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NEW DELHI -- India's Tata Motors plans to unveil its ultracheap $2,500 car at an auto show here next month, the company said today.

Analysts believe the car may force other manufacturers to lower their own pricing.

While the price has created a buzz, critics say the vehicle will lead to millions more cars hitting choked Indian roads, adding to mounting air and noise pollution problems. Others have said Tata will have to sacrifice quality and safety standards to meet the price tag.
The four-door car, which will have a rear engine, is expected to go on sale in the later part of 2008, the company said in a statement.

Company chairman Ratan Tata has said the car will be the least polluting vehicle on the Indian roads and meet necessary safety standards.

Initially, the company plans to make between 250,000 to 500,000 of the cars each year, Tata told The Associated Press in a recent interview. While the base model will cost 100,000 rupees, the company will offer two variants with added features, he said.

German auto consulting firm CSM Worldwide has said the new car could help Tata Motors emerge as the country's largest manufacturer of cars and light commercial vehicles by 2013.

Currently, Tata Motors has a 17 percent share of India's market.

Besides the ultracheap car, Tata Motors will also display several new cars that it plans to bring to the Indian market in collaboration with Italian auto maker Fiat Spa. The auto show in New Delhi opens Jan. 9.SOURCE-detnews.com
Will Tata's Rs. One Lakh car be the Sitara of our eyes?
Yesterday, we came to know about a Rs. One lakh car. The car will transport four people, and is supposed to be a bridge between two-wheelers and cars. Only, this wasn't Ratan Tata's famous people's car.

The Sitara, the four-seater car in question is hardly a car. It wasn't made in India either. Launched by Habib Motors in Pakistan, this is a bare-bones four-wheeler. Sporting a 175 cc engine, the Sitara is an open top city-cart. The car runs on petrol, has a 10-litre fuel tank and a four speed manual transmission. It can achieve a top speed of 60 kmph.

We can be almost sure Tata's proposed Rs 1 lakh car will not look anything like this. It will be a no-frills car, yes, but it definitely will not look like a cart, or a four-wheeler autoriskshaw. This is not to take away anything from Habib Motor's heroic attempt. Maybe it is not a proper car or a microcar, but perhaps there is a market in Pakistan for a rickshaw-scooter-cart crossover. I have no clue. Look at it as a four-wheeled motorcycle or scooter, and perhaps all those who have attached sidecars to their scooters and travel with an entire nuclear family in it in India could buy it.We are pretty sure this is nowhere near Tata's car because of one reason - coming out with something like the Sitara would have been too easy for Tata, and they would have already done it if they wanted to.

The latest confirmation on the Rs. 1 lakh small car project came from Ratan Tata himself after the launch of the 'no-frills' hotel. "The Rs 1-lakh car is being developed by us. It will hit the road in three years," Ratan Tata said. It would probably take Tata Motors three months to develop an Indian Sitara. Three years is a reasonable period in which a decent, socially acceptable microcar can be developed. The proposed peoples' car would not be a stripped down version of any existing car. Rather, it would be a ground-breaking experience for Tata Motors, Ratan Tata had said. He had also said that the Rs, One lakh car would meet global safety norms and emission standards. That is going to be one tough task.

Two questions arise: Will it become a reality? If it does, will a sizeable number of people buy it?

Tata Motor's competitors do not - at least publicly - believe it is practical. Business Standard said that 'with taxes accounting for almost half a car's ex-factory cost, Tata will have to produce a car within Rs 70,000 for it to be priced at Rs 1 lakh in the market. At present, they say, it is not possible to make a car for less than Rs 1.5 lakh and costs will only increase over the next five years.' Maruti Udyog's Jagdish said that he did not believe it is possible for Maruti to bring out a car model that costs less than Rs. 1.5 lakh. In the next few years, the possibility of having to meet Euro III or IV emission norms would make it even costlier, according to him.

Hyundai said that it did not believe it is possible for such a car to meet safety standards.
Let us look at Tata's past to find an answer for this.

Remember the one year before the Indica was launched? We had read it over and over in the newspapers and magazines that Tata was working on a car that had the space of a Hindustan Motors Ambassador at the price of a Maruti 800.

Finally, what did we get? We got the Indica, which had nearly the interior space of an Ambassador, but the price was not met. The car cost less than other comparable cars in the market, and was excellent value for money. Seems like that was a case of good intentions that didn't work out as well as expected.

Consider that prices now range from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 for your average 125cc-180cc motorcycle. These prices are inching up. The top-end price for this type of motorcycle would be Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 in three years, which is when Tata is expected to launch its Rs. 1 lakh car. The price difference between this kind of a two-wheeler and Tata's car would be Rs 30,000. It is unlikely that Tata would be able to meet that target. Also remember that it has not been specified in cast-iron terms that the car would cost Rs 1,00,000 THEN. Accounting for inflation, Rs. One lakh in 2007 would be something like Rs 85-90,000 today? (I am bad at this - would appreciate if some reader can give me better figures!) Also, consider that most likely, the car would have a larger engine leading to higher costs.

There have been reasonably good microcars with 600-800 cc engines. Tata Motors do not employ loudmouths, and it is quite possible that they may produce a brilliant automobile. It is just the Rs. One lakh that we are doubtful about. So what if it costs a little more? The critical thing is to make it affordable to those who would not otherwise buy a car.

Next question: Will anyone buy it?

Ah, wish we had a psychologist working with us.

This is the real 0.1 million rupee question! Would it be embarrassing to be seen in a car everyone and his dog costs only Rs One lakh, less than some two-wheelers expected to be in the market by then?

Our guess: If the car looks obviously 'no-frills', no. Indians are pretty much status conscious, and few would want to see the smirks. If the build quality is good, it may sell in some villages, but then it won't be the 'people's car' we expect.

Let's say it costs what Tata says it would, but looks stylish or cute. Things change then. A combination of price, apparent safety, looks which you could fall in love with, no autorickshaw sounds, sufficient power and we may have a cult car that people can't resist buying.

Our prediction: That is Tata's chance. Build a car that costs around Rs one lakh, meet safety and emission standards, but make it look adorable. When you have that lovability factor in a four-wheeler, it has proven irresistible for cars worldwide. That is Tata's only chance to make people forget it costs only Rs One Lakh. Speed does not matter, neither does a large engine. Aren't autorickshaws the fastest off a traffic signal and the quickest way to reach point B from point A in most of the cities?!

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the battle between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft over which company will win the end-of-year sales crown is heating up.
Sony's PlayStation 3 sales nearly quadrupled in November at the expense of Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360. The launch of a new 40-GB model along with price reductions buoyed the PS3, shuttling it beyond the Wii to earn top consoles sales in Japan for the first time.

"The Wii will be the big winner in 2007, but does anybody think Sony is going to be an also-ran player in this market?" asked Mike Goodman, a video game analyst at Yankee Group. "When all is said and done, it's going to be a very close race and different products that are going to dominate in different marketplaces." Games by the Numbers

Nintendo, however, is still king of the next-generation consoles in the U.S. Nintendo sold 981,000 Wii consoles in November, according to the NPD Group. That marks the Wii's highest tally since the console first launched in November 2006. Nintendo could have sold more, if there weren't Wii shortages across the nation. Microsoft's Xbox 360, meanwhile, sold 770,000 units.

For its part, Sony sold 466,000 PS3 units, NPD reported. That's nearly four times the number it sold just a month earlier. Sony slashed the price of its PS3 by $100 in October, peddling the units for $499. The company also launched a new $399 40-GB model last month.

"In the end, it will be a race of percentage points. We won't have a market completely dominated by Sony like we saw in the last generation where the PS2 had 60-plus percent market share," Goodman said. "But in the long run, it's still Sony's market to lose and there's an installed base of 140 million units that says why."

Long Battle Ahead

Sony figures it will sell more than 11 million PS3 units globally by the end of 2007. Analysts said those who are dooming the PS3 are failing to look at the product lifecycle for Sony consoles. Sony's consoles tend to have a 10-year lifespan. In fact, Sony sold 10 million units of the PlayStation 2 in 2007 and projects it will sell another 10 million next year.

"When the Wii and Xbox 360 are gone, Sony is still going to be selling 10 million PS3s a year," Goodman predicted. "For now, they are still making a killing on the PS2." Indeed, the profit margins on the PS2 are healthy, the game royalties are strong, and new software is still being introduced for the platform, Goodman said.

"Sony wanted to sell 20 million units like it did with the PS3 launch. Sony didn't intend to be in third place, but when you look at it in the long run, it's not a bad story for Sony. In some ways, the PS3 is a console that's built for 2010, not necessarily for 2007,Goodman concluded.
SOURCE-yahoo news

1. Hydrogen
Like the new BMW TV ads say, their still-unavailable Hydrogen 7 is "ready for the world… when the world is ready." But progress on California's "hydrogen highway" hasn't quite hit the numbers supporters hoped it would. Fuel-cell technology has alternately been a darling of Wall Street and Detroit for almost a decade now, but we've yet to see many hydrogen-powered vehicles in the wild. The technology seems like an environmentalist's wet dream (literally), with hydrogen bonding with oxygen to produce power and water — and no greenhouse-gas emissions to speak of. But building a new series of hydrogen power stations hasn't been as easy as once thought, and people still think "Hindenberg" when they think "hydrogen," although it seems to be a safe enough technology that transit authorities uses hundreds of hydrogen-powered buses to move us around urban centers. Still, hydrogen's ultimate downfall may be battery technologies and other clean fuels that could overtake it before it has the chance to get wide adoption.

2. Biofuels
This is a fractious bunch of youngsters, with fraternal twins biodiesel and corn-based ethanol trying to keep its younger sibling — cellulosic ethanol — from hogging the family photos. Enormous amounts of capital have flowed into developing both biodiesel (Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is funding the biggest biodiesel refinery in the country in Washington State) and corn-based ethanol (Sun Microsystems founder and venture capital Vinod Khosla has made big bets in this space). Converting vehicles and power plants to these renewable fuels that act and burn like fossil fuels has certainly made much headway. Heck, you could be burning an ethanol blend in your car right now and not even know it, and installing conversion kits for biodiesel makes putting on new spinning rims look tough.

3. Solar
Solar is probably the sexiest of the renewables, what with its black shiny arrays, tilting half-interested at Old Sol. Between tax breaks to install solar panels and new sleeker technology that makes your neighbors want to say "cool roof, man," solar is beginning to take off. Thin-film technology — allowing you to bend the silicon components into more flexible shapes — and increases in solar-cell efficiency mean you can install solar in the Northeast more viably. And momentum is there among legislators as well. In Colorado, the state has passed a "renewable portfolio standard," meaning that not only do utilities need to produce a great deal of renewable energy in the coming decades or face penalties, but they also have to buy a portion of that renewable energy from its customers with solar roofs.

4. Wind
Windmills have come a long way from Kansas farm country and being Don Quixote's nemesis. Wind power first took off — as did many renewable energy sources — in the late '70s and early '80s with the last spike in the price of oil. But after that it stalled until fairly recently. With many states forcing utilities into renewable energy production, this has spurred great technological advances in wind power, and now wind projects are installed or planned in almost every state. The era of having your own windmill, and going "off the grid," is also back, with personal household models costing under $20,000, assuming you have forgiving neighbors. And efficiencies in technology mean you don't need a hurricane to generate a lot of power. But wind's popularity has also created a bottleneck — estimates are that you'll be waiting longer for a wind turbine (about 18 months) than you will for a black Prius.

5. Batteries
They're not really a fuel, but they're the "universal solvent" to our current rate of use of fossil fuels. Technically, we still burn more dinosaur soup making electricity for buildings than on the road, but all those cars and trucks we sit in use energy in other ways, too. They require gas stations everywhere, and that means yet more trucks to haul three grades of gas and Cinnabons to highway rest stops across the country. But new battery technology will last longer and charge more quickly, making it possible to burn the right fuel in the right place, rather than transporting the wrong fuel all over the place. So maybe as you drive from Seattle to Boston, you'll top up your electric or hybrid car with tidal power in Seattle, wind power in Colorado, cellulosic ethanol in Nebraska, biogasoline in Illinois and biomass to carry you into Boston.

6. Tides
Think about how it feels to have someone chucking a bucket of water in your face, then multiply that by several hundred million, and you get an idea of the energy going untapped around our coastlines every day. Test facilities for harnessing tidal power in Canada's Bay of Fundy have been around since the '70s, and San Francisco will be putting in a high-tech tidal plant at the Golden Gate soon. There are certainly environmental concerns around tidal power, since these projects usually involve some kind of plant at the narrow mouth of a bay or inlet, where the water is moving fastest and most violently, meaning it's not so great for the fish or birds nearby. But the future of ocean power is wave technology, where floating platforms and buoys, dozens of miles offshore, harvest the energy of wave motion. Think of an upside-down yo-yo, except your finger is an anchor at the bottom of the ocean, and the spinning spool floats on the surface. As each wave passes, the yo-yo gets pulled up, and pulls your finger… or a turbine.

7. Garbage
Meet the newest member of the energy family: last year's trash. While incinerators haven't really been widespread since the '60s because of pollution concerns, companies like American Combustion are working on the next generation of burning, like their PyreJet. It combines a long-range supersonic oxygen jet and focused carbon injection — essentially a jet engine — to reduce last night's Dominos, a year's worth of Sports Illustrateds you didn't get a chance to read and that old blow-up doll into valuable energy for everyone. Now there's always an answer to, "Who would want that?" when you're at someone else's house.

. Nuclear Fusion
Like that kid in eighth grade who tried to be really cool but annoyed everyone, the nuclear industry has been talking a lot lately, telling everyone at recess about how their emissions "carbon-free." True, but wind power doesn't need to go around the lunchroom calling itself "plutonium-239-free," so quit being a punk or I'll be seeing you after school by the monkey bars at Three Mile Island, and don't tell your homeroom teacher. But if the opposite of hate is love, then the opposite of fission is fusion, and while it's not exactly around the corner, it holds out a lot of promise. Yes, it's the energy choice of the Sun itself, but simply put, in fusion, two lighter atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus. In doing so, it releases a few megatons of energy, ideally producing a waste product more benign, though not harmless, compared to its fissile brother. A European test plant managed to produce an output of 16 megawatts of electricity using fusion (about as much as a coal plant), but only for a few seconds. New test facilities are planned, so who knows? The atom may be our pal after all.

— Trevor Curwin
source-http://blog.scifi.com

Our next stop will be Japan, where we will investigate the language of cleanliness. The Japanese have a fascination with cleanliness – separating their living spaces into “clean” and “unclean” areas – and this naturally results in a culture obsessed with toilets. (Seeing that my most popular posts have dealt with man marble injuries and truck nuts, I thought that the subject of toilets may satisfy you need for “potty humor”).

Wikipedia describes the culture of cleanliness in Japan quite well:


In Japan, being clean is very important, and some Japanese words for 'clean' can be used to describe beauty. The word kirei (??, ???) can be defined as "pretty, beautiful; clean; pure; orderly."

Perhaps this explains the popularity of the Japan-based company Toto, the world’s largest manufacturer of toilets. Toto not only produces the largest number of toilets worldwide, they’re also responsible for the world’s most advanced toilets, known as Washlets (???????) in Japan.

For example, the Toto s400, pictured above, includes cleansing water jets with adjustable water temperature, adjustable temperature air blowers, air purifiers (for the benefit of bystanders), an auto open and close heated seat, and a remote control panel that looks like the cockpit of the space shuttle. Some even play the first few tunes of Op. 62 Nr. 6 Frühlingslied by Felix Mendelssohn to relax your…mind.

Now, I agree that cleanliness is next to Godliness. But Holy Crap! Ahem…seems like holy crap is something you would want to flush down one of those things. And I’d be afraid I would push the wrong button and blast my nubblies off into outer space. In fact, in Britain, an advanced “Super Toilet” did recently blow itself to pieces due to an electrical malfunction. Talk about explosive diarrhea…

Seriously, it looks like you can order pizza and withdraw money from that control panel. Japanese people will soon be able to live their entire life from a sitting position. I mean it’s pretty neat and all that an entire Culture of Crappers has emerged in Japan, but I just don’t get the Japanese language of cleanliness.

Can you help me translate?

IBM is transforming its scrap silicon wafers into profitable material used to produce solar panels.

IBM describes the new silicon retrieval process as a "specialized pattern removal technique," although it bares a striking resemblance to just buffing a wafer with an abrasive pad. By stripping the etched layers of semiconductor designs that contain intellectual property, IBM can repurpose the scrap wafers to sell to the solar industry, which is suffering from a silicon shortage.

Of course, the process could be more complex than it looks, as IBM is rather pleased with itself for thinking it up. IBM even scored the company a Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award from The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable 2007 for its chip rub.

Judge for yourself on a short video IBM has prepared.



The silicon disks can also be reused in internal manufacturing calibration — but that doesn't grab a company any eco-points.

Chipmakers use silicon wafers as the starting material for manufacturing microelectronic products. IBM estimates that up to 3.3 per cent of its started wafers get scrapped. This amounts to approximately three million discarded wafers per year, the company said. Usually those wafers are crushed and sent to landfills or melted down and resold.

The price of polysilicon wafers for solar cells has steadily been rising as the worldwide green infatuation has put a shortage on the necessary materials. Some predict that a continued cost increase, will push solar makers beyond their profit margins.

IBM predicts by selling refurbished wafers to the solar industry it will save over $1m annually.

The reclamation process is currently in use at IBM's Burlington, VT facility and in the process of being implemented at IBM's East Fishkill, NY, semiconductor fabrication plant.

1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
3. The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC.
More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60
subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was
one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of
education.
4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable
language for computer software.

5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty
striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was
once the richest empire on earth.

7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago.
The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained
the concept of what is now k! nown as the Pythagorean Theorem. British
scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's
works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European
mathematicians.

9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India . Quadratic
equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest
numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used
numbers as big as 10 53.
10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896,
India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion
amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was
Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in
Saurashtra.

13. Chess was invented in India .
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health
scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract,
fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in
ancient India .
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers
over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu
Valley ( Indus Valley Civilisation).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India
in 100 BC.

Is it time to say goodbye to CDs, DVDs, Zip drives?

A Kerala student has developed a technique for portable data whereby the data can now be stored on ordinary paper. And to boot, larger amounts of data can be had on lesser space.

The immediate question that pops into the mind is how to retrieve the data. Will it be as easy as feeding a floppy disc or CD into the drive and having it on the monitor? Perhaps it will be much easier than that. The piece of paper or even plastic sheet storing the data has only to be scanned in the scanner and read over the monitor. So wait, scan drive would be part of your computer.

Named “Rainbow Technology”, the new technique is the brainchild of Sainul Abideen, who has just finished his MCA at Muslim Educational Society Engineering College in Kuttipuram in Kerala’s Malappuram district.

The extremely low-cost technology will drastically reduce the cost of storage and provide for high-speed storage as well. Files in any format such as movie files, songs, images and text can be stored using this technology.

Currently, of the several options available for data storage, DVDs are the best mode. But a high quality DVD, which is very expensive can store only about 4.7 gigabyte (GB) of data. In contrast, the Rainbow Versatile Disc (RVD) can store 90 to 450 GB. And Sainul has simultaneously developed a scanning drive based on his Rainbow software which will come in smaller sizes to be initially carried with the laptops and later to fit into their bodies.

Sainul says a CD or DVD consumes 16 grams of polycarbonate, a petroleum by-product. While a CD costs Rs.15 (SR1.25), his paper or plastic-made RVD will cost just about Rs.1.50 and has 131 times more storage capacity.

Sainul, who has just turned 24, says that instead of using zeroes and ones for computing, he used geometric shapes such as circles, squares and triangles for computing which combine with various colors and preserve the data in images. An RVD therefore looks like a printout of modern art.

He says all kinds of data has to be first converted into a common format called “Rainbow Format.”

In a demo at his college laboratory, this writer could see text typed on 432 pages of foolscap paper being stored in a four square inch paper. The writer was even shown a 45-second video clip of a Malayalam film stored on an ordinary paper. Sainul was guided by Prof. Hyderali, head of the MCA Department at the College in all these projects.

Sainul says the biggest advantage of the new technology will be the biodegradable nature of his storage devices which will do away with e-waste pollution.

He says with the popularity of his Rainbow Technology, computer or fashion magazines in future need not carry CDs in a pack.

read full story here

A BRAVE kelpie called Tess is in a coma after saving her owner from a deadly eastern brown snake, possibly at the cost of her own life.

Tallebudgera Valley retiree Fay Palethorpe, 68, was in the garden of her 8ha (20 acre) property in Syndicate Road when she came across the snake about 9.30am on Sunday.

One-year-old Tess and Ms Palethorpe's two other kelpies, including the puppy's father Widgee, sprang into action and attacked the highly venomous snake as it lunged for their owner.

The snake was injured and fled but Tess was bitten on the ear in the melee.

The brave dog now lies fighting for her life in a Tugun veterinary surgery.

"He was the biggest snake I've ever seen. I would have said about 6 feet (1.8m)," said Ms Palethorpe, who lives alone on the land she has owned for 30 years.

"I couldn't have got away from it. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her (Tess).

"The snake was lying on a rock and it saw me the same time I saw it. It reared up and just went for me.

"I just screamed and screamed and turned and ran.

"All of the dogs just came out of nowhere and went for it. I knew it was a brown snake so I screamed out for them to leave.

"The other two left but Tess wouldn't. She had it and was throwing it back and forth. I heard Tess scream. It had got her on the ear."

Ms Palethorpe said her attention turned to getting her dog to a vet on a Sunday morning.

"She was in a pretty bad way. I rang around to find an emergency vet and by the time I got her to the vet she was weeing blood." she said.

Unable to afford the $1500 for emergency treatment, she refused to let her saviour be put down and borrowed $1300 from a son, despite there being no guarantee of a recovery.

"I just hope she gets better. She really could have given her life for mine," she said.

"I've now got her at my regular vet who I've known for 30 years.

"I went on the Monday morning and asked if I could see her. They said, 'It's not very nice, she's in a coma', but when she heard my voice she started wagging her tail."

Tugun-based veterinarian Dr Bob Prescott is currently caring for Tess and said the dog had made slow but steady progress since Sunday.

"She was completely paralysed and she couldn't even blink her eyes," he said.

"Now she can blink her eyes and move her legs. I think we've turned a corner."

While Dr Prescott was hopeful for Tess, he said there was still a long way to go.

"She's still partly paralysed and looks very dazed. She has trouble lifting her head," he said.

"The main treatment was the antivenene but we've still got her on an intravenous drip to try and flush the rest of the poison out.

"Snake bites are touch and go and we probably lose about 50 per cent of them."

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary life sciences curator Matt Hingley said eastern brown snakes were among the most venomous in the world.

"It's in the world's top three. It has a fast-acting venom and it is able to rapidly administer that venom," he said.

"Patients tend to respond relatively well to the antivenine but it can be hit and miss with the eastern brown."

What’s more, one in six working women nationwide has no say in how her earnings are spent, with her husband or in-laws making the decision for her


One in four, or 25% of Indian women do not get any form of payment for their work, compared to only 5% of Indian men, according to the results of the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) released on October 11. Women below 20 were least likely to receive only cash wages and most likely to be engaged in wage-less work, the survey found.

India’s most comprehensive health and social indicators survey ever, which interviewed 1.25 lakh women and 75,000 men aged 15-59 across 29 Indian states and the national capital New Delhi, in 2005-2006, found extreme gender disparities with regard to participation in the workforce and compensation.

It also provides valuable insight into the role that age plays in women’s employability, and sharp regional, community and religious disparities in women’s employment as well as the extent of working women’s financial empowerment.

Nationally, 43% of currently married women, aged 15-49, are employed, compared to almost 99% of married men, 92% of whom get cash wages for their labour, NFHS-III reported. Only 51% work exclusively for cash wages while 13% receive payment in both cash and kind.

Women aged 35-39 were found to be most likely to be employed and least likely not to receive any cash wages. Nonetheless, even in this age-group, one in five women does not receive cash payment for the work.

Kamla Gupta from the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, one of the 18 research institutes that conducted the NFHS says: “Employment among currently married women increases from 31% in the age-group 15-19, to 50% in the age-group 35-39, and then declines to 45% in the oldest age-group. In contrast, employment among married men does not vary across states. In all states, 96% or more married men were employed.”

Among employed women, those aged 15-19 were least likely to be employed for cash only (39%) and also most likely to be employed in work for which they don’t receive any form of compensation.

More tellingly, one in six working women nationwide has no say in how her earnings are spent, with her husband or in-laws making the decision for her. Even in the oldest age-group of working women, the wealthiest and the most highly educated, only between 28-31% said they decided how to spend their wages.

Even in states where at least three out of four employed married women earn in cash, like Kerala (91%), Tamil Nadu (90%), Goa (83%), Assam (85%) and West Bengal (83%), women don’t have control over their earnings.

However, the level of financial control over one’s earnings did vary according to religion if not by region, the NFHS found. Among Buddhists and Hindus, the husband was more likely to have a greater say in how his wife’s earnings were spent (15%-16%). By contrast, Muslim and Jain women enjoyed a greater level of financial empowerment than other communities, with up to 38% saying they had a major say in how their wages were spent.

“Financial empowerment also requires control over the use of one’s earnings. When women in the survey were asked who decides how the money they earn will be spent, only 24% who earned said they decided on their own what to do with the money they earned, while 57% said their husbands had a major say. For 15%, the husband single-handedly made that decision,” says Gupta.

Freedom of movement was also a luxury for most of the women surveyed. While only about half were allowed to go shopping or to a health facility alone, only 38% were allowed to travel unaccompanied outside their city or village.

Source: PTI, October 14, 2007
www.nfhs.nic.in, October 11, 2007