National budget crisis will cause personal budget crisis for troops

According to senior defense Officials, U.S. service men and women around the world, including those at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, may receive only one-week's pay instead of two in their next paycheck if the government shuts down this weekend due to the federal budget impasse.

The military can't be paid during a funding lapse until a new appropriations bill or continuing resolution is passed by Congress.

If the funding bill is allowed to expire on April 8, it will be in the middle of a standard military two-week pay period, so Pentagon would likely send out paychecks for just the first week of the pay period, and not the second, leaving many service members strapped for cash for the remainder of the month.

Historically, workers such as the military who are legally obligated to work during a shutdown, do eventually receive back pay for it. But that doesn't help pay bills that are due presently.

Additional details on the military's plan for funding during a potential shutdown are expected in the next day or so.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said earlier Tuesday that department leaders hadn't figured out how pay would be affected for the military, including the 146,000 servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan

Morrell said the Pentagon would continue key national security responsibilities including fighting the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and continuing operations in Libya and earthquake assistance to Japan.

The likelihood of a shutdown continues to increase, and President Obama continues to reject a Republican measure that would fund the government for another week but cut $12 billion from the budget.

Twelve dead at Brazilian school after man opens fire

12 people died during a shooting at a school in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The gunman is numbered among the dead, after taking his own life. 10 people are reported injured during the attack by a man identified as Wellington Menezes Olivera, a 23 year old ex-student from the school.

The attack took place just after 8am local time (11:00 GMT) this morning. Television station TV Globo reported that Olivera entered the Escola Municipal Tasso da Silveira school, telling officials that he was attending to make a speech to students. He was reportedly carrying at least two revolvers and a significant amount of ammunition.

Witnesses state that he began to fire at pupils heads, killing ten girls and one boy. Rio state health secretary, Sergio Cortes, stated that those injured in the attack were taken to local hospitals. At least four were said to be in a "grave" condition.

Rio's Police chief, Martha Rocha, said in a press conference that the gunman had no previous criminal history. She stated that he was carrying 2 firearms, although she did not specify what type. During the attack he fired off at least 30 rounds of ammunition. There were approximately 400 people in the school when the attack began, and shortly after the shooting started, two small boys outside the school, one with a gunshot wound, ran almost two city blocks until they found police and alerted them to the incident.

Police report that Olivera was carrying a "long and rambling" letter, confirming his intentions to commit suicide.The two officers who were made aware ran to the school, and quickly managed to locate the gunman, leading to a shooting match. One officer, Marcio Alves, stated that "He saw me and aimed a gun at me, I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head."

In a statement by the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, he made it clear that life at the school had become a "hellish nightmare." Authorities closed the school temporarily while they investigate, but Mayor Paes confirmed that the school will reopen.

The fate of all the children in the school is not yet known. One eleven year old pupil from the school, Wanderson Barbosa, was interviewed by Associated Press as he sat on the steps of his house. He was in his classroom when the attack started, and he and others in his class thought that other students were fighting, until his teacher told them to get to the floor, because it was gunfire.

"I'm so worried," Barbosa said to reporters, "We don't have news of everyone yet."

Meanwhile, Rio's Governor, Sergio Cabral, called the attacker a "psychopath", whilst indicating that he does not believe anyone else was involved in the attack, but that investigations into the incident will continue.

Body of missing student found in Bath, England

A body that was discovered in the River Avon in Bath has been confirmed as missing student James Bubear. The 19 year-old went missing on March 13th after leaving a fancy dress party in the city centre. The creative writing student's death is not being treated as suspicious according to the Avon and Somerset police.

The Bath University student went missing after attending a night out with friends. He left the Revolution bar around 10.30pm and was last seen on CCTV James Street West on the night of his disapperence. His passport and phone was found the next morning by a street cleaner.

Bubear's mother, Vanda released a statement saying "We would like to thank James's fellow students and the people of Bath for taking him as one of their own, and for the support they have given us in these last few difficult weeks. I would also like to thank them for their perseverance in trying to find James. Nothing seemed like it was too much trouble, and for that I am indebted to them."

Concerns have been raised about the saftey on the River Avon in Bath. Marion Flagg's son Casper's body was found in the River Avon on Boxing Day in 2009. She said "It would be nice to see better lighting and to identify where blackspots are," she said. Perhaps we could have railings because there's nothing to stop you from walking straight from the Midland Bridge into the water. It's just a sheer drop and it's very dark."

At least fourteen dead after eating toxic fish in Madagascar

At least 14 people have died after eating toxic sardines in Madagascar. The deaths occurred in the town of Toliara, with another similar situation happening 130km away in Sakaraha. The sardines the victims ate belong to the Clupeidae family. As well as the dead around 120 people have been taken ill after eating the fish according to officials.

Dr Hery Raharisaina, Madagascar's fishing and aquatic resources minister, offered condolence to the families of the victims on behalf of the government. He added in his statement that the government would pay for the medical bills for those who are still hospitalized from the toxic fish and would also supply 100 mattresses to the city of Toliara as the region's hospital is overcrowded.

Samples of the sardines have been sent to health officials at the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar in the capital city of Antananarivo. Incidents like this have happened before in which researchers have tracked the cause down to the fish eating poisonous seaweed. Madagascar has the third biggest coral system in the world.

Train crash in Netanya, Israel injures at least 50; no casualties

Over 50 people have been injured today when two trains collided head-on at the Bet-Yehoshua station, near the city of Netanya on the railway from Tel Aviv to Haifa. Most of the injuries are light ones, with no casualties or serious injuries reported in the media.

The trains advanced slowly, one leaving the station and one entering it. One of the trains was completely derailed. The Israeli Railway Authority CEO said the accident was caused by a personal error of one of the conductors, but a police investigation is still ensuing.

This is the second serious accident for Israeli trains within half a year. Four months ago, a train car derailed and burst in flames, injuring 79 people, most of the injuries due to inhaling of smoke.

The Israel Railway Authority notified the passengers that the tracks from Tel Aviv to Haifa will be closed for at least a week, but later the company manager announced that rides would continue within 24 hours, while a fast and open investigation will follow. He promised that the results will be publicized immediately upon being received.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist and the chief architect of the Indian atomic energy program. He was also responsible for the establishment of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay (which after Bhabha's death was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)). As a scientist, he is remembered for deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering positrons by electrons, a process now known as Bhabha scattering.

Early life

Bhabha was born into a wealthy and prominent Parsi family, through which he was related to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Dorab Tata. He received his early education at Bombay's Cathedral Grammar School and entered Elphinstone College at age 15 after passing his Senior Cambridge Examination with Honors. He then attended the Royal Institute of Science until 1927 before joining Caius College of Cambridge University. This was due to the insistence of his father and his uncle Dorab Tata, who planned for Bhabha to obtain an engineering degree from Cambridge and then return to India, where he would join the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur.

Higher education and research at Cambridge

At Cambridge Bhabha's interests gradually shifted to theoretical physics. In 1928 Bhabha in a letter to his father wrote:

“

I seriously say to you that business or job as an engineer is not the thing for me. It is totally foreign to my nature and radically opposed to my temperament and opinions. Physics is my line. I know I shall do great things here. For, each man can do best and excel in only that thing of which he is passionately fond, in which he believes, as I do, that he has the ability to do it, that he is in fact born and destined to do it... I am burning with a desire to do physics. I will and must do it sometime. It is my only ambition. I have no desire to be a `successful' man or the head of a big firm. There are intelligent people who like that and let them do it... It is no use saying to Beethoven `You must be a scientist for it is great thing ' when he did not care two hoots for science; or to Socrates `Be an engineer; it is work of intelligent man'. It is not in the nature of things. I therefore earnestly implore you to let me do physics.

”

Bhabha's father understood his son's predicament, and he agreed to finance his studies in mathematics provided that he obtain first class on his Mechanical Sciences Tripos. Bhabha took the Tripos in June 1930 and passed with first class. He then embarked on his mathematical studies under Paul Dirac to complete the Mathematics Tripos. Meanwhile, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory while working towards his doctorate in theoretical physics under R. H. Fowler. At the time, the laboratory was the center of a number of scientific breakthroughs. James Chadwick had discovered the neutron, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton transmuted lithium with high-energy protons, and Patrick Blackett and Giuseppe Occhialini used cloud chambers to demonstrate the production of electron pairs and showers by gamma radiation. During the 1931–1932 academic year, Bhabha was awarded the Salomons Studentship in Engineering. In 1932, he obtained first class on his Mathematical Tripos and was awarded the Rouse Ball traveling studentship in mathematics. With the studentship, he worked with Wolfgang Pauli in Zürich, Enrico Fermi in Rome and Hans Kramers in Utrecht.

Research in theoretical physics

In January 1933, Bhabha published his first scientific paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radition. In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and electron shower production in cosmic rays.The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which he held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical physics under Ralph H. Fowler. During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field.

In 1936, the two published a paper, "The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which they used their theory to describe how primary cosmic rays from outer space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level. Bhabha and Heitler then made numerical estimates of the number of electrons in the cascade process at different altitudes for different electron initiation energies. The calculations agreed with the experimental observations of cosmic ray showers made by Bruno Rossi and Pierre Victor Auger a few years before. Bhabha later concluded that observations of the properties of such particles would lead to the straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1937, Bhabha was awarded the Senior Studentship of the 1851 Exhibition, which helped him continue his work at Cambridge until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Return to India

In September 1939, Bhabha was in India for a brief holiday when World War II broke out, and he decided not to return to England for the time being. He accepted an offer to serve as the Reader in the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Science, then headed by renowned physicist C. V. Raman. He received a special research grant from the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, which he used to establish the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute. Bhabha selected a few students, including Harish-Chandra, to work with him. Later, on 20 March 1941, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .

TIFR and BARC

When Bhabha was working at the Indian Institute of Science, there was no institute in India which had the necessary facilities for original work in nuclear physics, cosmic rays, high energy physics, and other frontiers of knowledge in physics. This prompted him to send a proposal in March 1944 to the Sir Dorab J. Tata Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'. In his proposal he wrote :

“

There is at the moment in India no big school of research in the fundamental problems of physics, both theoretical and experimental. There are, however, scattered all over India competent workers who are not doing as good work as they would do if brought together in one place under proper direction. It is absolutely in the interest of India to have a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics, for such a school forms the spearhead of research not only in less advanced branches of physics but also in problems of immediate practical application in industry. If much of the applied research done in India today is disappointing or of very inferior quality it is entirely due to the absence of sufficient number of outstanding pure research workers who would set the standard of good research and act on the directing boards in an advisory capacity ... Moreover, when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand. I do not think that anyone acquainted with scientific development in other countries would deny the need in India for such a school as I propose. The subjects on which research and advanced teaching would be done would be theoretical physics, especially on fundamental problems and with special reference to cosmic rays and nuclear physics, and experimental research on cosmic rays. It is neither possible nor desirable to separate nuclear physics from cosmic rays since the two are closely connected theoretically.

”

The trustees of Sir Dorab J. Tata Trust decided to accept Bhabha's proposal and financial responsibility for starting the Institute in April 1944. Bombay was chosen as the location for the prosed Institute as the Government of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, was inaugurated in 1945 in 540 square meters of hired space in an existing building. In 1948 the Institute was moved into the old buildings of the Royal Yacht club.

When Bhabha realized that technology development for the atomic energy programme could no longer be carried out within TIFR he proposed to the government to build a new laboratory entirely devoted to this purpose. For this purpose, 1200 acres of land was acquired at Trombay from the Bombay Government. Thus the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) started functioning in 1954. The same year the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was also established.

Death and legacy

He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966. The Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) was renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centrein his honour. In addition to being an able scientist and administrator, Bhabha was also a painter and a classical music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist.

After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. Bhabha also encouraged research in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology. The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970. The Homi Bhabha Fellowship Council has been giving the Homi Bhabha Fellowships since 1967 Other noted institutions in his name are the Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, India.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's primary nuclear research facility based in Mumbai. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme.

BARC was started in 1954, as the Atomic Energy Establishment, the Trombay (AEET), and became India's primary nuclear research centre, taking over charge of most nuclear scientists that were at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. After Homi J. Bhabha's death in 1966, the centre was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

The first reactors at BARC and its affiliated power generation centres were imported from the west. India's first power reactors, installed at the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant (TAPP) were from the United States.

The primary importance of BARC is as a research centre. The BARC and the Indian government has consistently maintained that the reactors are used for this purpose only: Apsara (1956; named by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru when he likened the blue Cerenkov radiation to the beauty of the Apsaras (Indra's court dancers), CIRUS (1960; the "Canada-India Reactor" with assistance from Canada), the now-defunct ZERLINA (1961; Zero Energy Reactor for Lattice Investigations and Neutron Assay), Purnima I (1972), Purnima II (1984), Dhruva(1985), Purnima III (1990), and Kamini.

The plutonium used in India's 1974 nuclear test carried out in Pokhran in the Thar desert of Rajasthan (Peaceful Nuclear Explosion) came from CIRUS. The 1974 test (and the 1998 tests that followed) gave Indian scientists the technological know-how and confidence not only to develop nuclear fuel for future reactors to be used in power generation and research, but also the capacity to refine the same fuel into weapons-grade fuel to be used in the development of nuclear weapons.

BARC is also responsible for India's first PWR at Kalpakkam, a 80Mw land based prototype of INS Arihant's nuclear power unit, as well as the Arihant's power pack itself.

Mother charged with hurting baby; Munchausen Syndrome by proxy?

Tuscon, Arizona police say that Blanca Montano, 21, an Arizona mother, was arrested and charged with child abuse on Tuesday for purposely injuring her seven-month-old daughter. Hospital staff reported Montano to authorities after the child was found to be suffering from nine separate, rare infections which became worse after the mother's visits.

Investigation by police determined that Montano had knowingly poisoned her child and made her sick. Montano was then prevented from visiting and the child noticeably improved.

Montano hospitalized her two children at University Medical Center in Tucson in February where they were diagnosed and treated for an infection. While one child improved and was released, her infant daughter became increasingly sick and was significantly worse following visits from her mother. Suspecting that the mother was exhibiting symptoms of a rare condition known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, in which a mother intentionally harms her child to obtain attention or sympathy for herself, hospital officials contacted police and set up a hidden camera in the infant's room.

Police say that when the mother realized that there was a camera in the hospital room, she covered the child's crib with a towel.

KOLD News 13 obtained a search warrant which said doctors "believe that Blanca is giving her daughter something to make her sick. They indicated the ingestion of feces could cause the infections."

Dr Marc Feldman, a psychiatrist at the University of Alabama says that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is not a psychiatric disorder. "It is not a mental illness. It is a form of abuse, just like sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse – it's just a variant," he said.

Montano is out on $50,000 bail and will next appear in court on April 15.

Bank of Baroda

Bank of Baroda is the third largest bank in India, after the State Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank and ahead of ICICI Bank. BoB has total assets in excess of Rs. 2.27 lakh crores, or Rs. 2,274 billion, a network of over 3,000 branches and offices, and about 1,100 ATMs. IT plans to open 400 new branches in the coming year. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialised subsidiaries and affiliates in the areas of investment banking, credit cards and asset management. Its total business was Rs. 4,402 billion as of June 30.

As of August 2010, the bank has 78 branches abroad and by the end of FY11 this number should climb to 90. In 2010, BOB opened a branch in Auckland, New Zealand, and its tenth branch in the United Kingdom. The bank also plans to open five branches in Africa. Besides branches, BoB plans to open three outlets in the Persian Gulf region that will consist of ATMs with a couple of people.

The Maharajah of Baroda, Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, founded the bank on 20 July 1908 in the princely state of Baroda, in Gujarat. The bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks of India, was nationalised on 19 July 1969, by the government of India.

International presence

Among the Bank of Baroda’s 42 overseas branches are ones in the world’s major financial centers (e.g., New York, London, Dubai,Hong Kong (which it has upgraded recently), Brussels and Singapore), as well as a number in other countries. The bank is engaged in retail banking via 17 branches of subsidiaries in Botswana, Guyana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Bank of Baroda also has a joint-venture bank in Zambia with nine branches. The Bank of Baroda maintains representative offices in Malaysia, China, Thailand, and Australia. It plans to upgrade its offices in China and Malaysia shortly to a branch and joint-venture, respectively.In its international expansion, the Bank of Baroda followed the Indian diaspora, especially that of the Gujaratis. It has significant international presence with a network of 72 offices in 25 countries, six subsidiaries, and four representative offices. 

The Bank of Baroda has received permission or in principle approval from host country regulators to open new offices in Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana, where it seeks to establish joint ventures or subsidiaries. The bank has received Reserve Bank of India approval to open offices in The Maldives, and New Zealand. It is seeking approval for operations in Bahrain, South Africa, Kuwait, Mozambique, and Qatar and is establishing offices in Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. It also has plans to extend its existing operations in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Botswana. The slogan of bank of baroda is "india's International Bank".

History

1908-1959

• 1908: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III set up Bank of Baroda (BOB).
• 1910: BoB established its first branch in Ahmedabad.
• 1953: BoB established a branch in Mombasa and another in Kampala.
• 1954: BoB opened a branch in Nairobi.
• 1956: BoB opened a branch in Dar-es-Salaam.
• 1957: BoB established a branch in London.
• 1959: BoB acquired Hind Bank.

1960s

• 1961: BoB merged in New Citizen Bank of India. This merger helped it increase its branch network in Maharashtra.
• BOB also opened a branch in Fiji.

• 1962: BoB opened a branch in Mauritius.
• 1963: BoB acquired Surat Banking Corporation in Surat, Gujarat.
• 1964: BoB acquired two banks, Umbergaon People’s Bank in southern Gujarat and Tamil Nadu Central Bank in Tamil Nadu state.
• 1964: BoB lost its branch in Narayanjanj (East Pakistan) due to the Indo-Pakistan war. It is unclear when BOB had opened the branch.
• 1965: BoB opened a branch in Guyana.
• 1967: The Tanzanian government nationalized BoB’s three branches there and transferred their operations to the Tanzanian government-owned National Banking Corporation.
• 1969: The government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including BoB.

BoB incorporated its operations in Uganda as a 51% subsidiary, with the government owning the rest.

1970s

• 1972: BoB acquired The Bank of India’s operations in Uganda.
• 1974: BoB opened a branch each in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
• 1975: BoB acquired the majority shareholding and management control of Bareilly Corporation Bank (est. 1928) and Nainital Bank (est. in 1954), both in Uttar Pradesh. Since then, Nainital Bank has expanded to Uttarakhand State.
• 1976: BoB opened a branch in Oman and another in Brussels. The Brussels branch was aimed at Indian firms from Mumbai (Bombay) engaged in diamond cutting and jewellery having business in Antwerp, a major center for diamond cutting.
• 1978: BoB opened a branch in New York and another in the Seychelles.
• 1979: BoB opened a branch in Nassau, the Bahamas.

1980s

BoB opened a branch in Bahrain and a representative office in Sydney, Australia.

BoB, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker, in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share.

• 1985: BoB (20%), Bank of India (20%), Central Bank of India (20%) and ZIMCO (Zambian government; 40%) established Indo-Zambia Bank (Lusaka). BoB also opened an Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) in Bahrain.
• 1988: BoB acquired Traders Bank, which had a branch network in Delhi.

1990s

• 1990: BoB opened an OBU in Mauritius, but closed its representative office in Sydney.
• 1991: BoB took over the London branches of Union Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank (P&S). P&S’s branch had been established before 1970 and Union Bank’s after 1980. The Reserve Bank of India ordered the takeover of the two following the banks' involvement in the Sethia fraud in 1987 and subsequent losses.
• 1992 BoB incorporated its operations in Kenya into a local subsidiary with a small tranche of shares quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
• 1993: BoB closed its OBU in Bahrain.
• 1996: BoB Bank entered the capital market in December with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The Government of India is still the largest shareholder, owning 66% of the bank's equity.
• 1997: BoB opened a branch in Durban.
• 1998: BoB bought out its partners in IUB International Finance in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong’s reversion to the People’s Republic of China. The now wholly owned subsidiary became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank.

BoB also acquired Punjab Cooperative Bank in a rescue.

• BoB also incorporate wholly owned subsidiary BOB Capital Markets Ltd.for Broking Business.
• 1999: BoB merged in Bareilly Corporation Bank in another rescue. At the time, Bareilly had 64 branches, including four in Delhi
• In Guyana, BoB incorporated its branch as a subsidiary, Bank of Baroda Guyana.
• BoB added a branch in Mauritius, but closed its Harrow Branch in London.

2000s

• 2000: BoB established Bank of Baroda (Botswana).
• 2002: BoB acquired Benares State Bank (BSB) at the Reserve Bank of India’s request. BSB was established in 1946 but traced its origins back to 1871 and its function as the treasury office of the Benares state. In 1964, BSB had acquired Bareilly Bank (est. 1934), with seven branches; it also had taken over Lucknow Bank in 1968. The acquisition of BSB brought BOB 105 new branches.
• 2002: Bank of Baroda (Uganda) was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).
• 2003: BoB opened an OBU in Mumbai.
• 2004: BoB acquired the failed Gujarat Local Area Bank, and returned to Tanzania by establishing a subsidiary in Dar-es-Salaam. BoB also opened a representative office each in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Guangdong, China.
• 2005: BoB built a Global Data Centre (DC) in Mumbai for running its centralized banking solution (CBS) and other applications in more than 1,900 branches across India and 20 other counties where the bank operates. BoB also opened a representative office in Thailand.
• 2006: BoB established an Offshrore Banking Unit (OBU) in Singapore.
• 2007: In its centenary year, BoB’s total business crossed 2.09 lakh crores, its branches crossed 1000, and its global customer base 29 million people.
• 2008: BoB opened a branch in Guangzhou, China (02/08/2008) and in Kenton, Harrow United Kingdom.
• 2008: BoB opened a joint venture life insurance company with Andhra Bank and Legal and General (UK) called IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company
• 2009: The Bank of Baroda registered with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, enabling it to trade as a bank in New Zealand (2009/09/01)

2010s

• 2010: Malaysia awarded a commercial banking license to a locally incorporated bank to be jointly owned by Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Andhra Bank. The new bank, India BIA Bank (Malaysia), will reside in Kuala Lumpur, which has a large population of Indians. Andhra Bank will hold a 25% stake in the joint-venture, BoB will own 40% and IOB the remaining 35%.

Indian Bank

Indian Bank, established in 1907, is a major Indian Commercial Bank headquartered in Chennai, India. It has 22,000 employees, 1,657 branches and is one of the big public sector banks of India. It has overseas branches in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and 229 correspondent banks in 69 countries. The Government of India nationalized the bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks, on 19 July 1969.

History

Indian bank was founded by Annamalai and Ramaswami Chettiar in 1907. This was in response to the financial crash faced by two leading trading companies in Madras, Arbuthnot's and Binny's.

• 1907: Established on 15 August
• 1932: Indian Bank opened a branch in Colombo.
• 1935: IB opened a branch in Jaffna.
• 1939: IB closed the Jaffna branch.
• 1940: IB opened a branch in Rangoon (Yangon).
• 1941: IB closed the Rangoon branch but opened branches in Singapore (where future branch manager KB Pisharody (1915–1998) started his career in the same year), and in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, and Penang. The rapid advance of the Japanese Army forced IB to close all its branches in Malaya and Singapore.
• 1942: IB closed the Colombo branch.
• Post-WWII: IB reopened its Malayan and Singapore branches.
• 1948: IB reopened its branch in Colombo.
• 1960s: IB acquired Mannargudi Bank (est. 1932) and Salem Bank (est. 1925).
• 1969: The Government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including Indian Bank.
• 1973: Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and United Commercial Bank established United Asian Bank Berhad in which IOB held 16.67% of the paid up capital, as a result of a new banking law in Malaysia that prohibited foreign government banks from operating in the country.
• 1978: IB became a technical adviser to P T Bank Rama in Indonesia, the result of the merger of P T Bank Masyarakat and P T Bank Ramayana.
• 1980: IB, Bank of Baroda, and Union Bank of India established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share in the joint venture.
• 1987: IB acquired Bank of Tanjore (Bank of Thanjavur) in Tamil Nadu in a rescue.
• 1998: Bank of Baroda bought out its partners in IUB Intl. Fin. in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong’s reversion. IUB became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank.
• 2007: IB celebrated its centenary year.

C. V. Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, FRS (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in the world. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.

Early years

Venkata Raman was born at Thiruvanaikaval, near Tiruchirappalli, Madras Presidency to R. Chandrasekhara Iyer (b. 1866) and Parvati Ammal (Saptarshi Parvati). He was the second of their eight children. At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Vizag, Andhra Pradesh. Studied in St.Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School. His father was a lecturer in Mathematics and physics, so he grew up in an academic atmosphere.

Raman entered Presidency College, Chennai in 1902. In 1904, he gained his B.Sc., winning the first place and the gold medal in physics. In 1907, he gained his M.Sc., obtaining the highest distinctions. He joined the Indian Finance Department as an Assistant Accountant General.

Career

In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service and took up the newly created Palit Professorship in Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his career. Many students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.

C.V Raman & Bhagavantam, discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further confirmed the quantum nature of light. On February 28, 1928, through his experiments on the scattering of light, he discovered the Raman effect. It was instantly clear that this discovery was an important one. It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, and was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson in 1928 and to de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him. He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam.

Raman and his student Nagendranath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in the celebrated Raman-Nath theory. Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect have enabled optical communication components based on laser systems.

In 1934, Raman became the director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where two years later he continued as a professor of physics. Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light.

He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company during its 60 year history, established four factories in Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent India.

In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behavior of crystals, approached in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behavior of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Among his other interests were the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.

Personal life

Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82.

He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal with whom he had two sons, Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan.

C.V. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution.

Honours and awards

Raman was honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924) and knighted in 1929. In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal. In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna. He was also awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957.

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman effect in 1928.

Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (August 12, 1919 – December 31, 1971) was an Indian physicist. He is considered to be the father of the Indian space program.

Biography

Early years and education

Vikram ambalal Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in the city of Ahmedabad , Gujarat State in western India. The Sarabhai family was an important and rich Jain business family. His father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi.

To educate her eight children, Sarla Devi established a private school on the lines of the Montessori method, propounded by Maria Montessori, which was gaining fame at that time. As the Sarabhai family was involved in the Indian freedom struggle, many leaders of the freedom struggle like Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru used to frequent the Sarabhai house. This is said to have greatly influenced the young Vikram Sarabhai and played an important role in the growth of his personality.

Sarabhai matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the Intermediate Science examination. After that he moved to England and joined the St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1940. With the escalation of the Second World War, Sarabhai returned to India and joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and began research in cosmic rays under the guidance of Sir C. V. Raman, a Nobel Prize winner. He returned to Cambridge after the war in 1945 and was awarded a Ph.D. degree in 1947 for his thesis titled Cosmic Ray investigation in Tropical Latitudes.

Marriage and children

In September, 1942, Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai, a celebrated classical dancer of India. The wedding was held in Chennai without anyone from Vikram's side of the family attending the wedding ceremony because of the ongoing Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Vikram and Mrinalini had two children - Kartikeya and Mallika. Vikram Sarabhai allowed considerable freedom to Mrinalini to develop her own potential. Reportedly, they had a troubled marriage relationship. According to biographer Amrita Shah, Vikram Sarabhai had void in his personal life he sought to fill it by dedicating himself to applying science for social good.

His daughter Mallika Sarabhai is winner of Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor for the year 2010. She is also a renowned dancer herself and has been awarded the Palme d'Or.

Physical Research Laboratory

Vikram returned to an independent India in 1947. Looking at the needs of the country, he persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and friends to endow a research institution near home in Ahmedabad. Thus, Vikram Sarabhai founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947. He was only 28 at that time. Sarabhai was a creator and cultivator of institutions and PRL was the first step in that direction. Vikram Sarabhai served of PRL from 1966-1971.

Death

Vikram Sarabhai died on 31 December 1971 at Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was visiting Thiruvananthapuram to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Thumba railway station being built to service Thumba launch center which would become one of ISRO's most important sites given its proximity to the equator, thus a convenient location to launch equatorial orbit satellites. During his last days, he was under a great amount of stress due to excessive travelling and a huge work-load which adversely affected his health. He did not wake up to celebrate the New Year. He died in his sleep at Halcyon Castle and was apparently a victim of a silent heart attack.

Indian Space Program

The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was one of his greatest achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the importance of a space programme for a developing country like India after the Russian Sputnik launch. Dr. Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space program in his quote:

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight."

"But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society."

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science program, supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India. This center was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and launch pads, the inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour payload.

As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 - July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more).

Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian Satellite. As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome.

Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the Centre is called the Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.

He led the family's 'Sarabhai' diversified business group.

His interests varied from science to sports to statistics. He set up Operations Research Group (ORG), the first market research organization in the country.

Dr Vikram Sarabhai established many institutes which are of international repute. Most notable among them are Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) which are considered world class for their management studies. Also he helped establishing Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) which is doing commendable job in R&D in Physics. Dr Vikram Sarabhai setupAhmedabad Textiles Industrial Research Association (ATIRA) which helped the booming textiles business in Ahmedabad. He also setup Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT). Not stopping with all these he went ahead and setup Blind Men Association (BMA) which helps visually challenged people with necessary skills and support.

Awards

• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1962)
• Padma Bhushan (1966)
• Padma Vibhushan, posthumous (after-death) (1972)

Distinguished Positions

• President of the Physics section, Indian Science Congress (1962),
• President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A., Verína (1970),
• Vice-President, Fourth U.N. Conference on 'Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy' (1971)

Honors

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), which is the Indian Space Research Organization's lead facility for launch vehicle development located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, is named in his memory.

Chhota Imambara

Chhota Imambara (छोटा इमामबाड़ा), also known as Hussainabad Imambara is an imposing monument located in the city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Built by Muhammad Ali Shah, The third Nawab of Avadh in 1838, it was to serve as his own mausoleum. It is also known as the Palace of Lights because of its decorations during special festivals.

The chandeliers used to decorate the interior of this building was brought from Belgium. Thousands of labourers worked on the project to gain famine relief.

It has a gilded white dome and several turrets and minarets. The tombs of Muhammad Ali Shah and other members of his family are inside the imambara. The walls are decorated with Arabic calligraphy.

Outside the imambara is the watch tower called Satkhanda or tower of seven storeys. Though it is called satkhanda, it has only four storeys, as the construction of the tower was abandoned when Ali Shah died. satkhanda is built between 1837-1842 in the time of mohammad ali shah. mohammad ali shah wanted to made it same as kutubmeenaar of delhi and leaning tower of pisa.the main purpose of this construction is moon watching.