Home rentals zoom on high realty prices

The industry norm of eight to 10 per cent rise in rentals is now passe. Ask Deepak Varma, a 38- year-old resident of Kandivili, in the western suburbs of Mumbai. He was shocked when his landlord demanded a 25 per cent hike in rentals to renew his housing lease.




"The landlord gave me just two options - either pay up the increase or search for another property. After some research I found that rentals have zoomed up in Mumbai. As buying a house at these levels is just not possible, I would have to look for a smaller house where the rents are affordable for me," he said.



The trend has been confirmed by real estate portal 99acres.com. According to a study conducted by the portal, residential rentals have continued to rise in sync with the increase in realty rates. The rentals have increased between 12 to 20 per cent. In places like south Mumbai and south west Mumbai, the appreciation has been the most, the study revealed. Khar, a western suburb of Mumbai has seen 47 per cent appreciation in rentals in the second quarter of this year compared to the previous year. It is closely followed by places like Mahalaxmi and Napean Sea Road, which saw 28 per cent and 13 per cent rise in rentals, respectively, over the same time period. Bandra West witnessed an 11 per cent rise in residential rentals. Similarly, Breach Candy and Lower Parel saw rental values move up by six per cent in the second quarter, the study pointed out.



Yashwant Dalal, president of the Estate Agents Association of India said that high property prices are responsible for the rise in rentals in the city. "Property prices have gone up beyond the 2008 peak and are consistently going up since the last three quarters. So people are waiting for the prices to correct and have postponed their purchasing plans for some time. As preference is more towards leased property, the rentals have gone up in the city," he said.



The study by 99acres. com also shows a similar trend in Delhi and NCR. Saket in South Delhi witnessed a 31 per cent rise in rentals in the second quarter of 2010 as compared to the same period last year. South Extension, Safdarjung and Malviya Nagar followed at 24 per cent, 22 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Vasant Kunj saw a 17 per cent rise in rentals while Dwarka witnessed an increase of 12 per cent in the second quarter of this year compared to last year. Vasant Kunj and Dwarka have emerged as the most affordable rental destinations in Delhi, the study revealed.



Connaught Place has seen an eight per cent rise in rentals while Pitampura and Rohini saw 35 per cent and 37 per cent rise in prices respectively, over the same time period. Key localities of Noida like Sector 93, Sector 53, Sector 61 and Sector 82 saw rentals escalating in the range of 18 per cent to 25 per cent. Prime areas in Gurgaon like Sohna Road and Sushant Lok saw 16 per cent appreciation in rental values.



Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of real estate research firm Liases Foras, said that he does not believe that residential rentals in the country could rise so steeply. "There are lots of properties lying vacant in many of the new residential projects. So, it is quite unlikely that the rentals at this stage could increase," he said.

32nd Indian Geography Congress of National Association of Geographers (NAGI)

The Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh shall be hosting the 32nd Indian Geography Congress of National Association of Geographers (NAGI) on November 19-21, 2010. The theme of the congress is Globalization, Population and Regional Development. Prof R. C. Sobti, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh is the Patron of the congress. Dr. Krishna Mohan, Chairman of the Department is the Convener and Prof Smita Bhutani, Coordinator, CAS (UGC) is the Organizing Secretary of the event.

The NAGI, formed in 1978, is the largest registered association of geographers in the country with over 1800 life members. It has been annually organizing Indian Geography Congress since 1980 and rotates the venue through out the country. It also publishes its Research Journal ANNALS.
The NAGI congress is going to be a mega event where more than 600 delegates from the filed of geography, remote sensing, GIS, GPS, Disaster Management, geo sciences, surveyors, census experts, town planners, administrators etc are expected to participate across the nation and a few from abroad including Prof Ronald Abler,President, International Geographical Union, Prof David Dickason, Director, Centre for the Study of Geographical Change, Michigan University, USA, Prof M. S. Gill, Malyasia, Dr. Harmit Singh Bedi, Director, Planning and Development, Kannesaw State University, USA .
Among the prominent delegates from India, Prof M. H. Qureshi, President NAGI from CSRD, JNU, Prof R. K. Rai, President elect, NAGI, Prof K. R. Dixit, Past President NAGI, Prof R. P. Mishra, Former Vice Chancellor, Allahabad University, Prof Baleshwar Thakur, former Vice Chancellor, Mithila University, Darbhanaga, Prof Kashi Nath Singh from BHU, Maj. Gen. C. S. Bewli, Additional Surveyor General, Survey of India, Chandigarh, Prof L. S. Bhat, New Delhi Dr K. V. Sundaram New Delhi, Prof J. R. Sharma, Jodhpur, Prof H. S. Sharma, Jaipur, Dr. Prithvis Nag, former Surveyor General of India and currently Director NATMO, Prof S. M. Rashid, Pro vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia and Dr. R. B. Singh, Secretary General NAGI shall be gracing the occasion.
In all, there will be twenty session including two memorial lectures, fifteen technical sessions, one panel discussion on the theme population migration. There will be a separate session of Young Geographers Award that is given to the best research paper presented by geographers below the age of 35. One of the most attractive events will be the Children Geography Congress that will be exclusively devoted for children.
It is proposed to conduct quiz, map reading contest and popular lecture for the students of tri-city to make them aware about the latest developments in the field of
GIS, Remote Sensing, GPS and disaster management. In addition, there will be exhibitions by NATMO, Survey of India, Census of India, ESRI, India, ERDAS, and Rolta.
The First Indian Geography Congress was held at the Department of Geography, Panjab University Chandigarh in 1980. After 30 years, it is once again hosting it on the
occasion of Department's Golden Jubilee on completion of 50 years at Chandigarh after shifting from Ludhiana on July 1, 1960.
The Department of Geography is one of the Centers of Advanced Study in Geography of UGC in the country. It runs three Post Graduate Courses in: (i) Geography, (ii) Disaster Management, and (iii) Remote Sensing and GIS. It also runs M. Phil and Ph. D courses, There are two online course run in collaboration with University of Salzburg,Austria in the field of remote sensing and GIS. The Association of Population Geographers (APGI) is one of the oldest Associations of Population Geographers in the world that started its Population Geography Journal and is headquartered at the Department.
All the alumni of the department are invited to attend this mega event. The details of the programme can be seen in the conference section on the web site www.pu.ac.in or
http://www.org.in/ or http://puchd.ac.in/conference/Nagi_First_Circular.pdf of Panjab University according to Dr. Krishna Mohan, Chairperson, Dept. of Geography.

Women's brains are wired differently from men's a 'myth'

Theories that men's and women's brains are wired differently are a 'myth', says a leading neuroscientist.




A spate of bestselling books promotes the idea that there are structural differences between men's and women's brains.



They include 'The Essential Difference', by Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of psychiatry at Cambridge, which argues that female brains are better at empathising while men's are wired for analysing the physical world.



A more recent bestseller, 'The Female Brain', by Dr Louann Brizendine, an American academic, reaches similar conclusions and suggests that women spend most of their lives on a psychological "roller coaster" controlled mainly by fluctuating hormone levels.



However, Gina Rippon, professor of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University, sees all such ideas as 'patronising nonsense'.



"There is increasing concern within the neuroscience community about the misinterpretation and abuse of our findings on the links between brain structure and behaviour. This 'neurohype' is designed to support stereotypes and to suggest that there is a major biological and structural difference in the brains of men and women that explains their social roles and status," the London Times quoted her as saying.



"This is nonsense. There may be some very small differences between the genders but the similarities are far, far greater," she added.

Extracting water out of thin air now possible

Getting water out of the thin air is now possible, thanks to a new technology.




'Drinking water can be extracted from the humidity in the air even in the desert or in the middle of a megacity,' thanks to a technology developed by the Fraunhofer Alliance SysWasser, Germany.



The principle behind it is a salt solution that runs down from a tower-shaped system and absorbs water from the air, known as hygroscopic brine. This brine is then pumped into a tank that stands a couple of metres high and contains a vacuum.



Then, energy from solar collectors heats up the brine and the evaporated salt-free water condenses over a distillation bridge. The brine concentrates again and flows down on the surface of the tower to absorb humidity in the air, according to a Fraunhofer statement.



This process is exclusively based on regenerative sources of energy such as simple solar collectors and photovoltaic cells, meaning that this method is completely energy self-sufficient.



That means that it functions in areas where there is no electrical infrastructure. This process is particularly well suited for extracting drinking water in arid and semi-arid areas where more water evaporates than precipitation falls.

US pastor says he will never burn Quran

A US pastor, who had threatened toburn Quran, on Saturday said he never burn copies of the holy book, even if a mosque is built near ground zero in this America's commercial capital.

"We will definitely not burn the Quran, no," PastorTerry Jones of Florida told NBC.

"Not today, not ever," he said when pressed whether his planned demonstration might happen at a later date.

He explained that it would not happen even if the Islamic center is built near ground zero, NBCreported.

"Even though we have not burned one Quran, we have gotten over 100 death threats," Jones said.

"We feel that God is telling us to stop, and we also hope that ... maybe that will open up the door to maybe be able to talk to the imam."

Jones had on Friday suspended his plans to burn copies of the Quran claiming that he received a pledge from a Florida Imam that the Islamic cultural center would be moved elsewhere.

However, the Imam refuted his claim and said the "deal" existed only in Jone's mind.

The pastor's threat to burn copies of the holy Quran had stirred outrage in Islamic world, with kings and presidents of Muslim nations joining hands to condemn his plans and asking USPresident Barack Obama to intervene to stop it.

Obama, on his part, said, the pastor's move could lead to "recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida."

In his Eid greetings, Obama said this year's Eid is also an occasion to reflect on the importance of religious tolerance and to recognise the positive role that religious communities of all faiths, including Muslims, have played in American life.

Non-Muslim nations have also condemned the pastor's plans.

IITs to offer medical courses, have foreign faculty, students

The Indian Institutes of Technology would now offer courses in medicine. They would also allow foreign nationals on permanent faculty positions and students from abroad at the post graduate level.

Decisions to this effect were taken at a meeting of IIT council presided by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal here today. The government decided to seek the approval of the Medical Council of India for the medicine course, Sibal told reporters.

The IIT council meeting decided to carry out appropriate amendment in the Institute of Technologies Act to enable the IITs to offer the medicine programme, he added. "We are making sure that wherever the instruction leads to a degree relating to any branch of medicine, then of course clearances from MCI under the Act will have to be taken," Sibal said.

He, however, said no MCI approval would be required where IITs engage with inter-disciplinary research for the advancement of learning and dissemination of knowledge not leading to a degree or qualification for the practice of medicine. For this exercise, it has been decided to set up a permanent standing committee under R A Mashelkar, former head of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The council also decided to enable IITs to recruit foreign faculties which should not be more than 10 per cent of the total faculty strength. "In principle, we agreed that IITs are entitled to recruiting foreign faculties", Sibal said adding they will set up a mechanism with the Home Ministry to ensure there is no "hiccup in the process and there is easy exit and entry of people" as faculties.

Some other issues like bringing amendments to the Indian Citizenship Act will also have to be looked into, he said. IITs have contended that the presence of foreign faculty in their campuses would expose students to globally distinguished professors besides lending a true international flavour in campuses and reducing brain drain.

Sibal said the meeting also agreed in principle to admit up to 25 per cent foreign students at the post graduate level on a "supernumerary basis without affecting the present admission norms for Indian students".

India out of global best campus list

 Four Chinese universities figure in the list of the world's best 50 educational institutions, even as India's sole representative in the top 200 - IIT Bombay - has slipped 24 places from its 2009 position.

The University of Cambridge has replaced Harvard as the world's best university in the prestigious QS World University Rankings, 2010, published in London yesterday. Six of the top 10 universities in the world are American, the other four are in the UK. The US and UK share positions 1 through 17 among themselves.

The QS rankings, earlier published in collaboration with Times Higher Education, are an annual ranking of the top 500 universities in the world, based on an academic reputation index, employer reputation index, institution inclusion, and research among other criteria.

Among Asian countries, Japan has 10 universities in the top 200; China and Korea have six and five respectively. India has one - IIT Bombay at No. 187, down from No. 163 in 2009.

IIT Guwahati has crashed 100 places from No. 401 to No. 501, University of Delhi is down 80 places from 291 to 371, IIT Delhi is down 21 from 181 to 202, and IIT Kanpur is down 12 from 237 to 249. The Universities of Mumbai and Pune are in the 450-500 bracket, comparable to Tehran.

In contrast, three of the four Chinese universities in the top 50 have improved their positions since last year. At No. 23, the University of Hong Kong is up one place, and on top of the Asian pile. The Chinese University of Hong Kong is up to 42 from 46, and Peking University is up to 47 from 52.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is at No. 40, down from No. 35 last year.

Beijing's Tsinghua University is the fifth Chinese institution in the top 100, coming in at No. 54.

Martin Ince, convener of the Academic Advisory Board for the QS World University Rankings, said that the poor performance by the IITs apart, "the real story is the very modest showing of all other Indian higher education in our rankings".

"Delhi University scores well in our assessment of academic and employer opinion but very poorly on our other measures - faculty/student ratio, citations, international staff, international students," Ince wrote in an email to The Indian Express.

"This is a very modest performance for the flagship university of a very significant nation... Note too that many universities around the world are investing heavily and want to be prominent in this and other rankings. So universities need to improve just to stand still."

IIT Guwahati director, Prof Gautam Barua, expressed surprise and disappointment over the steep fall in the institute's rank and said he would examine the issue. IIT Kanpur director Sanjay G Dhande, however, said that wide disparities in the budgetary structures of Indian and Western institutions - even though faculty and student profiles may be comparable - make it unfair to measure them by the same yardstick.

Indian government policymakers argue that international ranking criteria are based largely on western models and do not take into account several other indicators. The University Grants Commission is in fact, in the process of developing its own ranking system based on "Indian indicators of performance".

Ince, however, argued that "the much more prominent position of Chinese universities than Indian ones proves that we are not simply being nice to western institutions". He added, "In fact, India's tradition of the English language ought to give it a big advantage over China in world higher education, but we do not see this effect at work."

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, though, struck an optimistic note.

"In the next ten years several of our institutes will be among the top 100 in international rankings. Without commenting on the merits and demerits of these rankings, with the reform in education systems, we should see more Indian institutes figuring on them. It should also be thought what should be adopted as a global criteria... not necessary it has to be western-style", Sibal told The Indian Express