About 290 health workers are conducting house-to-house inspections in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, where 41,906 birds have been culled so far, according to an emailed statement from New Delhi. The government confirmed an outbreak of the flu in the district on 6 January.
In Assam, avian flu has spread to eight districts since November and 772 health workers are monitoring the outbreak, according to the statement.
More than 483,000 birds have been culled in Assam and sufficient anti-viral drugs are in stock with the state government, according to the statement.
—Bloomberg
*********
IBM leads race with 4,186 patents in 2008
New Delhi: Technology company International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) leads the patents race for the 16th year in a row, with 4,186 patents granted in 2008 in the US, followed by Samsung and Canon.
“IBM has become the first company to get more than 4,000 patents in a year, which is more than the combined number of patents of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Oracle, Apple, EMC, Accenture and Google,” IBM India research laboratory director Guruduth Banavar said.
Samsung received 3,515 patents followed by Canon (2,114), Microsoft (2,030) and Intel (1,776).
—PTI
*********
HC asks Centre to file affidavit on 3G auction
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Centre to keep it posted on the latest developments on auctioning of 3G spectrum (radio frequency) for next generation mobile services.
The court asked the department of telecommunications (DoT) to file an “affidavit” by 24 January when the matter would be taken up for further hearing. The court passed the order on a public interest litigation which sought a direction to the government to also auction spectrum that DoT expects the defence ministry to vacate. At present, DoT proposes to auction only the frequency that is readily available with it now.
—PTI
*********
ESPN can face criminal prosecution: Delhi HC
New Delhi:The Delhi high court on Wednesday said global sports broadcaster ESPN can face criminal prosecution if it fails to comply with broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) directions on tariffs charged from DTH operators for its channels.
The court granted ESPN two days to file its amended reference interconnect offer (RIO) before Trai and posted the matter for hearing on Friday.
—PTI
**********
Moser Baer India repurchases FCCBs
Mumbai: Optical storage maker Moser Baer India Ltd said on Wednesday it has repurchased 20 foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) for $500,000 (Rs2.4 crore).
—Reuters
*********
RIL promoters increase stake in the firm to 49%
Mumbai: Promoters of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) increased their stake in the country’s largest private sector company to more than 49% at the end of the quarter ending 31 December.
The promoters of the Mukesh Ambani-led firm purchased 120 million shares in the period between September and December, according to the latest shareholding pattern information available on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
For the quarter ended 31 December, RIL promoters hold 771,698,164 shares amounting to a 49.03% stake, while they held 651,258,164 shares, or 44.80%, in the September quarter.