News

IndianExpress: The World Ayurveda Congress Expo is offering visitors a glimpse of everything one needs to know about ayurveda. With its over 170 stalls drawing 35,000 visitors in just two days, the Expo proves it has a lot to offer.

Apart from the Home Pavilion, which showcases the evolution of Ayurveda, the Expo has information about the medicinal value of condiments and spices found in the kitchen to the latest research on treatments for illnesses like cancer and heart diseases.

Yoga demonstrations, free clinics for stress management and diabetes and beauty treatments offered by students and faculty of the Hadapsar Ayurveda College, Akurdi Ayurveda College and Bharatiya Vidyapeeth are other attractions.

IndianExpress: With HIV counselling assuming increased importance, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) with support from WHO, UNICEF and CDC, Atlanta have developed HIV counselling training modules (2006) aimed precisely at allaying fears and doubts about the virus. From dealing with queries like ‘How do I react if my 20 year old son has HIV’, ‘Can I have sex even if I have HIV,’ to ‘The virus has invaded my body since three years. But I feel fine. What should I eat to keep fit..’ counsellors sure have their hands full in helping people cope with HIV.
 
And training them to help the HIV positive lot are health officials at the Maharashtra Institute of Mental Health (MIMH) who flagged off the fifth batch for counsellors on Monday at the Sassoon Hospital. Says Dr Alka Pawar, Director, MIMH, “The State AIDS Control Society has decided to train 600 counsellors this year to work at rural and district hospitals

IndianExpress: US-based Principal Financial Group, a leading global financial services organisation on Monday launched their new Indian transaction facility, Global Services Private Ltd in Cybercity Magarpatta.

With an investment of $ 6 million, the transaction processing facility will provide IT application development, express processing for retirement and investors services (RIS) business, efficient data entry of standardised claim forms, with the ability to add in non-standard claim forms and other forms used in health insurance and IT application development, Principal Financial Group chairman and CEO Barry Griswell said. At present all these things were outsourced to third party vendors in US and outside US.

BetaNews: Microsoft on Monday took the wraps off Virtual Earth 3D, a new version of the company’s mapping application that enables users to “fly” through three-dimensional models of cities from directly within their Web browser - complete with virtual billboards.

The idea is that users can type a query into Windows Live Search and click on the “maps” tab to bring up results in a local context, with the ability to view two-dimensional aerial and bird’s-eye imagery, or the new 3D models offered by Virtual Earth.

The service is poised to compete with Google Earth, a standalone application that complements the search giant’s online mapping service. But Microsoft says its offering takes the concept to another level, by bringing the virtual world closer to the physical world

TechTree: As part of its effort towards building an operator-neutral world mobile community, Reliance Communications recently launched Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Interoperability for its subscribers.

With this launch, Reliance mobile customers will be able to share MMS pictures, videos, and ring tones with subscribers of global telecom majors including China Mobile, China Unicom, Digi-Malaysia, Telstra Australia, MTNL, amongst others.

Commenting on the launch, Mahesh Prasad, president application services group, Reliance Communications, said, “Reliance has been at the forefront to introduce innovative services that have redefined mobile telephony, and the way millions of customers use mobile phones”

BetaNews: Microsoft on Monday said it had released the Office 2007 code to manufacturing, concluding the largest beta program for the productivity suite in its history. The company is still on track to release the new Office to businesses November 30, with general availability in early 2007.

In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, Office 2007 RTM includes several updates, including a SMS text messaging application, localization, and multi-language support

TechTree: As a prequel to Christmas, Samsung Electronics has launched its “Mini MP3 Phone” aka the SGH-X830, meant for those who prefer portability along with a unique design.

At 84×30x19.9mm dimensions and 75 grams weight, the main feature of this phone is its unique swing-open form factor. When closed, the phone becomes a MP3 player displaying the playlist, song information, and equalizer settings; whereas when opened, the phone shoots to double its length, exposes its keypad, to become just that - a great mobile phone!

The SGH-X830 features click wheel navigation for hassle-free control of music functions; built-in 1GB memory for storage of up to 250 songs; podcasting function for download of audio files; USB 2.0 connection for handling of large data volumes.