Nizamabad (Andhra Pradesh), Jan.30 (ANI): Believe it or not, a man in Nizamabad  has developed immunity to electric current and can let it pass through his body that acts as a conductor when he lights any electric bulb.

An electrician by profession and a resident of Ramannapet in Morthad Mandal of Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh, Bosa Kashiram leaves onlookers flabbergasted as he performs dare-devils holding naked electricity wires. 

Bosaram, who is in his late 40s, claims to have mastered the art of bearing high voltage current 30 years ago.

"I am practicing this practice since 1976. However, it was only in 1980 that I tried touching livewire on barefoot, without slippers.  It is very difficult work and one should not try it. If one comes in contact with current and one is not wearing chappals, it could be fatal," said Bosaram Kashiram.

Kashiram wants his name to be endorsed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having been able to let electricity pass through his body for over two decades.

He says: "I can bear 230 volts of current without wearing chappals (slippers) and let it pass through my hands. I have got the blessing from my mother, father and Goddess Sarawati to endure all these. That's how I have learnt this."

Local doctors are amazed at such a phenomenon. They believe that it requires something extraordinary developed inside a person's body to withstand waves of electric currents.

"Any human being who gets electric shock will be affected as current waves will leave an impact on the heart. It is really surprising to see that this man (Bosa Kashiram) is not affected even when he does not wear slippers. There must be inside his body," said Dr. Ashok, a doctor at Nizamabad.

Kashiram today cannot remain "Khush" (happy) without his daily dose of electricity shocks.(ANI)
--MP

New Delhi, Jan 17 (ANI/Business Wire India): Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), a leading infrastructure construction and development company has bagged a contract worth 3.75 billion rupees from Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) to construct the country's first strategic crude oil storage at Vishakhapattanam.

This order is for construction of underground rock caverns for storage of crude oil. It includes, detailed engineering and design, underground excavation, access tunnels, water curtain galleries, main storage cavern, shafts and associated underground civil works including geological mapping. The project will be completed in 36 months.

This project is part of the three strategic crude oil storages with a total capacity of 5 million tons planned by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd, a subsidiary of Oil Industry Development Board. The first of these oil storages of 1.33 million tonnes capacity is planned in Vishakhapattanam.

With technical expertise in underground works in geologically complex terrain, HCC has built India's first major underground power house in the Himalayan region for the Yamuna Hydel Project in Uttar Pradesh in 1975.

HCC is also accredited with building the longest 11.3 km-long Head Race Tunnel (HRT) for Nathpa Jhakri hydroelectric power project. (ANI)
--MP

Hyderabad, Jan 16 (ANI): The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has threatened the UPA Government of mass resignations of its public representatives in case the latter failed to initiate the process of creation of separate Telangana State by March 6.

TRS founder president and MP K Chandrasekar Rao said, "We want Prime Minister to officially announce the Congress party's stand on Telangana and also initiate the process for carving out the separate state."

TRS is a sub-regional party, which has four MPs, 10 MLAs and three MLCs. It had pulled out of the UPA government in September 2006.

"All the public representatives of the party would resign en masse on March 6 if the Centre failed to respond on the issue," he said. (ANI)
--MP

Andhra Pradesh (Vijaywada), Jan 3 (ANI): At least six people were reportedly killed and 20 others were injured in a temple stampede at Vijayawada on Thursday morning.

The incident occurred when a large number of devotees thronged the Durga ghat near Kanakadurga Temple to perform prayers on the occasion of 'Bhavani Deeksha'.

According to police, devotees pushed each other to move ahead, which resulted in a stampede, in which five women and a child was killed.

The injured have been admitted to the local government hospital. The condition of one injured woman is stated to be serious.

Vijayawada MP L Rajgopal and MLA Devineni Rajasekhar met the injured in the hospital.

Blaming the temple authorities for the incident, State Endowment Minister J Ratnakar Rao has ordered a departmental inquiry.

The government has announced one lakh rupees ex-gratia payment for the kin of those killed and 10,000 for each of the injured. (ANI)

Labels: Religion

Hyderabad, Jan 3 (ANI): Underworld don Abu Salem will appear before a Hyderabad court today in connection with a fake passport case.

Salem, who was appeared before a special judge on December 20, was remanded to judicial custody till January 3.

As the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge was on leave, Salem was produced before another special judge to facilitate the speedy trial of a case involving embezzlement of scholarship grants from the Andhra Pradesh social welfare department.

The CBI had filed an application before the special judge, seeking his custody in the fake passport case.

Salem has been accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts as well as killing of Bollywood producer Gulshan Kumar, Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala's secretary, a builder and more than 50 other cases.

In March 2006, a special TADA court filed eight charges against him and his alleged associate Riaz Siddiqui for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Abu Salem is currently in high-security Arthur Jail in Mumbai. (ANI)

Visakhapatnam, Jan 3 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the 95th Indian Science Congress at the Andhra University here today.

The theme of the five-day event is ''Knowledge-Based Society Using Environmentally Sustainable Science and Technology''.

The Conference will be attended by around 700 distinguished delegates from abroad including 14 American students with over 8000 science delegates from within and across the globe.

They included Noble laureates Robert Curl Jr. of Houston, Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University, California and Paul Nurse, who is president of the Rockfeller Foundation.

The Prime Minister will also present awards to distinguished scientists for their academic excellence.

Dr. Singh will present the presidential gold medal of the Indian Science Congress to a noted social scientist and Chairman of the Mekaster group Virender M. Trehan.

Trehan was responsible for introducing the digital switching system in India, which marked an important milestone in the Indian telecom industry.

This year, the event will have for the first time a national virtual Congress on 'Mahila Kisan'.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will provide tele-link to establish contact with farmers in a remote area of Adilabad, some desert areas of Rajasthan and other states for scientists to directly interact with women farmers.

The M.S. Swaminathan Foundation on video-conference mode will coordinate the programme and the ISRO is installing giant screens to telecast the proceedings.

The 94th Indian Science Congress was held at Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu on the theme ''Planet Earth''. (ANI)

Labels: Education

Visakhapatnam, Jan.1 (ANI): The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory in Visakhapatnam will set up a new environmental test centre soon.

This was disclosed by Dr. V. Bhujanga Rao, Director, NSTL.

The foundation stone for the centre will be laid at NSTL on January 2 by M Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Ministeri and Director General, DRDO.

This centre will house several state of the art test facilities for carrying out stringent simulated environmental tests of various underwater weapons and naval products being developed at this Laboratory. The facility will be built with a plinth area of 7200 sq.mtrs. The test facilities range from mechanical to climatic and also combination of both.

These tests will ensure that developed products will meet total quality requirements and international defence standards. Some of the test facilities that are being set up are Vibration, Mechanical Shock, Bump, Drop, Low Temperature, High Temperature, Thermal Shock, Humidity, Mould growth, Salt spray, Dusting, EMI/EMC and Highly Accellerated Life Tests and Highly accelerated stress Screening.

The NSTL has been nurturing the technologies of shock, noise and vibration for years. Advanced facilities such as under water shock simulation tank, Vibration shakers and acoustic test centers have already been set up. Several weapons, related systems and warship technology products have been handed over to Indian Navy in the recent past.

For such developments, environmental testing plays a vital role. NSTL performed several shock, vibration and temperature tests with limited facilities that were set up. However, as the technology is advancing rapidly, to match the stringent quality requirements, setting up different types of more advanced, and high rated environmental test facilities has become a necessity.

The test facilities are also useful for various indigenous industries developing products for defence. By setting up these test facilities, NSTL will be in a position to evaluate weapons and products under development in simulated marine environmental conditions as well as onboard dynamic conditions. The products thus developed would function even in adverse conditions while delivering optimum performance.

Once these facilities become operational and the Products are evaluated at NSTL, our Weapon Systems, Warship Technology Products will be on par with any international standards. (ANI)

Labels: Science