There is " Higher Power " May be GOD : Indian Scientists

One in four Indian scientists believe in God and many more accept existence of a "higher power", says a survey conducted across the country.

A survey of 1,100 scientists across 130 universities and research institutes across the country threw up interesting results as 29 per cent believed in the philosophy of 'karma', 26 per cent accepted the principle of life after death and seven per cent researchers gave credence to existence of ghosts.

A survey, by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut and Hyderabad-based Centre for Inquiry, found that religion and faith had deep roots in the minds of Indian scientists.

As many as 64 per cent scientists said they would refuse to design biological weapons because of their moral and religious beliefs, while 54 per cent said they will not work on nuclear weapons for the same reasons.

As many as 93 per cent researchers defined secularism as tolerance for various religions and philosophies, while only a minority of scientists said it meant atheism.

As many as 33 per cent scientists strongly disapproved of space scientists seeking the blessings of Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati before launching a rocket in 2005. Only 14 per cent strongly approved of the action.

Most scientists (44 per cent) were willing to criticise and confront religions where they think they contradict accepted scientific theories but a sizeable minority (23 per cent) is opposed to it.

The scientists are most likely to regard their personal outlook as "secular" (59 per cent) or "somewhat secular" (16 per cent). Secularism, according to a majority of them, is tolerance for various religions and philosophies.

One fourth of the total scientists surveyed were firm believers while another fourth took an atheist or agnostic position about belief in the divine.

Twenty-six per cent scientists said they believed God exists and they had no doubts about it. As many as 30 per cent scientists did not believe in a personal God but in a higher power.

Twelve per cent scientists said they did not believe in God while another 13 per cent said they neither knew about the existence of God nor did they believed there was any way to find it out.

A majority of scientists thought of themselves as being spiritual, which according to two thirds of them is either "commitment to higher human ideals, such as peace, harmony or well being" (34 per cent), or "a higher level of human consciousness or awareness" (31 per cent).

A majority of the Indian scientists were Hindus (66 per cent) and 10 per cent identified themselves as atheists or having no religion.

Muslims and Christians formed three per cent each of the scientists surveyed; four per cent were Sikhs, Buddhists and other religions while 14 per cent did not report their religion.

Apple ready to launch 3G iPhone

Even as gizmo lovers await the official launch of Apple's new iPhone towards the end of the year, the market in India is abuzz – as in the US – that the company would debut the iPhone ver.2 or the 3G model as early as Monday.

Apple Inc is hosting the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) starting Monday in San Francisco and it was during the same conference last year that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced the launch date for the original iPhone.

"I have the first iPhone and I am mighty pleased with its out-of-the-world functionality. I'll sell it as soon as I can lay my hands on the new one," said Geet Tandon, an avid techie, unable to hide his excitement.

"I can't wait to get my hands on the new iPhone, which supposedly will have additional features and better looks," he added.

The buzz over the new version being showcased in San Francisco was further fuelled by a memo to employees in May sent by AT&T, iPhones's sole provider in the US.

Smart phones

"No additional vacation will be approved between June 15 - August 12," said the company, which had issued a similar notice last year before the phone's launch.

When the original iPhone from the apple stable – a crossover between an iPod and a smart-phone – hit the market last year, lack of 3G capabilities and a built-in global positioning system (GPS) receiver were seen as few of the disadvantages.

Nevertheless, the flaws did not seem to deter the buyers, according to a recent study by the technology think-tank Gartner. Apple rose to number three position in the worldwide smart-phone category in terms of market share, selling more than 1.7 million handsets in just about nine months.

Waiting for the 3G iPhone

The serpentine lines outside Apple and AT&T stores made headlines in India, despite the fact that apple at that time had not disclosed any plans of marketing their new product in the country.

The phone was named the Time magazine's invention of the year. And despite not being officially available in the country, the phone was voted as the gadget of the year by most tech shows in India.

Gaffar market in Karol Bagh, the go-to place in the city if you want the shiny chrome plated phone, does not seem to know about by the new development. Santosh Singh, who deals specifically with the iPhone, said he had no idea if a new version of the iPhone was being launched.

"If that happens, it will be good for the business as the new phone will take sometime to seep in the Indian market and when the supply is less the profits are always high," he said.

Marketing strategies

It is not all rumours that make the whole hype surrounding the 3G iPhone believable given the secretive and surprising marketing strategies of Apple.

During a meeting in California in November 2007, AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson (in what has been regarded as a slip-up) said that his company was working with Apple for the 3G version of iPhone.

Apple fan websites and iPhone forums all across the web are on fire. Not only can one find the "leaked pictures" but also copies of apple's patent application for the phone to the US Patent Office on these websites.

And what can one expect of the new phone? The list is endless but 3G and a GPS are more or less confirmed. Apple might also include flash player in its Safari browser and the phone would have window's media format.

Avid blogger Zibri (real name not disclosed), who has founded the popular blog ziphone.org and also creator of ziphone - an unlocking utility software for the phone - says the launch of the next iPhone version will be sooner than expected.

"We're near the event everyone is expecting. It seems Apple at last has included an embedded GPS. It features a category 8 HSDPA connection (3G) for a top speed of 7.2 MB/s. The main iPhone CPU will remain unchanged.”

Pollution : India's Biggest Worry

The Environment Poll asked citizens of six cities across India how they felt for the environment and environment-related issues. Do modern, urban Indians care and are they willing to be more environmentally responsible?

As per the conducted the survey, we assumed civic issues like water and garbage would be uppermost on people's minds.

But this is the big finding – 34 per cent think air pollution is the biggest environment problem that most people face, followed by green cover, water pollution, noise pollution and finally garbage disposal.

India's exploding traffic - leading to bigger traffic jams, parking woes, road rage and a bevy of health problems - is understandably the biggest setback today.

In fact all those polled in Delhi also voted air pollution was their number one woe.

“Pollution is getting to us and we need to find a solution,” says Center for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain.

If people were given a choice what is the one environmental issue they would want government to address, a whopping 86 per cent of the people want the government to plant trees, followed by reducing air pollution, providing clean drinking water, cleaning up rivers, collecting and segregating garbage and finally improving public transport.

“Why cant bureaucrats and politicians car-pool,” asks environment activist Leo Saldhana

But are things set to improve? The survey shows, people aren't very hopeful. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents said air pollution would increase in the next five years.

Seventy per cent said noise pollution would rise and 65 per cent feared water would get more polluted.

The silver lining is that some states are getting their act together in order to improve the state of their environment be it garbage collection in Bangalore or rain water harvesting in Chennai.