Paint manufacturer Madhav Sawant's glow-in-the-dark paint is used to light up the emergency exits of various buildings, but the mechanical engineer has a brighter, more lasting vision. The 47-year-old has developed a unique way to increase the brightness of glow powder so that it can be used as an alternative to lights and save energy on a large scale.

When Puli Ravi Kumar, 42, assistant professor at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, discussed his dream project of making a car that would run on air with the director of the institute, he was greeted with a mixture of bafflement and boredom. But support came from an unexpected corner.

Rampant industrialisation will not go down well with the fish-lovers of West Bengal if People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reports are to be believed. Fish is served at every Bengali festival and the way it is consumed by the community across the world leaves no doubt that perhaps only the rosogulla and football can come close to be dubbed as even distant competition.

Crowds of over 10,000 people are usually seen at political events, religious congregations or live entertainment shows.

MICHAEL SPECTER
SCIENCE AUTHOR
Michael

DAVID BLOOM
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND DEMOGRAPHY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's birthplace has a new identity: as a bird sanctuary. For the past decade or so, lakhs of migratory birds from all parts of the world have made Porbandar their winter home, settling within the city's 20-km radius. The main draw for the winged species is that Porbandar is located on India's west coast and offers saline as well as sweet water bodies.

Forget those images of ravaged villagers, kids with distended bellies and ragged clothes and a future as grim as the cracked, sun-baked earth. Islands of poverty still exist but most of rural India is transformed beyond imagination thanks to a host of factors which has put unprecedented wealth into the hands of farmers across the country and turned it into a huge consumer market.

Ugale

After inadequate rains and reduced harvest last year, the Central Government wants to do all it can to prevent further damage. The All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM), an institute funded by the Centre, will prepare farmers in its four centres in Maharashtra--Akola, Parbhani, Dapoli and Solapur--to prepare farmers to deal with climate change.

After being lambasted for mindless spending over "dream projects" full of statues, Mayawati has decided to change her outlook on expense. The chief minister has already spent over Rs 2,600 crore on building memorials and parks and named them after Dalit icons, herself included.

Mayawati
Ganga clean-up