IIT Madras team develops easy OCR system for reading documents in Bharati script containing with how many Indian languges?

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), under the Ministry of Finance, is organizing the World Customs Organisation (WCO) for Asia-Pacific region in Kochi, Kerala from 8th to 10th May 2019. As India currently holds a seat of Vice Chairperson of Asia Pacific region, it is hosting this meeting in this capacity. Pranab Kumar Das, Chairman of CBIC will chair the meeting. It will discuss the progress being made in carrying forward various initiatives and programmes of WCO, in promoting, securing and facilitating cross-border trade in the Asia Pacific region. Participants include customs delegations from over 20 countries of Asia Pacific region and senior officials of WCO and its regional bodies namely Regional Intelligence Liaoning Office (RILO) and Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB).

The last captive white tiger at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Borivali, Mumbai named Bajirao died due to old age related problems at the age of 18. He was born at the SGNP in 2001 to tigress Renuka and tiger Sidharth. He suffered from chronic ankylosis on left shoulder and chronic senile generalised arthritis for the last four years.The tiger's autopsy was conducted by the pathology department of the Bombay Veterinary College(BVC), Mumbai.

Researchers at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai have identified a new function for Serotonin, a monoamine neurotransmitter. The serotonin may help treat neurological diseases.The results of the study were published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)".A research paper jointly led by Vidita A. Vaidya and UllasKolthur-Seetharam from TIFR, in collaboration with Ashok Vaidya from KHS (Kasturba Health Society), had found that stress buster Serotonin is involved in the generation of new mitochondria in neurons, increased cellular respiration and fuel (ATP- adenosine triphosphate) in the cell.The recent discovery establishes that serotonin signaling could be used to prevent mitochondrial abnormalities and neuronal loss.

Chennai Central Railway station in Tamil Nadu, officially known as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station with its 57-character count missed the chance of having the title of world's longest railway station name by an alphabet. The title was won by Llanfairpwll railway station in Wales, also known for its 58 letters long name 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch'. Although, the erstwhile Chennai Central railway station which was renamed after the legendary actor-turned-politician Dr. M.G. Ramachandran is still the longest railway station name in India. The other railway stations in India with long names are Karnataka's Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Bengaluru City station, Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta in Andhra Pradesh and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Maharashtra.

Scientists from Stanford University, Shanhui Fan along with Masashi Ono have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to produce a measurable amount of electricity in an infrared photodiode from the coldness of the universe.The infrared semiconductor uses the temperature difference between Space and Earth to produce the electricity. The study was published in a journal named Applied Physics Letters. The new device has generated about 64 nanowatts per square meter. According to the theoretical calculations, the device can generate almost 4 watts per square meter, roughly one million times what practically generated. In the new technology, the negative illumination effect allows electrical energy to be harvested as heat leaves a surface.

WHO has released New Guidelines on 10 Ways to Use Digital Health Technology to Boost People's Health. The guidelines were based on a 2-year-long research study by WHO on digital technologies which was inclusive of consultations with global experts. It demonstrates that health systems need to provide response for the increasing availability of information. People should be assured of their own data being secure and not be put at risk because of their access to information on sensitive health issues such as sexual and reproductive health issues, thus in turn protecting individual's privacy.

The second edition of Belt and Road Forum (BRF) was held in Beijing, China from April 25th to April 27th, 2019 in which 37 heads-of-state had participated along with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Monetary Chief (IMF) Christine Lagarde. The theme of this event was "Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future".

Microsoft's Project 'ReWeave' will help to preserve traditional weaving forms by upskilling workers, designing and marketing products, and creating sustainable livelihood options. Tata Trusts' initiative, Antaran's main objective is to rejuvenate ailing handloom clusters through an end-to-end programme that would help artisans to become designers and entrepreneurs.

Stockholm International peace research institute (SIPRI) has launched a new initiative named Global Registry of Violent Deaths (GReVD) to establish the annual number of violent deaths worldwide.GReVD will count deaths caused by all forms of violence and display these in an open-source database and enable monitoring of progress on the world's commitment to 'significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere' by 2030 as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-Goal 16. The database will enable policymakers and researchers and the general public to track trends in violence at global, regional, national, provincial, city and municipal levels. GReVD will hold a single entry for every violent death, including perpetrator, time, location, victim and type of violence. The sources will be verifiable news reports of lethal events and processing will involve machine coding to manage the volume of entries, as well as human coding to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Researchers at the IIT Roorkee have identified a new method to detect two of the worst forms of cancer in women - breast and ovarian cancer. The research published in the journal, 'FASEB Bioadvances' details the use of whole saliva as a body fluid for early detection of breast and ovarian cancers, as opposed to the traditional method of using blood samples. The research team, led by Professor Kiran Ambatipudi from the institute's biotechnology department, identified certain proteins present in the saliva which act as potential biomarkers indicative of breast and ovarian cancer metastasis.