Is El Nino causing ice to melt at the South Pole?

Scientists at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences believe that the climate phenomenon El Nino may be causing ice at the South Pole to melt.

The year-by-year change in the ice mass covering Antarctica are mainly attributable to fluctuations in precipitation, which are controlled significantly by El Nino.

For some glaciers the ice thickness is decreasing rapidly, and glaciers and ice streams are notably retreating back into the interior. With 0.3 millimetres per year, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Amundsen Sector of West Antarctica are currently contributing considerably to the global sea level change of about three millimetres per year.

The team examined the GFZ data of the German-American satellite mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment).

"With the GRACE time series, it was for the first time possible to observe how the large-scale ice mass varies in the two areas due to fluctuations in rainfall from year to year," said the GFZ scientists Ingo Sasgen.

"El Nino years with their warm phase lead to reduced rainfall and mass loss in the Antarctic Peninsula, and an increase in the Amundsen Sectorfield, respectively," explained Professor Maik Thomas, head of the section "Earth System Modelling" at the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

In principle, the study could show that the continuous gravity data of the GRACE satellite mission contain another important medium-term climate signal.

Pure Vegetarians at risk of brain disorders

Vegetarians are at an early risk of mental disorder such as dementia and alzheimer's as they develop a Vitamin B-12 deficiency, doctors said here Wednesday.

Fish, shellfish, meat, eggs, milk and their by-products are some of the biggest sources of Vitamin B-12.

'Deficiency of Vitamin B-12 can reduce working capacity of the brain and result in progressive memory loss that has an impact on day to day activities,' Praveen Gupta, consultant neurologist at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, told IANS.

'Since majority of the Indian population is vegetarian and milk consumption has reduced considerably, they are more prone to early onset of dementia. Those who suffer from lactose intolerance are also at risk,' Gupta explained.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), India had nearly 3.5 million alzheimer's and dementia patients in the year 2000.

'We see at least 30 patients under the age of 40 every month -- suffering from memory loss and other manifestations due to deficiency of vitamin B-12. Once diagnosed, these patients respond very well to vitamin B-12 supplements,' Gupta added.

Forgetting day to day activities, names of familiar people, frequent irritability, panic episodes and depression are some of the common symptoms of the mental disorder.

The disease can be diagnosed with a simple blood test, say doctors.

WHO estimates that there are currently about 18 million people worldwide suffering from Alzheimer's. The figure is projected to nearly double by 2025.

AMU student union restored, stir still on

Bowing to the students’ demand, the Aligarh Muslim University on Tuesday decided to restore the students’ union on the campus and announced that the election process will begin on January 26, 2011. The students, however, decided to continue with their agitation insisting the elections be held next month.

AMU spokesperson Dr Rahat Abrar said a committee, formed under retired IAS officer Moosa Raza, will submit a report outlining the details of the elections.

Student leader Mushtaq Ahmed said, “The university, in the past, finished the election process by October 17, the birthday of AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. We will continue our agitation until the university agrees to hold the elections next month.”

Over 150 students have been staging a dharna on the campus since October 4 to press for restoration of the students’ union.

Demand Slows For H1B Visas

Vipul Sharma, a software engineer and U.S. patent holder, works at the leading edge of computer system innovation. He's also subject to the bureaucratic pitfalls of U.S. immigration law.

Sharma, 30, uses artificial intelligence tools and applies them to Internet user data to try to predict patterns in online behavior. It's a new field called machine learning, one he works at in his job at San Francisco events startup Eventbrite.

Yet despite his qualifications as an engineer and scientist, the University of Houston graduate was almost shut out of the U.S. job market.

Several years ago, while in his native India for a relative's wedding, he was informed by an immigration attorney that the U.S. had changed its rules for Indians holding a certain type of guest work visa known as an H1B.

Vipul, who was working at another startup at the time, was advised to travel to a third country before attempting to get back into the U.S., to avoid a lengthy delay that could have cost him his job. At the same time, his friends and fellow engineers urged him to stay and work in India.

"I thought about going back, about staying back," Sharma said.

But he believed the chance to work in the U.S. was worth the hassle.

"What we're doing today is at least a year ahead of what they're doing in India," he said. "The business culture here promotes the most innovation."

Whether the U.S. can maintain its status as the mecca for foreign innovators, however, is growing more uncertain.

The Talent Gap

Many high-level engineering jobs here go unfilled for months as companies seek out workers with rare skill sets, many of whom are not American. Meanwhile, a growing number of people -- foreigners qualified to do those very jobs -- are choosing to return to their native country and work rather than subject themselves to U.S. immigration rules, according to those who represent, advocate for and try to hire H1B visa holders. That's true even for those who have been educated at U.S. universities.

"That's the shame of it, that we train them here and then make it extremely difficult to work here," said Peter Cleveland, vice president for legal and corporate affairs at chip giant Intel Corp., who lobbies for immigration reform.

Intel, Cisco Systems Inc. and other large technology companies have been lobbying Washington hard for years to raise the annual quota limits for workers applying for H1B visas.

Approximately 6% of Intel's U.S. work force, or about 2,900 employees, either hold H1B work visas or are former H1B holders who have since earned a green card, Cleveland said.

But that represents just a fraction of the number of foreign engineers that the company could hire if the process to bring them to the U.S. wasn't so "archaic and onerous," Cleveland said.

The Process

The minimum wait time for H1B visas -- which have to be renewed after three, for a maximum term of six years in total -- is three to five months, and is often much longer. Acquiring a green card can take anywhere from five to 10 years.

"We want to hire U.S. workers first, but we need to hire the best workers" to remain competitive, he said. Yet the U.S. is "discouraging them from coming here."

H1B visa application trends suggest that could be true.

The maximum number of new workers who can enter the U.S. in any given year under the H1B program is currently capped at 65,000.

Twenty thousand of those are set aside for workers who have earned a master's degree or higher from a U.S. university. Those who work in higher eduction, for non-profit organizations and in government research are exempt from such restrictions, according to Charles Small, an immigration attorney in San Francisco who specializes in H1B application processing.

Employers who want to hire such skilled foreign workers typically apply to sponsor one on April 1, six months before the beginning of the government's fiscal year, Small said. Newly approved H1B holders usually can't start work until Oct. 1.

Is the U.S. Losing Its Edge?

For years, the annual quota would be reached soon after potential employers began submitting their applications to the appropriate U.S. agencies, most importantly the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service.

In 2006, for example, the so-called "cap" was reached in July, 2006, Small said. In 2007 and 2008, the quota was hit within one day and eight days of April 1, respectively.

"Anyone who didn't have their application in order and filed on April 1 had no chance" of getting into the U.S. that fiscal year, he said.

Yet in 2009, the quota wasn't filled until December. For this year, the quota has yet to be reached. The U.S. Customs and Immigration service had received 42,800 H1B petitions as of Oct. 15, according to Small, who has access to the U.S. data on behalf of his clients.

Some of that is due to the U.S. economic slowdown, Small said. Yet he, Vipul Sharma and Peter Cleveland say there's more going on.

"The process is frustrating and demoralizing to foreign workers," Intel's Cleveland said. "Eventually, it will become untenable," he said.

The fact that the cap has not been reached until well into the government's fiscal year has taken some of the steam out of the arguments that Cleveland and others have made to lawmakers.

Immigration Reform

It's unlikely that H1B visa reform will happen except within the framework of comprehensive U.S. immigration reform, something which in turn is unlikely until after the mid-term elections.

"Immigration is a difficult, emotional issue," Cleveland said. Until something changes, Intel "won't be deterred by the system" from hiring the people it needs. "If we have to place people overseas, under the Intel umbrella, we will do that."

In the meantime, people like Sharma will have to deal with the system in place.

He took his attorney's advice to go to a third country, and was able to quickly return to the U.S.

Now, several years later, he is helping to build a fast-growing company that is creating scores of high-paying jobs a year. He's also grateful for his chance to be working here.

"I'm one of the lucky few," he said.

British kids log on and learn Math in Punjab

Once a week, year six pupils at Ashmount Primary School in North London settle in front of their computers, put on their headsets and get ready for their math class. A few minutes later, their teachers come online thousands of kilometers away in the Indian state of Punjab. 

Ashmount is one of three state schools in Britain that decided to outsource part of their teaching to India via the Internet. The service -- the first of its kind in Europe -- is offered by BrightSpark Education, a London-based company set up last year. BrightSpark employs and trains 100 teachers in India and puts them in touch with pupils in Britain through an interactive online tutoring program. 

The feedback from pupils, the schools and parents is good so far, and BrightSpark said a dozen more schools, a charity and many more parents were interested in signing up for the lessons. The one-on-one sessions not only cost about half of what personal tutors in Britain charge but are also popular with pupils, who enjoy solving equations online, said Rebecca Stacey, an assistant head teacher at Ashmount.
 
But the service also faces some opposition from teacher representatives who are fearful that it could threaten their jobs at a time when the government is pushing through far-reaching spending cuts. The 3 percent that is to be cut from the budget for educational resources by 2014 might be small compared with cuts in other areas, like welfare and pensions, but money at schools will remain tight.

Online learning is still controversial in Britain. Some teachers said tutors based elsewhere lacked the cultural empathy and understanding of a pupil's social environment that could influence study habits and performance. There is also concern about the qualifications of teachers abroad.
 
At the same time, many parents said they had struggled to find qualified private tutors who were conveniently located and whose fees were affordable. With online learning, they can keep an eye on their children's progress by listening to the lessons, and many said that being taught by someone in India also opened the children to foreign cultures. 

But Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, Britain's largest teachers' union, said he was concerned about the precedent BrightSpark was setting. "This is wrong on so many levels," Mr Keates said. "What next -- do without maths teachers? What about the follow-up lessons for the pupils, and the interaction with teachers?"
 
Tom Hooper, the founder of BrightSpark, said teachers' unions were missing the point. "This is supplementary and in no way replacing teachers," he said. And Ms Stacey was quick to point out that Ashmount was using BrightSpark's program in addition to, and not instead of, its traditional math classes.
 
"For children, it's a novelty that catches their attention for longer and engages them in a different way," Ms Stacey said. "Eleven-year-olds aren't always enthusiastic about math classes, so any way we can make it more fun for them is good." 

BrightSpark tutors in India are math graduates or former math teachers and go through a month of training on the British school curriculum. Pupils in Britain log on to the service via BrightSpark's Web site and interact with their teachers via a video phone and a so-called white board on their computer screen, which can be written on by both parties. Lessons can be booked as long as 24 hours in advance for any day of the week, and all sessions are recorded and can be replayed by the pupil or the pupil's parents. 

For Marie Hanson, who runs the charity Storm in South London, the online teaching tool is helpful in keeping children away from drugs and crime. "The kids love it because they love computers," said Ms Hanson, "and I love it because it helps them with their education while keeping them off the streets."
 
An earlier pilot project for four months with 30 children was successful after parents reported that their children had improved at school, said Ms. Hanson, who plans to seek government funding for more sessions. 

Mr. Hooper, 31, said he had discovered there was a market for online teaching in Britain after he quit his job as investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management and took time off to travel. In Panama, he met several US families who had used online learning to give their children an education that would allow them to return to US schools without problems. 

When he returned to London, Mr Hooper realized that there was a shortage of qualified private tutors in Britain and that some parents spent hours driving their children to and from tutors, sometimes paying £20, or $31, per lesson. BrightSpark is charging £12 per session and pupil. Tutors are being paid £7 an hour, more than double the minimum wage in Punjab. 

"There is a huge thirst for support in the UK," Mr Hooper said. "That, combined with a huge pool of skilled and available academics in India -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the potential." 

Mr Hooper is aware that offering teaching services from India in Britain could be controversial and that there might be concerns about the quality of the teaching, foreign accents and the impersonal nature of the Internet. 

Britain -- like Europe as a whole -- is also less accustomed to outsourcing such services than is the United States, where similar one-on-one online tutoring from India has existed for the last five years, offered by companies like India-based TutorVista, in which the British publishing company Pearson owns a stake. BrightSpark is also unique in selling its product to schools in addition to single pupils. 

Europe's desire to outsource services in general had been lagging behind the United States, said Martyn Hart, chairman of Britain's National Outsourcing Association. "There is social resistance because outsourcing here is always coupled with unemployment," said Mr Hart. 
Mr Hooper said he hoped BrightSpark's product would eventually make outsourced services more popular in Britain and quash concerns among some teachers that it threatens their jobs. 

But there is little doubt that online learning increases competition, at least for some in the education sector. Lola Emetulu, a trained lawyer who now works as an office assistant, said that she used to drive her 11-year-old son, Jesse, to his private tutor every Saturday but that "it just took so much out of your day." She recently signed up to BrightSpark and said she preferred the flexibility. 

Jesse said he preferred it, too. "It's better on the computer," he added. "The teacher doesn't know you that much, so he takes it easier on you.

To probe Rs 90 lakh misuse, AMU spends Rs 43 lakh

 The Aligarh Muslim University has already spent more than Rs 43 lakh on a fact-finding committee that is looking into allegations of financial misappropriation against Vice-Chancellor P K Abdul Azis. That’s almost as much as half the money—Rs 90 lakh—allegedly misappropriated.

The President of India, in her capacity as the Visitor of the AMU, had appointed the two-member committee in February this year. Its Chairman is the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Bashir Ahmed Khan, while former Judge of the Gujarat High Court Justice A N Divecha is the other member.

The committee, initially appointed for a two-month term, has been given an extension till October 31. It began its sixth and final sitting on Saturday in Delhi.

RTI queries filed by a retired faculty ember of the University has revealed that up to September 15, Justice Khan was paid Rs 10.29 lakh while Justice Divecha, Rs 12.91 lakh, as salary and other perks. AMU deputed Ch. Mushrraf Ali, a security supervisor with its Proctor’s Office, with Justice Khan from April 24 to May 3 at his Kashmir residence. On May 25, AMU notified the appointment of a peon and residential attendant with effect from April 1 at Justice Divecha’s Gujarat residence.

Student agitation continues in AMU, Sibal's effigy burnt Read more: Student agitation continues in AMU, Sibal's effigy burnt - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Student-agitation-continues-in-AMU-Sibals-effigy-burnt/articleshow/6804521.cms#ixzz13IP8aqZr

The ongoing student agitation at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for the revival of student union continues unabated here. 

Angry students burnt an effigy of Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal last evening for not responding to respond to their plea. 

They raised slogans against Sibal, accusing him of "protecting the AMU Vice-Chancellor who faces serious charges of financial bungling and is crushing the democratic rights of students to raise their voice against corrupt practices." 

"We fail to understand what message the HRD Minister wishes to send to the youth of the country by his handling of the AMU affairs," spokesman of the agitating students, Mushtaq Ahmad told PTI. 

The ongoing inquiry against the Vice-Chancellor and some senior university officials had been "deliberately put into cold-storage" for more than eighteen months now because some senior HRD officials were determined to put a lid on large scale financial bungling at the AMU, student leaders said. 

Senior administrative officials yesterday persuaded the protestors to allow medical help to a student whose condition deteriorated after going on a hunger strike for the past six days. 

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Waseem Ahmad today met the students asked them to show restraint and not fall prey to the designs of any political party. 

"It would be improper to rush to any conclusion regarding the HRD Minister as he has assured us this morning that he has an open mind on the AMU crisis and will consider all genuine demands of the students," he said.

AMU V-C asks protesting students to focus on development

The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration has termed the ongoing agitation for restoration of students’ union on campus a threat to the healthy functioning of the university.

According to AMU Vice-Chancellor Prof P K Abdul Azis, the ongoing agitation is an attempt to takeover the functioning of the university by force. The university cannot sustain academic excellence in absence of discipline, he said.

On Saturday, V-C appealed the students and the academic staff to allow the university function normally and asked them to cooperate and focus on development initiatives.

More than 150 agitating students have been holding a dharna in front of the V-C’s house since October 4. They blocked the entrance to V-C’s residence in the early hours of Friday. The V-C was moved from his official residence on the campus to a government guesthouse at midnight. However, the students are still on dharna outside V-C’s residence.

AMU Students lay siege, VC flees

The vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University had to flee his house under police protection yesterday after students, who have the support of political parties, locked him inside demanding the revival of the students’ union.

“As many as 150 students had blocked the entrance of the vice-chancellor’s residence yesterday. The VC was under siege and he could not move till police escort came. The students are still there. They are refusing to let anyone go anywhere near the vice-chancellor’s residence,” university spokesperson Rahat Abrar said from Aligarh.

The students, protesting since October 4 on the road outside vice-chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis’s house, locked its gates after he had come home for lunch.

On a relay fast since October 13, the protesters are squatting indefinitely in front of the houses of the vice-chancellor and the registrar on the campus.

Azis, his wife and their household help were escorted out by the police last evening. The district administration has thrown a security ring around Exhibition Guesthouse, around 4km from the campus, where the vice-chancellor and his family have taken shelter. The registrar has also been rescued and has moved to a relative’s house.

The vice-chancellor, who set up a 10-member committee last week to look into the students’ agitation, had said he was not against a union.

“The priority is to have a peaceful, healthy campus. Once the atmosphere is conducive, I will restore the union but not till the criminal elements retreat from the campus,” he said.

Azis had joined AMU in 2007, when campus unrest had killed three students in a month. He dissolved the union, which the university administration accuses of turning the campus into a criminal hub between 2005 and 2007. He has pointed to the Lyngdoh Committee report that leaves it to the vice-chancellor’s discretion whether to have a union or not.

However, almost all political parties are backing the demand for the union’s revival.

“We support the demand of the students as the union symbolises healthy student activity,” said Kokab Hameed, a former Uttar Pradesh minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal Leader as well as a member of the university’s old boys’ association.

Youth Congress leader Abdul Hafiz Gandhi also extended his support to the students but advised them to shun violence.

Aligarh leaders of the Samajwadi Party have openly supported the protest. Student leaders affiliated to the party had dominated the union before it was disbanded.

Azis, who has said he will not let some political leaders hold a university to ransom, told a governing body meeting recently: “The union leaders were involved in criminal activities. They were seen taking money from contractors. So the university now needs a healing touch.”

The protesting students have issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the university administration and threatened to disrupt normal activities if their demands are not met.

“The agitation has been on since October 4 near the vice-chancellor’s residence. Every day the vice-chancellor would go past us but not take notice of us at all. So we decided to lay siege to his house,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a student leader.

Condition of fasting AMU student deteriorates

The condition of one of the students on hunger strike for the past six days outside the AMU Vice Chancellor''s residence to demand revival of the students'' union, deteriorated today, official sources said.

The sources said that the authorities have alerted the Centre of the fragile peace at the campus.

With the student protesters squatting outside the gate of his residence, AMU Vice Chancellor Prof P K Abdul Azis has been confined to a government guest house outside the University campus for more than 48 hours.

The students have been holding protests for more than three weeks now and despite an attempt last night by top district officials, Azis, turned down the students'' demand for reviving the Union, which has been lying defunct for more than four years now.

Spokesman of the agitating students Mushtaq Ahmed told PTI, "We have written several letters to the Union HRD Minister and two letters to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi highlighting that all we are seeking is the restoration of our basic democratic rights.

"Not only has the students'' union been shut down but students'' representation to the two main statutory bodies -- the Academic Council and the University Court -- have also been stopped. It is sad that neither Rahul Gandhi nor the HRD Minister has replied to us." 
Mushtaq said that "despite the fact that not a single incidence of violence has been reported since the agitation began, there appears to be not a single response from the Central Government to the blatant violation of statutes by the VC."

Students' Protest Forces AMU VC to Shift Out of Campus

Agitating students at Aligarh Muslim University continued their sit-in outside the Vice Chancellor's residence, forcing him to shift outside the campus.

Vice Chancellor P K Abdul Azis has not entered his house since last night as the students demanding restoration of the students' union have been squatting in front of the two gates leading to the Vice Chancellor's lodge, thus preventing him from entering the house.

The residents of VM Hall and Habib Hall had yesterday boycotted their afternoon meal and placed food items in huge metal containers in front of the gates of the lodge, where some students are on an indefinite hunger strike since early this month.

The Vice Chancellor has now shifted to the Exhibition grounds government guest house where he spent the night, University officials said.

According to a statement issued by the university, the Vice Chancellor continues to stay at the government guest house.

The students are demanding restoration of their union, which was dissolved in 2007, and the removal of senior University officials whom they blame for rusticating more than 150 students during the past three years.

China unveils its own version of Google Earth

A Chinese government body has released its own online mapping service, designed to compete with Google Earth's popular satellite mapping service, that could spell more trouble for Google's services in the mainland.

Google and China have been at odds since last year, when a serious hacking attack originating from China prompted Google to ultimately withdraw its search service from the mainland.

"Map World" was unveiled by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping on Thursday, and can be accessed via www.tianditu.cn. The home page features an expansive view of the Great Wall of China, capped by clouds in the shape of the continents.

Google had not applied for a Web mapping licence in China, the English-language paper said, but Google's mapping service is accessible from computers on the mainland.

Regulations issued by the bureau in May required companies providing online map and location services to apply for a licence. In order to apply, firms would have to keep map servers storing data within the country.

Google said at the time that it was studying the new rules, which gives China the right to shut down providers that fail to qualify for a licence.

Google's video-sharing site YouTube and photo service Picasa are both blocked in China, and its Google docs application is sometimes difficult to access. Searches originating in China are now directed to its search engine based in Hong Kong.

Google does not keep servers in mainland China.

At least some of Map World's high-resolution images of central Beijing appear to have been taken on Oct 1, 2009, when streets were cleared for the tanks and floats of the National Day Parade, which are visible on the street.

Map World only provides high-altitude images outside China, with the other side of the Chinese-North Korean border a stark white blank once a certain resolution is passed. Other countries also turn up a blank page at close resolution.

Taiwan, which China claims as a renegade province, cannot be viewed at the same resolution as the mainland.

Much mapping in China is still subject to state-secrecy restrictions, creating headaches for mining companies unable to source high-resolution deposit maps, and even for hikers.

Moon's surface contains silver, carbon dioxide: Scientists

The surface of the moon contains not just water, but a rich mix of elements, including silver and carbon dioxide, astronomers said Thursday.

The findings to be published in the journal Science come from an analysis of data from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) experiment that crashed into the moon last year.

Data from the experiment had already shown water is even more abundant on the moon's craters than expected.

Scientists said Thursday they had found light hydrocarbons, sulfur-bearing species, and carbon dioxide in the plume of dust kicked up by the crashing craft.

They have also been able to estimate more thoroughly the amount of water in the crater, which they believe makes up about 5.6 percent of the mass in the crater.

The dramatic experiment crashed the LCROSS spacecraft into the moon, sending a huge plume of dust 10 km upward to gather data about ice that was suspected to be hidden in the perpetually dark lunar craters.

Major telescopes around the world were aimed at the Cabeus crater on the moon's south pole to capture data from the dust plume.

The rocket's impact was designed to replicate that of the large, natural asteroids that slam into the moon several times a month.

The NASA probe targeted a 100-kilometre wide, four-kilometre deep crater and was timed to strike when lighting conditions are ideal for observing the impact. The 585-kg craft created an impact crater about two metres deep.

Indian miracle will help outpace Chinese economy: Economist

 India may have a long way to go before becoming as rich as China but its economy will soon start growing faster, thanks to a young workforce and a brand of capitalism that outweighs its much derided democracy, says The Economist.

'Despite the headlines, India is doing rather well. Its economy is expected to expand by 8.5 percent,' the magazine says in its latest cover story, referring to the bad press the country received ahead of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

'It has a long way to go before it is as rich as China - the Chinese economy is four times bigger - but its growth rate could overtake China's by 2013, if not before,' the magazine says.

'Some economists think India will grow faster than any other large country over the next 25 years. Rapid growth in a country of 1.2 billion people is exciting, to put it mildly,' it adds in the article: 'How India's growth will outpace China's.'

The magazine says horrible toilets, stagnant puddles buzzing with dengue-spreading mosquitoes, collapsing masonry, and lax security and a terrorist attack did not fetch India ahead of the Games, suggesting it may remain a 'second-rate' power.

'Or does it?' the magazine asks, saying the first reason for its conclusion is the benefit Indian economy will derive from its 'demographic dividend' that has powered many of Asia's economic miracles.

'India is now blessed with a young and growing workforce. Its dependency ratio - the proportion of children and old people to working-age adults - is one of the best in the world and will remain so for a generation,' it says.

The second reason, the magazine says, is the much-derided democracy, despite the notion elected governments retard development in poor countries, are biased towards interest groups and indulge in endless debates and delays on even the most urgent matters.

'No doubt a strong central government would have given India a less chaotic Commonwealth games, but there is more to life than badminton and rhythmic gymnastics. India's state may be weak, but its private companies are strong.'

The magazine says Indian capitalism is driven by millions of entrepreneurs furiously doing ahead with this task, and thriving small businesses with many world-class ones whose English-speaking bosses network confidently with the global elite.

'They are less dependent on state patronage than Chinese firms and often more innovative: They have pioneered the $2,000 car, ultra-cheap heart operation and some novel ways to make management more responsive to customers,' the magazine says.

'Ideas flow easily around India, since it lacks China's culture of secrecy and censorship. That, plus China's rampant piracy, is why knowledge-based industries such as software love India but shun the middle kingdom,' it says.

'India's individualistic brand of capitalism may also be more robust than China's state-directed sort,' the magazine adds, but also warns against unemployable workforce and rickety infrastructure.

Yet there is hope. 'The Indian government recognises the need to tackle infrastructure crisis, and is getting better at persuading private firms to stump up the capital. But the process is slow and infected with corruption,' it says.

'Given the choice between doing business in China or India, most foreign investors would probably pick China,' The Economist said. 'But as the global economy becomes more knowledge-intensive, India's advantage will grow.'

57 mn more men than women globally: UN report

There are 57 million more men than women globally, a UN report said.

While much progress has been made in ensuring the equal status of women and men in many areas, much needs to be done in closing the gender gap in areas like power and decision making positions, it said.

The report, 'The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics', was released by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Wednesday on the occasion of World Statistics Day.

The UN General Assembly in June proclaimed Oct 20 as World Statistics Day to recognise the importance of statistics in shaping societies.

The report showed that women globally have 'benefited' from the gender statistics in the last decade.

It said Europe has more women than men. But in some of the most populous countries, there was a 'shortage' of women. This included China, where the ratio is 108 men per 100 women.

'We know that statistics are a vital tool for economic and social planning,' Keiko Osaki-Tomita, chief of Demographic and Social Statistics Branch (DSSB) of DESA, said at a press conference.

'Statistics are essential for academic research, business planning and budget allocation,' he added.

Published every five years, the statistics covered eight key areas - population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty.

Under power and decision making, the report said that Asia-Pacific trails the rest of the world in the share of women ministers with less than 10 percent of ministers in governments in the region being women.

Around the world, only seven of 150 elected heads of state and only 11 of 192 heads of government were women.

The report said: 'In the private sector, women are on most board of directors of large companies but their number remains low compared to men.' Furthermore, the 'glass ceiling' has hindered women's access to leadership positions in private companies.

'This is especially notable in the largest corporations which remain male-dominated. Of the 500 largest corporations in the world, only 13 have a female chief executive officer,' it added.

Also, earning gaps between women and men are wider in the Asia-Pacific region compared to Latin America and developed countries -- women's average wage in the manufacturing sector being less than 70 percent than that of men's.

However, the report said that over the years women have entered most of the male dominated fields.

From a global perspective, the publication paints a mixed picture of the condition of women in Asia-Pacific.

The report was launched simultaneously in New York, Shanghai and Bangkok.