Sunspots point to looming Europe terror attacks fail to ...
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PRAYERS FOR WELL-BEING Yogesh Chawda Devotees offer prayers on the last day of 557th Urs at Shah-e-Alam dargah in the city on Tuesday Ahmedabad: City-based businessman Rishabh Ba- gadia, 37, is set to embark on a two-week Europe tour along with his family and friends in a few days. The bookings were done in ad- vance, with the children’s vacations in mind. The re- cent terror attacks have not spurred any change in tra- vel plans for Rishabh and his friends. And Rishabh is not alone. Scores of Gujara- tis will be travelling to Eu- rope for their summer bre- ak this year. According to tour opera- tors and travel agencies, the terror attacks in Brus- sels and Paris have failed to dampen the spirit of Guja- rati tourists headed to Eu- rope for their summer holi- days. The Scandinavian co- untries, beside Switzerland and France, continue to be firm favourites. Travel ope- rators claim there is a 25% surge in bookings for sum- mer holidays this year, with Europe and then the USA being the most preferred destinations. “We have witnessed an impressive growth in boo- kings of more than 26% from the Gujarat region. Not just from Ahmedabad, but equally in mini metros of Vadodara, Surat and Raj- kot. There is high demand for countries like Switzer- land, Germany, France, Spain and Italy,” said Raje- ev D Kale, president and co- untry head, leisure travel, Thomas Cook India Ltd. Summer tours to desti- nations like Europe and the USA are booked well in ad- vance, as early as January. “Advance bookings were quite good and until now we have not received many re- quests for cancellation or changes in plans by tourists from Gujarat,” said Sanje- ev Chhajer, vice-president, Cox & Kings Ltd. “While we did receive queries from customers, we have got zero cancellations till date. Also, besides the traditional favourites, new destinations such as Flan- ders, Lucerne, Ireland, Vi- enna, Scandinavia and North France’s Picardy are strongly emerging as new favourites among tourists to Europe,” added Kale. Though there are no can- cellations, tourists to Euro- pe are taking precautions in their own way. These in- clude avoiding the exact terror attack spots in cities such as Paris, and using pri- vate vehicles instead of public transport among other measures. “Family holiday boo- kings in the Ahmedabad re- gion have risen by around 15% compared to last year. Close to 65% of family vaca- tion tours happen in the summer,” said Karan Anand, head, relations- hips, Cox & Kings Ltd. According to a city-ba- sed tour operator, the rush for holidays in Europe is such that visa processing for countries like UK, Swit- zerland, France and other big destinations is taking around 10-15 days. Europe terror attacks fail to deter Gujarati tourists Overall Summer Bookings Up 25% In 2016 PiyushMishra @timesgroup.com Gandhinagar: Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, and Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat has written a let- ter Union finance minister Arun Jaitley for withdrawal of Central excise duty on the gems & jewellery industry. Patel wrote that imposition of central excise duty of 1%, or 12.5% with input credit on gems and jewellery industry, is a massive disappointment for more than 1 crore artisans, ka- rigars and goldsmiths whose li- velihood is dependent on the industry. It is estimated that the jewellery industry is pay- ing around Rs30,000 crore tax annually, and one crore people are directly, and six crore peo- ple indirectly employed in this industry. He said that it is surprising that the government, which is championing ‘ease of doing business’’ and has launched programs like ‘Make in India’ has chosen to increase red tape for this critical sector. He said that he got several representations on the issue and requests immediate roll- back of the excise duty on the sector. The indefinite strike by jewellers across Gujarat ente- red its 36th day on Tuesday as all jewellery shops remained shut throughout the state. At the same time, losses by jewel- lers have crossed Rs 10,000 cro- re mark. Meanwhile, more than 500 jewellers from the city held a candlelight vigil in Ma- nek Chowk on Tuesday eve- ning. Since March 2, more than 50,000 jewellers of the state ha- ve been protesting against the proposed 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery items as well as mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transac- tion of Rs 2 lakh and above. The striking jewellers want complete rollback of ex- cise duty and claim to continue their strike till their demands are met. Withdraw excise duty on gems, jewellery: Ahmed Patel to Jaitley Ahmedabad: As many as 33 employees of Tata Con- sultancy Services (TCS) fell ill after consuming ‘chhole bhatoore’ at their canteen on Tuesday and were rushed to a nearby private hospital in Gand- hinagar. Doctors said that five employees are still hospi- talized, while the rest we- re discharged after treat- ment. TCS has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Dr Piyasha Nath, medi- cal superintendent of Apollo Hospital, said that the employees were bro- ught to the hospital at aro- und 6.45pm on Tuesday. “All of them were complai- ning of food poisoning like symptoms like nau- sea and vomiting,” she sa- id. “We have kept five pati- ents under observation and are waiting for their condition to stabilize,” Nath said. According to a TCS employee, the employees fell ill after having lunch in the canteen in IT Gari- ma Park office of the com- pany in Gandhinagar. TCS spokesperson sa- id, “Some of our employe- es suffered from food poi- soning. TCS immediately brought in doctors and medical help to make sure that all them were given medical help, treated qu- ickly and put on a path to recovery. We have set up a team to investigate and ascertain the exact cause behind this outbreak.” The IT Garima Park of TCS is constructed on an area of 25 acres, allotted by the state government in Gandhinagar and was opened in November 2013. Chhole bhatoore fells 33 TCS staffers TIMES NEWS NETWORK Ahmedabad: Meghaniagar- based Raksha Shakti Universi- ty (RSU) would launch free le- gal aid clinic for economically backward sections of the socie- ty from April 11. According to the university officials, the facility would be run by the faculties and stu- dents of law at RSU. “Introdu- cing such clinic will enable the students and faculties to help needy people in getting right legal guidance free of cost and serve the mission of the uni- versity. Students of LLM and other courses have good knowledge of various Indian laws for the purpose and would also provi- de them practical exposure of legal applications,” said an RSU official. The clinic would remain open from 10am to 5pm on wor- king days, they added. TNN RSU to launch free legal aid clinic Ahmedabad: At least four major accidents involving the GSRTC buses are reported every two days, and of these, at least one is fatal. The steep rise in the percentage of fatalities in major accidents has left GSRTC officials worried. In 2012-2013 there were only 130 fa- tal accidents among 734 major accidents. The number rose to 145 fatal accidents as against 588 major accidents in year 2014-15, said officials. Officials in the department said that in 40% cases, the acci- dents were found to be due to negligence of the GSRTC bus driver, while another 30% we- re because of faulty road engi- neering, and the remaining were due to the third party or other reasons, when such acci- dents took place. Internal survey of the de- partment has also revealed that use of mobile phone while driving was one of the major cause of accidents, said GSRTC officials. Sources said that around 20% accidents happened from talking on mo- bile phones while driving. Sources in the department said that the department has decided that all major acci- dents like that in Navsari will be investigated thoroughly by the technical team of the GSRTC to ascertain causes of the accidents. D D Kapadiya, general ma- nager of GSRTC, said, “We ha- ve issued strict warnings to drivers instructing them not to use mobile phones while they are driving. We have also given WhatsApp number for passengers to inform authori- ties if a driver was found mis- behaving or was talking on the phone.” Despite issuing strict instructions, officials found six drivers using phones while driving, he said. Kapadiya further said that after the Navsari incident a massive drive has been under- taken, and every driver was be- ing given training of behavio- ur, driving skills and road safe- ty. He said that the GSRTC has around 8,000 buses on road which make 44,000 trips and have a daily passenger carry- ing capacity of 24 lakh. GSRTC worried over rise in fatal collisions Himanshu.Kaushik @timesgroup.com Ahmedabad: The parents of 11 students admitted to Racha- na School in Shahibaug resor- ted to a dharna after the school authorities decided to disconti- nue their admission in the cur- rent academic session, which began in April this ye- ar. According to the school authorities, these 11 students do not have the re- quired documents to meet the criteria for admission under RTE. The school says it suspec- ted that the parents of these 11 students were not from poor backgrounds. There was a su- spicion that these parents had bungalows and their electrici- ty bills ranged between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000. According to the RTE norms, the family should have a Below Poverty Line card. A meeting of the manage- ment and the district educa- tion officer was held, where the DEO had asked the school to permit these 11 students to at- tend classes. However, on Tues- day when the students went to the school were turned away by the management. A compla- int was lod- ged with the State Commission for Protec- tion of Child Rights, of which Jagruti Pandya is chairperson. Pandya immediately called the DEO and the management and heard the matter. The DEO has given the school one week’s ti- me to the school management to admit the students failing which they will face legal ac- tion. However, the manage- ment remained adamant and is not willing to allow these stu- dents in. Parents of 11 RTE kids hold dharna Ahmedabad: Security guards at the family court had to inter- vene when a woman started beating her husband just outsi- de the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon. The man, who was reques- ting his estranged wife to re- turn home, refused to file a complaint with police against the woman. The incident hap- pened when a diamond worker from Thakkarbapanagar ca- me to court to attend procee- ding at the family court near Income Tax Circle, because his wife filed a plea seeking main- tenance for herself and a mi- nor daughter. As soon as the husband approached the wo- man to request her not to drag him into litigation and return home, the latter got angry and started demanding a divorce and an alimony payment of Rs 10 lakh. When the man said that he was a diamond worker and couldn’t manage such a huge sum, the woman went berserk and started slapping him and tore his clothes. The intervention of police officials was required to protect the man from his wife. TNN Woman beats husband at family court Family holiday bookings in the Ahmedabad region have risen by around 15% compared to last year TIMES CITY THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016 UNSHELTERED LABOURERS BECOME EASY TARGETS FOR LIONS, SAY FOREST OFFICIALS | 4 ‘BHARAT MATA KI JAI’ SHOULD NOT BE FORCED ON OTHERS: SADHGURU | 4 I t needs mention that seventh century Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang had men- tioned 10 monasteries at Anandpur (pre- sent Vadnagar) housing 1,000 monks. Exca- vation so far by the state archaeology de- partment has revealed one monastery near Ghaskol Darwaja in the town even as fur- ther excavation by ASI is under way. A bronze statue of Lord Buddha, with inscription stating it as a gift from a Budd- hist nun, is preserved in Kutch. Daddadevi, sister of Valabhi ruler Dhruvsen, had also made a number of donations specifically for nunneries in the 5th century. It is also believed that Therigatha, a collection of verses in Pali talking about the life and times of Gautam Buddha, is the world’s first collection of writings by Buddhist nuns, some of whom belonged to coastal Gujarat. Hiuen-Tsang noted 10 monasteries at Anandpur Continued from P1 O fficials said that during medical check-up it was revealed that drivers who were above 40 years of age had major spinal issues and blood pressure problems. The average age of drivers in GSRTC was around 45 years. The officials said that officers also found that drivers were overworked and they were working for more than eight to nine hours. TNN Drivers above 40 have spinal, blood pressure troubles Jewellers held a candlelight vigil at Manek Chowk on Tuesday TIMES NEWS NETWORK Yogesh Chawda RACHANA SCHOOL TIMES NEWS NETWORK Ahmedabad: Vehicular traffic from SP Stadium in Navrangpura to the Sardar Patel statue will be diverted from 3 pm to 6 pm on Wed- nesdayfor BJP’s rally, a notification by city police commissioner said. “Diversions have been provided from Stadium crossroads to Commerce Six Roads to Navrang Circle and Sardar Patel statue to Usmanpura to Ashram Road. Usmanpura underpass has also been covered in the scheme as riders would be able to to towards Naran- pura chowky to Ashram Road and Income Tax circle to Lakhudi circle,” said a traffic branch official. TNN Traffic to be diverted for BJP rally Sunspots point to looming Paul.John@timesgroup.com O ur blazing sun has been eerily turn- ing quiet and growing less active over the last two decades. Scientists and astronomers from Physical Re- search Laboratory in India and their coun- terparts in China and Japan are now relying on fresh evidence to indicate that we may be heading for another “little ice age” or even a more extended period of low solar activity — a Maunder Minimum — by 2020 as indi- cated by the lower than average sunspot number count. The Maunder Minimum was a period between 1645 and 1715 AD when the sun was almost completely spotless and when Europe and much of the earth witnessed extremely harsh winters. In a recently published research, ‘A 20 year decline in solar photospheric magnetic field: Inner heliospheric signatures and pos- sible implications’ published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) recently, as- tronomers indicate that over the last 20 years there has been a steady decline in the sun’s photospheric (sun’s surface) and interplan- etary or heliospheric magnetic fields. This is indicated by a drastic decline in the num- ber of sun spots on its surface and a corre- sponding decrease in solar wind microtur- bulence in the Sun’s last two 11-year solar cycles. We are currently in solar cycle 24, which is expected to end in 2020. During peak solar cycle periods, the num- ber of sunspots increase to 200. They dropped to as low as 50 during the solar cycle just preced- ing the Maunder Minimum. The research pa- per indicates that in solar cycle 23, there were a minimum average number of 75 sunspots towards the end of the cycle, while the peak number of sunspots in our current solar cycle 24 on November 2013 was 62, and this number has been steadily decreasing ever since. “During Maunder Minimum, the Sun be- comes quiet, indicated by the near disappear- ance of sunspots that are typically present. In the last 11,000 years, there have been 27 Maunder Minimums,” says dean of Physical Research Laboratory P Janardhan, who is the lead author of the research paper along with six others which includes Susanta Kumar Bisoi of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei- jing, K Fujiki and M Tokumaru of Nagoya University Japan, L Jose and R Sridharan of PRL’s space and atmospheric sciences division and S Ananthakrishnan of the depart- ment of electronic sciences, Pune University. The Maunder Minimum condition is pre- dicted to intensify beyond cycle 25, or between 2030 and 2040 during solar cycle 26. Recently, Sun stayed quieter for longer TIMES NEWS NETWORK A sure sign indicating that we are probably on the verge of a “little ice age” came after as- tronomers found that our current solar cycle 24 was preceded by one of the deepest solar minima experi- enced in the last 100 years. This caused the current solar cycle to start 1.3 years later than expected. Another important in- dication was when scientists found that the umbral magnetic fields of the sunspots—regions of intense magnetic fields— was declining by approximately 50 gauss every year since 1998. “If umbral magnetic field strengths on the Sun’s surface drop to around 1,500 gauss, there will be no difference in brightness between cooler, dark sunspot regions and the bright Sun’s surface, causing sun- spots to disappear from the Sun’s surface. We predict such a phenom- enon by the end of the next solar cycle around 2030,” claims the re- search paper. The paper also men- tions that in the solar cycle preceding the Maunder Minimum, there were only around 50 sun spots during peak solar activity. Interestingly, the re- search paper estimated the expected peak sunspot number for cycle 24 at 62, with an error of 12 more or 12 less, while the actual peak sunspot count for cycle 24 was close to 80. The research paper relied on data from National Solar Observatory, US which showed a steady decline in solar photospheric magnetic fields starting from the early to mid 1990’s. While the data from the solar wind observatory operating at radio wave- length of close to 1 metre, at Nagoya University, Japan indicated a similar decline in solar wind microturbu- lence levels in the inner heliosphere, the region of space between the Sun and the Earth. Declining Speckles On Sun Portend A Chilling Change MAUNDER MINIMUM? TROUGH SOLAR WHAT IS A ‘LITTLE ICE AGE’ T he ‘little ice age’, began in 1300 and ended in 1870. It had intensified between 1645 and 1715, the period referred to as ‘Maunder Minimum’ corresponding with intense cold. This period proved distressing for humans across the planet, especially northern Europe, as it led to crop failures, intensifying diseases, unpredictable weather and ultimately socio-economic unrest. Average global temperatures dropped 1.5 degrees celsius, with greater seasonal variation. WHAT IS A SOLAR CYCLE T he Sun, goes through phases of cycling between a violent (maximum phase) and a quiet (minimum phase) activity every 11 years. This is called one solar cycle. In this cycle, there are changes in the levels of solar radiation and the rate of ejection of solar material and changes in the number of sunspots, flares, and other manifestations. MODERN ICE AGE : A 17th century painting of the frozen river Thames which became a favourite venue for the ‘Frost Festival’ HIGHLIGHTS OF MAUNDER MINIMUM ‘LITTLE ICE AGE’ ➤ There have been 27 episodes of Maunder Minimum in the last 11,000 years ➤ In a few instances each Maunder Minimum period continued for around 77 years ➤ Between 1645 and 1715, sunspots were absent. This led to a drop in Northern Hemisphere temperatures by 2 to 3 degrees ➤ Harsh winters and unsettled summers will become more frequent The number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface will reduce from 80 now to 62 or lower from the year 2020 onwards Doctors said that five employees are still hospitalized, while the rest were discharged after treatment. TCS has ordered an inquiry into the incident
Transcript of Sunspots point to looming Europe terror attacks fail to ...
PRAYERS FOR WELL-BEING Yogesh Chawda
Devotees offer prayers on the last day of 557th Urs at Shah-e-Alam dargah in the city on Tuesday
Ahmedabad: City-basedbusinessman Rishabh Ba-gadia, 37, is set to embarkon a two-week Europe touralong with his family andfriends in a few days. Thebookings were done in ad-vance, with the children’svacations in mind. The re-cent terror attacks have notspurred any change in tra-vel plans for Rishabh andhis friends. And Rishabh isnot alone. Scores of Gujara-tis will be travelling to Eu-rope for their summer bre-ak this year.
According to tour opera-tors and travel agencies,the terror attacks in Brus-sels and Paris have failed todampen the spirit of Guja-rati tourists headed to Eu-rope for their summer holi-days.
The Scandinavian co-untries, beside Switzerlandand France, continue to befirm favourites. Travel ope-rators claim there is a 25%surge in bookings for sum-mer holidays this year, withEurope and then the USAbeing the most preferreddestinations.
“We have witnessed animpressive growth in boo-kings of more than 26%from the Gujarat region.Not just from Ahmedabad,
but equally in mini metrosof Vadodara, Surat and Raj-kot. There is high demandfor countries like Switzer-land, Germany, France,Spain and Italy,” said Raje-ev D Kale, president and co-untry head, leisure travel,Thomas Cook India Ltd.
Summer tours to desti-nations like Europe and theUSA are booked well in ad-vance, as early as January.“Advance bookings werequite good and until now wehave not received many re-quests for cancellation orchanges in plans by touristsfrom Gujarat,” said Sanje-ev Chhajer, vice-president,Cox & Kings Ltd.
“While we did receivequeries from customers, wehave got zero cancellationstill date. Also, besides thetraditional favourites, newdestinations such as Flan-ders, Lucerne, Ireland, Vi-enna, Scandinavia andNorth France’s Picardy are
strongly emerging as newfavourites among touriststo Europe,” added Kale.
Though there are no can-cellations, tourists to Euro-pe are taking precautionsin their own way. These in-clude avoiding the exactterror attack spots in citiessuch as Paris, and using pri-vate vehicles instead ofpublic transport amongother measures.
“Family holiday boo-kings in the Ahmedabad re-gion have risen by around15% compared to last year.Close to 65% of family vaca-tion tours happen in thesummer,” said KaranAnand, head, relations-hips, Cox & Kings Ltd.
According to a city-ba-sed tour operator, the rushfor holidays in Europe issuch that visa processingfor countries like UK, Swit-zerland, France and otherbig destinations is takingaround 10-15 days.
Europe terror attacks failto deter Gujarati tourists
OverallSummer
Bookings Up25% In 2016
Gandhinagar: Ahmed Patel,political secretary to SoniaGandhi, and Rajya Sabha MPfrom Gujarat has written a let-ter Union finance ministerArun Jaitley for withdrawal ofCentral excise duty on thegems & jewellery industry.
Patel wrote that impositionof central excise duty of 1%, or12.5% with input credit ongems and jewellery industry, isa massive disappointment formore than 1crore artisans, ka-rigars and goldsmiths whose li-velihood is dependent on theindustry. It is estimated thatthe jewellery industry is pay-ing around Rs30,000 crore taxannually, and one crore peopleare directly, and six crore peo-ple indirectly employed in thisindustry.
He said that it is surprisingthat the government, which ischampioning ‘ease of doingbusiness’’ and has launchedprograms like ‘Make in India’
has chosen to increase red tapefor this critical sector.
He said that he got severalrepresentations on the issueand requests immediate roll-back of the excise duty on thesector. The indefinite strike byjewellers across Gujarat ente-red its 36th day on Tuesday asall jewellery shops remainedshut throughout the state. Atthe same time, losses by jewel-lers have crossed Rs 10,000 cro-re mark. Meanwhile, morethan 500 jewellers from the city
held a candlelight vigil in Ma-nek Chowk on Tuesday eve-ning. Since March 2, more than50,000 jewellers of the state ha-ve been protesting against theproposed 1% excise duty onnon-silver jewellery items aswell as mandatory quoting ofPAN by customers for transac-tion of Rs 2 lakh and above.
The striking jewellerswant complete rollback of ex-cise duty and claim to continuetheir strike till their demandsare met.
Withdraw excise duty on gems,jewellery: Ahmed Patel to Jaitley Ahmedabad: As many as
33 employees of Tata Con-sultancy Services (TCS)fell ill after consuming‘chhole bhatoore’ at theircanteen on Tuesday andwere rushed to a nearbyprivate hospital in Gand-hinagar.
Doctors said that fiveemployees are still hospi-talized, while the rest we-re discharged after treat-ment. TCS has ordered aninquiry into the incident.
Dr Piyasha Nath, medi-cal superintendent ofApollo Hospital, said thatthe employees were bro-ught to the hospital at aro-und 6.45pm on Tuesday.“All of them were complai-ning of food poisoninglike symptoms like nau-sea and vomiting,” she sa-id.
“We have kept five pati-ents under observationand are waiting for theircondition to stabilize,”Nath said.
According to a TCS
employee, the employeesfell ill after having lunchin the canteen in IT Gari-ma Park office of the com-pany in Gandhinagar.
TCS spokesperson sa-id, “Some of our employe-es suffered from food poi-soning. TCS immediatelybrought in doctors andmedical help to make surethat all them were givenmedical help, treated qu-ickly and put on a path torecovery. We have set up ateam to investigate andascertain the exact causebehind this outbreak.”
The IT Garima Park ofTCS is constructed on anarea of 25 acres, allottedby the state government inGandhinagar and wasopened in November 2013.
Chhole bhatoorefells 33 TCS staffers
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: Meghaniagar-based Raksha Shakti Universi-ty (RSU) would launch free le-gal aid clinic for economicallybackward sections of the socie-ty from April 11.
According to the universityofficials, the facility would berun by the faculties and stu-dents of law at RSU. “Introdu-cing such clinic will enable thestudents and faculties to helpneedy people in getting rightlegal guidance free of cost andserve the mission of the uni-versity.
Students of LLM and othercourses have good knowledgeof various Indian laws for thepurpose and would also provi-de them practical exposure oflegal applications,” said anRSU official.
The clinic would remainopen from 10am to 5pm on wor-king days, they added. TNN
RSU to launchfree legal aid clinic
Ahmedabad: At least fourmajor accidents involving theGSRTC buses are reportedevery two days, and of these, atleast one is fatal. The steep risein the percentage of fatalitiesin major accidents has leftGSRTC officials worried. In2012-2013 there were only 130 fa-tal accidents among 734 majoraccidents. The number rose to145 fatal accidents as against588 major accidents in year2014-15, said officials.
Officials in the departmentsaid that in 40% cases, the acci-dents were found to be due tonegligence of the GSRTC busdriver, while another 30% we-re because of faulty road engi-neering, and the remainingwere due to the third party orother reasons, when such acci-dents took place.
Internal survey of the de-partment has also revealedthat use of mobile phone whiledriving was one of the majorcause of accidents, saidGSRTC officials. Sources saidthat around 20% accidentshappened from talking on mo-bile phones while driving.
Sources in the departmentsaid that the department hasdecided that all major acci-dents like that in Navsari willbe investigated thoroughly bythe technical team of theGSRTC to ascertain causes ofthe accidents.
D D Kapadiya, general ma-
nager of GSRTC, said, “We ha-ve issued strict warnings todrivers instructing them notto use mobile phones whilethey are driving. We have alsogiven WhatsApp number forpassengers to inform authori-ties if a driver was found mis-behaving or was talking on thephone.” Despite issuing strictinstructions, officials foundsix drivers using phones whiledriving, he said.
Kapadiya further said thatafter the Navsari incident amassive drive has been under-taken, and every driver was be-ing given training of behavio-ur, driving skills and road safe-ty. He said that the GSRTC hasaround 8,000 buses on roadwhich make 44,000 trips andhave a daily passenger carry-ing capacity of 24 lakh.
GSRTC worriedover rise in
fatal [email protected]
Ahmedabad: The parents of11 students admitted to Racha-na School in Shahibaug resor-ted to a dharna after the schoolauthorities decided to disconti-nue their admission in the cur-rent academic session, whichbegan inApril this ye-ar. Accordingto the school authorities, these11 students do not have the re-quired documents to meet thecriteria for admission underRTE. The school says it suspec-ted that the parents of these 11students were not from poorbackgrounds. There was a su-spicion that these parents hadbungalows and their electrici-ty bills ranged between Rs 3,500and Rs 4,000. According to theRTE norms, the family shouldhave a Below Poverty Line
card. A meeting of the manage-ment and the district educa-tion officer was held, where theDEO had asked the school topermit these 11 students to at-tend classes. However, on Tues-day when the students went tothe school were turned away bythe management.
A compla-int was lod-ged with the
State Commission for Protec-tion of Child Rights, of whichJagruti Pandya is chairperson.Pandya immediately called theDEO and the management andheard the matter. The DEO hasgiven the school one week’s ti-me to the school managementto admit the students failingwhich they will face legal ac-tion. However, the manage-ment remained adamant andis not willing to allow these stu-dents in.
Parents of 11 RTEkids hold dharna
Ahmedabad:Security guardsat the family court had to inter-vene when a woman startedbeating her husband just outsi-de the courtroom on Tuesdayafternoon.
The man, who was reques-ting his estranged wife to re-turn home, refused to file acomplaint with police againstthe woman. The incident hap-pened when a diamond workerfrom Thakkarbapanagar ca-me to court to attend procee-ding at the family court nearIncome Tax Circle, because hiswife filed a plea seeking main-tenance for herself and a mi-nor daughter. As soon as thehusband approached the wo-man to request her not to draghim into litigation and returnhome, the latter got angry andstarted demanding a divorceand an alimony payment of Rs10 lakh. When the man saidthat he was a diamond workerand couldn’t manage such ahuge sum, the woman wentberserk and started slappinghim and tore his clothes. Theintervention of police officialswas required to protect theman from his wife. TNN
Woman beatshusband atfamily court
Family holiday bookings in the Ahmedabad region have risen byaround 15% compared to last year
TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
UNSHELTERED LABOURERS BECOME EASY TARGETSFOR LIONS, SAY FOREST OFFICIALS | 4
‘BHARAT MATA KI JAI’ SHOULD NOT BE FORCED ON OTHERS: SADHGURU | 4
It needs mention that seventh centuryChinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang had men-
tioned 10 monasteries at Anandpur (pre-sent Vadnagar) housing 1,000 monks. Exca-vation so far by the state archaeology de-partment has revealed one monastery nearGhaskol Darwaja in the town even as fur-ther excavation by ASI is under way.
A bronze statue of Lord Buddha, with
inscription stating it as a gift from a Budd-hist nun, is preserved in Kutch. Daddadevi,sister of Valabhi ruler Dhruvsen, had alsomade a number of donations specificallyfor nunneries in the 5th century. It is alsobelieved that Therigatha, a collection ofverses in Pali talking about the life andtimes of Gautam Buddha, is the world’sfirst collection of writings by Buddhistnuns, some of whom belonged to coastalGujarat.
Hiuen-Tsang noted 10 monasteries at Anandpur�Continued from P1
Officials said that duringmedical check-up it was
revealed that drivers who wereabove 40 years of age had majorspinal issues and bloodpressure problems. Theaverage age of drivers in GSRTCwas around 45 years. Theofficials said that officers alsofound that drivers wereoverworked and they wereworking for more than eight tonine hours. TNN
Drivers above 40have spinal, bloodpressure troubles
Jewellers held a candlelight vigil at Manek Chowk on Tuesday
TIMES NEWS NETWORKYogesh Chawda
RACHANA SCHOOL
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: Vehicular traffic from SP Stadium in Navrangpurato the Sardar Patel statue will be diverted from 3 pm to 6 pm on Wed-nesdayfor BJP’s rally, a notification by city police commissionersaid. “Diversions have been provided from Stadium crossroads toCommerce Six Roads to Navrang Circle and Sardar Patel statue toUsmanpura to Ashram Road. Usmanpura underpass has also beencovered in the scheme as riders would be able to to towards Naran-pura chowky to Ashram Road and Income Tax circle to Lakhudicircle,” said a traffic branch official. TNN
Traffic to be diverted for BJP rally
Sunspots point to looming
Our blazing sun has been eerily turn-ing quiet and growing less active over the last two decades. Scientists and astronomers from Physical Re-
search Laboratory in India and their coun-terparts in China and Japan are now relying on fresh evidence to indicate that we may be heading for another “little ice age” or even a more extended period of low solar activity — a Maunder Minimum — by 2020 as indi-cated by the lower than average sunspot number count.
The Maunder Minimum was a period between 1645 and 1715 AD when the sun was almost completely spotless and when Europe and much of the earth witnessed extremely harsh winters.
In a recently published research, ‘A 20 year decline in solar photospheric magnetic field: Inner heliospheric signatures and pos-sible implications’ published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) recently, as-tronomers indicate that over the last 20 years there has been a steady decline in the sun’s photospheric (sun’s surface) and interplan-etary or heliospheric magnetic fields. This is indicated by a drastic decline in the num-ber of sun spots on its surface and a corre-sponding decrease in solar wind microtur-bulence in the Sun’s last two 11-year solar cycles. We are currently in solar cycle 24, which is expected to end in 2020.
During peak solar cycle periods, the num-ber of sunspots increase to 200. They dropped to as low as 50 during the solar cycle just preced-ing the Maunder Minimum. The research pa-per indicates that in solar cycle 23, there were a minimum average number of 75 sunspots towards the end of the cycle, while the peak number of sunspots in our current solar cycle 24 on November 2013 was 62, and this number has been steadily decreasing ever since.
“During Maunder Minimum, the Sun be-comes quiet, indicated by the near disappear-ance of sunspots that are typically present. In the last 11,000 years, there have been 27 Maunder Minimums,” says dean of Physical Research Laboratory P Janardhan, who is the lead author of the research paper along with six others which includes Susanta Kumar Bisoi of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei-jing, K Fujiki and M Tokumaru of Nagoya University Japan, L Jose and R Sridharan of PRL’s space and atmospheric sciences division and S Ananthakrishnan of the depart-ment of electronic sciences, Pune University. The Maunder Minimum condition is pre-dicted to intensify beyond cycle 25, or between 2030 and 2040 during solar cycle 26.
Recently, Sun stayed quieter for longerTIMES NEWS NETWORK
Asure sign indicating that we are probably on the verge of a “little ice age” came after as-
tronomers found that our current solar cycle 24 was preceded by one of the deepest solar minima experi-
enced in the last 100 years. This caused the current solar cycle to start 1.3 years later than expected.
Another important in-dication was when scientists found that the umbral magnetic fields of the sunspots—regions of intense magnetic fields— was declining by
approximately 50 gauss every year since 1998. “If umbral magnetic field strengths on the Sun’s surface drop to around 1,500 gauss, there will be no difference in brightness between cooler, dark sunspot regions and the bright Sun’s surface, causing sun-spots to disappear from the Sun’s surface. We predict such a phenom-enon by the end of the next solar cycle around 2030,” claims the re-search paper. The paper also men-tions that in the solar cycle preceding the Maunder Minimum, there were only around 50 sun spots during peak solar activity. Interestingly, the re-search paper estimated the expected
peak sunspot number for cycle 24 at 62, with an error of 12 more or 12 less, while the actual peak sunspot count for cycle 24 was close to 80.
The research paper relied on data from National Solar Observatory, US which showed a steady decline in solar photospheric magnetic fields starting from the early to mid 1990’s. While the data from the solar wind observatory operating at radio wave-length of close to 1 metre, at Nagoya University, Japan indicated a similar decline in solar wind microturbu-lence levels in the inner heliosphere, the region of space between the Sun and the Earth.
Declining Speckles On Sun Portend A Chilling Change
MAUNDER MINIMUM?
TROUGHSOLAR
WHAT IS A ‘LITTLE ICE AGE’
The ‘little ice age’, began in 1300 and ended in 1870. It had intensified between 1645 and 1715,
the period referred to as ‘Maunder Minimum’ corresponding with intense cold. This period proved distressing for humans across the planet, especially northern Europe, as it led to crop failures, intensifying diseases, unpredictable weather and ultimately socio-economic unrest. Average global temperatures dropped 1.5 degrees celsius, with greater seasonal variation.
WHAT IS A SOLAR CYCLE
The Sun, goes through phases of cycling between a violent
(maximum phase) and a quiet (minimum phase) activity every 11 years. This is called one solar cycle. In this cycle, there are changes in the levels of solar radiation and the rate of ejection of solar material and changes in the number of sunspots, flares, and other manifestations.
MODERN ICE AGE : A 17th century painting of the frozen river Thames which became a favourite venue for the ‘Frost Festival’
HIGHLIGHTS OF MAUNDER MINIMUM
‘LITTLE ICE AGE’
➤ There have been 27 episodes of Maunder Minimum in the last 11,000 years
➤ In a few instances each Maunder Minimum period continued for around 77 years
➤ Between 1645 and 1715, sunspots were absent. This led to a drop in Northern Hemisphere temperatures by 2 to 3 degrees
➤ Harsh winters and unsettled summers will become more frequent
The number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface will reduce
from 80 now to 62 or lower from the year 2020 onwards
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