The US space agency NASA, on 4 December 2012 announced plans to send a new robotic explorer to the the Red Planet, Mars in 2020.
The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life.
Some basic guidelines for the mission are already planned. The 2020 rover is going to help NASA in preparing for its eventual goal of bringing samples from Mars back to Earth — an effort most scientists regard as the best way to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.
The unmanned rover's chassis and landing system will be based heavily on NASA's 2.5 billion dollar Curiosity rover, which was send on Mars in August 2012. The Curiosity Rover landed on Mars 5 August 2012 and dropped onto the surface by a rocket-powered sky crane.
It's now four months into a two-year prime mission to determine if the Red Planet can, or ever could, support microbial life. The 1-ton rover carries 10 different science instruments to aid this quest.
The 2020 Curiosity Rover launch would allow NASA to keep contributing to two European-led Mars missions — the Trace Gas Orbiter and the ExoMars rover which is scheduled to lift off in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
KOCHI, India (Reuters) - Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Indian information technology giant Infosys (NSI:INFY.NS - News), stares out from a wall-to-wall poster in a modern office building near Kochi.
A caption reads: "We started Infosys in a room about this size; it's your turn now."
His message is directed at aspiring entrepreneurs at Startup Village, a state-of-the-art glass and steel edifice tucked in a green corner of the port city, who dream of creating the next billion-dollar tech giant.
But even three decades after Infosys, India's second-largest software service provider, was founded by middle-class engineers, the country has failed to create an enabling environment for first-generation entrepreneurs.
Startup Village wants to break the logjam by helping engineers develop 1,000 Internet and mobile companies in the next 10 years. It provides its members with office space, guidance and a chance to hobnob with the stars of the tech industry, including Gopalakrishnan, the project's chief mentor.
But critics say this may not even be the beginning of a game-changer unless India deals with a host of other impediments - from red tape to a lack of innovation and a dearth of investors - that are blocking entrepreneurship in Asia's third-largest economy.
India ranks 74th out of 79 nations in the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index, making it one of the worst places in the world to start a business.
A World Bank report says it is easier to start a business in violence-afflicted Pakistan or poverty-stricken Nepal than in their giant neighbour, where everything from getting electricity to credit is time-consuming and fraught with paperwork.
"Take Apple or take Google. If exactly the same company had been started in India, its prospects would have been very different," said Erkko Autio, chair in technology venturing and entrepreneurship at Imperial College, London. "Basically, it would have not reached the potential it has as a start-up."
Reference: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news
Auditing and governing are two separate functions. But, these are not mutually exclusive. Neither are they independent, nor interdependent. Rather, one reinforces the other. For a company to have a good corporate governance practice, one of the important conditions is to have a voluntary rotation clause for auditors.
However this essential requirement for good corporate governance is not followed that seriously by large-cap companies in India. A recent study conducted by Institutional Investors Advisory Services (IIAS), a voting advisory firm shows that nearly 56% of the Sensex companies and 40% of the Nifty 50 companies have retained the same auditor for more than ten years. This is quite high if one goes by the voluntary code issued by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) that prescribes an auditor rotation every five years. Large companies like Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Hindalco Industries, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Grasim Industries and Jaiprakash Associates have not changed their auditors for more than 20 years.
Companies say long relationships help in familiarising statutory auditors with their systems and processes and, in turn, make the audit process faster, more consistent and efficient. Corporate governance experts and advocacy groups say this practice has created a class of so-called vintage auditors and warn that it may dilute the independence required of auditors. If a company has had the same auditor for long, then knowingly or unknowingly, a comfort zone develops. Rotating the (audit) firm or at least the signing partner brings in some independence.
However, with the passage of the new Companies Bill, this long association between a company and its auditors is set to change. The draft Companies Bill, which is likely to be passed in the ongoing Parliament session, has taken a middle path as it advocates rotation after five years with the flexibility to extend it to 10 years, after which there is a mandatory cooling off period for five years.
Refrence: http://in.finance.yahoo.com
