Chandrayaan-1 finds water on moon - report

           Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission, has found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface, The Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

Data from the spacecraft also suggests water is still being formed on the moon, the British newspaper said.

"It's very satisfying," the newspaper quoted Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission's project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore, as saying.

The newspaper said the breakthrough would be announced by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Thursday.

NASA's website says it will hold a media briefing at 1440 EDT on Sept. 24 to "reveal new scientific findings about the moon" from data collected during national and international space missions.

The unmanned Indian craft was equipped with NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren; editing by Andrew Roche)

World Bank approves $4.3 billion in loans to India

The World Bank on Tuesday approved $4.3 billion in loans for India to help finance infrastructure building and to shore up the capital of some state banks as the economy recovers from the global financial crisis.

"The logic of these four loans is that they should support India's economic recovery by enabling enterprises to get access to credit and ... enabling investment in infrastructure," Roberto Zagha, World Bank country director for India, told Reuters.

The loans are part of the World Bank's $14 billion in crisis-related lending for Asia's third-largest economy over three years through 2012.

Zagha said while the worst of the crisis was over, there was uncertainty about the pace of the recovery.

He said economic growth in India of between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent in 2009/10 was realistic, but cautioned that the country's economic prospects hinged on a broader global recovery.

"If we don't see a (global) recovery, then India will not be able to grow at the rates it used to grow in the past of around 8 percent," Zagha told Reuters.

India's reserve bank cut its main lending rate by 425 basis points (4.25 percentage points) between October and April, and added massive liquidity to markets as the global downturn hit the economy harder than expected.

As part of its response, the World Bank said it would provide $2 billion to India's banking sector designed to expand the volume of credit available to firms.

A global credit squeeze prompted banks to cut back on lending, but Zagha said tight credit conditions now appeared to be easing in India.

Also, the global crisis put added demands on public sector banks, as lending and deposit-taking by private and foreign banks have slowed.

"This loan will help maintain credit growth levels, support social banking and employment growth, and help strengthen the economic recovery ahead," the World Bank said.

The Bank also approved $1.2 billion for the India Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd to spur private financing for public-private partnerships in infrastructure, and to stimulate the development of a long-term local currency debt financing market.

In addition, the World Bank approved $1 billion to address India's acute power shortages by assisting the Powergrid Corp of India, the national electricity company, with its investment program after a freeze in lending from overseas.

The Bank also provided $150 million to Andhra Pradesh state to improve water supply and sanitation services for 2,600 villages across six districts.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Leslie Adler, Phil Berlowitz)

Europe Richer Than America

Parmy Olson, Forbes.com

As market participants reflect on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, so emerges the sobering consequence of the market crash that followed: North America's wealth has now fallen the most out of any other region in the world, allowing Europe to step up to the plate as the world's richest continent.

North America, defined as the United States and Canada, had $29.3 trillion in assets under management in 2008, while Europe had $32.7 trillion, according to a survey by the Boston Consulting Group.

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North America had the steepest decline of all regions last year, with total wealth as measured by assets under management dropping by 21.8%. One reason is the region's heavy investment in shares: North America still has the highest proportion of wealth held in equities, according to Boston Consulting, at 38% in 2008. That proportion had been even higher in 2008, at 50%.

Latin America was the only region where wealth increased, with assets under management growing by 3% in 2008.

The number of millionaires around the world fell to 9 million from 11 million, the survey said, and the drop was steepest in both North America and Europe, where the number of millionaires dropped by 17.8%. The United States still has the most millionaire households though, at nearly 4 million.

Though Europe has been more resilient than the United States when it comes to assets under management, the region's offshore financial centers face continued difficulty in the coming years.

Switzerland, whose banking secrecy until recently made it a magnet for the world's wealthiest people to store their assets, is seeing its total assets under management dwindle as the United States lobbies for the country to hand over details of suspected tax evaders. (See "Switzerland Caves In To IRS Demands.")

"Once their tax and legal advantages evaporate, so too will their appeal," said Boston Consulting partner Peter Damisch of established tax havens like Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. He believes other non-traditional offshore centers, particularly those in Asia like Singapore and Hong Kong, are poised for growth.

For now, Switzerland still remains the world's largest offshore financial center, accounting for $1.8 trillion, or 28% of the world's offshore wealth last year.

Short- and long-term memories require same gene, but in different brain circuits

Washington, August 18 (ANI): Conducting experiments on fruit flies, a group of scientists have found that long-term and short-term memories are stored very differently because they depend upon the activity of a gene in different circuits of the brain.

Assistant Professor Josh Dubnau, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), has ofund that both short- and long-term memories require the same gene, known as rutabaga, of which humans also have a similar version.

He and his colleagues say that a rapidly occurring, short-lived trace in a group of neurons that make up a structure called the "gamma" lobe produces a short-term memory, while a slower, long-lived trace in the "alpha-beta" lobe fixes a long-term memory.

During the study, the researchers placed flies in a training tube attached to an electric grid, and administered shocks through the grid right after a certain odour was piped into the tube.

They observed that the flies with normal rutabaga genes learnt to associate the odour with the shock, and, if given a choice, buzzed away from the grid.

On the other hand, the flies that carried a mutated version of rutabaga in their brains lacked both short- and long-term memory, did not learn the association, and failed to avoid the shocks.

However, the researchers also found that total memory deficit did not occur when flies carried the mutated version in either the gamma or in the alpha-beta lobes.

They said that restoring the normal rutabaga function in the gamma lobe caused the flies to regain short-term memory, but not long-term memory.

Similarly, added the researchers, restoring the gene's function in the alpha-beta lobe alone restored long-term memory, but not short-term memory.

"This ability to independently restore either short- or long-term memory depending on where rutabaga is expressed supports the idea that there are different anatomical and circuit requirements for different stages of memory," Dubnau said.

His team will next try to determine how much cross talk, if any, is required between the two lobes for long-term memory to get consolidated, hoping that it may add to the progress that scientists have already made in treating memory deficits in humans with drugs aimed at molecular members of the rutabaga-signalling pathway to enhance its downstream effects.

A research article describing the study has been published in the journal Current Biology. (ANI)

How mood affects memory

Washington, Sept 22 (ANI): Deciding on whether to return to a restaurant often depends upon the mood you had on the earlier visit to the place, say researchers.

The team from University of Maryland and Yale University has shown that mood has a significant impact on memory-based decisions.

"Suppose that last week you went to a restaurant and consumed a well-prepared meal. Further imagine that you went into the restaurant either in a good or bad mood, perhaps because it was a rainy or sunny day," wrote authors Anastasiya Pocheptsova from University of Maryland and Nathan Novemsky from Yale University.

"A week later, would you be more likely to praise the restaurant or return to it if your earlier experience happened on a sunny day?" they added.

The researchers found that "incidental mood" is generally not incorporated into memory-based judgments made after the mood has passed.

In other words, a person's memory of the restaurant's food won't be affected by the mood he/she were in when they ate it.

However, this changes if the mood effects are "locked in"-for example, if you respond to a question about how much you are enjoying the meal.

During the study, the researchers examined the effect of participants' moods on their evaluations of a painting.

A negative mood was induced in some participants by having them read a story and answer questions about inhumane treatment of pregnant horses. Then half of the participants were asked to provide "real-time evaluations" of the painting while others just went home.

After five days, all participants were contacted via email and asked to rate how much they would enjoy having a poster of the painting in their homes.

The study showed that those in a negative mood rated the painting lower in real time, while participants who did not make a real-time evaluation showed no effect of mood at the later time.

"People use their beliefs about the effect of incidental mood to adjust their judgments in an attempt to remove an unwanted influence," wrote the authors.

"To summarize, going to a restaurant on a rainy day would only affect one's decision to visit it next time if one made a real-time evaluation of the meal," they added.

The study appears in Journal of Consumer Research. (ANI)

World's Most Expensive Cars

Hate the smell of exhaust or the skunk you just passed on the highway? If you buy the Maybach 62 Zeppelin, your nose will never have to suffer again. The car comes with a built-in, illuminated atomizer that gently diffuses the fragrance of your choice throughout the cabin.

Granted, that peace of mind will cost you--to the tune of $506,500. But that's the low end when looking at the limits of what money can buy at the dealership. For a whopping $1.8 million you can get the Cinque Roadster, which features a stunning 678 horsepower V12 engine, carbon fiber racing seats, a titanium suspension and a 0-60 mph time of 3.3 seconds.

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But those who still don't want to be outdone should consider the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport or the Koenigsegg CCXR, both of which cost more than $2 million.

The auto industry may have fallen considerably this year, but that doesn't mean those who can afford to spend six- or seven-figure sums on a luxury vehicle are lacking options.

Behind the Numbers To compile our list of the most expensive cars this year, we reviewed price lists from all the ultra-luxury automakers that had the potential to produce a contender this year for the top spot, including Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Leblanc, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, Pagani, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Saleen, Shelby SuperCars and Spyker.

We narrowed our terms for the list by choosing only cars that are currently in production and street legal, which eliminated the discontinued $653,000 Enzo Ferrari, $585,000 Saleen S7 and $500,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster, among others. Prices do not include taxes; some prices have been converted from euros to dollars. And not all of the vehicles on our list are sold in the U.S.

It's been a mixed bag this year for purveyors of ultra-luxury cars. Maybach sold 12 cars last month--the same amount it sold in July of this year. Rolls-Royce sold twice that, up 50% over July. Ferrari, Maserati and Bentley saw relatively routine year-over-year declines of 10%, 31% and 43%, respectively. But all of them except Rolls are down more than 50% in a year when the total auto industry saw a comparatively small 28% decrease year-to-date.

When sales do bounce back, expect luxury cars to recover slower than traditional segments. Lincoln Merrihew, the managing director of automotive, petroleum and travel for Compete, a unit of the market research firm TNS, says the delayed recovery is due in part to the fact that these cars never see Cash for Clunkers-type incentives. They also have a shelf-life that matters: The difference between one model year and another is significant for collectors and connoisseur-investors, who notice even the most minute changes in body styling, horsepower or interior trappings.

But more than anything, even people who can afford to buy a $1.5 million Lamborghini Reventon LINK are going to think about just when and how to make the purchase, if at all, Merrihew says.

"There have been times when the U.S. was in recession or Japan was in recession or Europe was, but the rest of the world wasn't," he says. "This time, it's a global event--so there isn't a safe haven for these products, and even their distinctiveness isn't going to help."

The Price of Luxury According to Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Manhattan-based Luxury Institute, the custom-built options and concierge-like service the very wealthy expect in their cars will keep them coming back to Rolls-Royce and Bentley, even in hard times.

A heady mix of image, exclusivity, design and racing technology makes these cars expensive. The Pagani Zonda F Roadster runs on a V12 Mercedes-Benz AMG engine, but it costs almost $1 million more than the McLaren Roadster, which also has an AMG engine, albeit with less power and racing technology. There's a certain component of exclusivity in that Pagani Zonda mark-up as well: Production is limited to 25 units.

Those who purchase a $1.4 million Pagani Zonda F Coupe are buying into a racing heritage--and Formula One engineering. The car's body design and specialized crash structure (built to maintain safety at ultra high speeds) are derived directly from race car aerodynamics.

Expensive cars also have bespoke qualities and standard amenities that connoisseurs simply can't get anywhere else. The $1.4 million Maybach Landaulet is a chauffeur-driven car with a top that can be opened fully at the rear, while the chauffeur's compartment remains completely enclosed. A partition screen with clear glass and curtains dissects the car, and folding tables in the back allow for afternoon Champagne lunches on the go--on reclining white-leather seats, of course. When the weather doesn't allow for such things, there's a Dunhill umbrella stowed in a special slot on the door.

While that may seem excessive, there's still a market. And industry experts say that ultra-luxury automakers must control production numbers, maintain superior service standards and invest in new technology if they want to survive--and thrive--during and after the recession.

When the wealthy are ready to start handing over their American Express cards again more freely, the automakers had better have something different and unique available.