18 FEBRUARY 2016

Ø  Days after an international team of scientists, including several from India, formally announced that it had detected gravitational waves from deep space, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said it had, “in principle,” approved a proposal to have a gravitational wave detector in India. Those connected with the project said it was an important development and marked the government formally acknowledging it but a final decision regarding the money, and how it would be spent, was still some time away. Current estimates suggest the project would cost at least Rs. 1,200 crore. As The Hindu reported on Monday, the project is still at least eight years away. The gravitational waves were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) — a system of detectors in Washington and Louisiana.

Ø  India and Nepal hope to begin repairing ties as Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli makes his first official visit to India on Friday. But as Mr.Oli lands in Delhi on the six-day visit, the two sides are unlikely to dwell too much on the past few months of strain, choosing instead to focus on the earthquake reconstruction effort, Indian power projects in the pipeline and future cooperation. “Some misunderstandings have emerged in Indo-Nepal relations. My visit will focus on removing them completely and build afresh based on mutual benefit and respect,” Mr.Oli told parliamentarians ahead of the visit, adding, “This visit is to strengthen Indo-Nepal friendship. Not to look back and blame, but to develop trust and understanding”. In accordance with tradition, Mr.Oli is making India his first destination abroad after becoming Prime Minister in October 2015. He will meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and other leaders in Delhi besides visiting two of India’s worst earthquake-hit areas, looking at the hydropower station built in Tehri, Uttarakhand, and reconstruction projects in Bhuj, Gujarat. “We want to show how we have been building the hydropower station and how reconstruction work has been carried out in Gujarat,” India’s Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae told the news agency IANS. Equally clear is the desire on both sides to put events since August 2015 behind them, when India and Nepal fought a public and blistering battle over the new Constitution. India refused to welcome the Nepal Constitution passed in September 2015, as the statute ignored the concerns of groups in the southern Madhes region of Nepal that borders India, and demanded four amendments to be made: on reservations, constituency delimitation, demarcation of provinces and citizenship rights. Nepal’s government, first headed by Sushil Koirala, and then by Mr.Oli, refused to accept amendments under pressure, accusing India of enforcing an economic blockade that crippled the country, and taking the issue to the U.N.

Ø  Imagine an LED bulb doubling up as an access point for connecting to the Internet and ordinary light being used as a medium to carry data. A whole new world wherein a bulb would not only give us light but also help us access the Web might not be too far away, if a new technology called Li-Fi (or Light-Fidelity) goes mainstream. Prof. Harald Haas of the University of Edinburgh, who coined the term Li-Fi in 2011, demonstrated the new technology to a packed auditorium at the Wipro’s Electronics City campus on Wednesday. He streamed a video from the Internet on a laptop using light from an LED bulb to access the Web. Prof. Haas said Li-Fi was a disruptive technology that could transform business models, create new opportunities, and was poised to be a $113 billion industry by 2022. He said that the RF (radio frequency) spectrum would not be enough considering the rate of growth of wireless data communication. The visible light spectrum was much larger. The use of the light spectrum for Li-Fi overcomes the issues in traditional wireless communication, like the shortage of spectrum and network disruption because of interference. In Li-Fi, anyone who has access to light can access the Internet. The system also allows users to move from one light source to another without losing their network connection. What about connecting to the Internet in the night? The stream of photons can be reduced to a minimal level that won’t produce visible light but enough to carry data. Prof. Haas said though Li-Fi was poised to compete with Wi-Fi, it was not meant to replace it. Though the inability of light rays to pass through walls and similar structures is seen as a major drawback of this technology, Prof. Haas has a totally different view. He said it is an advantage since restriction by walls provides more security to the network and eliminates the risk of the signal leakage to eavesdropping. The Li-Flame, described as the world’s first true Li-Fi system, was displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March last year. The third generation of the product has now been developed and will be on display at the MWC later this month.