Month: July 2008
Dubai public libraries to conduct free Arabic classes
Dubai public libraries to conduct free Arabic classes
Staff Report GULF NEWS Published: July 14, 2008, 21:20
Dubai: Public Libraries Department at the Dubai Municipality will offer free introductory Arabic Language classes for non-Arabic speakers from July 19 to August 7.
The classes, which are part of the Arabic Language Protection Campaign, will be held at Al Safa and Al Twar Public Libraries from 8pm to 9.30pm.
Al Twar Public Library will host lectures throughout the week whereas Al Safa Public Library will host lessons on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Exploring careers with a graduation in Animation technology
Exploring careers with a graduation in Animation technology
Monday July 14 2008 21:14 IST
Graduating with animation Animation is no longer viewed as mere entertainment for children and is now a mainstream educational degree that provides opportunities for thousands of youngsters to carve out a career for themselves. Animation finds application across different for ms of Media – Film, TV, Gaming, Special Effects, Medical Sciences, E-learning and many such streams. Being an inimitable combination of traditional art and modern technology, animation throws up diverse and very fulfilling career options. While masterful creativity and computer proficiency are assets in themselves, the industry today needs professionals who have grasped the different aspects of animation and have a holistic view towards them. And the key differentiator separating the mediocre from excellent is formal education.
A recent NASSCOM report has estimated that the country will need more than 3 lakh skilled professionals by 2008. With a projected growth rate of 24 percent, the Indian animation industry can to grow to $869 million by 2010.
Foreign companies are now outsourcing animation jobs to India because of cheap and efficient manpower available here.
Manipal University aims to fill this need with their fulltime degree program which is a B.Sc in Animation. This Degree in Animation is a 3-year full-time course which equips its graduates with the skills and experience to excel in the industry . The course provides extensive training in traditional classical skills and modern digital technology .
Tradition & Modern technology Today animation combines traditional animation skills with computing power and Hi-end software to give life like effects.
The syllabus of BSc Animation is designed with this in mind. It approaches the modern technology needed in animation with the mind of the traditional art. The syllabus provides extensive training in traditional classical skills and teaches you to exploit the potential of modern digital technology to make your creations come alive like the way you imagined.
The Degree program continues to emphasize on fundamentals like life drawing, perspectives and more specialized skills like character design and development. The syllabus prepares you for the challenges as a digital animator in the animation, film, television, advertisement and computer graphics industries in the following ways:
With a world class lab equipped with Apple work stations and a drawing studio and the class room handled by experienced professionals coupled with career and life skill workshops helps strike a balance between theory and practical training. The campus houses one of the best libraries in the country, with hundreds of books on animation and a Preview Theater for movie studies. All Major Animation studios across India offer placement opportunities.
Campus: 28563865
Email: animation@manipalu.com
Website: http://www.manipal.edu/animation
Price of medicines in UAE to go up from October
Price of medicines in UAE to go up from October
By Dina El Shammaa, Staff Reporter Published: July 14, 2008, 15:21
Abu Dhabi: The sick will have to pay more for their drugs from October as new prices have been hammered out between the Ministry of Health, distributors and pharmacists.
There will be a total increase of 27.25 per cent on 1,129 drugs priced in euros. However, people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, will only pay a 5.8 per cent increase.
The increase comes into effect on October 15, the Ministry of Health announced on Monday. Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Health, said the Ministry will revaluate the prices in cooperation with the Central Bank after two years.
“We know the cost of living has gone up. The Ministry has been in talks on the prices with international pharmacies and distributors for the past nine months, until we reached this decision,” he said.
Among the 1,129 drugs that will be sold at new prices, 530 items are for chronic diseases. The other 599 drugs are for non-chronic conditions such as flu which only require short-term use of medication.
The initial hike for chronic disease drugs was 32 per cent, but the Ministry intervened and managed to cut it to a 5.85 per cent increase only, said the Minister.
This was done after reducing the cost of insurance on freight at ports. This helped reduce distributors’ costs by five per cent and pharmacy costs by six per cent.
The increase will affect drugs imported from Europe. When asked about drugs bought in other currencies the minister said: “To date no other prices related to other currencies will be affected except for the euro.” Dr Ameen Al Amiri, CEO for Medical Practice and Licence, Ministry of Health, said drugs sold across the UAE were the cheapest in the region.
When asked why the rise in drugs for non-life threatening conditions was as high as 21.4 per cent, he said there were various types of such drugs sold across the UAE in other currencies, such as the dollar.
There is a rising number of national distributors selling drugs in the UAE and the Ministry’s role is to try to encourage their productivity and promote nationalisation.
Face scan system launched at Abu Dhabi airport
Face scan system launched at Abu Dhabi airport
WAM Published: July 14, 2008, 22:25
Abu Dhabi: A biometric face scan system to identify wanted people and suspects was launched on Monday.
General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, inaugurated the scan system at the Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The system, the first of its kind in the world, helps to recognise wanted people or suspects [who are accused of committing crimes in the country or abroad] by identifying their facial features.
The scanner will start functioning at the Abu Dhabi airport before it is installed at all exit points in the country.
Shaikh Mohammad stressed the UAE’s keenness on supporting security services and authorities to enable them to carry out their duties in the best possible way.
The move is in line with the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Retailing Management
Retailing Management
Monday July 14 2008 21:29 IST EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), one of the leading management institutes in India launches its One Year Diploma in Retail Management. Admission for the programme along with its successful other courses in Banking Management, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Inter national Business, Marketing Management and Supply Chain Management is currently open.
Specially designed by academic and industry experts the programme will cater to working professionals who want to study and further enhance their management skills.
The course is held three days a week in the evenings from 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm.
There are three courses per semester and two semesters that is six courses in all.
Fr Christie, Director, LIBA said, “Since its launch in 1990 the One-Year Diploma Programmes at LIBA have been received well in the industry. This has further made us introduce new ones. Targeted at working professionals, this programme provides students with the latest pedagogy and convenient class timings.” Any working professional with a graduate in any discipline with 50% marks may apply. The last date for the securing application forms is 10th of July, 2008. Selection will be based on academic qualifications and an interview.
For further information kindly visit http://www.liba.edu or email admissions@liba.edu or contact Ms. Mallika at the admissions office at 9444028418 (please phone between 10 AM and 5 PM only).
You can convert PC to an HDTV
You can convert PC to an HDTV
Monday July 14 2008 16:36 IST
So you’re sitting around, totally bored with the same old PC, bored with word processing, bored with spreadsheets, bored with Web browsing, bored with music, bored with news, bored with grainy YouTube videos.
Then you realise it’s Sunday night, and it strikes you: What you really want to do is watch Desperate Housewives on your computer. In HD. Well, for a hundred bucks, you can satisfy that high-definition craving with the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick.
Plug this nifty little gadget into a USB port on your computer, hook up an antenna or cable feed to the other end and you’re in business — HDTV in a window on your desktop, or full-screen if you prefer.
The software bundle includes a digital video recorder(DVR) so you can record your favourite shows while you’re not there. There’s even a tiny remote control so you can watch without getting out of your chair.
The Pro Stick also has an intriguing feature whose existence I was only vaguely aware of before this. It’s a circuit called a QAM tuner, which brings in unscrambled digital broadcasts, including some in high-definition, directly from a cable company feed — without a cable box, high-def or otherwise. QAM is also built into most new digital sets.
You won’t get your cable company’s whole digital menu, most of which is scrambled unless you rent a digital box. But you’ll generally see the same digital channels you’d pick up with an antenna, without the vagaries of digital reception over-the-air. You may even pick up some video-on-demand channels if someone in your neighborhood is watching them.
First things first — there’s only so much TV you can expect from a hundred-dollar PC gadget. The Pro Stick generally delivers what it promises, but there’s no way a picture processed through software by a PC and displayed on a monitor that’s not optimised for television is going to look as good as it would on a stand-alone HDTV set — or on even a monitor driven by an internal PC tuner.
Still, the quality was fine for casual, close-up viewing — better than analog TV tuner cards I’ve tried in the past. For that reason, the Pro Stick is a cheap and efficient way to turn a student’s laptop into a dorm room entertainment centre.
The Pro Stick is a black box about the size of your thumb, and about twice the volume of a flash memory drive. It can plug directly into a USB 2.0 port, but a short, bundled extension cable gives it more flexibility. The other end of the tuner sports a standard coaxial connector for an antenna or cable feed.
Rounding out the package are the small remote control, a monopole antenna for direct, over-the-air tuning, audiovisual cables to pull an analog signal directly from a set-top cable box, and two software CDs. To process HDTV, you’ll need reasonably up-to-date hardware.
The minimum requirement is a Pentium 4 processor running at 2.8 GHz or better, a gigabyte of memory, Windows XP or Vista, and at least 20 gigabytes of free hard drive space if you want to record programmes.
Most new dual-core, Intel or AMD processors should have no trouble with it.Setup was easy. I installed Pinnacle’s TVCenter Pro software, connected the tuner to the antenna and started the programme.
TVCenter displays the picture in a resizable window, changes channels and serves as a front end to the programme guide and DVR. I had TVCenter scan for both analog and digital channels, as well as FM radio stations and Internet radio sites.
The device includes both NTSC (analog) and ATSC (digital) tuners. The TV center displayed a crisp, clear picture on a 17-inch Dell LCD monitor — particularly with digital channels, which is not surprising, since that’s one of their advantages. Like most displays designed for computers, its default settings weren’t jacked up as high as a typical TV set.
When I switched to the Comcast cable feed in my home office, the HDTV Pro Stick took about 20 minutes to search for channels and turned up several hundred of them — most of which turned out to be scrambled digital signals that require a box for decoding.
But unscrambled digital signals from local broadcast outlets were there. The quality of the hard drive playback was good, although it’s hard to compare with the real thing. Just make sure you have plenty of hard drive space if you like to keep recordings for a while.
For more info, visit http://www.pinnaclesys.com
Abu Dhabi launches index to monitor prices of commodities
Abu Dhabi launches index to monitor prices of commodities
Staff Report GULF NEWS Published: July 12, 2008, 23:18
Dubai: As part of enhancing consumer awareness the Department of Planning and Economy in Abu Dhabi has launched an index to monitor price trends of essential commodities.
The index, prepared by the statistics unit of the Department of Planning and Economy, will be a regular index to monitor prices trends by way of providing scientific and accurate data.
“To be published monthly at the initial stage and weekly later in the dailies, the index will contain commodity prices at major stores in Abu Dhabi. Justifications for any changes in the prices will also be featured in conjunction with consumer protection unit at the Department of Planning,” DPE said in a statement.
The index has been constructed on data collected through a survey of family income and spending conducted in 2007. That study identified some 53 key items in the family consumption basket with food, beverages and tobacco accounting for a major share in the family spending in Abu Dhabi.
The consumption trends showed that items such as bread and cereals, beef and poultry products, fish, milk, cooking oil, vegetables, sugar, tea, coffee and other beverages topped the shopping baskets of Abu Dhabi families.
The index will be regularly updated and will be available at most of the outlets and stores in Abu Dhabi. “This will make access to price information easy for the general public. The next step would be to post this index on the website of the Department of Planning,” the DPE said.
The information will be published in four sections. While the first section will show the list of commodities and their prices as per the outlet, section two will guide the consumer through the price list as well as indicate the nearest store to their residence.
Section three will give consumers access to highest and lowest price of an item at the outlet and section four will focus on electronic shopping, where viewers can shop through different outlets and then get an idea of the total tally of their shopping items.
DPE said it has plans to include a news bar on its website, showing commodity price trends. Apart from food, beverage, and tobacco, new price segments will be added based on the latest consumption trends in the emirate.
According to the study, the prices of essential commodities were generally stable at main outlets in Abu Dhabi during June. However, it observed that prices of agricultural products had dropped due to promotional prices being offered to consumers.
A notable exception was rice price which according to the DPE study went up because of factors such as the failure of importers to agree at a price with the Ministry of Economy, drop in supply because suppliers are responding to their local demands, crop failures in a number of countries and the use of rice as a biofuel input.
Unserviceable debt drives more people to suicide
Unserviceable debt drives more people to suicide By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter Published: July 11, 2008, 00:50
Dubai: Rising debt has led to a rising number of suicides among Indian expatriates, according to an Indian Welfare Trust.
According to the trust the main cause for suicide is because people are unable to pay off their debt.
Suicides among Indian expatriates have been on the rise since 2003, said K.V. Shamsudheen, chairman of the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust.
The trust has an ongoing initiative “Sandwanam” (Consolation) that aims to reduce suicides among expatriate Indians. He said debt has trapped many low and middle income Indian expatriates in the UAE. A good number of Indian expatriates could not even pay interest to the lenders. Main sources of credit are bank loans, credit cards and individual illegal lenders.
Interest rate
“The interest rate varies and depends on the source of the loan. While banks are charging up to 8 per cent for loans, on credit cards interest can be up to 30 per cent and individual lenders charge from 72 per cent to 120 per cent. The spending habits of expatriates and their dependents play a very important role in getting people into debt.
“Once a person becomes a non-resident Indian, the family back home will start spending lavishly without considering the financial situation of the breadwinner,” said Shamshudeen.
He said in expressing their love and affection for their families, Indian expatriates who fall in the middle income group try to meet all the financial needs of the family back home, sacrificing even basic necessities and taking out loans without regard for the consequences.
“If there is any possibility to get a loan from a bank that will be their first option. When they cannot pay back the bank loan they apply for credit cards and take loans from the credit cards. When both become overburdened they will take loans from individual lenders with exorbitant interest rates,” said Shamsudheen.
“In some cases the minimum payment on the credit cards is more than their monthly salary. Such cases are increasing day by day,” he added.
Shamsudheen has been spreading awareness on financial planning and frugality, cautioning people not to fall into the debt trap. “I have conducted 150 training sessions for more than 40,000 people all over the Gulf. The Government of India should also take the initiative to educate the dependents of expatriates to spend within the limit of their earnings, after saving for the future,” he said.
Masdar hires first batch of professors
Masdar hires first batch of professors
Bradley Hope
Last Updated: July 02. 2008 11:50PM UAE / July 2. 2008 7:50PM GMT
ABU DHABI // The capital’s plan to become a centre of alternative energy innovation is a step closer, with 24 professors now hired to conduct research and teach at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST).
The institute is also jumping ahead of schedule and bringing 20 graduate students to the programme in the autumn to assist with research.
“We wanted to test the market and see what kind of interest we could get from students,” said Fred Moavenzadeh, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is helping to co-ordinate the programme. “We have already received 75 applications without advertising anywhere.”
The private, non-profit MIST will be the first part of Masdar City, a zero-carbon emissions development, to be constructed in 2009 – in time for the inaugural class.
In the coming week, Masdar will begin putting advertisements in publications around the Middle East to solicit applications for another 50 faculty positions to be filled before the start of the new school year in autumn 2009.
The first hires include a cast of top engineering and environmental design experts from around the world. They have degrees in specialities such as building technology, artificial intelligence and risk management, but many have also worked in the private sector. A key goal of MIST is not just to produce valuable research, but models and technologies that can work in the marketplace and help to transform Abu Dhabi from a petroleum-based economy to a sustainable energy economy.
“These professors will be developing everything from technology to intellectual property rights to transform this economy,” Dr Moavenzadeh said. “They will be the manpower that will help enable this change.”
The idea for the institute predates the plan for Masdar City, which is perhaps the better-known project. MIT first started a partnership with Mubadala Development, the parent company of Masdar, three years ago to begin putting together the plans.
Dr Moavenzadeh – who is a professor of systems engineering and the director of MIT’s Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development – is leading the team at MIT that is advising on MIST’s research objectives, university structure and hiring.
In addition to the initial group of 20 students coming this autumn, he said the professors were considering offering short courses and conferences on sustainability for local industry and government organisations. The target size of the university in 10 years is 150 faculty members and about 800 graduate students, all working and some living in Masdar City. So far, 75 students have applied to MIST, despite the fact that the institute has not officially started recruiting.
“Eight of them outright qualified,” Dr Moavenzadeh said. “Another 30, we are waiting for the results of their exams.”
He said 20 applications came from universities in the UAE.
“We were very pleased that the majority were female,” he said. “The fact that there is so much interest in these technologies is rare.”
The rise of MIST is part of a wider resurgence of academia and research in the GCC countries. Universities are rising in Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait, where governments are using oil and financial services revenue to develop knowledge-based economies to ensure economic viability in the future.
bhope@thenational.ae
Adnoc diesel card to ease congestion
Adnoc diesel card to ease congestion
Haneen Dajani and Matthew Chung
Last Updated: July 12. 2008 10:32PM UAE / July 12. 2008 6:32PM GMT
ABU DHABI // Only motorists with a pre-paid card will be allowed to buy diesel at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) stations, allowing the company to better control sales, it announced yesterday.
In addition to requiring customers filling up with diesel to use a Rahal card issued by the company, Adnoc said it had begun to restrict sales of the fuel for heavy vehicles to certain times of the day, increased the number of diesel pumps at some stations, and made stations on motorways outside the city centre specialise in supplying diesel to cut down on traffic congestion at its stations.
Lorry drivers have been flocking to Adnoc stations as its competitors, who buy at international market rates, have more than doubled their diesel prices.
The company did not say when it would stop serving customers who did not have a Rahal card. The announcement comes about a week after traffic police in the capital asked the company to introduce new procedures to ease congestion near its pumps because of an increase in accidents. A report by the Abu Dhabi Traffic and Patrols Department, viewed by The National, recommended that diesel not be sold to lorries and buses on the island between 7am and 9am, 1pm and 3pm, and 6pm and 9pm.
The Rahal cards are linked to the company’s main headquarters through an electronic system that will define how much diesel is required for each consumer.
Some drivers have said that they had purchased diesel from other drivers who were filling up beyond their needs and then reselling the fuel at a higher price.
Rahal cards will be issued at Adnoc’s main head quarters in Abu Dhabi and its offices in Al Ain, Western Region and Sharjah.
Diesel sales at many stations on Abu Dhabi Island had ceased, along with other services such as car washes and oil changes at some stations, to provide more space for fuel pumps, the company said.
Adnoc stations have been inundated with heavy vehicles since the price of diesel began to increase at Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc), and Emarat and Emirates Petroleum Products Company (Eppco) stations in Dubai and the northern Emirates.
Prices have reached Dh19.25 (US$5.24) per gallon, while Adnoc continues to sell diesel for Dh8.60 per gallon. Drivers say they spend hours waiting to buy a limited amount of fuel, and at stations selling diesel and petrol inside the island, traffic has been blocked by the long queues. Adnoc’s 49 petrol stations in the emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al Khaimah, Umm al Qaiwain and Fujairah are also seeing high levels of traffic. Adnoc stations in the northern Emirates stopped sales of diesel to lorries with Dubai licence plates last month, and police have been handing out fines to vehicles queuing in Sharjah.
The rise in the price of diesel has contributed to inflation by pushing up the cost of transporting food and daily commodities. Adnoc has more than 180 stations throughout the country and has plans to build more stations and expand its existing ones.
hdajani@thenational.ae mchung@thenational.ae
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