Indian firm to control London traffic

London – Times News Network - The British capital is beginning the countdown to its ambitious congestion charging scheme, the largest and most sophisticated traffic control system in the world.  Mumbai-based Mustek is the company that created the software brain that will make or break London mayor Ken Livingstone’s 200-million-pound plan.  If successful, it could be copied by 43 other cities and many traffic-clogged capitals around the world.  Sudhakar Ram, President of Mastek, told TNN the 18-month project was the most “complex we have ever done”.  A spy ring of 700 cameras around the city are supposed to read accurately the licence plates of vehicles driving into the congestion charge zone, after which it sends lists of defaulting number plates to Britrain’s Driving Vehicles Licensing Authority (DVLA) in Swansea, Wales.  The DVLA, after consulting records, sends out penalty notices, expected to fetch hefty 30 million pounds in fines.

Hindustan Times – Feb 12, 2003.

Terrorism helps Mohindra get fresh business in defence

Kolkata – Feb.18 – Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has entered an agreement with Lockheed Martin Information Systems of UK to jointly develop simulators for the defence sector through its defence division Mahaindra Defence Systems.  With this, the company entered the value added service sector beyond just supplying vehicles.  “The synergy resulting from alliance between M&M and LMUKIS in the areas of simulations and VR based training systems, is expected to offer state of the art simulators for the armed forces, particularly the army,” said Mahindra defence system head, Brig. K.A. Hai.

The Asian Age – Feb. 19, 2003

Towering Over Terror

Proposal to replace the fallen 1350-ft high twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre – the authorities opt for either of the two finalists who were shortlisted last week to redevelop Ground Zero – each model surpasses Malaysia’s 1.483-ft high Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest in the world.  The plan of Berlin architect Daniel Libeskind calls for glassy, angular buildings clustered around the foundations of the fallen twin towers.  The other, proposed by an international team of design firms known as THINK, evokes the original Trade Center with twin towers of latticework.  Neither finalist has proposed office space at the top of the buildings. 

INDIA TODAY – Feb.24, 2003.

Crime control through diet

The first clinic in Britain to tackle juvenile delinquency with nutritional medicine and psychotherapy will open this week.  The Cactus Clinic, at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, sprang from the work of late Professor Steve Baldwin, who ran an Edinburgh-based charity for children with behavioural disorders.  Last year a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggested that reoffending by juvenile delinquents could be slashed by a quarter if they improved their diets.  Some 230 inmates at the young offenders’ institution in Aylesbury, Bucks, were assessed over 18 months by researchers from Oxford University.  Half were given pills containing vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, and the other half placebo capsules in a double-blind, randomized trial.  The first group committed 25 percent fewer offences than the second.  The greatest reduction was for serious offences including violence, where there was a fall of nearly 40 per cent.  There was no decline in reoffending for those taking dummy compounds.  In many cases, however, it was difficult to pinpoint the offending food type. 

Hindustan Times – Feb.24, 2003.

Terrorism fears bring chaos to art world

Since 9/11, European institutions have become reluctant to lend their prize works of art to New York museums without new assurances of beefed-up security and increased terrorism insurance.  For places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the cost of such insurance has escalated so much that it threatens to break budgets just as these institutions are struggling with dwindling sponsorships.  Collectors have fears.  Some are insisting that museums obtain extra insurance before they agree to lend their multi-million-dollar paintings.  Others have simply refused to lend their art, saying the coverage offered by museums is just not good enough. 

Hindustan Times – Feb.26, 2003.

Big Trouble In Belgium

If Washington thought France was its biggest European pain in the ‘derriere’, it may have to think again. Tiny Belgium could eventually pose an even bigger threat.  Just when the United States thought it had aided future war-crimes prosecutions by shunning the International Criminal Courts, Brussels has opened its legal system to anyone who wants to sue world leaders – regardless of where or when the crimes were committed.  Right now Israel is in the dock, after Belgium’s highest court ruled last week that prosecutors can pursue war-crimes charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after he leaves office. The ruling reversed a lower court decision that had limited Belgium to prosecuting war crimes only if the accused was physically on Belgian soil.  Washington needn’t worry just yet.  The law’s supporters say they are not looking to building an empire with the gavel.  “We just want to be a small drop in the sway of improving how crimes against humanity and genocide are dealt with,” says Belgian Sen. Alain Destexhe.  “Nobody in Belgium intends to be justice of the world.”  Whether America can credibly say  the same is another matter.

Newsweek – Feb.24, 2003.