Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Experts say a loophole in the Act allows rackets like the one on kidney trade unearthed last week to thrive. They have called for stricter laws. THE ACT: According to the Act, close relatives of recipient like parents, children, brothers, sisters and spouse can donate the organ without government clearance. But all other relatives who wish to donate the organ need to appear before the authorization committee for clearance and, only after its approval and clearance, can get the organ transplanted. The Authorization Committee set up for the purpose ensures all the documents required under the Act have boon supplied. The Act does not allow exchange of money between the donor and the recipient. According to the Act, organ sales are banned and, therefore, no foreigner can get a local donor. If it is found money has been exchanged in the process, then both the recipient as well as the donor is considered as prime offenders under the law. FINES AND PENALTIES Any person who renders his service...

Producers have revealed some of the secrets about the latest James Bond film, due for release later this year, including the inner turmoil that drives its suave super agent hero and its title: ' Quantum of Solace .' As titles go, it's not as mellifluous as 'From Russia With Love' or 'Goldfinger.' But Daniel Craig, returning as Bond after 2006's 'Casino Royale,' says he likes it. "It has grown on me," Craig told reporters on the film's set at Pinewood Studios near London on Thursday. "It doesn't trip off the tongue. But why should it?" Producer Michael G. Wilson said the title, chosen only a few days ago, was taken from a story by Bond creator Ian Fleming that appears in the collection 'For Your Eyes Only.' Craig said Fleming defined a quantum of solace — it means, roughly, a measure of comfort — as "that spark of niceness in a relationship that if you don't have, you might as well give up." Filmin...

Hollywood actor Heath Ledger, who made headlines with his controversial film Brokeback Mountain , was found dead in a Manhattan apartment on Tuesday. The talented 28-year-old Hollywood actor who gravitated toward dark, brooding roles that defied his leading-man looks, was found dead on Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, face-down and naked at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said. There was no obvious indication that the Australian-born Ledger had committed suicide, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be the home of the Brokeback Mountain actor, Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper found his naked body in the bed at about 3:30 pm. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead. "We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident," Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement Tuesday night. "This is an extremely difficult ...

San Francisco: Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the wraps off a super-slim new laptop at the Macworld trade show on 15th Jan, unveiling a personal computer less than an inch thick that turns on the moment it's opened. Jobs also confirmed the consumer electronics company's foray into online movie rentals, revealing an alliance with all six major movie studios to offer films over high-speed Internet connections within 30 days after they're released on DVD. Always a showman, Jobs unwound the string on a standard-sized manila office envelope and slid out the ultra-thin MacBookAir notebook computer to coos and peals of laughter from fans at the conference. Apple Macbook Air At its beefiest, the new computer is .76 inches thick; at its thinnest, it's .16 inches. It comes standard with an 80-gigabyte hard drive, with the option of a 64GB flash-based solid state drive as an upgrade. The machine doesn't come with a built-in optical drive for reading CDs an...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Tata Motors unveiled the world's cheapest new car on Thursday, bringing car ownership closer for millions of poorer consumers in emerging markets but raising environmental concerns. The 4 seater Nano, with an engine around 625cc, will have a dealer price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500) , about half the cost of the cheapest car on today's market, a 25-year old model from Maruti Suzuki, Tata's great rival. The Nano will go on sale later this year, the company said. "Let me assure you and our critics the car we have designed will meet all safety norms and all foreign environmental criteria," Chairman Ratan Tata said as he proudly unveiled what had been dubbed the " People's Car " at the Auto Expo in New Delhi. The compact but curvy Nano stands in sharp contrast to the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands that Tata is negotiating to acquire from Ford Motor Co. Hundreds of people crowded into the pavilion to see the ...

Eye-Fi Wireless Photo Sharing SD Memory Card Wins “The Last Gadget Standing” Award at CES Winning the Last Gadget Standing Award is a prestigious honor, because it's voted on by the attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The 2008 winner of the award is the Eye-Fi wireless photo transfer SD memory card. This device looks like a regular SD memory card, but it's able to transfer photos from your digital camera to your computer/laptop) instantly and wirelessly. It can be a hassle sometimes to transfer photos from your digital camera to your computer, because you usually have to either take out the SD card and put it into the computer's SD card slot, or mess around with USB cables. The Eye-Fi, on the other hand, eliminates the need for cables or the need to remove your SD card. The Eye-Fi is basically just a 2 GB SD memory card with built-in WiFi capabilities that allow you to wirelessly transfer photos from any digital camera to any computer (with the included so...