|
News & Views
The kirana story
A shopping visit to the neighbourhood general stores may not necessarily end in
payment by credit card for the purchases. Unlike the large shopping malls, most
of these small general stores are yet to offer the convenience of credit card
purchases. However it is very likely that the kirana-store owner may agree to
allow a matching credit facility for your grocery and other similar purchases.
Recent news reports indicate that the kirana-store owners are resorting to
various strategies to face the competition from the big new-age shopping malls.
Posing as consumers, they have begun visiting these malls in groups, to buy a
substantial range of fast moving consumer goods that offer huge discounts and
freebies. These are then re-sold to their customers. In several areas, small
kirana owners have come together to form associations which source their
purchases collectively from manufacturers for higher discounts.
It is a win-win situation for the consumer. Often, the kirana shop is preferred
for ‘low shelf-life’ products, like bread, milk, etc. and unplanned purchases
and the mall for high-end purchases. In short, they get the best of both worlds.
However for the kirana shop it’s a matter of survival and the only way out seems
to be to source cleverly and offer as many discounts to the consumers.
Stardust
Launched in 1999, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft parachuted safely back to Earth on
a January 2006 Sunday, carrying with it an aluminium canister containing
heavenly material. During its nearly five billion kilometers interplanetary
journey, it looped three times around the Sun.
The spacecraft was equipped with a double-sided, tennis racket-shaped particle
collector with about a hundred small compartments. These small compartments were
filled with a smoke-like space age material called aerogel, which is 99.8% air.
This device was used to snag samples from the inter-stellar dust stream which
courses through the solar system and is thought to derive from ancient stars
that exploded.
The high-point of its voyage came when it got as near as 250 kilometers from the
halo of comet “Wild-2” in January 2004. Swarms of microscopic gas, dust and
debris streaming out of the comet blasted Stardust in short but intense bursts.
The small compartments of its special apparatus trapped about a million samples,
each measuring about the width of a human hair. This is the first time that any
spacecraft has brought virgin extraterrestrial material from beyond the moon.
Scientists, who will be analyzing the only teaspoonful material, hope to unravel
some of the mysteries of the start of life on Earth. One theory suggests that it
came from outer space after a series of comets collided with the Earth.
Study of the stellar dust would help in understanding the interiors and actual
composition of stars along with the processes that shaped the early Universe, as
it would take researchers some ten billion years back in time. Also, this study
is expected to yield vital clues about planet formation and the way they group
and orbit around stars.
|
|
|
|
