologised. Ramadas' compositions have a wide appeal and are sung in music concerts and bhajana parties.

In the current programme, the students of Samudyatha Prabhat, Kalasindhu and Narthana Keerthana presented 10 songs of Bhadrachala Ramadas. Dasharatha Rama Govinda, Diname Sudimanu Ra, Rama Jogi, Charanamule etc. Some of them like "Paluke Bangara" are already popular in both dance and music.

Though Ramdas' compositions are soul stirring, it is not easy to perform whole programme with them. Some episodes like Gajendra Moksha, Ahalya Moksha are in the songs. There is no much scope for 'Sanchari' and only 'Bhakthi rasa' flows throughout. Still young students performed with ease and confidence under the direction of Shakunthala Prabhat, Purnima Gururaj and Dr Soundarya Srivathsa.

Prabhat Shakunthala and Soundarya Srivatsa (Natuvanga), Vasudha Balakrishna (vocal), S V Balakrishna on Mridanga and Raghunandan on flute - supported the dancers.

One day, we, a group of three travellers, woke up with the lark, the crow and such other birds that begin singing at early hours.

We traipsed through the waking town of Badami, past its still silent market and past the museum where all was now locked and barred. Pausing briefly at the mist-enveloped waters of the Agastya Thirtha, we trudged up the path that led past a village and then into the hills, picking our way through the dung and droppings. A short way up, the hill flattened out, droppings disappeared and the view finally jolted us awake. To our left, a vast vista of green; to our right, a panoramic view of Badami with the Agastya Thirtha glittering like an emerald set in the midst of red-brown cliffs.

We had taken the road less travelled — literally — as we were on an old walking route that led over the rocky plateau near Badami to the temple complex at Mahakuta, six km away. We peered into tiny rock pools that lay just off the path. We oohed and aahed at the fantastic sandstone formations that we passed. We stopped to see little shrines under the trees, and we made detours to the edge of the plateau to gaze at the valley below and the forested hills across. Old milestones, possibly from the British period, marked our progress in miles. About an hour into our walk, the path descended into a broad agricultural valley, past a small pond teeming with birds, and then took us through more wilderness.

All at once, the silence was broken by something more than birdsong — the sound of children laughing and shrieking floated down the air. The noise grew louder, the trees thinned out slightly, and suddenly we were at an ancient stone entrance leading into a temple complex. We had arrived at Mahakuta!
Architectural marvel
The temples at Mahakuta are sheltered by large trees and are clustered around a stepped tank fed by a natural spring. All the times I have been to Mahakuta, I have always found the tank full of excited people, especially children. Indeed, people have probably been getting unalloyed pleasure, splashing about in the tank, for the 1,400 years or so that the complex has existed.

Mahakuta is a great place for people-watching and I could have spent long and happy hours doing just that, but there were also old temples that beckoned. As in the more famous World Heritage Site of Pattadakal, just 12 km away, the interesting thing about Mahakuta's temples is the blend of different architectural styles within the same complex. The 7th century Mahakuteshwara Temple and the slightly later Mallikarjuna Temple are both built with typical Dravida-style towers, while the Sangameshwara and Virupaksheshwara temples have the typical Nagara-style tower that is more typical of north India.

A leisurely stroll around the temple complex reveals some outstanding examples of early Chalukyan art. The whitewash on the Mahakuteshwara Temple does not detract from the lively friezes and large sculptures of Shiva that adorn its outer walls. George Michell, the renowned architect and historian, points out how these are unusual in that they are all two-armed rather than four-armed.

Another unusual feature in Mahakuta is the gateway on the pathway from
Badami, which is flanked by two rather grotesque-looking skeletal guardians. In the late 1800s, John Fleet, a British historian, antiquarian and civil servant, found a pillar a few metres away from this very gateway. On this 6.8m high sandstone pillar was inscribed the famous Mahakuta pillar inscription of Mangalesha. Dated 597 AD, the inscription recorded a grant to Makuteshwaranatha, as the deity was then known. This pillar is now in a museum in Vijayapura.

Nature's glory

We spent a few hours pottering around Mahakuta, relaxing in the gentle sunlight that filtered through the trees and watching adults become children as they jumped into the temple tank. And then, we were off to our next lesser-known Chalukyan destination. Bhadra Nayakana Jalihal, or BN Jalihal, is worth visiting just for its breathtaking scenery: a forest glen, a rock overhang, and a waterfall that gurgles merrily over it. In the cavernous shelter behind the waterfall are some shrines dedicated to the Saptamatrikas — the Seven Mothers — and other gods and goddesses. But we were looking for a shrine to a mortal.

The area around the rivulet and the overhang has a number of small, single-cell shrines, each containing a linga. One of these shrines carries an inscription that marks it out as special. According to scholars, the inscription proclaims the shrine as the 'casket-like structure of the Chalukyan king Vikramaditya Satyashraya.' Some historians thus infer that the shrine could be the final resting place of Vikramaditya II. This was the Chalukyan king who ruled from 733 to 746 AD, and is most famous for his

victories against the Pallavas and for occupying their capital Kanchipuram. Some historians aver that the entire dell could be a Chalukyan royal cemetery. Others have speculated that Vikramaditya and his retinue may have been ambushed in this valley or perhaps met with an accident, which is why he was buried here. Of course, there are also scholars who scoff at the whole idea. Either way, we were excited by the prospect of seeing what might be a 1,300-year-old royal grave.

We carefully negotiated stone steps and clambered over rocks looking at shrine after shrine. We forged our way into and past thorny thickets looking for the royal resting place until we finally found it. Except that it was slightly larger than the other shrines and had the inscription by the side of the entrance, the purported royal tomb was remarkably shorn of any ostentation.

No doubt when the king was buried here, Jalihal would have been near-pristine forestland. No doubt he was buried with much sadness and ceremony. Today, the tomb lies hidden between shrubs. Nothing marks out the shrine as possibly being special. Nothing indicates that someone who once ruled over an empire may lie buried there. The tomb of the conqueror of Kanchi lies forlorn and forgotten.

With the increasing instances of weather uncertainty due to global warming, rural life is getting stressful by the day. While erratic rains play havoc on farming, decreasing water table has further compounded the lives of rural folk.

Villages in Chamarajanagar district are not an exception. "We are never blessed with plenty of water," said Mariswamy of Mangala village in Chamarajanagar district. "But our elders followed time-tested ways that ensured judicial use of available water and this tank is an apt example of it," he said. We were standing next to a tank that was restored under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

"We grew up playing and swimming here and I am happy that it has been given a new life now. Revival of this tank has not only improved the water level of borewells but also ensured healthy growth of crops," explained Mariswamy.

The positive effects can be seen in many parts of Chamarajanagar district, thanks to the concerted efforts by the Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat to restore water bodies of these villages. "A perfect blend of traditional knowledge and modern knowhow is the need of the hour to address such issues," opined KHN Murthy, chief executive officer of the Zilla Panchayat, who has been spearheading the initiative across the district. "With the advent of borewells, traditional water structures were sidelined. Consequently, old tanks and wells went dry and even neared extinction," he said.

Restoration work

The MGNREGA scheme with focus on the rejuvenation of water bodies has been implemented with a holistic approach in the district. The gram panchayats, after consulting with the people, finalise their requirements and submit them to the Zilla Panchayat. Then a technical team appointed by the Zilla Panchayat facilitates the work. In Chamarajanagar district, traditional knowledge of people on water resources has been considered while deciding the worksite. At the initial stage, the Zilla Panchayat conducted a survey and identified over 1,600 tanks that required rejuvenation. So far, around 100 tanks have been restored completely and 200 more are in the pipeline. These tanks are expected to be ready by next monsoon. Both experts and people here believe that these efforts would lead to improved access to water. The scheme proposes to achieve twin objectives: to provide at least 100 days of work to each enrolled worker and creation of long-lasting assets.

Manjula, previous president of Santhemarahalli Gram Panchayat, is happy about the tank restoration work undertaken during her tenure and feels that it was the best work done during the period. Apart from generating work for people, the scheme has managed to conserve rainwater, and thus, give life to five borewells. She is looking forward to this year's monsoon eagerly. "That both men and women get equal wages under this scheme makes it all the more important for people," she said.

Participatory approach at all levels and active involvement of villagers has proved beneficial. Mahadevaiah, a supervisor at the MGNREGA worksite in Santhemarahalli village, gives an instance to indicate that the views of common people are valued. The technical team wanted to revive two adjacent tanks simultaneously in the village. But people opted to work on the big tank as it's capacity was more and needed urgent attention. They felt that the stone revetment done, though long back, to the other tank is still intact. And the team decided to go by the villagers' opinion. Manoj, a member of the technical team, agrees that the decision was appropriate. "We were apprehensive about it initially. After a few days of desilting, we realised that the small tank needed only some repair work."

A lot of planning and discussion goes into the restoration work. Apart from desilting and strengthening of the bund with stone revetment, the feeder channels are also revived. "The restoration of a tank is incomplete without proper feeder channels," says Prabhuswamy, a technical team member in Gundlupet taluk. "Hence, more concentration is given towards ensuring proper flow of rainwater into the tank. And once this primary objective is attained, the strengthening and desilting work starts." Neelambike, president of Nittre Gram Panchayat, says, "Once the Devikatte tank of the village brims with water, hopefully in the next monsoon, we would be able to see a significant increase in the ground water level."

What catches one's eye in Chamarajanagar is a huge tank, where men are actually fishing! The tank is next to a water purification plant that supplies drinking water to Chamarajanagar city. The villagers have utilised the excess water that flows out of the purification plant by diverting it to the nearby tank, which was desilted under the scheme. It's been over two years now and the tank is brimming with fish.

Adarsh, an agricultural science graduate working with the technical team, talks about the tank and its potential for something more, "A park can be developed around this tank. Also, fishing can be made more viable with proper systems in place here. It will definitely attract more people." There is also a plan to plant fruit-bearing trees around the tank in order to create an environment conducive to the survival of birds and other animal species.

The atmosphere changed dramatically as I took a deviation from the National Highway 13 and entered the Sabala Home, a few yards away. The sound of wheels rolling on the sunny and noisy highway gave way to the chirping of birds in the trees.

The small road, flanked by trees on both sides, led me to a group of women, who were exploring new designs on cloth and ornaments. Be it Prema, a victim of child marriage who lost her husband at a very young age or Yashoda Bogar, who was denied of land rights for being a woman or Lalitabai, a dowry victim — every woman here had a story to share. The saga of their journey from being nondescript women to becoming leaders of their community unfolded even as they deftly crafted ethnic designs on bright coloured apparels handwoven by women groups in the surrounding villages.

"Handicraft is an offshoot of the women empowerment programmes we initiated three decades ago," says Mallamma Yalawar, founder of Sabala, a civil society organisation, which has been transforming the lives of women in Vijayapura district and the neighbouring regions. Born and brought up in a village, Mallamma had a clear understanding of the harsh realities of rural life in the region. Women had to face many challenges, and social evils like the devadasi system and child marriage made life miserable for them.

For the womenfolk

Mallamma made up her mind to work for their cause and took up courses in rural development and community empowerment. In 1986, she founded Sabala with an aim to empower women through awareness creation and skill development. The activities included counselling, forming groups and organising rallies. There were programmes that stressed on the importance of education, gender equality and reinforced the status of women in the family and society.

"Consistent efforts caught the attention of public towards the ills of devadasi system, which is nothing but a systematic exploitation women in the name of god," says Mallamma. The seeds of awareness sprouted and different organisations and even the government got involved in the process through various awareness programmes. Consequently, the government banned devadasi system, which was prevalent in Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts.

In spite of the state-wide campaign and the subsequent ban, Mallamma feels, devadasi system is not completely uprooted and is still practised under wraps.

Later, the Organisation worked under different projects of the government and national and international funding agencies to address the problems of people residing in rural areas. It also played a crucial role in developing alternative livelihood patterns for people who were relocated upon the construction of Almatti Dam in Vijayapura district. Skill development trainings were part of the programme. In 1991, the Organisation started evening schools for school drop outs and also led a campaign to bring children back to the schools. Later, as the campaign expanded, the Organisation started a school in Vijayapura.

Another initiative of Sabala was to free women from the clutches of private money lenders. It established Chaitanya Mahila Co-operative Bank in 1995. The bank which caters exclusively to women has more than 8,000 members and has lent loans to over 5,000 women. The working capital of the bank has crossed Rs 55 crore this year. About 2,000 women have started income-generation activities after availing loan from the bank. Sabala has formed 310 self-help groups, and most of them are linked to the bank.

The latest venture of the Organisation is to design ethnic textiles and jewellery inspired by Lambani (Banjara) culture and promote them at national and international market. While adapting the Lambani concepts like the mirror work and patch work (quilt) into its designs, the Organisation has ensured that Lambani people become part of the production. In fact, the Organisation has trained rural and tribal women, based on their interest and skill, and involved them in the production process.

While the business model leads to the revival of traditional crafts like kasuti and lambani work, it also creates employment opportunities for rural women. The craft-based livelihood initiative has become a full-fledged business enterprise and so far, 16 women groups are pursuing it successfully. What makes the products stand out is the contemporary touch given to traditional designs.

Sabala, which is a member of the World Fair Trade Organisation-Asia, supports these groups in marketing the products at national and international platforms. The groups that have sustained without any outside financial support for over a decade now, make an annual turn over of more than Rs 15 lakh. Sabala also organises Kalasanthe, an annual handicrafts fair, to give better exposure to traditional artists. The strength of the initiative lies in the fact that it has been transforming humble women into able entrepreneurs.
For additional details, log on to www.sabala.in.

Is it possible to live according to the norms prescribed by ancient scriptures while assimilating and absorbing technological and scientific discoveries, lifestyle and values of the modern era? An exuberant community living in two remote villages in Shivamogga district has successfully proved that it indeed is possible.

Mattur and Hosahalli are small archetypal villages situated on the left and right banks of River Tunga, just about 10 km from the busy town of Shivamogga. Today, these villages are known to be the only villages in India and the world, where Sanskrit is the primary language.

A vast expanse of lush green areca nut and coconut farms line the roads leading to Mattur and as one enters the village, Sharada Vidyalaya, the village school with a giant statue of Goddess Saraswati at the centre of a courtyard greets the visitor. The school's name board outside the gate in Sanskrit appears as a perfect prologue to the story of this village. Children are taught Sanskrit as well as the Vedas here. As we stroll ahead, the melodious chanting of Sanskrit Vedic verses resonate from the confines of mud-walled, tile-roofed homes. Young and old scholars, clad in traditional attire, are busily moving about. At specified hours, these scholars congregate at the mantapa in front of the Lakshmi Narayana Temple located at the centre of the village or on the granite steps beside River Tunga, under the shaded canopy of a giant banyan tree, for Vedic recitals.

In the midst of these divine preoccupations, the same scholars also find time to toil in the areca nut and coconut farms. After putting away their sacred palm-leaf manuscripts, the scholars pick up the sickle and the plough and set out to work in the fields. The village economy depends on agriculture, with areca nut, coconut and banana being the major crops.

Many agricultural postgraduate villagers supervise the cultivation and also work in the farms. It will not be surprising to find a Sanskrit scholar who has mastered the Vedas drying areca nut in the drying yard. Most of the women are also well educated. Some teach music, Gita and Sanskrit to children, apart from helping the men out in agricultural activities.

Everywhere in the village, you can find people engaged in an animated conversation in Sanskrit. Even the shopkeepers and the postman of Mattur converse fluently in this language. Every item in the grocery shop is identified by its Sanskrit name. Out of the total population of about 5,000 people, 80 per cent can converse in Sanskrit and many others can understand the ancient language. The villagers have a dialect called Sanket (devoid of any script), which is a mix of Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu.

A majority of people of Mattur have had a foundation of education in the Vedas before taking up higher education outside. But don't think that these villagers are only concerned with the old. The village, in fact, boasts of many postgraduates, PhD holders, IT professionals, professors and teachers. Eminent Sanskrit scholars, Mattur Krishnamurthy and Mattur Nanda Kumar, hailed from this village. Both of them headed Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in England. Prof Srinidhi, Aruna Avadhani and Markandeya Avadhani are other leading scholars from the village. More than 50 per cent of the families in this village have members who are working abroad. Those who are working abroad also devote their spare time for propagating the Sanskrit language and Vedic studies there.

While Sanskrit is taught in the village school, short duration camps are held here for outsiders desirous of learning the language. Sanskrit plays of Kalidas and others are staged and even public meetings are conducted in Sanskrit. While this activity of propagating the ancient language goes on, the pursuit of Vedic studies also continues with full fervour. It is

reported that there are about 20 scholars in Mattur who have mastered the Yajur Veda, which according to the village elders is a 'Bhageeratha task', taking eight to 10 years of dedicated efforts and lots of perseverance.

Ben Zhong Tang was stumped. A chemist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he was looking at a powder that glowed bright green under ultraviolet light. But when the powder was dissolved in a clear solution, the glow disappeared. It was 2001, and Ben's observation defied everything then known about light-emitting molecules.

"I was very excited," he said in an interview, "but in another way, I was bothered, because I didn't know what was going on." What he had, he later determined, were molecules that lit up only when crowded together — in solid form, for example. Ben's study of that chemical and its unusual behaviour has led to an emerging class of small, non-metal compounds with applications in unusually diverse arenas, from vastly improving optoelectronic devices like Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) televisions to advancing the use of fluorescent technology in the human body. "For example, they could provide surgeons with better ways to visualise tumours, or enable non-invasive destruction of tumours," said Richard Conroy, the director of the division of applied science and technology at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

Of fluorescent matter

For years, scientists trying to develop fluorescent molecules grappled with a tricky problem: The molecules' light went out when they were too crowded. Because fluorescent molecules are almost always used as a group, the problem of quenching, as this phenomenon is known, prevented many otherwise promising compounds from reaching real-world applications. "In the past, we hope the fluorescent dye will go to the tumour site so that we'll see the tumour, but we also hope that not too many go so that it will not quench," Ben said. "You see the dilemma there."

For OLED technologies like slim, energy efficient, high-contrast TVs, "we should want organic compounds that emit light in the solid state," said Masaki Shimizu, a professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan, who designs light-emitting materials for optoelectronic devices.

That has been hard to achieve. Fluorescence occurs when materials absorb energy and then emit it as light. Conventional fluorescent molecules are flat, and they stack on top of one another like pancakes when they are too close, killing the light. In contrast, the molecule that Ben was studying was propeller-shaped, with five flat "blades" connected to a central ring. "It's like an electric fan," he said.

With that molecule, a different mechanism was at work. Together with a postdoctoral fellow, Junwu Chen, Ben reasoned that when the molecules were free to move around, they wasted their energy by rotating their blades, producing heat rather than light. But once space was restricted, they theorised, the molecules would be unable to move, and thus forced to release their energy as light. They named this phenomenon "aggregation-induced emission."

To prove this, Junwu performed a series of experiments. First, he froze a solution of the molecules in liquid nitrogen so they could not move. Next, he added glycerol, a thick liquid, to slow the molecules. Junwu left the lab in 2002, but Ben's students continued investigating. They applied pressure on the solid powder, squeezing the molecules further. They chemically changed the molecules by adding bridges to lock the blades in place. In all the experiments, the molecules shone brighter.

Establishing this mechanism took two years. Then Ben's group began to look for other molecules with similar shapes that would also undergo Aggregation-Induced Emission — AIE for short. The first AIE molecule, which Ben named "AIE-gen" after mesogens, or liquid crystals, contained silicon and was difficult to prepare. For the next AIE-gen, Ben wanted something easy to make that was carbon-based. He tried tetraphenylethylene (TPE), a hydrocarbon molecule shaped like a dog bone with two big blades at each end.

Under ultraviolet light, TPE produced a disappointingly weak sky-blue glow. What TPE lacked in brilliance, it made up for in versatility. Ben and his team soon realised that they could easily make TPE brighter or change the light's colour by tweaking its structure or placing it in different environments. "This is a star molecule," Ben said.

The next major advance came when Ben realised that AIE-gens could be attached to other materials like metal-detecting compounds, proteins or DNA fragments, and still keep their light-emitting properties. "That's very powerful," said Tim Cook, an assistant chemistry professor at the University at Buffalo. Independent of Ben's research, Tim has prepared self-assembling, light-emitting materials by attaching AIE-gens to compounds already known to self-assemble. "You can basically adapt it to any system," he said.

Living systems are of particular interest. AIE-gens do not contain metals, unlike competing fluorescent materials like quantum dots. This makes them one of the most promising candidates for use in humans, to guide surgeons or deliver light therapy. In 2011, Bin Liu, a chemical engineering professor at the National University of Singapore, packed a few different AIE-gens from Ben into capsules, creating a series of very bright and robust nanoparticles. In experiments to track cancer cell migration in mice, the nanoparticles were at least 10 times as bright and lasted three times as long as quantum dots developed for the job. Last year, Bin's spinoff company, LuminiCell, began producing and selling the AIE-gen nanoparticles.

Besides AIE-gens for biological applications, there are AIE-gens that can detect heavy metals, cyanide, explosives or harmful bacteria. Others can help improve OLED displays by eliminating the quenching problem, making OLEDs much easier to manufacture. But commercialisation of AIE materials may not be so easy. "There are a great many fluorescent technologies," Chris Geddes, the director of the Institute of Fluorescence at the University of Maryland, said. "Whether the AIE technology will make it, only time will tell."

Still, 15 years in, Ben and others say that the known AIE-gens may be just the beginning. Now, researchers are reporting that other materials like clusters of gold atoms, not just small organic molecules, can undergo AIE as well. "This opens up huge opportunities," Ben said. "I am very optimistic."

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman or C V Raman was one of the greatest minds India ever saw. Widely known for his experiments on scattering of light, Prof Raman was the first Indian Nobel Laureate in science. Come February 28, the nation will celebrate the day as National Science Day, in commemoration of the discovery of the Raman Effect.

Born in 1888, Prof Raman began his career as a civil servant in Kolkata in 1907. Since he was passionate about physics, he took to doing experimental work in the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science. His early work was in acoustics of musical instruments. Later, he became interested in the structure of crystals, especially diamonds. He took up professorship in Calcutta University in 1917, where he worked for 15 years. Later, he served as the director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru from 1934 to 1948 and of the Raman Research Institute from 1949 until his death in 1970.

C V Raman is widely known for his work on scattering of light. His research in this particular field earned him a Nobel Prize (Physics) in 1930. The Raman Effect was honoured with the rank of being a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society on December 15, 1998 and also got designated as an International Historic Chemical Landmark in the year 2013. Raman Effect is the change in wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. When a beam of light traverses a transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of it emerges in directions other than that of the incident beam. Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength; a small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light.

A matter of light

In fact, this effect can be easily understood if the incident light is treated as a source of photons. Most of the encounters of the particles with the target are what is called elastic scattering, where there is no change in energy. However, in a few encounters, the energy of the photon is changed by either giving energy or taking energy from the molecule. Thus, the scattered light will have a frequency (and colour) different than that of the incident light. Since the phenomenon can be understood only with the photonic aspect of light, this effect was also seen as one of the proofs for the quantum theory. Two years later, along with S Bhagavantham, a fellow scientist, Prof Raman was able to show that "the light quantum possesses an intrinsic spin equal to one Bohr unit of angular momentum," which further confirmed the quantum nature of light.

The unique spectrum of Raman scattered light for any particular substance serves as a 'fingerprint' that could be used for qualitative analysis of solids, liquids gases and even a mixture of materials. Further, the intensity of the spectral lines is related to the amount of the substance. While generally, only one part in a thousand of the total intensity of incident light is Rayleigh scattering, this value drops to one part in a million for Raman scattering.

Since 1980's, with improved instrumentation, many new applications of Raman Effect have been found. Its ability to detect even small amounts of chemical and biological molecules has been helpful in the treatment of cancer, malaria, HIV and other illnesses. It now finds itself useful in scenarios like analysing nuclear waste material, detecting trace amounts of molecules in fraudulent paintings, chemical weapons, identifying dangerous substances such as improvised explosive devices at airports and so on.

Raman Effect is also playing an important role in astronomy. The feasibility of using the Raman spectrum to investigate the physical structure of outer planet atmospheres has been examined. Raman scattering makes a vital contribution to spectra because of very large amounts of hydrogen molecules in planets' atmospheres. The spectra of Uranus and Neptune in the UV and visual range have been detected and these observations give information on the amount of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. In 2004, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy published a paper titled Raman spectroscopy, breaking terrestrial barriers. It propagated that Raman spectroscopy can provide highly specific chemical fingerprints of inorganic and organic materials and is therefore, expected to play a significant role in interplanetary missions, especially in the search for life elsewhere in our solar system.

The simplicity in Raman spectra and the non-ambiguity for phase identification are the keys for its application in planetary explorations. Future planetary missions of NASA and ESA to Europa and Mars are all expected to carry Raman spectrometers. A Raman spectrometer is also being miniaturised for the ExoMars Rover and is expected to identify organic compounds that could be related to signatures of life like cyanobacteria, chlorophyll, or amino acids. NASA's mission to Europa, an important satellite of Jupiter, will try to analyse the surface environment. Raman spectra will be used to measure the key habitability parameters such as temperature, pH etc there. A study titled Stand-off Raman spectroscopic detection of minerals on planetary surfaces, conducted at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, was able to identify minerals under high temperatures such as those that exist on the surface of Venus. It demonstrated the ability of the remote Raman system to identify atmospheric constituents without landing on the harsh Venusian surface.

In many ways, this genius discovery has proved to be a big boost to the world of science.

Eliminating worn-out cells extends the healthy lives of lab mice — an indication that treatments aimed at killing off these cells, or blocking their effects, might also help to combat age-related diseases in humans. As animals age, cells that are no longer able to divide — called senescent cells — accrue all over their bodies, releasing molecules that can harm nearby tissues. Senescent cells are linked to diseases of old age, such as kidney failure and type 2 diabetes.

To test the cells' role in ageing, Darren Baker and Jan van Deursen, molecular biologists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and their colleagues engineered mice so that their senescent cells would die off when the rodents were injected with a drug. The work involved sophisticated genetic tinkering and extensive physiological testing, but the concept has an elegant simplicity to it. "We think these cells are bad when they accumulate. We remove them and see the consequences," says Darren.

Mice whose senescent cells were killed off over six months were healthier, in several ways, than a control group of transgenic mice in which these cells were allowed to build up. Their kidneys worked better and their hearts were more resilient to stress. They tended to explore their cages more and they developed cancers at a later age. Eliminating senescent cells also extended the life spans of the mice by 20 to 30 per cent, Darren and Jan report.

The research is a follow-up to a 2011 study, in which their team also found that eliminating senescent cells delayed the onset of diseases of old age in mice, although that work had been done in mice which had a mutation that causes premature ageing. In the hope of discovering therapies for diseases of old age, researchers are already looking for drugs that can directly eliminate senescent cells or stop them from churning out factors that damage neighbouring tissue. They include Darren and Jan, who have licensed patents to develop such drugs to a company Jan has co-founded.

The team's experiment "gives you confidence that senescent cells are an important target," says Dominic Withers, a clinician-scientist who studies ageing at Imperial College London and who co-wrote an article for Nature that accompanies the Mayo Clinic report. "I think that there is every chance this will be a viable therapeutic option."

Ewen Callaway Sleep and cold

There is plenty of evidence linking poor sleep to chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, but remarkably few good clinical trials have looked at whether sleep is a bulwark against respiratory infections. One such study, published in the journal Sleep, reported that adults who slept less than five or six hours a night were four times more likely to catch a cold than those who slept at least seven hours.

The trial was one of the first to objectively measure the amount of sleep volunteers got before they were deliberately exposed to the common cold through nasal drops containing the cold virus. A clinical trial in 2009 that relied on participants' own accounts of their sleep habits also found sleep protective against common cold. In that trial, volunteers who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours a night were nearly three times more likely to catch a cold after exposure than those who slept eight hours or more.

An observational study from 2012 of nearly 60,000 women in the Nurses Health Study II also suggested sleep patterns may affect pneumonia risk. It found that women who slept five hours or less were more likely to develop pneumonia. Oddly enough, those who slept nine hours or more were also at higher risk. Dr Sanjay Patel, the study's author, suggested that the women who slept excessively may have suffered from poor quality sleep. It is also possible that being in the sleep position for an extended time increases susceptibility to pneumonia, since bacteria that colonise the nose and throat may drip into the lungs, he said.

Scientists were not aware of any studies examining the role of sleep in bronchitis. Scientists are uncertain how sleep might help fight infections, but sleep is known to play a role in the regulation of the immune system. Studies suggest that sleep deprivation, for example, may lead to a weaker antibody response to vaccination, Sanjay said. Insufficient sleep "seems to reduce the functioning of cells like natural killer cells and lymphocytes that are important in giving you an immune response."

A wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he saw, the less he spoke; the less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?" This proverbial rhyme, though meant for children, offers us a sneak peek into the wonderful lives of owls.

Specialised carnivorous birds who feed on live prey just like eagles and kites, owls are the creatures of night. While most owls are nocturnal, a few are known to be diurnal too.
These small-sized creatures and their unique habits have captured the attention of many. For instance, they can rotate their heads up to 210 degrees, which means they can see what's going on behind their back. The flight feathers of owls are arranged in such a way that they can fly silently in the night and swoop down on the prey stealthily. Owls are often heard than seen. Unlike other birds' calls, owl calls are far from melodious. They call tree cavities and hollows, ravines, cliffs and even abandoned quarries their home and feed on rats, shrews, lizards, snakes, fish, frogs, smaller birds, scorpions and insects.

There are 230 species of owls in the world, of which 33 species are found in India. However, in the country, owls still have a long way to go before they make it to the official priority list of species that need protection efforts. Owls provide an immensely useful ecological service by feeding on rodents. One owl can feed on 1,000 mice in a year, which would otherwise damage one-third of the grain in a crop field. In some regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, farmers install a pole in their field for the owls to perch on and hunt the rodents. In some areas, farmers believe that worshipping owls will bring wealth in their lives.

But in most other places, owls are not so lucky. The magnificence of owls is misinterpreted in many cultures across the world, including India. Thanks to their unconventional appearance and their nocturnal feature, owls are considered inauspicious by many. They are termed to be a prize catch in sorcery, wherein they are caged and their powerful wings, talons are severed thus, restricting their flight. Moreover, their eyes are also injected with coloured dye to make them appear formidable. Owls are also killed for their eyes, talons, beaks, tails, and feathers for use in traditional medicine.

The discovery

Of the many species of owls found in India, the forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) is a curious bird, both by name and nature. This species is endemic to India and has been placed among the top 10 birds in the world that are in endangered category. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared it as a critically endangered species, owing to its small and declining population.

The genus of the forest owlet has been a bone of contention ever since it was discovered. At the time of its discovery in 1872, A O Hume, a well-known British taxonomist and civil service officer serving in India, established the genus Heteroglaux blewitti for the forest owlet based on its distinct morphology. Although the forest owlet possesses superficial similarities to the much commonly seen spotted owlet (Athene brama), it has several distinctive features of its own. For instance, it has an unspotted crown, a full-throat collar, thickly feathered legs, a habit of lateral tail flicking and an undulating flight. But scientists are still undecided about the correct genus of the forest owlet.

Between 1872 and 1884, six forest owlet specimens were collected from the country; the first one in 1872 by an Irish officer, Francis Robert Blewitt. After 1884, there were many reports of forest owlet sightings all over the country, but all of them were actually spotted owlets. Finally, in 1972, researchers considered the possibility that the forest owlet may have gone extinct.

Given this background, one can imagine the surprise and excitement that was generated when the news of its rediscovery came forth in 1997. Pamela Rasmussen, an American ornithologist was studying the preserved skins of forest owlet, when she realised that the bird looked very different than shown in the illustrations in Indian bird books. She realised that the Indian scientists were looking for it based on a wrong picture.

Her museum research also found that the record of forest owlet from Gujarat was a false one. It was then that Pamela decided to carry out a survey and began her search in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, where the erstwhile forests had disappeared giving way to crop fields. But there were no forest owlets to be seen.

In November 1997, researchers started a survey near Nandurbar district of Maharashtra and much to everyone's surprise, two forest owlets were discovered. These owlets had made their reappearance after a staggering 113 years! In reality, the bird hadn't gone extinct, but was, in fact, overlooked by many.

Localised distribution

After its rediscovery, several organisations carried out surveys to determine the distribution of this particular species. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) initiated the surveys in 1999 and reported the presence of forest owlets from North-western Maharashtra and Melghat Tiger Reserve. The Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS), Pune also carried out a survey of these owlets in five central Indian states — their original locations. WRCS surveyed the states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and were successful in locating the forest owlets from Khandwa and Betul district in Madhya Pradesh and a few more locations in Northern Maharashtra. At present, this owlet species can be found in three states of India: Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

From 2012 onwards, WRCS has been carrying out an ecological assessment of the forest owlet in Madhya Pradesh with the support of the Department of Science and Technology and the Raptor Research and Conservation Foundation, Mumbai. They are trying to understand the possible reasons for localised distribution of the forest owlet in Central India, its small population, and why it has not been able to colonise as successfully as its sympatric species such as the spotted owlet.

The forest owlet appears to have low breeding success as every year, there are only one or two juveniles emerging out of six to seven nests, while the spotted owlet, which shares the same habitat, has a higher survival rate. But the study has provided valuable insights into strategies owls have adapted for survival and how thoughtlessly we destroy them out of personal insecurities and irrational beliefs. But there is still a lot more to learn about these special creatures.

A thousand miles south of Hawaii, the air at 45,000 feet above the equatorial Pacific was a shimmering gumbo of thick storm clouds and icy cirrus haze, all cooked up by the overheated waters below.

In a Gulfstream jet more accustomed to hunting hurricanes in the Atlantic, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were cruising this desolate stretch of tropical ocean where the northern and southern trade winds meet. It's an area that becalmed sailors have long called the doldrums, but this year it is anything but quiet. This is the heart of the strongest El Nino in a generation, one that is pumping moisture and energy into the atmosphere and, as a result, roiling weather worldwide.

The plane, with 11 people aboard including a journalist, made its way on a long westward tack, steering clear of the worst of the disturbed air to the south. Every 10 minutes, on a countdown from Mike Holmes, one of two flight directors, technicians in the rear released an instrument package out through a narrow tube in the floor. Slowed by a small parachute, the devices, called dropsondes, fell toward the water, transmitting wind speed and direction, humidity and other atmospheric data back to the plane continuously on the way down. The information, parsed by scientists and fed into weather models, may improve forecasting of El Nino's effect on weather by helping researchers better understand what happens here, at the starting point.

Answering questions

"One of the most important questions is to resolve how well our current weather and climate models do in representing the tropical atmosphere's response to an El Nino," said Randall Dole, a senior scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and one of the lead researchers on the project. An El Nino forms about every two to seven years, when the surface winds that typically blow from east to west slacken. As a result, warm water that normally pools along the Equator in the western Pacific piles up toward the east instead. Because of this shift, the expanse of water — which in this El Nino has made the central and eastern Pacific as much as five degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual — acts as a heat engine, affecting the jet streams that blow at high altitudes. That, in turn, can bring more winter rain to the lower third of the United States and dry conditions to southern Africa, among El Nino's many possible effects.

Aided by vast processing power and better data, scientists have improved the ability of their models to predict when an El Nino will occur and how strong it will be. In June, the consensus among forecasters using models developed by NOAA, as well as other US and foreign agencies and academic institutions, was that a strong El Nino would develop later in the year, and it did.

Anthony Barnston, chief forecaster at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University, who has studied the accuracy of El Nino modelling, said that so-called dynamical models, which simulate the physics of the real world, have recently done a better job in predicting whether an El Nino will occur than statistical models, which rely on comparisons of historical data.

With any model, good data is crucial. El Nino models have been helped by the development of satellites and networks of buoys that can measure sea-surface temperatures and other ocean characteristics. When it comes to forecasting El Nino's weather effects, however, good data can be harder to come by. That's where the NOAA research project aims to help, by studying a key process in the El
Nino-weather connection: deep tropical convection.

The clouds that the NOAA jet cruised past were a result of this process, in which air over the warm El Nino waters picks up heat and moisture and rises tens of thousands of feet. When the air reaches high altitudes — about the flight level of the Gulfstream — the moisture condenses into droplets, releasing energy in the form of heat and creating winds that flow outward. Scientists know that the energy released can induce a kind of ripple in a jet stream, a wave that as it travels along can affect weather in disparate regions around the world. And they know that the winds that are generated can add a kick to a jet stream, strengthening it.

That's a major reason California and much of the southern United States tend to be wetter in an El Nino; the winds from convection strengthen the jet stream enough that it reaches California and beyond. But to study convection during an El Nino, data must be collected from the atmosphere as well as the sea surface. That's a daunting task, because the convection occurs in one of the most remote areas of the planet. As a result, there has been little actual data on convection during El Nino events, Randall said, and most models, including NOAA's own, have had to make what amount to educated guesses about the details of the process. "Our strong suspicion is that our models have major errors in reproducing some of these responses," he said.

"The only way we can tell is by going out and doing observations." When forecasters last year began to predict a strong El Nino, the NOAA scientists saw an opportunity and started making plans for a rapid-response programme of research. Randall estimated that it would normally take two or three years to put together a programme they assembled in about six months. In a way, he said, they were helped by the developing El Nino, which suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic last fall.

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