Jit's Blog

Much of the world’s electronic waste is being shipped to China for recycling and the cottage industry that has sprung up there to recover usable materials from computers, cell phones, televisions and other goods may be creating significant health and environmental hazards.

Scientists from China and the United States have identified numerous toxic elements in the emissions from an e-waste recycling workshop in southern China, which uses low-tech methods to separate reusable electronic components from the circuit boards. It is not an isolated case, the scientists point out; such methods are used all over China.

Results of their study have been published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

“The most immediate problem is the health of the workers and the people who live in the city,” said Bernd R. T. Simoneit, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study. “But this may also be contributing to global contamination. For example, previous studies have found carcinogens in wind-carried dust from Asia.”

Simoneit is a widely published scientist who has been involved in numerous studies identifying chemical “signatures” for emissions, including coal smoke, biomass burning, petroleum-based fuels and even the burning of municipal refuse.

By using mass spectrometers and other sophisticated instrumentation, the researchers can pinpoint the contributions of specific emissions to the atmosphere. Their work in China was conducted in Shantou City, a town of 150,000 people located in southern China’s Guangdong Province.

They collected samples during four working days, when workers were removing the electronic components by heating the circuit boards over grills on stoves burning coal briquettes. The workshop had 24 stoves along three walls, and an estimated five tons of circuit boards stacked along the fourth wall for processing. Workers would use the grills to melt the solder, and then remove reusable portions of the circuitry.

The research team included five Chinese scientists and Simoneit, who has dual appointments in OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Chemistry. The researchers found that through this “roasting process,” numerous organic chemicals, heavy metals, flame retardants and persistent organic pollutants (or POPs) were emitted into the air via the smoke. The chemical signature created by this process of roasting or toasting circuit boards “is unmistakable.”

“The next step is to see to what extent this is harming the environment and creating a health hazard for both the workers, and people living in the path of the emissions — either through inhalation, or exposure to the skin,” Simoneit said. “Some of these chemical compounds may be carcinogens; others may be just as harmful because they can act as ‘environmental disruptors’ and may affect body processes from reproduction to endocrine function.”

The Chinese authors of the study are affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and include lead author Xinhui Bi, with ZhenZhen Wang, Xinming Wang, Guoying Sheng and Jiamo Fu.

Simoneit also is working with scientists in India to identify chemical signatures from the burning of wire and other materials, which is done to recycle copper and other minerals. And he is working in Saudi Arabia on a different problem — helping develop “green chemistry” methods for recycling that country’s massive urban waste to create methane.

Diamond could be the next key component in making computers, as scientists in California are working on diamond-based computers. This new set of computers would store information millions of times more than the existing silicon-based systems and processes that information dozens of times faster, according to the scientists. Commercially available technology has been used by the researchers in order to pattern large sheets of diamonds with tiny, nitrogen-filled holes. These diamond sheets, according to scientists, could be the basis for a supercomputer.

Nitrogen has been in diamonds for as long as there have been diamonds; it’s why some diamonds have a yellow hue. For years scientists have used these natural, nitrogen-infused diamonds to study various aspects of quantum mechanics.

“We’ve used well-known techniques to create atomic-size defects in otherwise perfect diamonds,” Discovery News quoted David Awschalom, a scientist at the University of California.

Though the process of using the diamond-based computing has not been determined yet, there is a possibility that applications could range from designing more efficient silicon-based computers to drug development and cryptography.

U.S. and European companies saved a whopping $25 to $30 billion in 2009 alone on account of their outsourcing work to Indian companies. U.S.-based customers are seen to have saved $14-19 billion and European ones $9-12 billion, reports The Times of India.

According to a recently concluded study by Nasscom in association with research firm Evalueserve, the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT & BPO) sector accounts for 6 percent of the country’s GDP, a quantum jump from 1.2 percent just a decade ago. The study estimates that by 2020, the sector will account for 10 percent of the country’s GDP and 14 percent of the total services sector revenues.

Nasscom president Som Mittal said that the industry has contributed significantly to the development of the American and European economies. Amidst allegations that outsourcing has increased unemployment in U.S., the study reveals that the off-shoring has created over 250,000 direct and indirect jobs across the U.S. during 2004-2007. In 2007, $2.75 billion was contributed by Indian firms to the U.S. economy in the form of taxes and administrative expenses incurred by their onsite offices.

The IT-BPO sector have contributed to 10 percent of the country’s service sector revenues, its unique “service-led” export oriented model contributed 9 percent of the country’s incremental GDP. The per capita GDP contribution of IT-BPO employees is 80 times that of agriculture. The industry grew twice as fast as the total Indian exports over the past decade and contributed 14 percent of the country’s total exports.

It is a common tendency amongst employees to relax and sit back when their bosses aren’t around. It is the perfect working situation one could ask for. No one to question you for coming in late or reprimand for taking so many coffee/cigarette breaks. You can do work at your own pace.

However, we seldom remain that responsible when we are not watched over. That after all is basic human psychology. But being responsible when you are not watched over is what counts the most and can save you from many unwanted situations.

You can fall trap into the office grapevine and backbiting leading others to form wrong impressions about you. It’s also very easy for this impression to circulate back to your boss at some point; and by then, it’s too late to correct it.

So here are some tips to handle yourself when your boss is not around:

• Be disciplined and make sure you don’t fall into a comfort zone.
• Put everything on mail, so your ‘sent items folder’ can be your instant back up for each of your actions.
• Provide solutions instead of just citing your problems. You will be appreciated more when you take charge of actions rather than just surfacing with problems.
• Talk to your boss as often as possible. It is necessary for him/her to be updated and intimated of your views.
• Summarize your day so that your boss is aware of the work you did in the day.
• Build good rapport with others and try to win them over.
• Finally if all else fails, have a backup plan ready! Being prepared for the worst hurts nobody.

Astronomers have discovered what they claim is a vast solar system of seven planets, orbiting a sun-like star, 127 light years away from Earth.

An international team has confirmed the presence of the five planets and have tantalising evidence of two more in the planetary system which is believed to be the largest ever detected beyond the sun.

The distance of the planets from their parent star follow a regular pattern, similar to that seen in our own solar system, say the astronomers.

“We have found what is most likely the system with the most planets yet discovered. This remarkable discovery also highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet research: the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets. Studies of planetary motions in the new system reveal complex gravitational interactions between the planets and give us insights into the long-term evolution of the system,” said Dr Christophe Lovis, who led the European Southern Observatory scientists, was quoted by The Daily Telegraph.

The parent star, known as HD 10180, lies in the southern constellation of Hydrus 127 light years away. The astronomers patiently studied it for six years using a planet-finding instrument called the HARPS spectrograph, attached to ESO’s 3.6 metre telescope at La Silla, Chile.

From 190 individual HARPS measurements, they were able to detect tiny wobbles in the star’s motion caused by the gravitational tugs of its planets.

The five strongest signals corresponded to planets with Neptune-like masses, between 13 and 25 times that of the Earth. These planets, with orbit periods ranging from six to 600 days, are separated from their star at 0.06 to 1.4 times the distance between the Earth and sun.

Dr Lovis added: “We also have good reasons to believe that two other planets are present. One would be a Saturn-like planet (with a minimum mass of 65 Earth masses) orbiting in 2,200 days. The other would be the least massive exoplanet ever discovered, with a mass of about 1.4 times that of Earth. It is very close to its host star, at just 2 per cent of the Earth-sun distance. One ‘year’ on this planet would last only 1.18 Earth days. The planet would be rocky, like the Earth, but probably far too hot to sustain life. With at least five Neptune-sized planets circling inside an orbit equivalent to that of Mars, the HD 10180 system has a more populated inner region than our solar system”.

So far astronomers have found 15 systems containing at least three planets. The last record holder was 55 Cancri, which has a total of five planets including two gas giants.  The findings have been submitted for publication to the “Astronomy and Astrophysics” journal.

TVS Gold Bharat Keyboard

TVS Electronics has launched a new keyboard, the TVS Gold Bharat Keyboard, with the new Indian Rupee symbol on it. TVS-E has now become the first and only Indian company to incorporate the new Indian Rupee symbol on its keyboard, which is priced at Rs. 1,495.

The keyboard has the dimensions of 490(L) x180(W) x20(H) mm and supports USB and PS2 for connectivity. The long life mechanical switch supports up to 50 million keystrokes and is compatible with Windows and Linux. TVS claims that the keyboard is highly reliable as it has a 200,000 hours mean time between failures. The TVS Gold Bilingual keyboards support Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Assamese etc.

S. S. Raman, Managing Director, TVS Electronics said on the launch of the keyboard, “We are proud to depict the Indian Rupee symbol in our keyboard and we are the first and only Indian manufacturer to do so. As the core Indian company, we believe in “Taking IT to the heart of India” and this is our humble dedication to the nation this independence day. We are also facilitating faster and comprehensive rollout across all the products.”

iT717 - Dual SIM, Touch Phone

Lemon Mobile has unveiled its latest touchscreen phone, the iT717, for the Indian market. The iT717 is a dual SIM (GSM+GSM) phone and is available at a price of Rs. 4,499.

The iT717 has dimensions of 101.4 x 49.5 x 15.5mm and weighs 100 gram. It comes with an internal memory of 20MB which can be expanded up to 8GB. The phone is loaded with a 3.2 MP camera and has integrated music player and FM Radio.

The connectivity options of the phone include Bluetooth, USB, and WAP and GPRS for internet. Packed with an 1100 mAh battery, the phone offers a talk time of up to 5 hours and standby time of up to 8 days. It comes with a few integrated softwares like Opera Mini, and Nimbuzz Instant messenger.

August 26, 1910 to....

…no she did not die. She still lives on in our hearts

A meteor discovered in the Saharan desert has indicated that the age of our solar system is much older than previously thought.

Analyses of the meteorite indicate that the solar system is at least 0.3-1.9 million years older than some previous studies projected – making it 4.568 billion years old. The small difference means that the gas and dust that gave rise to the solar System should have around double the amount of a certain iron isotope, iron-60, than previously suggested.

“This suggests that one or more supernovae happened before the Sun’s formation, explaining all these elements and their respective abundances,” Nature quoted Audrey Bouvier from the University of Arizona in Tempe, as saying. The analysis involves comparing the ratio between two isotopes of lead (Pb), lead-207 and lead-206.

The iron abundances discovered in meteorites bolsters the case that our solar system grew up surrounded by giant, heavy stars and was shaped by their activities. Before the solar system existed, massive stars lived within a cloud of gas and dust. These stars emitted huge amounts of ultraviolet light, whose photons exert a pressure that pushed outward in a sphere, carving out a cavity from the nebular gas and dust.

As this cavity expanded, its edge squeezed together the surrounding debris – increasing its density and mass, which in turn attracted more particles because of an increased gravitational pull. This led to a snowball effect of accumulation, creating protostar. The protostar lived within its own bubble of gas and dust, creating an evaporating gaseous globule or EGG. When the massive stars exploded as supernovae, they sent an element-rich rain to rapidly mix with the materials inside the EGG. After millions of years, our Solar System coalesced from the rocky grains and asteroids now saturated with supernovae iron.

“This research points to the fact that there are more materials out there to study, which means there are more secrets to uncover,” said planetary scientist David Kring.

Many companies trip at the innovation hurdle when they become enamored with ideas. Ideas are far more glamorous compared to the actual execution. They are safe and don’t create conflict. That’s why so many great ideas remain just that – a great idea. Until something is just a germ of an idea, it holds potential and promise to unleash change in the world – and your business. And the trouble begins when you start acting upon that idea, says Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business and founding director of Tuck’s Center for Global Leadership.

Why ideas – specifically innovative initiatives – fail has been at the heart of Govindarajan’s research for almost a decade now. Companies are so enamored in their quest to find that one big breakthrough idea that they ignore the far more crucial part the execution. The boring, mundane, repetitive, everyday work that’s critical for ideas to work.

The core of a business is focused on efficiency, innovation by definition is an experiment, so there are bound to be clashes. But some firms have made successful transitions too. “A lot of companies mistakenly assume that execution will not be a problem with them because they run their core businesses successfully,” he says. That’s hurdle number one because excelling at the core business doesn’t necessarily translate into success at a new venture. And internal conflicts arising out of trying to do something dramatically different add to the impediments that make sure ideas remain just ideas.

Having spent the past decade researching innovation within established organizations along with Professor Chris Trimble, a colleague at Tuck School, the duo put out their first set of findings in 2005 in Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators – from Idea to Execution. “Ten Rules was aimed at people who were undertaking ‘high risk-high reward’ innovations like the Tata Nano,” Govindrajan says.
But after reading the thought provoking book, the feedback that the duo received from the readers was that the framework discussed in the book wasn’t practical for the kind of innovations they were undertaking.

Most people aren’t going to do a high-risk innovation everyday. But they are doing other smaller innovations nonetheless. The Other Side of innovation tries to provide a set of generalized principles that could apply to absolutely any kind of innovation. Using Infosys as an example of how to successfully carry out such a transition, Govindarajan rewinds to 2000 when the software major decided that its core business of providing software solutions to global firms was doing well and it was time to look elsewhere. The move into the consulting business was a fundamental innovation, moving from solving technical problems to business problems, from interfacing with the CIO to the CEO.