Science & Technology

UN commission calls for efforts to close the gender digital divide

The U.N.'s premiere global body fighting for gender equality on Saturday called for wide-ranging efforts to close the gap between men and women in today's technology-driven world and urged zero tolerance for gender-based violence and harassment online. In a document approved by consensus after all-night negotiations at the end of a two-week meeting, the Commission on the Status of Women expressed grave concern at the interrelation between offline and online violence, harassment and discrimination against women and girls and it condemned the increase in these acts. It called for a significant increase in investments by the public and private sectors to bridge the gender digital divide. It also called for the removal of barriers to equal access to digital technology for all women and girls, and new policies and programs to achieve gender parity in emerging scientific and technological fields. Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, an entity of the United Nations focusing on ...

Pay gaps, uneven representation: Tech sector far from gender parity

The imbalance is more evident in the compensation offered to male and female employees in the IT sector

Scientists split seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen

Researchers have successfully split seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. According to the international study, the researchers split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 per cent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis. They used a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyser, the study said. A typical non-precious catalyst is cobalt oxide with chromium oxide on its surface. "We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalisation," said Yao Zheng, lead researcher from University of Adelaide, Australia. "The performance of a commercial electrolyser with our catalysts running in seawater is close to the performance of platinum/iridium catalysts running in a feedstock of highly purified deionised water," said Zheng. The team published their research in the journal Nature Energy. "Current electrolysers are operated with high

Quantum computing at the core of growth in India's techade: Chandrasekhar

Quantum computing will be at the centre of growth and expansion in India's 'techade' and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is to create a India-centric tech ecosystem with partners and players around the world, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. While virtually inaugurating a two-day symposium on the Quantum Computing Ecosystem held at C-DAC in Pune, the minister spoke about the disruptive role of quantum computing and pointed out that it is going to be the next big idea that will disrupt technology in general and computing in particular, according to an official statement. "It is PM Shri Narendra Modi's vision to create an India centric quantum tech ecosystem with partners and players around the world. We are working together to build an ecosystem of innovation, along with startups, R&D laboratories, and higher education institutions. Quantum computing will be at the core of the growth and expansion in India's techade," Chandrasekhar

HCL, IIT-Dhanbad collaborate for petroleum engineering, earth science

IT services company HCL Technologies has signed a pact with the Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad, to collaborate in the field of petroleum engineering and earth science, according to a statement. HCL Technologies and IIT (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad (Jharkhand), will also develop a knowledge management system using technologies, it added. As part of the agreement, HCL Tech will offer projects and internship opportunities to students and research scholars of IIT (ISM) to develop digital solutions in the fields of exploration, drilling and production of hydrocarbons to reduce carbon footprint. "Both HCL Tech and IIT (ISM) will also undertake sustainability initiatives and programmes, including discussions, podcasts and joint presentations at international forums on transformative initiatives in the oil and gas sector," according to a statement. The memorandum of understanding will help HCL Tech strengthen its collaboration with the IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, while HCLTech custom

NASA's Chandra observatory helps dig out black holes previously buried

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has helped discover hundreds of black holes previously buried, which will help astronomers get a more accurate census of black holes in the universe

NASA's Webb telescope spots its first Earth-like exoplanet: Researchers

Researchers have confirmed an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope for the first time

Three major launches in next 3 months, says ISRO chairman S Somanath

The Indian Space Research Organisation has planned three major rocket launches in the next three months, its chairman S Somanath said here on Wednesday

Desktop virtualization firm Citrix begins layoffs, thousands impacted

Desktop virtualisation company Citrix Systems has started widespread layoffs, with thousands of employees being handed over pink slips, the media reported

Google standalone 'Switch Access' app now available on Play Store

Google has released the standalone "Switch Access" app on the Play Store, which was originally part of the Android Accessibility Suite

Iowa's largest city cancels classes due to cyber attack

Iowa's largest school district cancelled classes for Tuesday after determining there was a cyber attack on its technology network. Des Moines Public Schools announced Monday that classes would be cancelled for its 33,000 students after being alerted to a cyber security incident on its technology network." The district said in a news release that it took its internet and network services offline while it assessed the situation. It didn't describe the nature of the attack or say whether sensitive information might have been stolen, and it didn't immediately respond to a request for further information. Because many technology tools that support both classroom learning as well as the management and operation of the school district are not available at this time, the prudent decision is to close the district for the day," the district said. Sports and other activities were allowed to continue as planned.

Age of celebration of tech for tech's sake is over, says MS CEO Nadella

Suggesting that the age of celebration of technology for technology's sake is over, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday said it is now about technology and its use for everyone in the world, where India can contribute immensely. Speaking at the 'Microsoft Future Ready Technology Summit' here, he also highlighted the "magic" of government programmes and India Stack "co-evolving" in the country. "I had a chance to have a brief conversation with the Prime Minister yesterday, his vision and all the programmes, the yojanas and the India Stack. In fact the thing I'm realising is the magic of India Stack, because everything needs feedback. The yojanas or the policy and the technology stack co-evolving, that's just like a virtuous cycle that is unlike anything I have seen and it's just tremendous," Nadella said. He said, "I absolutely think both of these are perhaps the greatest contributions that India can make to the world quite frankly. The idea that there is digital ...

IISC-Bangalore develops 'green' technology to rid air filters of germs

A newly developed air filtering technique that uses ingredients commonly found in green tea can deactivate germs that find refuge inside air filters, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in an official statement. A research team led by Prof Suryasarathi Bose and Prof Kaushik Chatterjee at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, has developed a germ-destroying air filter that can inactivate germs using ingredients like polyphenols and polycationic polymers commonly found in green tea. The 'green' ingredients rupture the microbes through site-specific binding, the statement said. With a prolonged use, air filters become a breeding ground for captured germs. The growth of these germs clog the pores of the filter, reducing their life. Re-suspension of these germs can infect people in the vicinity, the statement said. The novel antimicrobial air filters were tested at an NABL accredited laboratory and were found to be 99.24 per cent effective against SARS-CoV-2 (delta ...

Future of technology going to be driven by India: UAE's AI minister

Though technology is driven from places such as Bengaluru, Al Olama said it is coming from the rest of the world as well

Amagi's valuation crosses $1.4 bn amid funding woes, raises $100 mn

The media technology provider has raised over $100 mn in investment, inclusive of $80 million in primary capital, from global growth equity firm General Atlantic

'It is teamwork', says VSSC director after Mark 3 satellite launch

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team that worked behind Mark 3 mission has reached Thiruvananthapuram where their colleagues offered them a warm reception at the airport.Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram said that the Mark 3 launch was done after a gap of two and a half to three years and was a success because of the teamwork."It is a teamwork of all centres like VSSC, LPSC, IPRC, IISER and IISU. It is teamwork and we are ready to take up more work. In future, more and more opportunities will come. Every year we have a plan. We make our launch according to our demand. From internal demand as well as external demand. To meet that manifest we plan and execute the demand," he added."It is a huge success because it is a mission with the precision we wanted. All the satellites are in the right orbit," he said. "It is possible because of the mission planning as well as very accurate sensors. In fact, the inertial sensors were ...

PM Modi to inaugurate Ahmedabad's Centre-State Science Conclave virtually

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Centre- State Science Conclave on Saturday via video conferencing. His office said the programme is in line with the prime minister's relentless efforts to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship in the country, and the first of its kind conclave will strengthen the Centre-state coordination and collaboration mechanism in the spirit of cooperative federalism to build a robust science, technology and innovation (STI) ecosystem. The two-day conclave is being organised at Science City, Ahmedabad on September 10-11 and will include sessions on different thematic areas including STI vision 2047, future growth pathways and vision for STI in states; health--digital health care for all; doubling private sector investment in R&D by 2030; and agriculture - technological interventions for improving farmers' income. Sessions on water--innovation for producing potable drinking water, energy- clean energy for all including S&T role in ...

The many questions Artemis will answer as humans look to Mars via moon

Parked near the moon, how do they eat, breathe, cope with isolation, radiation?

Adani signs agreement with Israel agency for access to technology

Collaboration will give Indian group access to latest know-how in 5G, cyber, AI

James Webb telescope captures images of universe: How astronomy will change

Unveiled by US president Joe Biden, the stunning image of SMACS 0723, a cluster of thousands of galaxies, was released on July 11